had seen in times of local scarcity only, a stout lad of fourteen or fifteen years of age, sold for the trifling consideration of two rupees," (4s.) scarcely a month's wages for the meanest servant." In times of general scarcity of food, low, indeed, must be the price of a slave! Hence the total disregard which is paid to the comfort of these unhappy beings, and even to the preservation of their lives. "In their old age," (says Judge Richardson,)" it is the master's interest to get rid of the feeble, who eat, but cannot labour; consequently the worn down wretch is neglected, and perishes more speedily for want of care, having no family or children to ameliorate and ease the pains of sickness, or prop the weakness of decline, by the soothing attention of filial duty and affection. In times of scarcity and famine, the master must starve his slaves, send them to plunder, or emancipate them. The latter his avarice will never permit.' "When they can sell themselves, numbers are induced to flock to great towns and cities, whereby many die of disappointed expectation, who would otherwise pick up a scanty subsistence in scattered villages."* Major Walker informs us, that in Arcot "the children of slaves often die of absolute want." In page 895, we are informed, that the slaves in Canara, (a sugar country,) "sacrifice to the devil only." They perform this diabolical rite thrice in the year, but must obtain permission from their owners to do so, having "no day which they can call their own." What a dreadful application of their only holidays! Of these unhappy beings there are, (according to estimation,) 82,000 individuals in that single district! Christian Examiners-men of philanthropy-missionaries of the Gospel of GODlook upon these, your forlorn fellow-creatures, with an eye of pity-supplicate heaven in their behalf-be incessant in your petitions to Parliamententreat, implore, demand the legislators of the empire, to rescue them from idolatry and tyranny of the most detestable and fiendish nature, lest the ALMIGHTY wrath shall avenge the cause of the oppressed, and inflict on the offending nation under whose sanction the perpetration of such atrocious crimes is openly permitted, the most signal, the most calamitous chastisement ! In barbarity-in demoralizing effect and in extent, the slavery of the West Indies is, to that of the East, as a drop of water to the Potowmacas a mite to the Himalaya mountains. We find, from the great Parliamentary paper to which we have so often referred, that in Hindostan there are domestic slaves, and field slaves, and slave procuresses, and dancing slaves; and districts in which the greater part of the cultivators and labourers are slaves. There are ploughmen slaves, and slaves kept for show, and for the meanest offices of servitude ; and slaves "for the indulgence of sensual gratification," and Judge Richardson tells us, that "the desperation sometimes occasioned by the unfeeling inflictions of cruel masters, often incite to acts at which humanity shudders. The dagger and the bowl are frequently employed to procure emancipation from the unrestricted domination of brutality."+ O! Hindoo slavery! Hindoo slavery! how bitter, how execrable are thy fruits! Demoniac cruelty-unnatural lusts-misery, consummated in suicide the worship of Satan-the festivals of perdition-the triumph and domination of hell! Slavery in India, p. 302. Ibid. pp. 897, 303, 299, 300. In page 316, we are informed that "the owner of a male or female slave, may require of such slave the performance of impure work." The female, as well as the male, may be compelled to clean "her master's door, gateway, and necessary," "rub his naked body with oil, and clothe him," &c. "In cases of disobedience or fault, the master has power to beat the slaves with a thin stick, or to bind them with a rope, or to pull their hair, or expose them upon an ass. If, however, he shall exceed the extent of his authority, he is liable to be fined." In adverting to this subject, Judge Richardson makes the following judicious remark" The facility and impunity with which power can triumph over a wretch in a state of bondage and absolute dependance, requires no argument; and what is the punishment, if, against all chance or hope, the tyrant is brought to trial, and even to conviction? A pecuniary fine!" Yea! so horrible is East India slavery, as it exists under the Gentoo code, that "if a Sudra reads the Vedas to either of the other three castes, or if he listens to them when read, heated oil, wax, or melted tin, shall be poured into his ear, and the orifice stopped up."* The slaves called Chermakans, who are employed "in all works connected with agriculture," "are required to watch the fields and granaries during the night." "A Cherman convicted of any fault, or caught after running away, would be flogged, and put in stocks for some days, and afterwards made to work with chains on!"† The price of able-bodied slaves seems to be higher in Bengal, and its neighbourhood, than in sundry other districts. The great quantity of sugar raised in, and exported from this jurisdiction, may probably advance the value of agricultural bondsmen throughout the province. R. G. Wallace, Esq. who resided fifteen years in India, informs us, that in the great fair held in Hurd warra, "where the Ganges enters the plains of Bengal," and "the pilgrims to the five sacred junctions mentioned in the Sastra, assemble," "two millions of souls annually congregate, for purposes of traffic, pilgrimage, and profit." "Here are exposed for sale, horses, camels, mules," &c. " with slaves brought down from the hills, many hundreds of whom are sold, from three to thirty years of age, at the rate of from £1 58. Od. to £18 2s. Od. each." The same admirable author informs us, that in Malabar, a blooming female may be purchased for a few pounds sterling. Men are sold for about £7, and children for £2; and parents who are freemen, have power to sell their own children!§ "The number of slaves in that district, may be estimated at 100,000.