Mr. C. thinks the slaves of Barbadoes might have been entirely and immediately emancipated as well as those of Antigua. The results, he doubts not, would have been the same.

He has no fear of disturbance or insubordination in 1840.  He has no doubt that the people will work.  That there may be a little unsettled, excited, experimenting feeling for a short time, he thinks probable—­but feels confident that things generally will move on peaceably and prosperously.  He looks with much more anxiety to the emancipation of the non-praedials in 1838.

There is no disposition among the apprentices to revenge their wrongs.  Mr. C. feels the utmost security both of person and property.

The slaves were very much excited by the discussions in England.  They were well acquainted, with them, and looked and longed for the result.  They watched every arrival of the packet with great anxiety.  The people on his estate often knew its arrival before he did.  One of his daughters remarked, that she could see their hopes flashing from their eyes.  They manifested, however, no disposition to rebel, waiting in anxious but quiet hope for their release.  Yet Mr. C. had no doubt, that if parliament had thrown out the emancipation bill, and all measures had ceased for their relief, there would have been a general insurrection.—­While there was hope they remained peaceable, but had hope been destroyed it would have been buried in blood.

There was some dissatisfaction among the blacks with the apprenticeship.  They thought they ought to be entirely free, and that their masters were deceiving them.  They could not at first understand the conditions of the new system—­there was some murmuring among them, but they thought it better, however, to wait six years for the boon, than to run the risk of losing it altogether by revolt.

The expenses of the apprenticeship are about the same as during slavery.  But under the free system, Mr. C. has no doubt they will be much less.  He has made a calculation of the expenses of cultivating the estate on which he resides for one year during slavery, and what they will probably be for one year under the free system.  He finds the latter are less by about $3,000.

Real estate has increased in value more than thirty per rent.  There is greater confidence in the security of property.  Instances were related to us of estates that could not be sold at any price before emancipation, that within the last two years have been disposed of at great prices.

The complaints to the magistrates, on the part of the planters, were very numerous at first, but have greatly diminished.  They are of the most trivial and even ludicrous character.  One of the magistrates says the greater part of the cases that come before him are from old women who cannot get their coffee early enough in the morning! and for offences of equal importance.

Prejudice has much diminished since emancipation.  The discussions in England prior to that period had done much to soften it down, but the abolition of slavery has given it its death blow.