acts of violence? You say the arm of power. And would not the law restrain them from doing mischief to themselves or others as effectually after as before emancipation; after having multiplied their motives to gratitude and peaceful conduct, as while still groaning under oppression? Of this he could have no doubt. But if not, still we were bound to do our duty to act justly, and to exercise mercy, and to leave the issue to God. "Let us then," he said in conclusion, "take up this question with the warmest zeal; let us never more be satisfied with empty promises, but in a firm and constitutional manner, call upon the Legislature, to wipe off from the page of our history this accursed stain. Let us use our utmost efforts that every parish in the land may hear of the wrongs of our sable brethren, and rise to redress them. They are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; and methinks, with imploring looks, they exclaim-Come over and help us. The blood of martyred Missionaries calls upon us--not to avenge their murder, for they know who has said, "vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord"--but to vindicate the wrongs of suffering humanity, and to remove the impediments which Slavery presents to the spread of the Gospel, and the progress of true religion among the heathen ;-nor ever rest, "Till man nor woman under Britain's law, Nor son nor daughter born within her Empire, The next person who addressed the meeting was the justly celebrated Colonel NAPIER, the author of the history of the late peninsular war, which it is impossible to have read without admiring the power of intellect, the acuteness of observation, and the manly independence of mind which it displays. He came forward, he said, with reluctance, not because he was lukewarm in a cause which he held to be pure even to holiness, but because he was unused to take a part in popular meetings. Nevertheless, being called upon, he would not shrink from avowing, publicly, sentiments and principles which he had never hesitated to express in private, sometimes perhaps, more warmly than the occasion called for. "First then," he said, "I hold Slavery of every kind in abhorrence; but, most especially, do I abhor domestic Slavery, We have seen the people of a neighbouring country rise, as one man, and shed their blood like water, to avoid political oppression. Gloriously have they effected their object and greatly and justly has the world applauded their heroic action! But, in modern times, what political bondage can be for a moment compared, as an evil, to the harrowing oppression of domestic Slavery? The former, indeed, forbids men to meddle in public affairs, and thwarts them in the exercise of their just rights; but the domestic slave dare not move his person, but as his master directs; he dare not publish his thoughts, speak or make a sign of discontent, or even of joy; he dare not even sigh over his unhappy fate; lest his offended tyrant should crush him, body and soul-his body with the torture of the whip, his soul with the degradation. Domestic Slavery,then, is a great and dreadful evil, which it behoves every good man to endeavour to abate. But, on a subject of this nature, it is better to argue than to declaim; and it is unnecessary to appeal to the passions in favour of a cause, which is founded upon the plainest principles of justice and humanity. The subject is one, no doubt, affording a wider scope than any other, for appeals to the passions; but it is, fortunately, also the one which needs them the least, being founded on the plainest dictates of justice and humanity. Hence, I shall not here have recourse to any of those stories of appalling atrocities, committed by slaveholders, or, rather I should say, by slave masters, for many slave-holders are very humane men, who have never been near the scene of those abominations which we have all heard and read of, even too often for the tranquillity of our own minds.-Such stories, when truly related, and well authenticated, are, no doubt, necessary to rouse the feelings of indolent and unreflecting persons; and the publication of them inflicts. some punishment upon the perpetrators of such enormities, when they can be no otherwise reached than by holding them up to the indignation of the virtuous part of the world. But, as parts of the argument against domestic Slavery, they are wholly unnecessary. That argument rests upon the broad and deep foundation of general and immutable principles. We may be told, and we are continually told, that the stories of cruelty and oppression which are published, are false, exaggerated, distorted, and discoloured. I can believe it.-A great question like the Abolition of West Indian Slavery, which has been agitated for years; which excites so many passions and involves so many interests; must of necessity be exposed to exaggeration. And what then? Shall it follow that Slavery is not a great and dreadful evil! Sir, if I hear that a woman heavy with child has been lashed to death, and that on enquiry I find she was not with child, and did not die of her tortures, but that if she had been so situated, and had so died, it would only have been an unfortunate result of the legal exercise of a power which wicked and infamous laws had conferred upon her master, am I not to denounce the horrid system? Am I, because the story is not accurately told, to refrain from exclaiming against the horrid system, under which such villany may be perpetrated? Am I not to declare that domestic Slavery is a great and terrible evil, which it is the duty of every good man to