"I do not know of more than one or two planters in the whole island, who do not consider emancipation as a decided advantage to all parties." --_Dr. Daniell_. That emancipation should be universally regarded as a blessing, is remarkable, when we consider that combination of untoward circumstances which it has been called to encounter--a combination wholly unprecedented in the history of the island. In 1835, the first year of the new system, the colony was visited by one of the most desolating hurricanes which has occurred for many years. In the same year, cultivation was arrested, and the crops greatly reduced, by drought. About the same time, the yellow fever prevailed with fearful mortality. The next year the drought returned, and brooded in terror from March until January, and from January until June: not only blasting the harvest of '36, but extending its blight over the crops of '37. Nothing could be better calculated to try the confidence in the new system. Yet we find all classes zealously exonerating emancipation, and in despite of tornado, plague, and wasting, still affirming the blessings and advantages of freedom! SEVENTH PROPOSITION.--_Free labor_ is decidedly LESS EXPENSIVE than _slave labor_. It costs the planter actually less to pay his free laborers daily wages, than it did to maintain his slaves. It will be observed in the testimony which follows, that there is some difference of opinion as to the _precise amount_ of reduction in the expenses, which is owing to the various modes of management on different estates, and more particularly, to the fact that some estates raise all their provisions, while others raise none. But as to the fact itself, there can scarcely be said to be any dispute among the planters. There was one class of planters whose expenses seemed to be somewhat increased, viz. those who raised all their provisions before emancipation, and ceased to raise any _after_ that event. But in the opinion of the most intelligent planters, even these did not really sustain any loss, for originally it was bad policy to raise provisions, since it engrossed that labor which would have been more profitably directed to the cultivation of sugar; and hence they would ultimately be gainers by the change. S. Bourne, Esq. stated that the expenses on Millar's estate, of which he is manager, had diminished about _one third_. Mr. Barnard, of Green Castle, thought his expenses were about the same that they were formerly. Mr. Favey, of Lavicount's estate, enumerated, among the advantages of freedom over slavery, "the diminished expense." Dr. Nugent also stated, that "the expenses of cultivation were greatly diminished."