6

and sinful violation of the Sabbath.' all ages and both sexes; 6500 persons Again,' We are like sheep exposed to the of free condition ; and between 3 and fury of the wolves. Again, . For me, I am 400,000 slaves. considered by them as one deprived of “ In the year 1813, this once beautireason, a fool, and enthusiast.' And

ful, rich, and happy colony was reduced to again, towards the conclusion of the let- a miserable population, not exceeding ter, · The only thing that keeps me here 150,000. Its flourishing plantations, pois our dear society, which languishes like pulous towns, and elegant residences, a tree planted by the side of a FLAMING were fallen into one general mass of FURNACE!'--(See the Methodist Mission- ruin. The soil produced barely sufficient ary Report of 1821, p. xciv.) The me- to support its wretched inhabitants, unlancholy fact is, that St Domingo, once der idleness and accumulating poverty. the garden, the Queen of the West In- Instead of occupying in its trade 353 dies, is now inhabited, not exactly by sa- large vessels, the American merchants of vages, but by a race of beings, infinitely the United States could barely obtain a worse, degraded, in fact, beneath what

return freight, for from 15 to 20 schooners they ever were before. The unsophisti- and square-rigged vessels of about 180 cated denizen of the African wilds is en- tons each ; and England sent about onenobled in comparison with the wretched third of that nunber; and, in the room degradation of his Haytian brethren; not of growing 1,230,673 quintals of sugar, merely relapsing into barbarism, but sink- the inhabitants were then supplied with ing fast under an odious combination of that article from Jamaica." the darkness, ferocity, vices, and superstitions of all colours and all nations ; We earnestly entreat such of our unredeemed by the virtues of any. To readers as really wish for complete and this state of terrific desolation it is, that satisfactory information as to all these Mr Wilberforce and his friends are now matters, to peruse without delay this finally labouring to reduce the whole of " Official Letter” to Mr Chalmers : the the British West Indies."

Report of the Debate in the Council Our other extract on this head shall of Barbadoes on the receipt of Lord be from a letter addressed to Lord Bathurst's Letter :" and last, nat least Liverpool by a West Indian,” (Mr important, " Remarks on the CondiS. P. Hurd.) It consists of a precis tion of the Slaves in Jamaica, by Wilmade from the Custom-house books of liam Sells, member of the Royal ColSt Domingo.

lege of Surgeons, London, and many “ The island of Domingo, previously to years practitioner in the parish of Clathe French revolution and the emancipa- rendon, Jamaica.”* The number and tion of the negro population, exported to obviously total want of connection and France, in 353 ships, of from 800 to 1000

concert among the writers of these, tons each, the under-mentioned pro- and the other recent pamphlets, take duce :

away everything like suspicion from Quintals. Sugar, 1,239,673, which sold for L.1,900,000 the strong, uniform, overwhelming, Coffee, 459,350,

1,009,000 and unanswerable evidence which they Indigo, 18,080, 5,790,

17,000 give, in regard to the rapid and deciArnotto,

1,500 sive improvement that has been going Cotton, 26,900,

300,000 Hides, 14,500,

on in all our colonies, under the eye

7,000 Rope-yarn, 44,000,

2,000 and through the exertions of the much Dye-woods, 193,000,

40,000 Miscellaneous drugs, &c.

calumniated planters, and their equally 160,033

calumniated legislatures. The brief L. 4,086,333

abstract in the Quarterly Review, as “ This exportation arose from 385 su

well as that given in our own last paper gar plantations for raw sugar, and 263 for on this subject, will be found, on clayed, or dried sugars ; from 2587 plant- comparing them with these authentic ations for indigo; 14,618,336 cotton

documents of evidence, (for we can plants; 92,893 coffee trees, and 757,000 consider them in no other light,) to

have stated the case throughout rather “ At that period, the cattle of the colo- less favourably for the planter's many amounted to 76,058 horses and mules, nagement than the facts would have and 77,904 head of horned cattle. The warranted. labour occupied 33,000 white persons of Throughout this discussion we have

650,000

Cocoa,

518,

cocoa trees.

* Published by Richardson, Cornhill, and Ridgeway, Piccadilly. VOL. XV.

