THE SLA YE QUESTION. 315 
the emancipation of slaves was past all denial, 
still it cannot but be believed, that where the 
valne of individual slaves was so high as this, 
their well-being was more likely to be attended 
to, than their ill-treatment allowed, and the 
instances of the latter were the exceptions, 
not the rule. The principle of slavery, how- 
ever, so repugnant both to religion and civili- 
zation, demanded and justified its abolition, 
although it is ever much to be lamented that 
the manner in which that was carried out was 
so hasty. Few who have visited our colonies, 
or who there may have carefully and impartially 
investigated the interests of all parts of their 
communities, will not allow, that both slaves 
and slave-owners, the colonies and England 
herself, would have been saved many present 
evils, had that emancipation been effected gra- 
dually , not instantaneously — had slavery been 
permitted to wear away, and not to be, as it 
was, at once abolished. 
In theory, the latter doubtless sounds better, 
but, like many other things, the practice has 
not borne out the superiority of mere theory 
over an exercise of judgment and prudence. 
The consequence of the valuation of the slaves, 
being estimated, moreover, far lower by the 
Government appraisers, than was their actual 
value in the colonial markets, was, of course, to 
