of casting an imputation on the constituted judicature of Jamaica? If these circumstances of undefended injustice passed unreproved, it would go out to the West-Indies that the same error, injustice, or cruelty, might be committed again and again with impunity, so long as the present abominable system of law continued; and, if the House negatived the motion, it would set the seal of its sanction on a great and crying injustice, and do more than it would be able speedily to undo towards perpetuating the existing system in our colonies. Mr. Horton having consented to omit that part of the amendment which declared it to be unwise and inexpedient to censure the conduct of the court and jurors, the House divided, when the amendment was carried by a majority of 103 to 63. The resolutions adopted by the House of Commons in May 1823, expressive of the expediency of ameliorating the condition of the slaves, had not been sent up to the House of Lords, nor had any similar measure been hitherto proposed in that House. They were now communicated to the Peers, and the assent of their lordships to them craved. Lord Bathurst (7th March) prefaced his motion that the House should concur in these resolutions,* with a statement of • The Resolutions were as follows:1st. "That it is expedient to adopt effectual and decisive measures for ameliorating the condition of the slave-population in his majesty's colonies. 2nd. "That through a determined and persevering, but at the same time 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 the steps which had already been taken, and the farther measures which it was the intention of government to adopt. The order in council, he said, for the improvement of the condition of the slave population, which had received the sanction of their lordships in 1824, had been sent to the colonies, with a view to call the attention of their respective legislatures to the expediency of adopting such measures as might be the means of introducing into the colonies the principles of improvement in the condition of the slave-population generally, which the order contemplated with particular reference to Trinidad. The recommendations of his majesty's government on this subject were not attended with the success which its magnitude and importance demanded. Very little, indeed, had been done in conformity to the principles of that order, by any of the colonial legislatures, with the exception of Grenada, St. Vincent, and Dominica, in which two acts of considerable importance had passed the legislature. By one of those acts, in the event of any dispute with respect to the right of property in an alleged slave asserting himself to be free, the onus probandi was very properly thrown on the claimant; and, by the other, a slave, when tried for any offence, was placed in every respect on the footing of a white in those civil rights and privileges which are enjoyed by other classes of his majesty's subjects. 3rd. "That this House is anxious for the accomplishment of this purpose, at the earliest period that shall be compatible with the well-being of the slaves themselves, with the safety of the colonies, and with a fair and equitable consideration of the interests of private property." person. In the principal colony, Jamaica, an act had been passed, protecting the person of the slave from arrest when going to market. This, and another measure of less value, were the only propositions of that nature that were favourably received by the House of Assembly of Jamaica. Another measure had been proposed to that House a measure important in itself, and still more important in the consequences to which it was calculated to lead an act for admitting the evidence of slaves in courts of justice. He was sorry to say, however, that the proposition was rejected by an overwhelming majority; the gentleman by whom it had been proposed being the only individual who voted for it. In the following year a measure of the same nature had met with a less unfavourable reception. It was introduced into the House of Assembly in consequence of the recommendation of a committee, but had been rejected by a majority of twenty-three to thirteen: though among its thirteen supporters were persons of the highest character and consideration in the island. As so little had hitherto been effected in conformity with the two general objects the present amelioration of slavery, and its gradual extinction-of the resolutions of the House of Commons, and the order in council; what was at present intended was to separate the various points into which those objects might be divided, and to classify them under distinct heads, viz. those regulations which are necessary to insure abstinence from labour, and the proper observance of the Sabbath; those regulations which may better protect the persons of slaves from violence; those regulations which may secure their property; those regulations which may improve their moral and domestic habits; those regulations which may facilitate their admissibility to give evidence in courts of justice; and those regulations which may tend to the manumission of slaves, whether by the consent of their masters, or by appraisement under proper authority. When all these regulations should be properly classed and arranged, it was intended to send