The Committee unanimously Resolved, 1. That they have no information of the number of the Missionaries in Jamaica who attended the said Meeting; and have reason to think that it was a partial one, and also that it was not a regularly summoned Meeting of the Missionaries in the Jamaica District. 2. That the publication of all Papers, which touch upon civil matters in dispute in the Colonies, or between the Mother Country and the Colonies, is contrary to the Rules under which the Missionaries are bound to act: and that the only instance of disregard to these Regulations which has occurred in any of the Wesleyan Missions, is the case now before us; and which is therefore strongly censured by the Committee, as a violation of this salutary Regulation. 3. That the Committee further disavow the said Resolutions, as not having been passed at a Meeting held under the authority of any of their Rules and as not having been sent home for their approval, according to an express Regulation. 4. That, in all those parts in which the said Resolutions appear to the Committee to be unexceptionable, they judge such a publication to have been unnecessary, inasmuch as the Missionaries in Jamaica, and elsewhere in the West Indies, are furnished with the authorised publications of the Committee in refutation of the charges so frequently of late made upon the objects and tendency of their labours. 5. That other matters are introduced into these Resolutions, not in the least called for in order to establish a just defence of the Wesleyan Missionaries in Jamaica, against the violent attacks frequently made upon them in the Public Prints of that Island. In particular, the Committee are imperatively called upon by this unguarded and improper act of a very few of the Missionaries employed by the Society in Jamaica, to object First, To the EQUIVOCAL manner, in which the person who passed the said Resolutions "declare their belief, that Christianity does not interfere with the civil condition of Slaves, as Slavery is established and regulated by the Laws of the British West-Indies." If no more were meant by this, than that all Slaves, brought under the influence of Christianity, are bound by its precepts to obey their Masters and submit to the Authorities of the State, conscientiously and constantly, this is no more than the Missionaries have been explicitly instructed to teach, and which the Committee sacredly enjoin upon them to inculcate upon all to whom their ministrations may extend: but if it was intended as a declaration, that the SYSTEM of Slavery, as established in the West Indies," or anywhere else, is not inconsistent with Christianity, the Committee and "the Wesleyan Body," whose name the framers of the Resolutions have thus presumed to use without any authority whatever, hold no such opinion; but while they feel that all changes in such a System ought to emanate solely from the Legislature, they hold it to be the duty of every Christian Government to bring the practice of Slavery to an end, as soon as it can be done prudently, safely, and with a just consideration of the interests of all parties concerned; and that the degradation of men merely on account of their COLOUR, and the holding of human beings in INTERMINABLE bandage, are wholly inconsistent with Christianity. Secondly, That the Committee feel bound, in justice, to disavow the sweeping charge made against persons in this country, comprehended under the general terms of "Emancipatists and Abolitionists," in the said Resolutions; as written under evident ignorance of the opinions on that subject which are held in this country, by those excellent and benevolent men, who have of late most distinguished themselves by advocating the melioration of the condition of the Slaves in the West-India Colonies, with a view to the ultimate extinction of Slavery. The Committee, conducting the Wesleyan Missions, take no part in such discussions, as not being embraced by their ONE object, which is to extend the benefits of Christian Instruction among the Black and Coloured Population of the Colonies; but they can never permit any of their Missionaries to use their name and the name of "the Wesleyan Body," in casting censures upon many of the most excellent of their fellow-countrymen, by representing them as holding sentiments on the subject of the Emancipation of Slaves, and forming "designs," which, if carried into effect, would produce the consequences enumerated in the very un guarded and blameable Resolution referred to. The character and objects of the persons, to whom allusion is there made, are too well known by the Committee, for them to suffer such unjust reflections to be given to the world in their name, and not strongly to censure the said Missionaries for thus adopting the language of violent party-men. Thirdly, That the Committee have read with great grief the very blameable language of the Fourth of the said Resolutions; though they consider the whole to be the production of a very few only of the Missionaries in Jamaica, two of whom had been placed by the Conference, held in August last, under censure, one being recalled and the other directed to remove from that Island, for the manner in which they had surrendered themselves to the