THE SLAVE TRADE. Sir,-In the discussion which has taken place lately on the abolition of the slave trade, it was said "opinions differ on the necessity of the abolition for the safety of the islands;" so they do on every subject that can be started. How then are we to be guided but by the sentiments of those, who, from local knowledge, experience, and conviction founded on long observation, are enabled to decide? These are the resident planters; there is no difference of opin on among them. But the abolitionists tell them, they know nothing about the matter; that they are obstinate and will not be taught or persuaded. What would the representatives of Yorkshire and their brother 'squires say to a West India gentleman who should tell them, thơ he had never even seen Yorkshire, that they were all ignorant, perverse people, not acquainted with their own interests, and incompetent to judge of, or manage their own concerns? Why sir, they would deem him mad. It was then asked, what should prevent the keeping up the negre p pulation without the importation of fresh slaves? and it was asserted, that the cause was, their being scantily fed, and overworked. An observation too, was tacked to this, "that it was not so with the common people in England, who were well fed and not overworked." I sincerely wish such was the state of the labouring poor in England. But some of the best men and humane masters, resident for many years on their own estates, have experienced the total impossibility of dispensing with fresh importations, and the causes are easily to be assigned. A negroe girl becomes perhaps a mother at twelve years old, and by sixteen is past child-bearing; this is the effect of the climate; whereas, our women breed to filty and upwards, and the farther you go to the north, to a later period do you find the women prolific. Again, the excessive and promiscuous intercourse between the sexes, and the drugs and medicines they use to prevent pregnancy, or procure abortion, are fatal enemies to the increase of population. These are the only causes; and it will be easily credited that no planter wishes to be at the enormous expense of purchasing negroes, if he can possibly do without it. If there have been instances of the negroes being scantily fed, we must attribute them ' also to the real causes; not to the want of humanity or inclination, but inability of the planter to feed them well; for the better they are fed, the longer and better are they likely to work to his advantage. But, the fact is, the planter is overburdened with enormous taxes, duties, and restrictions, without a market or means of consuming the produce of his estate. Thus reduced to poverty and indigence himself, we cannot wonder if the negroes suffer also. Put the planter in a state of ease and comfort, and you will see his negroes thrive; for it is a well known fact, that the finances or credit of the planter may be ascertained by the appearance of his estate in every British West India island. But after all, I can assert, without fear of contradiction from those who have visited our old islands, that the negroes are better fed, less worked, better taken care of in sickness, more comfortably provided for in old age; in short, are happier, in every respect, than the parish labouring poor of Yorkshire, or any other county in England. I certainly agree, there is no need of new islands, nor of the extension of our sugar colonies, whilst we cannot dispose of the produce of the old ones. But the emperor of the French would, I believe, be very glad to accept those we may choose to reject. It certainly does not appear from Talleyrand's communication on that head, that his royal master has the slightest intention to abolish the slave trade. I fear he is much too wise and knowing. I rather think, he would make peace, and even offer sacrifices into the bargain of another sort, if you will let him have these islands which we despise and hold so cheap. With the monopoly of the slave trade, he would soon have a navy to protect them, and thus shortly attain the summit of his ambition, ships, colonies and commerce. It has been truly said, we should look to St. Domingo. Let us do so. Was it not the native creole negroes, not the fresh imported ones, who began the insurrection, and have been most barbarous and cruel towards their masters and their families? Toussaint was a native postillion; Christophe was a native talet de chambre; had travelled to Paris and London, with his master; had there heard the question of the abolition agitated, and the code noir explained and extoiled. These were the ground-works and origin of all the miseries of St. Domingo. Let me next inquire, if it is sound policy to abolish a trade which so greatly contributes to our national wealth, and commercial prosperity ? which gives employ to thousands your industrious manufacturers, and affords a market for the produce of their la 1 bours; which is a nursery for such seamen as fought with Nelson, with Duckworth, and with Strachan, and affords the means of manning our navy, the decus et tutamen of Britain? And is it justice to the planters, and those, who under the sanction of repeated acts of the British legislature, have embarked their fortunes in the trade itself, and its various ramifications, thus to ruin them at a blow; to destroy" the means by which they live;" ano, perhaps, to sacrifice the lives of thousands of them, without suffering them to produce a single evidence in their defence? Does not the administration of British justice, when life, property, or character, are at stake, require evidence upon oath? And why is this most constitutional right denied to the planters and merchants at the bar of the house lords, and the mere information given (noť on oath) to the house of