But a kind of _hysterica passio_ seems to have mastered the cool common
sense of the nation--a fury of repentance for the war about the Asiento
contract, for building Bristol and Liverpool with the flesh and blood of
the slave, and for the 2,130,000 negroes supplied to Jamaica between 1680
and 1786. Like a veteran devotee Great Britain began atoning for the
coquetries of her hot youth. While Spain and Portugal have passed sensible
laws for gradual emancipation, England, with a sublime folly, set free by
a stroke of the pen, at the expense of twenty millions sterling the born
and bred slaves of Jamaica. The result was an orgy for a week, a
systematic refusal to work, and for many years the ruin of the glorious
island.

If the reader believes I have exaggerated the state of things long
prevalent at Sá Leone, he is mistaken. And he will presently see a
confirmation of these statements in the bad name which the Sá Leonite
bears upon the whole of the western coast. Yet, I repeat, the colony is
changed for the better, physically by a supply of pure water, morally by
the courage which curbed the black abuse. Twenty years ago to call a negro
'nigger' was actionable; many a 5_l._ has been paid for the indulgence of
_lèse-majesté_ against the 'man and brother;' and not a few 50_l._ when
the case was brought into the civil courts. After a rough word the Sá
Leonite would shake his fist at you and trot off exclaiming, 'Lawyer Rainy
(or Montague) lib for town!' A case of mild assault, which in England
would be settled by a police-magistrate and a fine of five shillings,
became at Freetown a serious 'bob.' Niger, accompanied by his friends or
his 'company,' betook himself to some limb of the law, possibly a
pettifogger, certainly a pauper who braved a deadly climate for uncertain
lucre. His interest was to promote litigation and to fill his pockets by
what is called sharp practice. After receiving the preliminary fee of