Praise Him as their almighty guide:1 "The sun-blight, and the sickening moon, "Soon shall the wintry storms be o'er, Her scattered tribes shall march again; pp. 77, 78. The Author of this pleasing work is said to be a gentleman of the name of Heseltine. It has only recently fallen into our hands, although it has for some time, we perceive, reached a second edition. Art. VI. 1. Reflections on Slavery. Addressed to Lord Dacre. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 32. London. 1830. 2.-Slavery not sanctioned, but condemned, by Christianity. A Sermon by the Rev. Dr. A. Thomson. 8vo. pp. 24. 3.-The Death-Warrant of Negro Slavery throughout the British Dominions. 8vo. pp. 38. London. 1829. 4.-The Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter. January to March. 1830. 1d. each. WE E are much afraid that the religious world, as it is termed, (and we mean to include under this term the soundest and best principled portion of the community,) have fallen into a criminal supineness on the subject of that foul stain upon our national character, the West India Slavery. Various causes - have, we think, conspired to produce this. First, a mistaken view, too prevalent, of the subject of slavery, as a political, rather than a religious question,-a case of expediency, not of right and wrong,-a branch of political economy, not of Christian morals. Secondly, those whose duty it has been, to set the public right on this point, have either been accessory to the crime, as is the case with the members of the Chartered Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a slave-holding_corporation, interested in the vindication and perpetuation of the atrocious system; or have been tongue-tied from better motives, as has been the case with our pious Missionaries and the Directors of our Missionary Institutions,-hoping, by their neutrality and forbearance, to propitiate the jealousy, if not to win the confidence of the slave-holder. The precarious toleration extended to the missionary in our West India Colonies, is upon condition that he never approach the subject of slavery. Common prudence, as well as higher principles, would of course restrain him from mixing up political emancipation with the Gospel which it is his commission to preach alike to bond and free. But, in his private communications with this country, he is bound to the same secrecy. And the tacit compact seems to extend to our warmest friends and most zealous supporters of these Missions at home, who are not without reason afraid of bringing suspicion upon their plans and motives, by openly ranging themselves on the side of the Abolitionists. It is obvious, that, owing to these circumstances, a very large measure of effective influence on the side of humanity is neutralized. And then, the erroneous impression that something is actually being done, that some preparatory steps towards gradual emancipation have been taken,-that the colonial legislatures, if somewhat tardy and refractory, will at length see the necessity of yielding to the voice of the British Parliament,-tends still further to lull asleep the public vigilance. These circumstances, to look no further, will, we think, sufficiently explain the torpor which seems to have seized alike upon Churchmen and Dissenters, Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, in relation to this affecting subject. But easy as it may be to account for this apparent indifference, it is impossible to justify it. The evil exists in undiminished extent and almost unmitigated atrocity. The sighing of the prisoner, the groans of the oppressed, are continually ascending to Heaven, and invoking a curse upon the guilty wealth obtained by a violation of the most sacred rights of our nature. Christian men, our "brethren for whom Christ "died", exalted by an intelligent reception of the Gospel to a moral rank infinitely above the white heathen their masters, are held in cruel bondage, worked as cattle, sold as chattels, doom VOL. III.-N.S. M M ed to the condition of hereditary criminals, for no other offence than the darker colour of their skin. This accursed system, maintained only by the bayonets of our troops, supported by a tax on the comforts of the British poor, is still allowed to bid insolent defiance to our Legislature; while it operates at once as a weight upon our revenue, a restraint upon our commerce, and a blot upon our fame. Could we but feel confident of inducing every one of our readers to give an attentive perusal to the pamphlets at the head of this article, we should deem it quite unnecessary to add a single word of our own. All that is convincing in statement, forcible in reasoning, and persuasive in eloquence, will be found in these productions, enlisted in the cause of religion and justice. From their extensive circulation we cannot but anticipate the most effective results. With a view to recommend, not to supersede the perusal of them, we shall interweave with a few general remarks, some extracts illustrative of the view we have taken of the true character and consequences of the system. Mr. Canning is reported to have adverted, on one occasion, to what he deemed the untenable doctrine of certain Abolitionists, That a system of slavery is totally incompatible 'with the British constitution and the spirit of the Christian religion!' Were this doctrine admitted to its full extent, the 'obvious inference would be,' said the Right Hon. person, 'that slavery must not be permitted to exist one moment longer; 'all discretion as to the mode and time of suppressing it must 'be taken out of the hands of Parliament, who would be imperiously called upon at once to put it down as an intolerable nuisance. Nothing could be more fallacious than this reasoning, which would have served equally well as an apology for the slave-trade itself. No one will be hardy enough to deny that that accursed traffic is incompatible with the spirit of the Christian religion; and yet, how long was the intolerable nuisance protected by a Christian Legislature! But absurd as it would be to deny the legitimacy of a discretionary power in Parliament