right hand and on the left in the boon prodigality of primitive nature. The geranium, in particular, is so common. that the honey of the bees becomes something like a jelly of that flower. I differ from most people in not liking it so well as the English honey, though it is far purer and more transparent. That of Barbadoes is finer than either. Perhaps, after having been within ten degrees of the Equator, a second visit to Madeira would not charm me so deeply as the first. I have seen ocean and sky of a still brighter hue, and trees, and flowers, and mountains of still more beautiful and awful shapes. But I left England in December, shivering and melancholy, under a rain of two months' continuance; foul winds, eternal tacking, a tremendous gale, and the Bay of Biscay destroyed my spirits and increased my rheumatism; so that I longed after Madeira as for a land of promise; and the first sight of Porto Santo, with its scattered islets, its broken rocks, and verdant dells, filled my heart with that joy which no one can feel who has not made a voyage on the ocean.'

The Writer was present when the first Protestant Bishop arrived at Barbadoes, and he gives the following strange account of the strange scene.

The ships of war were dressed, and their yards manned, and salutes fired; this was pretty and common; but such a sight as the Carenage presented, very few have ever witnessed. On the quay, on the mole, on boats, on posts, on house-tops, through doors and windows, wherever a human foot could stand, was one appalling mass of black

As the barge passed slowly along, the emotions of the multitude were absolutely tremendous; they threw up their arms and waved their handkerchiefs, they danced, and jumped, and rolled on the ground, they sung, and screamed, and shouted, and roared, till the whole surface of the place seemed to be one huge grin of delight. Then they broke out into a thousand wild exclamations of joy and passionate congratulations, uttered with such vehemence that, new as it then was to me, it made me tremble; till I was somewhat restored by a chorus of negro girls,-" De Bissop is come! De Bissop is come! He is coming to marry us, coming to marry us, coming to marry us

all.”

Barbadoes boasts of being the most ancient colony in the British empire, and it has never changed hands. It was the asylum for the royalists during the interregnum, as Jamaica afterwards became for the republicans. Many of the present families are said to be lineal descendants of the original planters. The island is somewhat less than the Isle of Wight. The soil is for the most part a thin layer of earth upon a mass. of coral rock, which protrudes through it wherever there is an angle or a fissure, and it is considered as exhausted, manure being as necessary as in England. Yet, this island exports annually upwards of 314,000 cwts. of sugar; and it is notorious, the Writer says, that the negroes live here much better

than in any other colony, and increase in numbers every year. On the character of the Barbadians, the Writer touches very lightly, but we meet with the following very significant remark. I am convinced that one of the most effectual mea'sures for bettering the condition of the slaves, would be a thorough and humanizing education of the masters themselves.' We rejoice to hear that the indefatigable Bishop,' upon whom, by the way, the volume is a running panegyric, has opened several schools for both whites and children of colour. There are eleven churches in Barbadoes, and three chapels; it is not stated how these are attended; but in the sea-side parts of St. Philip's parish, for want of either church or chapel, the garrison, with an establishment of 2000 persons, are forced to live without any observance of any religious worship what6 ever. The reading of a few prayers in the open parade ground, by the chaplain, is really a complete farce, and so ⚫ understood to be.'

From Barbadoes, the Writer proceeded to Trinidad in company with the new Bishop, on a visitation tour through the diocese. In this island, Europe, Africa, and America shake hands. It is an Hispani-Anglican island, peopled with English, Spanish, French, Africans, and Indians. The latter seem to be the identical race of people whose forefathers Columbus discovered, and the Spaniards worked to death in Hispaniola. They are short in stature, (none that I saw exceeding five feet six inches,) yellow in complexion, their eyes dark, their hair long, lank and glossy as a raven's wing; they have a remarkable space between the nostrils and the upper lip, and a breadth and massiveness between the shoulders that would do credit to the Farnese Hercules. Their hands and feet are small-boned and delicately shaped. Nothing seems to affect them like other men; neither joy nor sorrow, anger nor curiosity, take any hold of them. Both mind and body are drenched in the deepest apathy: the children lie quietly on their mother's bosoms; silence is in their dwellings, and idleness in all their ways.

