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SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.


BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Price Five Shillings, Second Edition.
CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE,
CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO CEREBRAL ORGANIZATION.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“ Our opinion of its merits was indicated by the space originally devoted to it in our pages,
and its value is increased by the way in which the author has cited many events of the past
two years as additional corroborations of his theory."-Spectator.
“ The work is distinguished by a style worthy of its subject; it is clearly, calmly, and
classically written, and altogether is worthy the attention of the lawyer, the physician, the
philosopher, and the philanthropist."-Scotsman.
“ Characterised by a high tone of philanthropy, and by a calm, clear, and conclusive
method of logical treatment. Harmonizing, as the general purport of this masterly essay
does, with views so long and fervidly urged in these columns, we cannot but recommend it to
a still more general circulation than it has already so worthily attained.” -Morning Herald,
“We beg such of our readers as are interested in improving our criminal law, to direct
their attention to the evidence of Mr. Sampson.''-Athenaum.
“A remarkable work. It would be affectation to conceal that the verdict in the case of
M'Naughten goes very far to establish the doctrine of Mr. Sampson.”-Fraser.
"We recommend this work to our readers with an assurance that they will find in it much
food for reflection."-Dr. James Johnson's Medico-chirurgical Review.
“We recommend the entire publication to all our readers ; not one of whom can rise from
a perusal of it without being pleased and instructed, and on the main practical points, we
hope, deeply persuaded."- Monthly Review.
“ One of the most able works which have been written in recent times on criminal juris-
prudence viewed in its relation to cerebral organization; and to the merits, sound judgment,
and humanity of which, we have already borne our testimony.'-Literary Gazette.
“ We recommend it to general attention."-Chamber's Edinburgh Journal.
“ The disquisitions of this author are not less interesting than important." - Liverpool
Albion.
“ We heartily reommend this work."--Legal Observer.
“ Mr. Sampson treats of the abolition of the punishment of death-we have seldom seen
a point better argued."'--Justice of the Peace and County Law Recorder.
“A very acutely written work. For the reception of such a theory the public mind does
not appear to be fully prepared, but at the same time it is obvious that the current of opinion
is running in that direction. We do not indeed regret altogether to see the growing disposi-
tion to view great crimes as impossible, except to minds of an insane character; for in our
opinion it will be a great improvement in criminal legislation, to take obedience to the laws
in general as the standard of moral sanity.”—The Jurist
“That Mr. Sampson well deserves the success he has enjoyed, nobody will dispute who
reads any half-dozen pages of his volume. Statesmen and philanthropists, humanity and
Christianity, owe to him a debt of gratitude, for having placed the questions of capital
punishment and the insanity of criminals upon intelligible principles, which, if adopted, will
put an end to the doubts and difficulties in which these topics have been hitherto involved,
and will prepare the way for some rational and satisfactory legislation.”—Law Times.
“ All who are interested and who is not?-should get Mr. Sampson's work." - Tyne
Pilot.
“Mr. Sampson supports his Christian purpose by arguments and illustrations that appeal
strongly to the reason of the reader. The work is humane, intelligent, and vigorous. It
should be extensively circulated. Opposed to the moral of the present law, it nowhere
excites resistance to the strength of present institutions. Mild in its principles, it is also
gentle in its prompting. What the author sees right to do he would also teach to be rightly
done. Mr. Sampson has written well, and there can be none who read his work but will
wish well to his theory."--Monthly Magazine.
“We welcome Mr. Sampson as a most valuable accession to the band of phrenological
advocates of sound criminal jurisprudence."-Phrenological Journal.
II.
Price Sixpence.
THE PHRENOLOGICAL THEORY
OF THE
TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS DEFENDED.
In a Letter to John FORBES, Esq., M.D., F.R.S., &c. Editor of the
British and Foreign Medical Review.
“ The basis of the theory being sound, Dr. Forbes' sophisms will be of little avail against
it.'-Literary Gazette.
“Mr. Sampson's reply is in terms as mild as it is powerful. Its severity consists in its
total demolition of his opponents' reasoning." --Phrenological Journal.


.
م ہمی .7 .
وصت
with kind regards,
1 m. B. Sampson
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
A LETTER
ΤΟ
TO
THE HON. DANIEL WEBSTER.
By M. B. SAMPSON.
LONDON:
S. HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET.
1845.
Be


THE NEW YORK!
PUBLIC LIBRARY
152810
ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
1899
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, WILSON, and FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.


