66 had been defended in a manner which, in his opinion, only tended to aggravate it. It was the case of a woman who had been flogged, and who had miscarried in consequence. The driver, who was ordered to flog her, remonstrated, saying that the woman was pregnant. The manager's reply was, Give it to her, till the blood flows out." This happened on the Friday; she was sent to work on the Saturday, and miscarried in consequence of the flogging. Her testimony was confirmed by that of a medical man, and a negro woman. The defence set up was, that the driver said she was rather big with child, and the word "rather" was omitted in his examination. The next case to which he should allude was that of a man named Brutus, who was flogged because he would not consent to the violation of his daughter. He would mention only one other case, which remained undenied in every part, that of a negro named Michael, who had been flogged on the same plantation as the former, and, for aught he knew, by the same manager. He had been suspected of theft, being found in possession of property similar to some that had been stolen. He denied the theft to the manager, who threatened him with the stocks, and flogged him. He complained to the proprietor that he had been flogged for an offence of which he was not guilty; and, obtaining no redress, he went to the fiscal, who said that, as there was no proof of his innocence, he could do nothing for him. Thus the man was punished, not because guilt had been proved against him, but because he could not prove his innocence. The manager was only reprimanded. The number of cases in which any decision was given in favour of the slaves, was miserably small. A slave named Felix complained of general profligacy on the part of the manager towards the wives of the slaves, and that his own wife had been taken from him for improper purposes. He went to the fiscal and complained; and what sort of redress did he obtain? A case of adultery was proved against the manager; the fiscal ordered Felix to be flogged, and the manager was merely reproved for his misconduct. The pretence for flogging Felix was, that he neglected his work. A negro, named Lambert, was very ill, and could get no medicine. In this state he was compelled to work day and night. It was not contended that he feigned illness; he was flogged, however, and no reason assigned for it. Another case was that of the slave Michael, a very old man, whowas flogged for refusing to do what was in itself illegal, and could obtain no redress. No change for the better could be reasonably expected, so long as those very functionaries, who ought to protect the slave against the cruelty and tyranny of the master, were themselves slave-proprietors. He therefore moved, that an Address be presented to his Majesty, praying that he would be graciously pleased to direct that, in future, no person, being the of slaves in any of the colonies, or possessing a reversionary interest in such property, should be appointed to the situations of governor, chief justice, attorney-general, fiscal, guardian, or religious instructor, in any of the said colonies. owner Lord Bathurst opposed the motion. He had no difficulty, he said, in admitting the propriety of preventing the Governor and Chiefjustice from being slave-proprie tors; but the case was far from being so clear with respect to the other functionaries included in the motion. He saw no reason why the Attorney-general, who could derive but an inconsiderable income from his practice in any of the colonies, or why the fiscal, or religious instructor, who must be residents, and possess lands for their support, should be shut out from the only means of cultivating them. The noble lord had complained of the number of cases, in the report from Demarara, in which complaints were made by slaves against their masters, and, in place of being redressed, visited with punishment. It ought to be considered that there had been, not long back, a rebellion in Demerara -that the fiscal was placed in a critical situation; and that, from the very nature of society in the colonies, it was necessary that slaves should be punished when they brought against their owners complaints utterly destitute of foundation. He could see no reason for conceding the motion, and would therefore move the order of the day. Lord Ellenborough said that he would rather have met the motion with a direct negative, for he disapproved both of its principle and its details. The good examples set by public functionaries in the treatment of their slaves, could not ultimately fail to have the best effects on the conduct of other proprietors. The House passed to the previous question, and the motion was lost. A few days afterwards (20th April) the same topic was brought before the House of Commons by Mr. W. Smith, who moved this resolution: "That from the offi cial documents which have been laid on the table of the House, and from other authentic information respecting the colonies of Demerara and Berbice, it appears that, although protection has been held out to the slave-population by the appointment of a Fiscal Chief-justice, or some other individual in the character of a protector of slaves, yet the slaves are in general exposed to numerous vexatious and grievous oppressions which demand relief; and therefore that this House has observed with great satisfaction the declared determination of his majesty's