THOUGHTS ON THE NECESSITY OF IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES IN THE BRITISH COLONIES, WITH A VIEW TO THEIR ULTIMATE EMANCIPATION; AND ON THE PRACTICABILITY, THE SAFETY, AND THE ADVANTAGES OF THE LATTER MEASURE. BY T. CLARKSON, ESQ. 1823. PREFACE. The following sheets first appeared in a periodical work called The Inquirer. They are now republished without undergoing any substantial alteration. The author however thinks it due to himself to state, that _he would have materially qualified those parts of his essay which speak of the improved Condition of the Slaves in the West Indies since the abolition_, had he then been acquainted with the recent evidence obtained upon that subject. His present conviction certainly is, that he has overrated that improvement, and that in point of fact Negro Slavery is, in its main and leading feature, the same system which it was when the Abolition controversy first commenced. It is possible there may be some, who, having glanced over the Title Page of this little work, may be startled at the word _Emancipation_. I wish to inform such, that Mr. Dundas, afterwards Lord Melville, an acute Man, and a Friend to the Planters, _proposed this very measure to Parliament_ in the year 1792. We see, then, that the word Emancipation cannot be charged with _Novelty_. It contains now _no new ideas_. It contains now nothing but what has been _thought practicable_, and _even desirable to be accomplished_. The Emancipation which I desire is such an Emancipation only, as I firmly believe to be compatible not only with the due subordination and happiness of the labourer, but with the permanent interests of his employer.