commons, admitted as full, conclusive, and sufficient to condemn them? That information is known to be false, and, in many instances, obtained from persons unworthy of credit. Humanity does not suffer by removing convicts and prisoners from a worse to a better state, by saving the lives of persons otherwise doomed to death, and placing them in a situation of comfort preferable to that of our labouring poor, and I may add, as free; for if the latter impatiens pauperiem pati, and all the misery of a work-house, should be driven in despair to leave his wife and family, he is hunted down by the parish-officers as a rogue and a vagabond, and, as such, is subject to transportation, except he should shield himself from this punishmet by enlisting in the army or navy, and so leave his disconsolate and afflicted famy to pine under those sufferings he had not fortitude to support? Again, I say, hurs ty does not suffer by rescuing numbers of human beings from being butched, which they otherwise would be, to prevent a general famine; for we read, in au author as correct and as worthy of credit as Mr. Park himself, " that the produce of the country in Africa is not sufficient for the support of its population, and that famine, or massacres, to lessen the number of consumers, mast one or the other be the inevitable consequence of the abolition of the slave trade"; and this applies to the interior of the country as well as to the coast; for numbers of slaves are brought from regions far distant, and unknown to Mr. Park. The boasted civilization of the interior, as far as Mr. Park went, goes little beyond, (if my recollection is right) the chief of a village sitting at the extremity of it under a tree on a cow's hide, with a raw sheep-skin over his shoulders; and, if report is to be credited, Mr. Park has now fallen a victim to the total want of it. But if Africa, and the state of the Africans there, are so much preferable to our civilized colonies, and the yoke of British slavery, tempered with humanity, how comes it that not one of the thousands of native African negroes who have obtained their liberty, aye, and have amassed property too, should never have thought proper to return home to his family and friends, and all that might be supposed to be dear to him? None; no, not one has ever done so. But it is said too, Religion requires the abolition." I would ask all our reverend divines to point out to me how religion has been offended by the slave trade; and to shew me the proofs of it from scripture? Has not slavery existed in all ages, as it should seem, by divine permission? 66 And should we not have had warnings to forbear, and visitations, if, in spite of them, we had persisted? Has any thing like this happened? No; on the contrary, this country, whilst carrying on the slave trade, and particularly since the year 1750, when the African company was established, has enjoyed a greater proportion of prosperity and happiness than any other nation upon earth. This is the very re verse of warnings and visitations. And we have, indeed, good reason to believe, particularly at this awful crisis, when other nations are sinking under the weight of divine wrath and chastisement, that we are a favoured one upon earth, under the immediate protection of the Almighty, who has averted from us those miseries with which others have been sorely afflicted. If the slave trade had been an abomination in the eye of the Almighty, he would not, even without a rebuke, have suffered us so long to persevere. The band of Heaven would have chastised us, as it has done others. I have already touched on the dreadful consequences of the abolition in the islands. It is true the "negroes know the sense of the British parliament;" I do not believe they will make any distinction between abolition and emancipation; but, if they should, it has been pretty clearly hinted to them, that the one is to lead to the other. Is it then religion, policy, justice, and humanity, to leave thousands of ill fated devoted planters to be maugled and tortured by wretches, whose minds are inflamed by the means adopted to lead them to a state for which they are unfit, and by reasonings to which their comprehensions are unequal? The colonial laws have beeen revised and amended. If they were not sooner, it is the fault of the British, not the colonial legislature. If the British parliament has a right to decree the abolition, it had a right to legislate the revision of the colonial laws. The murder of a slave is punishable with death; and severe chastisement is put an end to by the governments of the respective islands. Wholesome regulations have been made too for their comfort. But, in reply, we are told the oath of a negroe cannot be admitted as evidence against a white man. To be sure it cannot, and the reason is obvious: there might soon be no white men left in the islands. They might soon be legally executed on false accusations, supported by the oaths of beings who are totally ignorant of the nature and meaning of one, and indifferent as to the consequences of a false one. In this country, the evidence of a person uninformed on this head, is ever rejected. If, through the medium of your instructive and entertaining weekly publication, I can avert the impending storm which threatens this once prosperous, free, and happy, country; if I can prevent the stoppage of credit, the decay of commerce, and the ruin of our navy; if I can convince those who are not deaf to conviction, that our natural enemies will inevitably and quickly build a commercial and maritime greatness on our infatuation and folly; in short, if I can, in any way check the abolition, I shall think I have rendered a real service to my country. MONUMENTS FOR MR. PITT. SENEX. Death had scarcely closed the mortal