and slaves to managers and owners; the last people for such a trust, and utterly unfit to carry the wretched victims of their tyranny through the solemn transition from slavery to freedom.  To complete the unhappy circumstances under which the experiment began, the Act of Emancipation was passed by a distant government, having no intimate knowledge of the subject; and the consequence was, that a system of ‘Apprenticeship,’ as it was called, was adopted, so absurd, and betraying such ignorance of the principles of human nature, that, did we not know otherwise, we might suspect its author of intending to produce a failure.  It was to witness the results of an experiment promising so little good, that our authors visited three islands, particularly worthy of examination—­Antigua, Barbadoes, and Jamaica.

Our authors went first to Antigua, an island which had been wise enough to foresee the mischiefs of the proposed apprenticeship, and had substituted for it immediate and unqualified emancipation.  The report given of this island is most cheering.  It is, indeed, one of the brightest records in history.  The account, beginning page 143, of the transition from slavery to freedom, can hardly be read by a man of ordinary sensibility without a thrill of tender and holy joy.  Why is it not published in all our newspapers as among the most interesting events of our age?  From the accounts of Antigua, it appears that immediate emancipation has produced only good.  Its fruits are, greater security, the removal of the fears which accompany slavery, better and cheaper cultivation of the soil, increased value of real estate, improved morals, more frequent marriages, and fewer crimes. The people proclaim, with one voice, that emancipation is a blessing, and that nothing would tempt than to revert to slavery.

Our authors proceeded next to Barbadoes, where the apprenticeship system is in operation; and if any proof were needed of the docility and good dispositions of the negroes, it would be found in their acquiescence to so wonderful a degree in this unhappy arrangement.  The planters on this island have been more disposed, than could have been anticipated, to make the best of this system, and here, accordingly, the same fruits of the Act of Emancipation are found as in Antigua, though less abundant; and a very general and strong conviction prevails of the happiness of the change.

In Jamaica, apprenticeship manifests its worst tendencies.  The planters of this island were, from first to last, furious in their hostility to the act of emancipation; and the effort seems to have been, to make the apprenticeship bear as heavily as possible on the colored people; so that, instead of preparing them for complete emancipation, it has rather unfitted them for this boon.  Still, under all these disadvantages, there is strong reason for expecting, that emancipation, when it shall come, will prove a great good.  At any