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and their compulsory labour, colonial land ceased to be of value. If the public interest, therefore, or public opinion, required that these securities should be forfeited, then, in this, as in every other case of private property being taken for the use of the public, indemnity was required both by justice and by the practice of the constitution. The fears thus entertained had evidently no foundation in the measures of government for mitigating the evils of slavery; but their existence proved what apprehensions were excited by the unceasing knocking of the ardent abolitionists at the door of the cabinet. A last, and a more formal, attempt to induce government to abandon its own more moderate and cautious plan, and speak to the colonial legislatures in the voice of unbending authority, was made just before the close of the session by Mr. Brougham, who moved (May 19) a resolution, "That the House has observed, with extreme regret, that nothing has been effected by the colonial legislature, in compliance with the declared wishes of government, and the resolutions of the House of the 15th of May, 1823, for ameliorating the condition of the slaves in the West-Indian Colonies; and that this House, therefore, pledges itself, early in the next session of parliament, to take into its most serious consideration such measures as may be calculated to carry into effect the recommendation of the government and the House."

In the speech, full of detail, with which the motion was introduced, after passing over with approbation the provisions of the order in council, which had been carried into effect in the colonies having no particular legislatures,

and in which he found little that was objectionable compared with the great good which it was well fitted to effect, he proceeded to the conduct of the colonies which had legislatures of their own. These were thirteen in number; and, he would examine, from the representations of the colonial bodies themselves, what had been effected by them in furtherance of the views of government, and in conformity with the resolutions of the House. In six of them, nothing had been done, namely, Antigua, the Bermudas, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitt's, and Tortola, including also, in this enumeration, the Vir gin Islands.

In these colonies there were not fewer than 80,000 slaves; and the only information on the subject of these colonies was contained in a letter from governor. Maxwell of St. Kitt's, who stated that the important measure of the amelioration of the condition of the slaves, as recommended by the government here, had been referred to a committee of the two legislatures of St. Kitt's and its dependencies, but that he regretted to say no progress had been made. Next in order was Jamaica, a most important colony, in which, from its population of 340,000 souls, from the large body of whites, and the great number of free people of colour it contained, and from the influence and advantages it possessed in other respects, might have complied more easily than any other with the wishes of parliament and the country; yet, here also, literally nothing had been done. Out of nine injunctions, five had been entirely overlooked, namely, those regarding religion, marriage, separation of the slaves on the same plantation, separation of members of the same slave

family, and the regulations respecting punishment. But an act had been passed to protect slaves from being taken for the debts of their masters, on Saturdays as well as on Sundays. The first bill introduced in Jamaica, respected the admission of slave-evidence under certain restrictions. The bill, which had been brought in for this purpose, fenced about with limitations, which rendered the law perfectly harmless, had been rejected by the almost unanimous voice of the House of Assembly, the mover alone voting for it. Afterwards the same bill was submitted to a committee; and, every thing having been done to conciliate local prejudices in the amendment of it, it was again rejected by a majority of about two to one, many who voted for it declaring that they should, at a subsequent stage, vote against it. Now, what was the nature of this measure? It was to admit slave-evidence, upon a certificate of approval given from the person who had had the management of the identical slave who was to give evidence, for the space of three years. Yet thus attenuated, frustrated, and nullified, the recommendation of the order in council was rejected by the Assembly. Although the evidence of the slave was to be confined to matters of murder, treason, and mayhem, the clamour out of doors was so great as to deter the Colonial Assembly. The duke of Manchester thus expressed himself "The clamour out of doors, and the resolutions of parochial meetings, so strongly expressed the public feeling, that many members yielded their better judgment." Next in importance to Jamaica, stood Barbadoes, containing seventy-nine or eighty thousand

