many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove." We have introduced the notice of it here, because we are desirous that it should become known to our readers before the lapse of another month; for we have seldom met with a work which appears to us to be more deserving of their attention. The style in which it is written, is very creditable to the literary acquirements and taste of its author; and the large and statesman-like views which he occasionally takes of questions of general policy prove him to possess a mind of no ordinary capacity. All considerations of this description, how ever, will be merged, to the view of the Christian reader, in the melancholy importance of the statements which he exhibits, respecting the moral condition of our Negro fellow-subjects in the West Indies; and of the overwhelming evidence by which these statements are supported. It is not our intention to follow Mr. Watson in his general views of West-Indian policy, but merely to refer to his very able work, as confirming those which we ourselves have been in the habit of laying before our read ers. One extract to this effect we shall be excused for giving; and we would gladly see every line of it imprinted deep in the conscience of every individual in the British empire. "It is indeed surprising," observes Mr. Watson, "that, after repeated ex'pressions of public sentiment on the subject of the slave trade had induced the legislature of this country to adopt the great measure of Abolition, the slaves, already in bondage in our colonies, should be discharged from the recollection and cares of that very people, whose humanity and Christian principles had prompted them to persevere, through evil report and good report, to the attainment of their object; and that, with the exception of a few, whose ever-wakeful eyes were directed to the condition of the Negro, it should appear sufficient to have destroyed the traffic in slaves on the coast of Africa, to have swept from the ocean every slave ship bearing the British flag, and to project means for inducing other powers to follow the example. It seemed enough that Africa was relieved; but her children in the West Indies were, in a great degree, forgotten. "Was it, that after so much toil, the agents in the struggle songht repose? That the glory of the triumph seemed to demand a respite from enterprise, that they might have leisure to enjoy the contemplation of its magnitude, and the difficulties it had surmounted? Or was it that the moral condition of the colonial slave population had never been fully displayed? The last was probably the true cause. The desolation which the Slave Trade inflicted on the shores of Africa; the horrors of the Middle Passage; the cruelties which had been exercised in different parts of the colonies; were all brought before the world. Sober narrative, the ap peals of a generous indignation, painting, and poetry were employed to state affecting facts, and rouse the strongest feelings of justice or of shame as to the bodily wrongs inflicted upon the Negro race: but it has never, with equal warmth and energy, been pressed upon the attention of the British public, that considerably more than half a million of Blacks and Coloured People held as slaves in the British colonies, live and die, not only without personal liberty, and the enjoyment of many important civil rights, for which, in truth, they are not, in every case, prepared; but without any religious instruction, except such as is offered by voluntary charity; without education of the lowest kind; without any attempt to civilize or moralize them; without even the forms of marriage; and, of course, without the domestic relations: being left to vegetate and die on the soil, without ever feeling the powers of immortal man, except in those misdirections which give ferocity to their resentments, cunning to their fraud, and impetuosity to their appetites. Such, however, is the condition, at this moment, of by far the greater part of the slave population of our colonies; and, in this condition, have lived and died the successive millions, who, from the commencement of the slave trade, have passed through the life of toil and injury our laws or our practice had assigned them, to depose before the bar of Eternal Justice, the general neglect of a Christian people, to promote, in any efficient degree, their moral happiness. "Did such neglect exist in an English county, it would be contemplated with horror, and immediately relieved: all the difference, however, lies between the breadth of a river, and that of a sea. The West Indies are, not less than our counties, portions of the Bri tish empire; their inhabitants not less its subjects; the duty of a Christian government to provide for their religions instruction, or to protect those from insult and injury who would instruct them, the same: and whatever local and accidental reasons may exist against affording them the full participation of our civil rights, none can exist for refusing them the benefits of our religion. If this be pleaded, then indeed it would lay the strongest ground possible for denouncing the state of Negro servitude in the West Indies, so unnatural and shocking a position of a part of society, that such an internal interference of the parent government with the internal regulations of the colonies, as the colonial writers so loudly protest against, would be a measure of absolute necessity to save the country from deep disgrace, and from a responsibility too fearful to be contemplated by any who seriously believe that there is a God who judges the earth.” It is not our intention to enter at all into an examination