them to the various governments of the West-India Islands, with a view to their being shaped and modified in accordance to the existing laws and usages in each. They would then be brought separately under the consideration of the different legislative assemblies, that they might be enabled to give their opinion on the separate heads, to agree to them, to alter them, to amend them, to recast them, or altogether to reject them. If the last step should be, in any case, adopted; if the efforts of his majesty's government should prove wholly unsuccessful; it would then be for their lordships and the other house of parliament to apply themselves seriously to the consideration of what course it may be most expedient to adopt, for the purpose of carrying their determination into effect. The resolutions were objected to on the ground that their language, which spoke of improvement merely as being "expedient," was much too feeble for the nature of the subject, and the necessity of the occasion; that, though adopted, they would produce no practical effect; and that the three years, which had elapsed since they were voted by the House of Commons, had furnished irrefragable evidence of their futility. Lord Calthorpe, regarding slavery as equally irre of blind-fold legislating; he de- To concileable with Christianity, and with the constitution, could not help expressing his regret that the Commons had not passed resolutions more conformable to the light in which slavery ought to be regarded, and that their lordships were not now called upon to concur in opinions better suited to their own dignity. He certainly thought the House ought to declare that some higher principle than mere expediency sanctioned measures for the gradual extinction of so monstrous an evil. By adopting these frigid resolutions, couched in a tone much below what an assembly like the House of Commons should assume, and still more unworthy of the House of Peers, parliament armed the colonial legislatures with fresh inducements to resist the measures pressed upon them, and encouraged in the planters an erroneous belief that be tween the government and the great body of the people there existed a decided difference of sentiment as to the propriety of amelioratingIt is expedient that you should the condition of the slaves. Lord Ellenborough said, that, amid the difficulties surrounding this great question, not seeing his own way in the business, and not hearing any body else who could direct him in it, he would not, by supporting the resolutions, involve himself in a course not yet explained; he would not, in so delicate a case, take the first step, without seeing what the second was to be. It appeared, that, if these resolutions should fail of effect, and the various bills to be proposed by government to the colonial assemblies should be rejected, then parliament would resort to other measures to effect the accomplishment of its views: but he objected to this undefined style Suppose," said his lordship, "that the noble earl (Bathurst) happens to be walking out with a right honourable friend of his, and they see a man cruelly beating and abusing his horse; the noble earl's right honourable friend says to him, I saw that very man mal-treating his horse three years ago; I then went up to him, and said to him in a very decided, and, at the same time, in a very dignified manner, adopt measures for ameliorating the condition of that horse, yet I know that the fellow has continued to treat his horse very ill; and what I wish you to do, my lord, is, to go up to him, and say to him, precisely what I said to him three years ago.' The noble earl's first inquiry would be, what was the effect of your remonstrance three years ago? The answer would be-he laughed at me, he abused me, he scorned my remonstrance, and he used his horse exactly as he had done before. Then would the noble earl reply, Indeed, I will not do any thing so foolish; if you had at once taken the fellow before sir Richard Birnie, and charged him under Mr. Martin's act; or if you had even chosen to take the law into your own hands, and punish him on the spot, well and good. But pardon me for saying, that I cannot do so idle a thing as to ask him now to do what he refused to you three years ago." Lord Liverpool answered, that the objections taken to the reso lutions by the noble lord who had preceded him, if they amounted to any thing, amounted to this, that, on this important question, he would do absolutely nothing; and yet it was allowed on all hands to be most desirable to take some effectual steps for the mitigation of the evils of slavery, and towards getting rid of it altogether, as soon as we could compatibly with the safety of the colonies, and a fair consideration of the interests of private property. He could not allow to that noble lord that the question was surrounded by difficulties so extraordinary and complicated, that he could not find his way through them. The simple question, as it seemed to him, which every noble lord was called upon to discuss in his own mind, was shortly this," is it desirable, or not, that the state of slavery in our West-Indian colonies should be ameliorated and improved by such a course of measures as shall lead to its final extinction, as soon as such extinction can with