JAMAICA.
361
sentative. A considerable proportion of the expense of their clothing, falls upon the apprentices themselves. The head negros, in particular, do not wear the coarse articles which are distributed to them. It is well un derstood, we believe, by the merchants, that the de mand for these coarse fabrics, will not long survive the apprenticeship, but will be replaced by others of better manufacture. The medical attention to which the negros are le gally entitled, is accorded to them in the same im perfect and grudging measure, as the means of sub sistence. The neglect and oppression of the sick, is a frequent subject of complaint with the negros ; and of comparisons of the former and present system, very unfavorable to the latter. The medical men, imbued with colonial habits and prejudices, and dependent on the planters for professional income, are in most in stances subservient agents of oppression. On many of the smaller properties, there is no hospital nor medi cine chest, and the apprentices are frequently left des titute of medical treatment, or have to sustain the ex pense of it themselves. The Act in Aid of the Abolition Act, (c. viii.) declares, " that the apprentices shall be subject to all such necessary sanatory restraint and control, as the medical attendant shall direct." This clause is made the pretext of converting many of the hospitals into places of confinement. They are kept locked by day as well as by night, the inmates being deprived of even the occasional attentions of their near est relatives. " Sanatory restraint" has been some times held to include confinement in the stocks and bilboes.* An upright Special Magistrate is in these * One of the missionaries informed us, tliat on one occasion, hav ing been requested to visit an apprentice member of his clmrch,whQ I I