and honey, possessed of a soil unsurpassed by any in the universe; blessed with a climate that can vie with the most delicious regions; with liberty of conscience, freedom of industry, and with an enlightened government, framed to protect and respect the rights of all its inhabitants.

The rich mines which this valuable island contains, after having been closed for more than three centuries, are now revealed, and opened to the enterprise of the world.

The capitalist, the agriculturist, the artisan, will all find in this new country the most abundant resources for the advantageous employment of their active energy and talents. Add to all this, the extremely favorable position which this long-neglected country occupies, in the very centre of commercial enterprise and movement-its proximity to Europe, being, as it were, one of the outposts of the new world, stretching towards the old one, which bids fair to cause it soon to rank with the richest states of America."

THE BRITISH WEST INDIES.

THE British West Indies, as exhibited in the tabular statement heretofore given, consist of a number of fine islands, situated among the several groups which together constitute the Columbian Archipelago. Though neither occupying the extent of surface, nor natural fertility of either the Spanish islands, or the independent island of San Domingo, they are remarkable as the most highly cultivated and productive of all the colonies of the British crown, and as being occupied by a wealthy, industrious and civilized race. The institution of slavery, which for a long series of years existed in all these colonies, is now forever abolished. The British Parliament, alive to the inhumanity of the system, in 1833 passed a law, by which all the slaves were, on the 1st August, 1834, made apprenticed laborers, one portion of which were to be unconditionally liberated in four years, and the remainder in six years. At the termination, however, of the first period, such was the force of public opinion, that all, without restriction, received their liberty. To indemnify the slave-holders, the sum of £20,000,000, or $96,000,000, were granted by the mother country, and apportioned among the several colonies in a ratio in accordance with the number and value of their slaves.

The policy of this measure has been questioned, and its effect on the several islands, for good or for evil, is variously stated. There is no doubt, however, that the value of the British West Indies has greatly deteriorated since the emancipation was effected; but this may be owing to other causes, not connected with the slave-system, or over which the inhabitants could exercise no control. That the competition of countries in which slavery still exists, with these islands, is fraught with evil consequences, cannot be denied, and especially since the assimilation of duties on foreign and colonial sugars, &c., entered for consumption and export in the ports of England, the burden has fallen heavily on the non-slaveholding colonies. The system of policy adopted generally by the British Legislature, indeed, has been unwise and even inhumane towards the people of these islands. While at home she has been fostering foreign commerce, the course pursued towards her own colonies has become more galling, and the restrictions placed on West India commerce adverse to the general principles of free trade. Such alone would be sufficient to account for the decreasing value

of these once productive islands; and when taken in connection with the recent disasters in the commercial world, have tested to the utmost their vast resources. The West Indians themselves are highly incensed at the conduct of the imperial government, and in the desperation of hopelessness, demand either a return to the old system of colonial protection, under which they enjoyed the highest prosperity, or the abolition of those restrictions which confine their commerce to the mother country. For the purpose of carrying out this design, the inhabitants of the several islands have banded themselves under the title of the "Loyal West Indian League," the object of which is to obtain redress, and in case of non-compliance with the general wishes of the people, annul British connection. The annexed abstracts from late West India papers will exhibit the feelings and wishes of the inhabitants on these points, and more fully indicate the disabilities under which the planters are laboring The " Barbadoes West Indian" says:

"Why may not this system (Free Trade) be extended to us also? Why should we be compelled to suffer whatever loss or injury it inflicts upon us, by being applied to the produce which we send for sale to the British markets, and not share in the benefits to be derived from it? This is a one-sided way of dealing, where all the gains are pocketed by one party, and all the loss falls on the other, and which the colonies protest against. As England has adopted free trade, let her carry it out for the benefit of all parties of the empire. The extremities are as much a part of the body, and as useful, though not considered as vital as the head or heart; and the same blood circulates through them in as pure and healthy a state."

And the following is from the "Jamaica Morning Journal," which says: "The note has been sounded, and the parishes are meeting. Saint Thomas in the Vale has passed resolutions which are before the public. Application is to be made to the Assembly of this island, and to the British Parliament, as well as to the Queen. Having lent money from the public funds for draining and improving estates in the mother country, and avowedly and ostensibly to enable the owners to compete with foreign corn-growers, we can conceive no reason which in fairness could be urged to a similar grant by way of loan for the purpose of enabling sugar-growers to contend with foreign rivals. Application for this assistance must be made, and urged on the government. The modification of the navigation laws is also deemed essential to the well-being of the colony. The merchant, as well as the planter, will desire this modification, or such an alteration of those laws as will enable him to import goods in any bottom, whether those of the country in which the goods are produced or not.”

