hitherto obtained, the serious attention of the more wealthy inhabitants. In 1812, there scarcely existed in the Parish any Schools for the education of children in the principles of the Established Religion. Since that period several small Schools have been formed, and much to the honour of the inhabitants of Kentish Town and Camden Town, in the South division of the parish'; and owing chiefly to the benevolent and strenuous exertions of that highly meritorious character, the late Thos. Cartwright Slack, esq. they established the Kentish Town and Camden Town National School for 200 children, for which latter school a plain and suitable building was this year erected by subscription at Kentish Town, at an expence of 9001. In order to extend the blessings of Education to the East division of St. Pancras and Somers Town, the attention of the inhabitants is called to the present state of the education of the poor in those places, and to a plan for its improvement. The population of the East division and Somers Town may be estimated at from 17,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. In the East division are the following schools: Children. Tonbridge Chapel School (at tends Tonbridge Chapel,) upwards of In Somers Town: The Roman Catholic School Somers Town School 500 200 50 750 Besides these, some children from the East division and Somers Town receive their education at the Cecil Chapel School, Bedford-row; the Female Charity School, Store-street; the Pentonville Chapel School; and another School near Bagnigge Wells, which attends the Spa Fields Chapel. A very large Dissenting School is in contemplation. Very many poor children of the East division and Somers Town yet re main uneducated; and with a view particularly to provide for the education of the poor children whose parents are anxious to give them education according to the principles of the Established Church, it would be a desirable object to establish a School in strict union with the National So ciety, for as many children as the funds are likely to allow of; and, if approved of by the Subscribers, the Girls' school to be made a school of industry. AN INHABITANT OF ST. PANCRAS P. S. I should wish much to see established in the Parish" a Society for bettering the condition of the Poor in St. Pancras." The parental care of the more wealthy over their poor neighbours is never exerted in vain. A Fish establishment connected with the Society for the manufacturing and labouring Poor might be easily formed and regulated, and would be a great saving to the poor. Mr. URBAN, UNW your readers with any additional observations upon the Slave Registry Bill, I am compelled to recur to the subject, from the letter of A. H. in your last Number, p. 28. On a former occasion *, I produced various documents with a view to shew, that as no shadow of proof existed of an illicit traffick in Slaves in our West India Colonies, the plea of necessity could not be urged in favour of any further legislative measures. The supporters of the Bill have in fact been compelled to abandon this charge; but they now allege the possibility of the traffick, and that a Registry is absolutely requisite as a preventive regulation." 66 The assertion of your Correspondent, that such a Bill" would effectually check Slaves being smuggled,” is not entitled to the smallest attention, until he first prove (what is certainly incumbent upon him) that smuggling has in fact taken place. So long as existing Laws are effectual, our statute-book be why should loaded unnecessarily? When those it incumbent upon us to pass others. Laws are broken, but not till then, is A. H. next observes, that the Registry Bili" has been much misrepresented, and therefore misconceived in the Islands." Does he mean that these misrepresentations have prolonial Assembles have been deceived ceeded from hence; and that the Coas to its real import? What are the facts? The Bill was transmitted to the Colonies upwards of a year ago, ac * Gent. Mag. for May, p. 390. companied companied by Mr. Stephen's pamphlet, recommending and explaining the measure. The Colonists were thus fully enabled to form their own judgment upon the Bill, and upon the ultimate views of those with whom it originated. What that judgment, that unanimous judgment, has been, I need not repeat. They have shewn that the Bill is not only unconstitutional and unnecessary, but pregnant with evils and mischief; and that a compliance with the whole of its injunctions would be impracticable. So far does this Bill extend beyond a simple Registry, that it would be impossible, within the present limits, to describe the variety of its provisions, the number and severity of its penalties, or the intricacy of its enactments. Such an explanation is indeed rendered the less necessary, from the various pamphlets that have recently issued from the press; and from the interesting discussion which this measure gave rise to in the House of Commons on the 19th of June. The following observations fell from Mr. Palmer, in the very able and temperate speech he delivered in the course of that debate; and as they faithfully, yet concisely, describe both the object and provisions of the Registry Bill, I shall make no apology in laying them before your Readers. Mr. Palmer stated" that delusion had been much complained of on both sides of this question; but he felt it his duty to beg the House to