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atrocities, what could be expected? Their attempts to resist or to evade the directions transmitted to them, have compelledLord Bathurst to intimate, that however desirous his Majesty's Government may be that the origination of this measure of melioration should proceed from the Court of Policy, they would feel it their paramount duty to issue without further delay an Order of Council for the purpose of carrying them into effect,'-in the event of their not being immediately adopted. In Dominica, nothing has been done. In Grenada, a bill had, after considerable delay, passed the Assembly, the particulars of which have not transpired. From Montserrat, no information has been received. Nevis waits till it learns what has been done by St. Christophers; and St. Christophers gives fair promises of doing something" upon the express stipulation of full and fair indemnity for every interest that shall be injured thereby.' St. Lucia objects to Lord Bathurst's instructions, especially to the abolition of Sunday markets and of the flogging of women, and to the proposed facilities for manumission: religious instruction is deemed scarcely

practicable.' There is not, it seems, a Protestant minister or Protestant place of worship in the whole colony, nor a place of worship of any kind at the chief town. The legislature of St. Vincent begs leave to reject Lord Bathurst's very unnecessary innovations.' In Tobago, some improvements have been made on their former slave-code, but the House of Assembly have rejected the Trinidad order entirely. In Trinidad itself, that order was received with grief and dismay, and the planters affected to regard it as the work of the Abolitionists; but happily, no legislative assembly exists there to assume the high airs of independence, and the order has taken effect. Thus, then, the reader will see, that, in all the colonies, more or less, a spirit of determined resistance has manifested itself on the part of the local legislatures, to the moderate requisitions of his Majesty's ministers; and the colonists. generally exult in the refusal, encouraging each other to persevere in the same contumacious course. What remains, then, but for the British Parliament to do its duty?

The people of England, however, have first a duty to perform. Their voice must be heard, without which the best intentioned and most powerful Administration will find it impossible to stem the broad and deep tide' of Colonial influence. The abolition of the Slave-trade, Mr. Stephen remarks, would have been finally lost, though supported by Mr. Pitt and many of his powerful colleagues, had not the public voice supported the influence of the Crown, though in the hands of such ministers as Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox, against the clamours of the colonists and their advocates in this country. It is not

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the less necessary now, that that support should be given to Ministers, to enable them fearlessly to prosecute the good work which they have to their own honour taken in hand. There cannot be a more mistaken or pernicious notion, than that the cause is safe, because Parliament are pledged, and Ministers committed to accomplish the desired reform. On both sides of the House, the Abolitionists have to contend with numerous and powerful enemies. Colonial influence insinuates itself every where. It is felt,' says Mr. Stephen, even in the 'Cabinet; it is potent in every department of the State; and 'no inconsiderable part of the aristocracy is, by property or family connexion, placed under its guidance or control. As to the commercial body, a great part of it in the principal seats of foreign commerce, London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Glasgow, is, directly or indirectly, chained by private interest to the 'Colonial cause.' Giving Mr. Canning and Earl Bathurst all the confidence, honour, and thanks that they deserve, they do not constitute the entire Cabinet; nor must it be forgotten, how unwelcome soever the recollection, that they are linked with men who ranked foremost among the advocates of the Slave-trade itself. That that infernal traffic shall not be revived, we have no adequate security so long as the present system of West India slavery and colonial legislation is suffered to survive. It was the voice of the nation that carried the Abolition after a struggle of twenty years; and it remains with the nation to determine, whether that victory of Christian philanthropy over the demons of cupidity and infernal cruelty' shall be rendered abortive by the white mobs of our own West India islands.

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Efforts will no doubt be made to gain further time for the purpose of delusion. This was the policy of the apologists for the Slave-trade: the same tactics will be adopted by the advocates of slavery. For this purpose, Parliamentary legislation will be deprecated; and even Mr. Canning may be prevailed upon to give further space for repentance and amendment to the intractable and faithless Colonial Assemblies. On this point, the words of the Right Honourable Secretary in reference to the Slave Trade, in 1799, supply a forcible admonition at the present juncture.

• Trust not the masters of slaves in what concerns legislation for, slaves. However specious their laws may appear, depend upon it, they must be ineffectual in their operation. It is in the nature of things that they should be so. Let then the British House of Commons do their part themselves. Let them not delegate the trust of doing it to those who cannot execute that trust fairly. Let the evil be remedied by an Assembly of freemen, by the Government of a

free people, and not by the masters of slaves. Their laws can never reach, could never cure the evil. There is something in the nature of absolute authority, in the relation between master and slave, which makes despotism in all cases, and under all circumstances, an incompetent and unsure executor even of its own provisions in favour of the objects of its power.'" Slave Colonies," &c. p. 131.

The West India advocate who writes in the Quarterly Review, frankly admits, that it is not to acts of the colonial assemblies, nor yet, in his judgement, to acts of the British Parliament, that we are to look for the means of the most important improvement. If the master be willing,' he argues, there is scarcely any improvement in the condition of his slave which he cannot effectuate without a legislative act; and if ' he be an unwilling agent, a legislative act will commonly 'afford but a very unavailing remedy.' As regards the personal treatment of the slave, this is to a certain extent true; but, in reference to the Slave Code and the whole social system which it perpetuates in the Colonies, the most willing and humane individual can effect little. The Reviewer cannot be so ignorant as not to know this. Many of the evils are such as can be remedied only by an efficient legislative reform. Mr. Brougham has pledged himself to bring forward a Bill early in the next Session, which shall embrace the following distinct objects:

First; to make negro evidence admissible in all cases, in all courts, leaving of course its credibility to the consideration of the court and jury.

