SLAVERY.

THE " Sketches and Recollections of the West Indies *," are a va- luable contribution to our knowledge of the condition of these colonies, and their real interests. They are valuable, not because they are particularly new, but because they are couched in a form likely to meet with attention : they are moreover convincing and instructive, on the side of a question which has been much misun- derstood, on account of the feeble literary assistance which it has received, compared with the strength and volume that have been employed on the opposite quarter. The author is a sensible person, of great experience: he is well informed on all points connected with the interests of the West Indies ; and he has moreover seen some transactions there which are worth telling, and are becoming matters of history. Perhaps the time which has elapsed since the actual occurrence of several of his topics, may have faded their brilliancy, and deprived them of some of their original vigour ; nevertheless, they are well worth perusal as a mere idler's lounge. But this work has higher claims: we are in hopes that it will at- tract attention to the great and interesting .question of Negro Emancipation, on the part of those who have been hitherto indif- ferent spectators of an unequal and dangerous conflict. The wielders of commonplace have always the advantage of inlisting on their side the indolent and uninquiring, the moderate and mid- dling ; because, in the absence of information, they are misled by the truism, and at least think there is most chance of being right on the side of those who appeal to well-established proverbs. We are far from thinking that the condition of the Negroes does not require the vigilant attention of public opinion : we believe that it has been and may still be ameliorated : our apprehension is, that in the prevailing ignorance of this question, too much may be done, as undoubtedly too much has been done in some direc- tions.

Liberty is just one of those convenient words which signifies any thing that a man wants; and it has always been made use of by agitators on account of its possession of this merit. Emanci- pation, whether Catholic or African, has been made similarly use- ful or similarly noxious. When a comfortable Negro operative is told that he is to be emancipated, he straightway dreams of idle- ness : an Irish peasant similarly tickles his imagination with low rents and cheap unexcised whisky. Abolition begat Emancipa- tion in West Indian matters, and the people of England have not yet learned to distinguish between parent and offspring. The cruelties of the Slave-trade took possession of the minds of hu- mane persons ; and the idea of dragging:a wretch from his country and locking him in a pestilential prison at sea, is at this moment confounded with the condition of the settled Negro agriculturist, happy in the midst of his family, protscted from the possibility of want by his master, and placed in a situation to acquire compara- tive wealth. The black native of Jamaica or Barbadoes partakes of his share of the confusion : he has heard of WILBERFORCE and BUXTON, as his friends in England, who are trying to pro- cure him Emancipation; which he of course takes to be money or money's worth, and is therefore anxious to have it. If it ever takes a more tangible form in his mind, it is when he conceives that Emancipation will enable him to live without labour—to bask in the sun all day long, and have a wife to bring him his dinner when he is hungry.

What is the value of liberty to an agricultural labourer of Nor- folk or Bedfordshire? Is it liberty which relieves the pain of having to dodge and worry the overseer every Saturday night for his allowance of a shilling a week per child ? If liberty, as it is said, gives a freeman self-respect and the bearing of a man, it should relieve him from dependence upon poor-rates, a hard-wrung ill-accorded alms. The West Indian slave is a servant whom his master cannot dismiss. His provision for life is secured upon the estate. No spendthrift can alienate his birthright. When this condition is described in other words, it is made the head and front of a grievance : the unprejudiced man will, however, per- ceive that it is only such where cruelty of manners prevails. It is the simplest matter of evidence to show, that on the whole, the treatment of Negroes is humane—that their comforts are considered both by the law, and by what is more, the habits of the colonist. Instances of oppression may and do occur : where do they not ? The hard landlord, who sells the bed under a sick tenant—the re- * By a Resident, London, 1825. Smith, Elder, & Co.

lentless magistrate, who sends a father of a family to a distant gaol for entrapping a wild bird or beast—the rich litigant, who ruins his poor neighbour by the expenses of law—are not these but a few among the many instances of oppression to be found in the freest of countries ?

The truth is, that happiness depends far more upon the absence

of care, and the regular supply of the animal wants, than senti- mentalists are willing to allow. It seems a shocking thing, at first sight, that a man should not be permitted to marry when and whom he pleases : and yet, to say nothing of the fact that this is precisely the condition of the British soldier, it may be answered, that were the permission of a respectable and well-informed person necessary for this purpose in every parish in England, it would mightily contribute to the happiness of the population : the parties would have to prove to such person or persons that they had ra- tional hopes of being able to provide for their offspring. In the slave countries the owner has the greatest possible interest in the welfare of his labourers. If they are unhealthy, they cannot work : if they are sick, the more skilful and humane the treatment of their disorder, the sooner they will be useful. 'Contrast the care- lessness of the future, the surety of never coming to want, the re- gular hours and the advantage of a doctor and an hospital in every case of illness, with the painful anxiety of the life of an English cotter—his wretched but in sickness, his dependence on drunken benefit societies, the parish, or charity. He may have his conso- lations—he ought to have : in his misforttines he is perhaps a more respectable man, according to our notions, than the merry black, dancing, laughing, pattering, and drumming : he is certainly not a more happy one. Why is the other a more respectable man ?— The fact is, that he is more respectable in his genus, but scarcely so in his own particular instance: he belongs to a kind which is capable of happiness of a higher order than the bondman. The pleasures of a noble-minded and intellectual freeman can never be attained by one who is not fully master of his actions—of his goings and comings, his energies and his repose. It is fur this that the state of West Indian slavery is bad : it condemns labourers to be labourers as a caste: no one can rise from out of them to enjoy the highest pleasures of humanity. This dwarfs the race. In the best of countries few attain the pleasures alluded to, and it is of this privation only that the negroes in our colonies can complain,—or rather could or would complain, if they were not as happy and as occupied as it is given to labourers to be, and if they could con- template their own condition with eyes they have not. The persons who complain for them are, for the most part, men who make a handle of their condition, in order to procure a reputation for hu- manity cheaply. Some of them, are perhaps, scarcely conscious of the motive themselves, such is the power of self-deception. These men range themselves with a second class, who, under the influence of prejudice and a confusion of names, conceive that in exerting their best powers to produce a change in the state of West Indian slavery, they will be doing good, that the object is philanthropical, and worthy of one who has inlisted himself in some of the classes of well-doers. Have not our readers remarked, that the national public is so large, that in despair of attracting a share of its at- tention, men love to assemble themselves in smaller knots, where, though the field may be small, distinction is surer and readier?— where public opinion in small is continually brought home to the domestic hearth ? Of this class are the pretenders to philan- thropy of all kinds : they love to do good, and to have it known— to their friends. They must have objects ; and one of those they have hit upon, most luckily for themselves, is the emancipation of the sugar and coffee cultivators of the West Indies. The question is capable of some bright colouring : it mixes well up with matters of evangelism: it has an advantageous connexion with the abo- lition : there is a strong party to attack ; and the mutual irritation of the parties keeps up the fire, and gives interest to the discussion.