And the "Trinidad Standard" thus descants on the subject:

"Our prospects are, indeed, at present of the most discouraging nature, and unless Her Majesty's government shall be enabled to afford them prompt and sufficient relief, the West India Colonies will have to pass through a trying revolutionary crisis, in which, no doubt many, whose whole dependence is their precarious property in the colonies, must be plunged in irretrievable ruin, even should the colonies hereafter rally and regain any degree of prosperity.

In Jamaica, a proposition as been made to form a confederacy of the West Indies, and the Chamber of Commerce of that important colony have communicated the proposal in a circular addressed to the several colonies. A strong and general feeling of sympathy in this proposal has already been evinced in various significant ways."

Such are the complaints of the West India planters, and such the remedies proposed. What the next step may be it is impossible to predict; but there seems to be a general preference shown for a separate existence, and a confederation formed on the principle of the United States.

The social condition of the negroes since freed from the trammels of slavery, is said to have been much improved. Education is rapidly spreading ;the morals of the community are improving ;-crime has wonderfully diminished, and Christianity is asserting a sway over the whole mass of the population, and industry has usurped the reign of sloth, idleness and bad habits, which are almost innate in the slave. Notwithstanding, however, the increased industry and improvements which have taken place, the West Indies suffer remarkably for want of laborers, and to relieve this serious difficulty, various schemes have been adopted, though without any important result. Whether from this deficiency, from the effects of the seasons or other causes, the produce and trade of the islands, as before stated, have not kept pace with their improved social condition. The importation of "Coolies" from India has been tried, but without affording any relief. Indeed, it may be said to have entirely failed in its object. These persons were imported as free laborers, under the surveillance of government: they originate in the wilds of India, and are an intractable and worthless race, and far inferior to the negro in physical powers and endurance. Many, on their arrival, refuse to work, and become an additional burden on the colonists. In many of the islands they travel in large bodies, enforcing alms; and so filthy and disgusting are they in appearance, that the inhabtants fear them as much from the diseases they may propagate, as from their sturdy mendicity.

The forms of government established in the British West Indies may be divided into two classes: those having a governor, council, and representative assemblies, and those having only a governor and legislative council. The first includes Jamaica, Barbadoes, Antigua, Tobago, Grenada, St. Vincent, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher's, and the Virgin Isles; and the second, Trinidad and St. Lucia. The reason for this difference is, that most of the colonies were acquired by conquest, and the inhabitants who chose to remain in the islands were guaranteed their laws and the exercise of their religion. The governor has the chief civil and military authority; the Council is somewhat analogous to the Privy-Council of the mother country, and the House of Assembly to the House of Commons. A member of the House of Assembly, in Jamaica, must possess a freehold of £300 per annum, or a personal estate of £3,000; and an elector must have a freehold of £10 per annum, in the parish in which he votes. Some of the islands have only lieutenant-governors, who are under the governor of some adjacent island. The lieutenant-governors of St. Vincent and Tobago are under the governor of Barbadoes. Their powers, however, are nearly equal to those of a governor. In those islands which have no representative assembly, the legislative council consists of the Chief Secretary, the Treasurer, the Chief-Justice, the Attorney-General, and the commander of the troops. These are appointed by the crown; and sometimes a few of the principal landed proprietors are made members of the council. Several islands are sometimes included under one government, and send their representatives to the island which is the seat of the legislature for the time being. Thus St. Christopher, Nevis, Montserrat, and one or two other small islands, send their representatives to Antigua, which is the seat of government for them all, or, in other words, the residence of the gov

ernor.

The superior and inferior courts of judicature resemble those of England, the laws being the same, unless as they may be affected by special colonial enactments, passed from time to time. Assize courts are fre

quently held, to expedite the course of justice. There are likewise parishcourts, wherein justices of the peace decide summarily in small debt cases, &c. There are also offices of record, where deeds, wills, sales and patents, are recorded. All persons intending to leave the islands are obliged to give notice at the office of enrolment three weeks before they can be entitled to a pass, or to find security for what debts they may leave unpaid; and for further precautions, masters of vessels are bound, under heavy penalties, not to carry off any person without such pass. The procedure of the assemblies follows, as near as may be, the formula of the British legislature; and all their bills have the force of laws as soon as the governor's assent is obtained. The power of rejection, however, is vested in the crown, but until rejected the laws are valid. The governor can also refuse his assent to laws, and can dissolve and call together the assemblies at pleasure. Salaries are paid partly by the crown and partly from the colonial revenues.

