Page:On the motion of Sir George Strickland; for the abolition of the negro apprenticeship.djvu/18

10 British Guiana, at about 100l. sterling for each labourer. I request the House, in passing, to observe the very high value of effective labour in that colony: it is not the apprentice alone who has to pay clearly for its purchase.

Lastly, I quote a case, from Jamaica, dated no farther back than the 20th of January last, and announced by the last packet, in which Mr. Robert Page assigned to Mr. Joseph Gordon, as attorney for Sir Alexander Grant, the services of the Hill Side apprentices, comprising of able-bodied persons about thirty, with certain others, for 1000l. sterling.

Thus the House will see with what perfect confidence the West Indians are reposing on the faith of the British legislature, and with what entire unconsciousness of the charge, that the compact between them has already been made void.

And now with regard to the amount of the consideration which the West Indians received. It has been said, not only by Lord Brougham, which is of less moment, but by such persons, for example, as the Bishop of London—of whom I shall never speak but with sentiments of the highest respect and esteem—that the planters have been sufficiently compensated for the labour of the slaves by the grant of twenty millions, without the guaranteed labour of the apprenticeship. It is alleged, and commonly, that they are enormous gainers by the bargain. I deny it; but I do not complain of the insufficiency of the compensation; it was a noble and