Mr.A.strongly condemned this policy.

It withheld laborers from the estates which needed them; it was calculated to make the regular field hands discontented, and it offered a direct encouragement to the negroes to follow irregular modes of living.

A third obstacle to the successful operation of free labor, was the absence of the most influential proprietors.

The consequences of absenteeism were very serious.

The proprietors were of all men the most deeply interested in the soil; and no attorneys, agents, or managers, whom they could employ, would feel an equal interest in it, nor make the same efforts to secure the prosperous workings of the new system.
In the year 1833, when the abolition excitement was at its height in England, and the people were thundering at the doors of parliament for emancipation, Mr.A.visited that country for his health.