The importance of the British colonies in the West Indies : the danger of a general & immediate emancipation of the Negroes : and a sketch of a plan for a safe and gradual emancipation, on terms favourable to all parties, and without any loan

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2010 witii funding from

Associates of tine Boston Public Library / The Boston Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/importanceofbrit01brou

THE

IMPORTANCE

OF THE

BRITISH COLONIES

IN THE

WEST INDIES;

THE DANGER OF A

GENERAL & IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION

OF THE NEGROES;

AND

A SKETCH OF A PLAN

FOR A SAFE AND GRADUAL EMANCIPATION, ON TERMS
FAVOURABLE TO ALL PARTIES,

AND WITHOUT ANY LOAN.

BY

ANTHONY BROUGH, Esq.

SECOND EDITION,
WITH AN APPENDIX.

LONDON:

WHITTAKER, TREACHER, & ARNOT,

AVE MARIA LANE.

1833.

LONDON

GlLiJERT AND RIVINGTON, rRINTERS,

ST. John's ssuare.

ADVERTISEMENT.

In the following pages, I have endeavoured to
state the value of the West India Colonies, clearly,
temperately, and without bias or personality. The
plan of emancipation which I suggest is moderate,
and would be safe to the colonies, without impos-
ing on the people at home any burden beyond the
period necessary for carrying it into effect. I
therefore venture, earnestly but respectfully, to call
the attention of the public, and especially those
immediately interested, to the statement and the
outline of the plan.

A. Brough.

SOth July, 1833.

A 12

IMPORTANCE

OF THE

BRITISH COLONIES,

PREFATORY REMARKS.

" Had emancipatioji to the Negroes been my object, or even
my hope, I should not deserve the word ' humane' to be added
to my views, but a shorter one, and that is the word " mad.' " —
WiLBERFORCE, Feb. 28, 1805.

Such is the opinion which the earhest and perhaps
the ablest advocate of the negro cause, expressed
in his place in Parliament thirty years ago ; and as
many improvements in the municipal laws of the
colonies, enacted by the Legislature at home, and
also by the legislative Assemblies of such Colonies
as have that form of government, have been made
during those years, we are borne out in the con-
clusion that, if Mr. Wilberforce were now in Par-
liament, he would characterize the project for an
immediate, general, and indiscriminate emancipa-
tion of the negroes, as still more mad than the
possibility of it appeared to him in 1805.

COMPENSATION.

The repugnance to the measure which he thus
pubKcly and solemnly avowed, was not founded on
the apprehension of pecuniary loss, but on a full
conviction that it would inevitably be followed by
violence and outrage of the most lawless, and, to
all parties, of the most ruinous character ; and he
would have deemed it but a sorry indication either
of justice or of humanity, to fee the ten thousand
whites (for that is about the number) with
twenty millions, or 2000/, each on the average, in
order that they might run the imminent risk, — the
absolute certainty, of having their property de-
stroyed, and themselves massacred, in the most
summary, wanton, and savage manner. Yet that
is the bargain proposed at the present time, and
with the recollection of the dreadful outrages com-
mitted during the late insurrection in Jamaica still
fresh in memory ; and proposed, too, by those
who, if they have one duty more solemnly, more
awfully binding upon them than another, it is the
duty of preserving the lives and properties of their
fellow-subjects in peace and security, wheresoever
they may reside, and in what lawful calling soever
they may be engaged. That is one of the most
melancholy effects of that '^ strange delusion,"
which, under the name of Pohtical Economy, la-
bours to reduce not only justice and equity, but
all the passions and feelings of human nature, to
the one cold and narrow standard of pounds^ shil-
lings and pence.

NARROW VIEWS.

It may seem singular why opinion (for it is mere
opinion and not knowledge, or even reasoning,)
should have degenerated so strangely during a
period when, as we are told, wisdom has been
making advances so unprecedented. The only
solution of the enigma is, that the opinion on the
slave question has never been founded on the
proper knowledge ; and that consequently, it has
become more erroneous, in proportion as it has
been more widely extended. Its course has been
like that of a river, the feeders of which rise in the
hills, and which bring down fresh mud and rubbish
at every stream, so that the river becomes more
and more tainted as it runs, and the end of it is
alternate inundation and marsh, equally unprofit-
able and equally pestilent.

