things will necessarily proceed in their natural course, and their interference come to be, not an hindrance, but a foe. They have been permitted to organize a machinery perfect in form and wide in operation. Allow this machinery to be converted to political, instead of religious purposes, and it must follow of necessity, that they who command its movements will despise the notion of wielding such a power otherwise than for political purposesand a system of political purposes, too -distinctly and entirely their own. What that system would be, the past may tell us. Religious fanaticism cannot obtain political power, without being destroyed by the dangerous possession. There was never so little religion in England as after the Puritans had been lords of England for twenty years. Hypocrites must always in politics get the better of sincere fanatics, and the rule of hypocrisy must always end in producing a turn of thought and feeling diametrically the reverse of religious. Let the Saints be a political faction for twenty years, and no Wilberforce will be their chief. It is much more likely that some Brougham might be found to give the pious breakfasts, and pour his unction over the anniversaries-a consummation to wardswhich, we must add-and that with the most sincere feelings of sorrow and pity as to some, and indignation as to others of those concerned-an alarming approximation seems already, in certain instances, to have been made. We allude, of course, to the most unnatural alliance of the Saints and the Pseudo-Whigs, in relation to the affairs of the British West Indies. On the prima facie suspicious nature of that alliance, we have, on a former occasion, said enough to explain our feelings. We shall not now repeat what we then said: But proceed at once to notice the principal efforts which this alliance has made since we last called the attention of our readers to it and its proceedings.

The Saints have been bringing their heavy artillery into the field. Master Stephen has published a solemn octavo of 500 pages, under the solemn tittle of "The Slavery of the British West India Colonies DELINEATED, as it exists both in LAW and PRACTICE, and compared with the Slavery of other Countries, Ancient and Modern." The

author of this big book is a lawyer, nay, he holds a high office in the law of England. He practised at a West Indian bar for some years of his early life; and, first and last, has spoken and written about West Indian affairs perhaps more (and more trash) than any man in existence. Will it be believed, however, that an old lawyer, aye, a Master of Chancery, has given his law-book a title-page, which tells as much falsehood as to its contents, as could well be conveyed in the number of syllables it contains? His book does not delineate the West Indian slavery, either as it exists in law, or as it exists in practice. As for the law of the matter, it is quite sufficient to state, in one sentence, the simple fact of the case-viz. that this part of the book consists of an enumeration of all the laws (in so far as the author knows them) that have at any period been enacted in relation to the slave population of these colonies, and that it is absolutely impossible that even a Mansfield or an Eldon should gather from it any knowledge whatever, as to the present state of the law in relation to that population, in any one of the West Indian Islands. The statute of Elizabeth, repealed by James I.— the statute of James, repealed by Cromwell-the statute of Cromwell, (for even Saints in those days made slave laws,) repealed by Charles II., or William III., or Queen Anne-the statute of William, or Anne, or George I., repealed by George II., George III., or George IV.-all these statutes

those that never were in force for two years, and those that have been in force for two hundred-the dead, the dying, the living and thriving, all appear in these pages, drawn up in one array, equal and undistinguished

and this it is to delineate THE LAW, in relation to this population as that law EXISTS! We do believe, that no man possessing anything that could be called a lawyer's knowledge, to say nothing of a lawyer's reputation, least of all of a judge's place, did ever put forth a work upon a legal subject, so calculated to excite the unmitigated contempt of every person who understands anything whatever of what laws are, and of what legal books ought to be: and we may add, so admirably calculated to strengthen foolish prejudices, by confirming and condensing ignorance, among those who

do not happen to possess the habits of investigating evidence, or who, overawed by the sanctity of such a name as this, are not likely to ask of themselves many questions as to its authority, or to hesitate either about swallowing or swearing by the "Verba MAGISTRI."

So much for his law as it exists. His practice as it exists, is a thing of precisely the same sort. He repeats, for the five-hundredth time, stories of individual oppression, many of which have been over and over again disproved-almost none of which have ever been proved at all, and all of which, even if they were all proved, would amount to nothing, for this one simple reason that they are individual stories. This law-book, this digest, this West Indian Blackstone, has condescended to embody once again all the silly senile ravings of the Reports and Pamphlets. It does not even pretend to give us new facts-or rather, we should say, new stories. It repeats the old lies and the old truths together again in statu quo. Equally conspicuous for its want of shrewd ness and of candour, the book is, from end to end, the dullest and the most elaborate of libels.