L.

abstained from everything that could Criminal Justice at Antigua." It is bear the least semblance of personal stated, “ that the Directors, on being attack upon the individuals whose made acquainted with the proceedings schemes we have been compelled instituted against Mr Hatchard, had to expose and denounce. Some other come to certain Resolutions, and had journals, and in particular, the Sun. addressed letters to their corresponday paper John Bull, have adopt- dents, in order to ascertain the truth ed a somewhat different course : and or falsehood of the allegations containMr Bull, we observe, has seen a ed in their 10th Report; but had obprosecution commenced against him tained no satisfactory answer. The by Mr Zachary Macaulay, the great Directors then thought it expedient to Solon, or perhaps he would rather have acquaint Mr Hatchard of this, and reus style him, the great Moses of Sierra commended him to contradict the stateLeone. Of the facts of the case be- ment he had published, through every tween John Bull and Mr Zachary Mac- channel, and by every means in his aulay we know nothing. One thing, power, and to advise with Counsel on however, we do happen to know, and the subject.” that is, that statements not very dis- Mr Hatchard put in an affidavit in similar, so far as we could observe, and mitigation of punishment, in which he certainly quite as strong, were made swore that “ he had used all possible against Mr M. seven or eight years diligence to discover the author, but ago in certain pamphlets, to which a was unable so to do.”-In what light gentleman well known in the House of this transaction was regarded by the Commons put his name at the time Judge who tried the case, the following when they were published. Now, we sentences of his speech will sufficiently humbly think that if Mr Macaulay shew :was resolved to prosecute, he ought to “ It is insinuated, that this originated have attacked the first, the open, and in a letter from the West Indies. There the equal enemy-not the Sunday pa- is no affidavit that any such letter existed. per—but gentlemen will no doubt That somebody is very highly criminal in follow their own feelings in matters this case, no one who has read the pubwhere they suppose, rightly or not,

lication can at all doubt. That it has their personal honour to be concerned. originated wilful and wicked fabrications,

The Rulers of the African Institu- no man alive can doubt. That it is detion, however, have sometimes had the feating the purpose of justice, to prevent fortune to stand in situations at least the information by which the wicked as undignified as Mr Bull can on the calumny might be traced up to the oripresent occasion be exposed to: and ginal author, is obvious.” * we venture to refresh their memory, in This is what Mr Stephen in his case that faculty should be more inert speech at the Anniversary meeting of than their imagination appears to be, 1817, called a singular and unfortuwith a short abstract of what occurred nate case.” The African Institution in regard to a certain Mr Hatchard, libelled the administration of criminal who, we observe, still continues to act justice in Antigua in their tenth report, as bookseller for the African Institu- and their bookseller was púnished setion and its pamphleteers.

verely for the publication of their proAmong many other goodly matters, duction: and this they call unfortuthen, we find, in a Report made at a nate. If Mr Hatchard was unfortumeeting of the African Institution in nate, it is easy to see who ought to have 1817, some allusions to what is desig- stood between him and his misery ; nated as “the unfortunate and singu- and if the punishment was a singular lar circumstance, of an innocent man, instance in Mr Hatchard's life, perMr Hatchard, the publisher of their haps the offence was not quite so in 10th Report, having been convicted the career of the “ great and good of a libel against the Aides-de-Camp men,” (to use their own phrase,) who of Sir James Leith, and the Courts of have so long employed him.

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NOTE ON THE QUARTERLY REVIEWERS.

We cannot allow the preceding article to pass through the press, without'embracing the opportunity which it affords us of saying a single word in regard to the last number of the Quarterly Review. Our much esteemed correspondent has had occasion to bestow his energetic eulogy upon one particular paper in that number ; but we cannot refuse ourselves the gratification of speaking our mind as to the whole of it. We have no hesitation, then, in saying distinctly, that we consider this as the very best Number of the Quarterly Review that ever yet appeared ; and the pleasure we have had in observing this, has certainly not been the less, in consequence