of the particular facts at issue between Mr. Watson and his opponents; but merely to state that to our apprehension he has most satisfactorily refuted their calumnies, and exposed the false and delusive statements by which a temporary currency was given to them. We shall content ourselves with producing a few of his facts and illustrations. One fact is (see p. 29), that "marriage does not exist among the slaves not instructed by Missionaries." This, says our author, is indeed a dark trait in the condition of the Negro of the West Indies. It "appeals more forcibly to the heart than would a volume of descriptive degradation." In the course of his able discussion of this subject, Mr. Watson introduces the following harrowing incident. It is related by Mr. Gilgrass, a Missionary in Jamaica, and is as follows: ous howling; and for that crime was flogged. Soon after he sold her other child. This 'turned her heart within her,' and impelled her into a kind of madness. She howled night and day in the yard, tore her hair, ran up and down the streets and the parade, rending the heavens with her cries, and literally watering the earth with her tears. Her constant cry was, · Da wicked Massa Jew, he sell me children. Will no Buckra Massa pity Nega? What me do? Me no have one child".' As she stood before my window she said,' My Massa, (lifting up her hands towards heaven), do, me Massa Minister, pity me? Me heart do so (shaking herself violently), me heart do so, because me have no child. Me go in Massa house, in Massa yard, and in me hut, and me no see em:' and then her cry went up-to God. I durst not be seen looking at her." The following is Mr. Watson's picture of a Sunday in the British WestIndia Islands :-"The slave is at his toil under the lash of his driver: he is working his ground for maintenance, or employed in carrying its fruits to market; where, after he has disposed of them, he spends the remainder of the day, if he be not too far from home, in dancing, drinking, and every kind of riot, in company with his fellow-savages." "The Sabbaths," says Mr. Gilgrass, speaking of Jamaica, "are spent generally as follows:-The slaves turn out to pick grass for the horses, mules, oxen, sheep, &c. There is no hay made in the islands: the grass they pick any where upon the estate, both morning and night throughout the year. After breakfast, a driver, with an overseer, accompanies the slaves to the Negro grounds, given to them in lieu of allowance from the master: here they spend the blessed Sabbath toiling hard all day. This is their rest. The se cond Sabbath, these slaves carry to market their provisions to sell, &c. In Jamaica, some of them travel with heavy loads upon their heads, five, ten, fifteen, or twenty miles. To accomplish this journey in time to pick grass on the Sabbath night, they travelled all the preceding Saturday night; if they were not in time to pick the grass, p *A master of slaves, who lived near us in Kingston, Jamaica, exercised his barbarities on a Sabbath morning, while we were worshipping God in the chapel; and the cries of the female sufferers have frequently interrupted us in our devotions. But there was no redress for them or for us.-This man wanted money, and one of the female slaves having two fine children, be sold one of them, and the child was torn from her maternal affection. In the agony of her feelings, she made a hide-no child." 9 по "That wicked Jew Master has sold my children, Will no White Master pity Negro What shall I do? I have allowance was made, but many stripes were laid upon them. Those that neither work, nor go to market, will sleep, smoak segars, and dance to a tomtom. The most pious slaves in the islands have to do the same work on the Sabbath as the others, when the master will not give the Saturday to do it in for that purpose. The slaves come to market in the forenoon, and from thence to the chapel; frequently the chapel yard was covered with market baskets whilst the slaves were at Divine worship. The Sabbath is the chief market-day in all the islands." "A letter from Mr. Warrener, an aged Methodist Missionary, contains the following anecdote. When I was in Antigua, one of the managers said to one of our Black members, who was a slave, "Ben, go down to the boat, and catch me some fish: I am going to have company to-day (Sunday), and I will pay you for your trouble." Ben said, "Massa, if you order me to go, I must go; but me take noting for what me forced to do on a Sunday." To the credit of the manager, he did not oblige him to go." One of the Missionaries, Mr. Brownell, speaking of the oppressive treatment to which they were sometimes exposed in the West Indies, relates the following circumstance. In a letter written from Tortola, to the Committee of Missions at home, he had remarked; "I find religion has made a great alteration for the better among the Blacks; but among the Whites, fornication, adultery, and neglect of all religion are reigning sins." This letter having been published in the Methodist Magazine, a Devonshire clergyman extracted the above passage, and sent it to his son, who was a magistrate in Tortola; in consequence of which, this magistrate and two others fell upon Mr. B. in the open street, beat him unmercifully, and laid open his head with the butt end of a whip. "They would certainly have killed me," observes Mr. B. "but Providence by a little circumstance preserved me; and I carried my life in my hand for many weeks after. I brought this cause regularly before the court of grand sessions; but, though it was done in the street in the open day, yet the grand jury could find no bill, and I was obliged to pay half the costs, for