abate? Sir, there is an omnipotent Being above us, who has, I will not say, taught, but who has forced us, in spite of our wayward dispositions, to feel that virtue and vice are not indifferent to him; that the first is pleasing, the second displeasing to his nature; and mankind, in every age and every part of the world, have believed that a strict reckoning will be held hereafter, when rewards exceeding the dreams of poets, and punishments the very thought of which causes the soul to shrink, will be distributed according to our merits. Yet, in despite of this universal feeling, and this universal belief, the power of doing wrong being granted to man, wrong always has been committed: there is, at least, as much of vice as of virtue, there is as much of oppression and cruelty, in this world, as there is of kindness and charity. What do I infer from this? Why, that as such is the imperfection of man in general, that neither the promised reward for virtue, nor the denounced vengeance for vice, avails to prevent him from doing evil, when he has the power, it is impossible to believe that the slave-holder (who has already so grossly violated natural justice, as to hold his fellow-being in bondage,) having the power to oppress and misuse, will not oppress and misuse his slave, that having the power to be cruel, he will not also have the will. Admitting, therefore, that all the tales of horrors committed in the West Indies, which we have yet heard, were utterly untrue, we might still be assured, from a consideration of the nature of man, that there was sufficient foundation to expect them; aye, although they were fifty times as numerous, and, if possible, related circumstances fifty times as atrocious. And this I hold to be so certain, and my position so immoveable by argument, that if an angel were to stand before me at this moment, and assert the contrary, I would turn away, fearing and doubting, that although clothed in the glorious light of heaven, the coming was from hell! I recur then to my original assertion, that Slavery, and more especially domestic Slavery, is a great and terrible evil, which it is the duty of every good man to abolish; and in this feeling, I propose that it be a fundamental principle of this Society that Slavery is no longer to be regarded as a condition capable of being rendered tolerable by regulation, but as a crime to be suppressed, an outrage on our professed principles as Christians to be renounced, and a foul stain on the national character, to be wholly and for ever effaced." The motion being seconded by the Rev. Mr. NOBLE was carried unanimously. WILLIAM BLAIR, Esq. entered fully into the whole question, giving a comprehensive and luminous view of it in its principle and its details, its tendencies and effects, its abstract nature and its practical influence; exhibiting it as so unnatural and degrading, so opposed to the love of God and man, so destructive of human happiness both here and hereafter, and so full of horror, as to convince every candid mind that such an abomination ought to be swept from the face of the earth with the least possible delay. Even Sir Robert Peel was forced, while giving a paramount weight to the claims of the planters, to admit, that if the poor slave were ever to ask him by what title he was held in bondage, he feared he should not have one syllable to say in self-justification. Thus, it was only by an oblivion of the grand fundamental principles of truth and duty, that the enormities of the system could be palliated or endured for one moment. Abstracted indeed from all consideration of consequences, personal slavery was revolting and detestable, a sin against human nature, which all good men should unite in extirpating; treason against the very law of man's existence, robbing him of his right to life, limbs, and liberty, to the labour of his hands and to the worship of his God, in short, of his birthright-the very charter of his being. Neither the solemn dicta of a minister of state, nor the alleged omnipotence of acts of parliament, nor treaties however guaranteed, nor claims of chartered rights and vested interests however urged, can be allowed to come into successful competition with the sacred, universal, immutable right to personal freedom, inherited by every child of man. As to the claims the planters might have, he neither asserted nor denied them. Whatever they were, they attached not to the poor slave, but to other parties, and were wholly subordinate to the claims of the slave, which were independent, primary, and paramount. Besides, in what chapter of the British-con stitution should we find a warrant for making the colour of a man's skin the proof of guilt and the ground of punishment, or for giving to the white a monopoly of freedom, and to the black the whip, shackles, and a dungeon?