horrors, thus receding from our view, and only tantalizing our anticipations, on the 15th of May, 1823, Mr. T. Fowell Buxton introduced the subject into the House of Commons; he detailed the miseries consequent upon the enslaved condition of the negroes in our West India Colonies, but was induced to withdraw his motion, which went to condemn slavery, as contrary to the principles of the British Constitution, by Mr. Secretary Canning, who said, on behalf of himself and his colleagues, that he was not required to contradict the statement of the honourable gentleman, because he felt that slavery was contrary to the British Constitution; and after enumerating some of the measures he proposed in favour of the slave population, Mr. Canning moved the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

"1st. That it is expedient to adopt effectual and decisive measures for meliorating the condition of the slave population in his Majesty's dominions:

"2d. That, through a determined and persevering, but judicious and temperate, enforcement of such measures, this House looks forward to a progressive improvement in the character of the slave population; such as may prepare them for a participation in those civil rights and privileges which are enjoyed by other classes of his Majesty's subjects.

"3d. That this House is anxious for the accomplishment of this purpose at the earliest period that may be compatible with the well-being of the slaves, the safety of the colonies, and with a fair and equitable consideration of the interests of private property.

"4th. That these resolutions be laid before his Majesty."

These resolutions were subsequently adopted with the same unanimity by the House of Lords.

In consequence of this measure on the part of the House of Commons, his Majesty's government immediately proposed to introduce into our slave colonies the following reforms :

To provide the means of religious instruction and Christian education for the slave population.

To put an end to markets and to labour

on the Sunday, and to appropriate that day entirely to rest and recreation, and to religious worship and instruction; and instead of Sunday, to allow them equivalent time on other days for the cultivation of their provision-grounds.

To admit the testimony of slaves in the courts of justice.

To legalize the marriages of slaves, and to protect them in the enjoyment of their connubial rights.

To protect the slaves by law in the acquisition and possession of property, and in its transmission by bequest or otherwise.

To remove all the existing obstructions to manumission, and to grant to the slave the power of redeeming himself and his wife and children at a fair price.

To prevent the separation of families by sale or otherwise.

To prevent the seizure and sale of slaves detached from the estate or plantation to which they belong. To restrain generally the power, and

to prevent the abuse, of arbitrary punishment at the will of the master. To abolish the degrading corporal punishment of females.

To abolish the use of the driving-whip

in the field, either as an emblem of authority, or as a stimulus to labour. To establish savings' banks for the use of the slaves.-Pp. 21-23.

Mr. Godwin, whose "Lectures on British Colonial Slavery," is one of the works at the head of this article, and which we strongly recommend to our readers, on the above resolutions says,

These, then, were the measures of amelioration proposed by government, and with the professed concurrence of the West-India body themselves who were resident in England. And what point of been alleged of this system, is not here oppression, or of degradation, which has either admitted or implied? Does not the application of a remedy involve the admission of an evil? If, therefore, in charging these evils on the system its administrators conceived themselves to be libelled, they were libelled by the British parliament, by the government, by their own patrons and supporters.-P. 23.

But there are evils in the system of slavery which none of these pro

posed reforms would have reached had they been faithfully carried into effect; the forced labour of the predial slave on the sugar plantations, and his short allowance of food. Mr. Stephen's second volume on "The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated," which is "a delineation of the State in point of Practice," limits his practical view of it to these two points, excessive labour, and inadequate sustenance. In Barclay's work against Stephen, it is maintained that the slave is not only always well fed, but raises a superfluity of provisions to take to market for sale. We have examined the different statements of these two writers on this point. The authorities whence Mr. Stephen draws his statement in his first volume, are West Indian writers, Colonial petitions and acts. Two of these petitions are from Jamaica itself. To Mr. Stephen's statement, supported by these authorities, Mr. Barclay opposes only his own dictum, his own asseveration to the contrary. Why does Mr. Barclay shrink from any notice of these West Indian authorities? Why does he write as though no such evidence had been adduced by Mr. Stephen? Is this fair? Is it honest? Instead of charging Mr. Stephen with indulging in "ignorant and false assumptions," let him prefer this accusation against the Assembly of Jamaica, for having, in a petition presented to the Prince Regent, of the 10th of December, 1811, said, "From the impossibility of giving the several comforts to their labourers, all are exposed to the effects of the convulsions unknown to societies differently constituted. It is enough for us to allude to them without opening up their horrors." Again, in the same petition, "The crop is gathering in, but its exuberance excites 'no sensation of pleasure; the proprietor sickens at the additional labour of his people whilst he is unable to give them the usual remuneration for their toil."

