364 HISTORY OF THE [book iv. 
ed too, by the planters themselves. What yet re¬ 
mains to be done, consistently with sound policy, 
and a just regard even to the safety and happiness 
of the negroes themselves, is a subject of deep and 
difficult consideration. Hasty measures, however 
humane in appearance, and plausible in theory, 
may produce the most calamitous of all contests, a 
bellum servile; which will probably never end but 
in the extermination of either the whites or the 
blacks. Among the great variety of schemes 
which have been offered for further meliorating 
the condition of the slave, the most obvious seem 
to be these: First, to render their labour certain 
and determinate: in other words, to apportion to 
each negro, according to his strength, a specific 
quantity of work to be performed in a given time- 
allowing to such of them as shall have finished their 
task within the time limited, the rest of the dav 
j 
to themselves, and pay them wages for extra la¬ 
bour. This is not always practicable, but when if 
is, I am inclined to think favourably of the scheme, 
because it seems calculated to awaken a spirit of 
emulation and industry, which the dread of punish¬ 
ment can never produce. At the same time, it 
will be necessary to secure to the negroes by law, 
the little property or peculium which their own in¬ 
dustry may thus acquire.—A second proposal is to 
make them arbiters on the conduct of each other, 
by instituting a sort of juries among them for the 
trial of petty offences. It is conceived that such a 
measure will give them right notions of distribu¬ 
tive justice, and operate powerfully towards their 
