portant functions are assigned, and who is not allowed to possess any agricultural slaves; a prohibition which ought to be extended in his case, and that of all public functionaries, to slaves of every description. A feeling adverse to their duty is likely to be generated by holding domestic slaves, as well as by holding predial slaves.In the different quarters of the island assistant guardians are appointed, who are not debarred from being the possessors even of agricultural slaves; an arrangement which must infallibly frustrate much of the benefit which might otherwise be looked for from the other regulations of the order. The flogging of women is entirely and absolutely prohibited, under any circumstances.-The use of the whip, or other instrument of coercion to compel labour in the field, is also prohibited. When used as an instrument of punishment by the master or manager, the number of lashes is not to exceed twenty-five at any one time, and for one offence; nor are any to be inflicted till former lacerations are completely healed. Twenty-four hours must pass after an offence has been committed before it can be punished; and when punishment is inflicted it must be in the presence of a competent witness, besides the person by whose authority it is inflicted. On all plantations a record of such inflictions must be kept, specifying the crime and the extent of punishment, to be signed by the parties present; and copies of this record are to be regularly transmitted to the Governor, certified by oath, in order to be sent to the Secretary of State. One great defect here is, that this important measure of a record of punishments is confined to plantations; whereas it is just as necessary to protect mechanic, or domestic, or jobbing slaves from brutal oppression as the predial slaves. In case of cruel or unlawful conduct towards a slave, the master may be deprived of such slave; and any master or overseer who is twice convicted of such conduct is to be deprived of all his slaves, and declared incapable of holding slaves in future, or of being employed as a manager of slaves. This is an admirable regulation.-As soon as effectual provision shall have been made for the religious instruction of the slaves, Sunday markets are to cease; and in the mean time, they are to be held only before ten in the morning. Why they should continue to be held,

even for a single Sunday, till ten in the morning, is not very obvious. The morning of the Sunday is as sacred as any other part of the day. As soon, however, as effectual provision is made for religious instruction (a very indefinite period,) then Thursday is to be made the market day instead of Sunday. The master is forbid to compel the slave to labour for his benefit on the Sunday. No day, however, in lieu of Sunday, being given to the slave by this Order (a most unaccountable omission,) the slave will be as much compelled, by the necessity of the case, to labour for his subsistence, which is, in fact, labouring for his master's benefit, as if the master stood over him with the whip. He must work on that day or starve.-The intermarriage of slaves is provided for; and such marriage is made binding in law, whether celebrated by a clergyman of the Church of England, by a Catholic priest, or by a Dissenting clergyman.-It is made unlawful by any judicial process, to seize and sell, separately from each other, the hus band and wife, or reputed wife, or the child under sixteen years of age. But here again, most unaccountably, no restraint is placed on the power of the owner, at his discretion, to separate these near relations by sale; and this omission is the more extraordinary, as it is a part of the Spanish law, which is the law in force in Trinidad, that the master shall not possess such power. The property of slaves is secured to them by law, and savings banks are provided in which to deposit their peculium; which they are allowed to transmit by will.-All taxes and fees on manumission are abolished, and a power is given, and adequately secured, to slaves to purchase their own freedom, or that of their children, at a fair appraisement, whenever they have the means of doing it. This is highly important. Any slave, whom any clergyman, priest, or religious teacher shall certify to understand the nature of an oath shall be recorded as entitled to give evidence in courts of justice, in all cases except in civil suits where his master is concerned, or in trials affecting the life of a White man. This last exception is most preposterous and mischievous; and it stands on no ground of reason or principle. Or if there be any reason for it, does not that reason extend equally to the case of a tree Black or Brown man, or even to that

of a Slave, as to that of a White? This monstrous distinction is introduced too in the very case where its, operation is likely to be most injurious. A White man may murder a Slave in the presence of a hundred other Slaves, not one of whom can give testimony against him. Nay, by the law, as it now stands, a temptation is actually held out to him to commit murder. If he cruelly punishes a slave, any slave may testify against him, and convict him: but if he kills him outright, he is secure from conviction though the whole gang should have witnessed the murder. Besides, is it feared, while judges are white, that there will not be a sufficient leaning in them to protect the lives of Whites? All the above regulations are enforced by suitable penalties.

