Note 14 — Front matter
Reading edition
If the reader will have the goodness to refer back to p. 19, he will see with what parade this very clause is introduced into the Act. It was framed expressly “to secure, as far as possible, the good treatment of the Slaves;” and yet it appears from the first to have been regarded in the island as an absolute nullity. “It has been wholly neglected.” Not one certificate has been filed in consequence of it, nor has one penalty been enforced for the neglect. How different this from the fate of the eighth clause, denouncing the punishment of death on Negro Slaves guilty of certain crimes! This clause, we are told, has not been allowed to SLEEP! Here we have a lively picture of the nature of West Indian legislation. When laws are directed against the Negro Slave, they operate with certainty and permanent effect. When enacted in his favour, they prove dormant from the moment of their birth.