Page images
PDF
EPUB

fulfil." (P. 33, 34.) The deduction is really drawn with very logical precision, and the christian community owes great obligation to Mr. Edward White for the new light which he has let in upon us. We take shame to ourselves that we were not before aware of the imperative obligation under which we lay as Christians to purchase slaves and transmit them to our posterity; and we think that the circumstance throws considerable light on the causes of the aversion entertained by the planters to any attempt at converting their negroes to christianity. Those negroes would then of course be commanded by their religion to take slaves from among the heathen, and we fear that according to Mr. Edward White's interpretation of the imperative law, there would be something like an absolute necessity that they should lead away their own oppressors into bondage.

We cannot however dismiss this subject entirely, without observing in answer to all those reasoners who profess to justify slavery from the Bible, that christianity has undoubtedly provided, though without express precept, a sure and inoffensive remedy for all oppressive customs, in the gradual operation of it's mild and liberal maxims; these have in point of fact absolutely unloosed the bonds of slavery in most parts of the christian world; a fact honourable to christianity, and more conclusive to every man who believes that God turns the hearts of men as he wills, than the legal quotations of any gentleman whatever.

The next pamphlet treats the subject in a manner a little more consistent with common sense. According to this writer, "the present ruinous state of the West India islands" is entirely to be ascribed to certain" impositions and oppressions upon the merchants and planters of those islands," which are thus enumerated. In the first place it appears, that the planters by forced importations of negroes into the old and newly acquired colonies, and by exclusively directing their labour to the cultivation of coffee and sugar (although by the healthy occupation of agriculture they might have supplied their colonies with much for which they are now dependent upon foreigners), have exceedingly overstocked the market with those commodities; having raised and exported an average produce of about a third. more than the present state of the European demand can take off: and the legislature has actually imposed upon them the abominable oppression of refusing to force a market for this surplus produce so acquired, at the expence of the agricultural interests of the mother country, and of interfering with those laws upon which the actual subsistence of her population depends; and in the case of the coffee, at the expence of the fair

and old established profits of the East India company. We are not surprised that in all this" obstruction to industry" the native of Jamaica plainly foresees" that a torrent of anarchy will rush in upon these islands, devoted, from a want of foresight in persons at the helm of affairs, to certain destruction." If the case be so, we are really very sorry for it; just as sorry as we should be to find that the farmers had raised more hemp than they could sell to a profit, or the breeders more cattle than the graziers could take off their hands. But we really can perceive but one effectual remedy for all this, namely, to reduce the supply to the demand, which in the case of the West India planter might be done with great political, and as we hope presently to make appear, with great moral advantage. We could never consent, for the sake of the farmers, to interfere with the Coventry ribbon-weaver, by enacting that ladies should wear hempen girdles; nor for the sake of the breeders to interfere with the cultivator, by enacting that arable land should be laid down in grass. We should certainly wish to afford them any reasonable relief; and in the case of the sugar planter we think that a diminution of duty might increase the home consumption of sugar for fatting cattle and other purposes, so as to take off a larger quantity of the article, and still to afford an equal revenue to the government. But we beg leave to suggest to the native of Jamaica, that to abstain from this measure is no imposition or oppression upon the merchant or planter, who has overstocked the market by methods, which we are certainly bound not to encourage in future; but that the granting of such a boon would be a very considerable indulgence to them.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

But the grand imposition and oppression," in the eye of the native of Jamaica, is evidently the abolition of the slave trade, a proceeding, he says, "that will eventually ruin the West India islands;" and he proceeds to prove this assertion by immediately begging the question he professes to discuss. "We find," he says, a NECESSARY system of slavery existing in the West Indies, BY IMPORTING NEGROES FROM AFRICA for the agriculture of those countries;" and he then proceeds to the threadbare arguments, 1st. of the impossibility of cultivating the islands by white men; 2d. of the general condition of the negroes in Africa compared with their treatment in the West Indies; concerning which we think it quite superfluous to say another word; for it is as clear as the sun at noon, that the question concerning the NECESSITY of importing negroes does not rest upon the truth or falsehood of any of these propositions, but simply upon the question, whether or not it is possible, by a humane and enlightened system of treatment, to keep up the

population of the present labourers to an efficient standard. Upon this question the third, fourth, and fifth publications mentioned in the title, let in a flood of light that must remove every doubt; if any doubt can rest upon the mind even of the most ordinary political economist, that in a warm climaté where the persons employed in tilling the earth have constitutions strong enough to resist the effects of severe labour,--just laws, sufficient food, and a fair attention to the precepts of morality and religion are sufficient not merely to enable these same labourers to keep up their actual population, but even to afford a considerable surplus for further cultivation, or for the pursuits of commerce and manufactures. Mr. Wilberforce's Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, proves, (p. 105, 6.7.) that in climates and situations extremely unfavourable 'to reproduction, in the cold latitudes of America, in Bencoolen, in many parts of the West Indies themselves, the negro slaves increase their numbers by breeding.. We sincerely trust also that those who have read with attention the last article in our last number, on Mr. Malthus's work, will want no additional reason to convince them, that if any actual depopulation take place in such situations, it must arise from causes that will only be aggravated by artificial supplies of people; and that a government is bound by every consideration of justice and policy to strangle the vices which interfere with the natural and ordinary progress of population, and with the designs of Providence.

