vote themselves to industry; he imperatively commanded them to renounce that state of vagrancy which the laws of the republic would punish;' and in case of disobedience, the most severe penalties were to be inflicted. The result of this was what might have been expected. Men recently surrendered to the full gratification of their own will, and having no immediate stimulant to excite them to exertion, would naturally prefer roving about as soldiers, or rather banditti, than to return to their former laborious mode of life. Accordingly, it is stated in the public papers of that period, that they refused to return to their labour as had been enjoined. They in answer alleged, that, being freemen, they would only work when, and as long as, they pleased.' This state of things being likely to continue, it was soon discovered, that something more than a mere proclamation was necessary, and a company of agriculturists, called police guards, were established for the purpose of enforcing the work of cultivation. It was the duty of this body to take cognizance of the time and quantity of work performed, conformably to the prescribed regulation; and in case of failure, punishment was inflicted in the most exemplary manner. The new correction for indolence presented a striking contrast to that which had been formerly employed. It has been stated, and I have never yet seen it controverted, that at a later period, when the horrors of murder had become familiar, and when men were rapidly relapsing into a state of barbarism, the offender, for a repetition of the most trifling misdemeanour on a plantation, was shot. Indeed, after the final evacuation of the French troops, the reigns of the tyrants who succeeded, present, in most respects, the ordinary features of African sovereignty. "What, however, is most essential for the British public to consider, is the striking and unanswerable circumstance, that whatever labour is carried on in St Domingo is performed by compulsion. All those who have possessed authority or dominion have perceived the practical illustration, that men will not work in a field merely for the love of perspiring, so long as they have a plantain or a banana tree at their elbow. On this head, independent of the many proclamations issued in the progress of the revolt, and during the various intestine commotions, the principle may be perceived clearly established and identified in the Code Henri. In the 22d article of this Code it is stated,- Work shall commence with the daylight, and be continued uninterrupted until eight o'clock; one hour is allotted to the labourer for breakfast on the spot where employed; at nine, work recommences until noon, when two hours' repose are granted them; at two o'clock exactly they recommence work, and shall not leave off before nightfall.' "Art. 26th. No labourer, without permission of the lieutenant of the king, shall absent himself from the plantation on working-days, unless this be obtained through the overseer or conductor.' "Art. 17th. The law punishes the lazy and vagabonds, among whom are comprehended labourers of both sexes who shall quit the habitations in which they have domiciled, in order to reside in towns or other places, where they are forbidden to settle.' "What these punishments are has been already alluded to; and I would merely desire any reasonable person to contrast the condition of the negroes at large, under what is termed their newly-acquired freedom, with the state of slavery which formerly existed. The negroes on the plantations are, unless a change has very recently taken place, in every respect slaves to the state. They are slaves, doomed to perform a regular apportioned labour, and amenable to the arbitrary jurisdiction of some crafty neighbour, who by his cunning or superior cruelty has acquired authority. They are completely deprived of those kindlier feelings of attachment which exist on every well-managed estate, and which make the negro look up to his master for immediate assistance and protection. And, in conclusion on this head it may be observed, that the greater portion of the crop is afterwards exacted as taxes to meet the assumed exigencies of government. "Having thus shown that the work performed is entirely of a compulsory nature, the next object is naturally to inquire into its amount. In this particular, the result corresponds to what all writers assert in theory; namely, that individual management must uniformly be better and more productive than the vague and indefinite superintendence of the state itself. It could not be for a moment expected that any general regulations could correct the desire of idleness, and, accordingly, the la bour is done merely by starts, performed at that season when the crops are getting in, and when the superintendents of labour are more strict and tyrannical. During the remainder of the year, idleness is universal; and it is most material to reflect, 473 that the cultivation which requires regular attendance and industry has finally ceased. Coffee is the only article now produced to any extent; the formerly numerous and magnificent plantations of sugar are long since in ruin; the continued labour was soon found irksome; and all the mandates of authority were found insufficient to promote exertion, so long as the immediate coercing power of one kind or another was not present. It may not, perhaps, be unnecessary to state, that the coffee now exported is gathered from the trees planted before the revolution; the labour requisite for this service is obviously exceedingly trifling; and as this article is alone brought forward to display the industry of the Haytians, it demonstrates, in a striking degree, how erroneous are the statements continually adduced regarding this nominal productiveness of free labour in the West Indies. I shall here give an abstract of the exports in 1791: 1825.] MS. Notes on the last Number of the Edinburgh Review. Clayed sugar, Brown do. Coffee, Cotton, Independent of minor articles of cultivation. 