"Now, the whole of this is the mere assertion of Mr Macqueen-a_man who has never been in Sierra Leone -unsupported by one iota of proof, or even an attempt at it." After which, he proceeds in his customary way to quote mutilated extracts from the gotup authorities or dupes of the place, and several years old, in order to disprove what I had stated upon the authority of honourable individuals regarding these subjects, and who had witnessed what they stated.

In support of what was stated, I without hesitation appealed to the Parliamentary Commissioners then on the spot, or on their way from it. I had, indeed, no knowledge of these gentlemen, but I had learned something of their character, and was accordingly satisfied that they would tell the truth. They have been in Sierra Leone, though your humble servant certainly has not. They have published their Report, or rather the Legislature has published it, and let us for a little while attend to what they say on this subject, and which brings me to the more immediate object, namely, a Review of their Report, in support of all that I have stated concerning Sierra Leone.

66

"All these schools," say the Commissioners, p. 67, were visited and minutely examined, with the view of giving a detailed statement of the progress made in each; but in MANY OF THEM, the provision for education was inadequate, and THE PROGRESS SO VERY LIMITED, that it is thought a tolerably correct idea of their general state may be conveyed without entering into details of a nature so LITTLE SATISFACTORY." "An insuperable difficulty was experienced from the absolute ignorance of most of the TEACHERS," to ascertain the comparative progress which had been made by the scholars, because "the noting of times and seasons, or even the common modes of expressing them, has, as already observed, formed NO PART of their education !!"

The number of schools enumerated, amount to 22, divided into three classes. The first or best educated division consists of five schools; the second, of twelve schools; and the third, of fire schools. The extent of education in the first division is very limited, but that in the remaining divisions incalculably worse. "The schools in

cluded in the second are," say the Commissioners, p. 68, "far inferior to those in the first division. The little progress made in any of them, is confined almost exclusively to these first classes; and very few of these can read even tolerably well, notwithstanding that they invariably act as monitors to the other classes. Very few of them can SPELL the commonest word correctly. The second classes of this division attempt, in some instances, to read parts of the Bible WHICH THEY HAD PREVIOUSLY STUDIED, but rarely succeeded in making themselves understood; few of them indeed knew so much of the language as to comprehend or answer the simplest question." The school "at Kissey, consisted of a few girls lately received from slave ships; and the girls at the other two were almost totally uninstructed, and without any person in charge capable of instructing them! As little did the boys' school at Kent or the Banana Islands deserve to be so called, although the children were numerous, and had persons in charge nominally as teachers. At the Bananas, there were forty-nine boys. The first class consisted of nine, not more than four of whom could read intelligibly even that part of the Bible which they had ALREADY PREPARED; and their attempt to spell was altogether a FAILURE. The second class attempted to read words of one syllable, but without success! At Kent, the teachers reported one hundred and sixty-four boys present; but when counted they proved to be forty-three short of this number! The first class consisted of four boys, who read very indifferently the parts of the Bible they had BEFORE STUDIED. The second class consisted of six boys, who were not much behind those of the first class in reading; but none of them could either spell or write. The remainder of the boys were altogether without the means of instruction; they had NEITHER BOOKS NOR CARDS. The state in which this school was found excited the greatest surprise, as the village had been, till within a short time previous to inspection, under the superintendence of one of the teachers belonging to the Church Missionary Society.-Dr Bell's system of instruction is supposed to be practised in all the schools; but in many of them no system of any kind was observable, and the MAJORITY

were much in want of books, cards, and other requisites. The dress of the children in the schools was very inferior to what might be expected from the quantity of clothing received in the colony. It was stated by the local superintendents, that the allowance of clothing was understood to be two suits in the year, but that during the last twelve months, one suit only had been received. Many of the children were in consequence NEARLY NAKED, and some of them PERFECTLY so, particularly at the village of Kissey. When the school at Waterloo was inspected, the boys had no clothing but THICK WOOLLEN TROWSERS!!"

Such was the state of education in the settlement in 1826. It was left to this country, during "THE MARCH OF INTELLECT,' in the nineteenth century, to believe that they could inculcate the principles of education and the precepts of religion amongst the most ignorant and debased portion of the human race amongst savage tribes which have no written languages, and the individuals of which cannot understand one syllable of the language in which their teachers and their preachers address them; nor these teachers and preachers understand one syllable of any one of the various languages which their heterogeneous mass of hearers either speak or understand! Let us next attend to the state in which the school-houses and churches are represented to be. My limits will not permit me to go over the whole; but the following selection may be considered sufficient to show what it is. In Leicester village, we are told, p. 33, "the seminary has been removed, and the children" left "without the means of education." At Regent village," the school-house is sufficiently large, but in bad condition." At Gloucester village," the church has never been completely finished. It is greatly out of repair, and by no means kept in that clean or respectable condition which one would look for in a place dedicated to Divine worship! The windows have been ill constructed, and the shutters are so totally decayed, that not only the wind and the rain, but even GOATS AND DOGS find easy entrance!!" At Kissey village, "the church has never been finished, and is now much out of repair. The schooi-house also requires some repairs." "At Bathurst VOL. XXIII.

