"It will be said again, that the fourth case, consisting of the Sierra Leone captured Negroes, is not strictly analagous to the one in point. These may have been slaves but for a short time, previous to their capture upon the ocean, so that they had scarcely been slaves when they were returned to the rank of free men. Little or no change could have been effected in so short an interval in their disposition and their character; and, as they were never carried to the West Indies, so they could not have contracted the bad habits, or the degradation, or the vices, of the slavery there.. It will be contended, therefore, that they were better, or less hazardous, subjects for emancipation, than the slaves in our colonies. Giving to this objection its full weight, the case of Sierra Leone captured Negroes will nevertheless be found to be a very strong one. They were all Africans. They were all slaves. They must have contracted as mortal a hatred of the whites, from their sufferings on board ships, by fetters, whips, and suffocation in the hold, as the West Indian slaves from those severities which are attached to their bondage on shore. Under these circumstances we find them made free; not after any preparatory discipline, but almost suddenly; and not singly, but in bodies at a time. We find them also settled or made to live under the unnatural government of the whites; and, what is more extraordinary, we find their present number, as compared with that of the whites in the colony, nearly as one hundred and fifty to one; notwithstanding which superiority, fresh emancipations are constantly taking place, as fresh cargoes of captured contrabandists arrive in port.

effected not only without danger, but with advantage even to the planters? Why condemn their retention in slavery, as a violation of the principle of justice; and then say we do not want the reign of injustice to cease, at least not for some time to come? But the writer will not pursue this subject any further at present, as he intends in some future number, to give his reasons why the advocates for the abolition of slavery should take higher ground than they have ever occupied, and press for the immediate termination of that system of slavery which is no less a disgrace to the character of our country, than it is destructive of the happiness, and opposed to the moral and intellectual, and social improvement, of the Negro population of Africa, and the West Indian colonies.

It will be said, lastly, that all the four cases put to gether, cannot give us a positive assurance, that the Negro slaves in our colonies would pass through the ordeal of emancipation without danger to their masters or the community at large. Certainly not. But do they not afford us a hope, that emancipation is practicable without danger; for will any one pretend to say, that we should have had as much reason for entertaining such a hope, if no such instances had occurred; or that we should not have had reason to despair, if four such experiments had been made, and they had all failed? They afford us again ground for believing, that there is a peculiar softness, and plasticity, and pliability in the African character. This softness may be collected almost every where from the Travels of Mr. Mungo Park, and has been noticed by other writers, who have contrasted it with the unbending ferocity of the North American Indians and other tribes. But if this be a feature in the African character, we may account for the uniformity of the conduct of those Africans, who were liberated on the several occasions above mentioned, and for their yielding so uniformly to the impressions which had been given them by their superiors, after they had been made free; and, if this be so, why should not our colonial slaves, if emancipated, conduct themselves in the same manner? Besides, I am not sure whether the good conduct of the liberated slaves in these cases was not to be attributed in part to a sense of interest, when they came to know, that their condition was to be improved.

A fifth class of slaves, emancipated in bodies, may comprehend those, who began to be liberated, about eighteen months ago, in the newly-erected State of Columbia. General Bolivar began the great work, by enfranchising his own slaves, to the number of between seven and eight hundred. But he was not satisfied with this; for believing, as he did, that to hold persons in slavery at all, was not only morally wrong, but utterly inconsistent with the character of men fighting for their own liberty, he brought the subject before the Congress of Venezuela. This Congress, after having duly considered it, drew up resolutions accordingly, which it recommended to the first general Congress of Columbia,

taen about to assemble. This last Congress passed a decree of emancipation on the 19th of July, 1821. All slaves, and their number was considerable, who had assisted, in a military capacity, in achieving the independence of the republic, were at once declared free. All the children of slaves, born after the said 19th of July, were declared to be free: but in order to defray the expense of their early maintenance and education, were to serve their masters until they attained the eighteenth year of their age. A fund was estab lished at the same time by a general tax upon property, for the purchase of the freedom of adults in each district every year, during the national festivals in December, care being taken to select those of the best character. It may be proper to observe, that emancipation has been proceeding regularly, from the 19th of July, 1821, according to the terms of the above decree, and also according to the provisions of the ancient Spanish code, which still exist, and which powerfully co-operate with it. They who attain their eighteenth year are put under the charge of special juntas, in order to be properly disposed of, and placed in useful trades and professions, or other lines of life. The adults may have land, if they desire it, or they may go where they please. The State has lately purchased freedom for many of the latter, who had a liking to the army. Their freedom is secured to them whether they remain soldiers or are discharged. It appears by a letter from Columbia, dated 17th February, 1822, about seven months after their emancipation had commenced, addressed to James Stephen, Esq. of London, and since made public, "that the slaves were all then peaceably at work throughout the republic, as well as the newly enfranchised, and those originally free." And it appears from the account of a gentleman of high consideration, just arrived from Columbia, in London, that up to the time of his departure, they who had been emancipated, "were steady and industrious, and that they had conducted themselves well without a single exception."

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"The Chapel was erected on a piece of freehold land, uear the Inn, where the villagers had been accustomed to spend the sacred hours of the Christian Sabbath; and about ten o'clock the village began to present a delightful scene to the eye of the Christian Philanthropist. On the green was pitched a large and handsome marquee, which Mr. Holmes brought from London for the purpose; it was surrounded by every kind of vehicle, from the tax cart, to the stately carriage; and different groups of people were moving towards the house of prayer, as the bell sent forth its sounds, which were returned in more softened notes from neighbouring and distant echoes." Page 9.

London:

THE VILLAGE CHAPEL.

PART I.

"It is no where supposed that the demand for Christianity is spontaneously, and in the first instance, to arise among those who are not Christians: but it is laid upon those who are Christians, to go abroad, and, if possible, to awaken out of their spiritual lethargy, those who are fast asleep in that worldliness which they love, and from which, without some external application, there is no rational prospect of ever arousing them. The dead mass will not quicken into sensibility of itself; and, therefore, unless some cause of fermentation be brought to it from without, it will remain in all the sluggishness of its original nature." Chalmers.

We have often been reproached for our inconsistency in displaying an ardent zeal for the conversion of pagans to the faith of Christianity, while we have suffered our own countrymen to rise and perish on the soil which gave them birth, without making any strenuous effort to convey to them the gospel of Jesus Christ; and we deserve all the reproach which has been cast upon us; but now the public attention is awake, and the obscure villagers are receiving that portion of sympathy which their destitute condition demands. A society has * sprung up amongst us, which confines its labours to the benighted villages and hamlets of our land; and though it is frowned upon by some of the great, and the mighty, yet it is fearlessly pursuing the great object of propagating the Gospel of Christ, through the scattered population of the British empire. Before this society arose, some few private individuals who had acquired a fortune in the metropolis, began to feel a benevolent anxiety for the villages in which they drew their infant breath; and generously devoted a portion of their wealth towards the erection of chapels, and support of ministers, for the moral benefit of the people.

When Mr. Holmes was paying a visit to Mr. Newel, who married one of his daughters, he could not avoid feeling the deepest commiseration for the inhabitants of the village, on whom the light of the Sabbath dawned in peaceful serenity, but who were left without the advantages of public worship. The church was very

The Home Missionary Society..