The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-11 00:00:00

MONTENEGRO.

A Paris letter in the Indipendance of Brussels,
in speaking of the present efforts of Ptince D tnilo
to interest the great European powers in his favour,
o')serve4

It has been attempted to throw doubt on the question
of the independence of Montenegro by affirming that it
has never been solemnly recognised. That is quite true ;
but, on the other hand, nothing has ever taken place to
invalidate that independence, although many things
concur to establish it. Thus, for instance, it is certain-
-Ist, that Montenegro never admitted the suzerainty of
any monarch ; 2ndly, that the Montenegrin chiefs have
never paid tribute; 3rdly, that Montenegro was never
occupied by the sovereigns of any neighbouring nation ;
and, forthly, that numerous treaties have been signed by
the rulers of Montenegro with the Porte. But treaties, it
must be remembered, are not signed with a vassal. On
this latter point it may perhaps be objected that the Porte
signed a treaty with the Viceroy of Egypt. Such was
undonbtedly the fact ; but in that case the respective
qualities of the contracting parties were carefully specified,
one being designated the sovereign, and the otbera vassal.
In the treaties s ith the rulers of Montenegro—and such
documents are numerous—nothing of the kind is to he
seen. The Montenegrin ruler always treats with the
pachaa of the Herzegnwine and with the Porte precisely as
an independent sovereign would have a right to do. It is
from this peculiarity of position that l'rince Thank) has
probably the best chance of bringing his arrangements
with the Porte to a successful issue.

THE PRESS.

6 orrtsgroatitrt.

SLAVE AND FREE LABOUR.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."
Sir,—An American gentleman, Mr. F. L. Olmsted,
has recently published a work, "Our Slave States,"
in which he is anxious to show that free labour is
less expensive than slave labour, hut which, I tear,
will tend, like Mrs. Stowe's " Uncle Tom," more to the
injury of the humane cause he advocates than other-
wise, judging from the statements he puts before us,
for I find at page 55 that—
The each value of a slave for sale, above the cost of
raising it to the age at which it commands the highest
price, is generally considered among the surest elements
of a planter's wealth ln the States of Virginia,
Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri, as
much attention is paid to the breeding and growth of
negroes as that of horses and mules.
And a page or two further on I find a planter telling
him—

That every one of their (negro) babies, in his estimation,
was worth '2OO dole., u negroes were selling now, the mo•
meat it drew breath.

And furthermore he tells us—
That a gang of slaves on a farm will increase to four
times their original numbers in thirty or forty years.
At page 127, Mr. Olmsted finds that—
One freeman's wages (in Virginia) amonnted last year,
as I am informed by his employer, to over 900 dols.
_ _ _

This would be at the rate of I.2ta. per day for 300
days, or 3 dols. per day. At page 687, I find the
annual cost of eighty slaves on a Louisiana sugar
estate estimated as follows :

DOLL DOLFI.
For salt meat and spirits h:10-10110 per heal
Clothing
Medical atten. and medicine 400.. 5 It
Indian corn

3.520 43'96
6d. per day for 365 days.

To this, however, must he added the annual interest
on the first cost of the slave, his wear and tear, and
mortality, which, at the present high price of the
prime, able article, may ha put at ls. 6d. per day, or
a total of 2s. per day, or 183 dols. per annum,
against the freeman's wages of 900 dols. A slave is
usually compelled to do quite as much work what
employed by his owner as he would do if hired to
another, and Mr. Olmsted overheard a slave say
" working berry hard ton, up to twelve o'clock at night,
berry often." Thus, it we deduct 183 dols., the
annual cost of a slave to his owner, from 900 dols.,
as the wages of a hired hand, we find a balance of
717 dols., which represents the profit of slave over
free labour.

Mr. Olmsted also gives us statements of tbo
quantity of land a slave will cultivate within the
year on well-regulated sugar estates in Louisiana—
viz., five acres ; and that the pruduce would be
5,0001b5. of sugar, and 125 gallons of molasses;
that the sugar sells on the spot at 5i cents the lb.,
and the molasses at 18 cents the gallon ; thus
realising 297.50 dols., from which, if you deduct 183
dots., the balance in favour of the owner would be
only 115 dols.; yet, on page 669, he says,—" The
profits on these (sugar estates), in favourable
seasons, are immense "; and a Mr. R. tells him
That last year he made 6710 hhds. of sugar, and 1,200
barrels of molasses. The molasses alone brought me a
sufficient sum to pay all my plantation expenses, and the
sugar yielded me a clear prtyit of twenty-rive per cent. on
my whole investment.
Again, at page 697, he speaks of another estate of
1,108 acres of land, with 66 slaves, 20 horses and
mules, and 5 yoke of oxen, planting annually 280
acres of cotton, and 125 acres of corn, together 405
acres, or something over 0 acres to each slave.
Another American gentleman, Mr. Ballastier
(American Consul at Singapore a few years since),
with whom I was personally acquainted, writing on
the sugar question, says :

