slavery." Berbice succeeds; and here, jected the eight bills: Grenada has done his Majesty's Government, having the the same: Honduras sends no return: power in their own hands, have enforced Jamaica, the largest and most important an amended code of slave law; yet of all the islands, rejects the eight bills, how insufficient even this is, may be and substitutes a code of its own, which seen by the enactment which they have does not embrace any one of Lord Baallowed to be pressed upon them, that no thurst's propositions. No protector of slave shall be allowed to purchase his slaves has been appointed; no right is freedom without the consent of his owner, given to slaves to purchase their freedom, unless he can prove that the money for except with the owner's consent; no the purpose has been honestly acquired, legal validity or effect is given to the either by his own earnings, or by bequest marriage of slaves; no right of property or succession; and that he has conduct- is conferred on the slave: neither the ed himself honestly and faithfully for driving whip, nor the flogging of females, the five preceding years; and that he is abolished; nor is any record of pushall not have been convicted of any nishments required. The old and cruel crime, or punished by any court or ma- law is renewed, which enacts, that "any gistrate, for seven years preceding. It slaves found guilty of preaching or teachwould be out of the power of an angel, ing, as Anabaptists or otherwise, without in a state of slavery, says the analysis, a permission from their owner and the to avoid incurring the fatal disquali- Quarter Sessions," shall be punished at fication of this code. Suppose a the discretion of any three magistrates, man had been treasuring up his earn- by whipping or hard labour in the workings for many years, adding to it any house: and to this disgraceful clause little gifts he might have received, the two new ones are now added. The one gifts would vitiate the whole mass, and enacts, that "whereas the assembling of doom him to perpetual slavery. He slaves and other persons after dark at must bring nothing to aid the purchase places of meeting belonging to dissenters which has not been obtained by bequest from the established religion, and other or succession, or by his own honest in- persons professing to be teachers of redustry. And what is the legal definition ligion, has been found extremely dangerof honest industry," or of " honest ous; and great facilities are thereby and faithful conduct," any failure in given to the formation of plots and conwhich is to be followed by such tremen- spiracies; and the health of slaves and dous consequences? The man is to be other persons has been injured in retained in slavery, not because he has travelling to and from such places at committed some specific criminal or late hours in the night. All such meetfraudulent acts, which disqualify him ings, between sunset and sunrise, are for the possession of freedom, but bedeclared unlawful." The analysis apcause he cannot sufficiently prove that his pends the following notes to this enactconduct has been honest and faithful ment: "What is this but bloody perse(that he has never told a lie, or sucked cution? A Negro is not to teach his felone of his master's sugar-canes!), during low to fear God, or to turn from his sins five years; and that his accumulated earn- to his Saviour, but at the risk of having ings, of perhaps twenty or thirty years, his flesh torn by the cart-whip, or being have not been tainted by fraud, or con- subjected to hard labour in chains, at the taminated by a gift! Bermuda makes no discretion of the magistrates. Such is the return. The Cape of Good Hope, having benign spirit of the legislators of Jamaica no district legislature, is subjected to an towards a population whom they have Order in Council closely resembling the kept, for ages, in the darkness of heathenTrinidad Code, but with a few excep- ism. Nothing can be more untrue than tions; some for the better, but others the whole of the preamble. It has not much for the worse. Among the latter, even a shred of evidence on which to we find that the flogging of adult females rest. The health which suffers nothing may still be practised privately, though from toiling in the field till night-fall, not publicly; and that children may be and then collecting and carrying fodder, sold separately from their parents if above and, besides this, working hard half of ten years of age (instead of sixteen as in every night during crop, is to be ruined Trinidad), and even under that age, if it by sitting for half an hour, or an hour, in can be shewn that it is for the well-being a house or chapel, to receive religious of the children to be so sold! Demerara, instruction, or to join in religious worthough it has no legislature, still con- ship! The hour, of field labour in tinues to ward off as far as possible the Jamaica are fixed by law, from five in plans of government: Dominica has re- the morning to seven in the evening,

How then can religious meetings be held, except during the proscribed hours; that is to say, between sunset and sunrise? The reader will observe the superior favour and indulgence shewn to the Catholic and the Jew over the Protestant Christian." The other new clause alluded to enacts, that "it shall not be lawful for any dissenting minister, religious teacher, or other person whatsoever, to demand or receive any money or other chattel whatsoever, from any slave for affording such slave religious instruction, by way of offering, contribution, or on any other pretence whatsoever," under a penalty of 201. for each offence, or imprisonment for not more than one month. Thus a poor slave is not allowed, even by a trifling offering, to testify his affection for his teacher; or to present a shred towards the building of the chapel erected for his use; or to contribute a penny towards a Bible, or missionary, or tract society! Let those of our fellow-countrymen who are at once among the most zealous friends of these truly blessed institutions, and the most stern denouncers of Anti-Slavery Societies, who are accustomed to bring tears of joy and gratitude into the eyes of their auditors while they descant upon the humble offerings of the poor in other places, who do not disdain to acknow ledge specifically among the items of Christian benevolence the fish-oil of the

Greenlander, or the cocoa-nut oil of the Ceylonese, or the palm-oil of the SouthSea islander, or the yams and cassada of the recaptured Negro, or the still more self-denying savings in the articles of ordinary luxury or comfort of some among the poorest of the non-pamperized poor, though rich in faith, in the garrets and cellars and cottages of their own land; let these, our not very consistent, though rightly intentioned friends, frankly tell us what they think of an enactment like this.

