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Show 8 ness, to believe good reports from the West Indies. Not a few have desired to hear evil, and have propagated so industriously every fiction or exaggeration unfavorable to freedom , that the honest and benevolent have been misled. The general state of mind among us in regard to West Indian Emancipation has been disheartening. So deadly a poison has Southern slavery infused into the opinions and feelings of the North, especially in the larger cities, that few cordial wishes for the success of Emancipation have met our ears. Stray rumors of the failure of the experiment in this or that Island have been trumpeted through the country by the newspapers, and the easy faith of the multitude has been practised on, till their sympathies with the oppressed have become blunted . I have myself seen the countenance of a man, not wanting in general humanity, brighten at accounts of the bad working of emancipation. In such a state or" feeling and opinion, a book like Mr. Gurney's is invaluable. The truth is told simply, kindly; and, though it may receive little aid from our newspapers, must find its way into the hands of many honest readers. I offer a few extracts, not to take the place of the book, but in the hope of drawing to it more general attention. So various and interesting are the details, and so suited to the various prejudices and misapprehensions common in our country, that my only difficulty 9 is to make a selection,-to know where to stop. He first visited Tortola. "'Ve could not but feel an intense interest in making our first visit to a British island, peopled with emancipated negroes. Out of a population of nearly five thousand, there are scarcely more than two hundred white persons; but we heard of no inconveniences arising from this disparity. 'Ve had letters to Dr. Dyott, the Stipendiary :Magistrate, and to some of the principal planters, who greeted us with a warm welcome, and soon relieved us from our very natural anxiety, by assuring us that freedom was \Yorking well in Tortola. One of our first visits was to a school for black children, under the care of Alexander Bott, the pious minister of the Parish Church. It was in good order- the children answered our questions well. 'V e then proceeded to the jail ; in which, if my memory serves me right, we found only one prisoner, with the jailor, and the judge! Our kind friend, Francis Spencer 'Vigley, the Chief Justice of tbe British Virgin Islands, happened to be there, and cheered us with the information, that crime had vastly decreased since the period of full emancipation." p. 25. His next visit was to St. Christopher's. " I mounted one of the Governor's horses, and enjoyed a solitary ride in the country. Although it was the seventh day of the week, usually applied by the emancipated laborers, to their private purposes, I ob. |