No farther proceeding took place relative to the subject until Mr. Barham, from the procrastination we had experienced, signified his intention of bringing the subject at once before Parliament; and in the House of Conmons on the 4th of April 1811, moved "That a Committee be appointed to consider the practicability and expediency of supplying our Colonies with Free-labourers from the East Indies, and to report their opinions to the House;" which passing nemine contradicente,the substance of the Report, dated June 12, 1811, was, 66 They (the Committee *) see no reason to suppose that the Chinese might not be inclined to extend their emigrations to the West Indies, either directly from China, or from other countries where they have already established themselves: and your Committee are fully impressed with the important advantages which might, under proper arrangements, be expected to result to those Islands, from the introduction of a class of Free people, so distinguished by their orderly and industrious habits." However, as Mr. Barham had been thwarted in his endea

Yours, and his then object of having the transaction recorded in Parliament was answered, the Report has remained upon the shelf ever since.

Pending the transaction with Mr. Windham, the Writer saw a paragraph in a Newspaper, saying, "That a ship had been engaged by the East India Company, to carry Chinese settlers from Calcutta to Trinidad with a cargo of piece goods;" but, as it was not to be supposed that his Majesty's Ministers, or even the East India Company, would engage in so illicit a concern, and Calcutta appeared an extraordinary place to import Chinese from, the Writer, in consequence of what had been declared by Lord Buckinghamshire and Mr. Sullivan, paid no attention to the subject, until informed of the arrival of the ship and cargo by Mr. Windham, who reprobated the proceeding as a job he should be ashamed to have had any thing to do with; but very handsomely and

* Composed of the Right hon. Sir J. Sinclair, Bart.(then President of the Board of Agriculture); Right hons. G. Canning, G. Rose, R. Peele, F. Robinson; Sir J. C. Hippisley, bart.; Messrs. Whitbread, Barham, Wilberforce, Babington, C. Ellis, W.Smith, Goulburn, Huskisson, &c.

considerately recommended the Writer to bring forward proofs as to his baving suggested the original Plan.

On taking leave of Mr. Windham, as the Writer relied on the honour of Lord Buckinghamshire, he first addressed his Lordship as follows:

"MY LORD,

Aug. 10, 1806.

"I beg leave to call to your Lordship's recollection, that, in the month of July 1802, 1 had the honour (through the medium of Mr. Vansittart) of submitting to your Lordship, as one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, some Hints I had digested for cultivating the Island of Trinidad by means of Chinese; of which your Lordship was pleased to approve; and directed me to explain in writing how the measure could be carried into effect, which I fully described; and the whole Plan was transferred to the Commissioners forTrinidad, that it might have the support of an Official Report.— This subject has since engaged a considerable portion of my attention; and I lately suggested to the present Members of his Majesty's Government a more extensive plan, upon a similar principle, for the cultivation and improvement of the whole of the British West India islands; which project his Majesty's Ministers were pleased to consider as deserv

ing of consideration. After all the labour and anxiety I have bestowed upon this object, which has ever appeared to me of the greatest National importance, I confess it surprised me very much to hear that a Ship was engaged in India to convey Chinese Settlers to Trinidad; and I was excessively mortified to have it doubted, from that circumstance, whether the idea was originally mine, because the measure had been acted upon by Members of his Majesty's Administration in 1803.-If merit can be ascribed to any plan which I may have submitted to your Lordship, I trust your Lordship will, in justice, not be backward in allowing it to

me in its fullest extent. I therefore take the liberty of requesting your Lordship to inform me whether the Plan for cul

tivating Trinidad by Chinese was not first suggested by me.-With many apologies for this intrusion, I beg leave to subscribe myself, Yours, &c. W. LAYMAN. Earl of Buckinghamshire."

