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an imaginary grievance to lay before me. Yet I 

 find, that it has been found necessary to punish 

 with the lash, although only in a very few instances ; 

 but then this only took place on the commission of 

 absolute crimes, and in cases where its necessity 

 and justice were so universally felt, not only by 

 others, but by the sufferers themselves, that instead 

 of complaining, they seem only to be afraid of their 

 offence coming to my knowledge ; to prevent 

 which, they affect to be more satisfied and happy 

 than all the rest, and now when I see a mouth 

 grinning from ear to ear with a more than ordinary 

 expansion of jaw, I never fail to find, on enquiry, 

 that its proprietor is one of those who have been 

 punished during my absence. I then take care to 

 give them an opportunity of making a complaint, 

 if they should have any to make ; but no, not a 

 word comes ; " every thing has gone on perfectly 

 well, and just as it ought to have done." Upon 

 this, I drop a slight hint of the offence in question ; 

 and instantly away goes the grin, and down falls 

 the negro to kiss my feet, confess his fault, and 

 " beg massa forgib, and them never do so bad thing 

 more to fret massa, and them beg massa pardon, 

 hard, quite hard ! " But not one of them has de- 

 nied the justice of his punishment, or complained 

 of undue severity on the part of his superintendents. 

 On the other hand, although the lash has thus 

 been in a manner utterly abolished, except in cases 

 where a much severer punishment would have been 



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