There was, however,' remarks Mr. Stephen, one great drawback on their hopes, and one which was the most disheartening to those among them who knew the Colonies best: for Mr. Canning intimated his practical plan to be, not the immediate introduction of any of his proposed measures by authority of Parliament, but the recommendation of them by the Crown to the Assemblies.

The experienced friends of the Slaves must have lost their memories or their understandings, if they had entertained a hope that such a course would produce any good effect. They saw in it, if not frustration and positive mischief, at least certain disappointment and delay. Recommendation to the Assemblies!! Why the experiment had been tried repeatedly during a period of twenty-six years, as well before as after the abolition of the Slave-trade: and had uniformly and totally failed. The Crown, the Parliament, and that far more influential body, the West India Committee of this country, with Mr. Ellis at the head of it, had all recommended, supplicated, and even menaced, in vain. Not a single Assembly had deigned to relax one cord of their rigorous bondage, or to adopt a single measure that had been proposed to them for the temporal or spiritual benefit of the Slaves, except in a way manifestly evasive, and plainly intended, as well as proved by experience, to be useless; while some of those inexorable bodies had even met the solicitations of their Sovereign, and the resolutions of the supreme legislature, with express rejection and contempt. Recommendation to the Assemblies!!! to the authors of every wrong to be redressed! of every oppression to be mitigated! to Slave masters, the representatives of Slave-masters, hardened by familiarity with the odious system in which they have long been personally engaged, and surrounded with crowds of indigent and vulgar whites, to whom slavery yields a sordid subsistence, and the degradation of the blacks is privilege and respect! You might as well recommend toleration to Spanish Inquisitors, or Grecian liberty to the Turkish Divan.

Most reasonably, therefore, might the friends of the Slaves have regarded this part of the Right Honourable Secretary's plan, as a ground not only of dissatisfaction, but distrust; had not he guarded it by declaring, that means should, if necessary, be employed, to make the recommendation effectual, and to subdue any contumacy that might be found in the Assemblies, by Parliamentary compulsion. Still, the well-informed advocates of reformation were reasonably alarmed. They did not doubt Mr. Canning's sincerity. The general liberality of his principles, is not less unquestionable than his transcendent eloquence: and he had been an early friend to the Abolition. But they saw from this hopeless project, that he laboured under a gross delusion as to the true state of the colonial mind; and they knew the formidable influence, both public and private, from which he would have to unfetter himself, before he could oppose himself effectually to that storm that he was about to raise in the Colonies, and make his way to his ulterior purpose."

"England Enslaved," &c. pp. 4, 5.

What has been the result? In the words of Mr. Brougham, Nothing, absolutely nothing.' Or rather, as we shall presently see, worse than nothing. The local legislatures have refused, without a single exception, to comply with even the moderate requisitions of his Majesty's ministers as embodied in the Order of Council for Trinidad. That of Demerara only has issued an ordinance, in which some of the most important clauses are omitted, and others so modified as to be rendered nugatory. The Quarterly Reviewer, who has again been labouring to mystify the subject, and to asperse the Abolitionists, pretends, that improvements are going on in every part of the West Indies with augmented rapidity,'-an assertion in palpable contradiction of every official document. • We will specify,' he says, only two acts of the Assembly in Jamaica: one is to remove impediments to manumission, ⚫ and the other, to encourage attendance on a Saturday instead ⚫ of a Sunday market. The real character of these two acts, will appear from the following explanation,

