PRACTICAL OPERATION OF THE APPRENTICESHIP.—­It cannot be denied that this system is in some respects far better than slavery.  Many restraints are imposed upon the master, and many important privileges are secured to the apprentice.  Being released from the arbitrary power of the master, is regarded by the latter as a vast stride towards entire liberty.  We once asked an apprentice; if he thought apprenticeship was better than slavery.  “O yes,” said he, “great deal better, sir; when we was slaves, our masters git mad wid us, and give us plenty of licks; but now, thank God, they can’t touch us.”  But the actual enjoyment of these advantages by the apprentices depends upon so many contingencies, such as the disposition of the master, and the faithfulness of the special magistrate, that it is left after all exceedingly precarious.  A very few observations respecting the special magistrates, will serve to show how liable the apprentice is to suffer wrong without the possibility of obtaining redress.  It is evident that this will be the case unless the special magistrates are entirely independent.  This was foreseen by the English government, and they pretended to provide for it by paying the magistrates’ salaries at home.  But how inadequate was their provision!  The salaries scarcely answer for pocket money in the West Indies.  Thus situated, the magistrates are continually exposed to those temptations, which the planters can so artfully present in the shape of sumptuous dinners.  They doubtless find it very convenient, when their stinted purses run low, and mutton and wines run high, to do as the New England school master does, “board round;” and consequently the dependence of the magistrate upon the planter is of all things the most deprecated by the apprentice.[A]

[Footnote A:  The feelings of apprentices on this point are well illustrated by the following anecdote, which was related to us while in the West Indies.  The governor of one of the islands, shortly after his arrival, dined with one of the wealthiest proprietors.  The next day one of the negroes of the estate said to another, “De new gubner been poison’d.”  “What dat you say?” inquired the other in astonishment, “De gubner been poison’d.”  “Dah, now!—­How him poisoned!” “Him eat massa turtle soup last night,” said the shrewd negro.  The other took his meaning at once; and his sympathy for the governor was turned into concern for himself, when he perceived that the poison was one from which he was likely to suffer more than his excellency.]

Congeniality of feeling, habits, views, style and rank—­identity of country and color—­these powerful influences bias the magistrate toward the master, at the same time that the absence of them all, estrange and even repel him from the apprentice.  There is still an additional consideration which operates against the unfortunate apprentice.  The men selected for magistrates, are mostly officers of the army and navy.  To those who are acquainted with the arbitrary habits of military and naval officers, and with the iron despotism which they exercise among the soldiers and sailors,[B] the bare mention of this fact is sufficient to convince them of the unenviable situation of the apprentice.  It is at best but a gloomy transfer from the mercies of a slave driver, to the justice of a military magistrate.