INDULGED HOPES.
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hideous monster, which ought to be exterminated from every corner of the world; and consequently, I would not have the bright star of liberty robbed of one of its rays by any remarks of mine. I yet hope to see the negroes improved in their mental, as they already are in their temporal affairs. I trust that, as years roll round, their ill qualities will be ameliorated, and their virtues increased ; that they, as well as their employers, may learn and practise that golden maxim, “ Bear and forbear ;" and that eventually the Antiguan peasantry may be held up to the other colonies as bright examples of humble worth, adorning the sphere of life in which they move. It is my fervent wish that the negroes may learn properly to estimate their state as a free people, and instead of using their liberty as a cloak for insolence and impertinence, they may fulfil the several duties which are required of them with becoming diligence, and finally meet their reward . In summing up this chapter upon free labour, it may be deemed necessary for me to mention some few particulars of the 1st of August, 1834, that eventful day, when about thirty thousand human beings were released from the trammels of slavery, and entered upon a new state of existence as free men ! Before the abolition of slavery, it had been supposed by many of the inhabitants of Antigua, that the negroes, at such an important era of their lives—the transition from slavery to freedom, would be led into great and serious excesses, or, at least, that they would pass the first days of freedom in dance and song, in riotous feastings and drunken carousals. But when the time arrived, far different was the result. Instead of that day being the scene of wild revelry and disorderly jollity, the negroes passed it as a " Sabbath of Sabbaths," a solemn feast, " One bright day of gladness and of rest."
The churches and chapels throughout the island were thronged to overflowing ; and those persons who were unable