estate of two young women, for the crime of running away. They were both advanced in their pregnancy, and were both ordered to receive the same punishment, although one of them had been a fugitive only for one month, and the other had been two years in the woods. The former intreated that her punishment might be delayed, at least till she was delivered, that her child might not suffer as well as herself. The overseer said, that as she was so knowing as to make such a request, she should be made to suffer the more on that account. The punishment of this unhappy girl then began, and our informant was resolved to see the end of it; but after 160 lashes had been inflicted, the shrieks of the sufferer became so piercing, that it was impossible any longer to endure the spectacle. On returning, however, some time after to the spot, our informant learnt that both this and the other girl had gone through the whole of the punishment assigned them. They had afterwards collars with projecting spikes fastened round their necks, these collars being attached to each other by an iron chain.

Another individual who resided at Bel Ombre for some time, during the years 1820 and 1821, confirms most of the general statements made above, and particularly the fact that the regular punishments were usually administered at Bel Ombre on Sundays. This informant often counted the lashes, and never knew any of the offenders to receive less than one hundred, excepting two youths, who received about seventy each. It was common to rub salt and pepper into the wounds, which it was alleged would prevent them from festering, and enable the sufferers the sooner both to return to labour, and to bear a repetition of punishment, if it should be thought right to inflict it. The pain of this application is described as excruciating.

The same person states that, in the month of July, 1820, being on a plantation, he saw two slaves brought out to be punished. They were placed flat on their bellies, extended on a wooden beam, to which they were fastened, while two men held their hands and two their legs, and a driver, who struck alternately, was placed on each side of the sufferer. The whips employed were unusually heavy, and 120 lashes were inflicted on each. On the following Wednesday, having occasion to go to the room used as an hospital, he saw laid out the dead bodies of the same two slaves. The wounds were putrid, and sent forth a rank smell; and he af terwards saw them both carried out, tied up in mats, to the burial ground.

Our informants in the above cases of cruelty have expressed their readiness to appear as witnesses of their truth, either in a court of justice, or before a magistrate, or before a Committee of the House of Commons, whenever they shall be called upon to do so.

But it will perhaps be said, that such atrocities as these could never have been permitted, but must have met with condign punishment, had they been made known to the local authorities at the time. The statements we are now about to submit to our readers will probably convince them that such a course would have led to no beneficial results as respected the slaves, seeing how often it issued in impunity to the guilty, in inconvenience to those who attempted to bring them to punishment, and in aggravated misery to the sufferer. The instances are drawn from the official records of the Colony.

1.-The Case of the Negro Girl Virginie.

The procés verbal in this case, signed by V. Delafaye, officer of police, states that this girl, the property of one Ollier, otherwise called Lailette, a Creole, of the age of fourteen years, was found creeping on all-fours in the streets of the town of Port Louis, by the police patrole, and brought to the police office, on Thursday, the 11th of October, 1821. She had fetters on both her feet, and was dragging after her a chain and a weight of about fifty pounds; the whole of the irons she bore weighing about seventy pounds French, or seventy-six pounds English. These chains had been put upon her on the preceding Saturday, by her master, because she had deserted his house on account of ill treatment; and she exhibited her body to the police, which was found martyred (“ martyrisé") with the blows of a rattan, When taken up in the streets, she was again attempting to escape from the house of her master, to implore assistance from any who might afford it.

M. Lavergne, a surgeon, the officer of health, having been called on by the police, certified that he had examined this girl's body, and on either side of the posteriors he observed two wounds in particular, which seemed to have been inflicted with some blunt instrument, and in a great degree to have been the cause of the fever which was then upon her. Besides this, he testified that she had massive iron rings on both her ancles, and moreover dragged after her a heavy chain, which of itself was fifty pounds, (fifty-four pounds English,) and was attached to the rings. The irons were removed, and the girl sent to the hospital.

