to which our class is peculiarly subjected by the local code of the colony, earnestly praying that you will be pleased to take the earliest opportunity of bringing our case before the notice of his Majesty's Ministers, and of supporting it with your recommendation of such redress as may in their wisdom appear to be applicable to the nature of the case.

"Before we enter into a detail of those grievances, we beg leave to make you acquainted with the grounds on which we presume to build our claim to redress.

"That we are liege and dutiful subjects of his Majesty: we flatter ourselves that we have invariably manifested the strongest sense of fealty, as good and faithful subjects, and dare appeal to the testimony of the public at large, as members of the community in which we reside: we have submitted with patience to a policy, degrading and oppressive in its effects, and painful to our feelings as men; contributing, at the same time, by our resources, to the revenue of the state, and constituting, in ourselves, a considerable defence and security to the colony. "The People of Colour comprise by far the greatest part of the free population*, and possess no small portion of the property in this colony, particularly in the capital, where at least two-thirds are owned by persons of this class.

"While the White man who emigrates to the colony generally returns to Europe so soon as he has realised a competency, the Coloured man, on the contrary, is attached to the soil on which his family and friends reside, forming in his class the most powerful check to the numerous slave population, and, from his attachment to the British Constitution, always ready, and willing, if necessary, to sacrifice his life and property in defence of that constitution.

In 1820, the number of Whites in Grenada was 883; of free Blacks and persons of Colour, 2742; of Slaves, 26,910.

&

"Many of the Coloured inhabitants of this colony have been educated in Great Britain, and the majority has received the best education that the colonies afford: the former of them, imbibing all the exalted ideas of liberty peculiar to an Englishman, on their arrival in the colony, find their brotherhood no less acute in their sense of the degrading light in which their class is exposed to the world at large by the local laws. "Our ideas are purely English, not only by birth, but from a principle of attachment to a constitution the boast and pride of every English subject. As true and loyal Englishmen, holding a prominent numerical situation, as well as possessing a considerable landed interest in the colony, we presume with due respect to call your patient attention to the exposure of some of those local laws which we feel to bear hardly and vexatiously upon us as a body of men.

"In the first place, we would beg leave to call your attention to the laws of Grenada, commonly called Judge Smith's Collection.

"On a first view of these laws it will be readily observed, that in every instance where it has been thought proper to allude to the free Coloured population, they have universally been assimilated with the Slave population, describing them as the most profligate, ignorant race of beings, unworthy to be entrusted with the execution of the most trivial public service, and whose crimes, by a perversion of reasoning, are represented as more heinous than similar crimes committed by White persons.

"As a few of the many instances in which this occurs, we beg leave to refer you to Act No. 11: Summonses to the Members of the Council or Assembly to be served by some White person.' No. 15:

No person to practise physic without a certificate from surgeon's hall, or a license from the Governor, under the penalty of 2007.; and if unable to pay, to be imprisoned for

three months; but, if a free Negro, or a free Mulatto, or free Mestiff, or Slave, except such as are employed in dressing sores, shall receive such corporal punishment as the said judge shall think fit and adjudge. No. 16, clause 2d: Any White man firing a house to forfeit 201.; if a free Negro, Mulatto, or Mestiff, to receive corporal punishment.' Clause 5th: Any White persons throwing squibs in the street to forfeit 10l.; if a Mulatto, Mestiff, or Indian, or Negro, to be whipped at the most public place in the respective parish, on the bare back, at the discretion of the magistrates.' Clause 8th: All Negroes or Mulattoes, whether free or slaves, who shall be found cutting canes, plantains, &c. shall, be punished by a number of lashes at the discretion of a Justice of Peace in the neighbourhood.'

"In addition to the preceding extracts, we beg leave to refer you to the Act, No. 53, generally called the Police Act.' The preamble of this Act sets out by assimilating sailors, free Coloured men, and male slaves in a most degrading point of view, and charging them with associating for the purpose of committing crimes of the most despicable nature; and goes on to curtail their rational amusements, subjecting them to the degradation of being committed to a place of confinement, in common with slaves of every description.

"We take the liberty of calling your attention to this Act in particular, it being daily adverted to by the occasional sitting magistrates.

"It would be an unnecessary obtrusion upon your valuable time, to enter into a minute refutation of the crimes with which the Coloured population stand stigmatised by these Acts. Facts speak for themselves: we challenge the community at large to prove that the People of Colour in this colony are peculiarly addicted to crime of any description; and as to their associating with Slaves, &c. it is notorious that

they are generally reserved in their associates, and very tenacious of their good name.

"If there ever was a time when such laws were necessary, that time has long since passed by; and the present political importance of the Coloured population calls loudly for a repeal of such obnoxious enactments.

"The next grievance to which we beg leave to call your attention is one of no inconsiderable nature— exclusion from the juries of the colony. Trial by jury is stated to be the principal bulwark of an Englishman's liberty; a privilege of the highest and most beneficial nature, on which his property, his liberty, and his life depend.

"We are Englishmen, without having this bulwark for our protection: we are British subjects, without enjoying this privilege.

"It is apparent that the White population of this Colony has fallen off materially within the last twenty years, and continues to do so; which circumstance reduces the men of education of that class to a comparatively small number. It therefore has occurred, that on the petty juries we have witnessed some individuals quite uninformed, sitting to decide on some mercantile transaction, in which some of our brotherhood are concerned; whilst men, because of Colour, though possessed of competent ability, stand looking on as useless beings in the community, seeing their properties and dearest interests implicitly exposed to the decision of such a jury. Judge Smith, in his observations on the Population Acts, appositely remarks (among other things), that 'the object is to check the prevalence of a free Coloured Population,'whilst the only description of Whites but too frequently substituted in their room are persons of the lowest class, always without fortune or education, and too often without principle.

