Page:On the motion of Sir George Strickland; for the abolition of the negro apprenticeship.djvu/70

62 This referred to three female children in Milbank Penitentiary. I had seen them within a day or two of the speech, cheerful, well behaved, remarkably healthy in appearance, and without the slightest disposition to complain. A Committee of the House of Lords has since investigated the allegations, and found them wholly destitute of truth. But if fiction can grow into such magnitude in traversing the short mile which separates the Penitentiary from the Houses of Parliament, how can ex parte statements imported from the West Indies be received without hesitation, or acted upon by conscientious persons without inquiry?

The return in my possession (from Messrs Corrie & Co. Mincing Lane) is as follows:

It will be perceived that I have not got the Irish return for 1837. I assume it to bear the same proportion as the British to that of 1836. This will give about 4,000 tons for Demerara, and 325 tons for Berbice.