THE

there is no church. The public buildings are a superintendent's house and a school-house; neither of them more than eight or nine years' standing: and yet, from the insufficiency of the workmanship, they are both nearly in A STATE OF RUIN. At Hastings village, "the boys' school is kept in a wattle-house thatched with grass, in which also divine worship is performed by Mr Croker, senior." At Wellington village," the girls' school is held in a very inferior wattle-house," and "the boys' school is also held in a wattle-house, where divine service is performed by Mr Metzger !" At Kent village, there are two school-houses, "but greatly in want of windowshutters and doors, from the want of which the children suffered much." At Banana Islands, there is " a wretched mud-house, in which divine service was performed, and in which the boys' school is now kept. It is by no means in a state to protect them from the weather." In Freetown, the capital, there is no church. Divine service is performed in the Court-house. The large building intended for a church, after having cost this country above £50,000 sterling, stands unfinished, with only the bare walls and roof, and now converted into a Government Commissary's store, after having been a public market-place, where negroes were publicly flogged! A naval officer told me, that he lately saw the crew of his Majesty's ship Athol making ropes and mending sails in it!!

In the New Times of March 16th, 1824, a writer, who is well known, told the world with exultation, that there were fourteen churches in Sierra Leone, and one building!! You see what they are ! The most of them unfinished, wretched mud and wattle hovels, or buildings going to decay, or

in ruins!

It deserves to be remarked, however, while the buildings set apart for education, and also those appropriated to the worship of the Supreme Being, are left unfinished, in a state of decay and neglected, that the houses erected in the villages for the superintendents, as appears from the Report made by the Commissioners, are, almost without a single exception, substantial, large, commodious, and even elegant buildings!

Such is the state of education, and such is the state of the buildings set K

apart for education and religion in Sierra Leone, as laid before us by the Commissioners, even after these gentlemen have put the best face upon matters which they could! Mr Kenneth Macaulay was in the colony during the time these Commissioners were there making their inquiries He knows the truth of everything which they have stated, and yet he has had the effrontery to come forward and publish to the people of Great Britain an account, almost in all things the

reverse.

Besides being the most vicious and immoral, the African population of Sierra Leone are the most rude and uncivilized that are to be found in all that most debased and ignorant portion of Africa, wherein the settlement has been placed. Nearly the whole population of it go naked, notwithstanding all the clothes which are sent from this country, or which have been given to them. The males use only a piece of cloth, or clout," over certain parts before and behind, and which is known in Sierra Leone by a name too coarse and indelicate to mention. Females, after they begin to cohabit with the other sex, have a slight covering, which reaches from the loins downwards to a little above the knee, but all the rest of the body is exposed. Young women, full grown, go perfectly naked, with the exception of a kind of stuffed cushion over certain parts, the exact form of which I cannot describe, and which only serves to make nakedness more conspicuous. In this manner both sexes appear in the streets, and in the public markets, where woe betide the European newly arrived, who in a hot sun gets becalmed in the stinking atmosphere which surrounds them. "With the exception," say the Commissioners, "of those who have been brought up to trades, those who have been educated and clothed for several years in the schools, and those who are employed as domestics,* the great bulk of the liberated African population of Sierra Leone appears at THIS DAY as ill-clothed as any of the NATIVE TRIBES on that part of the coast, and are, in this respect, VERY FAR, INDEED, BEHIND THE MANDINGOES, who occupy the opposite bank of the river.

Of two hundred or three hundred WOMEN frequently assembled in the market-place, from fifteen to twenty would be a LARGE AVERAGE OF those who have any other clothing than a piece of cotton or linen cloth fastened round the loins and reaching nearly to the knee. This is the usual dress of the women, and of many of the labouring men in the villages." Yet these are the persons amongst whom the articles of clothing before enumerated have been distributed!!

Mr Macaulay, pages 14 and 15, and in other places, attempts to cavil at my account of the expenditure for liberated Africans. My estimate of this expenditure, including the WHOLE, as per official estimates, for six years ending 1825, was L.292,269, 7s. 6d. Mr Macaulay's account, p. 18, drawn from Sierra Leone records for the same period, and for Sierra Leone alone, is L.267,296, 10s. Oąd.; no mighty difference.

On the records of that place, however, no reliance can be placed. "The pay-lists for the workmen, and vouchers for other payments," connected with "the expenditure in public works," are, say the Commissioners, p. 86, So VAGUE as not to justify

even A LOOSE ESTIMATE of the expense incurred in any particular one." The Liberated African Department exhibits even more terrific inattention. According to the price of provisions furnished to the Commissioners, the expense of that department, from 1818 to 1825, ought to have been only L.110,092, 2s. 44d. whereas, by the bills drawn on the British Treasury from the settlement, it actually was L.242,419, 6s. 44d.!! What room for peculation is here!!