ministers to promulgate in those colonies an order in council on so important a subject, to which unqualified obedience will be required; but that, from all reason and experience the House is led to conclude, that no legal act, however well devised and strongly framed, will be sufficient for the effectual safeguard of the slaves, unless the officers, either principal or subordinate, to whom the execution of the law may be intrusted, are appointed and supported by the government at home; and are absolutely prohibited from possessing and employing slaves in any capacity, either predial or domestic." This resolution he vindicated by the same considerations, and the same allegations of practical abuses which had been put forward by lord Suffield in the House of Peers, coupled with delineations of the good which had been effected in the colonies by the labours of the missionaries, the proportion in which negro life was shortened or extended according as more or less of the soil was employed in the cultivation of sugar, and the trivial claims which the colonists could have to sympathy, after hav ing shut their eyes, for so many years, to the signs of the times. Mr. Wilmot Horton deprecated these irritating references to the pasta system which, whatever it might have been, was superseded, and would never return. In re gard to the two colonies in question, the motion was unnecessary. The Trinidad Order in Council was already, with a few modifica tions, in full operation in Demerara, and would soon be so in Berbice. A protector of slaves, possessing ample powers to fulfil the purposes of his appointment, had been nominated for Demerara, and the instructions given to that functionary afforded the best answer to the speech which introduced the motion. They were to the follow ing effect: "It is your particular duty, as protector of slaves, to watch over all the regulations that may exist at present, or that may be introduced hereafter, respecting the treatment of slaves in Demerara. You are to apply to the local government for such facilities as may enable the slaves to communicate to you any complaints they may have to make against their owners; and you are not to fail to report to the lieutenant-governor any impediments which may be thrown in the way of such communication. You are not, on all occasions, to wait for the spontaneous complaints of the slaves themselves; but if you hear of any maltreatment to which they have been subjected, you are to repair to the estate on which that reported maltreatment has occurred, and institute a diligent inquiry into the circumstances of the case. You are not, however, to forget, in the execution of your office, that it is as much your duty to secure the legitimate rights of the proprietors, as it is to protect the slaves from injustice and oppression. On these points you are to endeavour to exercise a sound discretion, and to adopt such measures as, while they secure the slaves, may not interfere with their industry or with the obedience which they owe to their masters. For that purpose, although you ought to exercise the utmost vigilance in protecting the slaves from injurious treatment, you ought at the same time to discourage all frivolous and unfounded complaints. One of your earliest studies ought to be the means of fixing on the minds of the slaves, by such statements and arguments as may be capable of comprehension by them, the principles of these instructions.” Under all those circumstances, seeing that the regulations which had been introduced into Trinidad were already in operation in Demerara, and would speedily be so in Berbice; it would be much better to look forward with confidence and hope to the future, than to exasperate the parties interested by a recurrence to the past; and, for his own part, he could not see the use of this perpetual agitation of the question. Mr. Rose Ellis denied the existence of that system of refusing redress, and of even punishing slaves for complaining, which was made the foundation of such sweeping charges against the colonies. He had taken the pains to analyse the report made by the Fiscal of Berbice; and it appeared that, out of fortythree cases of complaint made by the slaves, which had occurred in a period of thirteen months, twenty-seven were adjudged to be altogether unfounded; and of the remaining sixteen cases, there were eight in which both parties were adjudged to be in the wrong, and eight cases only in which the complainants were right. In a period of five years there was a total of three hundred and twenty-three complaints, in two hundred of which the complainants were altogether in the wrong, and of the remaining cases it appeared there were fourteen well-founded complaints each year from a population of 20,000 slaves. Another test of the accuracy of that report was to be found in a report of the Fiscal of Demerara, from which it appeared that, out of eighteen complaints in six months, fifteen were adjudged to be unfounded, and there were only three in which there was cause of complaint. So far, therefore, the report of the Fiscal of Demerara confirmed that of the Fiscal of Berbice; and he put it to the candour of the House, whether those sixteen decisions in which the managers or owners were adjudged to be in the wrong, whilst there were two hundred and ninety cases in which no such decision was recorded, were sufficient ground to found sweeping charges. Of the