62 



POVERTY OF GUIANA. 



" In addition to the above, I may subjoin the following 

 communication, forwarded to me by a gentleman lately 

 returned from Guiana : — 



" 6 The La Grange and Windsor Forest estates were 

 bought by Mr. Cruikshank for £25,000 and £40,000, in 

 1838 and 1840, respectively. The two were sold together, 

 a few weeks ago, for £11,000 nominally ; but this price 

 included a claim for £5,000 due to the purchaser, making 

 the actual purchase money £6,000, or something less than 

 one-tenth of the original value.' 



" Showing a fall in aggregate value of something like 

 90 per cent ! Will any one say after this, that the state- 

 ments which reach them of colonial distress are exagge- 

 rated or over-colored ? Take now the description given 

 by a member of the Court of Policy, Mr. White, himself a 

 planter, addressing the Combined Court in presence of the 

 Governor ; and let it be noticed that the accuracy of his 

 assertions appears nowhere to have been disputed in the 

 subsequent debate : — 



" 1 To show how property in this country had depreciated 

 in value within the last few years, it appeared to be neces- 

 sary only to compare the present value of that property 

 with what it brought a few years ago. The value of fixed 

 property — sugar estates — before emancipation, was esti- 

 mated at twenty millions of pounds sterling, or twice the 

 value of the slaves, as they were appraised by the com- 

 missioners. But what was the value of that same pro- 

 perty now ? There were still 220 estates in the colony. 

 If the sales which had taken place within the last year 

 were to be taken as a criterion of the present value of pro- 

 perty — and he thought they could very properly be taken 

 as a criterion — it would be found that the average value of 

 estates did not exceed £3,000. It was only the other day 