career of this illustrious statesman when the Foxites, with their leader at their head, combined to blast his memory, by denying to it the last tribute of national gratitude and homage. Some of them went so far as to declare that Mr. Pitt would only be known by the mischiefs he had done ;-others, that in a year, he would be totally forgotten. By the fortuitous malice of their organ, in his own university, that learned body were denied the privilege of recording him as they wished. This, however, they have nobly redeemed, by a splendid, and superabundant subscription. The Gallery of the British Institution, in Pall Mall, contains numerous models for monuments to perpetuate the fame of this GREAT MAN; in which our principal artists have most successfully rivalled each other; and their only difficulty seems to have been, in the multitude of his splendid actions, which to select, or how many to combine, in their groupe. Mr. Bacon's idea is peculiarly grand and striking, and appears to bear away the palm. It was, however, to mention one fact only that I have inserted this article; and it is this; that a college, in the university of Oxford, having determined to place a bust of Mr. Pitt among their worthics; some time since gave an order to Mr. Nollekens to that effect; which was not likely soon to be completed, as their's made the fortythird order which this one artist had then received for busts and monuments of this. great statesman. "Ye Petty stars hide your diminish'd heads!". Russian State Paper-continued from page 128. "The prisoners we have taken declare that they have lost, in killed and wounded alone, above 6,000. Our loss could not immediately be ascertained, as the messenger was dispatched the moment the affair was over; but it does not exceed 2,000. General Benningsen proposes giving a detailed account as soon as possible. He adds, that he cannot sufficiently praise the courage and intrepidity of the troops of his imperial majesty; and, among other things, he mentions that major genera! Kojin, with the imperial body regiment of cuirassiers, and two squadrons of Cargopol dragoons, charged a detachment of the enemy, consisting of 3,000 infantry, which were upon the point of cutting off major-general Bagganout; and, notwithstanding the galling fire of the enemy's artillery, they were cut to pieces to a man. Thus Buonaparte's attempt upon the destruction of the corps under general Benningsen was defeated, and complete victory was gained over him." LONDON: Printed by W.MARCHANT, 3, Greville-Street, Holborn; and published by H. R. YORKE, 412, Strand opposite the Adelphi. Mr. REDHEAD YORKE's WEEKLY POLITICAL REVIEW. Vol. II. N°9. Saturday, February 28, 1807. Price 10d. 145 HISTORICAL. Hitherto I have abstained from making any observations upon the transactions which have occurred upon the continent, and for a very obvious reason, namely, because I know nothing at all about them. We have had no intelligence whatever, upon which any political or military writer can presume to offer a safe opinion upon the events which have taken place. The storm of war hath reached a portion of the world, little known to the inhabitants of the western parts of Europe; the chan⚫nels of information are obstructed; and, consequently, we have no other medium of intelligence, than through the fallacious reports of an enemy, whose principal policy consists in fraud and detraction. Under these disadvantages, no man can undertake to narrate with confidence the events that are recorded only by ex parte evidence. The public are ignorant of the operations of the Russian army, except from the reports of general Bennigsen. One fact, however, we may rest assured is completely established, and that is, Buonaparte's head quarters are at Warsaw, and apparently rivetted to the soil, while the right and left wings of his army are besieging all the strong holds which are situated upon either of his flanks. The policy of this measure is extremely problematical; for, in the event of the French sustaining a great defeat, these insulated corps scattered over a long line of operations, would fall successively into the hands of the victorious party, without being capable of making any effective resistance. The allies would pass the fortresses which are thus garrisoned by French troops, follow up their advantages over the body of the French army, and recover their towns without difficulty. This was Buonaparte's plan of operations in Italy, and because it was new and daring, it succeeded, as all new operations will do, when they are the result of the combinations of genius and vigour. For the present, the captured fortresses serve as depôts, whence the French army is supplied promptly and in every direction, with the extorted products of the industry of the half-famished inhabitants of Germany. The Russians, on the other hand, though defending their own frontiers, draw their supplies from a considerable distance, and through a wild and dreary country. If this be a disadvantage, it is amply counterbalanced by the comparative frugality, and little waste observed in a Russian army. In the absence of all official communication from the continent, I shall here venture to make a few reflections upon the present aspect of European affairs, founded neither upon chimerical hopes, nor wild analogies; but, upon that experience which the events of a war of fifteen years fully authorize. So long ago as the month of November, 1806, I opened the Hstorical Digest of the week with the following declaration:+ "It is my opinion that the prospects of Europe are brighter at this moment than they have been at any period since the renewal of the war upon the continent." This was made at a time when most men desponded of the public safety, and when the magnitude of the