£5. In the intermediate period between 1777 and 1790, the average price was from £35 to £45 currency, on an average of upwards of twenty cargoes, (see Report, Jamaica House of Assembly, 1792.) At this period, the price had advanced from £60 to £70 currency: and Edwards, in his estimate of the expenses of a sugar-plantation, values the negroes at £70, at the period when he wrote on the West Indies. But a very singular difference in the estimated value of convicted and executed negroes appears to have taken place within the last fifty years. I have now before me the original record of the slave trials of the parish. of St. Andrews, from 1746 to 1782, a period of thirtysix years. In this record, I find wherever a negro is sentenced to execution, the court invariably fixes his value at £40. Now, this was in the prosperous times of Jamaica. But in the late rebellion of 1831, I find, to my great astonishment, the value considerably increased of the negro who is ordered to be executed. In 1823, in the Duke of Manchester's time, during Mr. Bullock's administration,-eight negroes were executed for compassing and imagining the death of the white people," (no actual rebellion having taken place against the majesty of that community;) it was one of the many conspiracies of former times: the indemnity in these cases, granted by the court, was £50 for one; £100 each for three others; and £65, £70, £80, and £90, each, for the other four. So that the proprietor, however little he might have desired to have profited by such means, received £605 for his executed slaves, while, for as many living negroes, when the compensation money is paid, he will receive from the British Government probably about £240.

This indemnity ought to be abolished; for it is impossible to look on it in any other light than as having the appearance, at least, of a bounty on rebellions-a bonus on negro executions.

The price of slaves in the West Indies, at any time since the commencement of this traffic, never averaged,

for a period of ten years, £55 sterling a-head. So much as £500 currency, has been paid, it is said, for Creole slaves, in Jamaica; but this was for artisans, such as carpenters and coppersmiths, taught these profitable trades in the colony. Altogether, I would say the average price of all the slaves that have been imported into the West Indies may be estimated at about £40 sterling.

In Rome, a learned slave has been sold for a suin equivalent to £833; a stage-player, according to Dickson, for still more; many of the most famous doctors of ancient Rome were slaves; what the physicians fetched in the market I do not know, but I should suppose they were more valuable than they are at present in any country. The modern doctors, however, have turned the tables on the community; for now, instead of being sold, they sell the public, at least that part of it that is confided to their care, when they choose to retire from their practice;-ay, literally sell their patients, for a price which may vary from £500 sterling to £2000: and, what is worse, the unfortunate patients, who are thus regularly bought and sold, have no voice in the transfer, but are "led by the nose" to the establishments of their new possessors, as tenderly as

asses are.

I am, my dear Sir,
Yours, very truly,

R. R. M.

LETTER XXXIV.

EXPENSES OF AN ESTATE UNDER PRE

SENT SYSTEM.

TO MAJOR HOPKINS.

MY DEAR SIR,

Kingston, Nov. 1, 1834.

The system of management formerly pursued on estates; the mode of disposing of their produce, and of

procuring the supplies; and, lastly, the loans contracted on the calculation of a continuance of extraordinary returns, may be looked upon as the immediate causes of the general depression of West India interests—I may say, of their ruin. I have taken a good deal of pains to inform myself thoroughly on this subject; and the information I have received is from gentlemen commercially and agriculturally connected with West India interests, on whose opinions and statements I have a perfect reliance.

The system formerly pursued, of transacting colonial business, was this:-The merchant, in consideration of the advantages of the sale of the produce of an estate, usually consented to make advances on the returns, and, in course of time, to lend large sums of money on the security of the property. In many cases, he undertook the mercantile management, expressly on the condition of taking up the debts of the proprietor, and becoming a mortgagee, for sums which the estate might have possibly sold at that period, but which now, in a vast number of instances, would hardly fetch the interest, for ten years, on the capital lent.

ters.

It is not to be supposed that a merchant will lend farge sums of money on a precarious property, without advantages commensurate with the risk he encounIt is very evident that the mere legal interests of five per cent. would not be a sufficient advantage for the hazard of such advances. I by no means desire to be understood to say, that any undue advantage was taken of the proprietor. The mere commission on the sales the interest on the loan, were not adequate to the risk and inconvenience of the lender; therefore, the merchant was justified in monopolizing all those advantages which could be obtained from the purchase of supplies, the freighting of his own ships, the underwriting of the same; and it could not be expected that he would beat down his own prices, where there was no bargaining to reduce them. The attorney sent home the list of the supplies; the merchant sent it, perhaps, by his clerk, to the house that the articles were

usually procured from. They may be purchased at twelve months' credit. It may be customary for the proprietor to pay at six months. Here is five per cent. between interest and commission. But, suppose cash be paid down for the supplies, the farther advantage would accrue of five, perhaps ten per cent. discount on the invoice. The freight during the war was, at one period, so high as 12s. The merchants, in many instances, became ship-owners; and it was not to be supposed that the merchant, who freighted his own ship, would do more than inquire the current freight of the day, for the regulation of his own charges; but it is not to be expected he would hunt the docks for the lowest that could be found.

One merchant, I am informed, in eight or nine years, cleared £40,000 by a ship under 400 tons, which might have cost £6000. At that period the West India merchants were the leading underwriters at Lloyd's: the premium of insurance was extremely high; and it was not the merchant's interest to reduce either the freight or the insurance. But had not the proprietor the option of going to any other house he might consider more advantageous to him? His merchant, however, might say to him, and perhaps with a great deal of truth, "I am very willing to give up your business, provided any other house will take up the debt of £20,000 or £30,000, for which I hold your mortgage."

Had the proprietor the power of transacting his own. business, he unquestionably might have effected a very considerable saving in its management-a saving that might be estimated, perhaps, at very nearly the amount of his present income.

The following are the present charges on his produce, from its shipment to its sale:

The following queries respecting the West Indian produce and supplies, I addressed to a gentleman who is largely connected with the trade to the West Indies; and, being fully assured of his accuracy and intelligence, I send you his replies.

1st Query-What may be the total amount of the supplies, clothing, herrings, medicines, and all contingencies necessary for the negroes on an estate where there are three hundred apprentices?

Answer-About two thousand pounds.

2nd Query-What is your opinion of the comparative advantage to the proprietor of finding the negro as he is at present found in all things essential to his maintenance; or of the substitution of wages,-say a maccaroni, or one shilling sterling a day, and allowing the negro to find himself, taking into account, that when he gets wages he will be called upon to pay rent for his house and grounds, either in work or money?

Answer-No doubt, if the negroes would continue to work as they did previously to the abolition of slavery, it would prove more beneficial to the master, and much more to their own comfort and advantage: instead of the compulsory measures heretofore adopted by the master, he would have the labour of men stimulated by reward, and would have it in his power to part with those who misconducted themselves; and by the same rule, the negro would have the power of quitting a master for mal-treatment. But the negroes would not be disposed to do the same work, or take an interest in the cultivation of a property, if they had no home or grounds upon it to give them an interest in it, and cause them to appreciate the sweets of a home for which they would be indebted to their own industry.

3rd Query-What may be the annual amount and value of herrings exported to the West Indies and re