examine the details of the Registry Bill, about which they had heard so much, and to say whether it was not in itself a very great delusion. Under the profession of preventing ilicit importation of Negroes, under the name and appearance of a simple registration of property-what was it? He begged to disclaim all intention to speak disrespectfully of the gentleman who introduced, or of those who supported that Bill; but a sense of public duty, and of public danger, required that he should speak of the Bill itself in language which he thought it required. If any proof were wanting of the incompetency of persons in this country to legislate for the Colonies, he contended that such proof would be abundantly furnished by the Registry Bill. It had the singular infelicity at once to deepen the debasement of slavery, and to convert freedom itself into a curse. The faithful slave, without exception of age or sex, was exposed by it to personal, public, periodical examination of every bodily singularity, defect, or deformity (to use the words of the Bill), whilst the unfaithful and disobedient slave escaped into a freedom, for which he was neither prepared or qualified, and which could not fail to be a burthen to himself, and a pest to society. It took away the protection which the Law had thrown round age and infirmity, and helped to cast them upon the mercy of a community, which the supporters of the Bill described as neglecting the duties of mercy, when they were enjoined by Law. To give effect to the abolition by guarding against a supply of Slaves from abroad, the Bill itself produced a powerfully operating cause to diminish the number of Slaves at present in the Colonies to guard against crime, it imposed grievous duties and heavy expences upon persons confessedly innocent, and even upon persons incapable of committing the crime. In a word, if he could have conceived it possible that a person could be so base, as to have endeavoured to frame a measure by which a sort of deceptious emancipation could have been accomplished in a manner which would avoid all the points of compensation and inconvenience connected with that measure, and which could hold out to the Slaves a motive, and a means for accomplishing the object themselves, * One of these Pamphlets, intituled, "The Penal Enactments of the Slave Registry Bill examined," is particularly deserving the attention of the Publick, as the writer has analyzed its more important clauses with great minuteness and ability. ተ "This clause can only be complied with, by stripping all the Slaves stark naked, and obliging them to undergo the examination which enjoins. So that Masters are required to perform this office upon their female slaves, and even female proprietors upon their male slaves. Decency shudders at the very idea! and yet they must either submit thus to outrage every feeling of dencacy, or run the risk of forfeiting their Slaves; for such is the penalty attached to any incorrectness in the returns." Marryat's "Thoughts," p. 174. he he thought such person could not have framed a more effective instrument for these purposes than the Registry Bill. Such was an imperfect outline of what the Bill appeared to him to have been, and which he was quite sure would be shewn to be the case, by persons more competent than himself, if ever unhappily that Bill should be again discussed in the House. He would leave the House to judge whether it was in itself a delusion, or was calculated to delude others." It may probably be urged that Mr. P. and the other gentlemen, who followed him in this debate, took an exaggerated view of the subject,or that, as individuals interested in the West India Colonies, their opinion must not be considered as conclusive. To such reasoners, I will now produce some practical objections against. the measure in question, which the bitter fruits of experience have furnished. A Registry was established in Trinidad under an Order in Council, dated the 26th of March 1812, and from which the present Bill was, in its leading provisions, framed and copied. The number of Slaves in that Island aré computed at about 26,000, and the returns are required to be furnished by the Registrar on or before the 1st of March, in each year, but from the intricacy and complex na ture of the regulations, copies of the first returns of the Plantation Slaves, directed to be forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department, have not yet been received. An estimate of the "moderate fees" (as Mr. Stephen terms them) payable on making the returns, has been computed at 10,000l.; but these have proved but a small part of the burthen, the indirect expences of this measure being much greater than the regular fees. In the first place, above 1,300 judicial proceedings have already taken place in Trinidad, in virtue of this Order in Council. (What a glo-. rious harvest for the Lawyers!) In the next place, the Planters are not allowed to make their returns to the Commandants of the Districts where they reside, but are obliged to attend in person, and swear to them before the Registrar at his office. Many of them, therefore, are under the necessity of making a journey of 70`or 80 miles; and as all the returns are to be given in between the 1st and the 10th of January, when the Planters arrive, they find the Registrar has so much business on his hands, that they are detained several days