It is to save our landholders and capitalists from ruin, and our labourers from absolute want, that we solicit the interposition of our sovereign. When these gloomy apprehensions are realised, it is to be feared that the numerous dependants of the British inhabitants of the West India islands will not be persuaded that their masters are innocent of their miseries, and their rage and despair may involve our country in anarchy and blood.Stephen's Slavery of the West Indian Colonies Delineated, Vol. I. p. 89 to 91.

Against these petitions of the Assembly of Jamaica, and not against Mr. Stephen, Mr. Barclay should have preferred his charges of “ignorant and false assumption against the general council and assembly of all the Leeward Islands, who in their meliorating act say:

or

And whereas many persons have often been prevented from supplying their slaves with sufficient food and clothing, by the encumbered state of their property; their plantations and slaves being sometimes charged with mortgages or other incumbrances to so great an amount, as upon a levy and sale thereof to leave no surplus or fund for the satisfaction of debts due

for provisions, or for clothing furnished for the necessary subsistence of their slaves; and merchants have therefore been discouraged from selling provisions or clothing to persons in doubtful or embarrassed circumstances, to the very great distress and danger of the slaves, and also to the manifest prejudice of mortgagees, or other creditors, whose securities may either wholly, or in a very great measure, depend upon the lives or good condition of such slaves. Be it therefore enacted, &c."-Stephen, Vol. I. p. 92. See also Vol. II. pp. 249, 250.

And when Mr. Barclay professes to cite from Mr. Stephen's work, his extracts are so mutilated and divested of their context, that his remarks on them are any thing but an answer to the arguments of his opponent. Of this gross violation of all the rules of legitimate controversy Mr. Stephen justly complains in his second volume, which is now

field at the appointed time, or the short performance of a solitary task; and that these delinquencies are much more often the effects of fatigue and inanition than any other cause, I shall abundantly prove out of the mouths of the planters themselves-Stephen, Vol. II. pp. 4, 5.

We are much indebted to Mr. Stephen for the light his second volume has thrown upon the incurable evils of the West India system of slavery. We said, that if the resolutions of 1823 had been carried into effect, they would have but little, if at all, alleviated what Mr. Stephen calls the "economical branches of oppression;" but have these resolutions been carried into effect? We were not disappointed at the result of their being left to the colonial legislatures to be carried into execution; our only hope rested on the pledge given by Mr. Canning, "that any resistance on the part of the colonial legislatures, which should partake of the appearance of would cercontumacy, tainly make out a case which would bring his Majesty's ministers again into Parliament, to consider what further proceedings they would counsel for the adoption of the crown.' It is well known that the chartered colonies have done nothing effective; that some of them have showed contumacy, if not sedition, in their opposition to the resolutions of government. In 1826, the subject was brought before the House of Commons by Mr. Buxton (he had previously made some ineffectual attempts), and though Mr. Canning could not deny that his resolutions and orders in council had been treated with contumacy, all that he proposed, and all that was then done, was to communicate the resolutions of 1823 to the House of Lords, and to request the concurrence of their Lordships. About the same period, two motions, that were brought forward with reference to the colonies, the first by Mr. Denman, the second in the House of Peers, by Lord Suffield, proved by their failure that no measures, which looked towards the

final abolition of slavery, would meet with the support of that administration which had, through Mr. Canning, introduced the resolutions of May 15, 1823. Finally, in July 13, 1830, Mr. Brougham moved in the House of Commons,

"That this House will, at the earliest practicable period of the next session, proceed to take into their most serious consideration the state of the slaves in the British colonies, with the view of mitigating and finally abolishing it, and more especially with the view of amending the administration of justice in the

said colonies."

