tresses. The latter, in particular, should never be suffered to be spectators of these corrections. Humanity and benevolence are among the brightest traits in the female character-without these, even beauty, wit, and accomplishments, would lose half their charms. The tender heart

of lovely woman should weep at a tale of distress, and she should ever be prone rather to relieve and alleviate, than inflict pain. Cruelty and revenge should be far from the female bosom.

Mrs. Charlotte Smith has given in one of her novels the following lesson, with respect to this. A young officer, of liberal education and genteel connections, being in the West Indies with his regiment, fell in love with a young lady, the daughter of a respectable planter, and offered her his hand; which, with the consent of her parents, she accepted. The day of marriage was accordingly fixed, and every thing previously settled. Early in the morning of this wished-for day, the impatient youth hurried to his mistress's apartment, that, out of a frolic, he might surprizė her in bed. On entering it he found she was up, and he was charmed with the neat and elegant appearance of every thing around: every part of the apartment was decked and perfumed with garlands and festoons of various coloured flowers. He inquired of a female slave where her young mistress was, and upon her pointing to the back area of the house, he flew thither on the wings of

love! But what was his astonishment-to behold the charmer of his soul very coolly and deliberately superintending the punishment of a little mulatto girl, who was suspended by one hand, while a negro whipped her. Her piercing cries sufficiently testified the agony she endured, and sunk deep in the heart of the thunder-struck lover, who stood aghast, not offering to advance. At length he recollected himself, and springing back abruptly, drew out a slip of paper out of his pocket, and hastily penciled upon it an eternal adieu !

Real examples might be adduced to shew, that this exercise of severity by females in the West Indies on their offending slaves, was not viewed with that kind of feeling which it would be in Europe, but that such ideas are now wearing away. The West India females, with a few exceptions, are at the present day as mild, indulgent, and gentle towards their slaves, as their relative situation will admit. Indeed, the female who has the management of a house full of plack attendants (and some houses are harthened with twenty or more such domestics) is much to be pitied. They are often so perverse, refractory, and indolent, that the person who has the task of keeping them in order, and seeing that they perform their respective duties, is perhaps more in effect a slave than individual among them. This duty of twenty would, without the turbu

any

lence and trouble, be performed by six white domestics. The truth is, that Jamaica may be said to be a country unworthy of, and unsuitable to, the tender and amiable part of the human species. They are too often placed in situations that militate against their finer sensibilities; they are often ill-used and neglected; and those who ought to be their protectors, their defenders, their affectionate companions, act, in too many instances, in a manner inconsistent with that character.

CHAPTER XIII.

Education in Jamaica.-Mental precocity of the Creoles.-Thoughts on the establishment of proper seminaries.-Literature, and literary

ONE of the most lamentable wants in Jamaica is that of proper seminaries for the instruction of youth. This evil is the fruitful source of many others. Were the West Indians, who are educated at home, to be brought up under such able teachers as we can boast of in Great Britain, to whose authority they should equally be delivered over, as is customary there, the young Creole, who receives a British education, would not have so much cause of triumph over his less fortunate countrymen in the superiority of his mental attainments. But the misfortune is, the teachers in general here are little better than half-educated adventurers, caught fortuitously up in the country, who are little solicitous about the improvement of their pupils, and still less about their morals; whose chief solicitude is in temporizing, from selfish and interested motives, with the parents of the children, and who, knowing their situation to be precarious, and reputed despica

ble, have neither the talents, the courage, nor the inclination to command respect; fearful they night only provoke opposition and dislike.

It is remarked of the children of the West Indies, that they exhibit earlier proofs of prema ture genius than the children who are born in colder climes. This remark may be partly true; and the philosopher, perhaps, would be for assigning it to some physical cause or other. He would be for ascribing this phenomenon to the maturing influence of the climate: he would probably say, that, like its native fruits, genius soon ripens here; or, like the charms of the person, which rapidly expand, bloom forth in beauty, but are doomed to an earlier decay than the loveliness of the temperate zone. Without advancing any of these fanciful opinions, it will be sufficient to remark, that if it be true, that the inborn genius of the West Indian expands at an earlier age than that of the European, it does not often follow that it matures with the same facility to intellectual perfection. Few have given proofs to the world of literary eminence; and those few have owed that eminence to the classical influence of a British seminary. The truth is, that most of the children here are vivacious, lively, and shrewd; but this does not always turn out to be the early indication of genius: on the contrary, as in other countries, the poorer classes of uneducated people here are deplorably simple and