party-feelings excited there in opposition to the measures of His Majesty's Government and the Proceedings of the British Parliament: and that, so far from that Resolution speaking the language of "the Wesleyan Body," as it most unwarrantably professes, that Body, while it has exerted itself for nearly Forty Years to promote the Instruction of the Slaves of the West Indies, and to render them moral and peaceable, has always distinguished itself at home and abroad by its inculcation of the principles of entire obedience to Masters, Magistrates, and all other Legal Authorities; yet, after the examples of its venerable Founder, who was among the first, by his writings, to lift up his voice against that long-continued national sin, the Trade in Slaves, has ever regarded the System of Slavery as a moral evil from which the Nation was bound ultimately to free itself; and, throughout the kingdom, has hailed, with the greatest gratitude and satisfaction, the inci pient measures adopted by His Majesty's Government, for meliorating the condition of that class of their fellow-subjects. These are measures which, as a RELIGIOUS Body, they have felt a deep interest in; not as connecting "religion with politics," as stated in the Resolution; but as they are essentially connected with the promotion of religion and morals, by regulations which refer to the observance of the Sabbath, to the Marriage of Slaves, and to their general Protection. The Committee, attentive only to the spiritual concerns of the Missions confided to their management, would not have thus entered upon these topics, had they not been forced upon them by the publication of the Resolutions in question. They are not unacquainted with the menaces with which their Missionaries have of late, been visited in some parts of Jamaica; the ob structions which have been thrown in the way, in some places, to the exercise of their ministry; the refusal of Magistrates, even in the course of the last year, to license their Missionaries, without any legal authority for so doing; and the threats of their expulsion from the Island, which have of late been frequently resorted to: but if the experience of the peaceable effects of their Missions for nearly Forty Years, and the faithful manner in which the Instructions of the Committee, as to the enjoining obedience on Slaves and respect for the Local Authorities, have been uniformly observed by their Missionaries and Societies-facts acknowledged by many respectable and impartial persons both in Jamaica and in the other Colonies, whose continued friendship to their Missions they very gratefully record-are not admitted as sufficient reasons for their protection, they will not seek it in any case by becoming parties to the passions of men, nor suffer their Missionaries to become so they will not compromise the principles of Christianity, in their legitimate exposition, to obtain favour. In the quiet and simple course of endeavouring to make the Negroes of the West Indies better men, and better servants, and better subjects, they will persevere and if they suffer for this righteousness' sake, they know the general character of their Missionaries and their Societies in the West Indies so well, that they will suffer patiently, until their case be redressed by the justice of His Majesty's Government, to whom they have never looked for protection, in cases of persecution, in vain. To that protection, and to the public feeling and liberality of this country, they can with confidence leave the Religious Liberties of their numerous Congregations in the West-India Colonies, and those of the Missionaries who are there employed in promoting the best interests of society at large. 6. That Copies of the above Resolutions be transmitted to the Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State; and to His Grace The Duke of Manchester, Governor of Jamaica. INDEX. ABOLITION of the slave trade, good effects of, 130. Africa, slavery of, 275, 304. Airs, Negro dance, 12; funeral air, 136. America, emancipation of slaves in the United States of, 253. Anabaptists, 284, 286. Animal and vegetable life, exuberance of, in the tropics, 331. Antipathy, alleged, of the white to the black and brown people, Introd. xi. 237. Attaching the slaves to the soil, 264. Attempt to murder by poison, 188. Baptism of Negroes, 131. Barbadoes, riot, and destruction of a methodist chapel in, 367. Barham, Mr., on the right of the colonists to compensation, 16. Berbice, experiment of Negro emancipation in, 347. Bickell, Rev. Mr., his West Indies as they are, or Real Picture of Sla- his account of the white people in Jamaica, 427. Bishop of Jamaica, and John Meabery, 370. Black troops, 291. Boyden, Joseph, trial of, for maltreating a slave, 76. Branding of slaves, 218. Brougham, Mr., judges of the state of the slaves from the workhouse lists, 178. his opinion of the importance of the colonies as a source of Burial grounds, negro, description of, 166. Buxton, Mr., thinks marriage should be enforced among the slaves, 101. Cat, use of the, as an instrument of punishment resisted by the slaves, 43. Checks and restraint on severity of punishment, 80. Children of colour, error of Mr. Stephen regarding, 90. Christmas, how spent by the slaves, 10. |
