by Dr. Newman, J. Townsend, Esq. Dr. Brown, the Rev. Messrs. J. Townsend, Stewart (of Dublin), Adkins, G. Townsend, Smith, Young, Dyer, and M. Wilk's,

Lord Dacre closed the meeting with a most eloquent expression of his entire accordance in the plan and proceedings of the Society.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.

We have felt it expedient, with a view of completing our general view of the present state of the question, to give the following détails from the Parliamentary reports, and the proceedings of the African Institution.

On the evening of Thursday, the 16th May, this important subject was discussed in the House of Commons, upon the motion of THOMAS FOWEL BUXTON, Esq., " that the state of Slavery is repugnant to the principles of the British Constitution, and of the Christian religion, and that it ought to be abolished gradually throughout the British colonies, with as much expedition as may be found consistent with a due regard to the well-being of the parties concerned.

Mr. Burton supported his motion, by an able, eloquent, and argumentative speech of considerable length, of which it is impossible for us to give even an abstract. He introduced the subject by explaining to the House, that it had been devolved upon him by Mr. WILBERFORCE, the well known and tried friend of Africa, and the original agitator and champion of the long contested question respecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. The points for which Mr. Buxton contends are,

1st. That slaves shall be attached to the island, and, under modifications, to the soil.

2d. That they shall cease to be chattels in the eye of the law.

3d. That their testimony shall be received quantum valeat.

14th. That when any one lays in a claim for the services of a Negro, the Onus should rest on the claimant.

55th. That obstructions to manumisisions should be removed.

6th. That the provisions of the Spaonish law (that the value of a slave shall bbe fixed by competent authority, and that he should be allowed to purchase his liberty a day at a time) should be introduced.

7th. That no Governor, Judge, or Attorney, should be a slave-owner.

8th. That an effectual provision should be made for the religious instruction of I slaves.

9th. That marriage should be enforced and sanctioned among them.

10th. That the Sunday should be devoted by the slaves to repose and religious instruction; and that other times should be allotted to them for the cultivation of their provision grounds.

11th. That some measures should be taken to restrain the authority of the master in punishing his untried slave, and that some substitute should be found for the driving system.

In addition to these important modifications of the system, it is proposed, as a sure but silent mode of undermining the system of slavery, that all the children of slaves should be declared free, who are born after a certain day.

This plan was introduced into the Island of Ceylon in 1816, where it has been in operation to the present time, and promises the most beneficial results. It has also been introduced into Bencoolen, St. Helena, and other places, and has been extensively adopted in South America.

Mr. Cunning, who on this occasion may be considered as representing the sentiments of Government, did not altogether oppose the object of the motion, but submitted, as an amendment, the following propositions, which were adopted by the House.

1st. That it is expedient to adopt effectual and decisive measures for ameliorating the condition of the slave population in his Majesty's dominions.

2d. That through a determined and persevering, but at the same time judicious and temperate enforcement of such measures, this House looks forward to a progressive improvement in the character of the slave population, such as may prepare them for a participation in those civil rights and privileges which are enjoyed by other classes of his Ma'jesty's subjects.

3d, That this House is anxious: for the accomplishment of that purpose, (at the earliest period which shall be compatible with the well-being of the slaves themselves, with the safety of the colonies, and with a fair and equitable consideration of the interests of private property.

$4th. That these resolutions be laid before his Majesty.

I

the

- ex

Mr. Wilberforce addressed House upon the subject, generally, pressing deep regret that the plane of emancipating the children of slaves had not been adopted when first proposed by Mr. Dundas, upwards of 30 years since, as in that case there would scarcely be at the present time one slave in the West India Islands.

AFRICAN INSTITUTION.

On Thursday, the 16th May, the annual meeting of this Institution took place in Freemasons' Tavern, H. R. H. the Duke of Gloucester in the Chair.