The next step in the process was a reference of the case, on the following day, to the attorney-general, M. Virieux, who forthwith submitted it to the Court of First Instance, which on the very same day pronounced judgment upon it. The judgment of one of the judges, M. Portalis, is in the following words:

"Having seen the procés verbal in police, and the report of Lavergne, and having considered that the said Ollier, or Lailette, in inflicting the punishment of flogging on his slave girl Virginie, has only done that allowed by law; and having considered likewise that the weight of chain is not excessive, since it has not hindered the slave girl escaping again from her master's house, we order that the said girl Virginie shall be returned to her master with the chains she bore." This is followed by the further judgment of the president of the Court, J. L. Lefebvre, dated the same day, the 12th of October, 1821, as follows:

Having examined the case, and considered that although Ollier, or Lailette, the proprietor of the girl Virginie, has only inflicted the punishments which belong to the authority of masters, in flogging and chaining the said Virginie, who had been guilty of running away, yet, according to the police report, it is implied there had been excess;-We order that the said Virginie, placed in the hospital at her master's

* About five times the weight of the heaviest chains with which felons are double-ironed in England.

expense, shall be given back to him, along with the chains to which she had been attached; and that he be charged to treat her as a father," ("en père de famille.")

This sentence, justifying the conduct of the master, and impugning that of the police, was forthwith reported, with all the previous proeeedings, to Sir R. Farquhar, then the governor.

2.-The Case of the Negro Man Azor.

The procés verbal in this case, signed D. Virieux, first assistant of police, states, that Azor, belonging to Madame Michel, had, on a Sunday, without leave from his mistress, gone to see a fête called Yamee (annually observed by such slaves as were natives of India); that on Monday morning he had returned to his mistress, who put him in chains; but that at four o'clock he had escaped, and came to the police office, to complain of having been chained unjustly, and to request that he might be relieved from them. The chains (which it appeared weighed thirty and a quarter pounds English) were taken off by order of the chief commissary of police.

Azor's case having been submitted to the Court of First Instance, by the attorney-general, Virieux, on the 9th of October, 1821, the judgment of that Court was given, and first that of M. Portalis. "Having considered," he says, "the procés verbal, &c., and the weight of chains, including the collar and fetter, put upon Azor, twenty-eight pounds,* (French,) and having also considered that Azor has not been corrected by his mistress, and that he has no complaint to make of her, but that in punishing him for having absented himself from his work, she had limited that punishment to putting upon him chains, of which the weight was not excessive, that punishment being authorised by the law;-And since no one has a right to use the liberty of taking off from a negro the chains which his master may put upon him, without the order of the proper authority, I require that Azor be forthwith sent back to his mistress, with the chains which have been taken off him; and that the police be forbidden to allow itself to relieve a black from his chains, until the same be ordered by the competent authority."

The president of the Court, Lefebvre, concurred in the sentence of his associate, adding, that "the punishment of the domestic chain belongs to masters, agreeably to the colonial laws and regulations; and no one has a right to interfere in this domestic discipline, so long as there is no excess, which there is not in this case; and that it concerns the public order that masters should not be hindered in the exercise of this right of discipline. We order," he adds, "that Azor be replaced in the chains to which he had been subjected by his mistress, and sent back to her domicile and discipline, she being enjoined to treat him with parental care," + ("en bon père de famille.")

* The largest weight allowed by Sir Lowry Cole's new law, (No. 42. p. 335.) was six pounds; and ten pounds is the usual weight of double irons in England for felons, the very highest being fourteen pounds.

We know not whether this lady be the same Madame Michel living at the Grand River of Port Louis, of whom one of our informants testifies that he once

3.-The Case of the Negro Man Pedro.

This man, a slave, belonging to a Mr. Christin, a planter of the district of Moka, presented himself on the 7th of January, 1818, to General Hall, at his residence of Reduit. He had been suspected by his master of having given information of some new slaves that had been smuggled into his plantation, and he now related various particulars of cruel treatment which he had been made to undergo.-Happening accidentally to tread on a young duckling and crush it to death, he had been tied up and punished with 100 lashes. His master had also suspended him for a time with a rope by the neck, letting him down before he was quite dead, though nearly strangled. His food was insufficient and of bad quality, being a pound and a half of sweet potatoes a day, an allowance totally inadequate to the sustentation of one who had to work hard like him, and who had no respite from labour on Sundays or other days.-Pedro's statement was corroborated by his personal appearance. He seemed hardly to have strength to tell his tale; round his neck the mark of a cord was visible; and his body, from his shoulders to his legs, was all over wounds and sores.

