JAMAICA AS A COTTON FIELD.
North Brixton, 25th November, 1859. Sra—Your numerous readers in Manchester and Jamaica, as well as in the United States of America, will rejoice to learn that at length men of in- telligence, public spirit, capital, and energy have united to insure the suc- cess of an experiment which can scarcely fail to prove that better and cheaper cotton may be grown by means of free and fairly requited labour in Jamaica, than that now imported in such immense and daily increasing quantities from the Southern States of America. The effect of such an ex- ample can scarcely be less advantageous to the landed proprietors and capi. talists of America than those of thiaeountry. Slavery was not adopted, and' is not now maintained, for the love of it, but because it is erroneously con- sidered needful to secure a sufficient supply of articles of necessity or luxury. The moment it has been proved that no such necessity exists—that hired labourers are cheaper and really more effective than slaves—the slave-owner himself will take measures to convert his slaves into free men. And you may be assured that when an experiment has been fairly made and persevered in, it will be so successful as to remove the curse of slavery from all lands, because it has been proved unprofitable as well as unjust, and therefore dangerous. This 10th December will probably witness a scene in America which will cause a pang—bitter pang—in the hearts of millions. Mistaken, but brave men, sacrificed to maintain an institution which all sensible and reflecting persons have long denounced as an evil no longer to be tolerated by wise and upright men, Let any one read the prayer of the Reverend Mr. Garnett, the defence of Brown, the pleadings of the "Florence Nightingale" of America ; and reflect on what happened in our own colonies as the result of the affair in which the Missionary Smith, now regarded as a martyr, on the very spot and by' he very people where he was once denounced as a criminal, was involved, and he can scarcely fail to perceive that slavery is doomed, and will owe its extinction to the very means employed for its preservation. The question now is, where can we get an abundant supply, of good and cheap cotton to supply the temporary failure which will be occasioned by the transition ? As one who has long and deeply experimented, I say in Jamaica. That is without doubt the best source of a very large and economical supply,
Yours faithfully,
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