But we must stop, though we have not half exhausted the alphabet. Mauritius and Montserrat make no return; Nevis had done nothing; St. Christophers had done nothing; St. Lucia, we are happy to say, has, in several points, improved upon the Trinidad order, for which we are thankful; St. Vincent's has rejected the eight bills; Tobago does nearly the same, for though the council are favourable to many of the proposed regulations, the assembly are generally against them; Tortola makes no return; and Trinidad continues under the operation of the model code which bears its name, though with a strong expression of the desire of the slave-holders to nullify some of its best provisions.

Let our readers weigh these facts. We need make no further comment upon them.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

PISCATOR; A. H.; A. A.; ANONYMOUS; P.; THEOGNIS; W. H.; F.S. E.; W. I. C. ; LEGALICUS; E. P.; and EXTRACTOR, are under consideration.

A CONSTANT READER had better propose his inquiry to the parties themselves. ALBERT wishes us to state, that he is not an advocate for any disgusting ceremonies at the interment of a suicide; but he would be glad to know whether a clergyman may not, upon the authority of the rubric, refuse to read the Burial Service over the corpse of a person who has laid violent hands on himself, even though the verdict recorded at the inquest be " INSANITY," or any verdict inferior to "felo de se?" It is a fact of the most extensive notoriety that the Edinburgh Bible Society has for a considerable time broken off its connexion with the British and Foreign Bible Society; a fact which has been frequently adverted to in our pages, though not in a tone of hostility or controversy; but certainly with no slight regret, that a schism so injurious to the cause of our common Christianity should have been perpetuated even after the committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society had, in the most decisive manner, pledged itself no longer to circulate, either directly or indirectly, the Apocrypha, which was the original ground of the secession; and shewn a readiness in other respects to remove, as far as practicable, every ground for future misconception or censure.

It was therefore with satisfaction that we learned that, though the Bible Society of Edinburgh persisted in rejecting every overture of peace, a less hostile spirit had gone abroad among some of the friends of religion in that city, who had in consequence formed a committee for corresponding with the British and Foreign Bible Society. We accordingly, in our Number for July, at the conclusion of our abstract of the British and Foreign Bible Society's Report, expressed our satisfaction on the

66

occasion in the following terms: "We are happy to announce the formation of a highly respectable committee in Edinburgh, for the purpose of corresponding and co-operating with the Bible Society in London." And we immediately added the

committee's own circular as follows:

--

Edinburgh Bible Society Committee: the friends of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Edinburgh have agreed upon the following resolutions." Then follow the resolutions; the bearing of which, as our readers will see by referring to them, is, that, in consequence of the secession of the Edinburgh Bible Society from the British and Foreign Bible Society, a direct medium of communication with the latter had become a desideratum among some of the friends of religion in Edinburgh, for the sake chiefly of the foreign proceedings of the latter society, whose sphere of operation is the world. The object, in short, of the whole paper was merely to announce the formation, in Edinburgh, of this biblical committee, instituted expressly to correspond with the London Society, as distinct from the old Edinburgh Bible Society, or committee, which inflexibly maintained its secession. Under these circumstances our readers will judge with what surprise we found industriously inserted in the newspapers a long letter, signed by Dr. Thomson of Edinburgh, accusing the Christian Observer" of giving direct countenance and mischievous currency to a false and calumnious assertion; " of "departing from truth and honesty," so as "to disgust a man of ordinary pretensions to either; with more to the same purport! And all this for what? For giving our readers, as Dr. Thomson maintains, to understand by the above article, that "the Edinburgh Bible Society is reconciled to the British and Foreign." And yet, unless we greatly mistake, the whole drift of the article in question presupposed and expressed the contrary. For if reconciled, where would have been the necessity of the committee whose formation we were announcing? Besides which, on the cover of that very Number, we admitted a long advertisement of Dr. Thomson and his associates, filled with all the enmity of the Quarterly Review in proof of the alleged necessity and continuance of the Edinburgh secession.

