her at a fair valuation; and if he entitled to freedom. In failure of lawful children, the illegitimate offspring, of whatever colour, may, after any act of acknowledgment by the father, inherit his property, and succeed to the mother's without any such act. that We are aware, that even if all these salutary regulations were, in terms, admitted into our colonial statute book, they might prove as inefficacious as the meliorating acts which now exist there. We do not want in the colonies new laws merely, but a new administration of justice. The crimes to be repressed are chiefly the crimes of the oligarchy of white inhabitants, who, whatever differences they may have on other points, in every thing that regards the laws regulating slavery and protecting slaves, are, for the most part, so knit together by common feelings of pride and prejudice, and are so wakefully alive to the minutest circumstance which may tend to lessen the importance of the white as compared with the black population, while judges and juries are selected exclusively from this body, and while human nature continues to be what it is, little hope can be entertained that justice will be fairly administered between master and slave. In the Spanish colonies, the secu rity of the slave has arisen from this, that the judges who were empowered to redress his grievances, were directly amenable to the Crown for their conduct, and were independent of colonial legislatures and colonial juries. And until á system in some respects analogous to this be adopted in our own colonies; until judges of respectability shall be sent from England, possessing a due share of legal knowledge, and wholly unconnected with the islands in which they are to officiate, armed also with powers which may enable them to interfere summarily for the redress of oppression, little improvement is to be expected. And even in this case, not only will the colonial laws require a thorough we revision; but the judges themselves, with whatever care they may be selected, will stand in need of the vigilant superintendance of the su preme government at home, and should be made to feel that they are loaded with a weighty responsibility. Another regulation which conceive to be absolutely indispensible to the due administration of the colonial governments is, that no person who fills the situation either of judge or governor, or even of secretary to the governor, shall possess a foot of land in the West Indies, or shall be the owner of a single slave. Hitherto our policy has been directly the reverse of this. Governors have, for the most part, been appointed to the charge of West Indian colonies, not from any consideration of their qualifications for the office, or of their superiority to those vulgar prejudices which have so fatally perverted the course of justice in our West Indian islands; but for the very reason which should have been regarded as an unsurmountable bar to their appointment; namely, that they were possessed of property in land and slaves, within the colony over which they were placed. The fatal eonsequences of such a mode of selection do not require to be particularised: they are of themselves sufficiently obvious; and unhappily a number of facts, of recent occurrence, might be mentioned, in illustration of the evils with which it is pregnant. If government, therefore, would succeed in their wishes and endeavours (which we believe to be very sincere) to reform our West Indian system, they must begin by entirely reversing this ancient line of policy. They must not only not permit any owners of West Indian estates to fill the offices we have mentioned, but they must forbid persons who accept these offices to acquire any such property, on pain of immediate dismissal, This regulation may seem harsh, but it is indispensible. The happiness of thousands of our fellow-subjects, is not for one moment to be put in competition with the interested views of any individual, however exalted. But we expect to be told that our exposition of the enormities of the West Indian system is contradicted by the evidence of facts. Mr. Huggins, it is true, has been acquitted, notwithstanding the most irrefragable proof of his guilt; but then another culprit of a similar de scription has recently suffered, in a neighbouring island, the extreme sentence of the law. The execu tion of Mr. Hodge, a planter of Tortola, for the murder of his slavė, is a triumphant refutation of all that has been alleged respecting the frame of West Indian society, and the inefficacy of West Indian meliorating laws. This argument has been already adduced in the House of Commons; but had some papers which have since been presented to Parliament, been at that time on its table, a much more conclusive answer might have been given to the argument, than, under the ignorance which then prevailed respecting the real facts of the case, it could possibly receive. A copy of the papers in question have just reached us; and, after having attentively perused the tale of hors rors which they unfold, we are willing that the justness of our views of West Indian policy shall be tried by this document. We are willing to rest their vindication on the details of that very transaction, on which the friends of the colonial system have somewhat incautiously relied for the defence of that system. The facts sworn to in the different depositions, which led to the apprehension and trial of Mr. Hodge, we will now proceed to detail; but before we do this, we are bound to apprise such of our reader as are not armed with strong nerves, that they will do well to pass over the succeeding fourteen paragraphs. 