slaves. The nine propositions sent out for the adoption of the colonists had been rendered perfectly nugatory: he might justly speak of the answers to all of them as evils. It was true that on the 18th of September, 1825, an act was passed containing many important provisions on all these several heads; but when these provisions were compared with previous acts, it would be found, that some of them would not prove of the slightest advantage to the slaves; that many of them were verbally copied from previous enactments that many of them made worse what was already bad, and, where they differed from the earlier legislation, it was, in most cases, to the disadvantage of the negro. It was provided by the act of 1825, that if any slave should give information concerning any other slave being implicated in any insurrection, conspiracy or rebellion, so as to procure conviction, the informer should be made free by his price being paid to his master, and be granted a pension of ten pounds a-year. In another case, provided for in the same act, the informer was to have a pension of five and twenty pounds a-year. This was a premium held out for the increase of pretended' plots, conspiracies, and rebellions. Now here was this provision shown up as a novelty in the year 1825, while an act passed in the year 1688 contained the self-same provision, or rather, the same provision in a less detestable form, for that fixed the pension neither at 10. nor 25l., but at 40s. In the same manner, every provision of the new act had been anticipated in seven or eight measures of the last century, excepting those now introduced, which went to make

the situation of the slave worse than it had been before. By an old act, punishment was provided for any slave who "should use any insolent language, or gesture to any white or free person." The new act had made it, "to or of any white or free person." He could understand what was meant and intended by insolent language addressed to a person, by a still further stretch; an insolent gesture to, and in the presence of, the party might be comprehended; but an insolent gesture of and concerning an absent man, was, to say the least of it, vague and arbitrary in the extreme. A slave, convicted of this strangely-described offence, remained entirely at the mercy and discretion of a single justice, by whose decision he might be punished to the extent of nine and thirty stripes. By this little interpolation a punishment of a most severe character was incurred. Another new enactment provided, that if any slave should hear any words tending to mutiny, and not immediately disclose and discover the same, &c. &c.

"Words tending to mutiny !" How could a slave judge of words tending to mutiny?not whether they were seditious, not whether they were treasonable, but whether or not they tended, directly or indirectly, to make the other slaves mutiny ;not whether the words constituted in themselves a mutiny, but whether they had that tendency. What was the punishment provided for the crime of hearing these words of mutinous tendency, -was it five and twenty, or nine and thirty stripes? No; it was death. On the subjects of property, mutilation, cruelty, punishment, and hanging instruments of torture round the necks of slaves,

it appeared from the documents that every pretended improvement, and every provision of importance in this boasted law of Barbadoes was to be found in the old, as well as in the more recent enactments. Even in regard to the flogging of females, the only alteration made was, that females should not be flogged publicly, under a penalty of 107.

The islands of Grenada, Demerara, and St. Vincent's, Mr. Brougham continued, were to have done most, as being the best circumstanced; but he thought that nothing deserving the name of improvement had been introduced into any one of them, either as to the admissibility of slave-evidence, or the regulation of punishment, or the right of property. The instance of the Island of St. Vincent's had been mainly relied on, and it was urged, that there slaveevidence was admitted, and the practice of driving put down. With respect to evidence, there were no fewer than six points of essential difference between the act of St. Vincent's and the Trinidad order in council. The first was, that the evidence was only admissible in cases of murder, maiming, cruelty, or such felony as would subject the accused, if convicted, to the punishment of transportation. The second difference consisted in this, that the witness must be provided with a certificate from a clergyman. The third was, that he must obtain a certificate from his proprietor, overseer, or manager, as well as from the clergyman, so that, unless the owner or his attorney chose, the evidence of the slave could not be admitted. And what was the kind of certificate required? Not only that the slave was acquainted with, and under

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stood the nature of, an oath, but also that he had previously borne a good and unblemished character. Fourthly, the person tendering his evidence was to be examined by the court as to his proficiency in moral principles, and his knowledge of the obligations of an oath. In the fifth place, two slaves, examined apart, and out of the hearing of each other, must give exactly the same evidence. last, and greatest of all, the testimony of slaves was not to be received against their owner, his attorney, manager, overseer, any person having the charge of such slaves, who might be prosecuted for any of the crimes aforesaid. Was this adopting the substance of the Trinidad order in council? or had these colonists gone, as they pretended, to the utmost verge of conciliation, when they did not scruple so to mutilate and frustrate the letter and spirit of that order in a case the most important of all, namely, with reference to charges brought against the owner or his agent, who had it thus in his power to stifle all complaint, where it was generally most desirable that complaints, if well founded, should not be discouraged? In the same way, Dominica had recognized the admissibility of the evidence of slaves duly baptized, provided two of them concurred, when examined apart, in the same story; and provided that the evidence was not to affect their master. After going into many other lengthened details of what had not been effected by the colonial legislatures, Mr. Brougham concluded that Jamaica had done less than nothing, and Barbadoes worse than nothing. The House, therefore, ought now to let it be known, that government and the country took VOL. LXVIII.