To which I received the following

any communication to him, a private agent, of the name of M'Queen, was sent to Prince of Wales's Island, with orders founded upon those suggestions, for the procuring a nu ber of Chinese cultivators, and sending them to Trinidad: the person enployed, it seems, remained at Prince of Wales's Island.- But by means of a Portuguese agent at Macao, a number of Lazzaroni-men(without a single female) were procured from thence, having nothing of Chinese about them but the name, and obtained from the diseased and profligate refuse of the indolent and degraded population of a provincial Portuguese sea-port town, unaccustomed to the habits of their industrious countrymen, and total strangers to the qualifications requisite for their future employments in the West Indies. These people were conveyed from Macao to Prince of Wales's Island in a Portuguese vessel, and from thence were sent to Bengal, where they were obliged to remain till they were cured of the leprosy and other diseases which they had contracted, and from thence were embarked on the third voyage (which is a strong proof that distance and even a number of embarkations were no obstacle to them) in the Fortitude, a ship freighted for 7500/.*, to carry them, with a contraband cargo of piece goods, to Trinidad, where the ship and cargo were seized by our cruizers on that station. On the landing of these people, no pre-concerted plan having been arranged by Government for their establishment and employment, instead of being settled together, so as to form one Colony (which, in consequence of their being without women, was scarcely practicable ) they were hawked and distributed about to

various Planters, who were to engage to pay them at the rate of six dollars per month (exclusive of provisions) without any inducement or excitement to industry by making their remuneration depend upon the produce of their labour. Thus, not united in one community, total strangers in a foreign land, without females, and consequently without any domestic establishments-freed from every restrait to which they might before have been accustomed as to their moral and civil conduct, and not only without any excitement to industry, but with every inducement to idleness and dissipation, it would have been little short of miraculous, if men, even the most judiciously selected for their necessary habits and qualifications, had not, under these circumstances, disappointed the hopes which might have been formed of them. Still more wonderful would it have been, if the people above described, under such circumstances, had not given occasion to the Planters, already deeply prejudiced in favour of the Slave system, to condemn the experi ment, and to judge of the Chinese character from this ill-selected and illmanaged assortment ‡

It is most anxiously to be hoped that this premature and abortive attempt will have no other effect upon the Government, and intelligent and respectable West India Proprietors, than to operate as a caution against committing those errors, which must obviously tend to render every effort towards the attainment of so desirable an object unsuccessful: and that those, who are most interested in the question, may not be discouraged by trifling considerations from pursuing a plan which promises such very material benefits. W. LAYMAN.

1

"The following Ode was written soon after Napoleon's precipitate return from his Russian campaign. That repulse, which no lapse of time will obliterate from the annals of the world, made him a desperate calculator.-The adversity of depraved Ambition has no passive courage in its gift.-Such a Tyrant,—with all his talents,-when Fortune bad begun to disown him, and self-disarmed by the fever of his passions, was not likely to be a match for the liberties of Europe, in battle-array against him.-It was the patriot valour, and the devoted enthusiasm, of the Russian Chiefs, animated by their Sovereign, that called that host into the field. But no vision of hope, when this Ode was written, could have reached the day-spring from on high,' which bas illuminated every scene around us.-No solitary Muse could have anticipated 'the signs and wonders' which à miracle of the Arm unseen has interposed; -an Arm, which has accomplished, in a few little months,' a deliverance of nations, too signal to have been the work of man alone. Amongst the secondary causes, however, to which these blessings may be ascribed, and with no invidious comparisons in the dubia Cena' of that feast which public virtue has laid before us, where is now the citizen of the human race, who can with-hold the allegiance of his heart from Alexander-the inspired Suvereign of the Russian Chiefs?-This heaven-born Hero is of the most elevated character that heroism ever has reached. He has made victory the angel of peace, and power a sacrifice to liberty --has aptivated enemies, by the charm of GENT. MAG. July, 1814.

his deportment, and has moralized the world by the example of his virtues.— May his pre-eminent figure in this aweful change and may the new style of his victories, be ever consecrated in the memory of Kings,-of Nations,—and of Men!"

The classical and very appropriate Notes on "The Russian Chiefs" are considerably enlarged; and one of them is so congenial to our own sentiments, that we cannot pass it over.

"I should think," says the respectable Judge, "I had not written this fugitive Poem in vain, if it could induce me to circulate the enthusiasm, which I felt in admiring the deep, and the sound, as well as brilliant illustration of Liberty in Mr. Canning's address to his constituents at Liverpool. He has elevated the character of that natural sen

timent, without which, life is an oppression, by redeeming it from the contracted view of it which modern patriots have entertained. He gives it, and with philosophical accuracy, a dignified controul over all shades of difference in the municipal constitutions of Government. It is in the words of Cicero (his model lex; non alia Rome, alia Athenis.'—If in eloquence)- Non scripta, sed nata call it the genuine charter of the mind I had the courage to define it, I would against all oppression."

