BRITISH GUT ANA. 



61 



" Total number of sugar estates which made returns of 

 produce for taxation in British Guiana were — 



" In 1841, 215. See Local Guide, page lii. 



" In 1846, 208. Taken from official returns. 



" In 1848, 187. Taken from the same. 



" The diminution in the first period of five years is 7. 



"The diminution in the second period of two years 21. 



"In February, 1850, there were 27 estates under seques- 

 tration, of which 25 were sugar estates. 



" This is so far important, that it proves the retrograde 

 condition of a country not surpassed in point of natural 

 advantages by any in the world ; but you will easily see 

 that it furnishes a very inadequate idea of the real depre- 

 ciation of property which has taken place, since every 

 estate which continues to produce any crop at all — no 

 matter how little, or at 'what price saleable — remains on 

 the list as before. A more accurate measure may perhaps 

 be found in the following list of sales, effected before and 

 after 1846. It will be obvious that the number of estates 

 thus sold and re-sold, within a period of sixteen years, must 

 necessarily be very limited ; and consequently, that there 

 is no room for a mere selection of isolated cases, which 

 might give an exaggerated and unreal impression of 

 distress. 



" Indeed, even here the depreciation is not fully repre- 

 sented ; for, in order to be sold, an estate must find a pur- 

 chaser ; and a very large proportion of those not yet wholly 

 abandoned, are only not in the market because their owners, 

 or the creditors of those owners, are well aware that it is 

 useless to send them there. 