The emancipationists have always taken a partial
view of the state of the negro. They have dwelt
constantly upon the single fact, or rather upon the
mere name of " slavery" alone. They have mag-
nified and multiplied the hardships ; but they have
altogether overlooked the advantages. They have
done worse ; they have overlooked all the physical
circumstances in which the Negro is placed, as well
as all the peculiarities of his moral and social con-
dition. They have also mixed up the question of
slave trade with that of slave treatment ; and
charged upon the Colonists atrocities which were
perpetrated by the people of the mother country,
and which have long been put an end to by the

8 MISREPRESENTATION

legislature. Even such of them, or their agents, as
have visited the colonies have not gone thither for
the discovery of the truth, — they have gone to seek
proofs of assertions, in which they were schooled
beforehand. And, in order to find a justification of
those assertions, they not only overlooked the en-
joyments of which the Negroes were in the actual
and every day possession, and the still more im-
portant fact of all the feelings and habits of the
Negroes being in accordance with that system,
and difficult to be changed in proportion as the
passions of those people were ardent, and their
minds uninformed as to any other system ; but they
wrested the physical state of the country, and, as
it were, suborned the elements in order to accom-
plish their ends.

That, in equity, compensation in money should be
given to the colonists for the loss they may sustain
by the measure, if carried into effect, is unquestion-
ably true. But who can tell beforehand what the
amount of that loss may be ? The price which the
Negroes would bear in the present market is not the
standard : the true standard is the same quantity of
labour performed as readily and regularly, and at
the same expense ; and no man can tell how that
may be after a change has taken place, of which no
man can guess the extent or the consequences. It
may be the destruction of all the property, the mur-
der of all the Whites, and the total loss of the Colo-
nies, not alone to Britain as possessions, but to the

OF THE QUESTION. 9

civilized world, as a productive portion of the globe ;
and would twenty millions, two hundred millions, or
any sum whatever, be an adequate compensation
for that ?

Let any one put the case of the manufacturers,
including the production of food, as well as of every
thing else, in this country, and suppose that the
popular clamour which, a short time ago, raged
against machinery, should have been prolonged and
refined into a legislative measure, for the imme-
diate destruction of all the implements of industry ;
and then let him ask himself if the cost price of
these things would have been any thing like a com-
pensation to the owners, the nation, or the world.
It is easy to see that, in that case, there could have
been no compensation, — no means of repairing the
wrong done ; and that case is far more simple and
free from danger than that of immediate emancipa-
tion.

Indeed, that measure would be loosening from
all restraint a people who, upon the hypothesis of
the emancipationists themselves, have no know-
ledge of orderly society, or of the principles upon
which it depends. If it be true that the sugar colo-
nies in the West Indies could be more cheaply and
profitably cultivated by free labourers than by the
present system of slaves, then it is clear that the
Colonists would require no pecuniary compensation
on the passing of the measure of emancipation.
The question of comparative cheapness between

10

10 NEGRO LABOUR

the labour of freemen and the labour of slaves,
is not only not decided, but the most eminent
writers, including Adam Smith, maintain that
cultivation by slaves is more costly than cultivation
by freemen.

Now if that be the case, and in as far as the supe-
rior candour and penetration of those who hold the
doctrine is concerned it is much more probable
than the other, it goes far to prove that without the
labour of slaves, or in other words, that of men en-
gaged and bound to their master for life, the culture
of the Colonies could not be carried on at all. If
free labour had been practicable, the fact of its being
cheaper would have brought it into practice. On
many parts of the continent, that term of engage-
ment (for the difference between an agricultural
labourer in England and the West Indies is a mere
question of time) was general till very lately ; and
the time is not long past when colliers, salt-boilers,
and some other trades in the northern parts of this
country, were as long and as completely bound to
their masters — their proprietors, in fact — as the
Nesrroes in the Colonies.