as to the mode and time of suppressing slavery, the just inference from the doctrine certainly would be, that immediate measures ought to be taken, having its abolition for their ultimate object. Slavery, in the present state of the system, ought not to be permitted to exist one moment longer. We have the authority of that eminent statesman for affirming this proposition, if we can but establish, that the system is incompatible with the British constitution, and with the spirit of Christianity; -incompatible as being diametrically opposed to each in their nature, irreconcileable in their first principles, and tending of necessity to counteract and destroy each other. That Christianity and slavery cannot co-exist, no one maintains. Too many abuses and practices utterly at variance with the spirit of Christianity, have prevailed in Christian countries, to afford any colour for the argument, that the influence of that religion ' has operated much too slowly in the removal of slavery to 'sanction the idea of their being incompatible.' According to this reasoning, there is nothing incompatible in good and evil of any kind, in virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, slavery and freedom. Into what can the slow operation of the influence of religion be resolved, but the slowness of professed Christians to yield to the influence of its principles ? Whether slavery is, or is not, incompatible with the British constitution, admits of an easy determination. Wherever the British constitution exists, no slave can exist. In this country, the law has determined, no man can have the least claim to private property in the persons of men; and every slave ceases to be such on touching the British shores. Why then is he a slave in Jamaica? Because the British constitution does not exist in that island, because the law of England is not the law of her colonies. That which is property in the West India Islands, is not property in this country. That which is crime. here, is not deemed criminal there. Here, the personal liberty of the subject is considered as a natural, inherent right, which cannot be surrendered or forfeited unless by the commission of some great and atrocious crime, and which ought not to be abridged in any case without the special permission of law: this doctrine, coeval with the first rudiments of the constitution, has been fully established by the habeas corpus act; and by the benefits of that act, the negro and the native have, in this country, an equal claim in the common capacity of subject. In the West Indies, the negro is not regarded as a subject, or as capable of becoming a subject; he can own nothing, for he belongs to no owner; the law takes no cognizance of his existence, except as property; and the English law of inherent right is held to be detestable. Here, when a woman had whipped 'two female 'prentices to death, and hid them in the coal-hole', the law sentenced her to be hanged, and the public feeling said, that hanging was too good for her. There, whipping to death is not murder, and murder is not crime*, and the Esther Hibners and Governor Walls of the West Indies rank among the respectable, humane, and wealthy. Now gentlemen may say, if they please, that it would not do to introduce English law into the colonies, that the British constitution is not adapted to that * The murder of a slave is now a capital crime; but the West Indian notes of evidence render the execution of the laws on this subject next to impracticable. meridian; but to say that it does exist there, would be a manifest falsehood. And why does it not exist there? For no other reason than that slavery exists there, and that a system of slavery is wholly inconsistent with the principles of the British constitution. Slavery is not less incompatible with the British Constitution, than it is with that of the American Republic, and yet, even the Quarterly Reviewers can perceive the gross inconsistency of tolerating slavery in that country. There is something whim'sical and not very consistent', they say, 'in this free repub'lican Government appealing perpetually to the rights of nature, in whose territories every sixth man is in a state of absolute and unmitigated slavery.' ' And this taunt from Englishmen", rejoin the Americans, the people under whose authority the United States were settled,-from Englishmen, the owners, at the present day, of the West Indies, where not every sixth 'man is a slave, but possibly every sixth man is free, and the 'five others are held in absolute and unmitigated slavery by the bayonets of English freemen'.* "Thou that preachest, a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Lo, wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest, dost the same things". Let it be remembered, that the present question is not, whether the British Constitution is adapted to all countries and all circumstances of society, or whether all men have an inherent right to the benefits it confers and secures, but, what is compatible, or incompatible, with the spirit and principles of that constitution. At the same time, as regards its essential characteristics, the equal protection afforded by the laws to the persons and property of the subject, it may be questioned whether our Constitution guarantees more than is the inherent and unalienable right of every man, or than might be safely, as well as equitably conceded to the subjects of every government under heaven. The technical forms of our jurisprudence, the institutions which have grown up under the shadow of our freedom, the peculiar machinery of our representative system,-in a word, the quantity and degree of political liberty enjoyed by British citizens as their birth-right,may not be adapted for all climes and countries, and could not, in fact, be grafted on the customs and manners of all nations. But the principles of English law are those of universal justice, applicable to all countries; and what Hooker says of Law in the abstract, holds good of the actual principles of our laws,—' her voice is the harmony of the world'. *North American Review, No. LXI. p. 514. |