Defective as this order is in many of its parts, it is still a most important step in advance; and when the defects are pointed out to his Majesty's Ministers, we have no doubt that the same desire of ameliorating the condition of the Slaves, which has led them to frame the code, will induce them to amend its provisions. It is their first essay in the delicate work they have undertaken; and we are disposed, on the whole, rather to be thankful for the concessions that have been made, and the important principles that have been recognised, than to murmur that the measure should not have been more complete. The friends of the Negro race may congratulate themselves also, on the large admissions of the correctness of their representations which this measure involves. A year of eager controversy has passed since they brought forward their charges against the system of colonial bondage. Every assertion they ventured to make has been keenly contested. The King's Ministers have had the opportunity of weighing the conflicting testimony of the adverse parties; and though they have pronounced no explicit decision on their respective claims to credit, yet they have adopted regulations which assume the existence of the evils which the Abolitionists have denounced. This forms an answer to ten thousand calumnies, and must prove an unspeakable support and consolation to those who have been assailed by them.

Little, however, would be done, if these reforms should be confined to the island of Trinidad. It is the declared intention of Ministers to extend CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 267.

the same system to St. Lucie, Demerara, and Berbice; and also to the Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope. These comprehend a slave population of about 220,000. But there still remain nearly 600,000 Slaves whom the proposed reform will not reach; we mean the Slaves residing in colonies which have local legislatures. It is the present intention of Government to proceed with these colonies only in the way of recommendation. The model of Trinidad is to be presented to them, and they are to be invited to copy it. But when we look back to the history of the last thirty-six years, nay, when we look back to the transactions of the last year, is it possible to indulge a hope of their cordial cooperation in the work of reform,-that work which they pronounce to be certain ruin and destruction to all their interests? We might as well have expected that they would of themselves have abolished the Slave Trade, because the British Parliament had declared it to be unjust and inhuman, as that they will now reform Slavery on the Minister's recommendation. Such a hope is utterly vain; and by indulg ing it we are cruelly and most unjusti fiably prolonging the miseries of our fellow-subjects, the Slaves, for the relief of whose admitted oppressions we' are bound to interfere. Here is the great failure of Ministers in respect to the cause they have undertaken. They pledged themselves too, that, in case the Colonists were contumacious, they would come down to Parliament for counsel. The Colonists have been contumacious; but Parliament has not been called upon to interfere. We mention this, not because we think it of any moment that the insolent conduct of the Colonists should be punished, but because we deem it incumbent on the British Government and Parliament, at least to do for the Slaves in the other islands what they have done for those in Trinidad. Why should women still continue to be shamelessly exposed and flogged in Jamaica or Barbadoes? Why should the driving whip be still suffered to exist there? Why should marriage be still without any legal sanction? Why should not facilities be given there also to manumissions? Why should it be left there to the masters of Slaves to do what they cannot be expected to do,—to reform a system which they conceive it their interest to uphold, and which their pride also is concerned in 2 D

upholding? Happily the people of England have one concurrent opinion on this point. They have shewn it by the numerous petitions which have been presented, and are daily presenting, on behalf of the Slaves; and, without doubt, they will only become more importunate in proportion as their hopes are likely to be frustrated or unreasonably postponed, either by the resistance of a handful of interested planters, or by the timidity and irresolution of the executive government. It ought to be remarked, however, that the line taken by Mr. Cauning, in his speech, was very uncompromising; and in reply to Mr. Baring and other West-Indians, who urged him to fix a point at which he would stop in his proposed measures of reform, he expressed the most resolute determination to proceed from step to step until he had accomplished the work to which the House, by its reso lutions, was pledged. But what single step will he be able to make in advance, while he continues to defer to the self-interested clamours of WestIndian legislatures?

The speech of Lord Bathurst was far less satisfactory. He chose, without any apparent necessity, to go into a variety of details, to shew that little was to be expected, in the way of industry, from the voluntary exertions of emancipated Slaves; and he retailed on this subject, all the hackneyed commonplaces of the West-Indian planters. It almost seemed as if he had employed some practised West-Indian sophist to collect his topics and arguments, and to arrange them in the way best suited to produce a favourable impression of the superior advantages of slave over free labour. We are not sorry, how ever, that his lordship has been led thus to exhibit the views of this subject which have been communicated to him, as it affords a fair opportunity of exposing their fallacy, as well as the incorrectness of the facts which he has been led to assume as the basis of his reasonings. It would of course be impossible to discuss the question at large on this occasion; but we may be allowed, as an illustration of his lordship's mode of reasoning, to quote the following passage from a report of his speech in the MorningChronicle:"The sugar exported from St. Domingo previous to the emancipation of the Slaves, was 160 millions of pounds; but since free labour was established, he had reason to think that

