100 



RESTRICTIONS ON COMMERCE. 



therefore, that the planters were ultimately impoverished. 

 This result was particularly apparent in Jamaica, where 

 the estates for the most part, as you stated very correctly, 

 were eventually mortgaged, or held under execution, which 

 was periodically renewed at considerable expense. The 

 consequence was, that when the British Parliament made 

 the munificent national donation of twenty millions sterling, 

 to remunerate the masters for the loss of their slaves, the 

 most of that immense sum went into the pockets of the 

 creditor in England ; and as the slaves were paid for at a 

 rate far beneath their real value, the amount received was 

 rarely enough to pay off the encumbrances, and when they 

 were, the owner was left with the mere skeleton of his pro* 

 perty as it were, and without the means of procuring hired 

 labor. 



Owing to the innate indolence of the African, and the 

 ease and facility with which, in a tropical climate, his wants 

 may be supplied, it will readily be admitted that the diffi- 

 culties and embarrassments of the planter were increased ; 

 but had he not been previously so embarrassed and involved 

 in difficulty, or had he been able to appropriate the amount 

 which he received for his slaves — reduced as it was — in 

 working his estate, the condition of the "West India islands 

 would have been very different from what it is at present. 

 Of course there were some exceptions, but generally speak- 

 ing, as you stated, estates — particularly in the Island of 

 Jamaica — were encumbered for more than their value when 

 the Emancipation Act was passsd, and for the reasons I 

 have stated, have not since been cultivated to advantage. 



You will readily perceive that the protective system ma- 



