SLAVERY. 285 



difficult, (3) as the effect of the liberation of 1834 in the West 

 Indies has done incalculable harm to the prosperity of those 

 islands ; — perhaps the most expedient way of annihilating slavery 

 may, after all, be to allow the present very energetic movements 

 for the redemption of slaves to continue, and not to force com- 

 pulsory abolition. The interests of the slaves themselves, as also 

 of the masters, will thus be more surely advanced. The difficulty 

 of administering the law of 1831 would be very great, as the 

 slaves, or their descendants, who should be free men, according 

 to that law, have been so often sold, or otherwise changed hands, 

 no record of age being kept, and the registers having been other- 

 wise falsely made up, so that the loss entailed on the present 

 owners by compulsorilyfreeing them would be very great. 



I have seen several letters in the Times — one about the end 

 of December, 1884 — detailing fearful horrors practised on slaves, 

 but not a word of the awful outrages committed by the Socialistic 

 members of the Abolitionist movement. I may mention, en 

 parenthese, that I had certainly opportunity of seeing something 

 of the treatment of slaves, being thirteen months in the country ; 

 but I never came across any other than considerate kindness from 

 master to slave, sometimes even far greater benevolence and con- 

 sideration than is exercised towards servants in our own country 

 which boasts of its freedom. I only heard of one case, but had 

 no opportunity of further inquiry, in which shrieks were heard 

 coming in from a neighbouring fazenda, one Sunday morning, 

 when the master was apparently castigating some unfortunate, 

 whether deservedly or not I cannot say. 



I must give two examples of the effect of Socialist teaching, 

 instances which, I know, are, alas ! not uncommon. 



A young man with some _;^5 0,000, bought a fazenda, as a 

 country residence, and with it the slaves on the estate. He 

 treated his slaves with great kindness, and improved their 

 dwellings. On one occasion he saw, at a neighbour's, a slave 

 in the stocks for some misdemeanour, who entreated this gentle- 

 man to buy him. He did so, and the slave became his body- 

 servant. Some time after, he accompanied his master to Rio, 

 where he was allowed to go about freely. He attended some 

 of the Socialistic meetings of the lower class of Abolitionists, who 