Slaves had hitherto been exempt from all mesne process on Sundays, not on account of any debts of their own, for they had none, but on account of their master's debts. Sunday, therefore, was the only day on which a needy planter (and nine-tenths of the resident planters are needy men) could permit his slaves to carry their surplus provisions, or on which he himself could send them with his produce to market, without the imminent risk of their being seized by the marshal. This exemption, as it respects slaves, is extended, by the Act of last session, to Saturday as well as Sunday. Now this exemption, which the West Indians would represent to be intended as a boon to the slave, is in fact a still greater boon to the master. It is the master's property in the slave, and that alone, which this law protects; and it is against the effect of the master's insolvency, and not against that of the slave, that it guards. The Act is as follows:-"Whereas, in these times of general distress, many planters are greatly indebted, and by reason of such debts are unable to allow their slaves to go abroad upon any other than the Sabbath-day; and whereas it is expedient to render the Sabbath as much as possible a day of rest, and for religious worship; and whereas it would be right and proper that slaves should be protected on some other day in the week beside Sunday, from being taken or levied upon for debt, &c.; it is therefore enacted, that from and after the first day of January next, it shall not be lawful to make any levy upon any negro or other slave on Saturday, and that they shall be exempt from all such process, and also from levies by collecting constables, on that day, the same as on Sunday." The planters of Jamaica, therefore, have in fact availed themselves of the clamour for reform, to raise additional barriers against their creditors, by an Act which, we admit, to a certain degree protects the slave also,

but which, at the same time, does so no further than the planters shall please. The slave cannot legally pass the bounds of his master's estate without his written permission.

The other Act, for which the legislature of Jamaica desire credit, is one for "removing Impediments to the Manumission of Slaves by Owners having only a limited interest ;"-not for removing impediments in the way of the slave who wishes to obtain his freedom, but in the way of the master who, from interest or favour, may wish to give it. This vaunted Act, therefore, goes no further than the point at which the planters of Demerara are resolved to stop, if they can prevail on Lord Bathurst to permit them to do "Slave Colonies of Great Britain," &c. pp. 48, 9.

Of the spirit of the Jamaica legislature, indeed, we have damning proofs. A bill was introduced in November 1824, admitting the evidence of slaves under certain regulations; and the Governor, the Duke of Manchester, expressed his. hope that it would pass. On the second reading, it was re jected by a majority of thirty-four to one. The violence of opposition manifested by this Assembly has been exceeded only by the still more unmeasured resistance of the parish vestries, and the absolute rage of the Journalists. At the same time, insurrections have been got up, all of which have issued in the destruction, not of any white life, but of the lives of numbers of negroes. The details will be found among the mass of evidence contained in the pamphlet above cited. Suffice it to say, that, with regard to the alleged conspiracy at St. James's, two of the Court were of opinion, that there was nothing but common amusement;' yet, the jury found thirteen of the prisoners guilty, His Grace, the Governor, however, felt himself called upon to declare, that,' after the most 'careful perusal of the evidence, he had not been able to discover any concert or combination among the negroes for any 'criminal purpose.' Four of the thirteen had their sentence commuted for a brief imprisonment, and the remainder were discharged. The two individuals on whose testimony the alleged conspiracies at St. George and St. Mary's rested, have since been ordered off the island as persons of most dangerous character,' their infamy and falsehood having become notorious. Yet, on the evidence of these two desperadoes alone, eight slaves were condemned to death, and eight more to transportation, of whom three were actually executed.

4

In Antigua, nothing has been done, Lord Bathurst's despatch not having, so far as appears, been taken into consideration. In the Bahamas, a new consolidated slave-law has been framed, at essential variance with the Order in Council, the provisions of which the Colonists vehemently impugn as

unjust and injurious. They contend, that it is far better for all parties, that the negro should be left to the voluntary and unforced kindness of his master, than be protected by law; frankly declaring their resolution not to alter their legislation, from a decided conviction of the correctness of the principles on which they are acting,'-principles worthy of the most barbarous age. In Barbadoes, a new slave-code has also been adopted, of which it might be sufficient to say, that it is worthy of the Barbadians. It removes none of the obstructions to manumissions; it does not cause slaves to cease to be chattels; it provides no means of instruction for them; it does not abolish Sunday markets and Sunday labour; it does not legalize marriage among them, nor put an end to the driving system, or to the flogging of women, or to arbitrary punishments to an almost unlimited extent: in fact, it scarcely advances a single step towards the end contemplated in Mr. Canning's Resolution,-their participation in the civil rights and privileges of British subjects. This island, however, has distinguished itself lately in a way which leaves no room for any surprise at the iniquities of its legislation. On Sunday, October 5, 1823, a series of riotous outrages were commenced under the sanction of the magistrates, conducted by a white mob consisting of planters, merchants, and traders, and carried on for above a fortnight, without an attempt at interference on the part of the Governor or any other authority, the object and issue of which will best be seen from the following proclamations of the rioters.

