adding necessary works, and in repairs of the damage by the great hurricane.  Suppose then a West India estate to yield at this moment a nett income of 500 l. per annum, this income would be increased, according to Mr. Steele’s experience, to somewhere about 1700 l. per annum.  Would not, then, the surplus beyond the original 500 l., viz. 1200 l. per annum, be sufficient to reimburse the proprietor in a few years for the value of every slave which he had when he began his plan of emancipation?  But he would be reimbursed again, that is, (twice over on the whole for every individual slave,) from a new source, viz. the improved value of his land.  It is a fact well known in the United States, that a certain quantity of land, or farm, in full cultivation by free men, will fetch twice more money than the same quantity of land, similarly circumstanced, in full cultivation by slaves.  Let us suppose now that the slaves at present on any West Indian plantation are worth about as much as the land with the buildings upon it, to which they are attached, and that the land with the buildings upon it would rise to double its former value when cultivated by free men, it follows that the land and buildings alone would be worth as much then, that is, when worked by free labourers, as the land, buildings, and slaves together are worth at the present time.

I have now, I think, pretty well canvassed the subject, and I shall therefore hasten to a conclusion.  And first, I ask the West Indians, whether they think that they will be allowed to carry on their present cruel system, the arbitrary use of the whip and the chain, and the brutal debasement of their fellow-creatures, for ever.  I say, No; I entertain better hopes of the humanity and justice of the British people.  I am sure that they will interfere, and that when they once take up the cause, they will never abandon it till they have obtained their object.  And what is it, after all, that I have been proposing in the course of the preceding pages? two things only, viz. that the laws relating to the slaves may be revised by the British parliament, so that they, may be made (as it was always intended) to accord with, and not to be repugnant to, the principles of the British constitution, and that, when such a revision shall have taken place, the slaves may be put into a state of preparation for emancipation; and for such an emancipation only as may be compatible with the joint interests of the master and the slave.  Is there any thing unreasonable in this proposition?  Is it unreasonable to desire that those laws should be repealed, which are contrary to the laws of God, or that the Africans and their descendants, who have the shape, image, intellect, feelings, and affections of men, should be treated as human beings?