then be convinced, if indeed he ever doubted it, of the vast moral superiority of the Nothern over the Southern States. The moment any one hints at emancipation, all the slave-holders cry out about their rights, and property.' It has been well observed in our House of Commons: The horrible injustice and monstrous crime of kidnapping the father and mother, has given you no right to enslave the child.' If it do, why may not a man say, 'I have murdered this child's father and mother, and therefore I have a right to murder him also?' 66 I, in common with every Englishman, rejoice that my country, which was the first to abolish the Slave Trade, is now also leading the way in the abolition of Slavery. Notwithstanding however it has been declared in Parliament, that measures are contemplated for gradual emancipation in our West-India islands, yet the planters still display a violent and determined spirit of opposition." "Whoever considers how ungraciously they have received Lord Bathurst's circular, in which he humanely orders them to abstain from 'flogging women,' must be convinced, that, if those humane and good men who advocate emancipation, deserve the name of 'saints,' the planters deserve that of 'devils.' Instead of sending out Missionaries to instruct the poor Slaves, I would advise subscriptions for sending out Teachers, who might convert the devils' to Christianity; for certainly those who speak and act like the planters, cannot be said to believe in that religion, the leading tenet of which is,Do unto others, as you would they should do unto you.' "In despotic governments which maintain the right divine to govern wrong,' one would not be astonished to hear Slavery advocated The United States, however, have denied this right, and maintain that "rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God; a somewhat different doctrine, They have, it is true, abolished the slave trade; but they have a little Africa within themselves. It is computed that every year from 10 to 15,000 slaves are sold from the States of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, and sent to the south. I have seen a gang of these poor people chained to one another, walking on foot, while their White drivers rode by their side armed with whips and pistols. When they arrive at the town at which they intend to stop, the slaves are confined in the jail, while their drivers go to the tavern. I "A slave auction is also a common thing, of every-day occurrence. will not attempt to describe the scenes that take place at them, or the cries and shrieks of fathers, mothers, and children, sold to different and distant States. The Blacks are in general very quiet people, and are uncommonly fond of their children. Let any one imagine how a father must feel at these auctions of human flesh! That they do feel may be proved by the following extract from a Maryland paper: "Cumberland, Oct. 27, 1822. "Mr. W. Polling of this country was shot, on Sunday night last, about seven or eight miles from this place, by a Negro man belonging to Mr. Stewart of Virginia. The wife and children of the Negro had been sold by their master; and Mr. Milbourne of this place, accompanied by Mr. Polling, were going to the house for the purpose of bringing them away. The Negro fellow awaited their approach, and immediately lodged the contents of a musket in the side of the unfortunate Mr. Polling, who survived but a few hours. The murderer has been committed to the jail at Romney to await his trial.' " "In 1790 the whole number of slaves in the United States was only 694,480. In 1820 they amounted to 1,531,436. In addition to these there were 233,398 free Coloured. Now can it for a moment be suppo sed, that this enormous and rapidly increasing mass of population will long remain in bondage,-when they hear their masters talking of nothing but liberty, the rights of man, &c.;-when they see processions and rejoicings every year on the anniversary of national independence; when they hear that Bolivar, as well as the Mexican government, has entirely abolished Slavery; when they see how the Blacks of St. Domingo opposed 25,000 veteran French troops? When all these examples are held up to their eyes, will they, can they remain slaves? Impossible. "The desire of freedom is already beginning to manifest itself in those parts where the slaves are most numerous. In 1820 there was a conspiracy at Charleston in South Carolina, which was only discovered a few days before it was to have been carried into execution, and which ought to have opened the eyes of every slave-holder who was not wilfully blind. "The conspirators were headed by a free Black named Denmark Vesey, who was a working carpenter in the city, and was distinguished for his activity and strength. His being a free Black demonstrates, what indeed I believe has never been doubted, that, in the event of an insurrection, the slaves would be joined by their free Coloured brethren, who, finding themselves despised by the Whites, and treated as a degraded caste, would gladly take part in any scheme tending to ameliorate their condition. "It was perhaps alone in Denmark Vesey's power, to have given us the true character, extent, and importance of the correspondence which it was afterwards proved was carried on with certain persons in St. Domingo. But these men mutually supported each other, and died obedient to the stern and emphatic injunction of their comrade Peter Poyas: Do not open your lips! Die silent, as you shall see me die!' 66 They in fact died like heroes ; and in a better cause they could not have yielded up their breath. They were executed for wishing to emancipate a million of their brothers from merciless bondage. Yet how much better to die, even thus, than