28 



THE POLICY OF SOULOUQUE* 



who, he informed me, is now in Paris, at school. If the 

 likeness be correct, the original must be exceedingly beau- 

 tiful. The paintings were both of superior merit as works 

 of art. 



His wife had not been permitted by the Emperor to join 

 him, nor did he enjoy very frequent opportunities of hear^ 

 ing from her. He alluded to his domestic sorrows with 

 great feeling, but with a Frenchman's hopefulness, he looked 

 for a time when justice should be done. 



Of course his indignation against Soitlouque was very 

 strong, nor Was he much disposed to extenuate his majes- 

 ty's faults ; and yet a brief conversation with him first 

 led me to doubt whether the Emperor, any more than 

 the devil, was half as black as he had been painted. I 

 afterwards satisfied myself that he was not. From what 

 I heard and saw I concluded that he administered a strong 

 central government with as much gentleness as Would con* 

 &ist with the greatest good of the greatest number. He 

 is, doubtless, a more beneficent ruler than any brown man 

 would have been, because, in the first place, he belongs to 

 much the more numerous caste, there being many more 

 blacks than browns on the island. In the next place the 

 browns are very generally cunning and false, they are op^- 

 pressive upon the blacks when they have power, and are 

 universally more indisposed than the blacks to any produc* 

 live labor* It seems better, therefore, that the blacks should 



