requires, will be endangered and impaired; for the contracted limits of the human mind will not allow it intensely to contemplate more than one idea at the same time. A divided affection may be termed benevolence, but it can never claim the dignified name of friendship. To sustain the glow of friendship, so that it may remain unenfeebled, and its efficacy unobstructed, we must never imagine to ourselves a character arrayed in all the attributes of ideal perfection, exempt from the defects which adhere to terrestrial in telligences, in those with whom we contract ties of intimacy. In proportion as our expectations are immoderate, we shall assuredly meet with disappointments, and be the more likely to be sobered, and recalled from the contemplation of abstract excellence, to the consideration of naked imperfection, perverse contradiction, and undisguised harshness of manners. A false estimation of human nature, in matters of vital importance, such as the qualifications for friendship, is sure to lead to chimerical notions of the extraordinary virtues of those with whom we associate, so that the least obliquity of behaviour, or deficiency in the forms of salutation, will estrange affection, dissolve intimacy, and introduce disgust where attachment once subsisted. We know that we are peccable, therefore it is highly inconsistent not to expect some blemishes in the most amiable characters, who, equally with ourselves, have their infirmities, and are liable to error. It is necessary for the growth and preservation of friendship, that we cultivate a temper open and ingenuous; for equivocation is as detrimental to this beautiful but tender flower of the social parterre, as the mildew is injurious to the bright and flexile flowers in nature's garden. Unsuspecting confidence, reciprocally maintained, is the germ from which all the benefits of cordial friendship emanate. Concealment, suspicion, and distrust, are quite alien to its nature, and inimical to its genius. A cap. tiousness of spirit, a proneness to contradict, is equally unfavourable; it very often disturbs the peace of domestic life, provokes the animosity of the heart, and imbitters the enjoyment of friends. It is not unfrequent, that vile calumniators, who take delight when they see two friends embracing every opportunity to derive innocent pleasure and refined gratification from each other's society, to insinuate base reports, and circulate falsehoods, to the prejudice of one, and the injury of both. But, surely, when friendship is cemented by the mutual discharge of kind offices, and confirmed by time, we should be cautious how we admit the malignant tales of these destroyers of social harmony to enter the mind, lest we imprudently taint "the feast of reason, and the flow of soul." But the great and truest test of friendship is, an unswerving adherence to the cause of our friend, in danger and distress; "thine own friend forsake not:" to continue as stedfast by his declining fortune, as by his rising reputation; undeterred by sordid interest, and unshackled by the tyranny of power. Then is the time to exert all our influence to extricate him from his approaching difficulties, and to do all in our power to rescue him from impending evil; then shall we prove a friend, indeed, worthy of that sacred appellation; then, our assertions of fidelity will not be without proof, and our protestations not unaccompanied by practical demonstrations of regard. To be zealous in a good cause, and especially at such seasons, always displays to the best advantage the principles we have imbibed; and exalted magnanimity, which always turns its attention to the claims of the injured and the oppressed, uniformly attracts the veneration of the good, gains the approbation of the wise, and secures the admiration of mankind. Leicester, July 22, 1831. T. ROYCE. REMARKS ON A CIRCULAR RECENTLY ADDRESSED, BY THE HOLDERS OF SLAVES, TO THE CLERGY AND PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. THIS Circular is signed by forty gentlemen, who, possessing property in the West Indies, say, they have "means of correctly ascertaining the actual state of the negro population;" who affirm, "that the general condition of the slaves has been most grossly misrepresented by the London Antislavery Society;" and that it is their "wellfounded conviction, that the speedy anni. hilation of slavery would be attended with the devastation of the West India colonies, with loss of lives and property to the white inhabitants, with inevitable distress and misery to the black population, and with a fatal shock to the commercial credit of this empire." They also profess earnestly to desire, that the real condition of the slave population may be ascertained on oath, and that the parliament should at once institute such an investigation.