• Great and signal Triumph over Methodism, and total Destruction of the Chapel ! ! ! Bridgetown, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 1823.

The inhabitants of this island are respectfully informed, that, in consequence of the unmerited and unprovoked attacks which have repeatedly been made upon the community by the Methodist Missionaries (otherwise known as the agents of the villainous African Society), a party of respectable Gentlemen formed the resolution of closing the Methodist concern altogether: with this view, they commenced their labours on Sunday evening, and they have the greatest satisfaction in announcing, that, by twelve o'clock last night, they effected the total destruction of the Chapel. To this information they have to add, that the Missionary made his escape yesterday afternoon, in a small vessel, for St. Vincent; thereby avoiding that expression of the public feeling towards him personally which he had so richly deserved. It is to be hoped, that as this information will be circulated throughout the different islands and colonies, all persons who consider themselves true lovers of religion will follow the laudable example of the Barbadians, in putting an end to Methodism and Methodist Chapels throughout the West Indies.'

The next day, the Governor issued a proclamation offering a reward for the detection of the rioters, who were well known. This brought out a counter proclamation in daring defiance and ridicule.

• Whereas a Proclamation having appeared, &c. &c. public notice is hereby given to such person or persons as may feel inclined either from pecuniary temptation or vindictive feeling, that, should they attempt to come forward to injure in any shape any individual, they shall receive that punishment which their crime will justly deserve. They are to understand, that to impeach is not to convict, and that the reward offered will only be given upon conviction; which cannot be effected while the people are firm to themselves. And whereas it may appear to those persons who are unacquainted with the circumstances which occasioned the said Proclamation, that the demolition of the Chapel was effected by the rabble of this community, in order to create anarchy, riot, and insubordination, to trample upon the laws of the country, and to subvert good order ;-It is considered as an imperative duty to repel the charge, and to state; firstly, that the majority of the persons assembled were of the first respectability, and were supported by the concurrence of nine-tenths of the community-2ndly, that their motives were patriotic and loyal, namely, to eradicate from this soil the germ of Methodism, which was spreading its baleful influence over a certain class, and which would ultimately have injured both Church and State. With this view, the chapel was demolished, and the villainous preacher who headed it and belied us, was compelled, by a speedy flight, to remove himself from the island. With a fixed determination, therefore, to put an end to Methodism in this island, all Methodist preachers are warned not to approach our shores; as, if they do, it will be at their own peril. God save the King and the People.'

When the Governor saw this treasonable proclamation, he asked the Council what he should do. The answer was, 'No'thing at all;' and nothing was done. Yet, a more honourable class of persons,' we are unblushingly assured by Mr. Manning, does not exist in any part of his Majesty's do'minions, than the inhabitants of Barbadoes.'

So are they all, all honourable men.'

These are the injured and aspersed Colonists, to whose enlightened sense of justice and humanity, we are to commit the task of legislating for themselves and their own slaves !

In Berbice, nothing has been done, the Governor having repeatedly pressed the subject on the Council of that Colony without effect; and he informs Lord Bathurst, that he has no hope of their acceding in any manner to the proposed measures of his Majesty's Government. In Bermuda, not the slightest. movement has been made towards reform. From Demerara, where the Missionary Smith was sentenced to be hanged, to the eternal infamy of his judges,-from that scene of legalised