"We would gladly bave brought forward a plan for ameliorating the condition of the Negroes, but that the effort was beyond our strength. We found the adversaries of the abolition far too numerous and too powerful for us, and we were perfectly sure that we should greatly add to their number and vehemence by striking also at the system of slavery. But farther I will frankly confess, that we greatly deceived our selves by expecting much more benefit to the plantation Negroes from the abo lition of the Slave Trade than has actually resulted from that measure. We always relied much on its efficiency in preparing the way for a general emancipation of the slaves: for let it be remembered, that, from the very first, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, Lord Grenville, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Grey, and all the rest of the earliest abolitionists, declared that the extinction of slavery was our great and ultimate object; and we trusted, that by compelling the planters to depend wholly on native increase for the supply of their gangs, they would be forced to improve the condition of their slaves, to increase their food, to lessen their labour, to introduce task-work, to abolish the driving system, together with degrading and indecent punishments, to attach the slaves to the soil, and, with proper qualifications, to admit their testimony as witnesses - - a necessary step to all protection by law; above all, to attend to their religious and moral im; provement, and to one of the grand peculiarities of Christianity, the marriage institution. By the salutary operation of these various improvements, the slaves would have become qualified for the enjoyment of liberty; and preparation would have been made for that happy day, when the yoke should be taken off for ever, when the blessed transmutation should take place of a degraded slave population into a free and industrious peasantry. "We were too sanguine in our hopes as to the effects of the abolition in our colonies; we judged too favourably of human nature; we thought too well of the colonial assemblies; we did not allow weight enough to the effects of rooted prejudice and inveterate habits-to absenteeship, a vice which, taken in its whole extent, is perhaps one of the most injurious of the whole system; to the distressed finances of the planters; and, above all, to the effects of the extreme degradation of the Negro slaves, and to the long and entire neglect of Christianity among them, with all its attendant blessings." pp. 34-36. ̧ ̧ At length, however, this illjudged, and ill-requited forbear 1 ance has ceased, and a series of vigorous assaults has commenced, which will, we trust, at no distant period, give freedom to the slave, and throw off from our country a heavy load of guilt and shame. Several publications, displaying great knowledge and talent, have recently appeared; the question has been formally brought forward in Parliament, and we are assured that it will not be allowed to rest until its satisfactory adjustment. In the mean time, it is of the greatest importance that the public attention should be called, in every possible way, to the consideration of this paramount subject, and that every proper measure should be adopted for making known the general feeling. We suspect that to no inconsiderable portion of our countrymen, it may be almost a matter of surprise when they are told, that the system of slavery in the West Indies, has undergone no real abatement of its rigour. They have been in the habit of nearly identifying abolition with emancipation, and of supposing that the enhanced value of the slave must have led to a mode of treatment so mitigated, as to amount to a virtual repeal of the law of bondage. They have heard of certain humane enactments, decreed by the colonial assemblies themselves, in alleviation of negro suffering, and they have inferred, that measures were in progress, tending to the enfranchisement, corporeal, mental, and moral, of the kidnapped and maltreated African. But they will learn, that little of this was true that the 800,000 head of human cattle in the British Colonies are still the absolute, uncontrolled, property of their respective, masters, liable to sale, separation, transfer, like the beast that grazes the pasture that they labour in teams under the stimulus of the cart-whip-that they are liable, both male and female, to cruel and indecent punishment, at the will of the overseer-that marriage among slaves being destitute of any legal sanction, they live with few exceptions, in a state of degrading licentiousness--that they have few means of access to religious, and none to intellectual, instruction-that, their evidence not being admitted, in the Colonial Courts, against free people, no outrage committed upon them in the presence of slaves only, is cognizable by law-that their infants are, like themselves, slaves. Is not this enough? Does not the existence of a state of things like this, call for the prompt, eager, unremitting exertion of every friend to man, of every cherisher of his country's honour, to erase this deep and darkening blot on England's fame? But we have not yet done. The Sabbath is given to the slaves-for what? for the proper rest of the day, for the opportu. nity of hearing the Word of Life, and receiving religious instruction? No. They are compelled to employ it in bringing from their provision-grounds, the food of the week-in conducting their transactions in the market, often at a distance of three, five, or ten miles from their residence-and, during a considerable portion of the year, in cultivating their provisiongrounds, from which they derive nearly their sole means of subsistence. Crop-time, as it is called, occupies about five months of the year, and during that season, the labours of the slave are most severe; but for the remaining interval of seven months, it has been provided by the tender mercies of the amended Slave Act of Jamaica, that one day in every fortnight, beside the Sabbath, shall be given him for his own personal use, and this is all on which he can depend for the cultivation of the little plot of ground allotted him for his subsistence. CONG. MAG. No. 66. On the state of morals among the black and white population of the islands, we dare not touch. We must refer our readers to the details of the second pamphlet, for a faint and mitigated description of a state of things too disgusting for unveiled exhibition. We have stated above, that the Colonial Assemblies had passed laws, having for their avowed object the amelioration of the condition of the slaves. Of