The "comparison with the slavery of other countries, ancient and modern," remains to be noticed. In this, also, the ignorance and imbecility of the good man are not a whit less apparent. We cannot follow him through all his prosing and blundering; but we shall mention one single fact, and that we think will be considered as enough at least for the present. This lawyer professes among other things to compare the existing West Indian Slave Code with the Roman Slave Code-well, and how does he set about this? Why, passing over the circumstance, that, never having stated what the existing West Indian Code is, he cannot possibly have it to compare with any Roman Code whatever passing over all this enormous blunder in limine-Master Stephen compares the West Indian Code with the Slave Code of JUSTINIAN. Now, the truth happens to be, that the Emperor Justinian was a Christian emperor, who lived and legislated in the 14th century of Rome, in the sixth century of Christ, and two centuries after the Christian religion had become the established religion of

the Roman empire. The slavery, therefore, in regard to which he made ameliorating, not abrogating laws, had existed for nearly fourteen hundred years. It existed, at the time when he made those laws, in the midst of nations in the highest degree refined and civilized-not in colonies, not in islands-but in mighty kingdoms and empires, where industry and art were flourishing and had been so for a much longer period than they have as yet flourished in any of the existing nations of Europe-and nearly twice as long as they have as yet flourished in England itself.

The slaves, moreover, in regard to whom he made laws, were not, to any extent, worth mentioning, negroes, or savages, or the immediate descendants of savages. They were the labouring population of the greater part of the European soil, and of the whole, or very nearly so, of the Italian soilthey were the artizans and mechanics of imperial cities, like Rome and Constantinople-they had been continually improving in their condition during a long course of centuries, from the necessity of things, from their sharing in the information, the arts, the science of the times; from those natural causes, which, in every society of the world, have slowly, gradually, but surely, lifted men from slavery into perfect freedom. More than six centuries before this time, there existed among the slaves of Rome a certain person of the name of TERENCE. Almost as far back, a certain person of the name of HORACE had been the grandson of a Roman slave. Emancipated slaves had been, in innumerable instances, the generals, the magistrates, the ministers, to all intents the rulers, of the Roman empire. And yet it is between the laws made for a body of slaves which had existed for such a length of time, which had gradually become susceptible of the refinement and knowledge implied in its producing such men as have been now alluded to; it is between the laws made for a body of slaves having such a history as this behind them, and existing in such countries, and such a society, as have been described-it is between these laws and the laws now in real or in fancied operation, in regard to the new and barbarous population of the British colonies in the Caribbean sea it is between the slave population of

fourteen hundred years standing and that of two hundred years standing it is between the population, at the best but a few degrees off from the naked savages of the Guinea coast, and the population, from the bosom of which the Terences and the Horaces sprung-it is between Constantinople and St Kitts, that this most accurate of all historians, and most profound of all jurists, institutes his comparison.

66

He does not trouble us with any allusion to the state of the Roman Slave Code at the time when our Saviour appeared to preach his Divine mission in the midst of the Roman empire. At that time-he takes good care not to tell us--the master had absolute power of life and death over his slave; at that time, however unpleasant such reminiscences may be to Master Stephen, if a Roman gentleman was killed by one of his slaves, THE WHOLE of that gentleman's slaves were put to death, in expiation of that one murder. At that time, if a Roman master died on a journey, under circumstances in the least degree dubious, the whole of his attendants died the death, pour encourager les autres. These are facts which are known to everybody except those who rely on the magnum opus of Master Stephen for their notions of West Indian slavery, as compared with the Slavery of other Countries, Ancient and Modern." And it is also a fact, which ought to be known to the members of the Missionary Society, the African Institution, and all the Societies for the Promotion of East Indian sugar, that our Saviour lived and preached in the midst of a slave population, existing, not under Justinian's laws, but under these, and that he both lived and preached without doing one act, or uttering one word, that could, in any manner or degree whatever, tend to set that population at variance with their masters. Lastly, it is a fact, that the most illustrious of his Apostles, he, who was the great instrument employed in planting the religion we profess among the Greeks and the Romans themselves; he, whose peculiar office and privilege it was to preach Christianity to the wisest and most enlightened of the nations of the world-it is a fact, that St Paul has, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 7th, verse 21, &c. written these words words which, most assured

ly, no Wilberforce nor Stephen ever quoted-words from which, most assuredly and most unhappily, no Smith ever took his text, when addressing the poor ignorant negroes of the British colonies.-St Paul's words are—

Δελος έκληθης ; Μη σοι μελετω. Αλλ' ἐι και δύνασαι ἐλευθερος γενεσθαι, μᾶλλον Xpηgal.