2. The Words of the most Favourite Pieces performed at the Glee Club, the Catch Club, and other Public Societies. Compiled by Richard Clark, (late of St. George's Free Chapel, Windsor), Deputy at the Three Choirs in London, and Secretary to the Glee Club. 8vo. pp. lvi. and 436. Printed for the Editor; and sold by all the Booksellers.

THE Musical World, and the Publick in general, are much indebted to Mr. Clark, for the skill and assi duity displayed in this elegant Collection; and for the intelligent and modest Preface by which it is introduced. Should the Work," he says, "reach another Edition, he hopes to avail himself of the corrections of his friends, and to render it still more acceptable."-That it will speedily reach another Edition, we have little doubt; and we hope that the assistance so respectfully solicited will be fully and candidly imparted.

"Difference

"Difference of opinion having prevailed in the musical world respecting the composition of the popular air, and words, of God save the King: some account of both may not be uninteresting. Such as strikes the Editor as worthy of consideration is submitted, and in the language of George Saville Carey, by whom it is given, in vindieation of his father, for whom he claims the honour of this national song, and to which, it would seem, that he is justly entitled. 'Henry Carey was the natural son of George Saville, Marquis of Halifax, from whom, and from his family, he received a handsome annuity to the time of his death. It is said there were private reasons why he did not retain the name of Saville himself, though he annexed it to the Christian names of all the male part of his own family. He was a musician by profession, and one of the lower order of poets. His first preceptor in music was Olaüs Westeinson Linnet, a German; he received further instructions from Roseingrave; and, last ly, was in some sort a disciple of Geminiani. Being but slenderly accomplished in his art, his chief employment was teaching at Boarding-schools, and among people of middling rank in private families. Though he had but little skill in music, he had a prolific invention; and very early in his life distinguished himself by the composition of songs, being the author both of the words and the music. One of these, beginning with Of all the girls that are so smart,' is said to have pleased Mr. Addison so much, that he more than once vouchsafed to commend it. But the most successful effort in his art was the celebrated popular song of God save great George our King' of which both the words and melody were by him; the bass being the composition of Mr. John Smith. This was intended as part of a birth-day ode. He was also the principal projector of the fund for decayed musicians, their widows, and children. In a fit of despair, he laid violent hands upon himselt, on the 4th of October, 1744, at his house in Warner Street, Coldbath-fields; and, by

means of a halter, put a period to a life which had been led without reproach, being upwards of eighty years of age. As a musician (Sir John Hawkins observes) Carey seems to have been of the first of the lowest rank; and as a poet, the last of that class of which D'Urfey was the first +.' Henry Carey composed the popular song God save great George our King;' but, although he had much genius for music, he was ignorant of the rules of composition, and applied to Smith to adapt or alter the bass to the air. As it has been whispered abroad, nay, even given in print, that an annuity of two hundred pounds per annum had been bestowed on me, in consequence of my father being the author of God save great George our King,' I think it a duty incumbent on me to acquaint the world, that no such consideration has ever yet transpired; yet I must beg that my readers will give me leave to introduce a few lines on this subject. In spite of all literary cavil and conjectural assertions, there has not yet appeared one identity to invalidate the truth of my father's being the author of the above important song; some have given the music to Handel, others to Purcell; some have signified that it was produced in the time of Charles I.; others in that of James I.; and some, in their slumbers, have dreamed that it made its appearance in the reign of Henry VIII. It might as well have been carried still further back, to the reign of Saul, or that of Solomon, the son of David. I have heard the late Mr. Pearce Galliard, an able counsellor in the law, and a colleague of my father, who died some years ago at Southampton, assert, time after time, that my father was the author of God save the King;' that it was produced in the year forty-five and six. Another friend presented it to me in its original state, bound up with a collection of songs for two and three voices, set to music by Mr. Handel, Dr. Blow, Mr. Leveridge, Dr. Greene, Mr. Eccles, Mr. Lampe, Daniel Purcell, Mr. Corfe, and Henry Carey; first printed in the year 1750, for Julia Johnson, op

by the Rev. Mr. Archdeacon Coxe.