SETTLEMENTS ON THE DEMERARY, &C. 389 



and lasting eft'ect in civilizing the local manners, and trans- 

 planting those feminine arts of life, which our tawney wenches 

 never saw exemplified. From imitating the dresses of the 

 white ladies, they will proceed to imitate usages of a higher 

 importance. 



Several barristers, with the title of recorder, should be sta- 

 tioned in our principal towns. They might at first be emi- 

 nendy useful in compiling and translating the regulations of 

 Dutch jurisprudence. Their next office would be to indicate 

 and prepare the fittest way of assimilating the extant colonial 

 laws with those of the British empire. Usage is of great value; 

 it implies motion without friction. But in colonies, where an 

 influx of additional inhabitants is continually going on ; where 

 the balance of Dutch population is declining, and the habit 

 of connexion with Holland is interrupted ; where incessant mi- 

 grations produce, with greater speed than the ordinary flow of 

 generations, a general renewal of the people ; usage must un- 

 dergo a rapid and considerable change, if it is to keep pace 

 with the convenience of the stirring mass of society. In such 

 circumstances, an obstinate retention of custom is itself a 

 grievance ; it occasions more friction than innovation would 

 do. There is greater danger of complaint that the English 

 laws are not introduced fast enough ; than that the old land- 

 marks are ploughed up too hastily. The more of legality and 

 the less of usurpation there is in the introduction of new insti- 