"The next and a very material grievance, to which we also beg leave to call your indulgent atten

By another anomaly, we possess freehold property, without being considered as freeholders: we have no vote, we elect no representatives: by the wording of the writ, directing the returning officers to summon all the White freeholders, we are shut out from the right of election, the birth-right of every Englishman. We are called on to pay taxes, to which we never consented; we are commanded to conform to laws affecting our dearest interests and comfort, without having a representative to oppose them in the first stage, or obtain a modification of their most offensive clauses: a passive submission is extorted from us; we are not allowed the right of thinking for ourselves. We are forced to pay a silent and implicit obedience to the mandates of another class, monopolizing all authority and influence, and calling on us to contribute our aid in defence of those privileges which they alone enjoy.

"In a government where the slave population so considerably out-numbers that of the free, we humbly conceive it would be far from being an imprudent policy to extinguish as much as possible all feelings of jealousy that may exist between the free classes; it being their mutual interest to be unanimous, having but one object in view, as between father and son, the maintenance of the security of the colonies from foreign as well as internal enemies, from either of which it is our earnest prayer that God may ever defend them.

"This, gentlemen, is the substance of those grievances which we confidently leave in your hands, in the flattering expectation that you will interest yourselves on our behalf, towards obtaining an amelioration in our condition.'

The petition was taken into the consideration of a Committee of the whole House of Assembly; when the following resolutions were agreed to, and, having been reported to

"1. That the Committee is of opinion that the free Coloured inhabitants of these islands are a respectable, well-behaved class of the community, and possessed of considerable property in the colony.

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2. That it is also of opinion that a Bill should be immediately brought into the House of Assembly for the purpose of repealing certain clauses of Acts which are specified" in so far as the rights and privileges of the free Coloured inhabitants are affected thereby.

"3. That the elective franchise ought to be extended to free people of Colour, possessing the qualifications required by the third clause of the Elective Act; and that so much of that clause ought to be repealed as limits the right of voting at elections to White persons only."

The spirit manifested in these resolutions is certainly most gratifying; and every friend of the Negro race will hail them with delight, as the beginning of a wise and liberal course of policy towards their free descendants. We wish, however, particularly to point the attention of the reader to the proofs which not only these resolutions, but the unquestioned statements in the memorial, bear to the good conduct, loyalty, respectability, industry, and wealth of the free Coloured inhabitants of Grenada.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

I HAVE lately had put into my hands for perusal, a new publication, of the class of what are called "Religious Novels," and which, for the kind of work, seems to possess considerable merit. But I cannot help thinking that religious novels, however good of the kind, are but bad vehicles for Divine truth. Such is the corrupt state of the natural heart of man, that in a mixture of fictitious narrative with religious instruction, the mind will

be unfitted by the former for the reception of the latter; and should it ever happen that serious impressions are made, Satan is lurking, perhaps, under the very next page, to take away the good seed, lest the reader should believe and be saved. Besides, a retired Christian life will rarely afford food for a novel, which, in its very nature, requires something of a worldly spirit-a play or a ball-a quadrille or card party-a love scene or a duel and, by the way, it is much to be feared that an author who feels at home in these worldly descriptions is but too likely to be present at the realities-a circumstance which, independently of the injury to his own soul, must tend materially to bring reproach on the Gospel of Christ, which declares expressly, that "we cannot serve God and mammon ;" or if, in reality, he be not accustomed to frequent such scenes, how can he be skilled in the description of them?

It appears to me, that every book which is published should have one object in view; namely, the glory of God. This may be pursued in different ways; by works tending either to inform the understanding, or to reform and purify the heart, or to promote the general interests of mankind. That common novels possess none of these essentials, will, I presume, be allowed by all; and it is at best very questionable how far even a religious novel can be made conducive to either of these ends. I apprehend the writer of every such novel must intend his work either to strike the understanding and conscience of those who have before been entirely careless on religious matters, and thus to lead them to self-examination and a use of the means of grace afforded by God for their spiritual welfare; or he must intend it merely as a vehicle of common and, as he imagines, innocent amusement. Now, if he mean the former, it surely behoves him to endeavour to ascertain, by God's written word,

whether it be a means which will be likely to obtain the Divine blessing. Scripture prohibits a worldly spirit: "To be carnally minded is death," says the Apostle: it also forbids "foolish talking or jesting, which are not convenient ;" and it enjoins whatsoever things are pure, lovely, and of good report. The mixing up Scripture doctrine, therefore, with the contrary of all this, may fairly be inferred to be an unauthorized mode of inculcating Divine truth; and consequently not entitled, on scriptural grounds, to the blessing of God.

If the author, on the other hand, mean his book to be merely a vehicle of common amusement, though innocent, he is treating the religion of Christ in an irreverent manner. I know not if he be not virtually guilty of a breach of the Third Commandment; for he is bringing the name and word of God into familiar use, merely to pass away a few idle hours. Surely this is "taking his holy name in vain." In this respect, therefore, his work is at an awful distance from what is innocent. In another way, also, it will be found far from innocent; for the fictitious part of the work will tend to keep up and inflame a worldly spirit in a careless reader, and lead him presumptuously to suppose such a spirit quite compatible with a spirit of religion; and it will disturb and perplex the mind of the serious and sober inquirer after truth.

I must not, by what I have written, be understood as inculcating the notion that no book should be written except on a religious subject; but surely no book should be written, but such as a real Christian might read with advantage, and such as, rightly used, might subserve the cause of religion.

Such are the views, Mr. Editor, of one at least of your readers; and as you profess a readiness to hear the subject argued pro et contra, I trust they will be allowed to appear in your pages.

I am, &c.

J. H.