live a life of slavery! "Who, though they know the riven chain Snaps but to enter in the heart Of him who rends its links apart, Yet dare the issue-blest to be, Ev'n for one bleeding moment free, And die in pangs of liberty!" "The Southerners turn a deaf ear to every thing that reminds them of their danger, saying, that the Whites are so much more numerous in the United States than the Blacks, that an insurrection could not be attended with any very fatal conof the Northern and New-England sequences. But surely the people States would be very slow in assisting the slave-holders; for so much do they abhor slavery, that I am myself convinced they would take no part whatsoever in the contest. The Blacks would say to them, and This is the cause of Washington! will you hinder us from becoming free, you who made such efforts in that cause, you who threw off your allegiance to England because she wished to make you consent to stamps? Only look at the beginsome trifling taxes on tea ning of your Declaration of Independence! "We hold these truths to be self-evident-That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Will you then, because we differ from you in colour, aid slavery? Or do you say, that "all our tyrants in reducing us again to is white? If so, why not enslave men" means only those whose skin the Spaniards and the Portuguese whose skin is darker than your own?' The all 6,000 men, scattered over their of the United States, in army immense frontier from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico, and in posts on the St. Lawrence, the great lakes, the Missouri and Mississippi, would be quite unable to take any efficient part in the contest, which therefore would only exist between the slaves and their masters. The Blacks would have every thing for them that can animate men to great deeds." Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. ACORRESPONDENT, in your Number for March (p. 158), having raised the ghost of Boswell, to listen to the inglorious tale of the biographer's defence of Slavery, it may not be useless to remind the reader of the circumstances whence Boswell's rebellion against his master's authority originated. The case was this:-In the year 1776 a Negro, named Joseph Knight, having been purchased in Jamaica, attended his owner to Scotland, where he was told that he was free. The question came before the Court of Session, and the man formally obtained his liberty. The proceedings and the decision of the court on this occasion tempted Boswell to break his fetters also, and to disown the right of Dr. Johnson to hold him, on that point at least, any longer in bondage. But it is highly gratifying to observe the warm interest taken by Johnson in the issue of the pending inquiry. He writes (Dec. 21, 1776),-"18 the question about the Negro determined? Has Sir Allan any reasonable hopes? What is become of poor Macquarry? Let me know the event of all these litigations. I wish particularly well to the Negro and Sir Allan."- Boswell answers (Feb. 14, 1777), "The Negro cause is not yet decided...Maclaurin is made happy by your approbation of his memorial for the Blacks." In July, Johnson is again impatient :- "I long to know how the Negro's cause will be decided. What is the opinion of Lord Auchinleck, or Lord Hailes, or Lord Monboddo?"-Dr. Johnson formally dictated an argument in favour of this slave. Portions of his paper are copied, as follows:-"It is impossible not to conceive, that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion. An individual may indeed forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children."-" The sum of the argument is this: No man by nature is the property of another: the defendant is therefore by nature free: the rights of nature must be some way forfeited before they can be justly taken away: that the defendant has by any act forfeited the rights of nature we require to be proved; and if no proof of such forfeiture can be given, we doubt not but the justice of the court will declare him free." It is impossible either to refute this reasoning or to confine the spirit of it to particular parallels of latitude or longitude. If it holds good in Great Britain, why should it not hold equally good in the Carolinas or Jamaica? AN ABOLITIONIST. refused; being unwilling, as he said, when he had brought the souls of his neighbours part of the way to heaven, to leave them to a new convoy." "This sentiment," the biographer adds," seems not to have arisen from an overweening opinion of his own parts or piety; but he knew his own motives, he was aware that there were many of his profession ill qualified to be spiritual guides, and as his income probably was sufficient (for he had no children) he would not quit the flock committed to his care, lest it should fall into unfaithful hands. We should not be prompt to censure those ministers whose lives are broken by frequent removals; as such changes may arise from necessity, or a sense of duty, rather than from any censurable inclination; but, assuredly it must be allowed, that the advantages of long continance in the same post of service, exemplarily occupied, are very great and it is devoutly to be wished, that when once a minister is set tled with a charge of sufficient extent to employ his time and attention, he should be disposed to continue there for life; and never suffer his thoughts to waste themselves in the ideal recommendations of another situation." (Christian Observer, vol. for 1804, p. 5.) If this concluding reflection be just, and as such I am certainly disposed to regard it, there can be no question as to the desirableness, in a spiritual point of view, of a minister's being enabled to regard the flock among whom he labours as his own and of