Should the wretched African find the moment for breaking his own chains,-and asserting his own freedom, he may well be expected to take terrible vengeance, to push the law of retaliation to its utmost extreme. But, when presented with his freedom,-when the sacred rights of humanity are restored to him, would that be the moment for rage, for revenge and murder? To polished and Christianized Europeans, such abuses of liberty may appear natural and inevitable, since their own history abounds with them: but the history of negro emancipation abundantly proves that no such consequences are to be apprehended from the poor uncultivated and despised African.

Mr. Foster. "I admit the force of your reply to my objection. Certainly, the dominion of law, if well supported by an adequate physical strength, would keep the liberated Negroes from those excesses of cruelty, which we generally suppose must immediately follow their emancipation. You would emancipate them from under the absolute authority of their masters, but keep them in subjection to the authority of the government; and by surrendering to them the right of self disposal, and self-management, allow them to enjoy the privilege of selecting their own employments of choosing their own masters of rearing their own children-of disposing of their own property, without being subject to the interference or the authority of others, while they render obedience to the laws of the colony ?"

Mr. Foster. "You made an allusion to the history of Negro emancipation, as tending to prove that no evils are found to result from the adoption of such a measure! Pray Sir, has the experiment ever been tried? if so, what has been the result?".

"Yes, Sir, the experiment has been tried, and the result has proved, that you may act with justice, and with kindness towards that oppressed people, without endangering either your life or your property. By your permission, I will read to you some of the instances of emancipation, which have occurred, and which prove that you may liberate Slaves, without any danger.

A

"The first of these cases occurred at the close

of the first American war. A number of slaves had run away from their North American masters and joined the British army. When peace came, the British Government did not know what to do with them. It was at length determined to give them their liberty, and to disband them in Nova Scotia, and to settle them there upon grants of land as British subjects and as free men. The Nova Scotians, on learning their destination, could not bear the thought of having such a number of black persons among them, and particularly as they understood the use of arms. The Government, however, persevering in its original intention, they were conveyed to Halifax, and distributed from thence into the country. Their number, comprehending men, women, and children, were two thousand and upwards. To gain their livelihood, some of them worked upon little portions of land of their own; others worked as carpenters; others became fishermen; and others work

ed for hire in other ways. In process of time, having embraced Christianity, they raised places of worship of their own, and had ministers of their own from their own body. They led a harmless life, and gained the character of an industrious and honest people from their white neighbours. A few years afterwards, the land in Nova Scotia being found too poor to answer, and the climate too cold for their constitutions, a number of them, to the amount of between thirteen and fourteen hundred, volunteered to form a new colony, which was then first thought of, at Sierra Leone. Accordingly, having been conveyed there, they realized the object in view; and they are to be found there, they or their descendants, most of them in independent, and some of them in affluent circumstances, at the pre-` sent day.

"A second case may be taken from what occurred at the close of the last American war. It may be remembered that a large, British squadron, having on board a powerful land force, made a descent, in the year 1814, on different parts of the coast of the southern United States. During these expeditions, some hundreds of American slaves joined the British standard by invitation. When the campaign was over, the same difficulty occurred about disposing of these as in the

former case.

The

It was determined at length to fix them in Trinidad, as free labourers. But, at Trinidad, a new objection was started against receiving them. planters of that island were sure that no free Negroes would ever work for hire, and therefore that the refugees in question, would, if made free and settled among them, support themselves by plunder. Sir Ralph Woodford, however, the governor of the island, resisted these prejudices. He received them into the island, and settled them where he supposed the experiment would be most safely made. The result has shewn his discernment. These very men, formerly slaves in the Southern States of America, and afterwards emancipated in a body at Trinidad, are now earning their own livelihood, and with so much industry and good conduct, that the calumnies originally spread against them have entirely died away.

"A third case comprehends those Negroes who lately formed the West Indian black regiments. Some of these had been originally purchased, rot as slaves but recruits, and others were drawn from among the slaves liberated from the holds of contraband slave ships. They had all served as soldiers in the West Indies. At length certain of these troops were removed to Sierra Leone, and disbanded there, and others were disbanded in the West Indies, the whole of them receiving their, discharge as free men. This happened in the spring of 1819. Many hundreds of them were set at liberty at once, upon this occasion, at Sierra Leone, where they founded Waterloo, Hastings, and other villages, being settled upon lands given them by the Government. Many brought with them their wives from the West. Indies, and others selected wives from the natives on the spot. It appears from accounts received from Sir Charles M Carthy, the governor of Sierra Leone, that they will prove a valuable addition to that colony. Those disbanded in the West Indies have conducted themselves with similar propriety.

