50 TRINIDAD. 



task, and must inevitably require many and almost insuperable 

 obstacles to be surmounted. I say nothing of those objections 

 which may be urged by Brazil itself, with its already prepon- 

 derating slave or negro population ; by England, by France, by 

 Venezuela, and Peru. But the difficulties arising from the in- 

 salubrity of climate, the remoteness of place, the difference of 

 language, religion, and institutions, together with the prejudices of 

 the colonising parties themselves, seem to me so very great as to 

 be nearly insurmountable. Let the people of the States, and 

 particularly the abolitionists, concur in opening a road to emi- 

 grants from their land to these West India colonies ; let them 

 widen this highway by degrees, and all parties will benefit by 

 the success of a really good and great enterprise these islands 

 by the influx of population, the North by an increase of exports. 

 The emancipation of the slaves will go on increasing yearly, by 

 manumission, purchase, or post-natal laws ; it will also proceed 

 from North to South, as the slave labour becomes less and less 

 valuable. The colonies would receive emigrants first from Mary- 

 land, Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky ; then, as time rolls on, from 

 Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama ; whilst we ourselves 

 have sufficient untenanted area to accommodate 2,000,000 settlers 

 at the rate of 200 inhabitants to the square mile. 



Can the British Government or the colonies have any objection 

 to the immigration of the coloured population of the United 

 States ? On such a step the British Government cannot put any 

 reasonable veto, inasmuch as this is not a measure of relief which 

 will cost the treasury a farthing, or which can make sugar or other 

 colonial exports dearer ; on the contrary, the most opposite results 

 may be anticipated. Sugar surely is cheap enough at the present 

 period ; nor can the price be reduced without endangering the 

 capital now vested in its cultivation. But tobacco, coffee, indigo, 

 starch, oils, fibres, &c., might then also be produced in great 

 abundance by a more numerous and industrious population ; and 

 not only will the quantity of actual staples be augmented, but 

 new growths will be introduced : and, in return, the importation of 

 manufactured goods would increase in the same, or even in a 

 greater ratio, thus affording fresh aliment to British commerce and 

 shipping. It is evidently, therefore, the interest of the British 

 people and Government that population in these colonies should 

 be largely multiplied. 



Next, can the inhabitants of these islands offer any objection 

 to the immigration of the coloured people from the States ? If 

 any, it can only be urged by individuals either of European or 

 of African descent. As this immigration would tend directly or 

 indirectly to increase the quantity of available labour, the proprie- 

 tors of estates would benefit by, instead of suffering from it : 

 but it may be objected that it would add formidable strength to 



