In June, 1794, Victor Hugo, a French republican general, retook Guadaloupe from the British, and immediately proclaimed freedom to all the slaves. They were 85,000 in number, and the whites only 13,000. _No disasters occurred in consequence of this step._ More than seven years after this, the Supreme Council of Guadaloupe, in an official document, alluding to the tranquillity which reigned throughout the island, observed: “We shall have the satisfaction of having given an example, which will prove that _all classes of people may live in perfect harmony with each other, under an administration which secures justice to all classes_.” In 1802, Bonaparte sent a powerful French force, and again reduced the island to slavery, at the cost of about 20,000 negro lives. In July, 1828, thirty thousand Hottentots in Cape Colony were emancipated from their long and cruel bondage, and admitted by law to all the rights and privileges of the white colonists. Outrages were predicted, as the inevitable consequence of freeing human creatures so completely brutalized as the poor Hottentots; but all went on peaceably; and, as a gentleman facetiously remarked, “Hottentots as they were, they worked much better for Mr. _Cash_, than they had ever done for Mr. _Lash_.” _Q._ But they say the British have had difficulties in their West Indies. _A._ The enemies of the cause have tried very hard to get up a “raw-head and bloody-bones” story; but even if you take their own accounts, you will find that they have not been able to adduce any instances of violence in support of their assertions. The real facts are these: The measure was not carried in a manner entirely satisfactory to the English abolitionists. Their knowledge of human nature, combined with the practical evidence afforded by history, led them to conclude that immediate and unqualified emancipation was _safest_ for the master, as well as just to the slave; but the planters raised such a hue and cry concerning bloodshed and insurrection, that the British government determined to conciliate them by a gradual abolition of slavery. It was ordained that the slaves should work six years longer without wages, under the name of _apprentices_; but no punishment could be inflicted without the special order of magistrates. The colonies had a right to dispense with the apprenticeship system if they pleased; but out of the seventeen West India colonies, Antigua and Bermuda were the only ones that chose to do so. The act of Parliament provided that each apprentice should work for his master _forty and a half_ hours a week, and have the rest of the time to himself. The masters were not satisfied with this; and they tried, by a series of petty vexations, to coerce the apprentices into individual contracts to work _fifty_ hours in a week. While the people had been slaves, they were always allowed _cooks_ to prepare their meals, a person to bring _water_ to the gang during the hot hours, and _nurses_ to tend the little