-Such, together with an abstract of the existing laws of our West India colonies, is the substance of the present Circular, the object of which is, to perpetuate slavery to an indefinite period. Before I proceed to remark upon this document, it may, perhaps, be proper distinctly to state, that I am not a member of any Anti-slavery Society; that most of their works I have never seen; that, for some planters I entertain much personal respect; and that there is not an individual among them, whose real interests I should not feel great pleasure in promoting. The Remarks, therefore, whether right or wrong, must be considered not as those of an enemy, but a friend. The Circular assumes, that the writers have a correct knowledge of "the actual state of the negro population." Were these gentlemen residents in the colonies, the correctness of their knowledge might not be questioned; but as they derive their information from their managers, or other agents, who, if a system of cruelty exists in their plantations, it is their interest to conceal; instead of such information being correct, it will, in many particulars, be defective and false. To expect correct information from such a quarter, would not be less absurd, than it would be to expect that Don Miguel would furnish a detailed account of all the abuses of his government. If we would know the state of Portugal, we must not apply to Don Miguel; and if we would know the state of the negro population, we must not apply to managers, and others, who are, in many cases, deeply interested in the concealment of the truth. Instead, therefore, of relying on the accuracy of communications from such sources, they will, in most cases, be received with much scepticism; and unless, like the depositions of witnesses for the crown, they be corroborated by evidence less questionable, they will, in general, be rejected altogether. The friends of the abolition of slavery have as many means of "correctly ascertaining the actual state of the negro population," as the writers of this Circular. Some of those who now reside in this country have been resident in the colonies, and can speak from personal observation of that “state ;" whilst many others of them still dwell in the region of slavery, and are intimately acquainted with the present condition and treatment of slaves; and, therefore, in point of knowledge, are fully competent to give correct information; and, as they have no interest, either in magnifying or diminishing the degradation of their condition, the presumption is, that the information they communicate may be confidently received. The interest which planters and managers have in the continuance of slavery, furnishes a very powerful temptation to " gross misre 2D. SERIES.-NO. 10. VOL. I. presentations;" to which temptation the abolitionists are not at all exposed: the statements of the former, therefore, will generally be received with some misgivings, as a "cunningly devised fable;" whilst the latter, bearing upon it the stamp of disinterested benevolence, will meet with a most cordial reception by every friend of humanity and religion. Notwithstanding all the pretensions to superior knowledge, assumed by the writers of the Circular, we consider ourselves as competent, accurately to estimate the effects of the speedy and total annihilation of slavery as they are; and are fully persuaded, that nothing but this can preserve the colonies from those dreadful calamities predicted by them. They, indeed, hope to convince us, that such is the improved condition of the slaves, that the annihilation of the system is a thing hardly to be desired. To the investigation of this condition, this paper shall be devoted. We shall proceed in this examination, according to their own arrangement. They have entitled the first section of their abstract of the legal improvement of the condition of the slaves,— Religious Instruction, and Observance of the Sabbath-Baptism—and Marriage." To provide for the religious instruction of slaves, and for their careful observance of the Christian Sabbath, are objects of great importance to their temporal and eternal interests. Without these, their ignorance, and vice, and degradation, will be perpetuated, and they will be doomed to the drudgery and sufferings of mere animals, without ever rising to the dignity of men, or to the Christian hope of a glorious immortality. If, therefore, these have to any considerable extent been furnished to the slaves, it is matter of congratulation, both to the slave and to his master, and cannot fail, eventually, to lead to the total and universal abolition of slavery, "a consummation devoutly to be wished." But what is the religious instruction which the colonial legislatures have provided for them? Let us begin with Jamaica: According to the printed returns of 1812, the slave population consisted of 320,000, scattered over a surface of 150 miles long, and 40, on a medium, broad. How many schoolmasters have they provided for this immense population? Not one. How many catechists? None. How many places of religious worship? The island is divided into twenty-one parishes, and, should they have a church in every parish, Such was the case at the above period; and, as the abstract does not notice any improvement such, it is presumed, is the case still. 