COMMERCE. 



309 



have fallen into decay ; the ministers of the gospel 

 have fled the country ; the rite of marriage is falling 

 into disuse ; the social position of woman has been 

 degraded; and vice and crime have become, in a 

 measure, natural to the state of society among the 

 mass of negroes. The statistics of population in 

 Cuba, which we have already examined, demonstrate 

 the same tendency of the free blacks there to 

 abandon the labors of agriculture, and to congregate 

 in the towns. The cultivation of the fields being 

 thus diminished, commerce, which is the handmaiden 

 of agriculture, must decline also, and with this dimi- 

 nution ceases the accession of capital, which commerce 

 brings to the agriculturist. 



In these sad facts, we recognize the truth of the 

 social law laid down by Baron Humboldt : that " the 

 development of human knowledge is inseparable 

 from the progress of industry and of national 

 wealth and we must also admit his deduction, 

 that the future fate of Cuba depends upon the main- 

 tenance of her industry, and the increase of her 

 national wealth, which shall continue to extend the 

 magic influence of capital over her fields, and stim- 

 ulate the development of knowledge among the 

 people.] 



The custom-house returns of flour imported at 



