If a slave commits a theft of 201. currency, about 81. sterling, he is guilty of a misdemeanour, and may be flogged; if he steals above that sum, it is felony. But the court may commute the punishment.

When the negro dies, he leaves his wife and children without anxiety for their future welfare; he departs with the consoling reflection, that want cannot assail them, and that the evils of poverty can never reach them.

The negro goes to his daily labour a little after six, and toils about nine hours: he has the evening undisturbed, and he sleeps soundly, without a thought for the morrow.

If a poor man steals a few shillings only, he may be sent to Botany Bay, or hung.

The death of the poor man is the acme of human sufferings. His friendless wife and wretched children add bitterness to his dying moments. His honest heart bursts at their future lot. He sees them strip themselves of the covering that should protect them from the inclemency of the wintry blast, to afford him some little relief.

The poor man generally labours longer and harder. And when he lays his head upon his bed, if he has the fortune to possess one, he knows, that if the morrow gives him no employment, he and his family get no food.

It is unnecessary to pursue the parallel. Enough, we are sure, has been said to convince all, who are not wilfully blind, of the utter groundlessness of the charges preferred against the colonists. Of the accuracy of our description of the British peasants, the special commissions, which have been sitting for some weeks past, will amply vouch. And we really think Mr. Wilson and his friends, if not at Islington, still at some spot on this side the Atlantic, might find objects having tenfold greater claims to their charity, than the well-fed, well-clothed, and contented negro.

Of the decrease of the population in consequence of over-labour, which is here reiterated, we have already spoken. We now come to the charge that "colonial slavery debases and degrades the African." To which a question shall be the reply. Is the condition of the African negro debased by his employment in the colonies? Is not his moral and intellectual state at least equal to what it would have been in Africa? If so, he cannot have been degraded. But the abolitionists, besides, must be well aware that the slavery in which the native tribes hold each other is a thousand times more severe than it ever was in the West Indies.

We are next informed, “that the slave exists not in the eye of the law; that his evidence is not received, his property not secured, his domestic affections not regarded, his rights not protected, his injuries not redressed." Now, how stands the fact? Saving Banks have been established by law in all the colonies, expressly for the slaves; enactments have been made to secure to slaves their property, and

to authorize them to will it to whomsoever they please; the evidence of slaves has been received in many of the colonies for some years, and at present in all. So far from families being separated, a distant relationship is recognized, when a sale takes place; protectors have been appointed in the crown colonies, for the sole purpose of affording redress to the negroes; and in the chartered colonies similar enactments have been made for that purpose. All this we are enabled to state from parliamentary papers, and other authentic documents now lying before us.

This brings us to the most serious accusation yet brought against the planters, but one which, fortunately, can be refuted in the most summary manner. "The negro," says Mr. Wilson, "is excluded from the consolations of religion, and prevented from receiving any effective instruction in the truths and duties of Christianity." What says Lord Bathurst, in his Circular to the Governors of Colonies, in 1823? "It would be superfluous to insist upon the indispensable necessity of religious instruction, as the foundation of every beneficial change in the character and future condition of the slaves; so deeply, indeed, is His Majesty's Government impressed with this truth, and with the necessity of maintaining an adequate number of Clergymen and teachers throughout the West Indies, under episcopal control, that if it shall appear that the revenues of the colonies are insufficient, they will not hesitate to apply to Parliament for such pecuniary grants as may be necessary for supplying the deficiency." In consequence of this, two Bishops, three Archdeacons, and an efficient body of Clergy proceeded to the West Indies, in 1824, and the result has been most gratifying. Churches have been erected, schools founded, and the negroes, both young and old, taught to read. Marriage is encouraged by a provision, recommended by Government, that "the mother of a given number of children, born in wedlock, shall be exempted from future labour in the field." By a late Order in Council, Sunday markets have been abolished, where they still lingered; and the apple, orange, and nut stalls, which are so disgraceful to London and the suburbs, have, we have no doubt, ceased to exist in the colonies, another day having been granted to the slaves, in the crown colonies, for the purpose of disposing of their produce.

