time of their absence; and that time being estimated at three livres a day for each man, and two livres a day for each woman, and proportionably for the hours of absence, the amount, at each distribution of the revenue of the plantation, shall be deducted from the shares of the defaulters, and added to those of the proprietor, the manager, the overseers (conducteurs,) and the other laborers, not defaulters, in the proportions prescribed in the proclamation of the 31st of October, 1793, and in the 30th and 31st articles of the regulations of the 7th instant. [These are, unfortunately, wanting.] And if the manager omit to record defaulters, the amount of such defaults, and an equal amount deducted from the share of the manager, shall be distributed in like manner between the proprietor, the overseers and the cultivators, not in default. In cases of extraordinary urgency arising from the state of the crops, certain prescribed measures may be taken for extending the period of labor during the night beyond the customary hours, so as to prevent loss to all parties. The overseers shall alone order and direct the labors of the young. They alone shall be charged with executing the instructions of those who administer the affairs of the estate, directing and superintending the labors at all times, both out of crop and in crop time. The laborers shall be bound to obey the overseer, and the overseers to obey each other according to their rank; but their authority shall be confined to the cultivation and good order of the plantation. Those laborers who in these points shall formally refuse to obey the orders of the overseers, shall be subject to a month's imprisonment, with labor during the day on public works, and shall be deprived during that time of their share of the produce. An inferior overseer disobeying his superior shall be punished in like manner for two months. If, to insubordination, menaces and an attempt to strike be added, the penalty may be extended to six months in case of laborers, and to twelve months in case of sub-overseers, who shall also be made incapable of again exercising any authority. If the superior should be struck by the inferior, the latter shall be excluded from any association of laborers working for shares, and shall be subject to trial by the penal code. If the majority of the laborers should be guilty of acts of insubordination, besides being punished individually, they

shall be forced to quit the plantation, the proprietor being at liberty to replace them by other cultivators. If, on the other hand, an overseer shall strike one who is under him, or shall place him, by his own authority, under restraint or in prison, he shall be deprived of his office, and declared incapable of directing freemen; and if blood-shed, or any grave injury should follow, he shall be tried and punished according to the penal code. This rule applies to all men, women, and children. In case of quarrels, threats and acts of violence among the cultivators, the overseers shall place the parties under arrest, and endeavor to reconcile them; and the aggressors shall be confined to their houses for three successive Sundays. If the violence or threats are used towards women, or aged or infirm persons, the person guilty shall be punished further with a fine of half his share of the produce of the plantation; and if the offence be repeated, he shall be turned off the plantation, and excluded from all other associations laboring for shares.

A number of rules are then prescribed for punishing by pecuniary penalties, the theft, or the appropriation of the common property of the plantation for private ends, by either the proprietor, the manager, the overseers, or the cultivators for shares. If the delinquents are unable to pay the fine, they shall be imprisoned and employed on the public works, at daily wages, till the amount is paid. The same rules apply to portioning the property of individuals. The repetition of the offence shall be punished by being turned off the plantation, and being declared unworthy to be admitted into any similar association. Any voluntary injury done to the property or the animals on the plantation, shall be punished in the same manner. Strict rules are also laid down as to damages done by pigs, &c.; also for the due care and distribution of water, whether for common use, or for turning mills, or for irrigation, with suitable penalties for neglect or transgression.

Every manager neglecting to keep in due form the prescribed registers, or who shall correct or strike any overseer or cultivator, or who shall cause any other person to do so, shall be deprived of his office, and rendered incapable of filling such office in future. Every manager who appropriates to himself any part of the money deposited in the common chest shall be punished in like manner, besides

paying double the sum subtracted. The manager, however, shall be protected from all menace or violence.

No cultivator, working for a share of the produce, can be deprived of his rights during the year for which he has contracted, except in the cases expressly mentioned above. A cultivator quitting the plantation during the year, must find a substitute approved by his fellow laborers; and if he intends quitting it at the end of the year, he must give two months notice, under penalty. A cultivator cannot be excluded at the end of the year but only by a vote of the majority of the cultivators, of which he shall have two months notice. An establishment for cultivating by shares, can only be broken up when a majority of the cultivators refuse to perform their contract, or when it is found necessary to expel the cultivators for insubordination, or when they are reduced to less than half their number by death, weakness, voluntary retirement, or forcible removal. In these cases the proprietor may form a new association of cultivators for shares, or employ laborers for him by the day or the year; but he cannot even then turn off the old, the young, or the infirm. If, however, the association, though reduced, shall be able two months before the close of the year, to recruit to three fourths of their complement, the proprietor shall not be at liberty to discontinue the establishment. Whenever the reduced state of the establishment, or the urgency of the season, puts in peril a part of the crop, or renders it difficult to prepare for the future crop, the proprietor may strengthen the establishment by such number of day laborers as he shall judge necessary, the cost of such hired labor being charged to the common fund, and being first paid out of the proceeds of the plantation. Every other cause of difference or quarrel between proprietors and cultivators than those herein before regulated, shall be settled by the course of law common to all citizens; all, whether proprietors or cultivators, being in every other respect on a footing of equality.

