While yesterday, she recognized your presence ARCHAMBOLD. Mature discrimination that discards Knew all the cares which place and circumstance Pleasures of higher relish in her cup. P. 14. One more extract, and we have done. KING. Is it guilt that roots Thy gaze thus to the ground? If chaste the flame, 'Tis innocence in tears, The dove's soft plumage gloss'd with morning dew. Say, has he lured thy love with madrigals? BLANCHE. Alas! it crept unheeded on my soul, And twined the gentle chain in childhood there; And, if that heart fail not, the strength is his, Its task has sweetness, for 'twas he that taught. P. 60. Upon the whole we have found entertainment and interest also, in despite of the predictions of his friends, in this effort of Mr. Streatfield's muse. It is a fair and pleasing specimen of a cultivated mind, employing its leisure moments in literary amusement, a taste which we hope to see daily increasing in all our professions, but particularly in that profession of which our author is a respected member. With this feeling we take a leave of the book, and trust our readers will find the same amusement as ourselves from its perusal. We can assure Mr. Streatfield that, if, with some blemishes corrected, and some slight particularities removed, he ventures forth in an improved and loftier strain, we shall look with pleasure for his re-appearance. ART. IX. Considerations on the Abolition of Negro Slavery, and the Means of practically Effecting it. By J. F. Barham, Esq. Second Edition. 8vo. pp. 94. Ridgway. London. 1823. THE Author of this Pamphlet has long been known as a distinguished Member of the Opposition, but his opinions on Colonial Affairs, are generally regarded as those of a shrewd and practical man, whose personal interests have led him deeply to investigate all the questions of our West Indian policy. He has lately retired from Parliament, but the influence of his name will give much weight to his sentiments on this subject: accordingly we shall endeavour to lay before our readers the general substance of his pamphlet, together with such extracts as seem particularly to merit their attention. Mr. B. sets out with assuming a point which will be universally conceded, viz. "That the nation, as with one voice, has called for the Aboltion of Slavery in our Colonies; and that the government has accepted this call (which amounts, as he afterwards states it, to this requisition), that the most energetic measures shall be forthwith employed to bring the slaves into that state in which freedom may be granted to them with benefit and safety." P. 2. He thus states what is their present condition. "That in physical respects it has much improved, and little is left to do; but that in moral respects their condition is not materially changed, and that at the present rate of improvement, generations must pass away before freedom could be safely or beneficially imparted to the slaves." P. 3. He afterwards proceeds to shew, that it is not in the power of the local authorities materially to accelerate such improvement, and that it cannot be effected by partial enfranchisements, "because the Negro Slave, when he is enfranchised, does not pass into the condition of a free community, but forms a class of his own, and that the most wretched class of the whole population." P. 7. He next asserts, "that the project of declaring all children free who shall be born after a certain time, would bring the most certain ruin to the colonies; because that ruin would inevi tably arrive whenever such children had arrived at maturity." P. 8. His conclusion is this, "that it is not by emancipating slaves, but by emancipating slavery, by extracting from the condition of slavery all its ingredients, that we must effectuate their future liberation." To bring about this important purpose, he proposes that "the nation should at once assume to itself all colonial property, and make moderate but just compensation to the proprietors for the whole." This project he recommends by many just and plausible arguments, by the general equity of the case as sharing profit and loss equally amongst all, by doing away with many local difficulties, and with many unnecessary expences which are now incidental to the management of estates, &c. But with all our respect for this author, we consider this plan, if not absolutely impracticable, yet never likely to be adopted, and utterly repugnant to the general feelings and wishes of the nation. We shall pass on therefore to consider those parts of his pamphlet which are of certain and practical utility. In this view we are sure that our readers will thank us for inserting the following historical facts "respecting the origin and continuance of the Slave Trade; and the right of compensation which here arises to the proprietors for any loss which may ensue from the abolition of slavery in our colonies." "Great Britain established the Slave Trade in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who personally took a share in it. "Great Britain encouraged it in the successive reigns of Charles I. Charles II. and James II. by every means that could be devised. But it was William III. who outdid them all. With Lord Somers for his minister, he declared the Slave Trade to "The Colonies did not then exist. "The Colonists, all this time, took no share in it themselves, merely purchasing what the British merchants brought them ; and doing therein what the British government invited them to do, by every means in their power. be highly beneficial to the nation; and that this was not meant merely as beneficial to the nation through the medium of the Colonial prosperity, is demonstrated by the Assiento Treaty, in 1713, with which the Colonies had nothing to do; and in which Great Britain binds herself to supply 144,000 slaves, at the rate of 4,800 per annum, to the Spanish Colonies. From that time, till within a few years of the present time, our history is full of the various measures and grants, which passed for the encouragement and protection of the trade. "So much as to those who created and fostered the trade; and now let us see, who it was that first marked it with disapprobation, and sought to confine it within narrower bounds. "The Colonies began in 1760. South Carolina (then a British colony) passed an act to prohibit further importation; but "The Colonies, however, in 1765, repeated the offence; and a bill was twice read in the assembly of Jamaica, for the same purpose of limiting the importation of slaves; when "The Colonies, in 1774, tried once more; and the assembly of Jamaica actually passed "Great Britain rejected this act with indignation, and declared, that the Slave Trade was beneficial and necessary to the mother country. The governor, who passed it, was reprimanded; and a circular was sent to all other governors, warning them against a similar offence. "Great Britain stopped it, through the governor of that island, who sent for the assembly, and told them, that, consistently with his instructions, he could not give his assent: upon which the bill was dropped. "Great Britain again resisted the restriction. Bristol and Liverpool * petitioned "The conduct of this town, with regard to the slave trade and slavery, is too curious to pass without remark. Within a very few years of the present time, Liverpool was the great slave trader of all. Liverpool invented and clung to all the enormities of the middle passage. Liverpool defended the trade to the last After the above expression of our opinions, it is almost needless to say, that we rest our hopes of the gradual improvement and final emancipation of the negroes on other grounds than those of general and sudden transfer of colonial property. Doubtless there are great difficulties to surmount and many dangers to encounter; but with a steady eye kept on the moral and religious improvement of the whole population, we see no reasons for absolute despair. In all such changes much must be left to the chapter of accidents; or, as we should choose rather to express it, to the dispensations of Providence; but we look forward with some confidence to the cheering prospect of soon beholding a regular Ecclesiastical Establishment provided for our West Indian Colonies; and we are much gratified, that such a man as Mr. Barham, should have turned his attention to the same subject. It is with these feelings, that we think it our duty to transfer to our pages his "Calculations of the expence of a Church Establishment, and Schools for the Negro Slaves." moment, not as a necessary evil, but as a good thing in itself. The sense of the nation, however, prevailed, and the trade was abolished. Still Liverpool would not give up the topic of slavery, and its voice is still heard more than any other on that subject; but (oh the miracle!) it has suddenly changed sides, and the ultra advocate of the slave trade has become the ultra declaimer against slavery! How is this to be accounted for? Self-interest is pretty generally worshipped, but seldom in so public a way. But something still more extraordinary has been reserved for this most mercantile town.. It has not only changed sides diametrically within a very few years on this subject, but it is able at this moment to view the same thing in both ways at once. An ingenious merchant of that place has invented a glass, by which, if directed to the West, slavery is seen as a monster of such frightful magnitude, that, in order to destroy it instantly, you ought to destroy all your colonies; but which same glass, if directed to the East, shows the same slavery in a form perfectly diminutive and inoffensive." |