It appears, secondly, that they were nevertheless both agreed again as to the necessity of punishing delinquents, but that they adopted different ways of bringing them to justice.  Toussaint referred them to magistrates, but Mr. Steele to a Negro-court.  I should prefer the latter expedient; first, because a Negro-court may be always at hand, whereas magistrates may live at a distance from the plantations, and not be always at home.  Secondly, because the holding of a Negro-court would give consequence to those Negroes who should compose it, not only in their own eyes but in the eyes of others; and every thing, that might elevate the Black character, would be useful to those who were on the road to emancipation; and, lastly, because there must be some thing satisfactory and consoling to the accused to be tried by their peers.

It appears, thirdly, that both of them were agreed again in the principle of making the Negroes, in either case, adscripti glebae; or attached to the soil, though they might differ as to the length of time of such ascription.

And it appears, lastly, that they were agreed in another, and this the only remaining point, viz. on the necessity of holding out a stimulus to either, so as to excite in them a very superior spirit of industry to any they had known before.  They resorted, however to different means to effect this.  Toussaint gave the labourers one fourth of the produce of the land; deducting board and clothing.  Mr. Steele, on the other hand, gave them daily wages.  I do not know which to prefer; but the plan of Mr. Steele is most consonant to the English practice.

But to return.  It is possible that some objector may rise up here as before, and say that even the case, which I have now detailed, is not, strictly speaking, analogous to that which we have in contemplation, and may argue thus:—­“The case of Mr. Steele is not a complete precedent, because his slaves were never fully emancipated.  He had brought them only to the threshold of liberty, but no further.  They were only copyholders, but not free men.”  To this I reply, first, That Mr. Steele accomplished all that he ever aimed at.  I have his own words for saying, that so long as the present iniquitous slave-laws, and the distinction of colour, should exist, it would be imprudent to go further.  I reply again, That the partisans of emancipation would be happy indeed, if they could see the day when our West Indian slaves should arrive at the rank and condition of the copyholders of Mr. Steele.  They wish for no other freedom than that which is compatible with the joint interest of the master and the slave.  At the same time they must maintain, that the copyholders of Mr. Steele had been brought so near to the condition of free men, that a removal from one into the other, after a certain time, seemed more like a thing of course than a matter to be attended either with difficulty