In every way, money is made of the liberated Africans. According to State Papers, Class A of 1827, pp. 50-54, the Slave Commissioners at Sierra Leone directed the restoration of the Portuguese brig "Activo," with 165 slaves, seized by his Majesty's ship Athol, and valued at nearly (costs included) L.12,000 sterling. Abandoned by the captors, and refused by the owners, the slaves were left in a state of starvation. Impelled by hunger, a number of these got ashore, where,

though decreed by the superior Court to be restored, Mr Kenneth Macaulay, then "acting Governor," directed that they should be treated and dealt with as "emancipated negroes;" that is, kept in the place, in consequence of which this nation will ere long have their value to pay, while this "acting Governor" will probably be found claiming and receiving the sum of L13 sterling twice for each, as the bounty decreed by law for Africans seized ashore, and liberated by Governors, and 5 per cent. commission as Navy Prize Agent!

How far I have erred, misrepresented, or exaggerated the expenditure upon Sierra Leone, a few official references will show. In my first letter (Blackwood, Dec. 1826, p. 879), the sums of money paid by this country, in bounties and head money for liberated Africans to different captors, to a period undetermined, is stated to be L.465,211, 3s. 4d. sterling. By the Parliamentary Return, No. 399, pro

duced last Session, the sums paid, exclusive of claims not yet paid, are L.484,344, 6s. 8d.; being L.19,133, 3s. 4d. sterling LESS than what I had stated the amount to be!

Examine every account, produce every item under their respective heads, and I feel confident, that in the aggregate expenditure the same results will follow. Thus, in the letter referred to (Blackwood, p. 876), the expenditure under the head " Army Extraordinaries," is stated to be L.1,117,261, 5s. 11d., or at the average of L.58,801, 15s. Od. per annum. But the expenditure for 1825 was greater than I supposed; and besides, I had omitted many sums charged in the different pages of the account, entitled "Army Extraordinaries," and also "the pay and the provisions for the troops, provided for in England." By the Parliamentary Papers for the under-mentioned years, which are all I have at present by me, the sums stand as under :

which is above L.85,000 too little, instead of being too much!

To contradict the daring statements and the impudent appeal made unto you, that a certain merchant in London had not, since the year 1807, anything to do "either in one way or the other" with the expenditure of Sierra Leone, I produced an extract from the agreement betwixt the merchant in question and Mr Macmillan, constituting him their deputy in the Navy Prize Agency concern at Sierra Leone, by which the commission, 5 per cent., was to be equally divided betwixt them. The Commissioners tell us, p. 90, that the partner of that merchant or mercantile house in London, is to this day not only "NAVY

64,343 10 5

L.505,244 5 0

PRIZE AGENT," but also "CONTRACTOR for part of the Government supplies ;" and in how many other things he and they are concerned, we shall see as we proceed in this inquiry. Lest, however, I may be told, that though the individuals in question were constituted Navy Prize Agents, yet they never acted, or obtained any emolument under their commissions, and their agreement, I adduce, from Parliamentary Return, No. 177 of 1822, pp. 1, 3, 4, 5, &c. the following extracts, which show the sums of money issued at the Exchequer, out of the Consolidated Fund, regretting exceedingly that brevity compels me to omit the full and particular details:

The preceding are extracted from columns of details of the application of the sum of L.54,728: 16: 8d. paid in bounties out of "THE CONSOLIDATED FUND," while, in the same Paper, p. 7, L.273,670 additional stand paid by the "NAVY OFFICE" for the same purpose! For how many other individuals the gentleman in question acted as agent, I cannot, in absence of the specific details, at present state; but all the officers of the Navy, and the Governors of Colonies, were too well aware of the control which the individual in question had over the money bags of the British Treasury, and Mr. Vansittart, to constitute any other person their agent.

I call your attention, sir, the attention of my country, and the attention

*L.1264 0 0

+ 13,286 0 0 L.14,550 0 0

of the Legislature of my country, to the preceding details, by which it appears, that as "Seizors" the Governors of British Colonies have, first, the bounty decreed by Act of Parliament; and next, AS GOVERNORS, AN EQUAL SUM, and consequently the Navy Prize Agent receives, not five per cent. commission, but TEN PER CENT. commission for the same thing! In the name of justice, sir, and a country bleeding at every pore in her precious resources, is a system like this to be suffered to go on?

The pestilential nature of the climate of Sierra Leone is admitted and cannot be denied ; but it has been generally supposed, that its effects are confined to Europeans: that, however,

L.36 0

0

36 0

0

L.72 0

L,7550 0 0