Εκασος εν ᾧ ἐκληθη, αδελφοι, ἐν τετα μενετω, παρα τῷ Θεῷ.

which, being interpreted, signify,

"Art thou called being a SLAVE ? Care not for this. But if, nevertheless, thou hast the opportunity of gaining thy freedom, it is better to make use of that opportunity than to let it pass.

Brethren, let every man in the condition of life wherein he is called, in that condition abide, with God."

Such is the literal meaning of St Paul's words. The word which we have rendered slave, is, of course, made servant in the English translation, as it is the case throughout that work. Indeed, it may perhaps be news to some of the inferior partizans of those who do not choose to tell all they know, that whenever the word servant occurs in the English Bible, without the word hired expressly prefixed to it, that word servant is in the original Hebrew or Greek, in every one instance, and without exception, SLAVE. This error should, without delay, be corrected in the Bibles that go out to the West Indies: and we are pretty certain, that the simple fact now stated, will produce some effect at home, among those followers of the anti-colonial leaders who do read these Bibles. Let any man turn up servant in the Concordance, and allow himself to reflect for a few moments on the import of what is before his eyes.

To such things as these, however, the anti-colonial Saints are, or appear to be, utterly blind. They have been, and are, acting in the most direct opposition, the most flagrant opposition, not merely to all that the history of the world, but to all that the words and deeds of our Saviour, and his immediate and inspired disciples, might be expected to teach them. They pretend to be historians, and they set the past at defiance They pretend to be philosophers, and they shut their ears against everything like reason. They are, or they pretend to be, Christians,

and they speak and act in a manner not merely different from, but essentially and diametrically opposite to, the mode both of speech and of action which found favour with the Divine Founder, and the inspired Establishers of that Faith-the name of which is everlastingly in their mouths, the humane wisdom of which they themselves have proved to be equally beyond their knowledge, their comprehension, and their sympathy.

The Edinburgh Review, meanwhile, continues to back the heavy and unreadable performances of these stupid and blundering fanatics, by lucubrations conceived under the influence of a very different set of feelings, and composed, undoubtedly, in a style much more likely to produce some effect among the ignorant but sane part of our population. Mr Henry Brougham has rather too much sense to assume as yet the cant of the Missionary Societies, in the pages of a review which has been, for so large a course of time, the most implacable derider of Methodism in every shape and shade. He has objects of his own, and he has weapons of his own. They write the pamphlets which circulate among the old women who support their innumerable institutions and associations, &c. &c. by their purses: it is his business to write articles in the Edinburgh Review, for the edification and guidance of the inferior scribes of his own party, to put big words and small arguments into the mouths of the pseudoWhig praters over the land, to prepare the Members of Parliament who have no West Indian property for his own next speech on the West Indies, -in short, he and the Stephenses, write for two entirely different sets of readers.-The Master is the Man of Feeling of the party: the Barrister is its Man of the World.

He has recourse, therefore, to three arguments, the substance of which may be stated in three sentences. First, It is ridiculous, says he, to persist in asserting, that the amelioration of the condition of the negroes ought to be intrusted to their masters and the government, for their masters and the government have done nothing for their benefit during these thirty years that have gone by, since the slave trade first began to attract a large share of public attention. The institutions and associations, therefore, must con

tinue in restless activity-with pen, and with tongue, and with purse. Second, No real damage would be done to the British West Indies, by the immediate adoption of the sweeping measures of the Associations. Third, and last, and best of all-Even if the West Indian colonies were injured— were destroyed-in consequence of those sweeping measures, that would be no evil to England at all worthy of being set up against the good effects of those measures.

These are the three steps, or rather, as our friend Mr Coleridge would call them, landing-places, of Mr Brougham's argument. A sort of corollary or backstairs is appended; viz. In the meantime, make your puddings and jellies, all good men and true, with East Indian sugar-for that is encouraging the free industry of a well-used population, instead of putting money into the pockets of a heartless, unprincipled, cruel, lascivious, profligate, and tyrannical set of slave- drivers. Such are the views of the subject at present expounded, and enforced, by Mr Henry Brougham; nor were the brutal recklessness, the insolent levity, the real ferocity, of this gentleman's party, ever more triumphantly displayed than in his scandalous performance, in the 81st number of the Edinburgh Review. Mr Brougham, if not a longheaded, is undoubtedly a hardheaded man. His spite is not a drivelling of imbecility His rancour is not frenzy. We pity those who have accepted him as their coadjutor. We understand him: And we only wish our limits could permit us to shew at once how thoroughly we do so.-But we shall at least make a beginning.