bringing a matter frivolous and vexatious before the court. But they asked and obtained leave of the judge to present me; and although they had no other evidence than an extract of a written letter, they soon found a bill, and I was put to the bar, and tried for writing a libel on the community. The facts were acknowledged to be true, but then, they said truth was a libel. Not being ready for trial they endeavoured to postpone it, and to throw me into prison until the next sessions; but this being overruled, the indictment was quashed. Such was the injustice and oppression I experienced, that A. Hodge, Esq. who was afterwards executed for cruelty to his Negroes, offered to stand my security, and the magistrate who assaulted me sat on the bench. The effects of this persecution were to unfit me for the work of the mission, and in all probability caused the death of my wife." "The persecution in Jamaica in 1807, obliged us," says Mr. Gilgrass," to put away 500 innocent slaves from our society, for we were liable to a fine of 201. for each Negro we instructed, and they to punishment for attending. The cliapels and meeting-houses were shut while Land my wife were in the common gaol of Kingston; and when I came out, and began preaching on the restricted plan, I was obliged to appoint six door-keepers to prevent the slaves from entering the chapel, and violating the law. They would, however, come in their leisure time, and stand on the outside. They would not, to use their own words, • make massa again to go to gaol; me no go IN a chapel, but me hear at door and window.' We beheld them and wept, but could say nothing." The following extract is of a more ludicrous nature. It furnishes au amusing instance of the proneness of some of the colonists to start at shadows, and of that strangeness of construction which fear and jealousy may put on the most harmless matter. It is a Jamaica Common' Council Minnte, containing questions put to Mr. Bradnack, a Methodist Missionary, with his answers. "In Common Council, Dec. 14, 1807. "Question 6. Are you aware of a resolution of the society of Wesleyan Methodists, entered into at the last Annual Conference, to this effect; That no person shall be permitted to retain any official situation, who holds opinions contrary to the total depravity of huterm official situation,' does not inman nature;' if so, answer whether the clude you as a preacher? and what, to the best of your knowledge and belief," is alluded to by the words, total depravity of human nature?' “Answer. Does not know of such a resolution being enacted lately, but thinks it proper. Supposes the term official applies to his office among others. Thinks the words total depravity al ludes to our fallen nature. "Question 7. Do you conscientiously think that the resolution before mentioned purports, that no person should hold an official situation, who has opinions against the fallen nature of man, as being born in sin, and that it has no allusion whatever to the state of bondage, as it exists in this country, being the total depravity of human nature!! "Answer. Answers particularly in the affirmative. "There were, it seems, some subtle divines in the Common Council in those days, and admirably fitted to judge the doctrines taught by the Missionaries." We conclude this article with a strik ing and admirable passage, with which Mr. Watson closes his pamphlet. "If the object of this party (the WestIndian Anti-mission party), so zealous in the cause they have espoused, as to put every periodical work and newspaper they can influence into requisition, to convey their charges and insinuations against those who are employed in instructing and christianising the slave population of the colonies, be also to influence the British Parliament in favour of some restrictive measure they may intend to propose; this attempt is still bolder than the incitement of the colonists, and implies a very indecent reflection upon a legislature, which of late has been more than usually active in directing its attention to the improvement of the education and morals of the lower classes; and which is not more distinguished for the talents of its members, than for a general and established character of religious liberality. suppose it even possible for the British Parliament to adopt the jealous feelings, the intolerance, and the total disregard to the religious interests of the Negro slaves, by which they have distinguished themselves; can only be accounted for by the proneness of men to measure others by their own standard. The presumption, however, cannot be so high, nor the real character of Parliament so little known, as to embolden them to make this attempt directly. We shall doubtless hear again, as formerly, of their anxiety for the instruc To tion of the Negroes, their wish that a better provision may be made for that purpose by the Church of England; and theu (which is the key to the whole), of the necessity of discountenancing the efforts of all other missionary societies. Bat with the evidence which has already been presented of the real state of the Negroes; the acknowledged impracticability of providing adequate religious instruction for them, by other means than are now in operation; the good which has already been effected; the important moral influence which is in present activity; and the extensive benetits, both civil and moral, which are every year developing themselves, the cause of the African may be left without anxiety in the hands of the British Parliament, and to the opinion of the British public, notwithstanding the active means of misrepresentation, and the calumnies which have been employed, to bring