The currency employed in the British West Indies is an imaginary money, and has a different value in the several colonies. The following are the values of £100 sterling, and of a dollar, in the currencies of the different islands:

All the West India Islands have been of incalculable utility to England, when struggling for the mastery of the world. Their consumption of British manufactures has been immense, and they have at all times furnished a supply of taxable commodities beyond the control of an enemy, and indispensable to the maintainance of the British financial system. As South America becomes more civilized, the West Indies will become extensive entrepôts for the sale of English products; and even at the present day, if properly protected, they afford abundant scope for the employment of the dormant capital of the mother country.

The several islands will now be described separately.

JAMAICA.

JAMAICA, the largest and most valuable of the British islands, lies between 17° 35′ and 18° 30′ N. latitude, and between 760 and 78° 40′ W. longitude. It is 150 miles long and 55 broad, containing about 5,468 square miles.

The island is somewhat of an oval shape, with an elevated ridge called the Blue Mountains, (in some places nearly 8,000 feet above the level of the sea,) running longitudinally through it, and occasionally other ridges which traverse from north to south, approaching the sea on the south coast in gigantic spines, of sharp ascent, difficult of access, and clothed with dense and sombre forests, and on the north declining into lovely mounds, and round topped hills, covered with groves of pimento and all the exquisite verdure of the tropics-the coup d'ail presenting a splendid panorama of high mountains embosomed in clouds, and vast savannas or plains, hills and vales, rivers, bays and creeks. The middle part, called Pedro's Cockpit,

is spread for an extent of many miles, with an infinite number of round topped hills, whose surface, covered with loose limestone, or honey-comb rock, is clothed with fine cedar and other trees of enormous bulk. The dales or cock-pits meandering between these hammocks contain a rich soil of great depth, where the succulent Guinea-grass forms a perfect carpet of ever verdant beauty.

The picturesque of the island is further enhanced by its numerous rivers, upwards of 200 of which have been enumerated. Few, however, owing to the mountainous nature of the country, are navigable for large vessels, though they are capable of great improvement. Black River, which flows. for the most part through a flat country, is the deepest and most rapid, and is navigable for flat-bottom boats and canoes for about thirty miles. The other chief rivers are, on the north side the Marthabræ, White, Ginger and Great River; and on the south side the Rio Cobre and Rio Minho. The precipitate current of these streams renders them better adapted for mechanical purposes than intercourse. There are a large number of mineral and warm springs on the island, some of which are highly beneficial in cutaneous diseases, and various internal obstructions.

Jamaica has 16 principal harbors, besides 30 bays, roads or shipping stations, which afford good anchorage.

This island is evidently of volcanic origin; at the present day, however, no volcanic action is perceived. A small elevated salt lake in the mountains, 3,000 feet above the sea, has the appearance of an extinct crater, and the character of the rocks everywhere denote the powerful operation of fire. The soil is generally deep and fertile; on the north a chocolate color, in other parts a bright yellow, and everywhere remarkable for a shining surface when first turned up, and for staining the skin like paint when wetted; it appears to be of a chalky marl, containing a large proportion of calcareous matter. There is a soil on the island termed brick mould," which is deep and mellow, on a retentive understratum-this, next to the "ash mould" of St. Christopher's, is considered the best soil in the West Indies for the sugar cane. A red earth abounds most in the hilly parts, and a purple loam, sometimes mixed with a sandy, soil, in the savannas and low lands; but the highest mountains are remarkable for having on their summits a deep black rich soil.

The lead ore of Jamaica is extremely rich and heavily impregnated with silver; several varieties have been found, and, indeed, worked at Liguana, where also striated antimony is obtainable. In the low mountains of Liguana every variety of copper ore (14 different species) is in profusion, in particular the green and livid, and the shining dark copper ores; in the more mellow matrices yellow mundick (marchasites) is largely mixed. In the mountains above Bull Bay, a dark iron sand, attracted by the magnet, is found; neither gold nor silver ore has yet been discovered, though it is certain the natives possessed those metals in abundance when first visited by Columbus and the early Spanish settlers. In the river Minho particles of gold have been found after heavy rains; and Gage, (in 1655,) among other old writers, speaks of mines producing "some gold, though drossie." The climate differs in intensity with the elevation. At Kingston, on the coast, the mean temperature is 80° Fahr, and the minimum 700. As the I country is ascended of course the heat decreases, and at the distance of 14 miles, at an elevation of 4,200 feet, the average range is from 55° to 65°; the minimum range in winter being 44° Fahr, and a fire in the evening is not only agreeable but necessary. The temperature is not subject, however,