EMANCIPATION IN ANTIGUA.
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immediate amount of human labor which would be re quired under a more perfect system, Great improve ments in farming, and particularly the extensive intro duction of, and best mode of working, the plough ; together with a change of the present unvarying rou tine of cultivation by the alternation of green and cereal crops with the cane, have long ago been demonstrated to be necessary and practicable ; and particularly by D R , NUGENT, in an able paper, drawn up several years ago, and adopted as their Report by the Antigua Agri cultural Association. Slavery, however, interposed in superable obstacles to change. Free labor, on the contrary will give an energetic impulse to improvement. In cases of insolvency or mismanagement, the M'eekly amounts for laborers' wages, though less in the aggre gate than the cost of their former allowances, will bring about a crisis before the estates become so in extricably involved, as was frequent during slavery. The embarrassed Planter will no longer have the op portunity of purchasing his annual supplies of food and clothing for his negros, at usurious prices. His es tates will pass in time into other hands, which can carry on the cultivation efficiently. It is anticipated that the present expensive and absurd system of agen cy and management will be gradually changed, by ab sentee proprietors, leasing their estates to tenants, or other representatives ; who will thus acquire, as a resident proprietary, a direct interest in the improve ment of the island. The planters will gradually release themselves from their servile dépendance on the mer chants. Under the present system, with a few excep tions, they are obliged to consign their produce to one mercantile house, instead of being able to choose the best market. They pay commissions more numerous H