she did not grow sufficient for her own consumption." The inference to be drawn from this fact is, that therefore free labour will tend to diminish, if not to destroy, production. But what are the real facts of the case? All the French officers who were present in St. Domingo from 1795 to 1802, and who have published their observations upon the state of that island, have concurred in affirming, that under the government of Toussaint Louverture, St. Domingo, though the Slaves had all been emancipated, rapidly recovered its ancient prosperity; and that the produce of its soil was not inferior to what it had been at any former period. In 1802, however, a French army landed in St. Domingo, and a war of desolation and extermination followed. Few sugar works escaped; and it certainly is not to be expected that, while Hayti is still liable to be invaded by France, and while her independence, which she has enjoyed de facto for upwards of twenty years, is still unacknowledged by a single European power, any individual Haytian should be foulish enough to set about reerecting sugar works. To do so would not only be exposing his capital so employed to unnecessary risk; but it would be inconsistent with the whole pre-concerted plan of their defence against a French army, which is to deprive that army as much as possible, of all those means of shelter which sugar works would afford. Besides, has sugar been so profitable an article during the last twenty years, as to induce the freemen of Hayti, unfettered in their proceedings by the mortgagees of London and Liverpool, to run the risks, and to encounter the heavy outlay of capital, which the reerection ofsugar works would occasion? The first object, of course, with the liberated Haytians, was to cultivate such articles as were required for food, and to rear cattle. In these objects they have fully succeeded. The island abounds with provisions of all kinds. Food is as cheap and as abundant in Hayti, as perhaps in any other part of the world. While, in Jamaica, a slave is liable by law, to be punished with a cart whipping if a single pound of fresh meat is found in his possession, for which he cannot satisfactorily account; the Haytian Negro has the means, and also the liberty, to indulge in the use of animal food to the utmost extent of his wishes. Is this no advantage gained by free labour? Another

consequence arising from it has been a rapid increase of the population, which, notwithstanding the exterminating wars they have had to carry on, is now considerably larger than it ever was at any former period. But does Hayti, then, raise no exportable produce? We should be led to infer this from the report of Lord Bathurst's speech. She raises no sugar, says his lordship, for exportation, (but even this is not quite correct,) and we are left to infer that she raises nothing else. But does she raise nothing else? She certainly does. She raises much of what is far better suited to her present anomalous state than sugar, and the culture of which is also more profitable. Coffee and cotton require no expensive erections; and mahogany requires only to be cut. Now, that of these articles Hayti exports a very large quantity is manifest, from the following facts. The tonnage of the United States, employed in the trade of Hayti, in the year ending September 1821, was 50,000 tons, and the value of the imports into the United States from Hayti 2,246,237 dollars; the exports from the United States to Hayti being nearly to the same amount. And so rapidly has this trade since increased, that the value of the imports into Hayti from the United States, during the last year, are stated in the official Gazette of Hayti, to be upwards of six millions of dollars, and those from Great Britain upwards of three millions

of dollars. The trade of France with Hayti is also very considerable; more, we should apprehend, than from Great Britain. If, however, we reckon the whole import into Hayti from all parts of the world at twelve millions of dollurs, we shall have a consumption of foreign merchandize at least twice or three times as great as is consumed in Jamaica, and for which payment must necessarily be made in the produce of Haytian labour; a state of the case which obviously at once destroys the reported reasoning of Lord Bathurst respecting that island. But we must stop. It would be impossible to do justice to the subject within our narrow limits. It will be taken up, we trust, by some one who is competent to the task of vindicating the blessings of freedom from every imputation which would make them to derogate from the happiness and prosperity of man.

We are happy to state that a treaty has been entered into by his Majesty with the United States, by which the contracting parties agree to punish slave-trading, in their subjects respectively, as an act of piracy; and to yield to each other the right of search, in order to make the provisions of the treaty effectual. A bill to that effect has passed through almost all its stages in Parliament. This is also a most important gain to the cause of humanity and justice.

The Very Rev. C. Bethell, D. D. Dean of Chichester, to the Bishoprick of Gloucester, vice Dr. Ryder.

Rev. Hobbs Scott to be Archdeacon of Australasia, New South Wales.

Rev. Charles Henry Hall, D.D., to the Deanery of Durham, vice Bishop Cornwallis.

Rev. Samuel Smith, D.D., Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, vice Hall.

Rev. Henry Woodcock, D.D. Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, vice Smith.

Rev. W. Barlow, St. Mary Bredin V. Canterbury.

Rev. H. W. Blake, Thurning R. Norfolk.

Rev. C. Bradley, Glassbury R. Breconshire.

Rev. John Briggs, Southmeer R. Norfolk.

Rev. W.B.Cosens, Monckton Farley R. Wilts.