70,227,708 lbs. 6,286,126 930,016 At present it is difficult to ascertain the exact export. The quantity given in the Haytian documents considerably ex- Coffee exported, (from Haytian papers, as brought forward by the abolitionists,) 1822, to United Great Britain, France, Holland and all other parts, 10,144,578 lbs. 9,458,877 Coffee imported, per official returns, into Great Britain, 1822, I have looked over the imports into Holland, together with some state- 35,118,394 lbs. 4,662,784 lbs. 15,057,177 lbs. 4,500,000 lbs. 71,557,177 lbs. "In 1791, the value of the coffee, 68,151,180 lbs. as laid before the legislative assembly of France, was 51,890,748 livres. "The value of the total exports was 200,301,634 livres. "Now, supposing the returns of labour and profits of stock to have been assimilated, as no doubt they were, between coffee and other articles, the quantity of labour performed in the island was equal to producing 261,500,000 lbs. of coffee. Say, then, there were even 50,000 negroes massacred, and the population reduced from 450,000 to 400,000, the quantity of labour now performed should be equal to producing 232,400,000 lbs. But it is only, according to the Haytian documents, 35,118,394 lbs. The conclusion then is evident; allowing for the small quantity of cotton and cocoa said to be exported. At present, for every day that a man works, he is idle six, according to the statements given by the African Institution, and thirteen days idle according to the official returns taken from the other countries. And even this is not the whole. If we consider the circumstance that the coffee-trees were planted before the revolution, we may add several days more of idleness, for The cultivation, I apprehend, will continue to decrease; whether it one of work. does or does not, however, is a matter of little moment to the argument. Accordingly as the coercion of the police guards, or overseers of work as I believe they are now termed, is more or less rigorous, in a similar proportion will be the quantity of produce exported. "In viewing this lamentable falling off, there are some weighty considerations which should not be forgotten. Here it cannot be advanced in palliation, that it takes time to teach a people industry. The inhabitants of St Domingo had been long 3 Q 'accustomed to work; they were fully acquainted with the routine of each species of VOL. XVII. cultivation; they had the estates and buildings in complete order; and yet such is the undeviating weakness of human nature, that they allowed all to go to waste, to indulge, even at some hazard, their predominant propensity to loiter about in idleness. I conceive that a more satisfactory proof could not be advanced of the correctness of the principles I have been endeavouring to establish; and that, as regards the present manners and state of society of the negroes, they have in the aggregate suffered greatly both in comfort and happiness. It is pretty universally known, that, previously to the revolution, St Domingo was decidedly the farthest advanced of the West India settlements. The most diversified scenes of industry, decorated with all the ornaments of art, struck every beholder with admiration. Who is there who now travels in the interior, and beholds the splendid mansions in ruin, the fine gardens and parterres overgrown with weeds, who can repress a sigh at the mournful scene of devastation? In no small degree is that feeling increased on seeing, perhaps, a negro emerge from a miserable hut, moving along in slothful apathy, with no inducement to rouse his faculties, beyond the payment of his unwilling tribute of exaction to some ferocious military minister of oppression. I do not pretend to say the treatment by the French planters in former times was unexceptionable; I only assert, that the condition of the negroes, generally, has changed for the worse; and that the visitations of despotic rule are by far more hated than the authority formerly exercised by the master. In a very short time they will be, in the interior, destitute of clothing, and many articles of immediate necessity for one of the best of reasons,-the cost of the equipment of the large body of troops swallows up so great a portion of the exports. The number of men in the army amounts, it is stated, to not less than 25,000, living in unbounded licentiousness, and ready at the least provocation to plunder the defenceless. As to morality, all visitors allow it to be quite unknown. Sunday is the great day for riot and amusement; and it is stated, that such as are seized occasionally with a compunctious visiting