has been created of late, under the direction of Admiral La Borde, a new distribution, into five maritime provinces, of which the cities of Havana, Trinidad, San Juan de los Remedios, Nuevitas, and Santiago de Cuba, are the respective capitals—and again, these provinces are each sub-divided into a certain number of districts. Each of these five jurisdictions, the ecclesiastical, civil, military, financial, and maritime, has a set of tribunals of its own, with three or four appeals in each to settle all doubtful questions -so that there are no less than thirty-five different tribunals, before which a resident of Cuba may have to appear. We are sure our readers will excuse us from even attempting to penetrate this labyrinth of law. In all statistical researches, the population of a country is considered to be one of the most important branches of inquiry; and in investigating that of Cuba, we are certainly led to some very interesting results. In the course of the last thirty years, it has undergone a very considerable increase; which, when compared to the former slow progress, clearly evinces the effects of amelioration of government in producing improvements in the condition of a country. Of the aboriginal inhabitants, few, if any, vestiges are now to be discovered. No where has the great law of nature found a more striking application than here. No where do we see it more clearly exemplified, that two races of men, the one in a high state of civilization, the other in the rude condition of barbarians, or in the incipient stages of patriarchal life, cannot long subsist together voluntarily in the same country. They will not mix and sympathize, but the stronger will necessarily drive away the weaker party, or hold it in subjection. Either the civilized man, if unsupported by the example of numbers of his own society, retrogrades into the natural condition of his new associates, and assimilates himself to them; or else, if he be the more powerful, he will reduce the uncivilized Indian into slavery; or compel him to abandon the haunts of his fathers, and to seek a place of refuge in a new clime, or on distant shores. We have no reason to consider the island of Cuba as having been very densely peopled, at the time of its discovery, although the reports of the earlier travellers, filled with the exaggerations of that day, represent it as the seat of large and powerful nations. However this may have been, the indigenous population soon melted away before the steel-clad companions of Columbus. Under the baneful effects of oppression, their numbers were rapidly thinned, and the last remnants of them are supposed to have embarked in their canoes, and sought, in Yucatan, or Florida, that independence which was denied to them in their own land. At the time of the conquest of the island, (A. D. 1511) there came to the colony about three hundred Spaniards. Twelve years afterwards, a like number of Africans were brought over, under the specious pretence of working the gold mines of the country; but, in truth, to become hewers of wood and drawers. of water for their relentless masters. This was the foundation of African slavery in Cuba. In 1580, the number of inhabitants was estimated at about 15,000 souls, and in 1660, it had not increased beyond 40,000-a slow progress, if we consider how small the population of the island was, and how great were its capabilities in a commercial and agricultural point of view. The first regular census of the colony was taken in 1775, and exhibits a great increase, as it had swollen more than four-fold in little more than a century. The population was then rated at 170,370 souls. The island had just before received a considerable accession by the arrival of the Spanish residents in Florida, most of whom abandoned that country after its cession to England by the treaty of Versailles. It is from this period that we may date the regular and remarkable progress of this colony. For a long while, it had been considered merely as a stopping place on the voyage to New-Spain. It was to Cuba that the Spanish adventurers who were anxious to settle in the colonies, first directed themselves, so as to obtain more precise information touching the best course to be pursued in their subsequent speculations. Hence it became the resort of a large transient population, that did not attach itself to the soil, or make permanent improvements upon it. But her history in later days, exhibits a more interesting scene. The political disturbances, which convulsed both Europe and America, tended to the prosperity of this colony, which remained faithful in its connexion with the mother country through all the vicissitudes of her fate. The establishment of the independence of the United States was beneficial to Cuba, by bringing into its neighbourhood, a large commercial nation, disposed to take every opportunity of trading with the island. Spain soon found herself so much pressed by her European wars, as to be obliged to relax a little the reins with which she had, for two and a half centuries, bridled the colonies. The opening of the port of Havana in 1789, and 1791, to foreign vessels engaged in the slave trade, produced a large addition to her coloured population; and it is painful to reflect, with what eagerness our citizens entered upon this inhuman traffic. At the same time, the white population increased by emigrations from the peninsula and the Canary islands. To these, succeeded still more powerful sources of prosperity. The cession to France of the Spanish portion of St. Domingo, in 1795, carried many of the old Spanish planters to Cuba. The servile war which broke out shortly after, in the French colony, and which ended in the expulsion of the whole of the white race from that rich and beautiful island, was very serviceable to Cuba, as it drove to it an industrious and enterprising population, already experienced in the culture of colonial produce. The cession of Louisiana to France, and its subsequent transfer to the United States in 1803, occasioned a further increase of planters. Then followed, in quick succession, the war between Spain and France, the occupation of the former country by the armies of Napoleon and Wellington, the disturbances in New-Spain and South America; the final separation from Spain, of the whole of her continental colonies, and finally, the expulsion of the European Spaniards from Mexico, during the last years. All these causes have tended more or less to the gradual, but constant increase of the population and