Cornwall, in Westmoreland, and sometimes at another property, Hordley, in St. Thomas in the East. He visited Jamaica in 1815, and again in 1817. On his firstarrival, he found his negroes discontented and almost rebellious, at Cornwall. On his second visit, he found his other negroes at Hordley in a still worse condition. By his two visits he saved his properties! Both of them are in the hands of his heirs, and not under the superintendence of the Court of Chancery. One of the proprietors, the son of Sir Henry Lushington, is now on the island, following the example of Lewis; seeing with his own eyes how the management of his properties is going on, and feeling the responsibility which rests upon him of ascertaining, by actual observation, and not by communications from his planting attorney, how 580 human beings, that are dependent on his humanity for their welfare, (and who, not a great many years ago, were dependent on his predecessor's moderation for their limbs and lives) are treated on his properties.

I am well aware I am addressing you on an unpromising subject, but I am also aware I am addressing myself to one to whom the incidents of a work of fiction are not of more importance than actual occurrences, which are connected with the interests of hundreds of families in England, and with those of 300,000 beings of the human species here.

Lewis is not spoken of with much favour in Jamaica; -I mean by the whites, for it is not the fashion in the West Indies to take the sentiments of the negroes into any account. But I may just intimate, that whoever is popular with the negroes, must, of necessity, be in a degree of disfavour more than unpopular with the white people. Lewis very soon discovered the errors of the old system of management after his arrival. He abolished the barbarous practice of flogging females;-he abolished the use of the cart-whip in the field, and allowed no punishment to be inflicted till twenty-four hours after the commission of the offence;-he gave every Saturday to the negroes;-he gave them an ad

ditional yearly holiday, which he called the royal holiday. In fact, nearly eighteen years ago, Lewis anticipated the intentions of the framers of the recent measure for the amelioration of the condition of the slave. Honour be to his memory, for the humanity of his conduct! and well may his heirs be grateful to that memory, as often as they recollect that the preservation of the properties which they inherit is due to the wisdom of the measures he pursued, during both his visits. Lewis was no favourite with the white people; he is spoken of-not as a man who granted unusual indulgences to his negroes, but as an author who wrote a work, the morality of which was of a questionable nature. But the negroes were, fortunately, blissfully ignorant that Massa was a maker of any books, good, bad, or indifferent: they only knew that he was the maker of their happiness on his estate; and most thankful to his memory, I can tell his impugners, are they to this day, for' the advantages they still derive from the benevolent policy he adopted on his properties.

In his last visit, so great was the jealousy occasioned by his reform in the management of his estates, that the Custos of an adjoining parish, in a charge to the grand jury, took occasion to point out the dangers the colony had to apprehend from the new spirit of innovation that had gone abroad. "Many," said this functionary, "out of this country, and some in it, had thought proper to interfere with our system, and, by their insidious practices, and dangerous doctrines, to call the peace of the island into question, and to promote disorder and confusion."*

This is the common language of persons who have brought Jamaica to what it is. I would only ask to refute their assertions, by comparing their plantations with those of Lewis at the present time. One

A person subsequently came over from St. James's, to inform Mr. Lewis that only a part of the observations that fell from the Custos was intended to apply to him, the most offensive part being only for the Methodists.

of the dangerous doctrines alluded to, was Lewis's opinion that the evidence of negroes ought to be heard against whites, though it might not be incumbent on a jury to believe it.

The alteration in the management at first occasioned some diminution in the produce, which must have been very gratifying to those who were acquainted with his sentiments on the subject of the cart-whip. "If the estate," says Lewis, "must go to rack and ruin with

"But

out its use, to rack and ruin the estate must go.' the estate has not gone to rack and ruin, though many a one around it has. The necessity for the alteration in the management is described in a few words, which every absentee-proprietor, who has an income to expect from Jamaica, should read with the most profound attention.

