Page:On the motion of Sir George Strickland; for the abolition of the negro apprenticeship.djvu/68

60 whose spiritual interests have been more extensively cultivated, and in the absence of religious discord.

Still, had there been that general and invincible repugnance to field labour on the part of the negro which was once presumed, would not the emancipation have been followed by a systematic and determined strike, and that, in turn, by a disposition on the part of the poorer proprietors to break up their lands into small allotments, as has, I understand, been the case to some extent in Jamaica?

It is difficult to say whether or how far the decline in the crops of Antigua is chargeable upon the abolition of coerced labour.

The second question is more formidable. The East Indian competition must, one should suppose, now that the duties are equalized, be found to exercise a most depressing influence, within no very long period of time, on the prosperity of the West Indian colonies, as countries exporting sugar. It does not appear how the prices at which Bengal can supply our market, will suffer the West Indian planter to offer such wages to the negroes, then a free peasantry, as should divert them from their plots of ground to a more steady and laborious cultivation, however far it may be from real severity of toil, and however he may be aided by the plough, and by rattooning, and by that great reduction in the expenditure connected with the management of estates which will probably attend the increased need of economy.

The importations from the East Indies have been as follows during the years which have followed the passing of the Abolition Act:—

On Mr. Sturge's retention of the statements which he had obtained in Jamaica, Lord Glenelg thus writes to Sir Lionel Smith, in a despatch dated 1st February, 1838, and to be found at page 264 of the Papers, Part V.