AYETIA.GE POPULATrO^. 
123 
necessity of labour, the proference given to the cultiva- 
tion of the sugar-cane, indigo, and cotton, the cupidity which 
pften accompanies and degrades industry, gave birth to that 
J'lfanious slave-trade, the consequences of which have beer 
alike fatal to the old and the new world. Happily, in the 
continental part of Spanish America, the number of African 
'skives is so iiieousiderable, that, compared with the slave 
population of Brazil, or with that of the southern part of the 
^iiited States, it is found to be in the proportion of one to 
‘oiirteen. The whole of the Spanisli colonies, without 
excluding the islands of Cuba and Porto Kico, have not, 
a surface which exceeds at least by one-fifth that of 
niirope, as many negroes as the single state of Virginia. 
* 'le Spanish Americans, in the union of New Spain and 
Ciiatimala, present an example, unique in the torrid zone, viz., 
“ nation of eight millions of inhabitants governed conform- 
''nly with European institutions and laws, cultivating sugar, 
cneao, wheat, and grapes, and having scarcely a slave brought 
roin Africa. 
po])ulation of the New Continent as yet surpasses but 
dtle that of France or Germany. It doubles in the United 
' tates in twenty -three or twenty-five years ; and at Mexico, 
en under the government of the mother country, it doubles 
I'l forty or forty-five years. Without indulging too flatter- 
‘'I'S hopes of the future, it may be admitted, that in less 
a century and a half the population of America will 
I'fiual that of Europe. This noble j-ivalry in civilization, 
‘ ncl the arts of industry and commerce, far from impo- 
I Clashing the old continent, ns has often been supposed it 
‘light at the expense of the new one, will augment the 
'ants of the consumer, the mass of productive labour, and 
ke activity of exchange. Doubtless, in consequence of the 
peat revolutions which human society undergoes, the public 
f _ iiii®> the common patrimony of civilization, is found dif- 
^ divided among the nations of the old and the new 
a Gf 1 degrees the eqxiilibrium is restored ; and it is 
th ’ I.kad almost said an impious prejudice, to consider 
caf prosperity of any other part of our planet as a 
no^™^^^ to Europe. The independence of the colonies will 
P‘111 tribute to isolate them from the old civilized nations,but 
I rather bring aU more closely together. Commerce tends 