—In turning to the practical part of the subject, he wholly repudiated that low and gross view of the subject which looked only to the slave's physical wants and the externals of his happiness, and heeded not his moral and mental degradation to the level of the beasts of the field. But even the assertion of his physical comfort was a lie. The slaveswere over-worked and under-fed, and harshly used, as was proved by that undeniable test of physical comfort, the state and progress of population, and which shewed that there was in the system some fatal blight tainting the very vitals of society, and withering the very springs of existence; so that, were this system permitted to continue, the victims of it would at length find repose where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest; the silence of death would reign over these lovely regions; while the graves of the millions of our fellow-creatures who had worn out their lives there in bitter bondage, would be the eternal monument of our shame. And this depopulating effect of the system was the more remarkable when contrasted with the rapid increase of the same race when free. The progress of population in Hayti, as compared with that of Jamaica, was such as to raise the positive waste of negro life in the latter to about 350,000 human beings in twenty years. This was frightful. In the Mauritius, Guiana, and other places, the decrease was still more appalling. But enough had been said to shew the necessity of the most strenuous exertions to effect the speedy overthrow of this monstrous system. Half measures and palliatives would no longer suffice: we must seek the entire and speedy removal of this mass of misery and guilt. We were all involved in its criminality if we did not do all in our power to that end. The blood of our brother would cry against us to heaven; and while there was a righteous Governor of the universe, it would not cry in vain, if we did not relinquish the guilty gains of oppression. "Raise him then from the depth of his degradation, and shed on him the light and consolations of the Gospel; and impart to him with his civil rights the sympathies and charities of social life. And let not such feelings evaporate in words, or even in petitions. If the Parliament will not heed these, you have a remedy in your own hand. Abjure the use of slave-grown sugar-for it is the sugar above all which kills the slave-and you will assist in sealing the death warrant of slavery. While you consume this production of slave labour, you are paying your quota towards that million and a half which goes annually, in the shape of drawbacks and protecting duties, into the coffers of the slave-holder. It is nothing less than the price of blood, and a direct bounty for keeping the poor slave in bondage.-Another most effectual means of advancing the cause of emancipation, will be to establish Anti-Slavery Associations in every town and village throughout the kingdom, and to diffuse information as extensively as possible. Thus we may hope that the nation will awake that it will arise in all its moral and religious might, and decree the extinction of slavery throughout all the dominions of the British Crown." Impressive addresses followed from the Rev. Mr. Rogers, the Rev. Mr. Bunce, the Rev. Mr. Newton, the Rev. Mr. Keene, Mr. Saunders, and Mr. Phillips, of Antigua. But our limits are exhausted, and we must draw to a close; merely noticing that the petition agreed to, contains, among others, the following passages "That they consider this state of society as directly opposed to every principle of religion, justice, and humanity; and that it ought not therefore to be tolerated under any plea of amelioration, inasmuch as that which is palpably unjust in itself, cannot be rendered otherwise by merely lessening the degree of its enormity. And even if mitigation could justify its existence, it is altogether hopeless to look for such mitigation from the Colonial Legislatures. "They therefore abandon the hope of accomplishing any alleviation of the horrors of slavery, and conceive that its total abolition is the only effectual mode of relief to the slaves, and of wiping away this foulest blot on our national honour-this daring outrage on the laws of God; and they leave it to Parliament to estimate and discharge any losses that may accrue to the West India planters by the legislative extinction of slavery; but that no plea of this kind ought to delay this act of national justice, or prevent the immediate adoption of such measures as shall be deemed most advisable, for the speedy and total extinction of Negro Slavery, in all the dependencies of the British Crown." III. LAWS AND MANNERS OF JAMAICA ILLUSTRATED. 1.-Port Royal Council of Protection. The following piece of intelligence is taken verbatim from the Royal Gazette of the 3d July, 1830. "At Port-Royal, on June 19, a special bench of magistrates assembled, consisting of his honour the Custos, and E. B. Warren, W. Hyslop, and H. Fraser Leslie, Esqrs. Justices, to inquire into complaints preferred by certain slaves from Dallas-Castle estate against their overseer, Mr. Stevens. A gang, twenty-four in number, including men, women, and children, all appeared before the justices, and, with the exception of the children, severally stated their complaints. They were heard at length, and afterwards the bookkeeper, who had been called down as a witness at their own request, was sworn, and denied the whole statement preferred against the overseer in the clearest manner, to the satisfaction of the bench. The chief grounds of the dissatisfaction of the people were, that the time allowed them for their meals, &c. at breakfast and dinner (which it was proved on oath exceeded the time allowed by law,) was not sufficient-that they were not taken care of when they were sick, but made to work, and that Two HOGS had been killed!! "Mr. M'Cunn, the attorney, was sworn, and proved that every com fort was afforded to the people-that the hot-house had every article that was required for it, and that the people were discharged from it according to the directions, from time to time, of the doctor, who regulary visited the property; that Mr. Stevens, the overseer, had been there for seven or eight years, and was a mild, humane man, and that he, who the negroes knew was the attorney, never received any com |