The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-05-20


them be used with suddenness and efiect,-it is
better, easier, to conquer than any longer under
take to buy peace
Abolition of Slavery.
The experiment of abollshing slavery IN the
West India colonies, commenced with so much
zeal and carried on at SO much expense by the
British Government, furnishes to our own country
a lesson which it would be wise to study and use
full to understand. We have before volume of
evidence taken with great care by a committee OF
the House of Assembly of the Island of Jamaica
during the months of November and December
last, and the report of the same committee on the
depressed state of agriculture in the Island and
the cause of such depression Did our space al
low, we would make large extracts from the evil
dence but as it is, we must content ourselves with
laying before readers Of the results of the
investigation as detailed by the committee. They
are as follows:
l. That since the passing of the British slave
emancipation act of the six hundred and fifty-three
sugar estates then in cultivation in this Island
hundred and forty have been abandoned and the
works broken up, containing 16S 032 acres of land,
and having then employed in their cultivation
%, 553 aborers
the year 1882, H,l7S hogsheads of sugar, and
1903 puncheons of rum.
8. That during the same period, four hundred
and sixty-fve coffee plantations have been aban-
doned ndetheir works broken up, containing 1885,
400 acres of land, and having employed in their
cultivation, in the year 1882, 800 aborers
4. That of one hundred and thirty-eight sugar
estates given in evidence, the crops made in 1892,
w Is hh and 9 e sSI puncheons of rum
Showing -
decrease of 1863 " 1877
5. That from the now Independent condition of
the mass of the people, the command of labor has
become exceedingly precarious, often not to be had
at all when most wanted that hardly in any
will the people work estates for more than five
days in a week that in several districts they re-
fuse to work more than four days in week that
the average time of field labor is from five to six
hours in the day; that the labor given for the
wages is not only inadequate in quantity, but gen.
orally i'll performed !; that on the anniversary of
freedom, and at Christmas, the entire agricultural
population spend from one to two weeks in idle
ness that in districts this is also the at
Easter that at all these periods, if the
are rotting on the ground, and the coffee falling
from the trees, no rate of wages will induce the
people to work, and that labor continues to grow
more and more scarce every year by the people
Withdrawing from the plantations
Such are some of the results of an Judged
philanthropy. The finest island over which the
British Crown held sway is becoming a desert, its
palaces ruins, and its inhabitants beggars, crafty
the whms of few elderly ladies and their disciples
in pantaloons. But while the abolition of slavery
has produced such of evil to the planters, it
has been equally deleterious.to the slave. Released
from all restraint, enabled to crafty their mere
animal wants. on that fertile soil and in that mild
climate, with little no labor, the negroes spend
their time in idleness or drunkenness and are
rapidly reapsng into the barbarsm of the original
African tribes. There seems to be no longer a
doubt entertained in jamaica that unless the Gov
eminent of Great Britain grants the planters very
great protectiOn-that is unless it taxes the other
subjects of the empire for the benefit Of the sugar
and coffee growers-that the cultivation of the
island would have to be abandoned by the whites.
1t IS certain that no such protection will be granted
the Government is more inclined to yield to the cry
for cheap sugar and coffee, by removing all duties,
than to aid the planters by increasing the duties
already regarded as unjustly burdensome. The fate
of Jamaica can, therefore, be no longer doubtful
Abolitionism has done its work. 1t has delivered
to barbarism and desolation land of industry,
wealth and beauty; it has brought to poverty and
suffering thousands of families who had every
claim to the protection and sympathy of their fellow
subjects; and it has converted hundreds of thou
sands of well conducted, well cared for, and con-
tented slaves, into horde of idle, wandering,
drunken and savage--freemen. 1t is a victory
worthy OF the cause ; but it is one which we wish
our -bohonists at home would reflect upon before
they attempt to achieve similar triumph
FouRIERIsM.-We do MT know much about Fou
rierism-that we confess; but to us it seems great
objection that nobody, far as we learn from the
system, is to do any thing but be happy. Now who
would peel potatoes and scrub the floors The
NY. Sunday Dispatch advocates Fourersm, be.
cause, under it, the Dispatch says, Music, vocal
and instrumental, would be everywhere cultivated.
and each association would have its band, and its
choir, to furnish music on all occasions Music at
sunrise would waken all from sleep. Soft music at
twilight, and dancing on the green-sward in sum-
mer, or in the great saloon in winter would be the
evening recreation and the serenade at night would
make a thousand happy sleepers dream of heaven,
while the solemn chorus OF thousand voices would
swell the song of praise and thanksgiving for state
of happiness worthy TO be called the kingdom of
God on earth-for which pray as often as we
say, Thy kingdom come, Thy wiu be done on earth
as 1t as IN hearen.' :"
~ There are looking glasses for the face, but
no .ptuf INNS thpI,b has