one of these acts, Sir George Prevost, then Governor of Dominica, stated expressly, in an official letter to Earl Camden, that it appeared to have been considered as nothing more than " a political measure to avert the interference of the mothercountry in the management of slaves." In another instance; "To obviate the complaint that had been made in England of the want of Christian instruction for the slaves, an act was passed instituting a curacy in each parish, expressly for their benefit. The act states, that the curates shall appropriate two days in every week to go to some one or other of the estates in rotation, and there to perform the duties of his office, and to instruct all slaves willing to be instructed, provided the consent of the person in possession of the estate be first obtained. In consequence of the necessity of obtaining this consent, Mr. Cooper was informed, by the curate of Hanover parish, that he might apply to ten estates before he got leave to preach on one. These applications had a reference only to week-days; for it would have been obviously the greatest cruelty to compel the attendance of the slaves at worship on Sunday. Both the rector and curate of Hanover parish said, (and the same was true of the adjoining parishes,) that they were of no use to the slaves as instructors, and that, under existing circumstances, it was impossible they should. And as for the curate's act, it was generally held there to have been passed for the satisfaction of England, and not for any good it was likely to produce."-Negro Slavery, pp. 55, 56. It might have been supposed that, at least, if no active measures had been adopted in furtherance of the great object of emancipation, nothing would have been done in opposition to it. Our readers will judge.. 2 R "In May, 1801, an act was passed in Barbadoes to increase the fines on manumissions from £50. to £300. on each female manumitted, and to £200. on each male. In July, 1802, the legislature of St. Kitts imposed a fine of £500. currency on the manumission of slaves born in the island, to be increased to £1000. in the case of slaves not born in the island. In some of the other islands fines of inferior amount were imposed; and in the Bermudas an act was passed to prohibit emancipation altogether, and to prevent persons of colour being seised of real estates :-and all these acts received the royal assent! Such has been the spirit of colonial legislature even at a recent period!"-Negro Slavery, p. 111. What a noble contrast does the Spanish policy in this respect pre sent to ours. A "In the Spanish American possessions it has always been the established practice to encourage manumissions. slave had a right by law to his freedom, as soon as he could repay to his master the sum he had cost. In order to enable the slave to do this, he was not only allowed the undisturbed enjoyment of the Sabbath, either for rest or for religious purposes, or for his own emolument, as he might like best, but he was allowed also one day in the week for the cultivation of his provision-grounds; his master being entitled to the labour of the other five. As soon, however, as the slave, by his industry and frugality, had accumulated the fifth part of his value, it was usual for the master, on being paid that amount, to relinquish to the slave another day of the week, and so on until he had repaid the whole of his original cost, and thus became altogether free. He continued, however, in some cases, during the days which were his own, and even after his complete emancipation, to labour for hire in his master's service. By this process, not only was the master's capital replaced without loss, but a peasantry was formed around him, which had learned by experience the happy effects of industry and frugality, and were therefore industrious and provident. Notwithstanding this liberal policy, the enfranchised slaves have never been known in the Spanish possessions to rise against their former masters, or to excite those who were still slaves to seek any other method of deliverance than they themselves had pursued; whilst they formed, by their number and hardihood, a valuable means of defence from foreign aggression. In consequence of this admirable system, the whole Negro population of the Spanish possessions were so rapidly approximating to emancipation, that about the year 1790, the number of free Blacks which this system exhibits to that of our We have thus touched on the general character of the odious and destructive system pursued in our West India Colonies, declining for the present, the consideration of that part of the subject which relates to the toleration of slavery in the United States. Lieutenant Hall, in his "Travels in Canada and the United States," and Mr. Fearon, in his "Sketches of America," have furnished some most interesting details, large extracts from which are given in the lastcited pamphlet; and we cannot but deeply lament, that our transatlantic brethren, themselves so highly, and so justly, sensible of the value of freedom, should not be unanimous in their determination to purify their national character from this foul stain. But we rejoice in the knowledge that there is a large portion of the community opposed with heart and voice to this hateful system. The wise and good of the American Union are energetic in their efforts and remonstrances, and we have confidence that their exertions will not be in vain. Before we close we must call the attention of our readers to another part of the subject. "With what propriety," asks the Rev. Mr. Cooper, sumer of rum or sugar, cast a stone can a con at the cultivator of the sweet cane?" If the West Indians are determined to persevere in their slave system, with all its horrors, we would most earnestly enforce the propriety of giving the preference to East India sugar. This forms the subject of the very able pamphlet which stands third on our list, and which demonstrates the policy and propriety of taking off the protecting duty, and giving East India sugars at least an equal chance in the market with those of our Western Colonics. We cannot follow the author through his statements and reasonings, but we recommend his work as a powerful auxiliary in the great cause. There is one fact which we have not yet stated, but which puts in too strong a light the iniquity of the present system, to allow of its omission. In 1817, Mr. Hibbert, the proprietor of a large sugar plantation in Jamaica, sent out; at his own entire expense, a most respectable clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Cooper, for the express purpose of promoting