The amazing contrast between these Indians and the negroes powerfully arrested my attention. Their complexions do not differ so much as their minds and dispositions. In the former, life stagnates in the latter, it is tremulous with irritability. The negroes cannot be silent: they talk in spite of themselves. Every passion acts upon them with strange intensity; their anger is sudden and furious, their mirth clamorous and excessive, their curiosity audacious, and their love the sheer demand for gratification. Yet, by their nature they are good-humoured in the highest degree, and I know nothing more delightful than to be met by a groupe of negro girls, and be saluted with their kind "How d'ye, massa?" their sparkling eyes and bunches of white teeth. It is said, that even the slaves despise the Indians, and I think it very probable: they are decidedly inferior as intelligent beings.'

To this may be added the remarkable fact, that the mestizo, or mixed caste between the White and the Indian, is still more decidedly inferior in every intellectual quality to the mulatto. In Brazil, the superiority of the African over the copper-coloured race is not less conspicuous. At the same time there can be little doubt that the present race of Indians have degenerated since the days of Montezuma. Nor is it as seen in the tierras calientes of the tropical islands, or on the burning coasts of South America, that the Indian is to be fairly judged of, but in the temperate regions of the table land and in the recesses of the Andes.

The Bishop of Chester is sorely displeased at the practice of private regeneration. What will he say to the following description of an episcopal performance of the rite? Would he call it public or private baptism?

According to appointment, at nine the next morning, Mr. Mitchell's house was surrounded by a multitude of men, women, and children. Some came to be baptized, some to gossip, and some to be married. They all entered the house with perfect nonchalance, roamed about in every part of it, and laughed and gabbled in as unrestrained a manner as they would have done in their own huts. Mr. Mitchell's parlour, where I had slept, was constituted baptistery and altar. A white cloth was spread on the table, and a large glass vase, filled with pure water, was placed in the middle. After about a quarter of an hour's arduous exertions on the part of the governor and commandant, these light-hearted creatures were reduced to as low a degree of noise as their natures would admit. The bishop then read the first part of the service, the whole party kneeling or the floor; but when the rite of aspersion came to be performed, there had like to have been a riot, from the mother's jockeying for the honour of first baptism at the bishop's hand. The two chaplains ministered till they streamed, and never did I hear such incessant squalling and screaming as arose from the regenerated piccaninnies. I think seventy were baptized and registered, which was the most laborious part of all. We had some difficulty in collecting them for the con clusion of the service; but, upon the whole, the adult negroes behaved exceedingly well, and displayed every appearance of unfeigned devotion.'

The last remark must be meant for wit; and were the subject any thing less solemn than a religious rite administered in the name of the Holy Trinity, we could join heartily in the Author's laugh. Yet, had such a representation of this solemn farce been given by any person of less questionable churchmanship than the Bishop's travelling companion and assistant, we are quite sure that it would have been construed into an attempt to throw ridicule on the rites and doctrines of our

Apostol c Church. We shall content ourselves with the simple remark, that the Missionaries manage these things at least more decently; and if the Writer means to insinuate, that the negroes are incapable of being brought to understand the real nature of Christian baptism, or of the marriage contract, he is mistaken.

The jail in Trinidad' is the best in the Antilles, and really respectable.' In all the other islands they are infamous.' An honest tread-wheel' has been wisely provided with the most salutary effect; and the Author is of opinion that it must accompany every step in the process of emancipation. Be it so it is better than the cart whip. 'As far as I could see or hear,' he adds, the execution of the Orders in Council had created no permanent disturbance, and the planters themselves were willing to confess that a great deal of causeless violence had been displayed upon the occasion.' We shall not attempt to follow our Writer through the tour of the islands. The general character and temper of the volume will be seen from these extracts. The reader will expect to meet with a few hits at the Methodists and the Abolitionists; but these, we are charitable enough to believe, are thrown out with a view to propitiate their opponents, and to save the Author's character with them, rather than with any malice prepense. In fact, we are disposed to forgive him all his peccadilloes of this and every other kind, in consideration of the manly manner in which he speaks out on the subject of planters and slaves.