The Report was read by J. Harrison, Esq. It began by alluding to the proceedings upon the subject at the Congress of Verona. France, had refused to enforce any new laws for the suppression of the odious traffic, and had showed great repugnance and unwillingness to enter at all into the question. It was evident that there was no feeling on the part of France respondent to that in England, to which they would give no credit, ascribing the endeavours of this country to put an end to the trade to interested motives. France was the only power which had refused to subscribe to laws for the prevention of the practice which was carried on under her flag, and during the last year alone 38,000 human beings had been carried into utter and irretrievable slavery. The horrors of the trade had been much more increased in consequence of its being in some measure contraband; but, though it was contraband, the penalties inflicted by the French law were so inadequate and so uncertain as scarcely to be of any avail against the trade, which returned a profit of more than 300 per cent. Few vessels would venture to search a ship protected by the French flag, unless under circumstances of extreme suspicion. The Report expressed great disappointment at the result of the discussion at Verona upon the subject, and expressed the belief of the Committee, that the prospect of the ultimate suppression of the practice was still more distant than ever. Portugal had refused to make additional laws for the suppression of the trade. The Report detailed the circumstances of the capture of four slave vessels by a squadron of British vessels. Measures had been taken for preventing the extension of slavery to the Cape of Good Hope, as it was probable that a large market would have been established there. In Ceylon, and in other islands, the inhabitants themselves had taken measures for the amelioration of the condition of their slaves. In several of the British Colonies, more regular registries of slaves had been kept, and the most efficient measures taken against the trade, and the introduction of new slaves. The Colony of Sierra Leone was continuing to improve in civilization, and was gaining in extent and strength. Agriculture and commerce were gaining ground there; many new plants had been introduced and successfully cultivated, and vaccination had been generally in troduced throughout the Colony; a

"

small Colony had been established on the coast by the American Society; a regular town laid out, and the natives were very amicable, and their disposition was generally highly favourable to the operatious of the philanthropist. Amongst the contributions which the Society had received was one from the niece of the late Granville Sharp, who had given to them the entire profits of her uncle's Memoirs, edited by Prince Hoare, Esq. amounting to upwards of five hundred pounds. Other eminent donations had been received from philanthropic individuals, and the funds had not fallen short of the receipts on former years.

The reception of the Report was moved by the Marquis of Lansdowne, who commended the free Government of Spain, for its conduct with respect to the slave trade, in which it differed from all the other continental nations.

This motion was seconded by Mr. Buxton in a speech of considerable length, in which he animadverted upon the conduct of France in continuing the traffic. But our own conduct was not matter of great congratulation. When our magnanimity was praised hereafter, with respect to this traffic, and when it was asked in what we had shown our magnanimity, it might be answered that we did not now steal slaves, but we magnanimously resolved to keep what we had stolen. The planters, it was said, had an undoubted right to the slaves which they possessed. Mr. Bowring, a person who had been engaged in the traffic, had related, in the course of a narrative, that having landed on the dominions of one of the African monarchs, he sent to inform his Majesty, that he had come to present to him three articles, namely, gunpowder, ball, and brandy, and hinted, that his Majesty would, for these articles, doubtless give a supply of three others in return-men, women, and children. His Majesty graciously received the intimation, but said, that having none of those articles by him disposable at present, he would go to war if an advance of ball and gunpowder were given to him, and in a few days put himself in a condition to return the liberality of Mr. Bowring. It was not long before he performed his promise. Mr. Bowring was invited to accompany his Majesty upon an expedition. He agreed. At the end of a long march they came at night to the banks of a river. His Majesty pointed out the situation of a town or flourishing village on the other side, which it was his intention to attack. At the dead of night he invited Mr. Bowring to accompany him; but the latter having visitings of fear, requested that he might be allowed to stay