of various circumstances of what we may call an external kind ; more especially, of the rumours that have been of late so widely circulated, concerning the failing state of Mr Gifford's health, and the malevolent joy with which the writers of the Whig, Radical, and Infidel Journals, have been expatiating upon the supposed likelihood that the best days of the Quarterly would be at an end whenever that gentleman ceased to be its principal conductor. Earnestly do we hope that Mr Gifford's health and strength may endure much longer than these cowardly ruthans flatter themselves; but the fact is evident enough, that Mr Gifford has done, comparatively speaking, nothing about this number of the Quarterly-which, nevertheless, is, and will be universally admitted to be, more than equal, taken as a whole, to any of those which Mr Gifford ever wrote or superintended. It is the assurance which this gives us of a wide and increasing store of intellectual vigour, far above the chance of being impeded in its exertions by anything that can happen to any one person, however eminently gifted and distinguished—it is this assurance that has filled us with a proud pleasure—a pleasure not a bit the less, because we very well know we shall not obtain credit for really feeling it in certain quarters.

There is not, from the beginning to the end of this Number, one single article of a mediocre kind. Talent the most various, erudition the most various, are here displayed ; but there is always just that talent and that erudition which the particular subject in hand ought to have engaged. The Review seems to have paid off a host of heavy worthies, whose lumbering virtue acted as a dead-weight upon the spring of intellect, both within the work and among its readers. Above all, there is displayed throughout (what our correspondent has observed in regard to the article on his own subject) a certain LIBERALITY of thought and feeling, which, as a general feature of this work, is certainly somewhat of a novelty. There is almost nothing of the old monastic leaven perceptible. The writers shew themselves to be learned in all the learning of the Egyptians, at least as much as heretofore ; but they seem to have laid aside their caps and

gowns, and written their respective contributions, not within the cold vaulted chambers of Cambridge and Oxford, but amidst the hum of St James's and the Park. In short, we feel that we are in the society of people of the world, and enjoy the talk of gentlemen, scholars, and Christians, with considerably the greater zest, because

our eyes

have not been awed by a long row of “ fire-shovels” on the hall table, as we entered the house.

The first article, on “ Pulpit Eloquence," for example, we pronounce to be, in spite of the theme, not the work of a clergyman. It is a very admirable paper, exhibiting a thorough acquaintance with the whole stream of our literature, a severe and scholarly taste, and the generosity, at the same time, and open candour of a man of genius, above being kept in intellectual leading-strings by any authorities, however grave and ve

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nerable. We doubt if any churchman, if any man that ever either read or spoke a single sermon, could have discussed these matters in a tone so likely to meet the feelings of the general reader. Considering the high standards according to which everything is tried by this far-seeing Rhadamanthus, we assuredly think that our hair-brained countryman, Mr Irving, has good reason to be proud of the admission which has been made as to his talents; and we would fain hope that he is not yet so far gone

in selfconceit, as to shut his eyes upon all the good and kind hints that his betters have thought fit to bestow upon him. Of the second article, it is sufficient to say, that we recognize in it the exquisite literature, and the flowing pen, of the translator of Aristophanes, and that it will probably operate as a complete quietus upon the very inferior scribe whom the Edinburgh Review has been suffering to insult the mapes of Demosthe

The article on French Comedy is, we cannot doubt, the work of Mr Chevenix, since, if there be any other man in England so thoroughly as he is doctus utriusque linguæ, the chances certainly appear infinitesimally small, that that person should also possess the wit and the eloquence, and the strong original conceptions, of this remarkable man. We cannot speak positively as to the author of the paper on Mr Faux's Memorable Days. It is done, like all the Quarterly's papers on such books, with infinite labour and skill; but surely, surely it is rather too much of a joke to treat such a work as this with so much gravity. To affect to consider a stupid, bilious, ignorant, indelicate, gross-minded, and foul-mouthed old fusty of a Zummerzetshire clodhopper, as a person upon whose ipse dixit the whole society and statesmanship of that great country,-ay, that English country, are to be judged and condemned !! This is the solitary effervescence of the old bigot gall of the Quarterly. The papers on Central India and on Bornou, are distinguished by the same merits, and by the total absence of these defects. They are both of them most valuable contributions to the stock of public knowledge, and every way worthy of Mr Barrow.