Mr. W. Horton said, that he should take this opportunity of moving certain resolutions, not with the expectation that they would be agreed to by the house, but with the view simply of putting them upon record. The right hon. gentleman then moved the following resolutions:

"1. That the resolutions of this house of the 15th of May, 1823, distinctly contemplated, on the one hand, the ultimate participation by the slaves in his Majesty's colonies, in those civil rights and privileges enjoyed by other classes of his Majesty's subjects,' and, on the other, the accomplishment of that purpose, subject of the interests of private property.' to the fair and equitable consideration

"2. That the changes of law which have been deemed by parliament the most equitable and expedient for the accomplishment of these two distinct pledges, are to be found in the various orders in council, which have been issued in the ceded colonies, and which have been successively laid on the table of the

house.

"3. That it appears to this house that the only part of that new system of law which has met with serious remonstrance and protest, in consequence of its tendency being presumed to prejudice the equitable interests of private property,

'has been those enactments' which in the first instance introduced the principle of what has been called 'compulsory manumission.'

"4. That it is the opinion of this house, that as long as the money-price received by the master for a manumitted slave shall enable him to purchase a slave of equivalent value, no injury can accrue from the abstraction of such slave, beyond that character of injury, which is at all times inseparable from a forced commutation of property, though attended with the fairest principle of compensation.

"5. That it is the opinion of this house, that the clauses introduced into the order of council of the 2d of February, 1830, do secure an equitable principle of manumission, as far as it is possible to carry such a principle into effect by legislative enactments.

"6. That this house is at the same time of opinion, that the classes in that order of council, which prohibit absolutely all contribution from private individuals or corporate bodies, towards the manumission of a slave, require essential modification.

"7. That this house fully appreciates the degree of caution with which it is necessary to legislate, in all matters affecting the equitable interests of property, to the conservation of which this house is pledged; and that it will direct its unceasing attention to the cause and effect of this change of legislation in the ceded colonies, for the purpose of satisfying, in the fullest sense, the distinct and difficult pledges of parliament, above cited from the resolutions of 1823, which resolutions equally contemplated the interests of the master, and the well-being of the slave.

"8. That the change of law in the ceded colonies being now fully and satisfactorily accomplished, with the exception above-mentioned, this house is entirely prepared to expect, that the legislative colonies will voluntarily and completely incorporate into their respective codes of law, at the earliest possible period, those ameliorations in the laws affecting the slave population, which are now in complete operation in the ceded colonies, and which may not hitherto have been adopted by the colonial legislatures."

Sir R. Peel said, the most effectual course would be to endeavour to bring about a kindly feeling between the black and white population in the colonies, by inducing the latter to acts of conciliation to the former. There were objections to the motion which weighed with him. He objected to the terms of the motion, as pledging the next parliament to a particular course, which it might not be able

VOL. VIII. NEW SERIES.

to redeem. The motion was, that they should so ameliorate the condition of the slaves, as to lead to the final abolition of slavery. Now, he was not prepared to give any such pledge until he saw the means by which the final abolition could be brought about. Another objection was, that the hon. and learned member's motion was wholly silent as to the question of compensation; but he would ask, would it not be most unfair to the unfortunate possessor of slaves, to talk of emancipation, without at the same time including a compensation to the slave owner? He admitted that if he were to argue with the slave, and he asked by what title he held him, it would be difficult to give a satisfactory answer; but talking there, in the House of Commons, it was different, and looking at the mode in which the present owners of slaves had acquired a property in them, we should consider that a claim to compensation was as much founded in justice as the claim for any other kind of property. It would be a monstrous injustice to oblige the present holders of slaves to wipe out the injustice of the original purchase by the sacrifice of their whole property, to which purchase, or capture, they were no more parties than any other subjects of the empire. The house should also, before it pledged itself to any measure leading to emancipation, consider what would be the condition of the slaves themselves when emancipated, and whether it would be a benefit to them if done at once.- - Mr. Brougham and Mr. W. Horton severally replied, and the house then divided-For the motion, 27; against it, 56. Majority against it, 29.

Sir Robert Peel

says,

he is not pre

pared to give a pledge so to "ameliorate the condition of the slaves, as to lead to the final abolition of slavery." Now we challenge Sir Robert Peel to define the difference between Mr.

Brougham's motion and the resolutions that were brought forward by himself and his colleagues in 1823, which proposed the adoption of such "effectual and decisive measures for ameliorating the condition of the slave population, as will prepare them for the enjoyment of all rights and privileges which are open to other classes of his Majesty's subjects." He will scarcely be so hardy as to

I