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zealous, or given more effectual assistance to all other inquiries, than Mr Wilberforce. On the very question alluded to by this well-informed and accurate author-the East Indian abuses-he has uniformly taken the side of justice and sound policy;-he has stood forward as the advocate of peace ;-he has shown himself the friend of reform-we mean Parliamentary reform. -And, what some of our readers may think of still greater importance-what prejudiced persons are too apt to forget-to Mr Wilberforce, in a great measure, was owing that signal victory over corruption, the downfal of Lord Melville-the first of those triumphs which the popular party has gained since the French Revolution-that triumph which, more than any other event, has fostered a spirit of inquiry, and kept alive whatever yet remains of official responsibility.

Another topic of the same kind, dwelt upon by this author, and taken from the Gentleman,' has always been a favourite with the West Indians, though now it has lost most of its force. We allude to the mode of defending the treatment of the negroes, by referring to our own military punishments. In Europe,' says he, among free men, and by a court of free men, a seaman and a soldier are sometimes sentenced to receive 100 to 1000 lashes; men who have fought their battles, • and protected their liberty. A master, in the West Indies, cannot, without answering to the laws for it, nor can a magistrate, by the settled laws of the country, give or sentence a slave to receive more at one infliction than 40 lashes. • Would not an idiot perceive on which side humanity lyes? We must, in passing, recommend it to our author to curb his feelings a little more carefully, when touching such delicate ground; otherwise he may be noticed in a certain work, under the management of a far less indulgent critic than ourselves ;—we mean, those periodical papers published by the Attorney-General, and in which the topic of military punishment, and indeed every thing relating to the army, form a leading article. But as to. the charge itself;-without stopping to expose the gross misstatements on which it proceeds without reminding the reader that the law is not as above described in all the islands--and the practice is so in none of them ;-without taking the pains to show how different-how totally different from military flogging the use of the cartwhip is, as a stimulus to work-not as a punishment; we shall content ourselves with saying, that even if the cases were the same, it could in nowise alter the matter, Who now defends military floggings? Does anyone (except the public prosecutor) argue in their favour? Does even he de

fend

fend them, except by the argument ex officio? Is there any one, of feelings so hardened, as not to be horror-struck at the bare description of this barbarous practice? Is there any one, of such confined intellect, as not to perceive its gross unfitness to answer any of the ends of punishment? The public mind is made up on the question ;-there is no difference of opinion ;--the abuse is condemned;-it cannot survive its sentence many months. Among its enemies-among those who have exposed, and written, and spoken it down-the Abolitionists have borne a very active part; and it is at this time, and under these circumstances, that the defenders of the West Indian cruelties come forward to palliate the torture of negroes, by comparing it with that of soldiers; and to sneer at the friends of the Abolition, as if they had been caught in the inconsistency of condemning the one cruelty and vindicating the other! The two questions are unconnected; and we do not wilfully mix them together; but, if called upon to view them in the same light, we have nothing whatever to fear from the comparison; and we feel confident, that the friends of humanity will rise from the contemplation of either of these enormous outrages upon all right feeling and principle, with their minds more firmly determined against the continuance of the other. It will be as vain, therefore, to expect any favour towards the evils in the West Indian system, from an appeal to the military punishments, which will continue, we trust, but for a short season to disgrace our army-as it would be ridiculous to expect those who are working the abolition of flogging, to change their opinion of it, by seeing it lawfully applied to the unhappy negroes.

Much as we may seem to have thrown away our time in adverting to these topics, it is right to take warning from this being advanced, and to be on our guard against the evident designs of the slave-dealers in thus reviving them. We have no manner of doubt, that, in the approaching Session of Parliament they will meet us in various shapes, and that the dealers, under the mask of defending the planters, will continue their attack on the real grievance under which they are smarting the loss of their execrable traffic. Whether the author of this tract belongs to, or is in any way connected with this reputable and industrious class of the community, we know not; but certainly there is a vehemence in his horror of the Abolition, which seems not to be wholly speculative or gratuitous. We cannot refrain from giving our readers a short specimen of his honest indignation. The terms in which it finds vent, indeed, are not of the most decorous, considering that he is attacking

a measure solemnly sanctioned by repeated unanimous resolutions of the legislature, and by acts of Parliament deliberately passed, in one instance without a single dissentient voice in either House. Indeed, according to the modern practice in matters of libel, it would not be safe to apply such epithets to any other law or measure of Government, to any political or party proceeding. We should be unwilling, however, to see the Abolition defended by such means as those we are alluding to.

ner.

• Now, the deftruction to the Planters, and to the interested in general, of the Islands, will happen through the infamous Abolition, in this manAt the time of the Abolition, about four years ago, every planter must have confidered himself poffeffing as many Negroes as he would ever want, or could ever procure. If one party fells to the other, he diminishes his to increase the purchaser's number. What then happens from this? Why, the fource of cultivation and improvement is entirely destroyed. The induftrious are kept back, and the indolent are encouraged in their certain ruin.

Much has been said concerning the increase of the Negroes, and that they fhould ftrengthen, yearly, the number upon the plantations. I fay, that it will never give much help; for the native flave Negroes are naturally more delicate in conftitution than the imported Africans. And again, who can anfwer for the ravages of disease, which may fweep away numbers? No European will now go out to the West Indies, as the principal refource to the cultivation of those countries is prohibited. This very Abolition, which preaches humanity, deftroys, in the breast of the poor flaves, the cheering hope and expectation of ever meeting again their nearest ties.

How can ever the Abolitionists atone and filence their own confciences, for the horrid maffacres which the Africans are now committing upon one another? How muft they feel, when truth tells them that many will have to execrate their names for being the original agents of their ruin! Those who have ungenerously thrown out fome general obloquy upon the treatment of the Weft Indians to their flaves, I pafs over with contempt. Whenever men make ufe of general abufe for individual exceffes, I think, it is loft time even to remember it.' P. 35-37.