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Secondly; to prevent the use of the whip, as applied to women, entirely, and as a stimulus to labour, whether for men or women. Thirdly; to attach all slaves to the soil, rendering them inseparable from it under any circumstances.

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Fourthly; to prohibit persons holding West India property, or any mortgage upon such property, filling any office, civil or military (except regimental), in the West Indies.

And Lastly; to secure, by such means as may be safe at once to the Owner and the Slave, the gradual, but ultimately the complete admission of that injured class of men to the blessings of personal liberty.'

With this proposed measure distinctly before him, the Reviewer does not scruple to say: Were we compelled to 'choose between the two, we should much rather trust to the voluntary exertions and sacrifices of the colonists for the improvement of their slaves, than to any laws promulgated either at home or abroad for that purpose.' What does this declaration imply? That, in the opinion of this advocate of their own, the Colonists are men whom no laws can effectually bind or restrain; that the Colonial laws are mere parchment,

and that the acts of the British Legislature would be little. better. So convinced is this Writer of the futility of any legal enactments, whether originating with this country or with themselves, that he would rather trust to the bare chance. of a slave-master's generosity, whose tender mercies are, it seems, a surer protection for the slave, than the laws! Law, which every where else binds together civilized society, whose voice is the harmony of the world, to whom all things in heaven and earth do homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power,-Law, this universal mother of peace and joy,** is, in the West India Colonies of Great Britain, a step-mother harsh; and cruel, and faithless, the instrument of the oppressor, the Scourge of the defenceless; or rather, a nullity, an empty form. As regards Colonial Legislation, this is but too true. It remains to be seen,--and surely, for humanity's sake and for the honour of England, the experiment is worth making,whether there are not means of rendering the laws enacted by a British Parliament somewhat more effective.

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Against Mr. Brougham's proposed measure, (unless it be to the fourth provision,) it will scarcely be pretended that any specific objection can lie. They are admitted to be desirable. reforms, but not now. The whip,' says the Reviewer, can⚫ not be safely prohibited at this moment.' 'Of the expediency ' of attaching the slaves to the soil,' however, he is not at present so clearly convinced he has not had time to make · up his mind, and requires more extensive information.' But he is strongly inclined in favour of the most important 'boon,'-the making the testimony of slaves admissible evi'dence;' though its expediency would seem not to be so clear as the friends of the measure have generally imagined. Of the moral grounds for extending to this portion of our fellowsubjects, the common rights of humanity, this Writer seems wholly regardless;-so deeply tainted is his mind with the fundamental prejudice on which the whole system of colonial legislation is built. But Mr. Brougham's proposed measure cannot be charged with being vague, Utopian, violent, revolutionary, or even unreasonable. No doubt, Messrs. Baring, Bernal, Manning, and Co. will profess that the object is even highly desirable, but, not at this moment.' This was the delusion attempted to be practised by the gradual abolitionists' of the slave-trade, to the very last; and Mr. Clarkson remarks, that they were always considered as the most dangerous ene

* Hooker.

mies of the cause. This insidious but impotent defence will be the last strong-hold of the patrons of an unparalleled system of slavery. But the interests of the Colonies, not less than the claims of outraged humanity, demand an immediate adoption of these unexceptionable provisions. No reason that ought to satisfy the country can be given, why another session, another Parliament should expire, without this act of justice being recorded in the statute-book. Let the voice of the nation say, Now;-for any thing short of immediate redress in respect to at least the first three objects, will be an insult to humanity and a delusion on the country.

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But should the present Parliament leave this solemn duty undischarged, Mr. Stephen reminds us, that the Electors of the United Kingdom will soon have another opportunity of exercising one of the most cherished rights and one of the highest responsibilities of British citizens; and he calls upon them to let a regard to this momentous question have the paramount influence it deserves in deciding their suffrages. Mr. Clarkson remarks, at the conclusion of his History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, that the contest had been useful in the discrimination of public character. In private 'life,' he says, 'it has enabled us to distinguish the virtuous from the more vicious part of the community. It has shewn us the general philantrhopist. It has unmasked the vicious in spite of his pretensions to virtue. It has afforded us the same knowledge in public life. It has separated the moral statesman from the wicked politician. It has shewn us who, in the legislative and executive offices of our country, are fit 'to save, and who to destroy a nation. It has furnished us also with important lessons. It has proved what a creature man is; how devoted to his own interest; to what a length of atrocity he can go, unless fortified by religious principle.' The present contest is not less instructive; and the test it furnishes, may be turned to as good an account, not for the purposes of clamour, but of action. We do not say that those who take part with the Colonists may not be honourable men, or, in private life, amiable men, or, in public life, wellmeaning men ;-but they furnish by their conduct, the strongest evidence that they are not men in whom moral principle steadily predominates over any inferior consideration,-that they are not fit to be the legislators of a free people, not politically trust-worthy. A hundred and ninety-three gentlemen voted in the present Parliament, that the Missionary Smith, hurried

* Vol. II. pp. 581, 2.

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