Steele); for how could an exact account kept there, have occasioned an increase in the produce of the earth? but, as Mr. Steele himself says, to the establishment of his copyholders, or to the alteration of the condition of his slaves.  His slaves did not only three times more work than before, in consequence of the superior industry he had excited among them, but, by so doing, they were enabled to put the corn into the earth three times more quickly than before, or they were so much forwarder in their other work, that they were enabled to sow it at the critical moment, or so as to save the season, and thus secure a full crop, or a larger crop on a less number of acres, than was before raised upon a greater.  The copyholders, therefore, were the persons who increased the produce of the earth; but the exact account kept at the store prevented the produce from being misapplied as formerly.  It could no longer be put down in the general expression of “given in allowances to the Negroes and the stock;” but it was put down to the copyholder, and to him only, who received it.  Thus Mr. Steele saved the purchase of a great part of the provisions for his slaves.  He had formerly a great deal to buy for them, but now nothing.  On the other hand, he had to sell; but, as his slaves were made, according to the new system, to maintain themselves, he had now the whole produce of his estate to dispose of.  The circumstance therefore of having nothing to buy, but every thing to sell, constituted another source of his profits.

What the other particular profits of Mr. Steele were I can no where find, neither can I find what were his particular expenses; so as to be enabled to strike the balance in his favour.  Happily, however, Mr. Steele has done this for us himself, though he has not furnished us with the items on either side.—­He says that “from the year 1773 to 1779 (he arrived in Barbadoes in 1780), his stock had been so much reduced by ill management and wasteful economy, that the annual average neat clearance was little more than one and a quarter per cent. on the purchase.  In a second period of four years, in consequence of the exertion of an honest and able manager, (though with a further reduction of the stock, and including the loss from the great hurricane,) the annual average income was brought to clear a little above two per cent.; but in a third period of three years from 1784 to 1786 inclusive, since the new mode of governing the Negroes, (besides increasing the stock, and laying out large sums annually in adding necessary works, and in repairs of the damages by the great hurricane,) the estate has cleared very nearly four and a quarter per cent.; that is, its annual average clearance in each of these three periods, was in this proportion; for every 100 l. annually cleared in the first period the annual average clearance in the second period was 158 l. 10s., and in the third period was