before they can be dispatched, and during this time are obliged to maintain themselves, their horses and servants, at an inn, at a very heavy expence. The disadvantage to the Pianters of being obliged to leave their estates in crop time, which commences the end of December, is sufficiently obvious, as well as the danger arising from their all being absent at the same time, and thus leaving the Slaves without superintendance or control. It should be observed that these inconveniences have arisen where the Slave population does not exceed 26,000. What would be the result in Jamaica, where they amount to more than 300,000 ? After this statement will it be contended that the Colonists have raised their voices against a Registry of this description without a cause? Nevertheless in the Christian Observer for June (p. 409) it is coolly stated, that "in the Island of Trinidad, where a Registry has been in force for five years, no mistake as to its real nature has existed; nor has there been the slightest pretence of inconvenience, except what arises from the payment of the prescribed fees, and the necessary precision of the enactments.” These are trifling exceptions truly! Of what, I would ask, does the Registry Bill principally consist? Against which of its objects and provisions have the strongest arguments been urged? "The payment of fees," and the observance of " precise enactments," form the very essence of the Bill, and have been animadverted upon by the Colonists as burthens particularly oppressive; yet the candid and ingenuous Christian Observer alludes to both, as matters merely trivial, and scarcely deserving of attention, in a consideration of the practical consequences of this measure. A. H. also remarks, that "some insurrections have been falsely ascribed to the reports of the effects of this Bill." Upon this point I shall not dwell, as the fact is placed beyond all doubt. The Proclamation of Sir James Leith, and other communications from Barbadoes, all point to the Registry Bill' as the source of the late late deplorable insurrection in that Colony-an insurrection that carried ruin and desolation before it, and threatened the massacre of every White inhabitant in the Island. But it is said by some that "the delusion of the Slaves was occasioned by the Planters themselves, who by their publications in the Colonial Journals, under the very eyes of the Negroes, have misrepresented the Bill *." This argument in the first instance begs the question. Io what respect have the Planters misrepresented the Bill? Have they given any other character to the measure, than that which the pamphlet of Mr. Stephen (at once the comment and defence of the Bill) will fully bear out? And with a danger so imminent hanging over their beads, and a doubt how far they would be protected on this side of the water, how could it be expected that the Colonists should be silent? Though innocent, as it appears, of the crimes with which they are charged they are threatened with an Act of the British Parliament, the lightest infliction of which is, that it at once disfranchises their local legislatures, and taxes them in defiance of the solemn pledge of Parliament †; and because from every parish, and from every district, a voice is raised against this proceeding, describing its real nature and purport, the Planters are, it seems, to be responsible for all the dreadful consequences which may result from the rash and unauthorized attack which they are resisting! The Registry Bill found the Slaves in a state of tranquillity; but after its arrival anarchy and rebellion arose amongst them. What evil effects it might have produced in the other Istands will, it is to be hoped, be averted, by the awful example that Barbadoes has afforded, and by the Proclamation transmitted by the Crown to the different Governors, pursuant to the addresses of both Houses of Parliament. It is, however, too well known that mischief, perhaps irremediable mischief, has been already occasioned in the minds of the Negroes, by the agitation of this question. The reports of the Colonial Legislatures, and other docu * See Report of the Speech of Mr. Wilberforce, &c. &c. +18 Geo. III. Cap. XII. 66 ments of a public and private nature, clearly prove this fact; and I shall close the present letter, with an extract from one, addressed to a gentleman in this country, by the Chief Justice of St. Vincent's, not only as decisive upon the subject, but coming from an authority which cannot be questioned. The writer observes, Pray tell Mr. Wilberforce that until the Negroes heard of the Registry Bill, and Mr. Stephen's book, which they call a Report of the African Society, I slept with doors and windows open; but now, although under the guns of a fort, I have loaded pistols at the side of my bed every night. In short, the measure, whatever may be the result in England, has already done more to check the progressive improvement of the state of Slavery, than the Society* can remedy in 20 years." S. D. D. Mr. URBAN, Bonby, near Brigg, Aug. 15. SI find the limits of Publiyour cation will not allow the inserting of my remarks on Mr. Scott's pamphlet, to the extent I have drawn them out, I shall close the subject by a few observations on the late controversy, which, I trust, will be deemed neither ill-founded, nor unseasonable. With regard to that part of the Enquiry, which professes to demonstrate the