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Show 42 ed, as it soon would be, by the springing up of a new, virtuous industry now excluded by intemperance. So were the labor and capital now spent on the importation of pernicious lux uries, to be employed in the intellectual, moral, and religious culture of the whole people, how immense would be the gain, in every respect, though for a short time material products were diminished. A better age will look bac)<: with wonder and scorn on the misdirected industry of the present times. The only sure sign of public prosperity is, that the mass of the people are steadily multiplying the comforts of life and the means of improvement; and where this takes place, we need not trouble ourselves about exports or products. I am not very anxious to repel the charge against Emancipation of diminishing the industry of the islands, though it has been much exaggerated. Allow that the freed slaves work less. Has man nothing to do but work? Are not too many here overworked ? If a people can live with comfort on less toil, are they not to be envied rather than condemned ? What a happiness would it be, if we here, by a new wisdom, a new temperance, and a new spirit of brotherly love, could cease to be the care-worn drudges which so many in all classes are, and could give a greater portion of life to thought, to refined social intercourse, to the enjoyment of the , 43 beauty which God spreads over the universe, to works of genius and art, to communion with our Creator ? Labor connected with and aiding such a life would be noble. How much of it is thrown away on poor, superficial, degrading gratifications! We hear the condition of Hayti deplored, because the people are so idle and produce so little for exportation. Many look back to the period, when a few planters drove thousands of slaves to the cane-field and sugar-mill, in order to enrich themselves and to secure to their families the luxurious ease so coveted in tropical climes; and they sigh over the change which has taken place. I look on the change with very different feelings. The negroes in that luxuriant island have increased to above a million. By slight toil they obtain the comforts of life. Their homes are sacred. T heir little property in a good degree secure. They live together peaceably. So little inclined are they to violence, that the large amounts of specie paid by the government to France, as the price of independence, have been transported through the country on horseback, with comparatively no defence, and with a safety which no one would be mad enough to expect, under such circumstances, in what are called civilized lands. It is true, their enjoyments are animal in a great degree. They live much like neglected children, making little or no progress, mak- |