360
JAMAICA.
provision grounds, were entitled under the former sys tem to the same amount of time for their own benefit ; viz., one day in a fortnight, in addition to the two Sab baths, or two days in lieu of them ; now they are al lowed only one day in a fortnight, to provide them selves the means of subsistence, and are liable to render service at all other times, by day or by night, as well as on the Sabbath. To these several considerations it must be added, that during illness, the apprentices are supported by themselves or their relatives, and that their young families and aged relatives are also de pendent on them for support. Their poultry and other live stock, are frequently wantonly destroyed by the overseers ; and the small portion of time which is left to them for procuring the necessaries of life, is di minished not only by the frauds practised on them by their owners, but by the mulcts of the Special Magis trates. The great bulk of the apprentices therefore, are not, and under such a system cannot be, sufficiently maintained. A large proportion of them are wholly, or in part, dependent for support on their fellow ap prentices, and many of them are suftering from the pressure of actual want.* In the article of clothing, the authority, already quoted, requires " every owner to provide proper and sufficient clothing, to be appi-oved by the vestry." The distribution is in effect regulated, in quantity and quality, by the disposition of the owner or his repre* W h i l e these sheets are passing through the press, the Jamaica papers recently arrived, contain the most serious complaints of the scarcity and excessive ijrices of provisions. T h e markets are chiefly supplied by the apprentices, with the surplus produce of their grounds, but from the causes we have cited, these supplies have gradually diminished, until the effects of the new system are at length severely felt even by the free population of the island.