No English resident in the West Indies, however little conversant with the administration of justice in his native country, can fail to be struck with the system prevalent in the colonies. It is not easy to overrate the importance of enlightened and impartial judicature in any place or at any time, but the peculiar circumstances of society in these islands render its existence absolutely indispensable. In all communities where slavery is established, there ought to be good laws to protect the slaves, and independent judges to enforce their provisions; if there be neither one nor the other, or if there be one without the other, in either case one great corrective of the excesses of the free, one great guarantee of the safety of the bond, one greatfountain of civilization throughout the whole state, will be lost. As long as the slave confides in the protection of a power superior to his master, he will probably labor in tranquillity; but if he finds that there is no such power, or that such power is prejudiced against him, it is nothing but an ordinary impulse of human nature, that in case of oppression he should strive to obtain that by his violence, which has Deen, or which he suspects will be, denied to his petition.

• In Barbadoes the laws are administered by some twenty-seven or twenty-eight judges. They are all planters or merchants and are

appointed by the Governor. Not one of them has ever been educated for the bar, nor is any previous knowledge of the law a necessary or an usual qualification for the office. They neither comprehend the extent, nor are agreed upon the validity of the laws which they are called upon to interpret; they can none of them settle the limits of British and colonial enactments; they adhere to no fixed principles; they are bound by no precedents. The powers of a Chancellor are exercised by the Governor and the Council, which consists of thirteen members, and it is next to impossible in so small a community, that any cause should come into court in which some of these judges will not be directly or indirectly interested. I make no charge nor intend any insinuation whatever of corrupt practices; but giving them full credit for integrity of purpose, I must say that they stand in a situation which, according to the spirit of the British Constitution, incapacitates them from exercising any judicial authority. Their ignorance of, or shallow acquaintance with, the duties of their office must either subject their decisions to the influence of the Attorney General, or it may cause them in moments of wrong-headedness or passion to violate every form of law and trample upon every principle of justice.' pp. 295-297.

There are parts in the West Indian system which no plea of ne cessity can justify. Why should the planters refuse to change them? Few put them in execution, the majority condemn them, none profit by them. Why should a man who will not beat a woman himself, be loth to secure a woman from being beaten by others? Why should a man, who is just himself, deny the resource of public justice to those beneath him? How can the Christian, who prays for the improvement of all mankind, block up the inlets to the spiritual regeneration of the coloured men around his house? Why should he wish to do What does he fear? Insurrections? It is not knowledge, but uncertainty, which does and will beget commotion; it is not Reading and Writing, but the forbidden desire of Reading and Writing; not the Light, but glimpses of the Light withholden from them, which inflict the torments and inspire the frenzy of Tantalus.

'I exhort the colonists to consider their situation, the merits of the question, the state of national opinion, the relative strength of the parties. Let them not stand too nicely on the theory of their independence; well compacted as it may appear, it could never sustain collision with a mighty opposite. If Great Britain should be once provoked to anger, the rights of the colonists would be burst like the withs on the arms of the Nazarite, and be eonsumed before the kindling of her displeasure like tow in the fire. There is but one way by which the interference of Parliament may be avoided, and that is by anticipating it. If the colonists prize their independence, let them not hazard it by opposing, but insure it by themselves executing, that which will otherwise infallibly be done for them. This is no question for scholastic dispute, or for conference between the Houses; the planters must look at it as men of business, and take thought, not so much of what ought to, as of what will, be done; not so much of nonsuiting a plaintiff, as of resisting a forcible entry.' pp. 326, 7.