One word more on the profanation of the Sabbath, which Mr. Wilson declares must take place, or the negro starve. The legislature of St. Vincent's may speak for the whole West Indies on this head. In their official correspondence with Government, they give a most positive and flat denial to that cruel and unmanly calumny, that the slaves, instead of being allowed the exercise of their religious duties on the Lord's-day, are driven, by the command of their masters, to labour, on that day of rest to all other beings, in the provision-grounds,

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to raise a maintenance for themselves. This is one of the falsehoods, which the very propagators of it must have known to be so, because it is impossible that the most depraved of their spies, in the island of St. Vincent's, would venture to assert as a fact, that which every negro in the colony could, if questioned, falsify; which is also most effectually done by the 8th section of the new Slave Law." With regard to their being compelled to labour for the necessaries of life, we can tell the traducers, that the weekly allowance of food to men, women, and children, is more than they can consume, and that many of them sell or give a portion of it to the starving free coloured and black persons.

From what we have already stated it will be seen, that a subsequent assertion, "that after forty years no material ameliorations, however loudly promised, have been effected," is utterly unfounded. Indeed, the whole Sermon is characterized by gross misrepresentation. And the affixing the stigma of guilt on "every minister of Christ who is now silent," (that is, who differs from himself,) savours little of the charity by which he would have it believed he is actuated. The sneer levelled at "an Incorporated Society for Propagating the Gospel,” is of a piece with the rest. Mr. Wilson himself has for many years been a member, although a lukewarm one, of this very Society, and has lately been admitted into the corporation. Can the pure and orthodox character of this body have excited the spleen, and caused this specious but unjust attack on the part of the vicar of Islington? If so, we can tell him that the Codrington estates are the best managed of any throughout the West Indies,-that a Clergyman resides upon them for the sole purpose of instructing the negroes,—and that in no village in Great Britain, not even in that wherein he himself resides, can a congregation be seen more attentive to their religious exercises, or better acquainted with the leading truths of the Gospel.

We are particularly anxious that our readers should be put in possession of the fact, that the Codrington estate is held by the Society, as trustees, for the following express charitable purposes; and that the Society, according as we understand the will, has not the power to alter the mode of managing the estate. The following is an extract from the will of General Codrington:

"I desire that the Plantation should continue entire, and three hundred negroes, at least, always kept thereon; and a convenient number of Professors and Scholars maintained there, who are to be obliged to study and practise Physick and Chirurgery, as well as Divinity, that, by the apparent usefulness of the former to all mankind, they may both endear themselves to the people, and have the better opportunities of doing good to men's souls, whilst they are taking care of their bodies."

Should the sermon which has led to the above remarks come under the observation of the Lord Bishop of the diocese, we are disposed to think that his Lordship, who has ever been a zealous and active friend of the Incorporated Society, and than whom no one is better fitted to confute the fallacies and misrepresentations of Mr. Wilson, will not fail to visit Mr. W. with a suitable reproof. This would appear to be the more desirable at the present time, when there is a manifest disposition prevailing amongst the professed friends of the Church to depress the old and valuable institutions, for the sole purpose of elevating those of a more doubtful character.

If any doubt of the authenticity of our statement should exist, we beg leave to refer to the Parliamentary papers and the official correspondence of the Bishop of Barbados, which is certainly as good evidence as that of Mr. Wilson, derived, as it must be, through the tainted medium of the Anti-slavery Society. With an extract from a letter from the Bishop of Jamaica we shall dismiss the subject; with a sincere hope that the eyes of some portion of the community will be opened to the actual state of affairs by this article.

"I am," says the Bishop, "happy in being able to assure your Lordship that a very general wish to ameliorate the condition of the slaves, and to instruct them in the principles of the Established Church, seems to pervade the great mass of proprietors; and every facility is afforded me of visiting the several plantations." And in a subsequent letter he says, "the same good feeling continues to animate every part of the island."

We had forgotten Mr. Wilks; a few words will, however, convey our opinion of his pamphlet. It is dull-with more declamation than argument. In conclusion, we beg leave to say, that the observations here made have been forced upon us. We yield to no man in cordial detestation of slavery; but we do not think our cause will be served by misrepresentation. "The truth is," as Paley says, "the emancipation of slaves should be gradual, and be carried on by the provisions of the law, and under the protection of civil government.-CHRISTIANITY can only operate as an alterative."*

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* We request the attention of the advocates for immediate and unconditional emancipation, to the subjoined facts. In the 27th year of Haytian Independence, Mr. Wilson's Black Utopia,-Mr. Consul General M'Kenzie, the accredited agent of the British government, writes to Mr. Canning, that there is a deplorable absence of religious instruction;" that "morality is at its lowest ebb;" that marriage is scarcely thought of;" and that “the few young females that live on a plantation, live in a constant state of idleness and debauchery." Is this the boasted state of happiness and morality which emancipation is to bring to our colonies? Are such the benefits, for which the Anti-slavery Society raise their unmeaning clamour? Or are the petitioners hoodwinked and blinded by designing charlatans for their own secret purposes? The meaning of this last question will perhaps be best understoood by the relation of a fact which appeared in the public prints about a twelvemonth since, and the truth of which we happen to know. At that time (about December, 1829) the village of Islington was placarded with bills, announcing a course of three Lectures on Colonial Slavery, and the duty of immediate emancipation. The lecturer was a round, portly, sleek gentleman, of the Society of Friends, and indulged in the usual coarse invective, distortion of facts, and fallacious reasonings, which characterize these meetings. He lauded East India Sugar as the produce of free labour, without one allusion to the civil, moral, political, or religious condition of the cultivators. He averred that the West India colonies had cost this country 150,000,0007. within the last thirty years, which is false, without one word of the immense revenue derived in duties, and innumerable other ways, from them. He had the effrontery to assert that a diminution of 26,000 of the West India black population had taken place in the past year, caused wholly by the destroying labour of cultivating sugar; thereby, not only exaggerating the mortality, but entirely omitting natural death by old age, diseases, and the many ills to which flesh is heir. He argued upon the condition of slaves as if it were the planter's delight and practice to inflict every species of torture upon them from the 1st of January to the 31st of December, without hinting at the acknowledged kind and humane treatment which British planters are

ART. III.A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Llandaff, at his Primary Visitation in September, 1830. By EDWARD, LORD BISHOP OF LLANDAFF. London: Rivingtons. 1830. Pp. 34.

In this Charge, as might be expected, there is much observation of a local nature, and, as such, comparatively uninteresting beyond the immediate sphere of the diocese in which it was delivered. At the same time, many of the learned Prelate's remarks are so generally important, and his sentiments so purely liberal, in the true sense of that sadly perverted term, and characterised by such discriminating judgment, that we feel ourselves compelled to submit them to our readers. All comment of our own would be wholly out of place; and we are sure that the little space we have for this article will be occupied, with greater advantage, by the following extracts. subject of Confirmation, the Bishop writes thus :

On the

This ordinance had long been so universally and habitually observed in the Church of England since the Reformation, at least by all those who professed to

known to observe towards them; or at the kind and affectionate bonds of union between most of the planters and their people; or at their being better fed, clothed, taught, and cherished, than millions of our manufacturing and labouring population. He had the hardihood to add, that free labour had been established at Hayti, without bloodshed; and that it was the most prosperous place in the West Indies. These, and many other misrepresentations, were poured out with fatiguing volubility. In a word, he was so energetic, that it was evident there was some concealed mainspring, some leading, though unrevealed, cause, by which he was actuated. And such turned out to be the fact, when, in conclusion, to the amusement of all, and disgust of many, this upright, conscientious, and disinterested preacher, recommended to his congregation a brother Friend, who sold none but genuine East India produce!!!

Comment on the above would be superfluous. As it is, however, at the present moment of excitement desirable to undeceive the public, and set the question at rest at once, we cannot forbear publishing the following additional arguments, which came to our knowledge too late to be embodied in the article.

Col. Young, the protector of Slaves in Demarara, writes, "I cannot refrain from remarking on the contented appearance of the negroes; and, from opportunities of judging, think they have generally every reason to be so.'

Sir Charles Brisbane, the governor of St. Vincent's, says, "in my long residence here, I have never known or heard of any instance in which the proprietor had attempted to compel his slaves to work on a Sunday;" and, he adds, "I believe few labouring classes, in any part of the world, enjoy a larger share of the real comforts of life, than falls to the lot of the industrious and well disposed slaves of St. Vincent's."

Sir Lowry Cole, the Governor of the Mauritius, writes, "I am gratified in being able to state, that both from the information I have received, and from my own observation, the treatment of the slave population has materially improved in this colony."

Sir James Campbell, the Governor of Grenada, writes, "I am happy at the same time to say, that every exertion is making by the inhabitants of the colony generally, for the adoption of every possible measure for the instruction of the slave population."

Sir Patrick Ross, the Governor of Antigua, says, "I may be permitted at the same time, in justice to this island, to observe, that its existing code of laws is considered to contain a greater number of enactments in favour of the slave population, than that of any other legislative colony, with the exception of St. Christopher's."

We might, if space permitted, continue our extracts from the reports of every governor throughout our colonies. Enough, however, has, we trust, been now said, to disabuse the public mind, and to render the parties who deal so largely in hyperbole and misrepresentation, cautious of printing assertions unfounded in fact, and capable of official contradiction.