|| They are slaves of the soil, and are generally attached to the land on which they were born; but this is by no means an essential point, being frequently transferred by sale, mortgage, or hire." "In South Malabar, nine-tenths of the cultivation is carried on by chismas," (slaves). Sir Ralph Dick, second judge of Dacca, in speaking of Sylhit, states that the odious practice of trafficking in slaves has long subsisted in that Zillah. "The trade is caried on to a considerable extent, as is universally acknowledged; and, from the best information, it is computed that the number of slaves in the district amounts to about one sixth of the whole population, and this number progressively increases, as their offspring also are born slaves"!! Sylhit is a sugar country-and indeed all the sugar growing districts abound with slave ploughmen, slave labourers, slave cultivators of • Gentoo Code, (Citante Grant and Saintsbury: + Slavery in India, p. 865. + Memoirs of India, p. 14.-See also, Captain Raper's Journal. § Ibid. pp. 110, 111. || Slavery in India, p. 845, 816. T.Ibid. 244. the soil-whether we advert to Bengal, Dacca, Moradabad, Canara, Gorruck pore, Ganjam, Ramghur, Rungpore, Patnas, Sylhit, or other tracts of land. The sugar called East Iudia sugars, imported into Great Britain, comes from Bengal, Manilla, Java, Siam, and other slave countries.† It is necessary to state these facts, because repeated attempts have been made to induce the public to purchase the eastern sugars, as the produce of free labour. Now if this were true, the India Company had it completely in their power to bring forward direct and conclusive evidence, that such was the case: but in the vast mass of matter, with which they have furuished the Parliament and the nation, there is not a syllable advanced in proof that the sugar cultivators, in opposition to the established practice of all other agriculturists in their extensive territories, reject the cheap labour of slaves, and adopt the far more expensive mode of working. their lands by freemen. It was, at once, their interest and their duty to have produced testimony to this effect, if in their power-but they have not done so, because they could not do so, consistently with truth. We read in the papers furnished by the company to Parliament, "that slaves may be found in Bengal among the labourers in husbandry"-that many estates in the country (Bengal) "are cultivated by indigenous· slaves"-that in Bengal, throughout some districts, the labours of husbandry are executed chiefly by bondservants: "in certain provinces, the ploughmen are mostly slaves of the peasants for whom they labour"-that "there are many natives of Africa in the provinces under the Bengal government, that have been imported by people holding them as slaves". that in the capital of Bengal "the manacled African is sold like the beast of the field, to the highest bidder."§ We read also that "the expenses of cultivation and manufacture (of sugar) are invariably estimated, upon a supposition that the work is performed by hired labourers; whereas it is mostly executed by the ryot's own family and dependants, and consequently costs less than hired labour," Adverting to this subject, Mr. Saintsbury naturally asks," what kind of dependants, over and above his family and his hired labourers, can any farmer have that are not slaves ?"|| The Hindoo and Mahomedan codes have received the sanction of the British legislature, and we read in the Bengal political consultations, p. 339, that " no variation whatever is to be made in the existing laws regarding slaves"—and again "with reference to the extent to which domestic slavery exists in India, under the established laws and usages of the Hindoos and Mahomedans, and to the known habits and feelings of the people, the Vice-president in council, is of opinion, that the greatest care should be observed to guard against the prevalence of an opinion, that any general or direct interference, on the existing relation of master and slave, is contemplated by Government."¶ From the same volume we learn, that "Mussulman justice weighs, it would seem, in the same scale of moral turpitude, the stealing of a cur dog and the kidnapping of a child : (p. 57-55.)—that in Poonah the sale of slaves was authorised by commissioner Elphinstone (p. 339)-that sundry tribes are in the habit of selling even their own children, whom Slavery in India, pp. 10, 242, 245, 115, 914, 895, 843, 119, 669, 56, 596, 300, 361, 5, 4, 244 and passim. + Saintsbury, p. 43. Sugar papers, p. 80. (citante Saints. bury. § Bengal judicial consultation, 4th Feb. 1817. Slavery in India," p. 345, 80. Ibid. Judge Leycester's report, p. 344. Ibid. 378. || Sugar papers, p. 43. 3d App.-Saintsbury p. 28. Proceedings of the Right Hon. the Governor General in council, in the political department, under date 7th April, 1817, p. 335- Slavery in India. they have by slaves (p. 415)-that the tribe of Gwaniah are open and professed stealers of children (ibid)-that in Katah a cruel and pernicious custom has long existed of kidnapping children, and bringing them to Delhi, for sale, and that this horrible system of robbing extends even to the Nepaul territory. (pp. 98-111.) Iam unwilling, Sir, to trespasss farther on your precious time and valuable space; yet, I cannot refrain from adding the following quotation to the preceding remarks. la Malwa "the dancing women, who are all slaves, are condemned to lead a life of toil and vice, for the profit of others; and some of the first Rajpoot chiefs and Zemindars in Malwa, who have from fifty to two hundred female slaves in their family, after employing them in all the menial labours of their house during the day, send them at night to their own dwellings, where they are at liberty to form such connexion as they please, but a large share of the profits of that promiscuous intercourse into which they fall, is annually exacted by their master, who adds any children they happen to produce to his list of slaves. The female slaves in this condition, as well as those of the dancing sets, are not permitted to marry, and are often very harshly treated, so that the latter, from this cause and the connexions they form, are constantly in the habit of running away. If discovered, they are always given up, provided the deed of purchase can be produced, which with them above all others, must be registered at the Catwaals chabootre, at the period the slave is bought."