3 M 154.-VOL. XIII. which is far from being the case in several of the islands, there will be twenty-one places of public worship for 320,000 slaves, and say 80,000 white and other free persons, making a total of 400,000 people, which, when equally divided, gives 190,47 to each parish. The rector of one of those parishes (St. Ann's) says, "For their (the slaves) reception, a part of the parish church is set apart; but, when compared with their numbers in the aggregate, it is necessarily small indeed; small, how ever, as it is, it is by no means generally filled." In Barbadoes the case is no better. The local government has not provided a single school, nor do the regular clergy make any attempts to instruct the slaves in the Christian religion. The rector of Christ Church says, "Much as the clergy may wish to instruct slaves in their religious duties, little can be done, unless proprietors of plantations will co-operate with them in their labours." He also observes, that the number of coloured persons who attend divine service is from twenty to twenty-five. The rector of St. Joseph says, "Divine service is attended by a few slaves." The rector of St. Andrew's says, "Very few attend." The rector of St. George's says, "There is no slave in St. George's who is a regular member of the church of England." In St. Vincent the case is, if possible, still worse. Here is a population of 27,000 with but one incumbent, though the island is divided into five parishes; in not one of which was there, a few years ago, a single church; which, I suppose, is the case to this day. In Grenada, the rector of the united parishes of St. Patrick, St. Andrew, and St. David, says, that "Not more than five or six in a parish do actually attend oftener than six times in the year." In Dominica, unless some improvement has recently taken place, of which I am not aware, and which, had it been the case, it is presumed the writers of the Circular would not have omitted to notice, there are ten parishes, and only one clergyman, and no church, divine worship being performed in the court-house in the town of Roseau. Antigua. In 1818, the rector of St. Paul's said, that no attempt had been made by the clergy to convert the slaves-partly, because they had no time to devote to that object; partly, because the education of the regular clergy unfitted them for that work; and, partly, because there was no church-room for their accommodation. "Taking," he says, "my own church, for example; after the regular congregation is accommodated, there is only occasionally a vacancy that would admit about thirty persons. Now, the slave population in my parish amounts to 3,718 souls; there is, therefore, a prodigious number, by this single circumstance, unavoidably excluded from attending the established worship on Sunday, which is the only day they have in their power." Such was the neglected condition of the slaves in all the colonies; and, as the abstract supplies no proof of improvement, such, it is presumed, is their condition to this day. With such evidence of the almost total absence of every thing which deserves the name of religious instruction, it was perfectly ludicrous to head their leading article with such a title-a title which must have originated in the forlorn hope, that the thing would be received without examination. But, alas for the planters! that day of gullibility has gone by. The proper title would have been, No Religious Instruction. For here is neither schoolmaster, nor catechist, nor minister. Here and there, indeed, those whom planters contemptuously call sectarian teachers, have established schools, and they visit plantations, and preach, and instruct the negroes; for which, instead of deriving support from the local authorities, they have, in many instances, been opposed and persecuted by them; and, had it not been for the interference of the parent government, these benevolent, pious, zealous, laborious, successful, and unfeed ministers, would long since have been martyred, as was the missionary Smith at Demerara; or banished, as was the pious, intelligent, and indefatigable Shrewsbury, from Barbadoes. And yet they have the effrontery to talk of the religious instruction of the slaves! Then comes the "Observance of the Sabbath." In most of the colonies, the law says, Slaves shall not be compelled to work on Sundays; but in several of them they may be compelled to pot sugar, and to do any thing which their masters may pronounce emergent, or which a slave-holding government may, by proclamation, declare indispensable business; and, in Grenada, the slaves are only exempted from all manner of field labour;" whilst in Bermuda, for any thing that appears to the contrary, they may be compelled to labour, either in the fields, or any where else. But what does it signify, to say they shall not be compelled to work on Sundays, if no other day is allowed them for the cultivation of their provision-grounds? It is an enactment which never can, and which never was intended to