In Louisiana, notwithstanding the immatured condition
of the canes when cut, which, owing to the cold season,
are obliged to be manipulated before they are ten months
old, each hand or labourer on the estate. men, women,
and children, able to work, produce from five to seven
hogsheads of sugar, of about 1,000 lbs. each, according to
the returns made to, and published by, Congress
The immense economy of manual labour in Louisiana
shows but too clearly the advantages to be obtained by the
use of suitable helps and improvements sixty stout
mules, thirteen plough's, and about 150 hands, or slaves,
suffice for the cultivation of 000 acres of canes, and '2OO
of Indian corn, besides cutting a sufficiency of wood for
the steam•engine and a range of concentrating coppers.
This is something over five acres for every man,
woman, and child, able to work ; and if we put their
produce in sugar at an average of 0,000 lbs. each,
and sell it at five and a halt' cents. the lb., it would
amount to 330 dols. per head, without taking any
account of the value of molasses and corn; and it'
we deduct 183 dols. as the annual cost of a prime,
able slave, not a child, the slareowner has a balance.
in his favour of 147 dols. per head for children
and all. •

SATURDAY,

From practical experience as a manager in Jamaica
prior to the emancipation, I know that an able slave
could produce easily within the year 2 blids. of
sugar of 18 owt. each, with the usual proportion of
rum, say 112 gallons. The ordinary calculation of
a fair return was 1 hhd. of sugar and 60 galls. of
strong rum per head for every slave, of all descrip-
tions, on an estate. Thus 200 slaves, with cattle in
proportion, were expected to turn out 200
18-cwt. hhds. and 100 puncheons of rum. Some
land would produce as much as four of these hogs-
heads to the acre, and three and two were not
unusual returns, but the average estimated return
for all the land under cares in the island was one
ton of sugar to the acre with a proportionable
quantity of rum. The land and climate of Cuba is quite
equal to that of Jamaica, and if an able Cuban slave
cultivates only four acres in the year—producing 1 ton
of sugar and 60 galls. of molasses to the acre, selling
on the spot at 5i cents the pound and 18 cents the
gallon—it would amount to 536 dols., and, deducting
the 183 dols. as annual cost, you leave a balance
to his Spanish master of 353 dols., or nearly 70/. ;
and Cuba sugar sells better than Louisiana to the
extent of from one to two cents the pound.
These statements, by which Mr. Olmsted en-
deavours to prove the greater economy in employing
free labour, may be of service to those uninitiated in
tropical cultivation, as pointieg out the improbability
of either the Yankees or the Spaniards adopting his
views, as the only free labour they employ is when
there is danger to the life of the valuable slave, for
he is told, page 91, they employ Irishmen be-
cause

It is dangerous work, and a negro's life is too valuable to
be risked at it.

Again :
The negroes are worth too much here (Alabama), and if
the Paddies get knocked overboard, or get their backs
broke, nobody loses anything.
Of the great profits that must accrue to the Cuba
planters from slave labour and the use of the lash to
the unfortunate African, and I fear China cooly also,
there can be but little doubt, as compared to the case
of free labour by our West India and other planters,
as the free African works or not, as it may suit his
inclination, as the best of them on squatting and be-
coming proprietors, working, to use the vernacular of
our Yankee competitors, on their own hook. Neither
do I think Mr. Olmsted's book will have any influence
in preventing the fitting out in American ports the
40 slave ships, which we are told make ten voyages
each annually to the slave coast, and realise a
profit of 22,000,000 dols., whilst we pay annually
for an African squadron to prevent this slave trade,
besides 600,0001. a year, interest for the money we
paid to'rnanumise the slaves we once held. Yours,
sir, most obediently,
April, 1837. AN OLD JAMAICA PLANTER.

SIR JOHN BOWRING.
TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS."

Sir,—On looking over a file of newspapers received
by the last West India packet, I have met with a
curious coincidence of opinion, in reference to an
individual whose conduct has been lately brought
prominently before the public of this courtry.
Almost at the very time that Sir J. Bowring's pro-
ceedings at Canton were being canvassed in the
House of Commons, and that functionary himself
characterised as a " meddlesome official," his conduct
in relation to quite a different subject happened to he
under discussion in the Court of Policy (the local
Legislature) of British Guiana.
_ _

On the 23rd of February last, the Governor an-
nounced to the court that their proclamation offering
a bounty on the introduction of Chinese labourers
into the colony had been disallowed by the Secretary
of State for the Colonies, in consequence of Sir J.
Bowring having raised "diplomatic difficulties" in
the way of further immigration from China.

In the course of the discussion which ensued on
this announcement, the following remarks were made
by Mr. Rose, a member of the court and a very old
colonist :

His experience of the Home Government was this, that
they opposed everything that a as for the good of the colony.
As to Sir J. Bowring's reasons, he had seen them, and
they were very fitmay. He knew Sir J. Bowring ; he was
a troublesome fellow, and always had been, and he only
wanted to set aside what his predecessor had done. He
would advise his Excellency to let the matter stand over.
Let them get some one to bring it before Parliament, and
show the absurdity of the Government preventing their
getting immigrants from China.
Luckily for Mr. Rose, the date at which he ven-
tured to express his opinion of the character of Sir
J. Bowring precludes all risk of his being charged as
accessory to the notable " factious coalition."—l am,
sir, your obedient servant,
April Bth, 1857. G.