Or other place, that is for use

Of prayer know by name, In England's realm, or within Dominions of the same,

Shall always on the fifth day of The month of each November, In prayers to Almighty God

Give praise and thanks for ever, For this most wond'rous happiness In our deliverance,

That so the same may be preserv'd In due remembrance.

THE FIFTH FART.

And that all people dwelling in
England's dominion,
They shall resort with diligence
Alway that day upon,

In faithfulness, to parish church
Or chapel customed ;
Or to some usual place, whereat
Our God is worshipped.

In prayer, preaching, or the like
To serve God usually :
And then and there they shall abide
In order soberly,

All time of prayer reverently,

Or preaching of God's word, Or any other service true

Performed to the Lord.

And that all persons may be put
In mind of this good law,
And of this duty, as they stand
Of God and king in awe;
And that they may the better to
The same prepared be,
In holy service to our God,
Be it a sure decree,

Enacted, by authority,

As it aforesaid is,
That every minister warning give
Unto parishioners his,

In public at the prayer-time
On Sabbath morn before
The fifth day of November come,
That it for evermore

May duly be observed as

A day of sanctity;

And that that day, this Act be read In public distinctly.

Having thus transcribed Mr. Dod's Version, I think it right to remind my readers, that I am very far from meaning to discredit the solemnization of any day of useful national commemoration; and the fifth of November in particular, besides its notoriety for the "Gunpowder Plot," is still more memorable and valuable, as the era of the establishment of our liberties under King William; but the service of God in his house of prayer, and especially on the day of holy rest, is too sacred to allow of secular interruptions; and it is well that this sentiment should be widely inculcated, in order that at least no future burdens of this kind should be added to those which already exist.

A WATCHMAN.

An Appeal to the Christian Philanthropy of the People of Great Britain and Ireland, in behalf of the Religious Instruction and Conversion of three hundred thousand Negro Slaves. By the Rev. J. M. TREW, Rector of the Parish of St. Thomas in the East, in the Island of Jamaica. London. Richardson. 1s.

WE have learnt to entertain a high respect for the author of this pamphlet. He is one of the few colonial clergymen of the Church of England who have appeared to take a pastoral interest in the slaves

that form the great bulk of their parishioners; and who, rising above the narrow distinctions of sect and party, have been ready to hail as brethren, and as fellow-labourers in the vineyard of their common Lord, every zealous minister of the Gospel, of whatever name, who should aid them in turning any portion of their yet heathen flock from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God." Mr. Trew is the rector of St. Thomas in the East, in Jamaica; a parish containing at least 26,000 souls. When he first undertook its cure, almost the whole of this vast multitude

were sunk in the most profound moral darkness, with the exception of a few hundreds who had been converted to Christianity, by the benevolent and never-to-be-forgotten labours of some Wesleyan missionaries. He soon saw that the field he had to cultivate was far too extensive for his own exertions, though aided by those of a pious and excellent curate, Mr. Stainsby. Instead therefore of indulging any feelings of hostility towards these missionaries, as insidious and dangerous intruders on his demesnes, he rather rejoiced to witness their indefatigable exertions, in extending among those nominally committed to his care, but whom that care could by no possibility reach, the saving knowledge of Divine truth. But though thus efficiently aided, he represents more than three-fourths of his flock as still wholly destitute of any adequate means of Christian instruction. On this appalling fact, exhibiting indeed a lamentable state of religious destitution, even in this the most highly favoured (with perhaps one excep. tion, that of Kingston,) of all the parishes in Jamaica, he founds his appeal to the British public, and more particularly to that part of it who have laboured to improve the temporal condition of the slaves, for assistance in improving their spiritual condition also. Before we proceed to make the observations which have occured to us on the claims thus preferred, and on the general subject of the religious state of Jamaica, we are anxious to settle some small points of difference with the pious and respected author of this pamphlet.

He begins with reproaching the Abolitionists with their culpable inattention to the moral well-being of the slaves. Petitions for the amelioration of their temporal condition have been presented to Parliament; but he has looked, in vain, for any petitions arousing the public attention to the slender provision yet made for supplying their

spiritual wants. Among the advocates of freedom, he cannot find one individual attempting to lay hold of the popular feeling, in order to promote Christianity among the slaves; and very few indeed who have contributed their money to that object. "The cry of Negro emancipation," he says, "has penetrated the heart of the kingdom; and numerous pamphlets have issued from the press on both sides of the question: but we have yet to learn how far the professed friends of the measure are really disposed to assist in teaching the slave what is the value of the soul, and in what man's chief happiness should consist on this side the grave." We acquit Mr. Trew of any intention to misrepresent the Abolitionists; but we must say, that he has wholly overlooked the most important facts of the case, and has therefore been guilty of great and palpable injustice toward them. If he had read Mr. Wilberforce's "Appeal," for example, "to the RELIGION, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire, in behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies," he never could have advanced such a charge. And why was it that that Appeal to the Religion of this country failed to produce the effect which it was so well calculated to produce? Was it not, in some measure, because the Rev. Mr. Bridges, a clergyman of Jamaica, was permitted, without one line of contradiction on the part of Mr. Trew, or any one of his other colleagues (with the single exception of Mr. Bickell,) to charge Mr. Wilberforce with gross and wilful misrepresentation, for having endeavoured to excite that very feeling which it is the object of our author's pamphlet, at this late hour, to excite, for the lamentable destitution of adequate religious instruction under which the slaves of Jamaica appeared to him to labour? In his " Appeal," published in 1823, Mr. Wilberforce, for the hundredth time, denounced that deplorable neglect of the spiritual

which Mr. Trew, after a personal knowledge of that neglect, during twelve long years, has at length come forward, after Mr. Wilberforce's example, to denounce. Now we do not pretend to blame Mr. Trew for having been so tardy in his efforts: we know the formidable difficulties of his situation: but we marvel that he should have chosen to break his silence by charging those with culpable neglect who, for years, had been doing their utmost to rouse attention to the subject; and we can only account for it by supposing that some such censure might be deemed requisite, in the outset, in order to obtain a favourable reception, from colonial readers, for the benevolent designs which he proposes and ad

vocates.

