throughout the habitable globe. Too long has the African turned towards us, and in the heart-rending accents of wretchedness exclaimed, 'Am I not a man and a brother?' Too long has he raised his tearful eye towards Heaven, uttering the desponding prayer, Hast thou but one blessing my Father, and that only for the white man?' It is high time the iniquitous traffic and tasking of human beings should cease. It is high time that the cries heard along Afric's ravaged shore, should be exchanged for the hymn of gratitude and thanksgiving. Let every individual utter his solemn protest against the longer continuance of this iniquitous and abominable system.

Oh reflect that your rights are the rights of mankind,
That to all they were bounteously given;

And that he who in chains would his fellow-man bind,
Uplifts his proud arm against Heaven.

Oh rouse then, in spite of a merciless few,
And pronounce the immortal decree-
Whate'er be man's tenets, his country, his hue,
He is man, and shall therefore be free!

"There is that disgrace to civilization and to Christianity, the criminal code of our native land, which, in defiance of reason and experience, and in violation not less of the proper objects of punishment than of the precepts of the blessed Saviour, still deems the gallows the best preventative of crime, and regards the hangman as the most enlightened teacher of social morality. And whilst the people think of the Almighty, as casting myriads of his creatures into eternal burnings, for no other purpose than the mere infliction of agony, they may well imagine that the gratification of revenge is preferable to the reformation of the offender. To kill the criminal, may seem a short and easy method of stopping criminality-as short and easy indeed, as those marvellous conversions of sinners into saints which have long rendered our public executions a mockery of all righteousness. But not a whit more rational is the one than the other, for both are opposed to that Christianity which points out earth as the trial scene of character-God's inflictions as tending to purify instead of to destroy, and which, whilst it teaches man to abhor the vice, teaches him also to regard the wanderer from virtue's paths as a brother, and leads him to exert his utmost power to induce that wanderer's return again to his Father's house of mercy.

"The views which Christian Unitarianism takes of this subject, and of earth as the prelude and preparation of heaven, manifestly advance the knowledge and happiness of mankind, because they make charity to be the end of the commandment. The greatest possible happiness of the greatest possible number, is its object and its aim. It is at war, therefore, with all monopolies, for all monopolies are inimical to human happiness. But whilst the people of these islands are crying out against monopolies in trade, and monopolies in education; and whilst portions of the world, too, are shut up from the people's enterprise, and burdens heavy and grievous to be borne, are laid on the earth's produce-strange is it, that that worst of all monopolies, the Heaven monopoly, should still be regarded as a bright article of saving faith. This monopoly which shuts up the human heart, and bounds in gloom the prospects of mortality, which makes of heaven a mere conventicle, and degrades the Universal Father into the mere patron of a sect-oh, how opposed is this to that beneficent religion, full of grace and truth, which flings wide open the everlasting doors, and which inscribes on the portals of the sanctuary of eternal blessedness, God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he who feareth Him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.'

"It is because the established and prevailing systems of theology take opposite views to those which I thus hold to be consonant to nature and the Bible, that I believe them to be adverse to human improvement, and inimical to the liberty and happiness of mankind. I joy to know that many who profess those systems, are strenuous in their efforts in behalf of the diffusion of knowledge, the establishment of freedom. Their feelings are purer than their creed, their hearts prompt them to act in opposition to their faith; and in this instance, I rejoice in human inconsistency, which thus vindicates human nature, and does good to human kind, though it sets at nought sectarian theology. How would their hearts burn within them, did they embrace with fervour, and practically acknowledge an unshackled and benevolent religion. And that day must come. Every thing adverse to knowledge and liberty must give way. Truth must finally prevail, and the Saviour has pronounced, that the truth shall make his disciples free. Yes,

"There is One Mind, one omnipresent Mind,
Omnific. His most holy name is Love.

Truth of subliming import! with the which
Who feeds and saturates his constant soul,
He from his small particular orbit flies

With bless'd outstarting. From himself he flies,
Stands in the sun, and with no partial gaze,
Views all creation; and he loves it all,
And blesses it, and calls it very good!
This is indeed to dwell with the Most High;
Cherubs and rapture-trembling seraphim

Can press no nearer to the Almighty's throne.

"That this may be your happy lot, is my earnest prayer. To effect this, is the object of this Association, and it is also the aim of all our labours. Oh may it be the happiness of your lives, the blessedness of your memories; and through eternal ages, may it constitute your glory, your honour, your immortality."

REVIEW.

Illustrations of Political Economy, No. 4.-Demerara, a Tale; by Harriet Martineau; p. 143. C. Fox, London.

POLITICAL Economy for the Colonies! Here is a present for the planters, and the most valuable which was ever made to them; and well will it be for them and theirs, if they study, with a deep attention, the wholesome maxims and enlightened doctrines of this little book. Thus, and thus only, will that fate be averted, to the tender mercies of which they seem determined to commit themselves, with the intense infatuation of a short-sighted selfishness.

