152
GENERAL REMARKS
the others are easily accessible. In one respect it is an exception among slave countries, being an extraordi足 nary example of agricultural prosperity. One of the most limited in its natural resources, it is one of the most important of our colonies, in amount of produce, wealth, and commerce. In proportion to its size, it is more densely peopled than China, and is cultivated like a garden. Its soil, though it has long lost its natural fertility, is the source of far more wealth to its proprietors, than the virgin lands of more fertile islands. | It has a large and busy capital and seaport, a numerous i middle class, and a body of native resident proprietors, ! who have found it possible to forget that England is \ " home and who glory in the title of " Barbadians." Thej' possess a real nationality, with characteristics, neither English, Irish, nor Scotch. Barbados is called "little England," by way of pre-eminence; a name which it deserves, from the prevalence of English com足 forts and refinements ; though among other features of resemblance to the mother country, we regret to notice, a great body of white paupers,* and numerous licensed houses for the sale of spirits. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is yet evident, that it owes its superior wealth to its exhausted soil and dense population. " B y repeated croppings, the soil (of Barbados,) had become less than half a century since, so much worn, as to be almost unproductive in the sugar-cane ; but by the substitution of other crops, particularly the Guinea corn, a system of soiling and tethering cattle was introduced, which has not only been the means of retrieving the lands, but has, perhaps, made them more productive than ever ; adding at the "See Appendix E. Sec. i.