safety and propriety be effected?" Now, upon that general question, he believed there would exist no difference of opinion be tween the noble baron and himself. "And, if that be so," continued lord Liverpool, "I do not think that he and I should differ much as to the mode by which that amelioration in the condition of the slave should be effected, and the state of slavery be at last put an end to. The means by which these objects are to be effected must be, in the first place, by the religious education of the slave; and in the second, by getting rid of the most objectionable badges and indications of his condition such as the whip, the Sunday-market, and other things which are in themselves the distinctions that bespeak his lot, but which surely are not necessarily attached to his situation, or justified by any general plea of necessity. In the next place, I conçur most heartily in the propriety of that other beneficial and most important principle, the admission of slave-evidence in courts of justice; and, lastly, we must avail ourselves of those means of improvement and education that have been indicated in the orders in council, or of some similar means. I am not at all disposed to look to the future conduct of the colonial legislatures with any thing like despondency: and even if I did, I should still think it to be the first duty of parliament to try the course that is thus proposed for the guidance of those legislatures in future. I should still think it to be our duty to state fully what our opinions were upon the measures to be taken for the amelioration and the education of slaves, and to recommend them to the colonial legislatures, for the purpose of their carrying them into effect. I should do so, for this reason-not only that the colonial legislatures are much more likely to succeed in carrying any measures of the kind into effect, but that it would be well that the slaves should owe these blessings, greater or less as they may prove, to the colonial legislatures, jointly with the British parliament, and not to the British parliament alone, acting without the concurrence of the colonial legislatures. To the colonists I would say, It is an object equally necessary for your interests and for the honour of the British nation. But do you proceed in it first. We, the Parliament of Great Britain, desire not to stand out upon minor considerations and less important points. Our anxious wish is, that the slaves should know that they owe the boons conferred upon them, to the colonial legislatures co-operating with the authorities in England, and not to any act of peremptory, separate, and absolute, authority upon the part of the legislature of Great Britain. We must not be surprised, if they, whose interests are directly concerned in the general question which these considerations involve, whose prejudices and feelings are engaged in them, and whose property is liable to be affected by their discussion, do not travel quite so fast towards a conclusion in favour of such proposals as ourselves, who have no such feelings or interests to consult. We have a right to see that those parties do in this case what in our opinion it is right, just, and proper, that they should do. But we are, at the same time, to remember, that we owe it to the common infirmity of the human mind, to make a large allowance for the operation of such influences upon the conduct of others. Upon these considerations I state, that whatever may be the ultimate result of these resolutions, we will be pursuing a true and correct course by agreeing to them now. What may hereafter be fitting to be done, if the principles upon which these resolutions are founded should not be acted upon by the colonial assemblies, it will be for Parliament to consider and determine at a future period, whenever the occasion for its doing so may arise.” The resolutions were agreed to without any division. On the 17th April lord Suffield brought forward a motion to prohibit persons in official situations in the West Indies from being proprietors of slaves; a motion, which, he said, had no connection with the emancipation of the negroes, and was directed not so much to the conceding of civil rights, as to the preventing of criminal wrong. It was the nature of slavery to corrupt and debase the master, as well as to degrade the slave; the corrupt influence exercised on the minds of public functionaries in the colonies by the possession of slaves, had rendered justice a mockery, and the obtaining of justice for an injured negro an impossibility. The report of the Demerara commissioners alone furnished abundant evidence. It embraced only the period from 16th June, 1824, to October in that year, during which time the number of complaints brought under consideration was twentyfive. Of these, seventeen were cases in which slaves had complained of their masters. Twelve of these were punished for complaining, two were restored to their masters to be punished, and in two cases redress had been given. Next followed six cases in which the masters complained of their slaves. In four of them, the slaves were punished by imprisonment, and in two, by flogging. There was one case, continued the noble lord, of a truly horrible nature, which had before been brought under the view of the public, and |