10 



MINERAL WEALTH, 



and poverty -stricken country. Capable as it is of producing 

 almost everything, and. actually producing nothing which 

 might not become a staple with a proper application of 

 capital and skill, its inhabitants are miserably poor, and 

 daily sinking deeper and deeper into the utter helplessness 

 of abject want. 



Magnas inter opes inops. 



Shipping has deserted her ports ; her magnificent planta- 

 tions of sugar and coffee are running to weeds ; her private 

 dwellings are falling to decay ; the comforts and luxuries 

 which belong to industrial prosperity have been cut off, 

 one by one, from her inhabitants ; and the day, I think, is 

 at hand when there will be none left to represent the wealth, 

 intelligence and hospitality for which the Jamaica planter 

 was once so distinguished. 



Why is this ? Is any one to blame for it, and can human 

 agency extend any relief, and if any, what is it ? These 

 are questions w T hich have been much considered, and have 

 received so great a diversity of answers, that I indulge the 

 hope of being pardoned for adding one to the number. 



