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are only Sunday schools. On the other days of the week, the teacher may be employed in the service of the plantation, in the capacity of a storehouse-keeper, book-keeper, cierk, or any other useful office, which will amply repay the planter for his maintenance: and the Sunday school will absolutely cost him nothing. 3dly. As some objections have, I understand, been made to the introduction of my plan into the islands, I shall here briefly state those objections, and my answers to them.

The principal, and indeed only plausible objections to my plan, which have come to my knowledge, are these: 1. That the parishes in the West-India islands are too extensive to admit of Parochial Schools. 2. That the instruction of the negro children will interfere with the work allotted to them on the plantation, and consequently lessen the profits of the planter. 3. That the plan cannot be carried into execution without a teacher sent from England, properly instructed by Dr. Bell, which, together with their maintenance, will be a great expence to the planter, and in their present distressed state will be a burthern too heavy for them to bear. 4. That the instruction of the negro children will render them proud and insolent, disobedient to their masters, and indisposed to labour.

My answer to these objections is as follows:-1. I allow that the parishes in the West-India islands are too extensive to admit of Parochial Schools; and therefore they are not the sort of schools I wish to recommend, but schools appropriated to each separate plantation, or two or three neighbouring plantations united for that purpose. A school of this nature has already been established in the island of Barbadoes by Dr. Holder, a gentleman of large fortune and most respectable character there, for the instruction of the negro children on his own estate, for which purpose I have sent him over a teacher from this country, a very excellent young man, who has been well instructed in Dr. Bell's method of teaching; and I hope it will not be long before the Negro Society, of which I am president, will be able to send one, properly instructed by Dr. Bell, to any planter in any of the British islands that is willing to found a school on this contracted plan for the negro

children on his own estate and two or three adjoining ones. 2. The instruction of the negro children will not at all interfere with the work allotted to them on the week days? because the schools proposed are only Sunday Schools. The children are to be taught on Sundays only; the rest of the week they work as usual on the plantations. 3. The maintenance of a Sunday School will be no expence whatever to the planter; because the teacher may be made a clerk, or bookkeeper, or storehouse-keeper, or distiller, or any other kind of useful agent on the estate; by which means he will pay his master for his maintenance, and at the same time teach the children on Sundays. 4. The instruction of the negro children in the christian religion and in reading, cannot possibly make them proud, insolent, disobedient to their masters, and indisposed to labour, but quite the contrary; for in the scripture (which they will be taught to read and to understand) God himself expressly commands them to be obedient and submissive to their masters.

Be obedient (says St. Paul) to your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good-will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether bond or free. Ephes. vi. 5-8.

Whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and Col. iii. 23.

not unto men.

Be obedient to your masters and please them well in all things; not answering again: not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity, that you may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. Titus ii. 9, 10.

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also the froward. 1 Pet. ii. 18.

Such are the commands given to slaves in the sacred writings; and I beg to know whether if the planters themselves had endeavoured to impress upon the slaves a deep sense of their duty, and of the obligations they were under to obey their masters, they could possibly have found out more forci

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ble and more persuasive language than this for that purpose. ---I beg to know also, whether the negro children who are brought up in the habit of reading their bible and hearing it read in church (which are the two great objects of a Sunday school); who are taught to consider it as what it really is, the word of God himself, and that they are bound to obey its precepts, under pain of God's displeasure, and of the severest punishment in another world, are not more likely, and have stronger inducements to be meek, humble, faithful, and submissive to their masters, than those who know nothing of all these things, and have never received any religious instruction? It is impossible for any unprejudiced man to hesitate one moment in confessing, fairly and honestly, what answer ought to be given to these questions.

You will perceive that I hold it an essential and indispensable part of the education of the negro children, that they should be taught to read; no effectual instruction can be given them without it. It is necessary more especially for these two reasons: First, because without this qualification, their bibles, which contain all the above excellent precepts, will be of no use to them, will be literally a dead letter to them.

2dly. Because Dr. Bell's plan for the education of children (as stated in the appendix to my printed letter), cannot be carried into execution without it. For one material part of his new system is to teach the children to read, by making them first write the letters of the alphabet upon sand.