That the culture of the West Indies, and espe-
cially the culture of sugar, which is by far the most
important branch, could not be carried on by white
people, until a race had been bred by successive
generations, inured to the climate, is certain ; and
it is also certain that the destruction of human life
before that result (if practicable at all ?) could be

IS NECESSARY. 11

arrived at, would be dreadful. In the sugar planta-
tions, the Negroes are in their natural climate ; and
therefore labour there is less unnatural, and conse-
quently less severe to them than mere existence is
to Europeans, and would be to their descendants,
until they should acquire that physical adaptation
to the heat, which the Negro races have been ac-
quiring for thousands of years.

But if the Whites could not continue the cultiva-
tion of the West Indies, there is much reason to
believe that the emancipated Negroes, if the whole
were emancipated at once, would not. The single
instance of the island of Haiti may be held as con-
clusive on that point. In the year 1789, that
island exported about 150 million pounds of sugar;
in 1825, the export was about two thousand pounds,
or one-seventy-five-thousandth part of the quantity;
and now, sugar, when obtained at all, is an article of
import there. Now the Negroes of Haiti have not
only the stimulus of the wages of labour, but they
have the whole proprietorship and profits ; and if
these, jointly, have proved not to be enough to
stimulate them to work in one place, why should
one, — and that, perhaps, by far the less powerful
one, — be sufficient stimulus in another place.

Upon the most favourable view that can be taken
of the case, therefore, — that is, supposing no massa-
cre or personal violence, — the destruction of the
West Indies, the total loss of their produce to the
world, is the most probable effect of an immediate

12 IMPORTANCE OF

and general emancipation. Let us see to what the
loss would amount.

IMPORTANCE OF THE COLONIES.

The sugar colonies, which are those most deeply
involved in the question of emancipation, are —

West India Islands,

Jamaica, St. Christopher's,

Antigua, St. Lucia,

Barbados, St. Vincent,

Dominica, Tortola,

Grenada, Trinidad,

MontseiTat, The Bahamas ;
Nevis,

on the continent of South America,

Demerara, Berbice ; and

in the Indian Ocean, to the east of Africa,

Mauritius.

Let us consider the value of these Colonies

to this country, or to those who are connected with
it.

The following is an abstract from the authentic

documents :

State of ships employed in the trade to the West
Indies, in the year 1830 : —

901 ships outward bound, being of the burthen

THE COLONIES. 13

of 248,700 tons' measurement, (navigated with
14,128 British seamen), the value thereof at least
is 1 51. per ton, and amounts, on the foregoing num-
ber of ships, to 3,730,500/.

The British and Irish produce and manufacture,
exported to the West Indies in the year 1830, was
of the real value, in sterling money, of 2,999,467/.

966 ships returned, in the year 1830, from the
West Indies, being of the burthen of 271,061 tons,
navigated with 14,625 British.

State of the West India produce imported in the
year 1830 :—

THE QUANTITY.

CofFee .

. . . 27,489,927 lbs.

Molasses

. . . 249,426 cwts.

Rum .

. . . 6,752,862 gallons.

Sugar .

. . . 4,397,955 cwts.

The duty received on West India produce (not
including the Mauritius) in the year 1830, amount-
ed to 7,500,000/.

The importance of the possession of the West
Indies to Great Britain, may be best appreciated
by the foregoing official extracts from the parlia-
mentary returns of the year 1830, showing the
state and amount of the trade carried on between
the colonies and the mother countrv.

14 FABRICATION PETITIONS.

CONDITION AND TREATMENT OF THE NEGROES.

That the Negroes in the West Indies are in that
miserable condition, or subjected to that cruel treat-
ment which is sometimes alleged, is substantially
disproved by the fact of their being in possession
of more wealth than English labourers. But as,
though the opinion that the Negroes in the West
Indies are treated with wanton cruelty, or with
cruelty at all, is not only contrary to the fact, but
contrary to probability, as being in direct opposition
to the interest of the planters, yet, as it is kept before
the public by an organized and very active system,
the number of false assertors (they are not wit-
nesses) connected with which give it the semblance
of truth to the simple, a few additional words may
not be improper.