behind, and the request was acceded to. The King and his warriors then crossed the river. It was not long before he saw flames burst out in the village, and then he heard the war-whcop, the cry of the inhabitants, starting from their houses, and the shricks of the women. His Majesty returned with 25 fine slaves, which Mr. Bowring bought with ball and brandy he sold them to the planters, who had therefore an undoubted right to them. There was another instance which was stated of the manner in which the right to slaves was often derived. One day there was a fine stout young negro came upon the deck with an open and smiling countenance. He was greatly disconcerted when a collar was put round his neck, and chains to his feet. When he was interrogated, he said, that he was a freeman. He had a plantation up the river, and had supplied the man who brought him on board with provisions; and on that day had come down for the purpose of obtaining payment for them. Having never seen a ship before, his seller said, he would give him a treat, and took him on board and disposed of him. The Captain said, he had nothing to do with this; he bought him, and sold him to the planters, who, of course, had therefore an undoubted right to him. On one occasion, when the King wanted ball and brandy, he went up the river with his attendants, and having found a man fishing, he asked the price of the fish he had caught, and charged him with sell. ing it at an exorbitant price. The man was convicted, and sold to the Captain, who sold him to the planters, who, to be sure, had now an undoubted right to him. There was one black seller of slaves who had done us the honour, out of compliment, to assume the name of Ben Johnson. One day, Ben Johnson brought on board a girl of fifteen, whom he sold. It was not long before some people came on board, and requested to see the girl. Having seen her, they went away, and shortly after returned with Ben Johnson himself, whom they offered for sale to the Captain. Ben said, 66

master wont buy me; I be grand slave-seller myself." "Yes, but I will buy you," replied the Captain, to the amazement of Ben, who was chained up with the others whom he had disposed of, and was sold with them to a planter. Now this was a case with which he (Mr. Buxton) was perfectly satisfied, and he wished that every advocate or promoter of the Slave Trade throughout Europe might meet the fate of Ben Johnson; he wished with all his heart that the cabinet of France were sent off in a ship load from the world, which

The

would not suffer by their loss. honourable gentleman, in very energetic language, contended, that the Government was guilty of a great second crime in perpetuating slavery, for those who were yet unborn had a right to be free. It had been held out on the night before as a monstrous and mischievous thing that negroes should read the debates in the English newspapers, in which they would discover what they had never dreamt of before, that they were wretched and miserable, and be incited to free themselves by insurrection. It was, perhaps, conceived that the negroes could walk into a coffee-house, and read the newspapers after dinner as we could do. But the complaining gentleman should know that the negro had other engagements after dinner, and that there were several little difficulties which prevented the dreadful consequences which he apprehended. There were no coffeehouses, no newspapers, and there was hardly a negro to be found who could read. The idea which the negroes in general formed of a letter was, that it was a kind of speaking animal; and he would take the liberty of stating an anecdote, which would shew the state of the negroes' belief as to writing. A negro was sent with a letter to a gentleman at some distance, but in the way he met with a party of negrocs dancing and making merry. He was exceedingly anxious to take a little sport with the rest, but he was very uneasy about the letter, which he was apprehensive would tell of him. At last, however, he hit upon an expedient to enjoy himself with safety. He made a deep hole in the ground, at the bottom of which he placed the letter, and covered it over in a manner, so as not only to prevent it from seeing, but to prevent it from hearing. The circumstance was discovered by an inquiry into the cause of the dirtied state of the letter, which he then thought had betrayed him, and he made a confession.

Mr. Buxton concluded his speech with an exhortation, in which we heartily concur, that the persons present, and all others, would do justice to the character of the country, to the feelings of benevolence, and especially to the children who were yet unborn, by crowding the Table of the House of Commons with petitions against the conti. nuance of slavery, PRAYING FOR ITS ABOLITION THROUGHOUT THE BRITISH CoLONIES.

The Count de Torreno, a Spanish nobleman, who had been introduced to the meeting by the Marquis of Lansdowne, addressed it in French, assuring them that a grand sentiment was spreading in Spain upon the subject-that they were

fully aware in the Cortes of the sacred right of all beings to be free, and that the friends of humanity there would contribute with their whole souls to the attainment of an object, the justice of which was so clear and evident.