The Essay on the Ecclesiastical Revenues of England is another production of great labour ; and the conclusions to which it leads are such, that we have been infinitely rejoiced in seeing them established beyond all future cavil. We speak of the conclusions to which this

paper

leads in respect to the Church of England; for, as to the very different, and certainly the more difficult question about the Protestant Church of Ireland, the writer has passed it over altogether for the present; a defect which we would fain see filled up by the same pen on some early occasion. We assure him, in case he has not seen it, that Dr Doyle's letter to Lord Wellesley is the most insidious attack which has ever yet been made against the Protestant establishment of Ireland, and an answer it must have. The reviewer, by the way, does not know so much as he thinks he does of Scotland. It is very true, that the Scotch clergymen are individually paid very little below the average rate among the clergymen of the Church of England ; but the Quarterly author entirely loses sight of the fact, that the Church of Scotland is proportionably the much cheaper establishment of the two, for this reason, and for this alone, that she has proportionably a much smaller number of livings. The proportion between the 10,000 parishes in England, and the 948 parishes in Scotland, is not what we would expect from the comparative amount of population in the two countries. We mention this merely to set the Reviewer right as to a matter of detail. As to the principle of the thing, our opinion is, that the parishes in Scotland are too large and too few; that they ought to be subdivided both in the towns and in the country; and consequently, that the expense of the Church establishment of Scotland ought to be increased, not diminished. It is entirely, or almost entirely, owing to the extent of the parishes, that any dissenters have thriven in Scotland ; for the people quit their own church only when it is too far off for their pedestrian powers, or when they do not like the pulpit eloquence of the parish priest; which last would be very seldom a reason for abandoning The Kirk herself, if the fastidious Presbyterian had twoor three other parish priests not very far off, whose sermons he might choose among without one farthing of cost. It always appears to us, that it must be highly disgusting to pay so much per annum to a dissenting minister, if one could possibly avoid it. The luxury is dearly bought ; and we, for ONE, should always stretch a point to keep ourselves free from its indulgence.

We think we have now particularized all the articles except the very peppery ones on Lord Johnny Russell's tragedy, and M. le Duc de Rovigo. These two Liberals are well dished. His lordship will not, we guess, be in a hurry with any more attempts to trip up the heels of Schiller and Alfieri. Mr Gifford himself has, we think, been the executioner here. The exit of Savary appears to have been accomplished under the auspices of his able ally, Mr Croker. But what, in the name of wonder, does Croker, or whoever the writer is, see in old Talleyrand, to make him gulp the whole of his ante-revolutionary bile the moment that archapostate appears upon the stage? It seems very true, that the ex-bishop stands clear as to the Duke of Enghien's death; but what avails this? Thurtell himself does not seem to have murdered many people, and we are quite sure he did not murder either Johnny Keats or Begbie. As for M. Savary, we conclude the rip is sewed up for ever and a day.

We beg pardon ; we observe that we have overlooked the article on superstition. It is probably Southey's, but the doctor has shone brighter of yore. Somebody has been bamming him a little about Norna : she has been dead more than ten years.

As to the paper on the negroes, we need not interfere with our correspondent, who has so warmly lauded it. Our own opinion is, that the papers we ourselves have published upon this subject, have effectually set things to rest, so far as rational beings are concerned. The pieces of evidence from the private letters of clergymen in the colonies, were, however, well timed; and, altogether, we have no doubt, such a paper as this was wanted for the benefit of certain classes of readers. If, in spite of all that has been done, the clamours of the Macaulay faction are again raised within the walls of Parliament, we have very humbly to submit, that the first and most obvious duty of the House of Commons will be, to insist upon being furnished with data before they go into any decision ; nay, before they listen to one word more of discussion. As to facts, the two parties are completely at issue. Why fight about minute points of law, before the facts of the case to which they must be applied have been ascertained in so far as we have the means of ascertaining them? Why not comply with the petitions which these ill-starred colonists have, it appears, been eternally reiterating during the last two years ? Why not send out, since that is all they ask, some of their enemies themselves to be their judges ? If Mr Brougham goes out, we trust he will shew himself the same good fellow which we all found him here in Scotland last summer ; and if our jolly friend does make the tour of the region of rum and turtle in that temper, we have no doubt the results will be highly beneficial to the country, and highly injurious to the Whigs. But“ paucas palabras," quoth Nym.

C. N.

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