into discredit missions of the first order in point of civil importance, and of the greatest magnitude in respect of success. But there are deeper interests involved in them, and which cannot appeal to the heart in vain whilst our Christianity is any thing more than a name, and our professed respect for religion better than a hollow pretence. Are they considerations of no weight with the public, in an age of generous philanthrophy and enlightened zeal for the progress of the truth of God, that for so many years thousands of negleeted slaves have been sought out and instructed by Missionaries of different denominations, when none beside cared for them? That thousands in that period have passed into a happy immortality, having been previously prepared for it by the hallowing influence of religion? That a system of instruction has been commenced, which, if unchecked in its operation, will prepare an ignorant and abject class of men to read with advantage those holy Scriptures, which it is now the noble ambition of so large and respectable a class of society at home to furnish to every nation under Heaven; and which will extend all those blessings through the West Indies which are so justly considered as attached to the preaching of the Gospel, and to the possession of the sacred oracles? Is it a powerless appeal made to human and religious feeling, that crimes have been diminished among the slaves wherever the influence of the Gospel has been permitted freely to exert itself? That punishments have been proportionably mitigated? That the moral standard, however low it may yet be, has been greatly raised in many of the islands? That so many cheering spectacles of happy and orderly Negro families are exhibited? That the Negro hut resounds with the praises of Christ; and the infant children of Ethiopia, under the care of their converted mothers, are taught to stretch out their hands unto God? Such have been the effects, more or less strikingly displayed, wherever the Missionaries have laboured. The wilderness and the solitary place have been glad for them. And is this fair prospect, at once the effect of moral cultivation and the demonstration of its efficiency, to be broken in upon and trampled down at the call of men, by whose exertions a ray of light was never conveyed into the mind of a slave, nor any of his vices corrected; who can survey, without a sigh, his mind in ruins, the habitation of those prowling passions, which are the objects of their dread, and the instruments of his misery; content only if he continues to crouch under the whip, and to yield his appointed quantum of labour; and indignant, not at their own neglect, and his vices; but at the men who bave expended health and life in his cause and in theirs? A work of so much mercy cannot be placed under the protection of the public sentiment of the people of this country in vain; nor will the Parliament of Great Britain allow undertakings so dear to humanity and piety to be obstructed by calumny and claThe appeal, which, when the bodily wrongs only of the sons of Africa were in question, roused every feeling of humane interest in the Parliament and people of Great Britain, will not be less powerful, when connected with the mour. immortal interests of the mind, and the *solemnities of eternity;— Am I not a man, and a brother?' "In fine, Mr. Marryat, and the antimission party, whether at home or in the colonies, may be assured, that as far as the Methodist Missionaries are concerned they are not to be deterred by calumnies, nor even menaces from the prosecution of their work. Conscious of the pureness of their motives, encou raged by success, secure of the countenance of candid men, even in the islands, they will relinquish no station, nor hesitate to embrace every new op- · portunity which may present itself, for instructing and reforming the ignorant and neglected objects of their mission. In the work they have undertaken, they have endured contempt, and can still endure it; they have suffered bonds, and can again suffer them, should Mr. Marryat and his coadjutors succeed in exciting new persecutions. They have more than once lived down old calumnies, and they will live and act down new ones. Satisfied if they make full proof of their ministry before God and unprejudiced men, and be able to present as their best epistles of recommendation thousands of once pagan Africans, living under every kind of vicious habit, now enlightened in the great principles of Christian doctrine, and adorning it in the morality of their lives, and the meekness of their spirits. The aspersions with which they have been assailed, have never produced in their minds a consciousness of disgrace, nor will they now produce it. There are calumpies without point, and reproaches without shame-there is a cause which converts censure into praise, and brightens obloquy into glory." VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. THE present month has produced little foreign intelligence of any kind, and certainly none which is calculated to diminish the fearful interest excited by our domestic occurrences. Neither the loan of eight millions, which the French government have succeeded in obtaining from foreign merchants; nor the dreadful fire which took place at Port Louis in the Isle of France; nor the ac 爵 cession of Denmark and Switzerland to the holy alliance; nor the partial advantages which the patriots of South America are reported to have gained; and we recollect no other foreign event of the slightest importance; are of a character to detain us from the consideration of what has been taking place among ourselves. On the 28th of February, parliament |