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.-The general state of the Mission under the direction of this Institution is so well known through the authorized channels, that we shall refer to the Report for the minute details. The Twenty-ninth Anniversary of the Society was held on Thursday, May 15, at Queen Street Chapel, William Alers Hankey, Esq. in the chair. The Report was read by the Rev. Mr. Arundel, and the different motions were enforced by the Rev. Dr. Wardlaw, the Rev. Messrs. J. Julian, T. Smith, of Rotherham, H. Townley, D. Stewart, J. Morison, J. Fletcher, E. Irving, and Mark Wilks.

It is with regret that we pass over the excellent speeches which were delivered on this occasion, but as the address of the Rev. H. Townley, recently returned from India, contained a number of important facts, we shall give it nearly

entire.

The Rev. H. Townley said, it had pleased God to enable him to meet the Society on his return from India. Should they inquire of him if he repented of going out, his answer would be, No.-Did he ever in his absence repent of it? No-Did he never suffer depression from the inconveniences to which he had been subject? No.-Was he willing to go out a second time? Yes. Nor had he come to these resolutions without a due reference to circumstances, which were calculated, on ordinary occasions, to weigh heavily on the mind. He had grappled with death, who had no terrors for him, because they were all mitigated by the consideration of the service in which he had been engaged. Their Missionaries in India felt the loss of any of their brethren as much as it was felt in England. This was but natural; yet they must allow him to say, that those disasters might be too much counted upon. In the first place, there was a consoling reflection, that those who did die, died in the Lord, and their spirits were with "the just made perfect.' But there was another view which they were bound to take the value of life must not be reckoned by the number of its years, but by the magnitude of the work which occupied it. He appealed to the lives and labours of such men as Martin and others, if they could settle the value of existence by the years? or whether they must not regard simply the labours of their administration to ascertain its re

:

lative importance. Some of his own relations and friends had said to him, "Do not go to India, you will die soon." This might have been very true. He did not expect at one time that he should ever see England again. But he reckoned that in the present state of Christianity in the world, five years spent in India would be equal to fifty spent in England. He had seen the condition of the Hindoo in various parts of Hindos tan and the scenes of delusion and darkness which he was about briefly to recite to them were from the observation of his own eyes. The people of that continent were in an awful state. Ignorance and delusion almost incredible held their minds in bondage. In travelling up the country from Bengal he had the most lamentable proofs of it. He would give them only an instance, trifling compared with the number of what he had seen. A brother was preaching to a congregation in the open air. A Brahmin came up, and took his stand on the verge of the assembly. A Hindoo broke from out of the ring, and precipitated himself at the feet of the Brahmin, whom he literally adored. He brought water and washed the feet of the priest, which water the disciple took up and drank of it, and so did his whole family, or as many of them as were present, deeming that the feet of the Brahmin had sanctified the water. They wanted the knowledge of the most ordinary operations of nature. They believed that when the sun was about to be eclipsed, it was the ill-will of a great giant, who was about to devour the sun. The figure represented in the eclipse bearing some resemblance to a pair of lips, favoured the gross superstition, and they took instruments, with which they made a noise and clangour, and performed incantations, in order to prevent the giant from devouring the sun. Their general theology was equally base and unworthy. They were divided into two sects, the chief of which held that there was no difference between the creature and the Creator. He had held a conversation with one of the priests of this sect, who maintained the propriety of believers worshipping their priests, for which he received a sufficient rebuke from the worthy Missionary. The other division of their theological kingdom had no less than 33 millions of gods. Their worship was confined to a few of the members, and consisted of the most abominable rites which the most depraved mind could conceive. The dreadful extent of cruelty practised in their ceremonies was another consideration. He had seen the worship of Juggernaut in almost every part of Bengal. He had on one occasion approached the car, and he found the paintings upon it to comprise every

