was the victim. The prohibition, therefore, if it led to the disuse
of the dangerous potation, would have been the present removal, and
prevented the subsequent extension, of one of the greatest evils which
has corrupted the social condition.
To these prudent and salutary regulations followed a statute entitled
"An act for rendering the Province of Georgia more defencible, by
prohibiting the importation of black slaves, or negroes, into the
same." For this enactment, besides the consideration stated in the
title, the following reasons are assigned: 1. On account of the cost
of purchase, which, the settlers themselves being too poor to defray,
must be met by the Trustees; on whom it would be a tax greater than
they had funds to pay, or believed that they could obtain. 2. Because
of the additional expense of their after maintenance, which must be
provided, in addition to that already incurred for the support of
those by whom they were to be employed. And 3. because the Trustees
were desirous that the settlers should acquire the habits of labor and
industry, of economy and thrift, by personal application.[1]
[Footnote 1: See their reasons at large in the publication entitled
_Impartial Inquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of
Georgia_, Lond. 1741; or in _Collections of the Georgia Historical
Society_, Vol. I. pages 166-173, and McCALL'S _History_, Vol. I. p.
25, &c.]
It is remarked by Mr. Burke, that "These regulations, though well
intended, and indeed meant to bring about very excellent purposes,
yet might at first, as it did afterwards, appear, that they were made
without sufficiently consulting the nature of the country, or the
disposition of the people which they regarded."[1]
[Footnote 1: _European Settlements in America_, Vol. II. p. 266.]
Governor Belcher, of Massachusetts, in a letter to Lord Egmont,
observes, "I have read Mr. Oglethorpe's state of the new colony
of Georgia once and again; and by its harbors, rivers, soil and
productions, do not doubt that it must in time make a fine addition
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