74 THE REAL TROUBLES. 



delusion, though it seems to be one which is hurrying on 

 the result they deprecate. The downward tendencies of 

 the island cannot be more rapid than they are at present, 

 and it is possible that the present population will not be 

 able to arrest them without help from the government. 

 If so, then the ruin of Jamaica is inevitable, for nothing is 

 less probable than that England will return to the protec- 

 tive system of 1814, or compel the consumers of sugar in 

 England to pay a tax of over $25,000,000, merely to sus- 

 tain the proprietors of sugar and coffee estates in the 

 "West India islands. 



I will not attempt to conjecture what a change in the 

 revenue policy of Great Britain might effect for her colo- 

 nies, nor how far a restoration of slavery would contribute 

 to repair the losses which its abolition is supposed by some 

 to have caused ; but of two things I am clear. I am clear 

 that neither course would have saved them from bank- 

 ruptcy, for they were all mortgaged for more than they 

 were worth at the time slavery was abolished and when 

 their staples were protected in the English markets by 

 prohibitory duties. I am also clear that if Jamaica was 

 an American State, she would speedily be more productive 

 and valuable than any agricultural portion of the United 

 States of the same dimensions, and that neither the Eman- 

 cipation Bill of '33, nor the Sugar Duties Bill of '46, are 

 fatal obstacles to a prosperity far exceeding anything which 

 Jamaica has ever known. 