Among the multitudes of petitions that have
of late years loaded the tables of the Houses of
Parliament, there is not one that can be regarded
as a spontaneous emanation from the persons by
whom it is signed ; and therefore these petitions
no more represent the sober opinions of the people
of England, or of any part of that people, than
they do of the people of China. Still, upon the
old principle, that if a falsehood is told with suffi-
cient confidence, a sufficient number of times, it will
obtain the same confidence and produce the same
effect as a truth, the people give a passive consent
to the story of the cruel treatment of the Negroes,
just as they do to the tale of any other vulgar error.

STATE OF HAITI. 15

That there were cruelties in the slave trade is
true ; but, as has been hinted, that was a trade of
the mother country to which the colonists were
opposed. Also, as long as the trade continued, or
the majority of the Negroes were of those supplied
by that trade, severe treatment was absolutely
unavoidable. These Negroes had come from a
land of idleness, assassination, and cannibalism,
their only permanent passion was revenge ; and
they were constantly lying in wait to wreak upon
the planters the evils which they had met with at
the time of their capture or sale in Africa, and in
the ships of the slave-traders.

All who have been in the Colonies, and examined
the condition of society there intimately and can-
didly, concur in representing the Negroes as well-
treated, and when they are not worked upon by
others, contented, cheerful, and happy. So con-
tented, that many who could purchase their freedom
ten times over, will not do it, and others to whom it
is offered as a boon, beg that it may not be inflicted
on them.

The following, which is solemn and authentic
evidence, may be contrasted with the assertions.

" Extracts from the Minutes of Evidence before a
Committee of the House of Lords.

** Major-General Sir John Keane, K.C.B. examined.

*' Have you an interest in property in the West
Indies ?"^-'' None whatever."

16 EVIDENCE.

" When you were in Jamaica had you occasion to
visit various parts of the island?" — " Yes."

" Was your attention directed at that time to the
state of the slave population ?" — " From the number
of times that I have gone through the country it
certainly did fall to my lot to observe their state in
very, very many instances. Living a good deal with
the inhabitants, and going to several of the pro-
perties, I had an opportunity of seeing them."

" Did those opportunities afford you the means
of judging of the state and condition generally of
the Negroes ?" — " I should say yes ; I have been
for months together upon a tour through the
country."

" Are the remarks that you have made concern-
ing the houses and the provision grounds arising
out of your own personal observation, or only what
has been stated to you ?" — " Arising out of my own
personal observation, from having visited both fre-
quently."

" In regard to provisions, have you had any op-
portunity of knowing in what way the Negroes are
supplied who have not provision grounds !" — " As
far as relates to Jamaica, they have all provision
grounds except those Negroes who are attached to
people in the towns, and they are provisioned
weekly by an allowance either in money or in kind."

" Did it come to your knowledge that any com-
plaints have arisen on the part of the Negroes as to
their supply of food in that way ?" — " Never."

EVIDENCE. 17

" Do you think they would be hkely to com-
plain if there was any occasion ?" — " I am sure they
would."

** They would not be afraid of complaining ?" —
" No ; they are most tenacious and jealous of their
rights, even amongst themselves, when their provi-
sions are issued, to the last scruple."

" Have the Negroes the entire benefit of the
produce of their provision grounds ?" — *' Certainly;
I have always understood so."

" Can you give the Committee any information
w'ith regard to property possessed by Negroes ?" —
" I have heard they possess property such as money,
and that they have it in the hands of either their
proprietor or the person who acts in the name of
that proprietor, called an attorney ; and I know
they have cows and animals of different descrip-
tions, hogs and asses."

" Had you any reason to believe that the Ne-
groes felt themselves insecure in the possession of
any of their property ?" — " Never."

" Did you never know an instance where that
property was interfered with by the owner of the
slave ?" — " I never heard of any such interference."

" The situation you filled during part of the time
you were there probably would have brought to
your knowledge any circumstances of complaint of
ill-treatment, want of provisions, clothing, or any
other matter constituting a proper ground of com-
plaint?"— " Yes, I should think it would if it ex-

B

18 SIR J. keane's

isted ; but I never have by any accident heard it,
nor do I think such a thing could have happened
in Jamaica without my knowing it, for every two or
three months I made a tour of the island."

