ON BARBADOS.
155
influence. There are indeed, two kinds of public opinion, of unequal and opposite forces ; first, that of the English public, feeble and indirect in its effects, but setting in a strong tide against slavery, and its ac companying abuses : secondly, the sentiments of the dominant party in the colony, in favour of existing in stitutions ; the belief that the blacks are by nature of an inferior race, and born to a servile condition ; and the spirit of caste cherished between the white, mixed, and black races. In none of the British Colonies is this local public opinion stronger than in Barbados ; and the slavery of mind among the free classes, is scarcely less obvious than the outward bondage of the negros. Many who have a deep sense of existing wrongs, and some even, who are sufferers in their own persons, dare not express their sentiments ; and an individual who I'efuses to think and speak with the multitude, must live a life of solitude in the midst of society. In all other respects, to one endowed with moral courage, " the spider's most attenuated thread" is not more weak, than this unseen but despotic pov/er, which seals all lips, and fetters all minds.*
" T h e contrast between the state of society in this island and Jamaica, is in this respect remarkable. There the pro-slavery fac tion is louder and more violent ; and persecution has within recent years, raged with all its fury ; yet among those who presume to dif fer from the reigning opinion, there is a freedom of thought and e x pression, and an independence of action, which cannot be found among the same class in Barbados.