IV. The rules with respect to laborers by the day, as to periods of labor, submission to the overseers, peaceableness of demeanor, protection from violence, &c. are the same as in the preceding chapter; their offences being punishable by dismissal and loss of wages. They are not, however, to have overseers (conducteurs) of their own choice, as is

the case with laborers for shares, but are to submit to the overseers already chosen by such.* Work from sunset to sunrise, when required, shall be paid for at the rate of half an escalin (a ninth of a dollar) an hour in the case of men, or in the case of women a third of an escalin.

V. The hire for field work of laborers hired by the month or longer, is fixed, for men above eighteen, at four dollars; for women, at two dollars and a half; and for persons from fourteen to eighteen, at two dollars; to be paid at the end of the month. If they quit before the end of the term, they shall forfeit the wages due; if they are dismissed before the term, they shall be paid for all the time that is to run. The hire of mechanics and artizans shall be settled by special

contract.

VI. The justices of the peace and their assessors, shall have jurisdiction in all matters comprised in this ordinance; and where none have been yet appointed, the jurisdiction shall belong to the military commandant, and to one or other of them in all cases of accusation, arrest, and prosecution, the necessary papers and proofs shall be sent.

The present ordinance shall be printed, published on three successive Sundays in a loud and intelligible voice, and explained in the Creole dialect during the hours of market, and in the market place of the chief place of each parish, and posted up in all conspicuous and frequented places, and at the chief dwelling houses of plantations. It shall also be duly registered in all superior as well as inferior courts, and sent to all the principal officers, civil and military, who are all made responsible for its due execution.

The above ordinance of Polverel appears to have been in full force from the time of its promulgation, 28th February, 1794, until the beginning of August, 1798. During that interval Toussaint L'Ouverture had risen to the chief command; and it is of this period that Colonel Malenfant, in a passage already cited, speaks, when he says "The colony flourished under Toussaint. The whites lived happily and in peace upon their estates, and the negroes continued to work for them." This statement, as has also been shown, was fully confirmed by General La Croix, who, as well as

What resemblance can possibly exist between the conducteur of Hayti and the driver of Jamaica, the former being thus chosen by the laborers, to guide their labors and proteot their interests?

Colonel Malenfant, served in St. Domingo at the time. His words are, that the Commissioner Santhonax, who had been recalled to France, on returning to the colony in 1796 "was astonished at the state in which he found it." "This," he adds, "was owing to Toussaint, who, while he had succeeded in establishing order and discipline among the black troops, had succeeded also in making the black laborers return to the plantations, there to resume cultivation." In the next year, 1797, the same author tells us that the colony was marching "as by enchantment, towards its ancient splendor; cultivation prospered, every day produced perceptible proofs of its progress." The testimony of General Vincent, another eye-witness, is to the same effect.

The war, which had been waged by England in St. Domingo with such disastrous expense of blood and treasure, for the purpose of restoring slavery, and which must have extensively interfered with the progress of cultivation, was brought to a close at this time by a convention between Toussaint and the English General Maitland, leaving Toussaint in possession of the whole island. To repress the disorders to which warfare had necessarily given birth, and to give a renewed impulse to cultivation, a fresh ordinance was issued on the 3d of August, 1798, accompanied by an urgent call on all public functionaries to exert themselves in giving it effect. "In St. Domingo, as in France," says this address, "Royalists and Anarchists see with dismay the establishment of constitutional order; and, with a view to disturb the peace of the colony, try all means of impeding the progress of cultivation. Let us persuade the cultivators,' they say, 'that liberty consists in doing no work; and if we succeed, we shall certainly restore slavery, since the colony, yielding no resource, will be abandoned by the mother country.' But no, the true friends of liberty will make the cultivators sensible that labor alone can render them happy, both by procuring for them in abundance the means of providing for the wants of their families, and by raising the colony to the degree of splendor to which it ought to aspire."

The ordinance itself, which will be found at page 95 of Mr. Mackenzie's report, premises that since agriculture is the foundation of prosperity to a state; that since in order to make agriculture flourish, all possible means must be