My lords, I am prepared to show that in most respects the treatment the slaves have received since 1834 is no better, and in many others more unjust and worse, than it ever was in the time of absolute slavery.

It is true that the use of the cartwhip as a stimulus to labor has been abolished.

This, I admit, is a great and most satisfactory improvement; but, in every other particular, the state of the slave, I am prepared to show, is not improved, and, in many respects, it is materially worse.

First, with regard to the article of food, I will compare the Jamaica prison allowance with that allotted to the apprenticed negroes in other colonies.

In the Jamaica prison the allowance of rice is 14 pints a week to each person.