New-York daily tribune., 1856-05-03

of absentee P1OprletoIs, tno iohuio VI
whose incomes makes a great noise in the
newspapers and in the Island Legislatures, the
choice Of the members of which they greatly con-
troll while we hear little or nothing of the increased
comfort and intelligence, and the gradual acqlsi-
tiOn Of property by those whom emancipation has
elevated from the condition Of slaves to that of free
laborers Since the laborers must now be pad for
their work. it is they who have the first cut; and
they may find themseves quite comfortable at the
same time that the prOpretors are far from s'tis-
fed. What is fguratively called the RUN OF the
British West Indies is but necessary process
which we Ourselves are from time to time visited,
and which also involve the "ru'n," 80 called, of
many individuals and of many once thriving estib-
lishments of trade and industry process by which
the ownership of the lands and fixed property IN
those islands is to be transferred from the hands OF
absentees to those of resident proprietors-one of
the necessary results of Freedom, and at the same
time condition precedent to the fall Development
ofthe benefits Of free labor.
1t will be seen at once, then, that what has oc-
CURED in the British West Iudies az the result OF
emancipation there affords no rule by which to
Judge of what would occur n Cuba should Slavery
be abolished there. Previous to emancipation the
British West Indies labored under two evils, both
existing there in an enormous and aggravated
degree-the servitude of nine out Of ten of
the resident population, and the absenteeism OF
the owner, Of at least nineteen twenteths OF the
property Of the islands. Both these evils We're OF
a character only to be got rid of by very gradusl
process, some of the immediate results of which
must be, as in the cure of bodily diseases, tenn
porary aggravatiOn Of the symptoms. The legal
status of men may be changed in an instant.
The writing of q name on a piece of parch-
ment may, so far as his legal rights are
concerned instantly transform the slave into
freeman, and the master into an employer
for wages but the moral change setting out from
this legal change, the change Of habits and ideas
and impulses and modes of operation. must be
slOw-a consideration which ought to go far to
satisfy those who are such sticklers for gradual
emancipatiOn-since emancipation in the nature OF
things cannot be otherwise than gradual. Still
more gradual, and attended with still more alarm
ing symptoms must be the transfer of the property
of the islands from absentee to resident prOpretOrs
"a process essential to the full operation of the
free labor system, but with which the British law
of emancipation did not interfere in the least, and
which as yet has been but very partially accom-
plished in the British Islands.
The advantage of Cuba as to both these matters
is very great No such revolution in property, no
l. - Jof. alto in aa ia
now going on in the British islands and as is the
occasion of all those cries of ruin which we hear
from Jamaica, is needed in Cuba. Her proprietors
are resident already. On the other hand the pro-
portion of her population required to learn the new
lesson of freedom instead of being nineteen twent
s.hs is but one-third of the whole number. Aud here
we may observe that in the French islands, Guada-
oupe and Martinique, although previous to emanci-
patton tie slaves far Out-numbcred the free, yet
as those islands had the advantage of resident
proprietorship, the change from Slavery to free
labor-the only surviving work of the French De-
mocracy tf 184S-has taken place there IN the
quietest manner possible and without any OF those
complaints of which we hear so much from the Brit
ish it ought also tobe observed,
ieveled much more against the repeal of the pro-
tectige sugar dutes which till avery recent period
the British sugar planters had always enjoyed,
than against the system of free labor, which the
most obstinate of the old planters are now ready to
admit is, so far as that matter alone is concerned,
very far preferable to slave labor.
How much the vaunted progress of Cuba has
been owing to that predominancy Of freenen and Of
resident proprictors in her population by which she
is 80 remarkably distinguished from all the late
slave colonies of Great Britain, is curously brought
out in one Of the additions which Mr.. Fhrasher
makes 10 HumbOldt's statements. Humboldt gives
calculation furnished to hum by some OF his planting
friends, of the average produce and profits to
be expected iu the year 1904 from the labor Of
three hundred negroes employed in sugar plant
ing The investment required for such a
plantation is set down at $4,000. The pro-
duce at 900 boxes of sugar. of 400 lbs. each aud
500 pipes OF rum, worth together Soo'5oO. The
yearly expenses are set down at 10000, leaving
net profit amounting only to fraction over six per
cent on the capital. Thrasher gives from work
on the political and economical condition Of Cuba,
printed in 1865, for private circulation only, and
which he represents as lucid and able, aud BY .
practical sugar planter, a ,imilar calculation for
the year 1855. According to this estimate, the to-
tai investment in plantation cultivated BY 300
negroes. is 1919. SOC; the total product is 1000
boxes Of sugar, and quantity of molasses not dis
titled but sold in the natural state producing in
the whole $4,000. The expenses, including re-
pairs and replacement Of stock, are set down at
S5O,7IO, leaving q net return Of Sl9,29O, being