The negroes are just beginning to be sensible that amelioration is different from what they first imagined it. Proclamations and proceedings of the governors have tended to check their fatal impression that a life of idleness was now at hand; but if you disturb the existing tranquillity, if you again raise the delusive cry of “Freedom!” may we not apprehend that kindred spirits, brooding over their fancied wrongs, will coalesce, and discontent thus swell into rebellion. It is vain to disguise or cloak the measure. Every colonial proprietor knows the excitement that will always be kept up by the anti-colonial party. “If I am to be robbed,” he will say, “rather let me suffer at once, than be kept in perpetual dread of ruin. If a slave worth 300_l._ comes to demand his freedom, better suffer a loss of 100_l._ than send him back with a refusal, for assuredly he will never be a peaceable or good subject again.” In his own defence, therefore, he must refuse to sanction any modifications of a measure which will equally injure himself, and endanger the public safety. Whether, then, compulsory manumission contain an executory principle, or otherwise, it is incompatible with the safety of the colonies. * * * * * We have now contemplated the measure in every point of view, and it must be emphatically pronounced to be contrary both to the letter and the spirit of the Resolutions of both houses of Parliament. CHAPTER VI. NO JUST ANALOGY IN THE PRECEDENTS ADDUCED BY GOVERNMENT. A thousand precedents would never justify a bad measure—it may therefore be deemed superfluous to offer a remark on this head; but as Mr. Canning has argued, that whatever is adopted in one colony can safely be introduced into all the rest, and as this maxim has been taken for granted by many persons willing to save themselves the trouble of thinking, it is necessary to enter into some explanation. _Section 1._ TRINIDAD. When the order in council for negro treatment was sent out to Trinidad, great objections were offered, both generally, and to the individual clauses which constitute compulsory manumission. It is not necessary here to inquire how often that order has been altered, or the reasons why the colonists of Trinidad have been constrained to submit to the authority imposed upon them. We have only to show that the case of that island differs from that of the other British colonies. Trinidad was originally a Spanish colony; its laws were framed previously to the abolition of the slave-trade, and have continued unaltered since the cession of the island to Great Britain. Now it is apparent that, when fresh slaves can be procured, compulsory manumission is not so objectionable; because the place of those who purchase their freedom can be immediately filled up by others.