At this time, its information is more important than ever; and that proprietor, I tell him, who sits down in the foolish security of other management of his plantation than his own, or, at least, in perfect confidence in a stranger's interest in its cultivation, and discretion in the adaptation of that management to the altered circumstances of the country, before three years will find that he has rested his security on a weak foundation. I tell that proprietor, that the negroes would love their masters better than their attorneys; and now that extra labour is to be obtained from them by their own consent, if they find their master abandon them to the care of others, they will withhold their labour, and in a few years they will abandon him. I know that you have friends who are deeply interested in this question: so have I connexions, whose interests are not matters of indifference to me. My views may not be theirs: my experience may be contrary to their impressions; and to oppose prevailing prejudices in this colony, has hitherto been to be considered hostile to the interests of the proprietors: it is to me, however, of more importance to state what I believe to be the truth, that is advantageous to be made known, than to court any favour I

might gain, by lulling a mistaken security into repose -by suppressing facts that may be disagreeable to hear, but injurious to all parties to conceal. "I am fully persuaded," says Lewis, "that instances of tyranny to negroes are now very rare in this island. But I must still acknowledge, from my own sad experience, since my arrival, that, unless a West India proprietor occasionally visit his estates himself, it is utterly impossible for him to be certain that his deputed authority is not abused, however good may be his intentions, and however vigilant his anxiety.

"When the estates became mine, the one upon which I am now residing was managed by an attorney considerably advanced in years, who had been long in our employment, and who bore the highest character for probity and humanity. He was both attorney and overseer; and it was a particular recommendation to me that he lived in my own house, and, therefore, had my slaves so immediately under his eye, that it was impossible for any subaltern to misuse them without his knowledge. His letters to me expressed the greatest anxiety and attention respecting the welfare and comfort of the slaves.

"This man died about two years ago.

"While I fancied my attorney to be resident on Cornwall, he was, in fact, generally attending to a property of his own, or looking after estates of which he had also the management in distant parts of the island. During his absence, an overseer of his own appointing was left in absolute possession of his power, which he abused to such a degree, that every slave of respectability was compelled to become a runaway. The property was nearly ruined, and at length he committed an act of such severity, that the negroes, one and all, fled to Savannah la Mar, and threw themselves upon the protection of the magistrates, who came over to Cornwall, and investigated the complaint; and now at length the attorney, who had known frequent instances of the overseer's tyranny, had frequently re

buked him for them, and had redressed the sufferers, but who still dared to abuse my confidence so grossly as to continue him in this situation, upon this public exposure thought proper to dismiss him. Yet, while all this was going on-while my negroes were groaning under the iron rod of this petty tyrant-and while the public magistrature was obliged to interfere to protect them from this cruelty-my attorney had the insolence and falsehood to write me letters, filled with assurances of his perpetual vigilance for their welfare-of their perfect good-treatment and satisfaction; nor, if I had not come to Jamaica, in all probability, should I ever have had the most distant idea how abominably the poor creatures had been misused."

And what was the result of Lewis's interference in his own' affairs, and what the effect of the remedial measures he introduced on his properties? They are best given in the proprietor's own words:

"I cannot but own myself most richly rewarded for all my pains and expense in coming hither, for every risk of the voyage, and for every possible sacrifice of my pleasures. There is nothing earthly that is too much to give for the power of producing an effect so beneficial."

In the above account, Lewis speaks of his estate in Westmoreland: he now visits his other plantation in St. Thomas, in the east, and the following brief extract describes the condition of that property:

Report had assured me that Hordley was the bestmanaged estate in the island; and, as far as the soil was concerned, report appeared to have said true: but my trustee had also assured me that my negroes were the most contented and best disposed; and here there was a lamentable incorrectness in the account. I found them in a perfect uproar; complaints of all kinds stunned me from all quarters: all the blacks accused all the whites, and all the whites accused all the blacks; and, as far as I could make out, both parties were in the right. There was no attachment to the soil to be VOL. II.

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