In this admirable tale, Miss Martineau has taken higher ground than she has yet done; and whilst she is steadily following up her main object-the illustration of the doctrines of Political Economy-she has laid before us, an eloquent and impressive appeal on behalf of a much oppressed portion of the human family. Political Economy, in its more enlarged sense, is but an illustration of the great social truth, that justice, being the perfection of human reason, must be the only sure foundation of private as well as public prosperity; a truth which mankind have paid dearly for having overlooked or disregarded. Justice is, in fact, the only profitable principle, on which a nation or an individual can hope to conduct their affairs successfully. It is the cheapest working principle for society, not merely in the long run, but even during the previous course. The gains of injustice may indeed seem

to be greater for a time, than the returns under a system of justice and equal rights; because the working of the two systems under precisely the same circumstances, cannot, at the same instant, be brought to a fair and impartial examination. But it must be remembered, that the sources of the apparent prosperity of the former system, are not merely in themselves insecure and transitory, and contain a principle of premature decay-involving, as they do, the violation of the essential rights of human nature-but by the incessant re-actions to which they are subject, render the public business of society complicated and harassing; entailing, at the same time, a ruinous expense upon the processes of private industry: and thus is a severe retribution dealt out, for the original departure from the principles of an even-handed justice. This is the important truth, which the present condition and recent history of our West Indian Colonies have forced upon the notice of all men; and in this little volume, Miss Martineau has successfully shown, that the maxims of a sound Political Economy have been no less violated, in the application of colonial capital and labour, than the inalienable rights of human nature have been wantonly and fruitlessly sacrificed.

The principles illustrated in the present Number, are, as usual, stated at its conclusion, to which we would direct the reader's attention; trusting that our observations will have enabled him to understand its general scope and tendency. The first chapter, "Sunrise brings sorrow in Demerara," lays before us the simple machinery of the Tale; which is nothing more than the judicious inquiries and unprejudiced observations of a young gentleman, a planter's son, who has returned to Demerara, after finishing his education in England, with a sound judgment and an uncorrupted mind-upon the vicious working of a system, which he soon discerned to be as fatal to the prosperity of the planter, as to the morality and happiness of the slave. There are some beautiful descriptions of tropical scenery, and the costume and habits of West Indian society are well and ably sketched; whilst the peculiarities of slave morality and manners, are drawn with the graphic force and felicity of Miss Martineau's former delineations.

Chapter Second contains a long and able discussion as to the tenor by which property is held; in the course of which, the unsound and vicious principle on which slave

property is possessed, is very fully exposed. We recommend to those who are connected with the Colonies in any shape, the attentive perusal of this part of the work. We cannot resist making the following extract from this interesting chapter.

"There is this conspicuous mark of blessing on capital rightly applied, that the more it increases the more it will increase; while precisely the reverse is the fact with that which is unrighteously made capital. The more eagerly it is applied, the faster it dwindles away; the more it is husbanded, the more want it causes. Its increase adds to the sum of human misery; its diminution brings a proportionate relief.”

"Why, then, has there been slavery in all ages of the world?" "Because the race, like the individual, is slow in learning by experience; but the race has learned, and goes on to learn notwithstanding; and slavery becomes less extensive with the lapse of centuries. In ancient times, a great part of the population of the most polished states was the property of the rest. Those were the days when the lords of the race lived in barbarous, comfortless splendour, and the bulk of the people in extreme hardship -the days of Greek and Roman slavery. Then came the bondage and villeinage of the Gothic nations,-far more tolerable than the ancient slavery, because the bondmen lived on their native soil, and had some sort of mutual interest with their owners; but it was not till they were allowed property that their population increased, and the condition of themselves and their masters improved. The experience of this improvement led to farther emancipation; and that comparative freedom again to farther improvement, till the state of the boor as to health, comfort, and security of property, is now superior to that of the lord of his forefathers. In the same manner, my dear sir, it might be hoped that the condition of the descendants of your slaves, a thousand years hence, would be happier than yours to-day, if our slaves were the original inhabitants of the soil they till. As it is, I fear that our bad institutions will die out only in the persons of those most injured by them. But that they will die out, the slave-history of Europe is our warrant; and then, and then only, will the laws of England secure the property of Englishmen as fully abroad as at home. It is no reproach upon laws framed to secure righteous property, that they do not guard that which is unrighteous. Consider once more who are the parties to the law, and the case will be clear.

"The government and the holders of the property are the parties to the maintenance of the law. The infringers of the law are the third party, whom it is the mutual interest of the other two to punish. So the matter stands in England, where the law works comparatively well. Here the case is wholly changed by the second and third parties being identical, while the first treats them as being opposed to each other. The infringer of the law, that is, the rebellious slave, being the property ofthat is, the same party with, his owner, the benefits of the com