three cases in which it was stated that the parties had been punished for bringing forward unfounded complaints, the report stated that the parties were punished, the charges being unfounded, and they having absconded. Absconding was the greater offence, for which the major part of the punishment of seventy-five lashes was inflicted. They had been so punished, not for bringing forward unfounded complaint only, but for that offence aggravated by running away. Mr. Baring, in the course of a very sensible and business-like speech, declared, that he could not conceive what was the meaning of the resolution, if it was not intended, or thought to be in opposition to the views and wishes of government. If it was not so intended, it was unnecessary; if it was so intended, it was both inconvenient and dangerous. Both in Jamaica and Deme rara no greater danger had been experienced than what arose from rumours getting abroad; first, that the government at home was in hostility with the colonial authorities; and next, that parliament had determined to goad on the government for such was the notion with which the strange conduct, speeches, and pamphlets of some persons here had impressed the negroes of Demerara. He must say of the whole Anti-Slavery Society, and perhaps he should have said more, if he had not the highest respect for the talents and upright intentions of so many honourable friends of his in that House, who were also members of the body he was now alluding to, that there was in their proceedings something not only totally irreconcileable, with common prudence and propriety, but something which had about it a character of rashness, precipitation, and confusion, that was calculated to produce in the colonies irremediable mischief and vexation. He must take leave to apply this remark, to a certain extent, to some of these gentlemen even in that House; more than one of whom appeared, from the notice-book, to have prepared each some motion or resolution on this favourite topic. If he could see, in the conduct of these members, any object of possible attainment (well knowing, however, the integrity of their motives) which he could reconcile with the dictates of that common sense which no men, on other occasions, more eminently possessed, he should know what construction to put upon their proceedings, of which at present he could not understand any part. The motion was negatived without a division. On the part of those who were interested in the colonies, petitions were presented to the House of Lords from the Board of Council, and House of Assembly of Antigua, and to the Commons from the Board of Council alone, on the 14th of April, and, on the 20th, to both Houses from the great body of British merchants trading to the West Indies; all of which renewed those incidental and undefined discussions which could by no possibility lead to any prac tical conclusion. The petitioners of Antigua said, that the slave trade had not been established for the benefit of the colonies; and they proved, by a reference to documents, that, but for the government and legislature at home, it would long since have ceased to exist. So far back as the year 1717, the House of Assembly of South Carolina, planters themselves, and alive to the interests of their class, had passed an act with a view to the abolition of the trade. In 1765, a bill had proceeded so far as the second reading, in the House of Assembly in Jamaica, the object of which was similar to that which had previously passed in South Carolina. But in Jamaica the bill went no further, in consequence of its having been intimated that the governor of the island had received such instructions from the ministers of the Crown as precluded his assenting to the measure. At a still later period, in the year 1774, the House of Assembly in Jamaica passed two bills, the object of which was to put an end to the slave trade: but at home the influence of Bristol and Liverpool succeeded in defeating the measure. The question on that occasion had been submitted to the Board of Trade, and the President of that day (lord Dartmouth) intimated the opinion of that body to be against the views of the Planters whose intentions on that occasion, as on former occasions, were defeated; for it was alleged that no measure could be acceded to which would have the effect of checking a trade so advantageous to the nation at large. The petitioners, therefore, maintained, with much apparent reason, that, if they were to be deprived, by the emancipation of the slaves, of what the law had declared to be their property, and had encouraged them to acquire, they should at least be compensated for the loss; and, if any wish was entertained by parliament to try the experiment of raising West-India crops by the free labour of negroes, the petitioners expressed their perfect willingness, cheerfully to sell the whole island, at a fair valuation. The merchants, again, represented in their petitions, that the emancipation of the slaves would be a direct interference with existing securities over West-Indian property. The statute 14 Geo. 3, expressly recognized slaves as property of which mortgages might be granted. But, until it should be proved by experience, that free negroes would carry on the ordinary cultivation of the estates in a regular and effectual manner, as hired servants, the slaves formed the essential part of the security, because, without them, |