grade have realized very considerable sums of money,—­sums which, to a person not cognizant of the fact, would appear to be incredible.  From the studied manner in which individuals conceal their pecuniary circumstances from the world, it is difficult to obtain a correct knowledge of the wealth of the class generally.  The devices to which they have recourse in conducting a bargain are often exceedingly ingenious; and to be reputed rich might materially interfere with their success on such occasions.  There is nothing more common than to hear a plea of poverty set up and most pertinaciously urged, in extenuation of the terms of a purchase, by persons whose outward condition, comfortable well-furnished houses, and large mercantile credits, indicate any thing but poverty.

“There are circumstances, however, the knowledge of which they cannot conceal, and which go far to exhibit pretty clearly the actual state of matters:  such as, First, the facility with which they raise large sums of cash prompt’ at public auctions. Second, the winding up of the estates of deceased persons. (Peter Newland, a liberated African, died a short time before I left the colony:  and his estate realized, in houses, merchandise, and cash, upward of fifteen hundred pounds.) Third, the extent of their mercantile credits.  I am well acquainted with an individual of this grade who is much courted and caressed by every European merchant in the colony, who has transactions in trade with all of them, and whose name, shortly before my departure from the colony, stood on the debtor side of the books of one of the principal merchants to the amount of nineteen hundred pounds, to which sum it had been reduced from three thousand pounds during the preceding two months.  A highly respectable female has now, and has had for several years, the government contract for the supplying of fresh beef to the troops and the naval squadron; and I have not heard that on a single occasion there has been cause of complaint for negligence or non-fulfilment of the terms of the contract. Fourth, many of them at the present moment have their children being educated in England at their own expense.  There is at Sierra Leone a very fine regiment of colonial militia, more than eight-tenths of which are liberated Africans.  The amount of property which they have acquired is ample guaranty for their loyalty, should that ever be called in question.  They turn out with great alacrity and cheerfulness on all occasions for periodical drill.  But perhaps the most interesting point of view in which the liberated Africans are to be seen, and that which will render their moral condition most intelligible to those at a distance, is where they sit at the Quarter Sessions as petty, grand, and special jurors.  They constitute a considerable part of the jury at every session, and I have repeatedly heard the highest legal authority in the colony express his satisfaction with their decisions.”