" Would there have been any backwardness on
the part of the Negroes in stating to you, or so as
that it should reach you, any complaint they might
have ?" — " No, I think not ; they were very ready
in making known their grievances."

" Does the Negro work as many hours in the
day as the labourer in England, taking the periods
of long and short days in this country ?" — " I should
say certainly not near as much ; one man in Eng-
land would do more than ten Negroes."

" Have they their regular hours of rest during
the day ?" — " Yes ; either three quarters of an
hour or an hour ; breakfast an hour, and two hours
at dinner ; the two hours are clear, besides their
going and coming to the spot they may be at work
at."

" From the situation you have described yourself
to have occupied in Jamaica, can you state to the
committee whether complaints of Slaves, in cases
where they seek redress, are properly attended to ?"
— " I should say decidedly yes ; during the time I
was there, in either capacity, as a General or Lieu-
tenant-Governor, in going through the island, I
never heard a complaint, nor was any one made to
me personally."

" Do you think that any cruel proprietor of slaves.

EVIDENCE. 19

or any cruel manager, would, in the present state of
society in Jamaica, be tolerated ?" — " Decidedly
not."

" Can you assign any reason but custom for the
severe work they do at present ?" — '' I do not call
it severe."

" You are aware, of course, that Slaves receive
no wages from their master !" — " They know very
well that they are the property of their masters ;
they work for their own protection and for their
existence, and are well taken care of, are well fed,
and are little worked, I will be bold to maintain ;
and they are in sickness and in health taken
care of, and are well clad ; and what more can they
expect ? Those points have come under my own
observation. "

" Do the Negroes in Jamaica in general look
healthy and well ?" — " They are a magnificent race
of people ; very much so."

" Do you know from your own observation, or
have you ever heard it said, that the Negroes ap-
pear to be in better condition during the crop time
than at any other season of the year ?" — "I do not
know that I have ever heard that comparison made,
but they are as fine a race of people as I ever saw
in my life."

" Are they cheerful ?" — " Always singing. It
is a most extraordinary thing they are always
singing, and seem excessively delighted ; and the
task-work, which is the heaviest work — which they

B 2

20 DANGER OF PRECIPITANCY.

claim as a matter of right, for they get a larger
proportion of victuals — even in that they are more
happy than at other times, which is digging cane-
holes."

" When they work in gangs do you mean to say
that they display this hilarity and cheerfulness ?" —
" They do invariably, cracking their jokes and sing-
ing from one end to the other."

DANGER OF IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION.

The experience of all ages and nations proves that
there is always the most imminent danger in chang-
ing at once the political condition of the labouring
classes. So great indeed is that danger, that the
practical mischief thence arising is apt to be far
heavier than that which is consequent upon a total
revolution in the general politics and state of the
country. And the reason of that is easily seen : in
a general revolution the whole frame of the society
is changed, and though the change be, as it very
often is, for the worse, yet, the relations of the
several ranks and classes are always in so far pre-
served. If, however, a great revolution takes place
in the condition of the labouring classes, without a
corresponding change in the others, the frame of
society is torn asunder, the relations upon which
public morality and the preservation of the public
peace depend, are destroyed ; and to suppose that
internal anarchy of the most disastrous and ruinous

DANGERS. 21

character should not be the necessary result, would
be to suppose that human nature is some thing dif-
ferent from what universal experience has hitherto
shown it to be.

The Negroes are themselves as ignorant of the
state into which they would be brought by the
madness of a general emancipation, as the abettors
of that project are of the characters and present
condition of the Negroes. Being found in all the
requisites of their maintenance by their masters,
they have none of that prudence and foresight,
which people who are thrown upon their own re-
sources learn by experience. Many of them do
accumulate property, but the majority spend much
of the intervals of labour in noisy mirth. They
know, in fact, no hardship but labour ; and they
have no wish but the gratification of their passions,
among which the passion of revenge is one of the
strongest, and most easily excited in the deadliest
possible manner. Hence the only notion that they
can have of their condition being benefited by eman-
cipation, or by any political project whatever, is
that of being absolved from labour, and possessing
themselves of property. Emancipation can of itself
do neither for them ; and, thus disappointed, they
would perpetrate outrages of the most dreadful
nature. It is true, that the sword of civilization, if
determinedly drawn, would prove too much for the
club of the demi-savage ; but after the property of

22 DANGERS.

the Colonists were destroyed, and their mangled
bodies given to the fowls of heaven, it would not be
worth deciding whether the better alternative would
be the extirpation of the Negroes, or leaving them
to return to their human sacrifices and the feast of
the dead, as they have done in Haiti.

The measure which has been proposed, of pre-
paring the Negroes for emancipation by appren-
ticing them for seven years to their masters, would
put off, but would not remove, the danger of a
general emancipation. At the end of the seven
years they would be all emancipated at once ; and
not only that, but there would be some chance of
the seven years being spent in framing plans of
revolt and insurrection, to be put in execution
when the day of general emancipation arrived.

PLAN

THE GRADUAL AND SAFE ABOLITION

COLONIAL SLAVERY

ANY LOAN

PERMANENT BURDEN TO THE COUNTRY.

A FREE emancipation of 30,000 slaves, to take
place on the 31st of December, 1834, upon pay-
ment of a fair compensation to the proprietors, for
the labour of the slaves so liberated.

Another free emancipation of 30,000 to take
place on the 31st of December, 1837, upon clue
payment of a fair compensation, as in the first
instance.

A further emancipation of 30,000, to take place
on the 31st of December, 1840; and the emanci-
pation of a like number on the 3Lst of December
every third year thereafter, until the whole were

24 PLAN FOR

emancipated, a fair compensation being paid to the
proprietors in every instance.

The funds for indemnifying the proprietors could
be obtained without any loan or burden to the
country at home, or the colonies, after this plan
had been carried mto effect, by the following very
simple means : —

An emancipation duty of one halfpenny per
pound weight to be imposed upon all sugar im-
ported into Great Britain from the West Indies, oi'
from any other part of the world. That duty to
commence from the day that the edict for a gradual
emancipation should be published, and to remain
in force until the whole of the slaves should have
been emancipated, and a fair compensation paid to
all the proprietors.

That trifling emancipation duty would, without
any loan whatever, pay the whole amount that
would be required ; and an emancipation so gra-
dual and so safe for all parties would thus be
ensured, at an individual cost of only a few pence
each to the people of the United Kingdom,
without entailing upon posterity any burden
whatsoever.

That the funds thus raised would be perfectly

GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. 25

sufficient for the purpose, will appear from the
following official documents : —

1. Statement of

The quantity of raw sugar charged with home
consumption-duty in the year 1830. Other years
are nearly the same. —

British-plantation . . 4,145,733 cwts.

Mauritius 435,010

East India 135,901

4,716,644'
4,746,644 at a halfpenny per pound

weight, is, per annum .... =£1,100,549

In three years £3,301,647

2. Estimate of
Compensation to the proprietors of 30,000

slaves, to be freely emancipated on the 31st De-
cember, 1834 : —

1st. 30,000 slaves on the 31st Decem-
ber, 1834, estimated on an average of

40/. each cei,200,000

2d. 30,000, on the 31st December, 1837 1,200,000

£2,400,000

* Taken from the Custom House returns.
C

26 FUNDS FOR

Charges.

Poor's rate for the benefit of old and
infirm persons, from 31st December,
1834, to 31st December, 1837— three
years, at 100,000/. per annum . . c£300,000'

Various charges — instructions to the
slaves, drawbacks, &c. estimated at
80,000/. per annum — three years . 240,000

£2,940,000

Balance left in hand on 31st December,

1837 361,647

£3,301,647

The duty from the time of publishing the Edict
of the gradual emancipation to 31st December,
1834, must be applied to the Emancipation fund.
This will be required in aid of the first payment to
the proprietors.

Should 45,000 slaves be required for emancipa-
tion every three years, it may easily be done, by
making the duty three farthings per pound weight
on all sugar imported. Or even 60,000 may be
accomplished by increasing the duty to one penny
per pound.

