INTRODUCTION. 27 



obtained from some experimental proceedings, and altogether on 

 a limited scale. 



Mr. Martin says, that whilst " In the Spanish, French, and 

 Danish West Indian colonies, improved machinery had been 

 sedulously introduced, comparatively little has been done in our 

 territories ; " because, as he alleges, the British colonists " want 

 the spirit of progress and improvement." But is this the real 

 cause ? or are the British colonists more supine than the inhabi- 

 tants of those foreign colonies, or less alive to their own best 

 interests ? This would be, forsooth, a most unaccountable excep- 

 tion. Before proceeding, however, to further explanation, I must 

 remark, that improved machinery was introduced in the French, 

 Spanish, and Danish colonies during the existence of slavery in 

 those islands ; that, in Java and the Mauritius, from cheapness 

 and abundance of labour, cane cultivation is no longer the pre- 

 carious occupation it still is in the British West India colonies ; 

 and that the abolition of slavery first, and next, the Equalisation 

 Act of 1846, by tendering actual and prospective encouragement 

 to the slave colonies, have therein called forth capital, industry, 

 and improvement, whilst they were creating actual difficulties and 

 prospective embarrassment for the British islands. Moreover, 

 improved machinery was introduced into the French islands by 

 companies ; in Java, by the " Dutch Commercial Society." These 

 are the causal agencies in the more rapid advancement of the 

 foreign colonies ; and the following reasons will also account for the 

 apparent apathy of the British planters. Already in an im- 

 poverished condition some of them utterly ruined money could 

 with difficulty be obtained, and that only at the most exorbitant 

 rates ; and not only was the price of sugar meanwhile diminishing, 

 but actual and prospective changes were acting as a check to the 

 introduction of costly improvements. On the other hand, no 

 British capitalists would venture to come forward in aid at this 

 important crisis though such aid was readily tendered to Java 

 and the French colonies undoubtedly, because they were aware 

 that these islands had been rendered an unremunerative field. 



The West Indians have been, in general, treated most unmer- 

 cifully, and without reference to the peculiarities of their position, 

 by those who have spoken or written on the question. When they 

 were judged as agriculturists, for instance, neither the climate 

 nor the conditions of intertropical agriculture were ever taken into 

 consideration. Their system was weighed according to the same 

 rules which were found most applicable to European tillage ; and 

 yet, the climate and the very nature of intertropical cultivation have 

 a very great influence on the most superior methods of conducting 

 agricultural operations. 



The almost uncontrollable luxuriance of vegetation, within the 

 torrid zone, renders it necessary to have labourers constantly en- 



