good-conditioned negroes.  They were considered the best managers, who increased the population of the estates most rapidly, and often premiums were given by the attorneys to such managers.  Another feature in the Barbadoes system was to raise sufficient provisions in the island to maintain the slaves, or, in planter’s phrase, to feed the stock, without being dependent upon foreign countries.  This made the supplies of the slaves more certain and more abundant.  From several circumstances in the condition of Barbadoes, it is manifest, that there were fewer motives to cruelty there than existed in other islands.  First, the slave population was abundant, then the whole of the island was under cultivation, and again the lands were old and becoming exhausted.  Now, if either one of these things had not been true, if the number of slaves had been inadequate to the cultivation, or if vast tracts of land, as in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Demerara, had been uncultivated, or were being brought into cultivation; or, again, if the lands under cultivation had been fresh and fertile, so as to bear pushing, then it is plain that there would have been inducements to hard driving, which, as the case was, did not exist.

Such is a partial view of Barbadoes as it was, touching the matter of cruelty.  We say partial, for we have omitted to mention the selling of slaves from one estate to another, whereby families were separated, almost as effectually as though an ocean intervened.  We have omitted to notice the transportation of slaves to Trinidad, Berbice, and Demerara, which was made an open traffic until prohibited in 1827, and was afterwards continued with but little abatement by evasions of the law.

From the painful contemplation of all this outrage and wrong, the mind is relieved by turning to the present state of the colony.  It cannot be denied that much oppression grows out of the apprenticeship system, both from its essential nature, and from the want of virtuous principle and independence in the men who administer it.  Yet it is certainly true that there has been a very great diminution in the amount of actual cruelty.  The total abolition of flogging on the estates, the prohibition to use the dungeons, and depriving the masters, managers, overseers and drivers, of the right to punish in any case, or in any way whatever, leave no room for doubt on this subject.  It is true, that the laws are often violated, but this can only take place in cases of excessive passion, and it is not likely to be a very frequent occurrence.  The penalty of the law is so heavy,[A] and the chances of detection[B] are so great, that in all ordinary circumstances they will be a sufficient security against the violence of the master.  On the other hand, the special magistrates themselves seldom use the whip, but resort to other modes of punishment less cruel and degrading.  Besides, it is manifest that if they did use the whip and were ever so cruelly disposed, it would be physically