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The course of this article has now brought us to the trial of Mr Hodge, which we have already alluded to in a general way, but which is well deserving of a much more minute consideration. If any one is desirous of studying the practical effects of the slave system, and estimating the amount of its operation on white men in the colonies-if he wishes to inquire into the constitution of free society there, and to ascertain whether its members may safely be trusted (we were going to say with the execution, but we shall only add) with the formation of laws respecting the rights of enslaved Negroes, he will do well to study this authentic document to read the history of this case, as contained

contained in the papers laid before Parliament, and the report of the trial published by authority. After this perusal, in which we venture to foretell that whatever feelings he may have will be tortured at each sentence, he must do a further violence to his ideas of probability:-he must believe (for the truth is so), that the West Indians appeal to this very history in their own vindication, and would draw from it a proof of the protection afforded to the suffering African in the sugar islands. We shall begin with an abstract of the affidavits on the table of the House of Commons, relating the circumstances which led, it is said, to Mr Hodge's trial, but which had long been known in the island of Tortola, before any one thought them worthy of further investigation. In this abridgment, we can assure our readers, their feelings are as much as possible consulted, and many frightful and offensive circumstances are passed over, which appear upon the face of the affidavits. Notwithstanding this, we fear the picture is still so horrible as to require pretty strong nerves to bear it.

1. In January, 1806, a slave named Welcome, belonging to Mr Hodge, was employed by him as a hunter to go in quest of runaway slaves. After hunting for four or five days, he returned home unsuccessful; in consequence of which he was laid down by Hodge's order, and severely cart-whipped. He was immediately sent out to hunt a second time, and in a few days again returned unsuccessful; when, with his old wounds uncured, he was a second time, by Hodge's order, laid down, and severely cart-whipped. Welcome was immediately sent out hunting a third time; and returning in a few days, with the same success as before, he was again severely cartwhipped by Hodge's order, and put in very heavy irons, with a pudding on each leg, and a crook round his neck; and in the night-time was confined in the bilboes or stocks. He was at the same time allowed little or no food, and consequently became so weak, that he could scarcely walk. In this condition, with dreadful sores, occasioned by his former whippings, he was ordered to go to a neigh bouring estate; but being unable to proceed, he fell down on the road, and, being carried home, he was again cart-whipped, and died in consequence the same night.-2. Mr Hodge having suspected two female slaves, Margaret his cook, and Else a washer-woman, of a design to poison Mrs Hodge and his children, be poured a quantity of boiling water down their throats; and having, after this, severely cart-whip, ped them and chained them together, he sent them, in a state of en. tire nakedness, to work in the field. Both these slaves languished for a short time in a miserable condition, and then died. On the day that Margaret died, one of the deponents going into the kitchen and observing she was stupid, asked her what was the matter; on which she pulled a handkerchief from her head, and showed two very sewere wounds, which, she said, Mr Hodge had given her. She soon after

fell

fell on her face, and, being carried to the sick-house, died that evening. Mr Hodge had been heard to say, that he was resolved neither of these women should live long.-3. Some time before the death of Margaret, one of the deponents saw, in the sick-house, a child about ten years of age, named Tamsen, with the skin entirely off. The deponent asked the sick-nurse what was the matter with the child; but the sick-nurse refused to give an answer, and seemed afraid, lest her master should know that the child had been seen. On inquiry, it appeared, that the child had been dipped, by Hodge's order, into a copper of boiling liquor.-4. In the year 1807, a slave called Tom Boiler, a stout, hale, hearty man, was by Hodge's order, and in his presence, laid down and flogged without intermission, for at least an hour. After this infliction, he attempted to rise, but could not. He was taken up and carried to the sick-house, whence he never came out, but died in about a week. No doctor was called to attend him. -5. Soon after the death of Tom Boiler, another slave named Prosper, was, by Hodge's order, and in his presence, laid down, and for more than an hour cart-whipped without intermission. He was then taken up by Hodge's order, and, with his hands tied behind his back, lashed to a tree. Hodge then ordered the driver to use "close quarters, "-meaning by this expression a more cruel and severe cart-whipping than is ordinarily used, the whip in this case being shortened, and going all round the body, cutting every part, particularly the stomach and belly, and making at the same time comparatively little noise. In this situation, Prosper was beaten till he fainted, his head hanging down backwards, and was no longer able to bawl. He was then carried to the sick-house, where, within a fortnight, he died.-6. A slave named Jupiter, about nineteen years of age, was, by Hodge's orders, severely cart-whipped, put in heavy irons, crook puddings, &c. and allowed little or nothing to eat. He was also burnt in the mouth with a hot iron. He shortly after died. -7. On the 27th March, 1807, a new negro slave belonging to Hodge was cart-whipped, in his master's presence, in the most cruel manner. He died in two or three days after. When his body was carried out on a board to be buried, it was seen by one of the witnesses in a shockingly lacerated state.-8. A free man, named Peter, was hired by Hodge as a cooper, at two joes per month. This man, though free, was repeatedly cart-whipped at close quarters, and in every other way, by order, and in the presence of Hodge, who also put chains upon him, and had him worked with the field negroes. Peter soon died. In 1808, a young slave named Cuffy, was, by order of Hodge, and in his presence, severely, and repeatedly cartwhipped, chained, &c. "He was cut to pieces, " and had hardly any black skin remaining. After a cart-whipping, which lasted upwards of an hour, he was carried to the sick-house, where he died within a week.-10. Mr Hodge frequently caused the children on his estate, about nine years of age, to be taken up by the heels, and dipped into tubs of water with their heads downwards, and kept

there,

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