28
ANTIGUA.
pable of taking advantage of the non-recognition of marriages, to forbid husbands and wives, resident, as is generally the case, on different estates, from visiting each other in their hours of rest and recreation. We visited this morning the Methodist infant school. There were one hundred and thirty children present, of from two to seven j-ears of age, and of every color ; three or four white, twenty or thirty black, and the rest of every intermediate shade of complexion. Some of them repeated to us their usual rhythmical exercises, and a class of them read very nicely in the 5th Chapter of Matthew ; the whole sung a hymn at the conclusion ; the faces of the children were expres sive of happiness and intelligence. The school appear ed to be in an ef&cient state, and we thought it would bear comparison with the average of infant schools in England. The teachers were two colored young women. 26th.—We went this morning through the market, which was largely attended. Almost every sort of eatable commodity was exposed for sale ; fruit, fish, meal, besides bundles of sticks and grass, cotton prints, &c. &c. The scene was a highly animated one, but the proceedings were conducted with great order. Previously to the Abolition of Slavery, the market was principally supplied by the agricultural peasantry, with articles of their own raising ; but now this class are more generally buyers than sellers ; and a large pro portion of the merchandise is of foreign growth or manufacture. The increase of trade thus created, is one consequence of the payment of labor in wages. A Police Act came into operation about a fortnight ago, which affords an illustration of the new forms in which oppression will learn to exhibit itself in the ;