species of monstrous and abominable indelicacy, and in these polluted rites even children and matrons joined. He would now touch upon the cruelties practised. They had heard of the burning of widows. He attended one of those shocking ceremonies. A Brahmin who knew him, said, "What, are you come to see the fun?" The worthy Missionary said, "You may call it fun, but God will account it to you for murder." The Brahmin replied, it was the custom of the country, and if any one were to blame, it would be the British Government, under the permission of whose magistrates it was done. The mention of the Government induced him to say a few words, lest it should be thought that it was his intention to reflect upon their conduct. It was quite the reverse. They bad done whatever they thought practicable to prevent these burnings. But it did so happen, that their efforts had a contrary effect; and there was nothing effectual which they could do, unless they suppressed the practice by force altogether. As it was, there had been a regulation established to prevent the burning of widows, unless they were first visited by a magistrate, and he discovered that it was by their own will that the ceremony should take place. Now the Brahmin well observed upon this, that whereas before burning was frequently prevented by the odium and the execration of the Europeans, which were known to attach to those who assisted at those wicked ceremonies, now whenever they took place, they seemed in a measure to have the sanction of the local government, and the effect, upon the whole, was a considerable increase of these funerals. He had heard of a petition, which was under signature in Bedfordshire, praying

the Government to take measures for stopping that practice altogether. His own Pundit, whom he had engaged to teach him the Bengal language, gave it as his opinion, that an order from Government to suppress the practice would cause no disturbance whatever. The drowning of children had been suppressed in a similar manner, and no attempt had been made to evade the law. A considerable portion of India was Mohammedan, and they abhorred the practice of burning as much as the Engfish

-nay, a very large sect of the Hindoo population abhorred it, and considered it in the light of murder. Those who worshipped Vishnoo, and who were about one in three of the whole continent, abhor the taking away the life of any thing. One of them had attacked him upon this principle on the ground of the atonement. He asked the Hindoo if they did not sacrifice widows; and the answer was, No-all those of his sect

considered every act of that kind murder. So that they had their own authority, together with the influence of the Mohammedan, European, and a considerable portion of the Hindoo population to oppose to the practice. He was once at the feast of Kalee, where they worship the Black Ram. The festivities were truly dreadfu'. A wretch had got a bamboo thrust through his arm, which he drew to and fro, that he might afterwards, by keeping the orifice open, practise upon the pious charity of his countrymen. There was an abundance of slitting of tongues in various modes. One man had a living snake coiled about his body-another fell backwards on flints, and knives, and glass, prepared for his fall-one had a hook through the flesh of his back, and was swung round an area as wide as the chapel. There was a practice of burying widows alive as well as of burning them. The widow received the head of her dead husband in her lap. The grave was filled up as high as her lips, and then the children and relations suddenly filled up the remainder, making hideous cries. He stated these things to animate the Society to new endeavours, in order to save the hundreds of thousands who would else become the victims of these horrors from time to time. He intreated the Assembly to renew their energies in behalf of 600 millions of people. They must devote themselves and all that was theirs to God. He had done so, and had never regretted, though death had twice stared him in the face since he first left England.

Meeting was held on Monday, May 5, at the City Road Chapel, Joseph Butterworth, Esq. M. P. in the Chair. It was peculiarly gratifying to witness the ready aid afforded by other denominations on this interesting occasion; the larger portion of the speakers, consisting, we believe, of individuals unconnected with the Methodist Society.

The WESLEYAN Annual MISSIONARY

The Report was read by the Rev. Mr. Watson (one of the Secretaries), and contained, as usual, a circuit through all their Missionary Stations. Beginning with Europe, it remarked, that the Scriptures had been happily introduced into Spain from our garrison at Gibraltar, where a good work appears to be carrying on, as also in Malta. No recent intelligence had been received from Continental India, but the prospects in Ceylon are very encouraging. At New Zealand circumstances have been very unfavourable, owing to the late war; but letters up to November last, state,