immediately after my appointment to the see of London, addressed a letter to the planters and proprietors in the islands, intreating them to pay a little more regard to their negro slaves than they had hitherto done; and more particularly to make some better provision for their instruction in the principles of morality and religion. Some years after this, I had the good fortune to recover, by a chancery suit, an estate in Yorkshire, belonging to WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE IN VIRGINIA, which had been bequeathed to it by the great Mr. Boyle, for the advance or propagation of the christian religion among Infidels; a purpose which had been attempted, but had completely failed. Having therefore obtained a decree in my favour, I was called upon by the court of chancery, as one of the trustees of that charity, to propose some other charitable institution in the room of Mr. Boyle's, but approaching as near as possible to his original idea. Accordingly, after very mature consideration, I recommended an establishment for the conversion and religious instruction and education of the negro slaves in the British West India Islands; as being in itself an object of the greatest utility and importance, and perfectly conformable to Mr. Boyle's pious and benevolent intentions of imparting the blessings of christianity to heathens inhabiting his Majesty's dominions. The proposal was approved by the Lord Chancellor Thurlow, a society for the purpose wss formed, a royal charter obtained for its incorporation, and the bishop of London for the time being was appointed the president of it. This society has accordingly from that time to the present been exerting its best endeavours to promote the great ends of its institution, and has sent out several missionaries to different islands in the West Indies, who have made some progress in their respective missions. But the scanty revenues of the society, the extreme difficulty of finding a sufficient number of clergymen properly qualified for so laborious and arduous a task, the various discouragements and obstacles they meet with in the execution of their office, and the vast disproportion of their means of instruction to the immense numbers to be instructed, have hitherto confined the good effects of their labours within a narrow compass, and rendered a more extensive plan, a more liberal

establishment, more effectual aid and encouragement, indispensably necessary to the accomplishment of the great object in view. It is to obtain this aid and this encouragement, that I now take the liberty of once more addressing you,, Gentlemen, on this very interesting subject; and from an event of the highest importance which has recently taken place, I am led to hope that the present moment is peculiarly favourable to my application to you on this occasion, and can scarcely fail of rendering it completely successful.

You will easily imagine that the event I allude to is the abolition of the slave trade to the coast of Africa by the legis lature of Great Britain. I do not at all mean to enter here into the merits of that great question. It is now decided by a vast majority of both houses of parliament, and is become a law of the land, which we are all bound to obey. I hope and trust that every acrimonious sentiment, which was felt by the contending parties in that long and painful conflict, is already, or will be very soon completely extinguished, and the most perfect harmony and good understanding re-established between the islands and the mother-country. The only reason of my introducing the mention of the subject here is to point out how forcibly it bears upon the proposition I have now to lay before you, and what a powerful additional argument it furnishes in favour of carrying immediately into effect that most important measure.

By the act of parliament which has passed, prohibiting any further importation of negro slaves from the coast of Africa, you have now evidently no other resourse left, for keeping up a stock of slaves sufficient for the cultivation of your lands, but the natural increase of the negroes at this time in the islands. Your great object, therefore, must of course be to promote and encourage this increase by every means in your power. Now of these means, the most practicable and most effectual, beyond all controversy, will be the very expedient here proposed; namely, THE CAREFUL AND ASSIDUOUS INSTRUCTION OF YOUR SLAVES, BOTH CHILDREN AND ADULTS, IN THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, AND A STRICT ATTENTION TO THE REGULATION OF THEIR MORAL CONDUCT. This may perhaps appear at

the first view a strange assertion, but it is nevertheless per fectly true, aad capable of the strictest proof, from the most authentic documents transmitted from the islands themselves to this government.

These documents are to be found principally in that large and valuable body of evidence, THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF PRIVY COUNCIL, appointed in the year 1788, to examine into the nature of the slave trade. In them you will find it asserted, by a great number of most respectable WestIndia proprietors, and in a variety of official letters and papers laid by them before the committee, that one of the greatest and most fatal obstructions to the natural increase of the negro slaves in the British Islands, is the promiscuous and unbounded illicit commerce of the two sexes, in which the negro slaves are permitted to indulge themselves without any cheek or restraint. This is a fact universally admitted; and it is equally admitted, that unless an effectual stop is put to this licentiousness of manners, the increase of the native negroes by births will never be sufficient to keep up that stock of negroes which the cultivation of the islands requires. This obstacle, then, must in some way or other be removed; and in what way can this be most effectually done?

