INTRODUCTION. 



13 



sugar cultivation has been mistaken. It is not, as has 

 been too commonly supposed, a mere mechanical process^ 

 but it is an art, demanding; for its due development, more 

 than ordinary sagacity and intelligence. Formerly, indeed, 

 estates were managed on principles which never even 

 supposed the admissibility of change, or the possibility of 

 improvement, and it is to be regretted that the same course 

 still very generally prevails. For conducting such a 

 system, no great talent was required — nay, if a manager 

 wished to enjoy the good opinion and confidence of his 

 employer, it was his interest studiously to avoid suggesting 

 alterations, and make it his grand object implicitly to follow 

 his instructions, without venturing to express an opinion 

 on their expediency. 



The chief direction of West Indian property was vested 

 in the Attornies or agents of the absentee proprietors, 

 The most eminent and active of these had been selected 

 from the most industrious of the managers, or from the 

 relatives of proprietors who might be resident in the Colo- 

 nies, and were for the most part admirably adapted, by 

 their energy of character, to carry on the routine system 

 which prevailed. But, being for the most part deeply 

 prejudiced in favour of the existing methods, (a feeling 

 which a long course of routine seldom fails to establish., 

 and which has been exemplified as much in the case of 

 many of the old class of English farmers, as in that of the 

 Planter,) and satisfied that no change of system was 

 required, or at least, not feeling that they would be justified 



