These abuses, comprising several of the allegations against the African Institution, and which to a certain extent the Directors adopt by their attempted justification of them, are of considerable magnitude, and, if substantiated against the Governor, must lead to no doubtful result; yet it would be indecorous whilst an inquiry is depending to offer any comments on them.*

The charge of presenting to the public delusive statements in the various Reports, is repeatedly urged against the Directors of each establishment. This is, in several instances, clearly established. Not that the slightest imputation of wilful misrepresentation, is insinuated against the numerous distinguished philanthropists, whose honourable names reflect lustre upon the benign cause of humanity; although it must be observed, that after a protracted course of unsuccessful endeavours, the Directors are not free from blame, in persevering to excite expectations, which, from the fallacy of their former speculations, must be involved in irksome and cheerless uncertain-: ty. The crime of fabricating these statements is imputed to an individual, in whom cunning, selfishness, chicanery, and pre-, sumption, appear to have established their noxious residence on admirable properties for a man whose chief object is the acquisition of wealth, but total disqualifications for the practice of benevolence or the associations of virtue.

We will introduce to our readers the person alluded to in the words of Dr. Thorpe; and submit to their consideration some of the incidents related by the learned gentleman, which will materially elucidate the nature and foundation, of the allegations which form the basis of the present inquiry.

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Uneducated," he observes, "for any profession, and unin structed for any regular system of mercantile pursuits, he was brought from a subordinate station in a West India plantation to the service of the Sierra Leone Company, with a salary of £400 a year; he managed their concerns for many years; £400,000 of public and private property was wasted, the Company sink to insolvency, and the managing clerk rises to affluence; forms a' new association with his old friends the nominal Directors, undertakes to plan and regulate it gratuitously, and denominates himself at once an African merchant!".

* Since these remarks were completed, we observe that Colonel Maxwell has been superseded, and Colonel M Carthy appointed in his place. This confirms the statement of Dr. Thorpe, as to the existence of abuses in the Colony. Ministers, in nominating this gentleman to the vacant office, have consulted the substantial welfare of Sierra Leone; as he possesses the two-fold recommendation of a respectable character, and an intimate knowledge, from a long residence in the Colony, of its essential interests,

CRIT. REV. VOL. III. January, 1816.

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Such is the description furnished by Dr. Thorpe of Mr. Zachary Macauly, under whose influence and superintendence the proceedings of the Directors here, and of the various agents in Africa, have been principally conducted.

The animadversions of Dr. Thorpe upon this interested individual are of a most severe and conclusive description. The facts adduced are strong, and in many instances incapable of refutation. Mr. Macauly, in his pamphlet, replies to the observations of Dr. Thorpe under fourteen separate divisions. Dr. Thorpe, in a long and very able preface to the fourth edition of his "Letter to Mr. Wilberforce," exposes the various subterfuge's resorted to by his commercial opponent in his attempted defence. It would appear that this person considered the cause of African suffering as not sufficiently interesting to the British nation, without the aid of a little intrigue and misrepresentation. These arts are generally the resort of narrow minds for the accomplishment of any object that may be essential to their wishes. We will now examine the conduct of this officious personage, and in tracing his numerous deceptions to the workings of a selfish and corrupt heart, it will be shewn that many of the charges against him are substantiated by his own confidential letters to his friend, Governor Ludlam.

The first conclusion that will be inevitably formed upon a consideration of the circumstances relating to Mr. Z. Macauly ib, that there were strong reasons operating upon his mind, which inspired a dread of any person being appointed to a situation in the Colony, whose recommendation had not proceeded from himself and his coadjutors. In his reply to Dr. Thorpe, he publishes detached portions of his own letters upon the subject of that gentleman's judicial appointment. We shall extract them. They unquestionably prove, that the writer felt considerable alarm and trepidation at the nomination of a man of unbending integrity and high character, to fill a situation which, if there were no foul practices to conceal in the Colony, would have necessarily given satisfaction to the Directors; presuming that their boasted immaculacy, sanctified assurances, and specious professions, were not the artful fabrications of designing individuals, who might deem it to be their interest to nominate their own creatures to the vacant offices.

"Of Dr. Thorpe," says Mr. Macauly in one of his letters, "who is likely to go out as judge, I have still less knowledge than of Thompson. His appointment rests wholly with the Secretary of State, and he is a stranger to us all. He quarrelled with the Governor of Upper Canada; and, though he might be

right, and the Governor wrong, yet he did not shew much moderation on the occasion. This is suspicious."

Again

He pro

"I should fear he might prove a little hot-headed. fesses to be friendly to our objects, but he is in utter ignorance of the whole subject of Africa. On the whole, I do not feel at ease as to his appointment."

In a subsequent letter Mr. Macauly observes

"He is, as I believe, a man of some talents; but I fear he is not of the calmest and mildest temper in the world. He caused so much trouble in Upper Canada, where he acted as a judge, that it was found necessary, to remove him from his situation. There is some danger, therefore, of his proving perverse or wrongheaded."