But this is not the whole of Dr. Thomson's allegations: he has seen fit to point to an individual as the author of this alleged base" deception," this "false and calumnious assertion; "-terms which, if not characteristic of the writer, are at least "familiar in his mouth as household words." If we are right in our conjecture respecting the gentleman to whom he alludes, we pledge all our credit with the public when we affirm that he never saw or heard of the obnoxious insertion until he saw it published, and we are assured that it had even escaped his observation until Dr. Thomson's "censure " and "indignation were poured out on him in the newspapers for inserting it.

But how, our readers will ask, could Dr. Thomson possibly exhibit any shadow of ground for such a charge? Why precisely the same that an Atheist might have for saying, that the Bible asserts "There is no God." He tore just four words from the context, and made them speak the very contrary sense to what the whole article, as every candid reader must have perceived, was intended to announce. We had just spoken of the new association, as "a highly respectable committee in Edinburgh for corresponding and co-operating with the Bible Society in London," which, with these words still ringing in the reader's ears, and with all the explanation in the context which follows, we happened to designate by the brief appellation, “Edinburgh Bible Society Committee;" meaning the Edinburgh Committee, which, as stated in the very line immediately preceding, was instituted "for the purpose of corre sponding and co-operating with the Bible Society in London," thus sufficiently distinguishing them, as it would seem, from the Edinburgh seceding society. Every one who looks at the passage will see that the circumstance of those last cited words concluding one page, and the obnoxious title commencing another was purely accidental. Yet but for this accident, the misrepresentation of our reverend accuser would have been impossible. But even if the title be faulty, and ill-chosen, it is absurd to represent it as intentionally "dishonest" or " calumnious." What possible object could we have in such a "deception; "a deception which the whole drift of our own article would unmask; a deception which would defeat the very end of our announcement, which was to shew, that though many in Edinburgh persisted in their warfare against the Bible Society, there were others who did not sympathise in their hostility; and who, though they disapproved decidedly of the former conduct of the Bible Society as respected the Apocrypha, yet no less disapprove of the virulent spirit which has been infused into this controversy, and which will scarcely find its parallel in the annals of modern polemics. We, for our part, decline all share in such a combat, and must leave our present accuser as well as all others who choose so to assail us to their own better reflections, and, above all, to the calm retrospect of a sick or dying hour. Our only object at present is, in deference to our readers, to shew them that Dr. Thomson had no just cause to bring “ a railing accusation" against us; and be yond this, we are no more moved by such groundless attacks than we should be by the bitterest invectives of Cobbett or Carlisle.

THE

CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

No. 311.]

NOVEMBER, 1827. [No. 11. Vol. XXVII.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

TRUE AND FALSE REPOSE IN
DEATH.

THE

(Concluded from p. 592.)

HERE are various ways in which the distressing apprehensions of Dr. Johnson during his latter years may be considered; of which one is, that of their having been permitted, as a merciful and fatherly chastisement, for the inconsistencies of his life. Both Johnson himself and his most partial biographer, intimate that his character was not perfectly free even from gross sins: but, omitting these painful recollections, we are at least certain that his general habits and companions, during a considerable part of his life, were not such as a consistent Christian would have chosen, because they were not such as could in any way conduce to his spiritual comfort or improvement. Dr. Johnson was indeed called, in the usual course of Divine Providence, to "live in the world:" but it was his duty so to have lived in it "as not of it;" and with the high sense which he uniformly entertained of religion, and the vast influence which he had justly acquired in society, his conduct and example might have been of the greatest service in persuading men to a holy as well as a virtuous life,—to a cordial and complete self-dedication to God, as well as to a general decorum and purity of conduct.

It is certain that, in reflecting upon his past life, he did not view it as having been truly Christian. He even prays in his dying hours, that God would" pardon his late conversion;" thus evidencing not CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 311.

merely the usual humility and contrition of every genuine Christian, but, in addition to this, a secret consciousness that his heart had never before been entirely "right with God.”

we

Had Johnson survived this period of his decisive "conversion,' might have expected to have seen throughout his conduct that he had indeed become " a new creature in Christ Jesus." His respect for religion, and his outward excellence of character, could not perhaps have admitted of much visible change for the better; but in heavenly-mindedness, in love and zeal for the souls of men, in deadness to the world and to fame, in the choice of books and companions, and in the exhibition of those spiritual graces which belong peculiarly to the Christian character, we might, and must, have beheld a marked improvement. Instead of being merely the Seneca of the English nation, he might possibly have become its St. Paul; and he would doubtless in future have embodied his moral injunctions, not in the cold form of ethical philosophy, or even in the generalities of the Christian religion, but in an ardent love to God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; in a union to the Redeemer, and a dependance upon that Holy Spirit who is the Enlightener and Sanctifier. That such a supposition is not visionary, may be proved even from the meagre accounts afforded by a spectator, who would of course be inclined rather to soften down than to give prominence to any thing which might be construed into "fanaticism." For we learn from this wit4 P