Old and obsolete laws.

National humanity of Englishmen of

how old a date.

trary measures which the government was guilty of, and which led to the abdication of James II. much about the same time that this often-quoted act of Barbadoes was passed.

'SECT. IX.-Concluding reflections on the subject of this chapter." p. 328.

Conscious of the just charge which would be brought against him for bringing forward old and obsolete laws in a treatise on the present state of slavery, it is amusing to see our author arguing the point with himself, as if he already heard the merited accusation:

'Can, then, the obvious consequences be avoided by suggesting that the cruel and iniquitous laws which have been noticed are all of ancient date; and that the laws themselves have been repealed? I believe the fact to be, that in many of our colonies the greater part of the acts cited in this chapter still continue in force; and there were many equally bad in Jamaica, which, though now repealed, were in force so recently as 1787; and then reprinted in the island as existing laws, after a temporary suspension. Nor is it true that they are all of an early date,' &c. p. 331.

A question is here started by Mr. Stephen, whether or not the humanity of our national manners be of so old a date as the settlement of our West India islands; in discussing which question, a consideration seems never to have occurred to him, which is surely very important-that our ancestors, and even our grandfathers and fathers, made laws for a different state of society from that now existing. When those sanguinary laws were passed, it should

be recollected that the colonies were inundated with hordes of Africans, inured to blood in their own country, and that a mere handful of white people had to keep them in subjection. Selfdefence is the first law of nature, and the laws of that period can be judged of only by a competent knowledge of the state of society for which they were made, and what that was, Mr. S., I presume, is as ignorant as myself. With sufficient ingenuity, however, he makes those obsolete and (as to us they appear) cruel laws a double-edged tool to cut at the past and the present; he brings them forward a century and a half to condemn us; he carries back the present meliorated state of society, and they condemn our forefathers.

In a violent philippic against the Assemblies, the learned gentleman incidentally mentions that they are elected annually. p. 331. This harmless error, with his ignorance of the reports of criminal trials, may enable the reader to judge what credit is due to a man so well informed on colonial matters. What would be thought in England of a French author, who, abusing the British nation and its parliament, should put it in his book that the parliament, being annually elected, may be considered 'a fair mirror,' in which the worthless and depraved character of the people may be seen?

Having now arrived at the conclusion of this chapter, in which misrepresentation and calumny

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have been carried to lengths, which no man could have dared to have done, but from an idea that, the subject being so little known, any thing he might say upon it, however fabulous, would be believed; I turn with pleasure from such a horrid but happily unfounded picture of savage oppression, satiating itself with flagellations, mutilations, and innocent blood, to view Jamaica, not as Mr. Stephen has depicted it, but as my own have seen it.

eyes

Slavery, like every human institution, has a fair side as well as a dark, and to form a just estimate of it must be viewed on both-must be viewed in its enjoyments as well as in its hardships. Every master must resist he must punish the crimes of his slaves; but these, happily, are not of frequent occurrence; and, as the performance of this duty is in the last degree painful, (for what can be more so than the cries of a wretch suffering under punishment, however great may have been his crime?) is it to be believed that he will seek occasions for it, or not rather that he will pass it over, unless in cases where really necessary for the good of the culprit himself, and as an example to others. Authority must be upheld-discipline must be maintained-and I will concede that there may be occasional acts of unjustifiable severity; but there are cases also where slaves are injured by weak and ill-timed lenity on the part of masters, threatening and forgiving, forgiving and threatening, till such vicious and destructive habits are ac

quired as prove in the end fully as injurious to the slaves as to their master. Among the ignorant in this country a very general idea prevails, that an European residing in the colonies will become black; a scarcely less absurd idea prevails among their betters, that he will become a brute in disposition. The truth, however, is, that Englishmen in the colonies are much the same as Englishmen at home

'Coelum, non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt,'— and, in the exercise of their authority over the negroes, speaking generally, there is no improper harshness or severity. Is it to be believed, that on the plantations of Jamaica, one white man could maintain authority over fifty black, if there existed any thing like that kind of oppression and cruelty which has been most falsely represented? Not a living creature exists but will resist if driven to desperation. I repeat it, the master must punish when punishment is required; but is he to be viewed only in the performance of this painful but necessary part of his duty? Assuredly not; follow him in his usual avocations, and you will regard him rather as the father of a family; you will see him attending to the comforts and the wants of his people, with a degree of kindness and solicitude, which it would be vain and unreasonable in English labourers to expect from masters, who have no farther interest in their welfare than the services of the passing day. You will see him in

an evening taking a walk among the houses of his people, gratified to see them seated at their cheerful firesides, while a good supper (a chief meal with them) is preparing. On negro-days you will see him visiting them at their little farms, where each family is engaged by itself in its own concerns; the father and his elder children planting edoes, corn, or yams, or disencumbering the rich plantain and banana trees of their superabundant leaves, while the mother and young ones are roasting plantains under the shade of a tree.

Let a stranger but visit such a scene; let him contemplate the abundance they possess; see their laughing faces, and listen to their careless song, under the sunshine of a perpetual summer, and say if these are the people who, amidst the whole race of mankind, stand most in need of his commiseration; or let him witness, as the writer has often done, a group of little negro children running to meet their master on his return home after a few days' absence, clinging to the skirts of his coat, and vociferating the endearing expression Tata come, Tata come, and say if here, of all places on earth, there is a want of sympathy between the master and servants.

That they are ignorant is true, but they possess many virtues, especially kindness to one another, from which more civilized life might take a useful lesson. They are slaves, but this happily gives them no concern, as they have never known any other condition. Strangers to hunger and cold, (the scourges