ABUNDANCE OF LABOR. 



127 



ployed about everything as are necessary. The most modest 

 and economical establishment in the country, will have four 

 or five domestic servants. Field hands are multiplied until 

 they are in each others way, and the amplest provision is 

 always made to prevent the possibility of the ruling race, 

 being compelled to do anything themselves, which can be 

 done by servants. 



I was particularly struck with the absurdity of this com- 

 plaint about the high price of labor one day, when I was 

 on a visit to a delightful sugar estate, lying in the parish of 

 St. Thomas in the Yale. It was formerly the property of 

 Bryan Edwards, whose excellent history of the British West 

 Indies is well known in the United States.* 



Dove Hall, for that is the name of the estate, lies near 



* Bryan Edwards was born in Westbury, Eng., County of Wilts, in 1743. His 

 mother had two opulent brothers in Jamaica, one of whom— Zachary Bailey — 

 took the family under his protection upon the death of the father. Bryan was 

 educated in England, and at an early age settled in Jamaica. He was for a long 

 time a member of the Assembly, and was also a member of the British Parlia- 

 ment. In 1793 he published his History, Civil and Commercial, of the British 

 Colonies in the West Indies, in three octavo volumes, by far the best work in 

 every point of view, that has been written about those islands He was perfectly 

 informed about his subject, truthful and moderate in his statements, as free from 

 prejudice as any man of sensibility could be, and perfectly indefatigable in his pre- 

 paration. He is sometimes a little garrulous, and frequently neglected opportu- 

 nities of condensing, which he might have taken advantage of, profitably ; but with 

 every allowance for such imperfections, to this history the inquirer must still turn 

 to inform himself of the historical origin and physical resources of the British 

 West Indies. Edwards died long before the abolition of slavery— about 1800 I 

 believe. Of course, therefore, we have none of his observations upon the effect of 

 that measure upon the colonies, but in the course of his history he frequently 

 alludes to the evil of slavery— he was himself a large slaveholder— and regrets 

 that there seemed to be no possibility of getting rid of the institution without doing 

 more harm than good. 



