The Home Government felt the weight of these considerations, and the
correspondence closed with the revocation of the peremptory command above
quoted.

[Sidenote: Education.]

The object which Lord Elgin had most at heart was to improve the moral and
social condition of the Negroes, and to fit them, by education, for the
freedom which had been thrust upon them; but, with characteristic tact and
sagacity, he preferred to compass this end through the agency of the
planters themselves. By encouraging the application of mechanical
contrivances to agriculture, he sought to make it the interest not only of
the peasants to acquire, but of the planters to give them, the education
necessary for using machinery; while he lost no opportunity of impressing
on the land-owning class that, if they wished to secure a constant supply
of labour, they could not do so better than by creating in the labouring
class the wants which belong to educated beings.

The following extracts from private letters, written at the time to the
Secretary of State, contain the freshest and best expression of his views
on these and similar questions of island politics:--

In some quarters I am informed, that less desire for education is
shown now by the Negroes than during the apprenticeship; and the
reason assigned is, that it was then supposed that certain social and
political advantages would accrue to those who were able to read, but
that now, when all is gained, and all are on a par in these respects,
the same zeal for learning no longer prevails. It has been suggested
that a great impulse might be given in this direction, by working on