Note 9 — CHAP. XXVI.

And now, to sum up all I have to say on the subject of slaves in the fewest words, for the sake of the reader, and also for my own, lest I should seem to contradict myself, by having so frequently animadverted on the shocking cruelties of some masters, and occasionally done justice to the humane and liberal dispositions of others, I beg leave to say one word more on the projected abolition.—Could we persuade all our commercial neighbours to join in that measure, the case would be different: but since I have seen cruelties exercised so commonly in Surinam, which I never heard of in the British islands, and from my certain observation have declared the soil of that country to be so much more rich and productive than our West Indies, shall we not drive our planters from their worn-out lands, to settle on the more fertile spot, under a government which will allow a free importation of negroes, while our object (if we knew how to compass it) is to reduce an unlimited infliction of punishment, which indeed our planters have by their own laws most humanely restrained9?