IMPOLICY OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. 



306 



be the case, that I think the abolition of the 

 slave-trade would scarcely be felt at Pernam- 

 buco after the first moment ; and even any sen- 

 sation which might be caused, would rather be 

 produced artificially than necessarily. The rich 

 slave-owners would immediately rival each other 

 in the purchase of the Africans who might 

 happen to be on sale, and thus an increase of 

 price would be produced ; but the number of 

 free persons is quite adequate to fill up any 

 vacuum which it is supposed would be caused in 

 the country by a stop being put to the supply of 

 the imported part of the population. 



domestic slavery, which had left the poorer class of free 

 citizens without any means of subsistence, but public cha- 

 rity." — Essay on the Military Policy and Institutions of the 

 British Empire, by C. W. Pasley, Captain (now Colonel) in 

 the corps of Royal Engineers. Note to p. 505. 



In the work in which the note appears, it is introduced 

 for the purpose of proving, that " the total average popu- 

 lation in any country can never be affected by the annual 

 number of deaths, but depends solely and exclusively upon 

 the means of subsistence afforded to the living." I have 

 transcribed it, inasmuch as the author of it states, that do- 

 mestic slavery was one of the causes of the decrease of 

 population in Italy ; and though the pernicious effects of 

 slavery do not act to the same extent in Brazil, it does un- 

 doubtedly prevent the rapid increase of the numbers of the 

 people of colour ; and if the trade in Africans continues 

 much longer, it will tend to stop the increase altogether of 

 the persons of mixed blood. That tlte increase of the free 

 population of colour ought to be encouraged, no one will 

 deny; they are the pillars of the state, the bulwark from 

 ihe strength of which Brazil becomes invincible. 

 VOL. II. X 



