It had been said again, that Negroes, when made free, never returned to their own country.  But was not the reason obvious?  If they could even reach their own homes in safety, their kindred and connexions might be dead.  But would they subject themselves to be kidnapped again; to be hurried once more on board a slave-ship, and again to endure and survive the horrors of the passage?  Yet the love of their native country had been proved beyond a doubt; many of the witnesses had heard them talk of it in terms of the strongest affection.  Acts of suicide, too, were frequent in the islands, under the notion that these afforded them the readiest means of getting home.  Conformably with this, Captain Wilson had maintained that the funerals, which in Africa were accompanied with lamentations and cries of sorrow, were attended, in the West Indies with every mark of joy.

He had now, he said, made good his first proposition—­that in the condition of the slaves there were causes, which should lead us to expect, that there would be a considerable decrease among them.  This decrease in the island of Jamaica was but trifling, or, rather, it had ceased some years ago; and if there was a decrease, it was only on the imported slaves.  It appeared from the privy council report, that from 1698 to 1730 the decrease was three and a-half per cent.; from 1730 to 1755 it was two and a-half per cent.; from 1755 to 1768 it was lessened to one and three-quarters; and from 1768 to 1788 it was not more than one per cent.  This last decrease was not greater than could be accounted for from hurricanes and consequent famines, and from the number of imported Africans who perished in the seasoning.  The latter was a cause of mortality, which, it was evident, would cease with the importations.  This conclusion was confirmed in part by Dr. Anderson, who, in his testimony to the Assembly of Jamaica, affirmed that there was a considerable increase on the properties of the island, and particularly in the parish in which he resided.

He would now proceed to establish his second proposition, that from henceforth a very considerable increase might be expected.  This he might support by a close reasoning upon the preceding facts; but the testimony of his opponents furnished him with sufficient evidence.  He could show, that wherever the slaves were treated better than ordinary, there was uniformly an increase in their number.  Look at the estates of Mr. Willock, Mr. Ottley, Sir Ralph Payne, and others.  In short, he should weary the committee, if he were to enumerate the instances of plantations, which were stated in the evidence to have kept up their numbers only from a little variation in their treatment.  A remedy also had been lately found for a disorder, by which vast numbers of infants had been formerly swept away.  Mr. Long, also, had laid it down, that whenever the slaves should bear a certain proportion to the produce, they might be expected to keep up their numbers; but