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prenticeship, 4 038 321 cwt., a loss of 8 1-2 per cent.; in the first six years of freedom 3 120 765 cwt.,—a loss of 40 per cent.; but in 1847, 4 393 946 cwt.,—a slight gain over the last years of slavery. In the two last years of slavery they exported to Great Britain 8 471 744 cwt; in 1856-7 they exported 8 736 654 cwt; a gain of 3 per cent. Leaving Jamaica out of view, and also Mauritius, where the crop has immensely increased, by reason of the immigration of Coolies, we find that the remaining fifteen sugar colonics produced in the three last years of slavery 7405 849 cwt,; in the three years 1855-6-7, 7 427 618 cwt.,—a slight gain. From 1827 to 1855 the tonnage of vessels entering at eight of these islands the only ones reported^[1]—had increased more than six per cent.

If the colonies which have been well managed are considered, we shall find a still more marked gain.

The four colonies of Antigua, Barbadoes, Guiana, and Trinidad, exported, in the last four years of slavery, an annual average of 187 000 000 pounds of sugar; from 1856 to 1860, they have annually exported 265 000 000 pounds,-an increase of 41 per cent. For fourteen years before emancipation, the same colonies imported an average of $8 840 000;—in 1859, they imported $14 600 000,-an increase of 65 per cent. It is true that in Barbadoes and Trinidad, the population has largely increased, but by no means in this ratio; in Guiana and Antigua, there are fewer people than in 1822. Some of the single colonies show results still more astonishing.

Take Antigua, for example,—the island where the slaves were immediately emancipated. For the fourteen years before Emancipation, the annual imports averaged $600 000; for 1859, the imports were $1 280 000, or more than double, while its exports have increased more than 25 per cent. In this instance, free labor has had a fair field from the start, and all has gone well; in Barbadoes, Grenada, Mauritius, and, indeed, most of the colonies, the same is true, though in a less degree. On the whole, we can say that the evils resulting from the scarcity of labor were never so great as had been feared, and in many islands did not exist at all; they were by no means owing wholly to Emancipation, and they will soon be entirely removed.

But we may be told that the prosperity of Cuba is a proof of the advantages of slavery. Nobody denies that Cuba has made, and is making, great advances in wealth. Her exports have risen from $12 000 000 in 1828, to $84 000 000 in 1858;^[2] her imports in the same time, from $17 000 000 to $39 000,000. Her population has increased nearly as fast. In 1828, it was 704 487; in 1858, it was at least 1,400,000, of whom half were probably slaves. There has been a similar increase in Porto Rico, the other colony of Spain; but there, the proportion of slaves to the whole population, is only about one-eighth. Both these islands, however, are comparatively thinly settled; especially Cuba, whose population is but 33 to the square mile, or about the same as New Hampshire. Jamaica, on the contrary, has 68, and Barbadoes 843, to the square mile. The abundance of land, together with the fertility of the soil, its favorable position for commerce, and the greater liberality of Spain's commercial policy in recent years, will explain the rapid growth of Cuba, which, after all, is only a quarter part of the growth of Iowa, within the last fifteen years. Let us see if there is not some delusion about the wealth of Cuba; let us apply a more certain test. How much value per man, for her whole population, will the trade of Cuba show for 1858? We answer, $52. Now, the trade of the French West Indies, which we are told have been ruined by Emancipation, as well as the British colonies, gives a yearly average of $68 per man, from 1852 to 1858. The imports of Cuba for 1858, are $27.85 per head; those of Antigua, for 1859, are $36.57 per head. In 1857, the whole trade of Great Britain with her West India colonies, was over $52 000 000, giving a greater sum per head than Cuba can show. Where, then, are the boasted advantages of Slavery? Yet in Cuba, Slavery is said to be mild, and the proportion of whites to blacks is nearly four times as great as in the British colonies. We may add that in the fabulous prosperity of St. Domingo, before the French Revolution, her exports and imports are set at about 840 000 000, giving about the same average per head as in Antigua in 1859.

1. ↑ Edinburgh Review, April. 1852.
2. ↑ Cochin—Tome II., p., 191. To this careful French writer, we have been much indebted for statistics, concerning the results of Emancipation. Had he thrown these more into a tabular form, he would have much increased the value of his book. Schoeicher's volumes are still of great authority, though published fifteen or twenty years ago.