the moral improvement of his slaves; and that no obstacle might interfere with his benevolent designs, he ordered that, instead of 400 hogsheads of sugar, which had been the average annual produce, 300 only should be made. Mr. Cooper went, remained there three years, and with every effort on his part, could only obtain opportunity for preaching to the slaves about eleven or twelve times in the year." Disheartened at his want of success, and evidently defeated in his plans, if not by the insidious opposition, at least, by the imperfect co-operation of the resident managers, Mr. Cooper returned to England. Lectures on Scripture Comparison, or Christianity compared with Hindooism, Mohammedanism, the Ancient Philosophy, and Deism. By Wm. Bengo Collyer, D. D. 8vo. price 14s. London: Kingsbury and Co. 1823. Ir is a marvellous thing, and strikingly illustrative of the credulity of unbelief, that while the clear and unanswerable evidences of Christianity are contemned and rejected by a crooked and perverse generation, every species of absurdity finds favour and a ready welcome. Every pretender to inspiration can marshal his sect; every flatterer of the pride or the lusts of man's carnal heart, is permitted to lead him hoodwinked to destruction. Were it not that the way of error is darkened and made awful by the frown of God, it might move our irrepressible mirth to mark the unaccountable obliquities, the voluntary absurdities, the deliberate insanities of the human mind, while engaged in clearing its own path to knowledge and happiness. It would be a mournful, but an instructive exercise to trace out the progress of self-dependent infirmity, but it would require a singular mixture of knowledge and discretion to execute the task well and wisely. There is much of mystery in this state of things, and were it not that the solution is given to us by an unerring mind, we might vainly seek it through the usual processes of investigation. It is man's interest to think rightly; how is it then that he seems to take a fantastic delight in the opposite to rectitude in every form? Every object that surrounds him, and all that is within him, seem to invite him to right conclusions, and yet an inveterate love of wrong warps him from right, both in thought and act. Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. This then is the explanation, the depravity of man's heart is the origin of his intellectual aberrations; his mental ob the luxuriant and beautiful scenery around them. Such was the discovery of fancy-but what did the fact prove? That the estimate of the soil was far more accurate than that of the mindthat while the earth spontaneously pours forth the riches of Divine liberality-the spirit of the inheritors of that delightful country was a moral wilderness.. The rose and the myrtle were upon the ground, but the thorn and the brier were in the bosom. It was soon discovered that those overshadowing and majestic groves were devoted to nameless crimes scurity is to be ascribed to his moral delinquency; and all his wanderings, his follies, and his prevarications, are referrible to alienation from God, as their fatal source. The great primeval traditions; the Law written on the heart; the signs of the invisible Godhead clearly distinguishable in the things that are made; the various dispensations of the Divine will and government, the covenant of grace; all these have been discoloured and distorted, and adapted to the passions and the pride of When they knew God they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened: professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Poets in their reveries have described the purity and innocency man. which man imbibes from the contemplation of the works of nature; and the fiction of the Golden Age was designed to pourtray him, surrounded by all the ripe ness and luxuriance of earth's fertility, and receiving from the fruits of the soil, and the glowing richness of the landscape, health and activity to his frame, vigour to his mind, and to his spirit delightful and unbroken tranquillity. Such was the picture, what was the reality? Take it from the Take it from the volume before us, in the description, as accurate as it is beautiful, of one of those regions where these day-dreams are said to have been realized. "When Taheite was first discovered, we were charmed with the accounts transmitted to us of the Island and of its inhabitants. The one was represented as the garden of Eden, and the others as almost in a state of primeval innocence. The dreams of philosophy seemed to be realized; and the imaginations of poets to be embodied. The golden age returned upon the world in these far-distant retreats; and they appeared to be cut off from continents to escape the vices of society. Mild, benevolent, pure their temperature seemed to participate the charms of the climate, and of that these eulogized Islanders were enslaved by the most corrupt and brutal passions that parental feeling was extinguished even in the heart of the moamongst them burned with the most inextinguishable fury, and that nothing could assuage them but blood-blood shed under circumstances of ingenious most deadly revenge-and that between cruelty, invented and executed by the infanticide and war, the population of this boasted Elysium was fast hastening to ther that the most cruel animosities utter extinction. All this is but the old and true history of human nature, under the dominion of its uncontrolled corruptions. And the successful remedy applied to it has been the renewing and healing influence of Christianity. The growth of this transforming principle was so slow, after its first plantation in this enchanting spot, that full time was given to the world to know and to shudder at the enormities which had strangely overlooked, and which it was been so carefully concealed, or SO about to cure-so that the change which it has, at length, actually effected, cannot be deemed other than the finger of God' and furnishes an irresistible demonstration of the Divine origin of that system by the instrumentality of which it has been produced."-pp. 181-183. But we are entangling ourselves in a discussion, which, though strictly applicable to the subject before us, might lead us to an inconvenient distance from the work actually under review; and, however fashionable it may be in modern criticism, to run down a question without advertence to the book whose title serves as a motto to the article, we must confess that we have, as yet, but very imperfectly learned that part of our craft and mystery. Ancora imparo. This is the seventh and con |