MERTON COLLEGE AND CANAT^A. 475 



for educational expei-iments, of tlie rudest kind ; to the cultivation • 

 of wliicli lie at once addressed himself. 



"The object," says Mr. Walrond, "which Lord Elgin had most at 

 heart was to improve the moral and social condition of the ISTegroes, 

 and to fit them, by education, for the freedom which had been thrust 

 upon them ; but, with characteristic tact and sagacity, he preferred 

 to compass this end through tlie agency of the planters themselves. 

 By encouraging the application of mechanical contrivances to agri- 

 culture, he sought to make it the interest not only of the peasants to 

 acquire, but of the planters to give them, the education necessary for 

 using machinery ; while he lost no opportunity of impressing on the 

 land owning class that, if they wished to secure a constant supply of 

 labour, they could not do so better than by creating in the labouring 

 class the wants which belong to educated beings." 



Tliis advocacy of the use of machinery with a view to jDromoting 

 cultivation of mind in those who must superintend its working, is 

 interesting. In a letter to the Colonial Minister Lord Elgin touches 

 upon the matter himself. 



" In urging the adoption of machinery in aid of manual labour," 

 he says, " one main object I have had in view has ever been the 

 creation of an aristocracy among the la^bourers themselves ; the svib- 

 stitution of a given amount of skilled labour for a larger amount of 

 unskilled. My hope is," he continues, "that we may thus engender 

 a healthy emulation among the labourers, a desire to obtain situations 

 of eminence and mark among their fellows, and also to push their 

 children forward in the same career. Where labour is so scarce as 

 it is here, it is undoubtedly a great object to be able to effect at a 

 cheaper rate by machinery, what you now attempt to execute very 

 unsatisfactorily by the hand of man. But it seems to me," Lord 

 Elgin then observes, "to be a still more important object to awaken 

 this honourable ambition in the breast of the peasant, and I do not 

 see how this can be effected by any other means. So long as labour 

 means nothing more than digging cane holes, or carrying loads on 

 the head, physical strength is the only thing required ; no moral or 

 intellectual quality comes into play. But, in dealing with mechanical 

 appliances, the case is diffei-ent ; knowledge, acuteness, steadiness, are 

 at a premium. The Negro will soon appreciate the worth of these 

 qualities, when they give him position among his own class. An 

 indirect value will thus attach to education. 