THE EMANCIPATION. 27

Should either of these be considered as too slow
in its operation, the following modification of the
plan might greatly accelerate the final result : —

An emancipation duty of three farthings upon
every pound weight of sugar imported into the
United Kingdom, from what part soever of the
world the same may be imported, would, in three
years, purchase the freedom of 80,000 slaves, at
40/. each, amounting in all to 3,200,000/.

A sum to that amount to be due on the 31st of
December, 1834, and to be payable in London as
soon thereafter as possible, upon production of
satisfactory proofs that 80,000 slaves had been
freely emancipated in terms of the Edict.

A second emancipation of 80,000 to take place
on the 31st of December, 1837, and a third, of the
like number, to take place on the 31st of Decem-
ber, 1840.

By this means, it is evident, that 240,000 out of
the estimated 800,000 slaves would be freely eman-
cipated, and a fair compensation made to their
owners, within the short period of six years after
the plan came into operation.

The remaining number would of course be eman-
cipated in the same proportion of 80,000 every

13

28 CONCLUSION.

three years, until the whole of the Negro popula-
tion of the colonies had become free ; and by
means of a very moderate payment, very generally
distributed, and lasting only during the time the
measure were carrying into effect, the question
would be for ever set at rest, the danger of an
immediate and general emancipation avoided, and
seven millions and a half, which otherwise would
be endangered by the general emancipation, and
required for the interest of 20,000,000/. loan for
that purpose, would be saved in perpetuity to the
British public.

WEST INDIES.

SUGAR imported into the United King-
dom in the year 1830, (other years
nearly the same) 4,716,644 hundred
weight, at an emancipation-duty (to be
levied), per annum, of three farthings
per pound, will amount to . . . 1,650,824

In three years, the sum of . . . 4,952,472

DEDUCT.

Payment to the Proprietors £40 each,
on 80,000 slaves, freely to be eman-
cipated on the 31st December, 1834, or
as soon after this time as possible . 3,200,000

Allowance for Poor rates £100,000 per

annum, three years , 300,000

Charge of Instruction, and unforeseen
demands, the sum of £80,000 per
annum 240,000

Estimated for short crops of sugar, draw-
backs, &c. &c. £250,000 per annum,
three years 750,000

4,490,000

BALANCE left in hand in the Fund on

the 31st December, 1837 .... 462,472

£4,952,472

APPENDIX.

IMPORTANT FACTS RELATIVE TO THE WEST
INDIES.

According to statements repeatedly made in Par-
liament, and never contradicted or even questioned,
the negro population of the West India colonies
amounts to 800,000, while that of the whites does
not exceed 10,000. That is, there are, on the
average of all the colonies, 80 negroes for every
white person.

By the proposed ministerial plan, these 800,000
negroes are, after an apprenticeship, or stipulated
servitude, of seven years, to be all emancipated at
one time, and thereby placed in a situation of which
neither they nor the whites can have any experi-
mental knowledge; and it will readily be admitted,
that a great political change in the condition of so
overwhelming a majority of the whole population.

30 APPENDIX.

and that too of a people perfectly distinct from the
rest, may be attended with the most fatal conse-
quences, and may occasion a repetition of the
dreadful scenes that took place in St. Domingo.

The whites are, by the proposed measure, to be
allowed 20,000,000/. of the public money, as a
compensation for the labour of which they are, at
the end of the seven years, to be deprived ; and,
from the imminent risk to which they must feel
that they will be exposed, it is probable, even on
the most favourable view of the case, that they will
consider the sum received, together with the dan-
ger of remaining, as sufficient inducements for
quitting the colonies in the course of the seven
years ; and thus, upon either alternative, the colo-
nies will be lost to the mother country, and that
loss will be purchased at the heavy expence of
20,000,000/. at a time when economy and retrench-
ment are professedly the order of the day.

