308
PLANTERS AND
SLAVES.
sophy of man, and past and present experience do not deceive us, it may be confidently predicted that the West Indian Islands CANNOT continue for twenty years longer in the state in which they now are. There are mementos of insecurity on the right hand and on the left, and many deep thoughts will rise unbidden in a statesman's mind when he muses on the prophecy of Berkeley: Westward the course of Empire takes its w a y ; The four first acts already past— A fifth shall close the drama with the d a y ; — Time's noblest offspring is his last.