of conscience easily compound for their sins by liberal contributions to some of the adventurous priests who visit them from the Havannah. "Although before I left the West Indies I received many other statements from gentlemen who had been in the island within the last one or two years, and who drew a truly deplorable picture of the state of society, I have purposely avoided enlarging on anything which writers on the opposite side of the question might attribute to a prejudiced source. Such a mode of proceeding conduces to vulgar recrimination and abuse; and the public, becoming disgusted, give very little attention to what is brought forward by either party. When this is the case, the course to be pursued by those in authority is surely obvious; and that it has been so long delayed implies, in my opinion, culpable neglect. Institute an impartial inquiry: there are many officers of the navy, and other persons of unquestionable authority, not at all interested, who are, I understand, capable of giving the most ample evidence as to the state of things in St Domingo. Why are those persons not examined? It is the only mode of setting at rest the contradictory statements and fierce contentions which serve so much to perplex and obscure the question at issue. It is to be hoped, that the West India body will have this desirable measure accomplished in the ensuing session of Parliament; and I will venture to declare that it will remove much of the delusion that prevails so extensively on the subject of negro emancipation and free labour. "In the meantime, to persons of much reflection, what has been brought forward, relative to the small quantity of produce exported, will, in the various deductions, almost establish everything that is required. "In the first place, It is clear, that our colonies would not be worth the keeping, if they produced no more in proportion than is now produced in St Domingo. The abolitionists, therefore, should honestly acknowledge that, agreeably to their principles, it is not intended to retain the West Indies as productive possessions to the British crown. "Secondly, It has been demonstrated, that the negroes in St Domingo, in the aggregate, only work one day in ten. Now if there be any truth in what all our moralists assert, that idleness is the fruitful parent of almost every evil, we may easily imagine the prevailing licentiousness, profligacy, and general depravity of manners, even had they not been described by almost every person who has visited the island. "Thirdly, As regards their present civilization and future prospects, it can easily be shown that they must of necessity be far inferior to the slaves in our own settlements. Let us here consider in what civilization consists. Is it not in the enjoyment of many comforts; increased accommodation in lodging and furniture; a superior quality and display in clothing; and an augmented participation in the various conveniences of life? In all those particulars, the Haytians must be exceedingly deficient, as they are unable to pay for anything beyond a comparatively trifling importation. By way of illustration and contrast, I shall here specify the imports into Demerara, from whence there is no export. They are taken from the returns given in by the naval officer, by command of government. "In Demerara there are 74,418 slaves, and not more than 3000 whites. Now, what is imported for their use, allowing a fair rate of profit, will be found to exceed what all the exports of St Domingo could purchase, though she has five times as great a population. What, then, is the result? Is it not obvious that the black inhabitants of Demerara must enjoy five times more of those comforts and conveniences of life which are uniformly regarded as the attendants and attributes of civilization? It is unnecessary to advert to any difference caused by the consumption of the whites, that probably being more than balanced by a proportionate superiority in number of the coloured people in St Domingo. I have made this exposition for the purpose of more fully pointing out the extraordinary fallacy in what the abolitionists term the valuable trade to Hayti. Added to this circumstance, when the morals, and religion, and prospect of future advancement of the negroes is considered, it must be admitted that St Domingo has woefully disappointed the sanguine hopes of the philanthropist. The example is in every respect so applicable, as to make it criminal in a statesman to overlook the many lessons of experience which may be gathered from contemplating the progress of the revolt, from the first dawning of discontent, to the present unhappy consummation." MS. NOTES ON THE LAST NUMBER OF THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. DEAR N. If you have room or time for it, I shall give you a few hasty remarks on the new Quarterly, thrown off as a P. S. to my notes on the Edinburgh. I own I have looked for this Quarterly with some anxiety, in order to see how the concern is to go on under the new dynasty of Mr Coleridge. Whispers were afloat, Heaven knows how truly, if Heaven bothers itself about such affairs, of there being disunion in the camp of the old contributors, and of some defection among the troops who campaigned under the sceptre of old Gifford. I wished, therefore, to see