PREFACE
TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
The following letter has appeared at a time when
the people of the United States are too deeply absorbed
in the Texan question to give heed to a plan of Abo-
lition. The prospect of annexation has aroused the
Planter from depression and intoxicated him with the
idea that, by a bold effort, Slavery may not only be
upheld but extended, while the friends of freedom,—
still, unhappily, a minority in the Republic,-scared
by the sudden energy of their opponents, so far from
hoping the immediate overthrow of the iniquity would
now be well satisfied with the certainty even of pre-
venting its propagation.
But this panic will soon subside, and whichever
way the annexation question may be settled, it can-
not fail to give increased intensity to Anti-Slavery
agitation.
From signs exhibited at the recent Presidental elec-
tion there is reason to hope that the result of the
contest in 1848 may entirely turn upon the views of
the candidates regarding Slavery. Every argument in
favour of the institution has now become obsolete
wherever civilization is known, and the only security


PREFACE.
for its continued existence is in the apathy of man-
kind. A question like that of Texan annexation, by
dispelling all apathy on the subject, must hasten its
approaching doom.
But although this doom cannot be long deferred,
there is reason to believe that it will not be wrought
out by violence or spoliation. The growing intelli-
gence which has extinguished everything like sym-
pathy with the Slave-holder, has at the same time
developed broader views of the economical duties con-
nected with emancipation ; so that no measure of
reckless legislation is likely now to be attempted.
Whatever, therefore, may be the immediate reception
of the plan submitted to the American people in the
following letter, the confidence of its Author will in no
degree be shaken with regard to its ultimate adoption.
March, 1845.


CONTENT S.
SECTION I.
PAGE
OF THE INTERESTS INVOLVED IN THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY,
AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY SHOULD BE REGARDED
3
SECTION II.
OF THE MEASURES HITHERTO TAKEN FOR THE ABOLITION
OF SLAVERY . . . . .
. . 20
OF SLAVERY.
SECTION III.
OF THE MEANS BY WHICH EMANCIPATION SHOULD BE EFFECTED 63
NOTE.
THE RIGHT OF PETITION
.
.
.
.
.
. 87





TO
THE HON. DANIEL WEBSTER.
SIR,
Amidst all that has been written and spoken on
the question of Slavery in America, I have never
met with any argument in which the claims of each
interest seemed to be fairly comprehended. Such
statements, however, may have been put forth, al-
though I have not had the fortune to meet with
them; and I should therefore abstain from entering
upon the subject, but for the belief that in analyzing
these claims I shall be able to suggest a plan by
which they may be adjusted.
Looking at the question as one of primary im-
portance not only to America but to the world, I
cannot address this letter more appropriately than
to yourself. Intended only to promote the practical
and immediate welfare of all the interests to which
it refers, it might be submitted indifferently to a
representative of Northern or Southern views. It
is because, without reference to those views, you


are regarded both at home and abroad with a re-
spect which, in every mind, will survive all dif-
ferences of the hour, that I seek to gain a patient
hearing by the influence of your name.
For the sake of convenience, my remarks will
be divided into three sections. First, I propose to
consider the various interests involved in the Abo-
lition of Slavery, and the extent to which these
interests should be regarded. Next, to point out the
evils which must follow any scheme of emancipation
in which abstract principles are sacrificed to doc-
trines of expediency, — particularly as exemplified
in the case of the experiment in the British West
Indies; and lastly, to suggest a plan which shall
reconcile the claims of each party, in so far as those
claims are equitable, and which, avoiding the errors
of British legislation, shall be capable of immediate
adoption, without involving the anomalous spectacle
of a measure righteous in itself leading to calamitous
results.
I am, Sir,
Your faithful Servant,
M. B. SAMPSON.
Clapham New Park, Surrey, England,
4th November, 1844.


SECTION 1.
OF THE INTERESTS INVOLVED IN THE ABOLITION OF
SLAVERY, AND THE EXTENT TO WHICH THEY SHOULD
BE REGARDED.
The interests alleged to be opposed to the abolition
of Slavery are,—the Slave-owners individually; the
States, whose productive power would be destroyed;
and the Slave population itself, which is now con-
trolled and provided for, but which, from a state
of freedom, would fast retrograde into barbarism.
1. The claim of the Slave-owner to his right of
property is often met by a bold denial. It is alleged
that no law can constitute one man the property
of another, and in the abstract this is correct. But
it is possible for a State to make an unjust law, and
having thus tempted individuals into error, it can-
not escape, when it sees the wrong which it has
committed, from its liability to make amends to
those whom it has misled. The Slave-owner, when
his legal title is threatened, will plead that, in
passing the law which gave it to him, the State
did not seek his individual profit, but its own; that
no higher exercise of intelligence or morality could
have been expected from him than that which has
been manifested by the collective wisdom of his
countrymen; and that the act to which a legal sanc-
B 2


