WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. V.] 
3^5 
civilization and improvement; and I have heard of 
two instances in Jamaica, in which it has been tried 
with success 5 but it is evidently a regulation that 
must be governed by circumstances, and left prin¬ 
cipally to the prudence and discretion of the own¬ 
er: an attempt to establish and enforce it by law, 
in their present notions of right and wrong, would, 
I fear, create inextricable confusion. A third mea¬ 
sure has been recommended, of less doubtful effi 
Cacy. It is, to render the sabbath, what it ought 
to be, a day of rest and religious improvement; to 
which end, the markets on Sundays ought to be 
suppressed. They are a disgrace to a Christian 
country; and if a market is found absolutely neces¬ 
sary to encourage the negroes in labouring for 
themselves, some other day, once a fortnight, may 
be appropriated for that purpose.* In the mean 
time, instead of abolishing the slave-trade by act of 
parliament, further encouragement should be given 
to the importation of a greater proportion of Afri¬ 
can women, until the sexes are become nearly 
equal; after which it Is probable that, under the 
present humane and improved system of laws and 
* The objection to this scheme is, that it will deprive the planters 
yearly of twenty-six days labour of the whole body of their negroes, 
without producing the effect intended, as the whole of each Sunday 
will, in such cast, be spent in drunkenness and debauchery at home. 
If this objection be well founded, let the days which are now given to 
the slaves (exclusive of Sundays) be the days of market, and compel 
them to work in their own gardens four or five hours every Sunday 
morning; and attend divine service in the afternoon. Honest labour 
must suiely be more pleasing to the Almighty, as it is certainly more 
beneficial to man, than profligacy and riot. 