:

I. His first assertion is, that the planters and the government have, by their past proceedings, proved themselves incapable of doing what ought to be done for the negroes.-Now, the best way of answering this may perhaps be, to pass over for the present the question both as to persons and motives, and simply ask, what has been done for the negro population in our own time?

1. In the first place, then, the total stop which has been put to the importation of new slaves from Africa, has raised to a prodigious extent the value of every slave in the West Indies, in the eyes of his master. In other words, it has compelled the master either to disregard utterly his own pecuniary

interest, or to do everything in his power for the promotion of the bodily health and strength, and the prolongation of the life of his negro-and for the increase of his posterity. Accordingly, the planters assert that they have been unwearied in their exertions for making the negroes comfortable in everything that regards food, clothing, lodging, medical attendance, and the fit regulation of the quantity of labour to be performed. Their enemies deny all this. The planters demand that we shall not believe their enemies, in the teeth both of their own assertion, and of the assertion of a host of naval, and military, and legal officers of the crown, who have had means of making themselves personally acquainted with these colonies; and in the teeth, moreover, of the incontrovertible fact, that in all ages of the world, men, and especially mercantile men, have been accustomed not to leave undone what it was their clear and obvious interest to do they demand that we shall not believe all this, without a solemn and deliberate examination of evidence; in other words, without sending out a parliamentary commission, to see and study the real condition of the negro population in the West Indies. The enemies of the planters hold this demand of theirs in utter scorn; they, on their part, demand, that we shall read their pamphlets and reviews, and form our judgment, as to the facts of the case, upon the (avowedly ex-parte) statements therein contained.

2. Another consequence of the abolition of the slave trade has been, that the relative proportion of the two sexes has made continual and rapid progress towards what it is found to be in every natural society; whereas, formerly, the numbers of the two sexes were kept to a miserable extent disproportioned; in as much as, while new slaves could be purchased in Africa, inales were of necessity considered as more desirable acquisitions than females; and accordingly the male population was receiving daily additions, much above the female. No man, who has any reason at all, can doubt that this consequence must have followed from the abolition. The planters assert that it has done so, and they further assert, that the sexes are becoming daily more upon a par as to numbers, and consequently that the sexual habits of the negro population have been daily improving. They assert,

that wherever a man can get a woman to himself, he prefers this to sharing her with others; that negroes have the same feeling, as to this, with whites; that, accordingly, permanent connexions between man and woman have been, and are daily becoming, more common; that the necessary conse quence of this is, and has been, a prodigious progress towards the virtuous feelings of domestic life; that the slaves have been, and are daily becoming, more and more alive to the proper feelings of husbands and wives, and consequently of fathers and mothers, and sons and daughters ;-in other words, that the foundation of civil society has been laid among them. The planters assert, that this, of itself, is a prodigious step in improvement: they assert, that if the same causes continue (which they must) to produce the same species of effects for a very few generations, the inequality between the numbers of the men slaves and the women slaves will have entirely disappeared; and they say, that when that consummation has been achieved, the greatest evil that ever attached to the condition of this population will have ceased to have any existence. The planters assert, that this most blessed reformation is proceeding at this hour with sure and rapid steps, under the present state of society in the Colonies, and they de precate any rash and violent interference with the frame of that society, while it is in progress, and incomplete. To this also the enemies of the planters listen with utter derision and contempt. They will hear nothing when the West Indies are concerned, even of the rules of nature. Away, they cry, with all such cold and calculating philosophy. You hold men in bondage-you have no right to do so: lay aside your atrocious authority, and then, and not till then, talk of the foundations of civil society having been laid among the negro population.

This brings us at once to a very great question-in reality the only one as to which these two parties are, as rational beings, at issue-the question, namely, whether a slave population can, under any conceivable circumstances, pass from the state of slavery into the state of freedom, unless through or by the operation of certain great laws provided by nature herself; laws, in aid of which the exertions of indivi