a system upon which the Colonies might be governed. We would rather see these gentlemen in possession of power, and take the chance of their abusing it, than witness the underhand tricks by which they endeavour to extend and secure their influence. As dictators, they might do some good-as intriguers, and meddlers, and busy-bodies, they can only do mischief. As caterers and dry-nurses for the Colonial office, as thinkers for my Lord Bathurst and his underlings, they expect to retain the government and patronage of the Colonies, and only escape from the responsibility. They know that it is impossible for a Secretary of State or Cabinet Minister to arrange the details of Colonial jurisprudence; but they goad him on to the attempt with an intention of sharing the burthen.

These facts are too notorious to be denied. But were they destitute even of the shadow of a foundation, the man who could attempt to make the Planters humane against their wills, must be ignorant of the first principles, not only of legislation, but of human nature and common sense. Ministers cannot require to be told that the only object and the only effect of municipal law, is to make wicked and foolish people confine themselves within those bounds to which the wise and the good are ready to submit of their own accord. Without the most odious despotism, no law can be effectual unless it is ratified by public opinion, Legislation, therefore, should follow in its train,-follow closely, anxiously and attentively; but still rather follow than guide its course. When, as at present, slaves possess private property, the possession should be confirmed to them by law. When marriage is virtually binding, it should be made positively binding. When most or, many of the Planters throw open their estates to the Missionary, all. should be compelled to. take the same step. When the cart-whip is laid aside on the plantations of circumspect, experienced and merciful men, its use should be peremptorily forbidden. And when slaves are examined de facto for the purpose of discovering truth, their evidence should be admissible in courts of justice..

This is the plain and intelligible mode of proceeding; and it is a great deal too plain for the Mitigationists. Their plan proposes to pass laws, which they assure us beforehand that: the magistrates will not execute. Their system presupposes gross abuse in the executive power, and remedies it by Mr. Stephen's grand arcanum and panacea, an order in council of his own compounding. The Planters being accursed' and bloody,' and barbarous,' accustomed to burn,' and 'brand,' and flay' their slaves,-accustomed to instigate

them to insurrection, for the purpose of butchering them in cold blood,' Mr. Stephen suggests, that Lord Bathurst. should write a letter to the governors, purporting that such mal-practices must cease. Is not this idle, childish, drivelling? Not a single governor in the West Indies is to be trusted, believed, or listened to; for the governors say that the condition of the slaves is improving. Yet are these very men, with the advice and approbation of their privy counsellor, Mr. Stephen, to be the sole conductors of the new system of administration! Can Mr. Stephen show that the colonies which possess no legislative assemblies, but are governed immediately by the crown, have derived any benefit from the peculiarity of their situation. We shall advert, by and bye, to his own exploits at Berbice; but not to forestall that illus trative adventure, is Demerara one bit the better for being under the immediate protection of the lords and gentlemen in Downing-street? The experiment so strongly pressed upon Mr. Canning and Lord Bathurst, the experiment of altering the slave-laws without consulting the Planters, was tried on a small scale at Demerara; and an insurrection was the immediate result!! Again, the worst, if not the only instance of gross recent cruelty adduced by Mr. Buxton, took place in Honduras. The circumstance is employed to confound the plainest of all plain statements-Colonel Arthur's opinion' respecting the treatment of slaves; he says, that in general, it is very good; but that there are some strong exceptions. Mr. Macaulay and Mr. Buxton make a most ridiculous use of this evidence; but our present business is with the legis lature. Honduras, this sink of horror, cruelty, and crime, is under the exclusive government of the king in council, the very lawmaker to whom Mr. Stephen would subject Jamaica and Barbadoes!! We defy him to escape from this difficulty. He may excite fresh insurrections-plange the nation into fresh wars-and occupy the Senate for three or four sessions with arguments respecting his orders in council. But what good have they done in Demerara, or Honduras? This is a plain question; and the government, the people, and the planters have a right to expect a plain answer.Until it is given, and it never can be given, Messrs. Stephen -and Co. must continue to regret, that the great work of Colonial Reform is still to be carried on through the medium of the Colonial Legislatures;' and there is nothing in the recent proceedings of those bodies which will tend to remove this inconvenient obstacle to their ambition, or to diminish their regret at its existence.

We do not mean to contend, that the assemblies of Jamaica

and Barbadoes have duly preserved their temper. Their adversaries knew the feelings of the men with whom they had to deal, and goaded them on to acts of violence which every one will condemn. A moiety of the mischief ministers have brought upon themselves. They yield so often to the bullying of enemies, that friends must bully in self-defence. In this age of gentle measures and moderate language, the men that talk loudest generally carry their point. Experience has whis pered the secret across the Atlantic; and half the menaces which have been used in the West Indies may be traced to this source. The other may be fairly ascribed to the atrocious calumnies to which the planters are exposed. Residents in Europe are aware that these calumnies gain little credit. In the colonies men believe that Mr. Wilber force speaks the sentiments and influences the opinions of millions; and this belief is more than sufficient to excuse the existing imitation. We are reminded, every day, that blacks can feel and smart; but the whites in the West Indies are treated as if they were incapable of either. We read tragic tales about the cart-whip and the branding-iron; and expect that our own countrymen will continue stupidly insensible under the lash of malignity and falsehood. Mr. Brougham reproached the planters with branding their slaves; a practice which was never universal, and died a natural death with the slave trade. The political Mr. Macaulay denounces the planters as accursed. The Christian Observer Mr. Macaulay proclaims their conduct to be diabolical. We know not what impression such charges make on other men; but for our own parts, we should think ill of the white inhabitants of the West Indies, if they submitted to such insults with meekness. The sanctified leer, and the whining remonstrance, may be in very great repute with the disciples of Mr. Bunting; but we trust that the people of England will excuse and even ap plaud the expression of an honest indignation. The slaves of Mr. Huggins were not tormented with more ingenious cruelty than the planters themselves have been tormented by the Society. Mr. Macaulay charges the colonies with getting up an insurrection, as an excuse for persevering in cruelty. They might retaliate by asking whether he has not done his best to provoke them to a revolt; and whether a ́ rupture with the mother country would not prove the legitimate conclusion of his labours.