* Belfast Guardian Office, Nov. 12th, 1830. JAMES STEWART, L.LD. NEGRO SLAVERY. TO THE EDITOR of the chrisTIAN EXAMINER. SIR-Will you allow an humble approver of the good cause which you advocate, as well as the temper and ability with which you support it, to express his surprise that you have never used the influence which your extended circulation has given you, in furtherance of the great and Christian object of the abolition of Negro slavery in the British colonies. An elder sister of your Magazine, whose steps you may be glad to follow, (the Christian Observer,) has set a noble example of faithfulness and zeal in the cause of suffering humanity. As a Christian Examiner, it is certainly your office to bring every thing within your sphere, whether abstract or practical, to the unerring standard of the Law and the Testimony; and assuredly, it is only necessary to bring the subject of Negro slavery fairly to that test, to unite every Christian heart in a deep conviction of its sin, and a consequent determination to labour for its removal. It seems to me, that it is especially your duty to come forward in such a cause, when the objects to be considered lie beyond the sphere of actual inspection. Periodicals, like yours, are the eyes, or rather the telescopes of the Christian public, which bring to view things distant or remote; great, therefore, is your responsibility, to lay directly before our consideration, any matter which is not an object of general attention, only because it is indistinct or distant. I fully, Sir, believe, that it is 'ignorance of the real nature and daily results of Negro slavery, combined with the selfish tendency of the fallen heart, to take but little interest in any thing not directly affecting ourselves, Slavery in India, p. 415. new command that prevents the great body of the British community from coming forward decidedly and actively, in the support of this cause; and I rejoice to perceive, that such ignorance is diminishing, and such a sentiment of sympathy for the long oppressed African extending throughout the community, as will, I trust, lead to final success. We want to feel more deeply than we do, that it is a matter of personal interest to us, as men and Christians, that 800,000 of our fellow subjects, born under the protection of our government-are and have been ministering by their unrequited labour, to the supply of our luxuries-oppressed by a system of personal slavery that has deprived them of those just rights, and temporal and spiritual blessings, which, under our constitution, we have so long enjoyed. That such a state of wrong and misery exists any where under the sun, must be deeply painful to the benevolent mind; what ought to be our feelings of shame and sorrow, when, as a nation, we have permitted and supported it? I have often thought that this subject, and our duty respecting it, would come deeply home to the heart, if we were just to suppose ourselves in the condition of a Christian slave. What must be his emotions, upon whose heart the Spirit has written the " ment" of the Redeemer, when, while he feels upon his body and his soul the chains of the slavery that forces him to unrequited labour-that flogs him if he refuse-that keeps his soul in the continual jeopardy of seeing his wife and children torn from him by public auction-and excludes him and them, as far as it can, from the light and knowledge of the Gospel; what must be his feelings when he thinks that thousands of his Christian brethren in England, are consuming the produce of his forced toil-hearing of his misery with, perhaps, an expression of pity, but "passing by on the other side," and not really exerting the means that providence has placed within their power, to procure the relief of his misery and the abolition of his bondage. He must, indeed, exercise the "charity that beareth and hopeth all things," if he can believe that such fellow Christians regard, as the rule of their reciprocal duty, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye also unto them." I would be far, Sir, from insinuating, that no advocate of colonial slavery can be a Christian. I believe, that through ignorance and prejudice, a believer may do many things wholly inconsistent with his profession; but, I would press upon every such character, the duty of fairly inquiring into the principles, nature, and effects of our colonial slavery, and then impartially considering, first-whether a system begun in robbery-daily from generation to generation depriving men of those rights of personal liberty which God has given to all, and sinking them into a brutalizing degradation, merely that a few, of like passions with themselves, may live in luxury and ride in splendour-be not sinful as well as inhuman; and then, whether every individual who knows this, or might know it if he would inquire, is not justly implicated in the crime, unless he makes use of every worthy and constitutional means to put an end to it. As my chief object, Sir, is not to occupy your pages myself, but to incline you to come forward in aid of the cause, I shall enter no farther into the subject, but merely detail one fact, neither acted or spoken in a corner, but stated lately in the House of Commons, and perpetrated publicly in Jamaica a few months ago, by order of one of the chief legislators in that island. I intend it as an illustration of what we mean, when we say that Negro slavery is cruel and sinful, and as a significant commentary upon the planters' text, that the slaves are the happiest peasantry in the world. |