Previous to the detail of the particular measures which are necessary to apply this theory with success to the West India islands, we do, in taking leave of the " Native of Jamaica," feel bound to state, for the serious notice of the "abolitionists," a most heavy charge of inhumanity, which he lays to their consciences in the following words.

"This very abolition," he states, "which preaches humanity, destroys in the breasts of the poor slaves the cheering hope and expectation of ever meeting again their nearest ties. It was no uncommon thing in the West Indies frequently to see crowds of slaves who were already established in the islands, going on board of African ships just arrived, and strictly inquiring if any of their relatives had been snatched, and brought away, from the cruel fate which they knew their conquerors always made them suffer. I have often witnessed a brother, sister, or a particular friend, meeting one another. I felt my share of happiness in seeing them thus brought together, and to perceive the newly arrived negro with so much pleasure, when he or she heard what a better change the leaving of Africa would make in his or her happiness. How can ever the abolitionists (Query?

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

misprint for slave merchants) atone, and silence their own consciences, for the horrid massacres which the Africans are now committing upon one another?" (P. 36, 37.)

We have no doubt that this man of exquisite sensibility would bitterly inveigh, in common with his brother planters, against all methodists and missionaries, as being disgraced by cant and hypocrisy; and that he is a great champion against all whining pretensions to goodness and humanity.

We are indeed at a loss to conceive, how the "abolitionists" can sleep in peace, with the weight of this grave accusation upon their heads; the precise amount of which, however, we are unable now to appreciate, because we never happened to be present at the first ebullitions of delight of a person kidnapped by crimps or gypsies, when he found that other crimps or gypsies had kidnapped his "brother, sister, or particular friend.'

It is necessary in recommending the three following works to the attention of our readers, to forewarn them that they are not to expect, especially from Mr. Gaisford, any of that impressive eloquence or admirable arrangement with which this subject has heretofore been treated. Our tastes, indeed, may be fairly supposed to be a little fastidious, after the exquisite repasts which the speeches of Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Wilberforce, have so liberally spread before us. But the earnestness, the pathos, and the christian tenderness of the latter gentleman, have raised him in the scale of true eloquence, as far above all his fellow-labourers in the glorious work, as the sound sense, sober argument, and convincing facts, detailed in his several compositions on the subject, have depressed into comparative insignificance the efforts of all his opponents.

[ocr errors]

We scarcely need apologize to our readers for this tribute of justice, which the occasion has extorted; and proceed to observe, that of all the works which ever fell under our observation, professing to be written in English, that of Mr. Gaisford is, in point of language, (to use one of his own expressions) the most suffocating to common sense." Nothing but a strict sense of our duty to the public, and the obligation under which we conceive ourselves to lie, to wade through every thing that can throw the smallest light upon the subject, could have induced us to proceed beyond the 9th or 10th page. But independently of all considerations of duty, we are really glad that we did persevere, for under the disguise of a language such as we have sometimes been condemned to hear from a sentimental grocer in a stage coach, are to be found many sensible remarks, which bear with considerable force on the subject before us. Mr. Mathison's pamphlet is written in a plain and tolerably per

spicuous style; and we think that he has received rather hard measure, in being classed with the enemies of the abolition. He states in a forcible manner the inconveniences which have arisen from the operation of the measure upon the vicious system actually pursued in the colonies. But he evidently does this, not to advocate a repeal of the abolition act, but to show it's incompatibility with the further continuance of that vicious system of management; thereby the more strongly to enforce upon the minds of the planters, the absolute necessity of reforming it according to the suggestions which he offers to their notice. The "practical rules" by "a professional planter," are connected with a history somewhat curious, which we are enabled to detail from private sources of information.

In the early stage of the discussions upon the slave trade, a certain Mr. Collins published a clever but violent pamphlet against the advocates for the abolition. He soon after sailed to the West Indies, and established himself in one of the islands as a slave jobber, i. e. a person who keeps slaves to let out for hire, as stable keepers keep horses in this country. He appears to have been an honest man, and possessed of some humanity; and to have been clear-sighted enough to perceive that his interest as well as his duty were concerned, in paying the minutest attention to the bodily and mental welfare of his slaves. Under a well

considered course of treatment, to which we shall presently advert, he amassed a fortune of 60 or 70,0001. by the labour of his slaves, who multiplied and throve so well under his management, that he had scarcely occasion at all to resort to the Guinea Yard, (the Smithfield for human cattle in the West Indies) to supply any diminution in his gang. This of course completely inverted his original opinions as to the necessity of the slave trade; and upon his return to England, his feelings of humanity prompted him to do as much as could perhaps be reasonably expected from one who had previously distinguished himself in print, as a prominent opposer of the abolition. He published the anonymous work, the second edition of which is before us, about two years previous to the passing of the act for the abolition; and it was never known till his death who was its author. Its intrinsic merits, however, attracted some attention from professional planters, although we do not believe that it ever spread widely among the public in general.

From these three works of undoubted authority, we shall now take the liberty of laying before our readers certain considerations, due attention to which we cannot but think necessary effectually to secure the real abolition of the slave trade. For although we cannot for a moment suspect that the British

« PreviousContinue »