be enforced. It is tantalizing the slave, and practising deceit upon a British public. "When I remonstrate," says the clergyman of St. George's, Barbadoes, "they (the slaves) reply, that if they come to church, they must starve, for Sunday is the only day they have to cultivate their gardens." It is, indeed, true, that in several of the colonies the slave, by colonial law, is entitled to a certain portion of time, in some twenty-six, and in others twentyeight, days in the year, for the cultivation of that piece of land from which he is to raise produce sufficient for his entire main tenance. But what then? Should the master choose to send his slaves into the field, and should they even have the courage to lodge a complaint, they would not, in hardly any of the colonies, obtain the least redress; for the master would at once place himself under the shade of "indispensable business," or "work of emergency," and the law would be, in his case, what it was originally intended, powerless, and mere waste paper. And then, according to their own shew. ing, How is the Sabbath observed? In the morning of the Sabbath till ten, and, in some of the colonies till eleven o'clock, the shops are open, and the public markets held. To these markets the slaves must go and sell the produce of their labour, or they and their wives and children must perish. After such a desecration of the morning of the Sabbath, and after the fatigue consequent on the preparation and carriage of their various articles, is it at all likely that they should feel the slightest inclination to join in any public act of religious worship? Yet this, forsooth, is by these gentlemen called the "Observance of the Sabbath." The title would be much more appropriate, were it to run thus-Laws to compel the Slaves to profane the Sabbath. colonial legislators seem not to know that the whole day, and not one or two hours only, called church hours, is the sabbath of the Lord; and that, during this entire portion of time, the slave, and his master too, must abstain from all secular engagements, and employ themselves in the hallowing exercises of religion. inquire by what authority they make laws, in direct opposition to the divine law. Do they suppose themselves wiser than the great Legislator? Or, do they think they may, with impunity, not only break his law themselves, but also compel others to do so too? The laws by which gratuitous baptism is secured for the slave are a severe libel on the colonial clergy. It supposes that, although they have a liberal salary for the performance of parochial duties, yet, unless additional remuneration be awarded, they would not administer the rite of baptism to the slave population. It is, indeed, true, that the colonial legislators found it necessary to stimulate the clergy, by some motive, to the administration of this rite; for, without stimulus, it had in former times been much neglected. The clergy had excused themselves, on the ground of the gross ignorance of the slaves, and on the total want of any system of instruction, or any means by which that ignorance might be dispelled, and their minds prepared for religious truth. At length, however, without any system of instruction, the insuperable barrier was surmounted. The bill for the registry of the slaves was passed by the British parliament, and the curate's bill, which entitled the clergyman to two shillings and sixpence for each baptism. The effects were wonderful! hundreds and thousands flew to the sacred font. Two-and-sixpence per head operated like a magic spell, and carried all before it. Gross ignorance was chased away in a trice, like darkness before the rising sun; and thousands, in the course of a few weeks, became enlightened Christians! Soon after the passing of the curate's bill, one clergyman writes thus-"The population of my parish may be twenty-four thouBut sand slaves. I can assume to say, five thousand have been already baptized. Preparatory measures, for the speedy baptism of the whole, are now adopting. Much, I ap. prehend, will be accomplished by the middle of September; I therefore solicit to be allowed till October, to transmit my general return. The fee is now established by law at two shillings and sixpence for each slave, and is paid in my parish by the proprietary. I am desirous of discharging my duty most fervently." And who can doubt it, for the the hope of reward sweetens labour, and he knew, that by the fervent performance of his duty, he would realize three thousand pounds in a few months. This, however, was, though a rapid, a very expensive mode of conversion, and, therefore, when it was discovered that a passage had been made over the alps of ignorance, the formerly A young Magdalene, some years ago, after hearing a powerful sermon against the vice by which she lived, felt offended, and said to one of her companions, "I think the minister was a great deal too severe; at least I am sure he was so in my case, for I never gave my company to any gentleman on a Sunday evening before nine o'clock." Even her