It may have seemed that our observations are all on one side. The truth is, that at this moment there is but one party of suf- ferers : the persons who have most reason to cry out for emanci- pation are the West Indian proprietors : if their servants are to be instructed in mutiny, and their interests to be neglected because they possess labourers of the wrong skin, then it is they who should cry to be emancipated of their property. ‘Nve have heard of a gentleman who had a small family estate, which it cost him two hundred a-year to keep up : we fear that if matters go on long as they have done, West Indian proprietors will, like him, pray to be relieved of the honours of proprietorship. At the present moment, there is a small body of individuals who make a living—some a large professional income—by the agitation of this question : it may therefore be expected to continue. The party who sets it in motion has a credit for disinterestedness, and their opponents are branded with the charge of cruelty and selfishness. It is very easy to be liberal at another man's expense : people forget, while they are dealing in beautiful generalities abouthumanity and freedom, that they are putting in jeopardy the actual existence of a large portion of their countrymen—ruining their property, degrading them from their rank in society, blighting the hope of their families, and contributing to the spread of egregious errors, which may be the cause of great national as well as great individual evil.

The remarks we have made will receive confirmation from the following observations, made by our author, on the condition of the Negroes.

" It is not very easy to describe the customs and manners of the negroes. Since the abolition, great improvements hare been effected amongst them. The African customs are fast wearing out; the Creole

negroes speak English much better than they did ; their funerals are now conducted in the day-time, and according to European and Christian practice; their houses are better furnished, and they have better holiday

clothes than in former times. The colonies now constitute their country, more than one half of the slaves being Creoles ; and, in a few years, the

race of native Africans will be extinct. Education and the principles of our divine religion are also making rapid progress, and fitting them for emancipation, as they can afford to purchase it, or as it can be purchased for them.

" The plantation negroes are provided with good houses, each con- taining two, some of them four apartments. Their cottages are thatched with leaves of the palmetto-tree, or dyed guinea grass. They have poultry-yards, and gardens railed in ; and the latter produce all sorts of tropical fruits and vegetables. They receive allowances of salt fish, or pork, and rum, when the weather Or work requires it. They are sup- plied with clothes, cooking utensils, &c., according to their families and station. They are allowed sufficient time—twenty-six full days in the year, besides spare hoins—fo cultivate their grounds, and to carry their produce to market. Their property is never interfered with ; and the manager, should his own pig or goat not be fat, or should he require any for the sick house, never fails to pay for what he obtains at full market price. " On every well-regulated estate, the old negroes, and head men, enter into different operations, such as planting and cutting of canes, making and shipping off sugar, much more anxiously and zealously than an English ploughman or waggoner will into the work carried on in his master's service. The negroes consider themselves as part of their master's family, and are interested in his prosperity. If more sugar be made, and better prices obtained, it is probable that he will make some addition to their annual allowance—to their comforts and enjoyments. But whether times are good or had for the proprietor, the supplies for the negroes, sent from England, are always abundant.

" The estate negroes work from half an hour after sun-rise to nearly sun-set, with an hour to breakfast, and two hours to dinner. No sick negro, or pregnant woman far advanced, is ever asked or expected to work ; and although the driver still retains his whip of authority, it is seldom used except for the punishment of serious crimes. The bugle will probably soon supply its place, and the shell, and wand of office, prove sufficient for good government. Some of the negroes are rich enough to purchase their own freedom ; but they prefer being slaves, and retainin g their houses, gardens, &c. which they know would be no longer their's were they to become free.

" Many of the negroes are now regularly married, and they live com- fortably and quietly with their families. Formerly, numbers of the chil- dren died, not from want of care, but from over-feeding ; now, most of them are reared, and seen in groups, following the manager or proprietor as soon as they are able to walk. Twenty years ago, there were compara- tively few who had been baptized, and these were more French than Eng- lish negroes ; now the case is different, and, hand-in-hand, education and moral and religious instruction are rapidly extending their beneficial effects.

" Poor-rates are not yet known in the West Indies : it will be well, if in twenty years after the abolition of slavery the same tale can be told.

It is also a fact, which shows the good disposition and kindness of the proprietors towards their slaves, that, on arriving from England, their first visit is always to the hospital, and to the obi people. Without malting invidious comparisons, I hesitate not to affirm that the landed proprietors in England cannot hold out greater displays of philanthropy, or show greater attention to the wants and comforts of their old tenantry and servants. There is a bond of union and attachment—a feeling of protec- tion—a mutual dependence—subsisting between master and slave in the West Indies, stronger than between landlord and tenant, or master and servant, in England."