INTRODUCTION. 



in attempting any, they were not calculated to make any 

 advance towards a more rational and economical method 

 of management. Hence, when a change of circumstances 

 rendered all their efforts unprofitable, they did not take 

 those steps which the exigencies of the times demanded, 

 to avert the ruin which a persistence in the old and imper- 

 fect practice threatened to accomplish. In fact, the change 

 paralysed them. All that has been done by most of them, 

 has been, to practise economy on a small scale, by reduc- 

 ing the salaries of subordinates, and battling with the 

 merchant for reduced freight, and with the labourer for 

 lower wages, not being able to understand the more com- 

 prehensive economy which is required. 



I speak, of course, merely of what has fallen under my 

 own observation, but I perceive that a late writer, in 

 speaking of the practice in Jamaica, after using even 

 stronger language on the subject, remarks as follows : — 



" There is no communing with the overseer in regard to 

 the welfare of the estate — no exchange of advice betwixt 

 overseer and attorney, or at least none which merits the 

 title. In fact, the whole system is quite opposed to such 

 confidence and consideration. The attorney employs an 

 overseer who will manage the property precisely as he 

 directs, and who will bend to him in all things. The 

 overseer, on the other hand, seeks to conciliate the good- 

 will, and secure the countenance, of his employer, the 

 attorney — the only employer whom he knows, by doing 

 all in his power to please him. He knows, that at any 