heterodoxy of Dr. Mant's sentiments concerning Adult Baptism, I have no hesitation in saying that the statement is founded on an error. Mr. Scott has chosen to represent his opponent as upholding the Popish tenet of" opus operatum;" a charge easily made, and not unfrequently by those who very imperfectly understand" whereof they affirmt." Does this gentleman mean seriously to tell his readers that Dr. M. considers the *The African Institution. It will be seen by referring to Le Council of Trent never meant to sancBlanc's Theses (p. 681, th. 65) that the tion the doctrine of “ opus operatum,” as it is now generally understood. I wish those who are so ready in uttering this cry, which is too often used as the watchword of a party, would take pains to inform themselves a little more accurately, before they bring charges of a very serious nature against individuals, whose belief and practice are, perhaps, as pure as their own. sacra sacrament of Baptism in the light of a mere charm, operating by an inherent virtue of its own? Does he mean to assert that, in any part of the tract he has so laboured to depreciate, the ceremony of Baptism is spoken of, as working an immediate visible change in the subject of it? If so, let him bring forward the passages on which he grounds his assertion, and not take advantage of general expressions on the part of his antagonist, to construct a system of his own, and then give it to the world as Dr. Mant's, only that he may have the pride of demolishing it. The great unfairness of Mr. Scott, through out the whole of his publication, consists in his having imputed to Dr. M. opinions illogically deduced from the words cited in pp. 7, 8, and 9, of the Enquiry. The real fact is, that Dr. Mant, in the tract so often alluded to, has the case of Infants chiefly in view; and this is perfectly correct, since he wrote to Christians, and in a Christian Country, where nine out of ten are baptized in their infancy. Mr. S. with singular fairness and justice, applies Dr. Mant's reasoning, which 'relates principally to Infants, unto the case of Adult Baptism, thereby giving a false interpretation to several passages, which, if considered together with their context, will be found strictly true. I do not deny but what Dr. M. might have written a little more correctly, as far as concerns his composition, and, perhaps, a little more guardedly as to what he has said, in his second tract, with regard to the Methodistic conversions; but I see no reason to impeach his consistency, or doubt of the orthodoxy of his sentiments. What I conceive him, and every member of the Established Church who understands ber doctrines, to hold on the subject of Adult Baptism, is this, viz. that grown-up persons coming to the font in a state of repentance and faith, are regenerated, and obtain a full and instant possession of the privileges attached to regeneration; that grown up persons, coming in a state of impenitency and unbelief, are also regenerated, but do not receive an immediate benefit thereby, such benefit See the suffrage of Crescens, Bishop of Cirta, Concil. Carthag. Cyprian's Works, suffrag, 8th. being suspended until they repent. The truth of this statement rests on a very necessary distinction, which Mr. Scott appears to be entirely ignorant of, but which was well known to St. Austin, and the antient Fathers; I mean the distinction between the validity and the effects of Baptism: it is well known to all who are acquainted with the writings of the earlier Divines, that Baptism was never repeated in the cases of those who, being wicked livers, still continued within the pale of the Church; these never finally lost the privileges of their Baptism, but were only deprived for a time of the saving effect attached to such privileges; they were readmitted to communion, not by being baptized again, but by undergoing the rigours of penitential discipline, and submitting to the imposition of hands. As to Infant Baptism, the question lies within a very narrow compass; the grand point in debate between us and our opponent is this: Whether, in Baptism, infants are justified absolutely, or conditionally? Dr. Mant upholds the former, Mr. Scott the latter proposition: it is impossible, according to Mr. S. that infants should be born again in baptism, because they are incapable of repentance and faith. I am astonished so acute a reasoner should bring forward this hackneyed objection of the Anabaptists. If Mr. S. will attentively read the Treatise on Infant Baptism, in the second volume of the London Cases, he may, perhaps, see occasion to alter his sentiments on this point; he may see his objection fully refuted, and be convinced that the absolute justification of infants is not quite so preposterous, so heterodox an opinion as he has represented it to be in the mean time, I will take the liberty of reducing this gentleman to a dilemma from which I think he will not very easily extricate himself: I suppose he will allow that, whatever be the meaning of the term Regeneration, it is impossible, without being regenerated, to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. If then Regeneration be not, in all cases, (I am speaking of Pædo-Baptism) the necessary consequence of being baptized, what sense can be attached to that little note which our Church has subjoined to the Office of Public Baptism for Infants? "It is certain, by God's : |