"A fourth case comprehends what are called the captured Negroes, in the colony of Sierra Leone. These are totally distinct from any which have been mentioned. They were taken out of slave-ships captured at different times, from the commencement of the abolition of the

slave trade to the present moment, and on being landed were made free. After having recruited their health, they were taught to form villages, and to cultivate land for themselves. They were made free as they were landed from the vessel, in bodies of from fifty to three or four hundred at a time. They occupy at present twelve towns, in which there are both churches and schools. Regent's Town having been one of the first established, containing about thirteen hundred souls, stands foremost in improvement, and has become a pattern for industry and good example. The people there have now fallen into the habits of civilized society. They are decently and respectably dressed. They attend divine worship regularly. They exhibit an orderly and moral conduct. In their town little shops begin to make their appearance; and their lands show the marks of industrious cultivation. Many of them, after having supplied their wants for the year, employ a surplus produce in the purchase of superfluities or comforts. The whole number of these persons is about 14,000.

"Here, then, are four cases of slaves, either Africans or descendants of Africans, emancipated in considerable bodies at a time. I have kept them by themselves, because they differ from those which follow; and I shall consider the first three of the cases as one, so that the same reason will do for all.

"It will be said, then, that the first three cases are not strictly analagous to that of the West Indian slaves. It will be contended, that the slaves in our West Indian colonies having been constantly in an abject and degraded state, their faculties are benumbed; they have contracted all the vices of slavery; and their bosoms burn with revenge against the whites. How then can persons in such a state be fit to receive their freedom? The slaves, on the other hand, who are comprehended in the above three cases, found in the British army a school as it were, which fitted them by degrees for making a good use of their liberty. While they were there, they were never out of the reach of discipline, and yet were left in some measure to act as free men. They obtained in this preparatory school some knowledge of the customs of civilized life. They were in the habit also of

mixing familiarly with the white soldiers. Hence, it will be said, they were in a state much more favourable for undergoing a change in their condition than the West Indian slaves. I admit all this. But I never stated, that our West Indian slaves were to be emancipated suddenly, but by degrees. I always took it for granted, that they were to have their preparatory school also. Nor must it be forgotten, as a comparison has been instituted, that if there was less danger in emancipating the other slaves, because they had received something like a preparatory education for the change, there was far more in another point of view, because they were all acquainted with the use of arms. Would our West Indian planters be as much at their ease as they now are, if their slaves had acquired a knowledge of the use of arms, or would they think them on this account more or less fit for emancipation?

*The Author, who is indebted to the celebrated Mr. Clarkson for the extracts which he has given in thisnumber, after a most patient and deliberate investigation of the question, is compelled to differ from him on this point. When reading some time since a speech which the Right Honourable Mr. Pitt delivered in the House of Commons, in the year 1792, on a motion for the abolition of the Slave trade, the following paragraph struck his mind with great force.

"But now, Sir, I come to Africa. That is the ground on which I rest, and here it is that I say my Right Honourable Friends do not carry their principles to their full extent.-Why ought the Slave Trade to be abolished? BECAUSE IT IS INCURABLE INJUSTICE. How much stronger then is the argument for immediate, than gradual abolition! By allowing it to continue even for one hour, do not my Right Honourable Friends weaken -do not they desert, their own argument of its injustice? If on the ground of injustice it ought to be abolished at last, why ought it not now? Why is injustice to be suffered to remain for a single hour?"

The force of this appeal, on behalf of the immediate abolition of the Slave Trade, was felt by the writer of this note to be irresistible; nor could he avoid transferring the appeal, to the immediate abolition of Slavery. If stealing men away from their native country-from their homes-and from their families, is one of the greatest evils that was ever inflicted on suffering humanity; is not the retaining them in a state of slavery equally atrocious? And on what principle of consistency can the wise and the good, consent to tolerate the evil, for an indefinite length of time, especially, when they attempt to prove, and after they have proved, by facts and sound reasoning, that the emancipation of the Slaves may be