But this was not all. Another pamphlet, which, in conjunction with that of Mr. Wilberforce, led the way in the present discussions, and which was also published early in 1823, by the Anti-slavery Society, and with their express sanction, distinctly pointed out the "moral condition of our slave colonies," as loudly calling for the best efforts of the benevolent in this country. What was the picture drawn of that condition? It was this: "The marriage of slaves has not yet been legalized. The most unrestrained licentiousness prevails, almost universally, on estates, among all classes whether White or Black. The face of society presents, with few exceptions, one unvarying scene of open concubinage. The Christian Sabbath, instead of being a day of rest and religious observance, continues to be the universally authorized market-day; and, in almost all the colonies, and especially in Jamaica, a day of compulsory labour for the slaves," they being compelled to cultivate their provision grounds on that day on pain of starving. ("Negro Slavery," especially as it exists in Jamaica," published by Hatchard, 3d edition, p. 87.)

"To abolish markets and compulsory labour on the Sunday; and to make that day a day of rest, as well as of religious worship and instruction;"" to provide the means of religious instruction for the Black and Coloured population, and of Christian education for their children;"-and further, "to institute marriage among the slaves; and to protect that state from violation, and from either forcible or voluntary disruption." (See preface to Debate of 15th May 1823, published by Hatchard, p. xxvi, &c.)

Can it then with any justice be said, that the Abolitionists have overlooked those spiritual necessities of the Negro population which they are now accused of having merged in an exclusive solicitude for their temporal condition?

But no petitions, it seems, have been presented to Parliament soliciting its attention to the slender provision made for supplying the spiritual wants of the Negroes. But on what ground could Mr. Trew expect that such petitions hould have been presented? No sooner indeed was the question agitated, than government at once expressed their intention of giving to the colonies a regular episcopal establishment, and of contributing from the public purse to its maintenance. Whatever else might be required, it was obvious, ought to be supplied by the colonists themselves, who are as much bound, whatever Mr. Trew may say to extenuate the force of this obligation (see p. 21), to supply to their slaves the means of religious instruction and education, as the proprietors of the soil in this country, or in Scotland, are to provide for the spiritual wants of their dependants. Why

should the landholders in the West Indies be exempt from this just burden, any more than the landholders in England, or in Scotland? Must we be onerated not merely to enrich the planter by bounties and protecting duties, but in order to exempt him from the obligation of applying any part of what he thus pockets to the spiritual benefit of those very labourers who till the soil for his exclusive profit without wages? Besides, has nothing indeed been done, by the Abolitionists, for the spiritual benefit of the slaves? Have none of them contributed to the Moravian missions, to the Methodist missions, to the missions of the London Missionary Society, or to those of the Church Missionary and other episcopal institutions? If they have been backward in contributing in any one particular channel, may they not have had good reasons for their backwardness? Are they to be blamed, if they have hesitated about placing funds in hands which might possibly, according to their view, misapply them? Surely before their money is placed at the absolute disposal of either WestIndian planters, or West-Indian clergymen, or even West-Indian bishops, for such sacred objects as those of extending among the slaves knowledge of the Gospel, and of bestowing upon them a Christian education, some security should be obtained that the parties so confided in have earned that confidence by the zeal they have already shewn for the spiritual interests of the poor Negroes. Mr. Trew cannot have forgotten that, in the year 1822, the Jamaica Auxiliary Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, comprising among its subcribers all the clergy in that island, most of the public functionaries, and many planters, deemed it necessary to obviate the popular alarm which their institution had created, among the mass of the White colonists, by explicitly declaring that the slaves were not included

within the scope of their benevolence, which was to be directed exclusively to the free population. He must also have well known the general and most inveterate hostility, on the part of great numbers of the planters, to any instruction at all; and of almost all of them, to any but what was strictly oral being communicated to the slaves;-an hostility to which the bishop himself, and probably Mr. Trew, have been clearly under the necessity of deferring. And yet it is for not having come forward, with a kind of quixotic liberality, to scatter their seed at hazard in a soil so unfavourable, in the vain hope that it might, some how or other, yield its fruit, that they are so severely censured. What could have justified them in such a course? Nothing which we can conceive, except the very ignoble motive of avoiding the sneer of some colonial journalist, or the graver censure of our well meaning but mistaken author. If Mr. Trew can shew that the Abolitionists, in their respective lines of operations, have neglected any good opportunity which has been hitherto really presented to them, of promoting the spiritual improvement of the Negro popula. tion, then his censure may be just. But we cannot see that they have done so, unless it is wrong in them not to have sent missionaries and schoolmasters of their own to convert and educate the slaves. And what reception these would have met with at the hands of the planters of Jamaica, no man can better tell than Mr. Trew. Cautious, and measured as his own conduct has been, he has not escaped the suspicion of anti-colonial designs; merely because he has dared to shew a more than ordinary solicitude, to do his duty to the slaves as a minister of Christ. Has he not, on that very account, been branded and denounced, by such men as Mr. Bridges, as an enemy to the colonies, and an emissary of the African Institution, and been under the necessity of appealing to the