sabbath lasted till after sunset; whereas theirs expires in about an hour and a half. These legislators would do well to insuperable impediment to the Christian baptism of the slave, the colonial legislators, not liking to pay any more money for such a purpose, very prudently enacted, that, in future, the baptisms shall be administered "without fee or reward." But, after all, who, that knows any thing of Christianity, or of scriptural conversion, would give a rush for such baptisms? Baptism administered to adults, without instruction or any moral qualification, or to infants, without providing means for their education in the knowledge and practice of Christianity, is a solemn profanation of that sacrament. Such baptisms, indeed, give them a Christian name, but it leaves them the subjects of all their former pagan principles, superstitions, and vices. They multiply nominal Christians, but do not add a single individual to the church of Christ. The acts in favour of the marriage of slaves, if not a mere dead letter, will greatly contribute to the improvement of their morals; and, unless their domestic and conjugal enjoyments be invaded by their licentious superiors, will much increase their comfort. After all, even these acts are clogged with difficulty to the poor slave. In some of the colonies he can only be permitted to marry one who belongs to his proprietor. No matter how much he may desire to be joined to one of a neighbouring plantation, or how ardent and reciprocal their affection, no union between them can take place. He must either be married to a part of his master's freehold, as an honourable member of the name of Burge, in his speech in parliament, on April 15th of the present year, with true West Indian taste and feeling, denominated the slave population, or remain unmarried for ever. And in the other colonies, where this restriction does not exist, no marriage can take place without the consent of their owners, and without the approbation of a clergyman. Without the consent of their owners! Poor slaves! Suppose a law were made in this kingdom, prohibiting the marriage of all operatives and labourers without the consent of their employers, how would it be regarded? As an act of tyranny, which every man would despise and violate. And then were it addedand you must have a certificate from the PARISH PRIEST, that you are marriageable, or you must remain unmarried for ever," their indignation would be roused from Penzance to Johny Groat's house, and the priest who should dare to hinder them from entering into the holy and honourable estate of matrimony, would be placed in circum stances at once the most unenviable and perilous. It is easy to conceive of a multitude of cases, in which the parochial clergy would not encourage the marriage of slaves, when both the examination of the candidates, and the performance of the marriage ceremony are gratuitous. If the baptism both of adults and infants were in general neglected by them, until rewarded with two shillings and sixpence per baptism, what reason has the public to believe that they will voluntarily come forward and perform a work not less onerous, for nothing? Besides, suppose a slave-a sectarian slave, however moral or well instructed, to have offended a parochial clergyman,— say parson Bridges, for instance, by overroasting a turkey, or some other such like felonious act, would he pronounce such an offender fit to enter into the sacred bonds of marriage? Instead of solemnizing the marriage between her and her virtuous swain, he would at once marry her to the thirty-nine lashes of the cart-whip, and to the prison, and the stocks. Such are the prejudices of such men as Bridges, against those whom they contemptuously call sectarians, that, in multitudes of instances, the most enlightened and virtuous of the slave population, who owe their all of knowledge and virtue, instrumentally, to sectarian ministers, would, it is believed, be pronounced by them destitute of an "adequate knowledge of the obligations of the marriage contract." Thus we have seen that their religious instruction amounts to nothing; that their very laws for the observance of the Sabbath are impracticable, and in direct opposition to God's law; that their baptism is an unmeaning and ludicrous farce; and that slave marriages are subjected to the caprice both of owners and priests, who, whenever they please, can hinder their slaves from entering into this relation. The second section of the Circular is headed-" Food, Clothing, Lodging, General Treatment." To persuade us to believe that every thing here deserves commendation, they tell us "that slaves shall be furnished with adequate provision-grounds; or, in default of ground, or during drought, a weekly allowance of 3s. and 4d. to each slave;" that in some of the islands they shall be allowed twenty-six days in each year to cultivate their grounds; that sick and infirm slaves are to be maintained by their owners. These and sundry other particulars are enforced by penalties varying from 5 to £100. |