Prussian catastrophe induced them to believe that all resistance to the arms of France would prove unavailing. Knowing, as I do, the genius of the French in war, and being fully sensible of the great talents of their generals, I have nevertheless always endeavoured to impress upon the minds of my readers, that the power of France would be reduced, whenever the armies of Europe could be brought to renounce the German system of tactics, as an exploded and useless prejudice. In the course of this work, I have been furnished with manifold opportunities of exposing the futility of that system when placed in opposition to the tempest of French aggression; and experience has since shewn us by the progress and triumphs of the enemy, that my reasonings have been demonstrated by melancholy facts. It is not by making war upon the French after their own manner, that success is to be expected; but by eluding their attacks as No. 9. ↑ Vid. No. 50. col. 1. much as possible, and by suffering the concentrated violence of their operations to be spent in fruitless attempts. The battles of Austerlitz and Auerstadt are proofs of the justice of this maxim: in the latter, which was the severest contest perhaps ever fought in modern times, the long experience of the French generals and troops acquired in active service, proved victorious over the parade discipline of the Prussians. Hence, the loss of a kingdom was the result of one battle. In every country of Europe, particularly in Great Britain, the science of commanding an army seems to be considered as an innate gift derived from heaven: meditation, study, and practical experience are not thought to be necessary. This is a most contemptible and ruinous prejudice. A disciplined army doubles its own numbers, under the command of expert generals, because it is always made to act with a collected force upon one given point. In whatever position it may be placed, or wherever it may move, it always appears in a concentrated form, every part acting as a support to the rest, and bearing a relation to the whole. Now, this was not the case with the armies of the continent, whose ideas of discipline never embraced the true military science, but were confined to a mere collection or routine of forms, half-measures, correctives, and miserable supplements. Hence, the most fanciful expedients have been resorted to, in order to fill up a chasm, which common sense would have effected at once. No man can look upon some of the plans of buffoonery lately introduced into the British army, without regret; scientific men regard them with the derision and contempt they merit. It is of no consequence whatever to the operations of an army, whether a soldier in active service wear a long or a short tail; but it is of very great consequence to the individual soldier, that he should not be harassed and tortured to death, after the fatigue of a battle, or a long march, by sitting up half the night, to clean his clothes, and jack-boots, or to organize his German tail and whiskers. All this pedantry of military science is better calculated to ruin than to make a good soldier. It betrays such imbecility of mind, as to stamp the authors and admirers of it, with the indelible mark of ignorance and vanity. The French go forth to conquer with numbers, courage, and discipline; and therefore, with 500,000 soldiers, they have subjugated or awed fifty millions of men. If Europe is to be saved, it can be saved only by the combination of the power of numbers, courage, and discipline: for though courage will, in extreme cases, supply the place of discipline; and though discipline will, in some instarces, supply the place of courage; yet neither will ever be found competent to cope with the union of these qualities. At the battle of Auerstadt, the Prussians had numbers, courage, and discipline; yet their enemies prevailed over them. How shall we account then for their overthrow? The answer is obvious. The Prussians were defective in discipline; not in the mechanical business of single regiments (for no soldiers understood that mummery better than they did) but in the discipline, or in more appropriate terms, in the science of maneuvring a great army in the face of an enemy. Hence, the means which had been provided for opening the campaign with vigour, were not directed with ability; and persons unacquainted with military affairs, and anxious to account some way or other for the unexpected defeat of the Prussians, presently assigned as the cause, the circumstance of a fresh body of men having been brought into action by the French in the course of the battle, which turned the fate of the day in their favour. From this consolatory statement, it was pretended that the French army overpowered their adversaries by numbers. Now, though it be true that a reserve of 10,000 meu did decide the contest; yet, it does not necessarily follow that the French army was so much superior in numbers to the Prussian. The fact is, there was no comparison between the two armies in point of skill, and the French evinced their superiority in this respect, by manoeuvring in such a manner, as to give their forces the appearance of a superiority of numbers; whereby they were enabled to keep a strong corps of reserve to complete the work whenever necessary. To the Prussians, this reinforcement would naturally assume the form of a fresh supply of troops; whereas it composed only a small proportion of the whole force brought into action. I shail endeavour to explain this matter to the reader. For the last twelve years, the French generals have entirely laid aside the old ideas of tactics, which consisted in securing a chain of posts, in occupying every clump of trees, every mole-hill, and, in short, of being every where along an extensive line, se |