wealth, and to the development of the resources of the colony. Nothing, perhaps, has influenced these happy results more powerfully, than the opening of the ports of the island to foreigners; a measure fraught with the deepest wisdom, and the authors of which ought to be ranked among the greatest benefactors of Cuba. It was in the year 1809, that freedom of commerce was first granted. In the course of fifty-two years, the population has quadrupled ; a rate of increase which no other country, similarly situated, has, we believe, ever presented. It is exhibited, it is true, to the same degree, and on a much larger scale, in the United States; where three millions of inhabitants, in 1776, have by this time swollen to about thirteen millions; but the peculiar causes which led to this unprecedented increase among us are too well known, to require that we should dwell upon them here. The four regular censuses which have been made in Cuba, give us the following results: And if to this we add the transient population, we have, for 1827, a total of 730,562. Supposing it to have increased in a similar ratio, it would at present exceed 800,000 souls. It is curious to analyse this aggregate population; and, the memoir before us fortunately gives us the means of doing so, to a certain extent. We have to regret, however, that it is not sufficiently full, to permit us to examine the important question of the relative proportion of inhabitants at the different ages, an item of great consequence in a country liable to large accessions of men, imported for purposes of speculation, and who may therefore be considered to be the healthiest of their class, and at a period of life equally free from the diseases incident to childhood, and the infirmities attendant upon age. Classification of the population of the Island of Cuba, at the censuses of 1775 and 1827. Whites, Male. Female. Total. Male. Female. Total. 54,555 40,864 95,419|| 168,653 142,398 311,051 10,021 9,006 19,027| 28,058 29,456 57,514 5,959 5,629 11,588 23,904 25,076 48,980 28,774 15,562 44,336|| 183,290 103,652 286,942 Total, 99,309 71,061 170,370|! 403,905| 300,582 704,487| We readily discover, from this table, that, in the term of fiftytwo years, from 1775 to 1827, the increase of the different classes of the population has been as follows: The white male population increased from 54,555 to 168,653, or 209 per cent. The white female, The free mulatto male, do. The free mulatto female, do. The free black male, The free black female, The slave, (black and mulatto) male, } The slave, (black and }do. mulatto) female, Which gives us an accession, in 52 years, to The white population, of The free black and coloured population, of The slave population, of The free population, of The whole population, of 224 per cent. 246 do. 547 do. 231 do. 313 do. Therefore, while the white population has but just about trebled its numbers, those of the slave population have increased nearly seven-fold. When we pause, and consider the effect of a continuation of similar causes, we are led to draw conclusions as to the safety of the island against her own coloured population, widely different from those which we believe to be generally entertained. We know that men are more willing to flatter themselves into a belief that past evils can not recur, than to live in dread of undergoing again those calamities which have at times assailed nations as well as individuals. It is flattering to man's pride to believe, that he shall never again be wrecked upon the same shoals which have occasioned the losses of his predecessors. The danger once known, he thinks his course will be so steered as to avoid it; but, if we listen to the voice of history, we shall see, despite of the secret wishes of the heart, that like causes must always lead to like results. Do we not know that man will be guided only by the interest of the time, regardless of distant evils, and that as long as slavery shall be profitable to its owners, every encouragement will be held out for its increase-unless, indeed, a check be VOL. VII.- -NO. 14. 62 given from nobler feelings? If the voice of religion, of morality, of humanity, could once be listened to; if the slave trade could be irrevocably proscribed in Cuba, then indeed there would be some hope, that the increase of the white race would be such as to prevent the occurrence of dangers from the prolific tendency of the African race. But while the slaves continue to increase, by the two-fold sources of importation, and natural reproduction, there is every reason to apprehend, that the proportion which at this day appears to us unattended with danger, may soon undergo a fatal change. It would require less than the revolution of a century, to make the disproportion between the white and the coloured races in Cuba, equal to what it is at present in the English West India Islands; where daily experience teaches us that, the danger of another convulsion, similar to that of Hayti, is impending a convulsion which probably nothing but the great power of the British government, and especially its naval force, has kept off so long. The white population was, in 1775, In 1827, the proportions were as follows:-The white population was But there are other considerations which should be attended to; because, although the extent of their influence cannot be exactly calculated, it is evident that it must be very great. First, that of the proportion of the sexes as it now exists in Cuba. We find, that while in the white race the males are to the females as 87; in the slaves they are as 9 5. So that there is a much larger proportion of the stronger sex in the oppressed class. While the whole slave, is to the whole free population, in the ratio of 9: 10, the male slaves are to the male white as 98; and the female slaves to the female white, only as 5 : 7. Were our tables more detailed, we could show a still more painful view of the subject: for, we should see, that while in the white population the proportion of ages is about the same as all over the world, with perhaps a somewhat larger number of children, that of the slaves presents a great disproportion in children, and an unusual number of adults; that is to say, of hardy, ablebodied, labouring men, who, in a mere encounter of force, would have a vast advantage. This is, however, fortunately, altogether compensated at present, by the advantages of greater intelligence, education, and use of arms, on the part of the whites. Could we establish safe calculations upon the imperfect data |