respecting manumission, he shall 4. The legalizing of the marriage performed according to the rules laid down, should be declared legal and valid. The Jamaica Assembly, on bringing in the bill, omitted this proviso, and it does not appear whether the defect was afterwards supplied. But if not, it will be doubtful whether any connubial rights whatever are conferred on the parties, by the mere permission of the marriage ceremony. Besides this, the plan of referring cases of slave marriage, not to a protector, as Lord Bathurst proposes, but to an assembly constituted as is a Jamaica parish vestry, is throwing such ridicule on the whole affair, and interposing such obstacles, as would render an appeal of this kind not only undesirable, but almost hopeless as to its result, and would also discourage slaves from making it.-Lord Bathurst required that a record should be kept of the marriages of slaves; and indeed, without such a record, the ceremony of marriage must be of little value. The Assembly of Jamaica have omitted this provision also; an indication that the real object which they had in passing this law, was not to give a legal validity to marriage, but to furnish their friends at home with an argument in their favour, drawn from their apparent, but delusive, compliance. 5. The prohibition of Sunday markets and Sunday labour. No notice is taken of the subject of Sunday labour. A feeble attempt at compliance on the subject of Sunday markets is made by a clause which limits them to the hour of ten o'clock. But such a limitation is obviously wholly impossible, while slaves have no other day allotted to them by law, in lieu of Sunday, for their marketings; and for the other uses to which the Sunday is at present necessarily applied. The law, as it now stands, would be too oppressive to be enforced; and therefore, we presume, it was enacted in its present form. It is necessarily, therefore, extinct before its operation commences, and must be felt to be so by every man in Jamaica. That slaves should travel with their heavy loads ten, fifteen, twenty miles to market, effect their sales, and make their purchases, by ten in the morning, is too absurd to be thought of, and if the law were enforced, would be one of the most severe and oppressive enactments in the Jamaica statute-book. But it cannot be enforced, while Sunday continues to be desecrated as the only day fixed for the purposes of universal traffic, among the slaves of the island. It will not do to say that markets may be held on another day, unless that day is given to the slave as Sunday is now given to him, for the purpose of marketing. It was one of Mr. Canning's most distinct and unambiguous pledges to parliament and the public, that Sunday markets and Sunday labour should be abolished, and equivalent time in lieu of the Sunday be given to the slave. And the equity of this proceeding, even if we admit that slavery, as an institution, may lawfully exist, is so manifest at first sight, that one stands astonished at the obstinate resistance almost every where made to its adoption. Lord Bathurst has stated the case with a clearness and force which are irresistible, even on West-Indian principles. "The master," his lordship says, "is entitled to the labour of the slave for six days in the week, but he is not entitled to more; and out of the profits of the six days' labour the slave must be supported. The seventh must belong to the slave entirely for his own profit and advantage. I can perceive no difference in principle between the practice of purchasing food for Negroes, who are exclusively employed for six days in the service of their masters, for their support during the whole week; and of appropriating an adequate portion of time, during the six days, for the cultivation of their grounds.” «The master is not deprived of the service of his slave on any day except Sunday; and it is to be hoped, that no Christian master will so far forget himself, as to claim indemnity for that which his religion must have taught him he ought never to require." 6. Granting to the slave a legal right of property, and establishing banks for their savings. The Assembly of Jamaica have framed a clause which mentions the property of slaves, but leaves out all the effective provisions for the security of that property which are contained in the Trinidad Order. The clause is a mere apology for refusing to admit the proposition of Lord Bathurst on the subject; and the slave is left precisely in the same helpless and unprotected state, as to all essential rights of property, in which he was before the act was framed. 7. Prohibiting the separation of families by sale. Lord Bathurst's requisition on this point is extremely moderate, far too much so to serve any sub. stantial purpose of amelioration. He proposes that no slave having a husband, or wife, or child under a certain age; or reputed husband, or wife, or child, the property of the same owner; shall be levied on, or sold by legal process, unless together in one lot, and to the same purchaser. The obvious defect of this provision is, that it is limited to slaves sold by legal process, and does not extend to voluntary sales by the master; and that it excludes from its operation slaves married, but belonging to different owners. The only provision that appears to have been made on the subject, is to render more precise the old law, by which, when slaves are levied upon in execution, if mothers and children under ten years of age are seized together, they shall also be sold together.Some of the arguments employed in discussing this question, will throw light on the state of feeling, among even the higher classes in Jamaica. Mr. Brown said it would be very hard upon a man who owed a small sum of 50%, to have a whole family sold by the marshall. (The hardship inflicted on the slave is made no account of.)-Mr. Batty proposed that families should not be separated by voluntary sale. Mr. Hilton objected to this, (and his opinion prevailed,) that it would be violating the rights of property to dictate to the master how he should dispose of it: he had a right to sell one, or more, of his slaves, according to his wants and inclinations, in the same way as he had to dispose of any other property. 