whether a review, for the general principles of which I have so profound a respect, however I may occasionally differ with its details, would be dete riorated by the admixture of new hands, and the defaleation of old ones. Even supposing the whispers perfectly untrue, as they may very well be, the alteration of the presiding genius must naturally be expected to make an alteration in the tone. It will be vain to expect an editor, in many respects, so excellent as Gifford. His constitutional principles, derived from the purest sources, were correct, manly, and high-toned, he possessed a true love for England, and the institutions which have made England worthy of love,—and he felt a thorough scorn or hatred for her enemies. His critical taste, fashioned on the severest principles, was admirably adapted for the situation which he filled. I do not suppose he had ever much affection for the new spirits which sprung up around him in poetry, or that he particularly valued Wordsworth, Scott, or Byron, at least to the extent with which they have been admired by critics of a different tone and temper. I should not agree with him in this taste,-nor should I, perhaps, value Pope and his school as highly as he evidently did, (though most highly I do value Pope, but still it was a fault upon the right side. When would-be imitators of the great men whom I have above mentioned were pushing their peculiar poetical theories to the utmost, and talking about them, writing "in the dangerous facility of the octosyllabic verse," till we turned away almost from Marmion, decidedly from Christabel, carrying the every-day topics of the muse of Wordsworth into the haunts of washerwomen and jour neymen apothecaries, and deluging us with romantic cut-throats, full of love, and mystery, and gloom, and dashes, and apostrophes, till we almost wished Conrad the Corsair had been hanged from the yard-arm some years before the date of the adventures in Lord Byron's poem about him-I say, when these goings-on were the daily pastime and the weekly argumentation of the "High Spirits who were among us," it was no harm to have at the head of such a journal as the Quarterly, a man who, not having any reverence for the original principles of that style of composition, would applaud poetry written on these principles, when it was good,-when it was the Lady of the Lake, or the White Doe of Rylstone, or Lara,-and would be prepared utterly to demolish it when it shone forth in the filth or absurdity of Rimini or Endymion. Then, too, he had already done the critical state some service in the Baviad and Mæviad, -and, if we turn from our ephemeral to our established literature, where could we find an equal to the commentator on Ben Jonson and Massinger ?* His chief fault was an exclusiveness of mind, which, in his case, however, I can find much to excuse. I do not like his tirades against America, for I have quite a different view of the interests of the two countries from what has appeared to be the prominent view taken by the Quarterly; but I will freely ad mit that American institutions were censured by the Quarterly only when they were flung in the face of our own. I must think too that he suffered his dislike for the Edinburgh Review, and his contempt for Scotch Philosophy, to extend itself ungenerously, and not wisely to everything connected with Scotland. Nil tanti. We are able to take care of ourselves. It must be a cheering reflection to him now, in turning over the thirty volumes of his labours, to find so little of material consequence-errors, no doubt, there are, and many-which he could be called upon to retract. He has been abused by the raff of Cockaigne, with having obstructed the progress of the bards of that romantic region-and I thank him for it-but he has not to accuse himself, as his brethren of the North must do, with having mocked Wordsworth, blackguarded Coleridge, insinuated charges of personal depravity against Moore, or endeavoured to depress the rising wing of Byron. Why he retires I know not. He is in as full possession of his vigour and intellect as ever, and the task of conducting the Quarterly in these triumphant times of Toryism, must have been gradually becoming easier. However, I own I have no right to pry into his motives, and can only wish him the happiness in his retirement which will naturally attend the consciousness of having contributed in his generation to promoting the honour and interest of the country of his birth. Of his successor, not much is known as a literary man, and perhaps that is an advantage. His exertions have been, I believe, chiefly confined to writing articles for the Quarterly—at least Ï remember nothing else from his pen. Many of these articles were excellent. At the University, he was a most distinguished scholar; and his character stands high as an able and elegant barrister. I wished, therefore, somewhat more anxiously than usual, for an opportunity of seeing how he would get on. I own I found what I had anticipated-less literature and more * By the way, North, you should publish the entire of Gifford's preface to Massinger's second editton. Such a demolition never fell upon any pack as is there levelled, in full contempt, on the ignorant asses who reviewed him in the Edinburgh. It is not at all known as it deserves. |