A surgeon, M. Bertin, who was made to examine Pedro on the same day on which he presented himself, bore the following testimony to his state at that time. He found Pedro lying at length on the floor, complaining of a great pain in the lower extremities of his belly, without however having in that part any external marks of violence; but M. Bertin found two remarkable sores, which he describes, on the buttocks, and many contusions and erosions, and slighter rents of the skin on other parts of the body, from the nape of the neck downwards. --And M. Lavergne, the surgeon of the police, who saw him on the 8th, stated in a legal procés verbal, that he recognised the marks of strong pressure round the neck, as though by a strong cord; and that there were two serious wounds of considerable depth, and of about four inches broad, on the buttocks, and two others in the middle of the thigh; adding, that it was urgent to send him to the hospital to avoid a locked jaw.

Both these statements, of which only the substance is here given, were extracted from the minutes of the Court, before which the case afterwards was brought, countersigned by Mr. Husson the registrar.

Nothing was produced to rebut this evidence, excepting the exculpatory statements of Mr. Christin himself, and his son, the purport of which was, that the pressure round the neck arose from an iron collar, and that only 25 lashes had been inflicted on Pedro. On being further questioned, the elder Christin was forced to admit that he had given two twenty-fives nearly together, but he gave no farther explanation respecting the pressure round the neck, which could only be adequately accounted for in the way Pedro had explained it.

saw, at her residence, seven negroes with their necks fastened in a kind of wooden pillory, while their feet and toes just touched the ground; and that in this perpendicular position, nearly suspended by the neck, they were kept for several nights, being at the same time made to work during the day as usual.

The sentence pronounced in this case by Mr. Lefebvre, the president of the Court, on the 26th of January, 1818, was, that Mr. Christin, on paying the medical expenses of Pedro's treatment in the hospital, should be discharged, and enjoined, in future, to use greater moderation and humanity towards him.

The sentence does not expressly order Pedro to be returned into his power, but as the contrary was not ordered, such must have been the inevitable effect of it.

4.-The Case of Antoine, a Male Slave.

This slave was the property of a widow lady, a Madame Ozughree. Her son, named Desiré Ozughree, a young man of about 20 years of age, was accused of having loaded a gun with shot, and placing Antoine a few yards from him, fired at him, but from his being a bad marksman did him no material harm. The case, having been referred to the attorney-general for prosecution, was tried before the Court of First Instance on the 8th of June, 1818. The attorney-general, M. Pepin, in a report which he officially made of the trial, in a letter of the 25th of June following, coolly remarked, "that young Ozughree was not right in firing off a gun at this slave, for although it did not occasion any wounds, yet the consequence might have been fatal." He goes on to state, that he, the attorney-general, though the gun had been loaded with shot, yet taking into his consideration the absence of all criminal intention on the part of Ozughree, and the state of indiscipline of the black, (a fact which appears to have stood on the bare assertion of the accused, and was not in proof,) had only required of the Court, "that Desiré Ozughree should be strictly charged not to carry himself again to such lengths, under pain of a greater punishment, and that Antoine should be given back to Madame Özughree."

The sentence of the Court, signed by its president, Lefebvre, followed the lenient suggestions of the attorney-general, and was in the following extraordinary terms: "Considering that Ozughree had no criminal intention, and that he has even reproached himself that the act had no unfortunate result for Antoine, who was in a state of indiscipline;* and rendering justice to the conclusions of the attorney-general;-We forbid to M. Desiré Ozughree to be guilty of a repetition of such conduct, and require him to employ means of repression to his blacks in conformity with the laws; and we therefore order that Antoine shall be given back to his mistress, charging her to treat him properly in the manner of a father of a family."

Thus was disposed of this wilful and wanton outrage, which, in England, under Lord Ellenborough's act, might have cost Ozughree his life.

5.-Case of Le Cotte, a Man Slave.

This man was the slave of a person named Noel Bastel, in the district of Moka. Having absconded on account, as he alleged, of hard

Did not this very circumstance undeniably prove that he had a criminal intention? He regretted he had not killed or wounded Antoine.