him to the letter of the law, and are ready to arraign him before the special magistrate for every infraction of it on his part, however trifling.  How ungrateful, truly!  After being provided for with parental care from earliest infancy, and supplied yearly with two suits of clothes, and as many yams is they could eat and only having to work thirteen or fifteen hours per day in return; and now when they are no longer slaves, and new privileges are conferred to exact them to the full extent of the law which secures them—­what ingratitude!  How soon are the kindnesses of the past, and the hand that bestowed them, forgotten!  Had these people possessed the sentiments of human beings, they would have been willing to take the boon of freedom and lay it at their master’s feet, dedicating the remainder of their days to his discretionary service!

But with all his violent prejudices, this planter stated some facts which are highly favorable to the apprentices.

1.  He frankly acknowledged that his estates were never under better cultivation than at the present time:  and he could say the same of the estates throughout the island.  The largest crops that have ever been made, will he realized this year.

2.  The apprentices are generally willing to work on the estates on Saturday whenever their labor is needed.

3.  The females are very much disposed to abandon field labor.  He has great difficulty sometimes in inducing them to take their hoes and go out to the field along with the men; it was the case particularly with the mothers! This he regarded as a sore evil!

4.  The free children he represented as being in a wretched condition.  Their parents have the entire management of them, an they are utterly opposed to having them employed on the estates.  He condemned severely the course taken in a particular instance by the late Governor, Sir Lionel Smith.  He took it upon himself to go around the island and advise the parents never to bind their children in any kind of apprenticeship to the planters.  He told them that sooner than involve their free children in any way, they ought to “work their own fingers to the stubs.”  The consequence of this imprudent measure, said our informant, is that the planters have no control over the children born on their estates; and in many instances their parents have sent them away lest their residence on the property should, by some chance, give the planter a claim upon their services.  Under the good old system the young children were placed together under the charge of some superannuated women, who were fit for nothing else, and the mothers went into the field to work; now the nursery is broken up, and the mothers spend half of their time “in taking care of their brats.”

5.  As to the management of the working people, there need not he any more difficulty now then during slavery.  If the magistrates, instead of encouraging the apprentices to complain and be insolent, would join their influence to support the authority of the planters, things might go on nearly as smoothly as before.