And having had him as an _intimate of my family_ for several months, I can most cordially bear my testimony to his trustworthiness, ability, and gentlemanly deportment.' Lord Sligo also added, that Mr.Hill was treated in his family in all respects as if he had not been colored, and that with no gentleman in the West Indies was he, in social life, on terms of more intimate friendship."] The following items contain the principal information received from Mr.
Hill: 1.

The apprenticeship is a most vicious system, full of blunders and absurdities, and directly calculated to set master and slave at war.
2.

The complaints against the apprentices are decreasing every month, _except, perhaps, complaints against mothers for absence from work, which he thinks are increasing_.

The apprenticeship _law_ makes no provision for the free children, and on most of the plantations and estates no allowance is given them, but they are thrown entirely for support on their parents, who are obliged to work the most and best part of their time for their masters unrewarded.

The nurseries are broken up, and frequently the mothers are obliged to work in the fields with their infants at their backs, or else to leave them at some distance under the shade of a hedge or tree.