abstain from it, was equally to be expected.  But we have no reason to despond, nor to imagine that, because such has occurred in some districts, it will continue.

It is sufficient that the ignorant have been undeceived in their exaggerated notions of their rights as Freemen:  it was the first step towards resumption of labor in every part of the Colony.  The patient forbearance of the Employers has produced great changes.  If some Estates have been disappointed in the amount of labor performed, others again, and I have reason to believe a great number, are doing well.  It is well known that the Peasantry have not taken to a wandering life:  they are not lost to the cultivated parts of the Colony:  for the reports hitherto received from the Superintendents of Rivers and Creeks make no mention of an augmented population in the distant parts of their respective districts.

I hear of few commitments, except in this town, where, of course, many of the idle have flocked from the country.  On the East Coast, there has been only one case brought before the High Sheriff’s Court since the 1st of August.  In the last Circuit, not one!

With these facts before us, we may, I trust, anticipate the continued prosperity of the Colony; and though it be possible there may be a diminution in the exports of the staple commodities in this and the succeeding quarter, yet we must take into consideration that the season had been unfavorable, in some districts, previous to the 1st August, therefore a larger proportion of the crops remained uncut; and we may ask, whether a continuance of compulsory labor would have produced a more favorable result?  Our united efforts will, I trust, not be wanting to base individual prosperity on the welfare of all.”

The Governor of Demerara is HENRY LIGHT, Esq., a gentlemen who seems strongly inclined to court the old slavery party and determined to shew his want of affinity to the abolitionists.  In another speech delivered on a similar occasion, he says: 

“Many of the new freemen may still be said to be in their infancy of freedom, and like children are wayward.  On many of the estates they have repaid the kindness and forbearance of their masters; on others they have continued to take advantage of (what? the kindness and forbearance of their masters?  No.) their new condition, are idle or irregular in their work.  The good sense of the mass gives me reason to hope that idleness will be the exception, not the rule.”

The Barbadian of NOV. 28, remarks, that of six districts in Demerara whose condition had been reported, five were working favorably.  In the sixth the laborers were standing out for higher wages.

TRINIDAD.

In the Jamaica Morning Journal of Oct. 2d and 15th, we find the following paragraphs in relation to this colony: