of this didactic character, its titlepage affords a correct description of its object. It is strictly a delineation of West-Indian Slavery. The preface in-forms us that it was commenced many years ago; that it was suspended for a time, and was resumed at the instance of the London Society for the Mitigation and gradual Abolition of Slavery. The great interest lately excited on the subject, has sent it into the world in an imperfect state; only the first volume being at present published. It is somewhat unusual to attach much importance to a preface; but there is very much in that which is prefixed to this work which deserves serious attention. Before we proceed therefore, to any consideration of the work itself, we shall draw the attention of our readers to some of Mr. Stephen's preliminary observations; and by way of introduction, we beg to quote the following extract from a debate before the House of Assembly at Jamaica of the 15th of last December. Dec. 15. Mr. Wright adverted to the use made of the public press by the enemies of the colonies, who, previous to the discussion of any momentous question, never failed to prejudice the public by false publications in the newspapers of the Mothercountry, and in pamphlets, which are widely circulated; the House had, by its proceedings, thrown down the gauntlet, and now that the battle must be fought for the preservation of our right of legisla. tion; it was but fair to use those means employed by our enemies, and, as they would commence their attack through the press, he considered we should meet them on the same grounds. To do this, it was necessary to vest in Great Britain a sum of money to procure the insertion of articles refuting the calumnies of our enemies. This grant was not unprecedented, as would be seen on reference to the Journals. He then moved that the Receiver-General be directed to remit the sum of 1,000l. to the Agent, and that the Commissioners of Correspondence be directed to correspond with the Agent on the subject. The resolution was agreed to nem. con. Mr. Mitchell, in giving his vote, said he hoped the printers would have discretion enough not to notice the grant, as it would be an engine in the hands of our enemies. He recollected, when his friend Sir Simon Taylor, in consideration of Cobbett's ad. vocating the cause of the colonies, sent him home a present of old rum (a laugh). Mr. Cobbett received the present, but re quested that no similar thing might again be done, as his enemies might say he was bribed for these reasons, he hoped the printers would not notice the votes. We have long known the fact, and so we believe, have most people, that the public journals were regularly and liberally paid for their exertions on behalf of the West-Indian party. It is one illustration of the system of tyranny exercised by the press over the intellects of the inhabitants of this country, that a fact so notorious has never yet been exposed and reprobated as it deserves; but that mischievous esprit de corps, which affects to uphold the press as immaculate and uncorruptible, will not permit even the exacerbated feelings of party opposition, or even personal hostility, to tear away the veil that conceals the hypocrisy of an opponent, lest it should be suspected, or rather discovered, that the whole body of periodical writers is governed by the same contemptible inducements. Yet the reflecting reader did not require that evidence of the fact which we have above extracted from the Colonial Register, to satisfy him of the system of bribery by which the periodical press has been won over to the adoption of the views of the Colonial party. Will it be believed, that any newspaper will daily or weekly lend its libels to their aid, when it is self-evident that the damages which the libelled parties might recover, would sweep away the earnings of years, unless they were not only indemnified, but liberally paid for their insertion? Is it not selfevident, that the temptation must be great which can induce them, for that party, to publish articles that run counter to all their avowed political principles? True, we do not respect the consistency of the Times, nor do we approve of the character or conduct of the John Bull: but still we will not believe that the former paper would gratuitously desert its avowed principles of liberty, and liberality almost radical, to advocate the feelings and interests of the most obstinate abettors of slavery in its worst shape; or that the latter paper would, with equal consistency, without pecuniary temptation, set itself in open hostility to the colonial measures of that government, whose policy and principles it has steadily advocated from its commencement. The grant of the House of Assembly at Jamaica must surely remove the doubts of all, who may hitherto have been sceptical on the subject. In writing these remarks, we have not lost sight of Mr. Stephen's preface; the early part of which is designed to prove the utility of public discussion, as an operative means in obtaining parliamentary interference, and in working colonial reformation, through the intervention of the colonial assemblies. We are anxious to shew how much importance the antiabolitionists, themselves, attach to public discussion, by the pains they take to monopolize the periodical press, the principal vehicle of that discussion. Mr. Stephen proceeds to point out the necessity of direct parliamentary interference, instead of adopting the indecisive and pusillanimous course of leaving it to the colonial assemblies to suggest and enforce the means of reformation; and, with equal force and truth, shews how fruitless every attempt has been to produce any real amelioration in the condition of the slaves, except by the legislative enactments of the Mother-country. In his remarks on this subject we cannot afford room to follow him; but we will, nevertheless, extract one or two most important observations, tending to shew the utter inability of the colonial assemblies to reform the existing system. The assemblies, in the smaller islands at least, are generally composed of men dependent for their subsistence on the system proposed to be reformed; and to whose hopes in life the immediate correction of it would be fatal. They are, be sides, too intimately connected with, and dependent on, the small free communities they represent, to oppose themselves in earnest to their general voice; or to venture on measures so offensive to their white brethren, as all effectual laws would be, the objects of which avowedly were to raise the negroes in the social scale, and by preparing a future abolition of slavery itself, to reduce the proud and gainful ascendancy of the privileged class. Meliorating acts, incapable of being enforced, and known to be framed for the sole purpose of averting parliamentary interference, are easily borne with; but the man who, in one of those petty assemblies, should attempt to realize the benevolent ideas and plans of the British Government, would be a hardy philanthropist indeed. If he did not escape, like the late Barbadoes missionary, by flight, he would probably have to feed the flames of his own mansion kindled by a popular torch. What I mean is, that the members of these insular assemblies, being on an and in some islands considerably less, are average, I think, about twenty in number, for the most part either planters deeply encumbered with debt, or managers and other dependents of such planters. Now if slavery cannot be lightened, and progressively abolished, without present sacrifices, such as they or their needy employers cannot afford to make; if, for instance, labour must be lessened, and sustenance increased (without which the fatal decrease of plantation slaves by mortality cannot be prevented), at the price of reducing the sugar crops, and augmenting the current expenses on estates that barely now enable their owner to keep down the interest of the incumbrances; upon what principle can it be expected that he or his manager should propose or vote for laws, by which such painful sacrifices would be imposed? Not upon a feeling of humanity, certainly; for that would have led to their voluntary adoption:-not on a provident regard to the future interests of the estate; for it must soon cease to be his. Well, indeed, may he add, If it is fit that such a state as is delineated in the following work should remain unmitigated, till the hapless subjects of it perish in their chains, let the House of Commons at once rescind its resolutions, and leave the poor victims to their fate. But if any thing, however small, is to be done for their relief, I trust that Parliament will cease impotently and mischievously to recommend, and begin at length to ordain. If, indeed, it is not unbecoming in us to oppose our judgment to that of this eminent writer, we could have wished that he had treated with the disdain they justly merit the infamous aspersions and scandalous libels in which the rancorous opponents of abolition measures have indulged against him and his family. Can it be necessary for him, after a long and honourable life, spent in the service and under the eye of the public, to vindicate his claims to public admiration and private esteem? Can it be necessary for him to enter the lists with adversaries, who wear not the insignia, and dare not use the weapons of honourable warfare? Can he suppose that the respect he has obtained, as an advocate, a statesman, and a philanthropist, can be affected by the opprobrious calumnies of ephemeral and obscure publications? We do indeed condemn not only him, but the other illustrious characters, who are equal sufferers with him in this respect, for not administering the proper punishment upon their traducers, by extracting from their pockets the gains of their nefarious traffic, on the same principle that the fine of a convicted gambler is measured by the profits of his offence. But we are proud to think, that the public feeling is not yet so vitiated in this moral country, as to render it necessary for Mr. Stephen, or Mr. Wilberforce, personally to defend themselves against the imputations of the colonists, or their corrupted advocates. We have, however, too long deferred our examination of the book itself. It might appear superfluous to many to delineate West-Indian slavery at this time of day. We will, ourselves, acknowledge that we took up the book under the influence of this feeling, and we avow, not without some sense of shame, our surprise at the conviction we soon felt of our extreme ignorance on the subject. To illustrate our meaning, let any of our readers ask himself, before he proceeds farther, what is West-Indian slavery? In what it differs from other states described by a similar name? We doubt if he can give, even to himself, a satisfactory answer to the question. In this most happy country, such an inquiry is strictly speculative; we know not how to define with accuracy that of which, by experience, we have no knowledge. "Slavery," argues one man, "is in"consistent with natural justice, with "humanity, with Christian principles;"it is productive of infinite evils, moral " and political;-it is unworthy of being "upheld and tolerated by a liberal and generous people."-" Slavery," replies "another, "is an ancient and very ge "neral state of man; and many enlight"ened moralists have allowed that it may "have, in the rights of war, or in actual "compact, a legitimate origin ;--consi"dered in its consequences, it may be pro"ductive of humane effects;-it is not "prohibited by the sacred pages ;—it pre"vailed even among the chosen people of "God. Its tendency, in general, may "indeed be bad; the state itself is a sub"ject of regret, but it is a necessary evil; "and such as, without the introduction of "greater evils, cannot be abolished." Strange as this may sound, it is, nevertheless, strictly true. After all the eloquence that has been expended in its condemnation, after all the reasoning that has been exerted for its suppression, we verily believe that there is not one man in a thousand, who has spoken or written on the subject, that accurately understands the meaning of the term slavery; and for this obvious reason, that the colonists have studiously concealed its real character; while the abolitionists, that is to say, every Englishman not personally connected with the colonies, have never had the opportunity of satisfying themselves by ocular experience what that character is. One man, therefore, attaches to the phrase little more import than that of a peasant or a menial servant; another pictures to himself the condition of the ancient serf; a third recalls to mind the description of the Spartan helot; while a fourth, perhaps, more nearly approaches the truth, in quoting the somewhat analogous sufferings of the Christian slaves at Algiers or Tunis. Those alone, who can rightly esti mate the word, West-Indian planters, that is not borne out by evidence-aye, and evidence of the most conclusive and satisfactory description; for the overseers, and managers, purposely assist in corroborating these false impressions. Let Mr. Stephen give his explana- author, with scrupulous conscientioustion of the state: Excessive toil, hunger, pain, imprison. ment, exile, and every possible species of human sufferance, with the exceptions of violent death and mutilation, are inflictions within the legal range of the master's authority. He can oppress by deputy, as well as in person; he can transfer his authority when, how, and to whom he pleases. Without his leave, no property whatever can be acquired or held; without his will, no domestic comforts or social connections can be for a moment enjoyed. He is impotent only to secure to his faithful slave those slender advantages with which the loss of liberty has elsewhere been, in some small degree, compensated. The poor negro finds in slavery nothing secure, nothing permanent, but the weight of the chain that galls him. Though bereft of property, he is still the sport of fortune; though a tiller of the soil, he has no share in its produce, or any sure means of support. Though confined to the domain, he has no abiding domicile. Home, wife, subsistence, children, friends, country, are all to him most precarious possessions; all depend, not only on the will, but often also on the life, the prudence, the foresight, or the fortune of his owner. He has no legal means of deliverance from the merciless exercise of that extreme authority to which he is thus subjected. Though this harshest of human relations is so brittle in respect of the superior party, it cannot, without his consent, be severed at the instance, or for the necessary protection of the inferior. The poor negro can rarely be released, but by death, from the yoke of the most inhuman oppressor. To finish the injustice of this sad destiny, it descends upon his offspring. They are slaves to the latest posterity; except that his female descendants may, at the price of pollution, and by submitting to the lusts of their oppressors for three generations, restore freedom to a portion of the fourth. This is slavery, indeed. Of the planters and the resident colonial interest we despair: but let the British merchant, let the English mortgagee, let the London or Bristol consignee of West-Indian produce peruse this passage, and alas! Mr. Stephen has PROVED it true, and analyze his feelings. This is no exaggerated statement, no zealous enthusiastic representation; not a word is here asserted ness, has uniformly, almost invariably, extracted his proofs from the mouths of the colonists themselves, and drawn his description from facts stated by the very parties against whom he argues. After a preliminary chapter upon the importance of the subject and the plan of the work, which Mr. Stephen divides into the delineation of colonial slavery as a legal institution, and then with reference to its practical nature and effects, he proceeds to consider the origin and authority of the colonial slave laws in general, and points out the ignorance of Parliament on this head. It is really curious, and pecu. liarly revolting to our British feelings, that near a million of fellow-creatures should be existing in that wretched state which has been described, unsanctioned and undefined by any law, either British or Colonial. It will scarcely be credited that, of all the innumerable Colonial and Parliamentary enactments for the regulation of slavery, there is not to be found a single statute declaratory of its existence. West-Indian slaves are slaves by custom only. They found a condition of man, called slavery, already established by custom in their own and neighbouring islands; and being all slave-masters in right of that custom, before they became legislators, did not trouble themselves with inquiries into the legitimacy or extent of the private authority, which they already in fact possessed. What is the legal force of custom in these recently settled countries? Its duration, even in our oldest colonies, is far short of what is necessary to found a prescriptive right. The case may appear still stranger when it is known, that the same assemblies which have left their slave sysusage and popular opinion, have not tem to rest upon the loose basis of brief scrupled to pass declaratory laws, affirming, correspondently to the sense of Westminster Hall, that the law of England is in force there, except where altered by their own acts, or by acts of parliament, expressly binding them; and that all cus toms to the contrary are void; and this without any exception as to slavery. Thus then it appears that, in defence of its legal character, the custom of slavery can alone be quoted; and that even so loose, so vague, and so unintelligible is the prescriptive right, that it is virtually extinguished by the declaratory laws of the Colonial assemblies themselves. We confess our utter inability to understand why any slave throughout the British WestIndian Islands might not walk off his alleged owner's estate, in defiance of resistance, any hour he pleased, with as much propriety as an English parent might reclaim from a gipsey his stolen child. It is ludicrous, if it were possible to indulge a feeling of levity upon such a subject, to observe the awkward dilemmas in which the Colonial assemblies were placed, by the inquiries of Parliament into the nature of their slave laws. In the Privy Council report on the slave trade, Part third, title Grenada and St. Christopher, the agent for those islands says, "I think that the power which a master has over his slave, is that which a lord had formerly over his villein in this country." In the same report, under the title of Antigua, the Council and Assembly state, "that the power which masters have over their slaves somewhat resembles the power which lords exercised over their vassals when the tenure of pure villeinage prevailed." With a masterly hand indeed does Mr. Stephen point out the absurdity of the analogy, and the essential difference between the two classes. The English lord could not delegate to any one his power of arbitrary correction; the West-India planter may, and universally does delegate it, to managers, overseers, and every subordinate agent, as well as to lessees, and all other persons claiming title under him. The charge of a negro's person, or the superintendance of his labours, always implies the right of whipping him at discretion. Murder and mayhem were punishable by the English law as severely when the villein of the offender, as when a free man was the sufferer; but in some of our colonies, at the time when these answers were given, the offence of murder itself, if perpetrated on a slave, subjected the murderer only to a small pecuniary fine; and as to mayhem, or mutilation, the late meliorating laws even have, for the most part, treated such enormities, however deliberate and wanton, as mere misdeislands, felonies, if the sufferer be a free meanors; though they are, in the same subject; and have limited within narrow bounds the fines or terms of imprisonment which the courts may in such cases inflict. He What is far more important, when the villein had civil rights, whether against strangers of a free condition, or the lord himself, he also had legal remedies. might maintain all manner of actions, as fully as a free person, against every man but his lord, even against a man who beat him by the lord's order; and in some cases against the lord himself. He was also a competent prosecutor in criminal cases, and might in some cases appeal to his lord. But we quote these answers of the Colonial Assemblies for the purpose of shewing their total inability to give any legal authority for the existence of Colonial slavery, and their unwillingness to furnish any correct description of its character. It is with much regret that we cannot afford room for considerable extracts from the second chapter, treating of the persons who are subject to Colonial slavery; but on one point, that has been much misrepresented, we cannot resist a quotation. As the African race only can be enslaved, the abject and vicious character known to be commonly produced by the state itself, is naturally associated and confounded, in the imaginations of the superior class, with the disgusting exterior of that enslaved people, as if it were generated rather by their blood, than by their degraded and brutalized condition; though, if we may rely on the best authorities, there is not on earth an uncivilized people chargeable with fewer vices, or possessed of a larger share of amiable qualities, than negroes in their native land. We now proceed to the author's explanation of the legal relation between master and slave. He explains this by laying down twelve general rules, or axioms, all of which are, in fact, embraced in the emphatic summary that we have before quoted of the characteristics and effects |