It has also been said, that the coloured classes are not of a sufficient respectability to move among the white inhabitants; and some few years ago, the question was asked, (in excuse for excluding them from society,) by one who then filled the highest station in Antigua—“Would you wish to ask your tailor or your shoemaker to dine with you?” To this query a most unequivocal negative might have been given. Differences of rank ought to be observed; and no one can be blamed for preserving a certain degree of _etiquette_ in the arrangement of their parties. But, at the same time—“Are all coloured people tailors and shoemakers?” “No!” as before remarked, among them are some of the most respectable merchants and planters; and the whites themselves, with but few exceptions, follow no higher occupations. Let the lower class of coloured people know and keep their proper distance, the same as the lower classes do in the mother country; but allow the upper ones to hold that place in society which their worth, respectability, wealth, and general deportment, entitles them to. I have already spoken of the extreme familiarity of some of the low persons of colour, who rest all their pretensions to gentility upon their smart clothes, or their ability to keep a horse or a horse and gig. It could not be expected or wished that such persons should be received into good society, any more than the low and ignorant of my own countrymen. There is also another class of coloured people which, although, perhaps, equally talented and prosperous, from the nature of the business they follow, are excluded from the tables of the great. Such distinctions as these are but equitable, and consequently, cannot be called prejudice; but to debar the whole caste from polished society on account of _colour_, is an illiberality unworthy of the “age we live in.” From a glance at prejudice, and its attendant evils, I will proceed in my remarks upon the domestic character of the coloured Creoles. I have already spoken of their hospitality, which is a virtue apparently indigenous in the island; for white, brown, and black, rich and poor, seem, as far as lies in their power, equally open to its influence. The country, as any part of the island beyond the precincts of the capital is termed, is divided into small towns, (described in the previous pages;) a few settlements, which have sprung up since emancipation, and sugar-estates, or grazing-farms, which, with their “great houses,” managers’ and overseers’ dwellings, and negro huts, form themselves complete villages. There are no hotels or places of public entertainment, where the _sun_-worn traveller can obtain “rest and refuge;” but if only acquainted by name, you can take the liberty of driving to any of these country residences, where you are sure of meeting with a polite and cordial reception.