8. The abolition of the driving "There is, however, another population in his Majesty's Colony of Berbice,' to have effect from the 1st of November, 1826. We must confess that we have read some parts of this paper with feelings of deep regret We fully admit that the ordinance which has been promulgated in Berbice, by the command of his Majesty, is a great improvement on the previous state of the law in that colony; and thus far, therefore, we contemplate it with satisfaction and gratitude. We rejoice when any thing is done even to abate, though in a slight degree, the malignant evils of the slave system, and still more when, as in the present instance, much is done. But it is impossible for us to view, without sorrow and alarm, the progressive deviations which this document exhibits from the principles originally propounded, and the pledges originally given, by his Majesty's Ministers; and the progressive concessions which it too plainly indicates to some of the worst prejudices, and the most unreasonable objections of the colonists. The final result of these omissions, modifications, and concessions, we have now embodied in the ordinance of Berbice, which falls nearly as far below the Trinidad Order, as the Trinidad Order fell below the pledges of Mr. Canning, and of the Colonial Department itself, in May and July, 1823.". Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. I BEG permission to lay before the readers of the Christian Observer, the following remarks upon a subject which has been often noticed in your pages; I mean, the application of the curse of Canaan to the circumstances of modern Negro Slavery. They are copied from an American journal, but deserve to be reprinted in this country, on account of the apology which is so often made for the slave trade and slavery; as if in the first place these outrages upon humanity are, without any question, a fulfilment of Scrip "In your last Number, there is an extract from a Lecture of Dr. Collyer, on the prophecy of Noah (Gen. ix. 25, 27), which considers the slavery of the Africans as a part of its fulfilment. This view of it is so common, that I may perhaps be thought singular in objecting to it. That the Africans have suffered much from slavery and oppression, I readily admit; and this fact may have led to that interpretation of the prophecy, which extends it beyond the descendants of Canaan, to those of Ham generally; and especially to those branches of his family that settled in Africa. There is indeed a various reading sometimes quoted, that appears to favour this; but there is so general an agreement among versions with the received text, that there is reason to believe that the reading referred to is the result of an attempt to suit the text to the condition of the African part of Ham's family. "I object to considering African slavery as a fulfilment of this prophecy, and especially of making it the prominent part of the fulfilment, for the following reasons: 1. We have a clear and distinct fulfilment of the prophecy in the case of the descendants of Canaan, the person designated in the prophecy. They were the Canaanites. The place of their settlement is clearly designated. (Gen. x. 15 -20.) It is the country afterwards promised to Israel; and the Canaanites are the people the Israelites were commanded to destroy, when their iniquity should be full. (Gen. xvi. 16-21.) Most of them were destroyed or brought into subjection, in the time of Joshua, (Joshua xi. 19, 20; x. 1-24,) and the rest were brought into subjection in the days of David. (2 Samuel viii. 1-14; 2 Chron. viii. 7—9; Acts vii. 45.) The destruction of Tyre and Carthage, and the subjugation and oppression of their de scendants, may also be noted. The whole taken together, proves that the Canaanites have passed under oppressions that accord well with the prediction. "2. If we pass beyond the Canaanites, who are expressly designated, and apply the prediction to other branches of Ham's descendants, why not apply it to all? Why select some, and pass over others? Nimrod, the founder of Babylon and of a mighty kingdom, was a grandson of Ham. The prophecy does not well apply to that branch of Ham's family. The same may be said of the Egyptians. They were once a powerful people, and under some of their kings, as Shishak, and Necho, had an extensive dominion. (1 Kings xiv.; 2 Chron. xii. 2, 3, and xxxv. 20.) The same may be said of Ethiopia under some of its kings, and for a considerable period. (2 Chron. xiv. 9; xxi. 8.) We may, it is true, find a state of things among some other branches of Ham's family, that suits the prediction: but does this agreement authorize us to say, it is a fulfilment? I doubt it. We may find a state of things among some of the descendants of Shem and Japheth, that suits the prediction,-the long oppression of the Jews, and the slave trade carried on from the northern parts of Asia, as well as from Africa; but none apply the prophecy to these cases! "The fulfilment of the prophecy is clear, while we confine it to the Canaanites; but when we go beyond them, and apply it to the other branches of Ham's family, we get into difficulty. If I am not mistaken, the argument from prophecy is often weakened and injured by applying it to cases that in some respects agree with the prophecy, but which, when care fully examined, do not appear to have been at all referred to. "Before closing I may remark, that I have known many persons, "Christ's command to us is, to CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 306. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. THOUGH the subject on which I propose to offer a few remarks, has been noticed in some former Numbers of your publication, I conceive it to be one of those which should not be lost sight of, till the practice so justly objected to is relinquished. It is truly gratifying to mark the purity and simplicity of that religious system, and that ecclesiastical establishment, which, as members of the Protestant Church of England, we adopt; but it is no less painful to witness any practices connected with that church which may give ground for the suspicion, that the spirit of Popery still lurks within her pale, and has a practical influence on the ministerial acts of her clergy. This suspicion, I must reluctantly admit, will appear to be not wholly without foundation, if we may credit the reports which are given in the public journals of the ordinary transactions which precede the execution of criminals. I am aware, (because I have it from high authority,) that these reports must not be read with too implicit a reliance on their accuracy. As dying speeches and confessions are notoriously manufactured and printed long before the unhappy culprits have ascended the scaffold, so there is a sort of preliminary routine of religious preparation, which is supposed to apply to all persons under the near expectation of the last fatal award of the law; and which is perhaps sometimes detailed by reporters, more from imagination or tradition, than from circumstances which have actually occurred. In this state of things, it seems by no means impossible that many a culprit may be reported to have received the sacrament previously to his execution, who at the same time has not been deemed by the chaplain a fit subject for the administration of that holy ordinance. A clergyman in Kent, recently through the medium of the press, 2 Y |