his not considering himself, as merely hired to discharge the duties of the sacred office, among a people who are the flock of another. Viewing the subject in this light, it matters little or nothing even though the whole income of the living should be given to the curate the people are not his, and he is not their primarily appointed guide-he is a substitute, and a substitute only; and if he should imagine that there is no difference as to the good which he may, (I speak, of course, instrumentally,) under these circumstances, effect, and that which he might accomplish were he actually in possession of the real charge, he will scarcely fail of being in the end experimentally taught his mistake. But, on the other hand, if he regard the charge of souls, free from the authority of a primarily appointed incumbent, as a situation offering greater opportunities to do good, and to glorify God, even should pecuniary remuneration be diminished, his thoughts will be too apt to waste themselves in the recommendations, and these not merely ideal but real, of another situation than that in which he is placed. Is it not also a grievous circumstance, both for the parish and the individual, that a curate, who for years has been discharging with exemplary diligence and success, his functions amongst an affectionate people, should be liable to be immediately dismissed in the event of any of those contingencies to which his precarious appointment is always exposed? D. G. L. S. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 8vo. 21. 10s. Reprinted, London. 1824. Theology explained and defended; in a Series of Sermons. By TIMOTHY DWIGHT, S. T. D., LL.D. late President of Yale College," THE people of the United States," Connecticut. With a Memoir of says one of our own ardent countrythe Life of the Author. 5 vols. men, "find themselves in a condition to devate their whole energies to the cultivation of their vast natural resources; undistracted by wars, unburdened by oppressive taxes, unfettered by old prejudices and corruptions. Enjoying the united advantages of an infant and a mature society, they are able to apply the highly refined science and art of Europe, to the improvement of the virgin soil and unoccupied natural riches of America. They start unincumbered by a thousand evils, political and moral, which weigh down the energies of the old world. The volume of our history lies before them: they may adopt our improvements, avoid our errors, take warning from our sufferings; and, with the combined lights of our experience and their own, build up a more perfect form of society. Even already they have given some momentous, and some salutary, truths to the world. It is their rapid growth which has first developed the astonishing results of the productive powers of population. We can now calculate with considerable certainty, that America, which yet presents to the eye, generally, the aspect of an untrodden forest, will, in the short space of one century, surpass Europe in the number of its inhabitants. We even hazard little in predicting, that before the tide of civilization has rolled back to its original seats, Assyria, Persia, and Palestine, an intelligent population of two or three hundred millions will have overspread the new world, and extended the empire of knowledge and of the arts from Cape Horn to Alayska. Among the vast mass of civilized men, there will be but two languages spoken. The effect of this single circumstance in accelerating the progress of society can scarcely be calculated. What a field will then be opened to the man of science, the artist, the popular writer, who addresses a hundred millions of educated persons! What a stimulus given to mental energy and social improvement, when every new idea, and every useful discovery, will be communicated instantaneously to so great a mass of intelligent beings, by the electric agency of the post and the press ! Imagination is lost in attempting to estimate the effects of such accumulated means and powers. One result, however, may be anticipated. America must then become the centre of knowledge, civilization, and power*." The prophetic vision created by this zealous writer would have brightened into more radiant splendour, had he not entirely omitted to anticipate the future triumphs of the Cross, and in regions where it has already begun its conquest. Among the ten millions + of the inhabitants of the United States, there are computed to exist eight thousand Christian congregations; and, in some divisions of the Union, are to be found the efficiency and importance of an established church, though without an exclusive hierarchy. The proportions of truth and error, and of faithful and faithless shepherds, may be much the same as among ourselves. There are many circumstances which, God be praised! most tenaciously bind together the continental, and the insular Christians of the old and new countries. They use, for example, the same Bible, and in the same translation; their libraries are alike enriched by the approved writings of British and American divines; their ecclesiastical ceremonies and liturgy are substantially the same; the plans of their religious societies are similarly arranged; the missionary systems of both countries proceed with an identity of spirit, perseverance, and success; and the parallel might be extended with such minuteness, as to shew, that when English Christians * Mr. Maclaren; in the Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica. + The inhabitants of the Union, by the census of 1820, amounted to 9,638,226 persons. The population of England and Wales, in 1821, was 12,218,500 souls ; and the ecclesiastical benefices, in these di visions of the British empire, are in number 11,342. |