376
CONCLUSION.
very imperfect exemplification of the effects of a simi lar cause in the West Indies. If, however, in the heart of the empire, and under the immediate inspec tion of Government and the nation, a vast amount of suffering and civil disorganization, is found to result from absenteeism, it will not be doubted, that the same consequences, aggravated in a ten-fold degree, exist in the colonies, where absenteeism is far more general and uninterrupted ; where the Imperial Govern ment possesses limited means of information, and consequently a very limited control ; and where the le gislative, and for the most part the executive powers of the local administration, are confided to the same mer cenary agency, which has been created to superintend the private interests of the absent proprietors. The immense export of corn and cattle from Ireland cannot be adduced as a proof, that her peasantry are living in comfort and abundance ; nor do the amount and value of the exports from the West Indies denote, under pre sent circumstances, the happy condition of their agri cultural population. We would not, however, be understood to favor the supposition, now so generally exploded, that sla very is consistent with the permanent agricultural and commercial prosperity, either of the aggregate commu nity, or of the few individual proprietors. From the date of the Abolition of the slave trade, the population of Jamaica gradually declined, and its yearly amount of agricultural produce has lessened in a still more rapid ratio. In 1H07, it exported more than one hun dred and twenty thousand hogsheads of sugar; in 1834, less than seventy-eight thousand ; and the i-eturns for intervening years, shew that the falling ofi^ is not acci dental, but the result of permanent causes, gradual.