In conclusion, on the subject of morals in Antigua, we are warranted in stating, 1st., That during the continuance of slavery, immoralities were rife.

2d.  That the repeated efforts of the home Government and the local Legislature, for several successive years previous to 1834, to ameliorate the system of slavery, seconded by the labors of clergymen and missionaries, teachers and catechists, to improve the character of the slaves, failed to arrest the current of vice and profligacy.  What few reformations were effected were very partial, leaving the more enormous immoralities as shameless and defiant as ever, up to the very day of abolition; demonstrating the utter impotence of all attempts to purify the streams while the fountain is poison.

3d.  That the abolition of slavery gave the death blow to open vice, overgrown and emboldened as it had become.  Immediate emancipation, instead of lifting the flood-gates, was the only power strong enough to shut them down!  It restored the proper restraints upon vice, and supplied the incentives to virtue.  Those great controllers of moral action, self-respect, attachment to law, and veneration for God, which slavery annihilated, freedom has resuscitated, and now they stand round about the emancipated with flaming swords deterring from evil, and with cheering voices exhorting to good.  It is explicitly affirmed that the grosser forms of immorality, which in every country attend upon slavery, have in Antigua either shrunk into concealment or become extinct.

BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.

We insert here a brief account of the benevolent institutions of Antigua.  Our design in giving it, is to show the effect of freedom in bringing into play those charities of social life, which slavery uniformly stifles.  Antigua abounds in benevolent societies, all of which have been materially revived since emancipation, and some of them have been formed since that event.

THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

This is the oldest society in the island.  It was organized in 1815.  All denominations in the island cordially unite in this cause.  The principal design of this society is to promote the Circulation of the Scriptures among the laboring population of the island.  To secure this object numerous branch associations—­amounting to nearly fifty—­have been organized throughout the island among the negroes themselves. The society has been enabled not only to circulate the Scriptures among the people of Antigua, but to send them extensively to the neighboring islands.

The following table, drawn up at our request by the Secretary of the Society, will show the extent of foreign operations: 

Years.  Colonies Supplied.  Bibles.  Test’s.
1822 Anguilla 94 156
  23 Demerara 18 18
  24 Dominica 89 204
  25 Montserrat 57