56 



humboldt's cuba. 



she exhibits to the world, and that is so clearly set 

 forth in the following work of Baron Humboldt. 

 This material prosperity indicates a state of social 

 welfare, as does public decay argue a state of private 

 or individual suffering. Before we proceed to exam- 

 ine the new measures which Spain proposes to intro- 

 duce into the legislation of Cuba, let us contemplate 

 the condition of those communities, where, under 

 similar circumstances of climate and population, the 

 new social theories have been carried into practice. 



Of the social condition of the negro community of 

 Hayti we have few means of judging, and these are 

 offered only by transient visitors. Its government 

 does not attempt to attain any social statistics, and 

 the evidences presented by the material aspects of 

 the country, lead to the most lamentable conjectures 

 as to the actual condition of the inhabitants. It is 

 generally admitted that they have relapsed far 

 toward a state of barbarism, and that the dark 

 practices of fetish worship, and heathenism, are 

 rapidly extinguishing there the light of the genial 

 precepts of Christianity. 



Jamaica affords us better means for contemplating 

 the results attending the experiment of the civil 

 equality of the black with the white race, where the 

 numbers of the former preponderate, and those, too, 

 of a character that does not admit of doubt. From 