In the fears that have been excited on this subject we do not participate. Supposing that faults have been committed at home and abroad, a little concession on this side the water, will be thankfully received on the other. Supposing that the

Colonies alone are to blame; Cabinets and Senates will make more allowance for their errors than the forgiving managers of the Mitigation Society. We see no signs of that contumacious resistance, which Mr. Canning declared his determination to put down. The speeches at Barbadoes, are not only temperate, but well-reasoned, judicious and convincing. And with the prejudices which we naturally feel in favour of our own fire sides, we cannot think that a land which produces such speakers as Mr. Hamden, and Sir Reynolds Alleyne, is one in which Englishmen need be ashamed to sojourn. As the Pamphlet has not yet been published in England, our readers will be pleased to see a sample of the spirit which pervades it. Mr. Hamden cordially approves of the larger part of Lord Bathurst's dispatch; the following remarks apply to portions of it from which he is compelled to dissent.

Upon the subject of punishments I can dare to speak out boldly: I speak out with the confidence of innocence. No man in this community will suspect that I am the person who would wish to uphold the power of the master for the sake of abusing it. I will not condescend to say that, I am known to be incapable of cruelty to a slave: I claim a higher meed of praise. It is not vanity which bids me, upon this occasion, boast that I know I am distinguished for humanity and kindness as a master, I do not mean to insinuate by this that there exists a contrary feeling amongst the, respectable slave owners of this Colony. Need I recall to your minds the testimony, on oath, of many most respectable witnesses, which appeared in a Report upon this subject, but a few short weeks ago? I trust that the facts there collected, will prove sufficient to remove suspicions, unfavourable to the slave owners of this Colony, from the most prejudiced minds. But I presume to speak of myself in a way that the occasion alone could justify, in order that my opinions may carry with them the weight. which is justly due to the opinions of a man who, I call God to witness, always endeavours to regulate his conduct towards those whom Providence has placed under his controul, by the most scrupulous regard to justice and humanity, and who ever considers the happiness of the slave the primary object of discipline. It is this feeling, Sir, which urges me to declare, that such a system of discipline, as is here proposed, must lead to a total subversion of the master's authority, and consequent insubordination; and ultimately be productive of an incalculable augmentation of offences and punishments. Yes, gentlemen! an augmentation of punishments. stand up as an advocate for the slave, when I supplicate you not to give your sanction to measures, which will convert the mutuali confidence and good will which now subsists between the master and slave, into mutual suspicion and distrust-causing the master! to be regarded as a tyrant, the slave as a spy: the one constantly.... provoked to go to the utmost verge of his authority-the other cu

I

riously jealous lest he dare to exceed it: leaving no room for mercy, and cancelling all claims to gratitude. Will you banish the peace and contentment which now prevail among us, and invoke discord, anarchy, and rebellion? I pray heaven, that subsequent events may not prove that I speak in the spirit of vaticinationvaticination do I say! events of the most recent occurrence, events which are now actually passing in a neighbouring Colony, already give to these opinions the weight and authority of history. When the rebel of Demerara is asked, why he, who lately appeared so well satisfied with his condition, and who seemed to look up to his master as his friend and protector, now appears in arms against him, what is his reply? That he has lately been led to believe that he ought not to be satisfied with his condition; that the people of England are on his side, and wish him to live idle and be free. Poor deluded creatures! Happy! contented! faithful! they have been seduced into crimes, for which many of them have paid the sad forfeiture of life. Their's has been the sacrifice, but where sticks the guilt?"

"In the first place, the punishment of flogging is to be totally interdicted in all cases where the offender is a woman. Now, sir, although the idea of flogging a woman may shock our notions of gallantry, I believe the sound reason of the thing consists in this,that discriminations in regard to punishments should rest on a real difference of cha racter and conduct, as to softness of manners and sensibility of mind; and accordingly we find, not only in savage life, where there appears to be scarcely any natural difference of character between the sexes, but even in the most civilized societies, that whenever the gentler sex have, by depravity or vulgarity, forfeited their claim to distinction, they are treated with as much harshness as the men. And I doubt whether a milder discipline would be necessary for the poissardes of Paris, or the furies of Billingsgate, than for their hardy spouses. Are not women flogged in houses of correction in England? and what discrimination is there in the punishment of men and women for crimes? Let it here be remembered, that crimes— aye crimes of a very serious nature, are often the objects of domestic punishment among us; and that slaves in this country receive moderate floggings for offences, which, in England, would be punished with death, whether the offender were man or woman. In point of fact, feelings of tenderness towards females, which, if they be not natural, the refinements of education and habit have made almost as strong as if they were so, do operate powerfully in mitigating the punishments of females. Hence it is that even I, who have failed to give the most unequivocal proof of tenderness for the sex, can say, that I have never ordered a woman to be flogged since I have assumed the management of my estate. But of this I am cer tain, that did the women on my plantation doubt that I had power to flog them, I should be provoked to it in a very few hours. Unfortunately our black ladies have rather a tendency to the Amazonian H

VOL. XXI. JAN. 1824.