a deep and universal interest in the subject; but, above all, it would be well to let it be known to the WestIndian legislatures, who had disregarded, were disregarding, and were likely, till the House and the country roused themselves, still to continue to disregard, the admonitions which they had received, that the time had arrived, when, if they would not do their duty, the British parliament were determined to do theirs.

Dr. Lushington supported the motion, because slavery was inconsistent with Christianity and the constitution; and Mr. Denman, by referring to the progress which St. Domingo, since its emancipation, had made in civil attainments. Mr. Horton and Mr. Ellis maintained, in opposition to it, that it was unjust and absurd to consider the planters as having any love of slavery for its own sake, or resisting its mitigation as the renewal of an abstract blessing; that their reluctance to concur in measures proposed at home arose mainly from a belief that those measures tended to depreciate their property, if not to destroy it; that, as information extended, and gradual steps continually added to experience, they would take a more accurate view of their own interests, and discern that the gradual amelioration intended was neither objectionable in principle nor dangerous in practice; that the course which had been already recommended by parliament, and begun by government, was the only course properly fitted to gain these ends; and that to comply with the present motion would be an abrupt and total departure from it. The point, said Mr. Canning, on which the House is now called to decide by its vote is whether the resolution [M

proposed for its adoption will be useful for the purposes, which, it must be assumed, are the objects of that resolution. That resolution contains some propositions, to which, as abstract propositions, I have no difficulty (with some modi fications, indeed,) in subscribing. But the particular question for the House to determine, on the present occasion, I take to be whe ther the passing of any such resolution as this be necessary or useful? and if it be neither necessary nor useful, whether it may not be rather detrimental than beneficial to the general question upon which the House has already expressed its feeling? I must assume, that the resolutions passed by this House in May 1823, contain the whole of the code which parliament have agreed to take for their guidance in this business; and I must also assume that the several measures, which the government have founded on those resolutions, have been admitted to have been conceived in the spirit of those resolutions, and to have been framed according ly. If there be those who think that a different course from that which we have pursued ought to have been adopted; if there be those who may be even disposed to go back to the year 1807, as thinking that the abolition of all slavery in the West Indies ought to have been then enforced by an act of parliament, I have really only to say to them that they come too late into the field: that parliament has already come to its determination and formed its decision on that subject. I can only remind them, that parliament has already pronounced, in a voice not to be misunderstood, that it would not by an immediate act proceed to compel the emancipation of slayes

in the West Indies, but that it looks to that event as a result which will be produced by the more concilitating and moderate course it has already adopted; that it will not be diverted from that course, except by a degree of resistance amounting to contumacy, which it does not at present contemplate; and that we may still hope that we shall not be drawn to that sort of alternative which a departure from this kind of course supposes. As to those again who think that this most important question, involving, as it confessedly does, so nearly the lives, the interests, and the property of so many of our fellow-subjects, is to be determined on the abstract proposition" That man cannot be made the property of man," I must take the liberty of relegating them to the schools; and of telling them that they do not deal with this grave and extensive question as members of the British parliament, or as members of any established society. I must tell them that the practical adop tion of their speculative notions on so grave and weighty a subject would leave our West-India pos sessions to a state of ravage and desolation, which, I think, they themselves would be but little prepared to expect. Is the resolution now offered for adoption, conceived in that temperate spirit, and does it bear that stamp of deliberation, which would not give it the effect of changing our course, and precipitating the House at once beyond the view it has hitherto acted upon? If this resolution were no more than a renewal of our former declarations, it would amount to no» thing. But, in fact, it is no such thing. In the first place, it expresses regret at the proceedings of the West-Indian legislatures.

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