FIRST PROPOSITION.--The transition from slavery to freedom is represented as a greet revolution, by which a prodigious change was effected in _the condition of the negroes_. In conversation with us, the planters often spoke of the greatness and suddenness of the change. Said Mr. Barnard, of Green Castle estate, "The transition from slavery to freedom, was like passing suddenly out of a dark dungeon into the light of the sun." R.B. Eldridge, Esq., a member of the assembly, remarked, that, "There never had been in the history of the world so great and instantaneous a change in the condition of so large a body of people." The Honorable Nicholas Nugent, speaker of the house of assembly, and proprietor, said, "There never was so sudden a transition from one state to another, by so large a body of people. When the clock began to strike the hour of twelve on the last night of July, 1834, the negroes of Antigua were _slaves_--when it ceased they were all _freemen!_ It was a stupendous change," he said, "and it was one of the sublimest spectacles ever witnessed, to see the subjects of the change engaged at the very moment it occurred, in worshipping God." These, and very many similar ones, were the spontaneous expressions of men _who had long contended against the change_ of which they spoke. It is exceedingly difficult to make slaveholders see that there is any material difference between slavery and freedom; but when they have once renounced slavery, they _will magnify this distinction_ more than any other class of men. SECOND PROPOSITION.--Emancipation in Antigua was the result of political and pecuniary considerations merely. Abolition was seen to be inevitable, and there were but two courses left to the colonists--to adopt the apprenticeship system, or immediate emancipation. Motives of convenience led them to choose the latter. Considerations of general philanthropy, of human rights, and of the sinfulness of slavery, were scarcely so much as thought of.