WEST INDIES. 
219 
CHAP. I.] 
readily enough inclined to pass private acts, grant¬ 
ing the privileges of white people, with some li¬ 
mitations, to such persons of colour as have been 
regularly baptized, and properly educated. On the 
same ground, private bills are sometimes passed, to 
authorize gentlemen of fortune, under particular 
circumstances, to devise their estates to their re¬ 
puted mulatto children, notwithstanding the act 
of 1762. 
But there is this mischief arising from the sys¬ 
tem of rigour ostensibly maintained by the laws 
against this unfortunate race of people; that it 
tends to degrade them in their own eyes, and in 
the eyes of the community to which they belong. 
This is carried so far, as to make them at once 
wretched to themselves, and useless to the public. 
It very frequently happens that the lowest white 
person, considering himself as greatly superior to 
the richest and best-educated free man of colour, 
will disdain to associate with a person of the latter 
description, treating him as the Egyptians treated 
the Israelites, with whom they held it an abomi¬ 
nation to eat bread. To this evil, arising from 
public opinion, no partial interposition of the legis¬ 
lature in favour of individuals, affords an effectual 
remedy; and the consequence is, that instead of a 
benefit, these unhappy people are a burthen and 
a reproach to society. They have no motives of 
sufficient efficacy, either, to engage them in the ser¬ 
vice of their country, or in profitable labour for 
their own advantage. Their progress in civility 