Penal laws may certainly be enacted by the colonial legis latures, prohibiting illicit connections among the negroes, and requiring them to be united by legal matrimony to one wife. But human laws, it is to be feared, will be but a feeble barrier to the ardent and impetuous passions of an African constitution, and very incompetent to contend with the strength of inveterate and long indulged habits of viee.

These can only be subdued by moral restraints, by new principles infused into the mind, by the powerful influences of divine grace, by the fear of God, and the dread of future punishment, strongly and early impressed upon the soul, These are the only incentives that can prevail upon your negro slaves to submit to the restraint of having only one wife; and as this restraint is indispensably necessary to that increase of their numbers by birth which the cultivation of your plantations demands, it is most evidently your interest, as well aş your duty, to render your slaves not merely nominal but real

christians, in order to obtain a sufficient supply of labourers, and to prevent the total ruin of your plantations, or at least a great diminution of their produce.

It is on this ground that you find so many of the most eminent West-India planters, in their examination before the privy council above-mentioned, recommending in the strongest terms the instruction of the negroes in the rudiments of morality and religion; it is on this ground that it was so strongly enforced by his Majesty's Secretary of State, in his letter to the West-India governors, in the year 1797: and it is on this ground, that the planters in the island of Antigua give such countenance and encouragement to the Moravian missionaries in that island, who have (as I have been informed) converted there at least 10,000 slaves to the christian religion.

Taking it then for granted that you will be influenced by these considerations, to bestow the blessings of Christianity on your slaves, and the benefits of it (even in a temporal point of view) upon yourselves, I shall proceed to consider in what way and by what means this most desirable object may be most easily and most effectually accomplished.

Hitherto, the only mode pursued for converting Pagan nations to the christian faith, has been by sending missionaries among them, to shew them the falshood and gross errors of their own religion, and to instruct them in the divine truths of the gospel, and the duties which it requires of them. This mode has been more particularly adopted from very early times by the church of Rome, which has a regular college instituted for that purpose, generally known by the name of the Propaganda Society, of which the Jesuits were for many years the chief directors and most active members, whose laborious missions to China, to India, to South America, and various other parts of the world, have long been in the hands of the public. They were attended for many years with considerable success; but since the extinction of that order, the zeal and ardour of the Propaganda Society has greatly abated, and we hear nothing now of their great success in converting Heathen nations to christianity, though they are still, I fear, sufficiently active in proselyting individual protestants wherever they can.

Among other religious communities, they who have most distinguished themselves in the business of conversion, are the Moravians, or, as they call themselves, the United Brethren.

These indeed have shewn a degree of zeal, of vigour, of perseverance, of an unconquerable spirit, and firmness of mind, which no dangers, no difficulties could subdue (combined at the same time with the greatest gentleness, prudence, and moderation), and of which no example can be found since the first primitive ages of christianity. They have penetrated into the remotest regions of the globe, have sown the seeds of christianity among the most savage and barbarous nations, from Labradore, Lapland, and Greenland on the north, to the Cape of Good Hope on the south, and have been (as I have already observed) particularly successful in the conversion of the negro slaves in several of the West-India islands, more especially that of Antigua. But with the exception of these most meritorious labours in the vineyard, not much has been done by the protestant churches in Europe, in the business of foreign missions. A few have been sent out by the Danes, Germans, and English, principally to the East Indies, where some converts were made, more particularly by the pious and truly apostolic SCHWARTZ, who executed his mission with such fidelity, earnestness, discretion, and indefatigable perseverance, as gained him the entire confidence and affections of the natives, gave him an unbounded influence over them in their temporal as well as religious concerns, rendered his name for ever dear and sacred to their hearts, impressed them with the highest veneration for that divine religion which could produce such an exalted character, and shewed the world what might be done by an ardent and active zeal for the advancement of religion, united with mildness of disposition, with a natural urbanity of manners, and with the most perfect simplicity, sincerity, and integrity of mind.

If two or three hundred such missionaries could be found, and sent to the East and West Indies, I should not at all despair of an almost entire conversion of the Hindoos in the one, and the negro slaves in the other. But, alas, such characters as that of SCHWARTZ are too thinly scattered over the world,