Page:On the motion of Sir George Strickland; for the abolition of the negro apprenticeship.djvu/38

30. Now this has always been a sore point during West Indian discussions, and old prejudices are not easily removed; but the state of feeling undergoes daily improvement, and that improvement will, please God, continue, if it be not intercepted by the present agitation. Again I refer you to a public document: it is the report, dated Oct. 19, 1837, of Mr. La Trobe, a gentleman appointed by the present government, and not being a member of the church of England, to inquire into the state of education. I find in the eleventh page of that report,

"That active opposition to the various plans set on foot for the education of the apprentice or his children, by whatever religious denomination they maybe proposed, is rarely to be met with, either on the part of the authorities or of influential individuals."

And again,—

"It is to be admitted, that many exhibit great apathy with reference to the question, yet it is no less true that the change of public opinion on this head in the island has been such as to surprise those acquainted, for even ten years past, with the colony, and with the strength of prejudices, which the former state of things had apparently rooted in the mind of the community at large, beyond all hope of speedy eradication: and when every few months give proof of an advance in the public feeling on this head, and bring with them the hearty and liberal co-operation of many influential individuals, who, up to a recent date, comparatively, were fore-