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Show 242 L[DERTY AND SLAVERY. From the report made in 1849, and signed by various missionn.rics, the moral and religious state of the island appears no less gloomy than its scenes of poverty and distress. The following extract from that report we copy ft·om Mr. Carey's "Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign:"- " Missionary cfl'orts in Jamaica are beset at the present time 'Yith many and great discouragements. Societies at home have withdrawn or diminished the amount of assistance aftot·ded by them to chapels and schools. throughout this island. The prostrate condition of its agriculture and commerce disables its own population from doing as much as formerly for maintaining the worship of God and the tuition of the young, and induces numbers of negro lnborers to retire from estates which have been thrown up, to seek the means of subsistence in the mountains, where they are removed in general from moral training and superintendence. The consequences of this state of matters are very disastrous. Not a few missionaries and teachersoften struggling with difficulties which they could not overcome-have returned to Europe, and others are preparing to follow them. Chapels and schools at·e abandoned, or they have .ARGUMENT FROM Tll'E PUDJ.IC 0000. 243 passed into the hands of very incompetent instructors.'' We cannot dwell upon each of the West India Islands. Some of these have not suffered so much as others; but while some, from wellknown causes, have been partially exempt from the evils of emancipation, all have suffered to a fearful extent. This, as we shall now show, is most amply established by English authorities. Mr. Bigelow, whose "Notes on Jamaica in 1850" we have noticed, is au American WI'iter; a Northern man ; and, it is said, by no means a friend to the institution of slavery. It is certain that Mr. Robert Baird, from whom we shall now quote, is not only a subject of Great Bt·itain, but also a most enthusiastic advocate of "the glorious Act of British Emancipation." But although he admires that act, yet, on visiting the West Indies for his health, he could not fail to he struck with the appalling scenes of distress there exhibited. In describing these, his object is not to reflect shame on the misguided philanthropy of Great Britain; but only to urge the adoption of other measures, iu order to rescue the West Indies from the utter ruin and desolation which must otherwise soon |