1. In January, 1806, a slave named Welcome, belonging to Mr. Hodge, was employed by liim as a hunter, to go in quest of runaway glaves. After hunting for four or five days, he returned home unsuccessful; in consequence of which he was laid down by Hodge's order, and severely cart-whipped. He was immediately sent out to hunt a second time, and in a few days again returned unsuccessful; when, with his old wounds uncured, he was a second time, by Hodge's order, laid down, and severely cartwhipped. Welcome was immediately sent out hunting a third time; and returning in a few days, with the same success as before, he was again severely cart-whipped by Hodge's order, and put in very heavy irons, with a pudding on each leg, and a crook round his neck; and in the night-time was confined in the bilboes or stocks. He was at the same time allowed little or no food, and consequently became so weak, that he could scarcely walk. In this condition, with dreadful sores, occasioned by his former whippings, he was ordered to go to a neighbouring estate; but being unable to proceed, he fell down on the road, and, being carried home, he was again cartwhipped, and died in consequence the same night. 2. Mr. Hodge having suspected two female slaves, Margaret his cook, and Else a washer woman, of a design to poison Mrs. Hodge and his children, he poured a quantity of boiling water down their throats; and having, after this, severely cartwhipped them and chained them together, he sent them, in a state of entire nakedness, to work in the field. Both these slaves languished for a short time in a miserable condition, and then died. On the day that Margaret died, one of the deponents going into the kitchen, and observing she was stupid, asked her what was the matter; on which she pulled a handkerchief from her head, and shewed two very severe wounds, which, she said, Mr. Hodge had given her. She soon after fell on her face, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 115, and, being carried to the sick-house, died that evening. Mr. Hodge had been beard to say, that he was resolved neither of these women should live long. 3. Some time before the death of Margaret, one of the deponents saw, in the sick-house, a child about ten years of age, named Tamsen, with the skin entirely off. The deponent asked the sick-nurse what was the matter with the child; but the sicknurse refused to give an answer, and seemed afraid, lest her master should know that the child had been seen. On inquiry, it appeared, that the child had been dipped, by Hodge's order, into a copper of boiling liquor. 4. In the year 1807, a slave called Tom Boiler, a stout, hale, hearty man, was by Hodge's order, and in his presence, laid down and flogged without intermission, for at least an hour. After this infliction, he attempted to rise, but could not. He was taken up and carried to the sickhouse, whence he never came out, but died in about a week. No doctor was called to attend him. 5. Soon after the death of Tom Boiler, another slave named Prosper, was by Hodge's order, and in his presence, laid down, and for more than an hour cart-whipped without intermission. He was then taken up by Hodge's order, and, with his hands tied behind his back, lashed to a tree. Hodge then ordered the driver to use "close quarters,"meaning by this expression a more cruel and severe cart-whipping than is ordinarily used, the whip in this case being shortened and going all round the body, cutting every part, particularly the stomach and belly, and making at the same time comparatively little noise. In this situation, Prosper was beaten till he fainted, his head hanging down backwards, and was no longer able to bawl. He was then carried to the sick-house, where, within a fortnight, he died. 6. A slave named Jupiter, about 3 M nineteen years of age, was, by Hodge's orders, severely cart-whipped, put in heavy irons, crook puddings, &c. and allowed little or nothing to eat. He was also burnt in the mouth with a hot iron. He shortly after died. 7. On the 27th March, 1807, a new negro slave belonging to Hodge was cart-whipped, in his master's presence, in the most cruel manner. He died in two or three days after. When his body was carried out on a board to be buried, it was seen by one of the witnesses in a shockingly lacerated state. 8. A free man, named Peter, was hired by Hodge, as a cooper, at two joes per month. This man, though free, was repeatedly cart-whipped at close quarters, and in every other way, by order, and in the presence of Hodge, who also put chains upon him, and had him worked with the field negroes. Peter soon died. 9. In 1808, a young slave named Cuffy, was by order of Hodge, and in his presence, severely, and repeatedly cart-whipped, chained, &c. "He was cut to pieces," and had hardly any black skin remaining. After a cart-whipping, which lasted upwards of an hour, he was carried to the sick-house, where he died within a week. 10. Mr. Hodge frequently caused the children on his estate, about nine years of age, to be taken up by the heels, and dipped into tubs of water with their heads downwards, and kept there till stifled, then taken out and suffered to recover and breathe, when they were again treated in the same manner, and so repeatedly, until they have been seen to stagger and fall. On this, Mr. Hodge has ordered them to be taken up and suspended to a tree by their hands tied together, and in this situation cartwhipped for some time at close quarters. Among others, a mulatto child, reputed to be his own, named Bella, was repeatedly cart-whipped by his order; and he was also seen repeatedly to strike the child with a stick on the head, so as to break her head; and also to kick her so violently as to send her several feet on the ground. 