creature called a slave.  Hence it is slow to adopt helps, with which a beneficent Providence has furnished us, by giving to man an inventive faculty for easing his burthens, or by submitting the beasts of the field to his dominion and his use, and it flies to expedients which are contrary to nature and reason.  How then can such a system ever answer?  Were an English farmer to have recourse to such a system, he would not be able to pay his rent for a single year.  If the planters then are in distress, it is their own fault.  They may, however, thank the abolitionists that they are not worse off than they are at present.  The abolition of the slave trade, by cutting off the purchase of new slaves, has cut off one cause of their ruin[17]; and it is only the abolition of slavery which can yet save them.  Had the planters, when the slave trade was abolished, taken immediate measures to meet the change; had they then revised their laws and substituted better; had they then put their slaves into a state of preparation for emancipation, in what a different, that is, desirable situation would they have been at this moment!  In fact, nothing can save them, but the abolition of slavery on a wise and prudent plan.  They can no more expect, without it, to meet the present low prices of colonial produce, than the British farmer can meet the present low prices of grain, unless he can have an abatement of rent, tithe, and taxation, and unless his present poor rates can be diminished also.  Take away, however, from the planters the use and practice of slavery, and the hour of their regeneration would be begun.  Can we doubt, that Providence would then bless their endeavours, and that salvation from their difficulties would be their portion in the end?

It has appeared, I hope, by this time, that what I have been proposing is not unreasonable, and that, so far from being injurious to the interests of the planters, it would be highly advantageous to them.  I shall now show, that I do not ask for the introduction of a more humane system into our Colonies at a time when it would be improper to grant it; or that no fair objection can be raised against the present moment, as the fit era from whence the measures in contemplation should commence.  There was, indeed, a time when the planters might have offered something like an excuse for the severity of their conduct towards their slaves, on the plea that the greater part of them then in the colonies were African-born or strangers, and that cargoes were constantly pouring in, one after the other, consisting of the same sort of beings; or of stubborn ferocious people, never accustomed to work, whose spirits it was necessary to break, and whose necks to force down to the yoke; and that this could only be effected by the whip, the chain, the iron collar, and other instruments of the kind.  But now no such plea can be offered.  It is now sixteen years since