6.  That the attorneys and managers have deliberately endeavoured to raise a panic, whereby property might be depreciated to their own advantage; showing clearly thereby, that they consider Jamaica property, even with the laborers, irreclaimably free, a desirable investment.

7.  That in spite of all their efforts, the great body of the laborers continue industrious, doing more work in the same time than in slavery. The testimony to his very important point, of the Governor and House of Assembly, is perfectly conclusive, as we have already said.  A house that represents the very men who, in 1832, burnt the missionary chapels, and defied the British Parliament with the threat, that in case it proceeded to legislate Abolition, Jamaica would attach herself to the United States, now HOPES for the agricultural prosperity of the island!  Indeed no one in Jamaica expresses a doubt on this subject, who does not obviously do so for the sake of buying land to better advantage!  Were the colony a shade worse off than before Emancipation, either in fact or in the opinion of its landholders, or of any considerable portion of persons acquainted with it, the inevitable consequence would be a depreciation of real estate.  But what is the fact? said Rev. John Clark, a Jamaica Baptist Missionary, who has visited this country since the first of August, in a letter published in the Journal of Commerce:—­

“The Island of Jamaica is not in the deplorable state set forth by your correspondent.—­Land is rising in value so rapidly, that what was bought five years ago at 3 dollars per acre, is now selling for 15 dollars; and this in the interior of the Island, in a parish not reckoned the most healthy, and sixteen miles distant from the nearest town.  Crops are better than in the days of slavery—­extra labour is easily obtained where kindness and justice are exercised towards the people.  The hopes of proprietors are great, and larger sums are being offered for estates than were offered previous to August, 1834, when estates, and negroes upon them, were disposed of together.”

Again, as in Jamaica commerce rests wholly upon agriculture, its institutions can only flourish in a flourishing condition of the latter.—­What then are we to infer from an imposing prospectus which appears in the island papers, commencing thus:—­

   “Kingston, October 26, 1838

    Jamaica Marine, Fire, and Life Assurance Company.

    Capital L100,000,

    In 5000 shares of L20 each.

It has been long a matter of astonishment that, in a community so essentially mercantile as Jamaica, no Company should have been formed for the purpose of effecting Insurance on Life and Property; although it cannot be doubted for an instant, that not only would such an establishment be highly useful to all classes of the community, but that it must yield a handsome return to such persons