11. A slave named Cudjoe, a smart active fellow, was so severely and repeatedly cart-whipped and otherwise ill-treated by Hodge, that he died. Another slave named Gift, who had also previously been in good health, after having been severely cart-whipped and chained, was again, with his wounds unhealed, subjected to a further severe cartwhipping, and died the same night. One of the deponents saw the body carried out for burial in a dreadful state of laceration. 12. A negro woman named Violet, belonging to Mr. Hodge, was confined and severely flogged and cut by him for the alleged crime of stealing candles. She died in consequence. A boy, a son of this woman, run away through his master's flogging him. When brought back, he was put in chains, and so severely flogged that he died. One of the deponents saw the boy a week before he died, and perceived, from his swelled and lacerated state, that he could not possibly recover. 13. A boy named Dick, whom Mr. Hodge charged with having stolen his geese, was very often flogged severely and in quick succession, at close quarters and otherwise; in consequence of which he died. He had also been put in chains, and had his mouth burnt with a hot iron. 14. One of the deponents, besides swearing to several of the above facts, stated that for several years, during which the deponent resided on Mr. Hodge's estate, Mr. H. had been guilty of repeated and excessive acts of cruelty towards his slaves. Another deponent, who had lived, at different periods, as a manager, on the estate of Mr. Hodge, called Belle Vue, and who was also a witness to many of the atrocities detailed above, swore, that at most of the numerous and severe cart-whippings inflicted by Mr. Hodge on his slaves, he was not actually present, Mr. Hodge generally choosing to inflict them without the presence of any competent witness; but that, in addition to the instances at which he happened to be present, and which are mentioned above, there were many others where he saw only the effects of Hodge's cruelty, in the lacerations, burnt mouths, &c. of the slaves. He was satisfied these cruelties were inflicted by Hodge himself, as otherwise he should have heard him inquire, and complain, concerning these marks of suffering in his own negroes. It was scarcely possible to remain in the sick-house on account of the offensive smell proceeding from the corrupted wounds of cart-whipped slaves. When this deponent first went to live on Hodge's estate, there was upon it a fine gang of upwards of a hundred able negroes; but when the last wife of Hodge died, in 1808*, that number was so reduced by cruelty, and absconding in consequence of cruelty, that negroes enough were not to be found on the estate to dig her grave; and therefore, the deponent and Daniel Ross, Esq. one of the magistrates who signed his deposition, assisted in digging it. He could not remember the names of all the negroes who had died in consequence of the cruelties of Hodge; but he knew the number to be great: sometimes three and four have died in the course of a day and night. On such occasions, no doctor was ever called in. He lived in all about three years with Mr. Hodge; and in that time, he was satisfied that Hodge lost sixty negroes, at least, by the severity of his punishments; and he believed that only one negro died a natural death during the same period. Such then are the dreadful facts of this case. On their being brought before Governor Elliott, he immediately issued a special commission for the trial of the offender. The trial took place on the 29th of April, and lasted from ten in the morning till She died insane; her intellects, it was believed, having been disordered by the shocking scenes she was forced to witness. half past five on the morning of the 30th. The jury, after deliberating for two hours, brought in a verdict of Guilty, on the first indictment, which was for the murder of Prosper; (there were five other indictments in reserve); and sentence of death being passed upon him, he was executed on the 8th of May.-But this is not all which appears on the face of the parliamentary papers; and if we were to stop here, dreadful as the details have been, it would give our readers a very inadequate idea of the real nature of this singular case. It appears, then, that Mr. Hodge had been permitted for years to proceed in his course of wholesale murder, not only with perfect impunity, but even without inquiry. And yet we will venture to say, that there was not a magistrate, or a man in that small island, to whom his shocking barbarity was not a matter of notoriety. At length, in consequence of some violent party animosities, he was arraigned for murders committed four or five years before. But for these party violences, his conduct would probably never have become the subject of legal investigation. The individuals who ultimately engaged in the prosecution, and those also who were brought forward as evidences on the trial, had continued members of the same small community with Mr. Hodge, during the whole period that the work of death was notoriously proceeding on his plantation. And the very person who took the lead in the prosecution, though he was an assistant judge, and perfectly well acquainted with Hodge's character and conduct, had not only lived in habits of intimacy with him-until these party differences arose, in the course of the last year, to which we have already alluded-but had even employed his influence to protect him from prosecution*. Then, and not before, did this assistant judge * We assert this fact on the very best autho rity. A gentleman, distinguished for his probity and humanity, who endeavoured, during a temporary residence at Tortola, to bring |