immigration) as his sole hope of salvation from ruin--with what feelings
must he contemplate all earnest efforts to civilise the mass of the
population? Is education necessary to qualify the peasantry to carry on
the rude field operations of slavery? May not some persons even entertain
the apprehension, that it will indispose them to such pursuits? But let
him, on the other hand, believe that, by the substitution of more
artificial methods for those hitherto employed, he may materially abridge
the expense of raising his produce, and he cannot fail to perceive that an
intelligent, well-educated labourer, with something of a character to
lose, and a reasonable ambition to stimulate him to exertion, is likely to
prove an instrument more apt for his purposes than the ignorant drudge who
differs from the slave only in being no longer amenable to personal
restraint.[1]

One of the measures in which Lord Elgin took the most active interest was
the establishment of a 'General Agricultural Society for the Island of
Jamaica,' and he was much gratified by receiving Her Majesty's permission
to give to it the sanction of her name as Patroness.

I am confident (he writes to Lord Stanley) that the notice which Her
Majesty is pleased to take of the institution will be duly
appreciated, and will be productive of much good.

You must allow me to remark (he adds) that moral results of much
moment are involved in the issue of the efforts which we are now
making for the improvement of agriculture in this colony. Not only has
the impulse which has been imparted to the public mind in Jamaica been
beneficial in itself and in its direct effects, but it has, I am
firmly persuaded, checked opposing tendencies, which threatened very
injurious consequences to Negro civilisation. To reconcile the planter