That this qualification has no tendency to make the children proud and indolent, and unwilling to work, appears from this fact; that in Cumberland, Westmorland, and Scotland, there are Grammar schools in almost every town and large village, and all the poor children are taught to read; yet there are no where better and more industrious and hardy labourers and workmen than in those countries.

Fulham House, Dec. 13, 1808.

[The following charge delivered to the clergy of the archdeaconry of Middlesex is in itself so excellent, the objects to which the venerable author so particularly directed his atten

tion are so important, and the result of his enquiries stated so satisfactorily, that we feel infinite pleasure in submitting it to the attention of the clergy in general; and in giving it a more enlarged degree of publicity than it would probably enjoy from its being published in a separate form only, we feel ourselves animated with the hope, that it may induce the archdeacons in other dioceses to follow the example of Mr. Cambridge, in personally inspecting the parishes in their respective archdiaconal jurisdictions, and submitting the result of their visitations to the consideration of their clerical brethren.]

A Charge to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Middlesex, by George Owen Cambridge, A.M. F.A.S. Archdeacon of Middlesex, and Prebendary of Ely.

REVEREND BRETHREN,

The unavoidable suspension of the bishop's visitation at the customary period, left the performance of that duty last year to the archdeacons of the diocese, and gave me the unexpected pleasure of meeting you sooner than I should otherwise have done. On that occasion I thought it my duty to render some account of the progress already made in the undertaking, which had been previously announced to you in my primary charge: namely, a parochial visitation through the whole extent of my archdeaconry. Since that time it has pleased God to allow me to fulfil this intention by a personal inspection of every parish subject to my jurisdiction; in the course of which I have made a distinct and particular inquiry into the state of the church, and the church-yard: the condition and circumstances of the parsonage house; the glebe; and such other ecclesiastical concerns in the parish as come within the limits of my official duty.

It must, I am sure, be a matter of general and sincere regret that our venerable diocesan should still find himself unequal to the fatigue of visiting his extensive and populous dio-cese. In of this we are again called upon to consequence officiate in his place, and it is my intention to avail myself of the present opportunity, conformably to the plan I had originally laid down, to communicate to you such information as this general and extensive survey has enabled me to collect. I propose, likewise, to accompany this report with such re

marks and suggestions as offered themselves to my mind whilst it was occupied in the contemplation of the several objects to which my attention was then chiefly directed.

And, although the discussion of these topics may not prove equally interesting, or applicable to you all, yet I conceive that in furnishing the clergy with a distinct and correct account of the state of the ecclesiastical concerns within the limits of this archdeaconry, I am fulfilling a part of the duty of that situation which immediately connects me with you; and am acting in strict conformity with the most judicious and eminent characters, who, either in present or in past times, have distinguished themselves in the punctual and zealous discharge of this ancient and honourable office. The subject, however, whether applicable or not to your own cases respectively, will be regarded by every friend to our religious establishment, as an important one: I am therefore encouraged to hope for the same indulgent attention I have hitherto experienced from you; and by a further continuance of friendly communication upon these points, I am not without hopes that such a system of gradual and progressive improvement may be established in the ecclesiastical buildings, and in other parochial concerns, connected with our respective situations and duties, as may lead to still greater benefits; in the promotion of which I shall always feel an anxious desire to exercise whatever degree of influence my official character may furnish me with, in the way that shall be most conducive to the interests of religion, and the support of cur excellent establishment.

But, before I enter upon matters of so dry and trite a nature as my present subject bespeaks, allow me to indulge my feelings in the discharge of a more grateful office, by expressing the lively and lasting sense I entertain of those respectful attentions, and that kind hospitality, with which I have been received amongst you. Such gratifying instances of personal esteem, as well as of deference to the functions of my office, could not fail to afford me an opportune and welcome relief under the fatigue of so tedious and laborious an undertaking; in which the mind was unavoidably oppressed by the continual recurrence of the same set of objects, and the dull uniformity of similar details.

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