If we suppose that there are on the average ten
resident white persons on each estate, that will
make the number of proprietors about a thousand,
to each of whom the 20,000,000/. will, on the
average, afford 20,000/. ; and any one acquainted
with the state of the West Indies, must be aware

APPENDIX. 31

that the majority of the resident planters would,
for such a sum paid down, be very glad to relin-
quish their possessions, and quit the colonies with-
out the operation of any such dread as that of an
immediate emancipation of those blacks who out-
number them and their white servants eighty to
one.

By thus vacating, the colonists would save their
lives, and also be in a good condition for returning
home, or settling in other countries as they choose;
but the loss to the British nation would be the
same, whether the blacks took forcible possession,
or had the colonies abandoned to them. It may
therefore be proper to state the items, and amount
of the loss, — a loss which would be wholly pre-
vented by the plan of which an outline is given in
the preceding pages.

The amount of duty received into the British
Treasury from West India produce, is upwards of
7,500,000/. per annum.

The value of the annual export of British pro-
duce and manufactures to the West Indies, is
3,000,000/.

The freight of ships engaged in the carrying
trade between Britain and the West India colonies,

d2

32 APPENDIX,

amounts annually to 1,000,000/. during peace,
and to nearly 3,000,000Z. in times of war.

Taking these items together, the loss of the
colonies, whether by outrage on the part of the
negroes, or voluntary abandonment on that of
the planters, would amount to about 12,000,000/.
yearly, besides the payment down of the 20,000,000/.
which, as it would have to be borrowed, would
cost the country at least another 1,000,000/. in
the year.

That loss would fall doubly, by falling both on
the revenue directly, and on the industry of the
country, from which alone a revenue can be ob-
tained ; but of the latter it is not easy to point out
the particulars : it is clear, however, that the fol-
lowing are among them:

Ship building, the timber, hemp and flax trades,
the making of sail-cloth and cordage, the iron
trade, and all other branches connected with the
out-fit of shipping, which are very important in a
national point of view, and many of which are the
chief and almost the exclusive occupation and
support of some of our most flourishing towns,
would be greatly distressed, and in many instances
ruined, by the destruction of so extensive and so

APPENDIX. 33

reo'ular a market as the colonies now afford
them.

The throwing of upwards of 14,000 British sea-
men at once out of employment would be most
distressing to that brave and valuable class of our
people, and could not fail very seriously to crip-
ple the navy in the event of a war.

The West India Docks, and many docks, ware-
houses, and other expensive establishments, both
in London and the out-ports, would be rendered
of no value, and countless thousands of labourers
would be deprived of their bread and thrown on
the already over-burthened poor-rates.

The result of the whole would be complete
stagnation, embarrassment, and failure, in every
department of trade, and in every branch of in-
dustry,— a state of things which the country might
survive, but certainly one of greater peril than
ever Britain had to encounter since she took the
lead among commercial nations, and rose to her
present grandeur and power, by " ships, com-
merce, AND COLONIES."

Now all those evils may be averted, and eman-
cipation obtained, without burden and without
danger, by adopting the plan whereof a sketch

34 APPENDIX.

has been given ; and this much further may be
said, that the present opportunity may be con-
sidered as a last one, and if the injury be once
done it can never be repaired.

WEST INDIES,— Emancipation Duties.

SUGAR imported into the United King-
dom in the year 1830, (other years
nearly the same) 4,716,644 hundred
weight, at an emancipation-duty (to be
levied), per annum, of three farthings
per pound, will amount to . . .- 1,650,824

In three years, the sum of . . . 4,952,472

DEDUCT.

Payment to the Proprietors £40 each,
on 80,000 slaves, freely to be eman-
cipated on the 31st December, 1834, or
as soon after this time as possible . 3,200,000

Carried forward . . . £3,200,000

APPENDIX. 35

Brought forward . . . £3,200,000
Allowance for Poor rates £100,000 per

annum, three years . . . . . . 300,000

Charge of Instruction, and unforeseen
demands, the sum of £80,000 per

annum 240,000

Etsimated for short crops of sugar, draw-
backs, &c. &c. £250,000 per annum,
three years 750,000

4,490,000

BALANCE left in hand in the Fund on

the 31st December, 1837 , . . . 462,472

£4,952,472

THE END.

Gilbert & Rivington, Printers, St. John's Square, Loiulon.