We cannot discern any thing "suspicious" in the circumstance of Dr. Thorpe having differed with the Governor of Upper Canada, and having been recalled to a superior situation in Africa. Mr. Macauly cannot mean to use this term in its obvious application. He must intend to speak of Dr. T. as an object of suspicion where nefarious practices are committed, and to caution his friend to be guarded in his measures. Nor can we perceive, why this upright and sincere abolitionist, this open-hearted and benevolent philanthropist, "should not feel at ease" on the appointment of a stranger, or anticipate. "the danger of his proving perverse or wrong-headed." Why, we would inquire, should Mr. Macauly express this uneasiness, if he were not apprehensive that the enormities perpetrated in the Colony must necessarily be in danger of exposition by the appointment of a man of honourable principles? And when he speaks of the danger of "his proving perverse," what other inference can be drawn, than that he feared the non-compliance of the Judge to the system of abuse adopted in the Colony? It being but too observable, that the Reports of the Directors invariably represent themselves and their agents in so amiable, so moral a light; can it be believed, that their Secretary, the man who managed all their concerns, and who knew the secret state of the Colony, would have betrayed such apprehension, but from the knowledge that his intrigues were in danger of discovery, and his delusions of exposure?

The first, second, and third topics of inquiry in the observations respecting Mr. Macauly, relate to the extent of his commerce with the Colony, and his means of acquiring it. We shall not discuss these points minutely; nor are they, indeed,

T

of much importance. It is evident, that he possesses nearly "a monopoly of the trade of Sierra Leone." It is equally so, that it has arisen entirely from his connexion with the Company. This in itself is no imputation against him; but, connected with the numerous criminating circumstances attached to him in this inquiry, it furnishes a sufficient motive for base and dishonourable conduct, to a man whose mind is wholly occupied in the pursuit of wealth.

5th and 6th. "The having permitted the appropriation of fifty guineas from the funds of the Institution, in the purchase of a piece of plate, as a premium for the importation of rice; and of one hundred guineas, similarly applied, as a gratuity for serving the office of Secretary." This profuse waste of their slender funds, is rather chargeable to the Directors, than to Mr. Macauly, who, had he acted upon the second donation as he did on the first-namely, by returning the amount in cash-would have been entitled to our commendation for his liberality. The funds of the Institution, from its formation, amounted only, during the first seven years, to £8537. Surely any appropriation not strictly to the purposes of the charity, from so small a fund, cannot be too severely deprecated.

10th. "The having had the controul of every thing attached to the government; the arrangement of the offices, and recommending persons to fill them." This is admitted. To have possessed this influence over the Minister, must have greatly promoted the private objects of Mr. Macauly, who appears to have ever considered the African Institution an "important engine" for his own private designs. Yet this person, instead of acknowledging the advantage he possessed in the opportunity of appointing his own friends and relatives to lucrative offices, boasts of his extreme liberality to Government in having performed this duty, with others of a similar description, "gratuitously!"

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We have already adverted to the system adopted in Sierra Leone of apprenticing the negroes, which must be regarded as an evasion of the act of the Legislature for the abolition of the direct traffic in slaves, and a mode of conducting a minor species of slavery. Mr. Macauly has ever been one of the most ardent promoters of this abominable system. In his defence, he presumes to associate with his own worthless name, that of the benevolent and amiable Granville Sharpes and to support opinions expressed by himself at a period when slave-trading was illegal in the Colony, by producing extracts from a pamphlet published by Mr. Sharpe in 1788; in which that estimable man recommends the mode in ques

tion as an amelioration of the system then existing.* Why will Mr. Macauly strive to uphold his sinking reputation by such fallacious expedients? Can he have the folly to believe, that charges of the description advanced against him by Dr. Thorpe, are to be refuted by sheltering himself behind a formidable list of great names? Or has he the vanity to imagine, that in the distinguished society into which his presumption has carried him, and where he must now be indeed an unwelcome associate, his despicable qualities will not separate him from the other Directors? Such a supposition must altogether destroy the distinctions between virtue and vice.

It is not our intention to enter more minutely into the allegations against Mr. Macauly. We cannot, however, refrain from extracting one letter written by him to Governor Ludlam; and we should be gratified to see such an explanation offered in its defence, as would justify an impartial person, in forming any other conclusion, than that of the writer being a designing hypocrite. We have attentively considered his own observations upon the production in question, which are unsatisfactory and incomplete. The letter is dated Nov. 4, 1807. Mr. Macauly thus expresses himself

"A word in private respecting the African Institution. I cannot help regarding it as an important engine." [For what purpose?+]

* The meanness of this attempt of Mr. Macauly, to palliate his own cenşurable project by connecting his name with that of Mr. Sharpe, and endea vouring to shew an accordance of sentiment with that philanthropist, is extremely evident. The pamphlet to which Mr. M. refers appeared at the precise period when Mr. Wilberforce introduced the wrongs of Africa to the consideration of Parliament: and when it is recollected how feeble were the hopes at that time entertained for the melioration of the Negro's sufferings, the system recommended by Mr. S. would then have been beneficial to that sable race. Dr. Thorpe, however, mentions an anecdote, which completely evinces how far these gentlemen thought in unison upon the subject. He says, that Mr. Sharpe informed him, in a conversation that passed between them relative to the Directors, that "Mr. Macauly had proposed to increase the population of Sierra Leone, by purchasing slaves, and placing them in the Colony,-then with great fervour he exclaimed, It would have been carried, had Thomas Clarkson and George Harrison strenuously supported me.' He lamented his being able to effect so little for the benefit of Africa-the party was so strong against him.” Dr. T. further remarks, that he has had no communication with these two gentlemen on the subject; that they are truly estimable characters, and no doubt recollect the circumstance he alludes to.

Respecting the system of apprenticeship, Mr. Macauly having finally acknowledged its incorrect principle, we shall make no further mention of what he terms his "speculative error."

+ Possibly we shall derive some information on this point from the Edinburgh Review, when this subject is discussed in it. Dr. Thorpe places these two striking words in italics in his pamphlet: yet Mr. Macauly has thought it advisable not to notice them, although he comments on, and explains