IES IN
tion had been given, was hardly likely to strike his
mind as an improper one; that he does not profess
to be wiser or better than others, and that even on
points where he has doubts, he might be led to dis-
card them through faith in the better judgment of
the majority; that in all his social relations he has
only sought to satisfy himself that he was acting
in obedience to the laws, and that he never dreamed
he could be legally punished for an act which, at the
time of its performance, was not recognised as a crime.
For the State to take from him a legal title which,
for its own purposes, it voluntarily gave, and for
which it permitted him to give a consideration, is
undeniably a punishment, and one the injustice of
which becomes more apparent, when it is recollected
that the title was not only given, but promised to
be maintained, so that any individual, or body of
individuals attempting to deprive him of it should
be severely punished.
If we were to arrive at the conclusion that all laws
may be abrogated the moment they are discovered
to be unjust, without providing compensation to those
who, acting under them, have parted with their
money, there is very little property in the world that
could be regarded as secure. To one diffident in his
own judgment, and unable, in all cases, even with
an earnest desire, to ascertain the true path, it would
be no guide that he is supported by the law. “It
sanctions such and such a course to-day,” he might
reflect, - and if I invest my money I am told that it
02


sa
means
will be safe, that my title will be good, and that
those who deprive me of it will be punished. But
I am not able to determine its inherent morality;
to-morrow the State may discover that it is wrongly-
founded, and I may be a ruined man.” It is con-
sidered by many that the largest portion of the
National Debt of Great Britain was contracted to
carry on unjust wars, for which the future energies
of the people were recklessly pledged; but even if
the impolicy and injustice of these wars were uni-
versally admitted, no one would think of visiting
upon the individual lender the consequences arising
from the errors of the State. The majority of the
mind of England gave sanction to them, and the
same majority must provide the means of meeting
their disagreeable results.
But it may be urged that, admitting the liability
of the State, where there are two parties to an unjust
transaction, the one should bear the same proportion
as the other. That the Slave-owner and the Govern-
ment should divide the loss. This argument, how-
ever, will not hold good. It is the law itself which
is unjust; the after acts of individuals are merely
its inevitable consequences. The question, therefore,
simply is, what share had the Slave-owner in the
framing and maintenance of the law which declared
negroes to be “ property,” and what is to be his
consequent proportion of the loss to be sustained by
its abolition. His share was precisely that of an
individual, and nothing further, and all that he can


eces
be called upon to bear is his proportion of such tax
as may be necessary to defray the compensation to
be given. Each member of the aggregate body by
whom the investment of capital in Slave-holding was
sanctioned, is liable to the same responsibility as the
one who acted on that sanction.
The best way in all cases to ascertain the duty of
a State, is to see what it would be just for an indi-
vidual to do under like circumstances. The State
is merely the representative of the justice of the
many. It says to individuals, “We take power out
of your hands, because if you were permitted to use
it, you would be swayed by personal feelings, which
would cause you to act dishonestly. If you could
set those feelings aside, and deal to every man justly
and impartially, there would be no occasion for a
government: but this is out of the question, and a
central power must be established, which, owing to
its being (as an aggregate of the many) free from
private bias, will be able to do in each case what
it would be right for the individual to do if it were
possible to trust him.” Whatever, therefore, it is
proper to demand from an individual it is, above all,
proper to demand from a government.
Now, if a person elegated to represent the interests
of the many, and known to possess the best means of
collecting information and forming a judgment, were,
in the exercise of his discretion, to tempt another to
embark money in a particular direction, by under-
taking, on behalf of his constituents, to execute a


certain title-deed, and to maintain its legality, (it
being generally understood that he was entitled to
perform such an act,) what course should we require
of him, as an honest man, upon his making the dis-
covery that the title he has professed to execute ap-
plies to an object to which no legitimate possession
can attach—that he had never, in fact, any right to
give it, and that it is expedient, therefore, to cancel
the whole transaction ? Most assuredly he is bound
to say to the party whom he has misled, “ You paid
so much, as the value of the title which you received
from me, and the legality of which, as an inducement
for you to carry out my views, I promised to main-
tain. This promise I now find I cannot in conscience
keep. I am aware, that in giving it I did not make
any reservation in my own behalf; that in under-
taking to protect your title against all other parties,
I did not reserve the right of depriving you of it
myself; nor did I give you leave to suppose that the
undertaking was only for a specific period. It was
altogether unlimited, and was put forth for the pur-
pose of inducing you to invest your capital in a mode
which I believed to have been for the advantage of
those whom I represent. I have, therefore, no alter-
native, in taking back that which I indiscreetly gave,
but to pay its market value,--a value upon which
you have doubtless based all your proceedings. If
I am unable to do this, if I assume the right to
break my pledge, and at the same time refuse you
an equivalent, of course, for the future I must be
as


prepared to find that my word will be rejected by
all men.”
Thus then, although the law which constitutes one
man the property of another is inherently unjust, it
is binding in the country where it exists between the
State and individuals. If the State has erroneously
recognized such property, and has contracted in good
faith, for its own ends, that the right of possession
shall be held sacred, it is especially bound in its own
person to recognize the obligation, or to make amends
for its non-fulfilment.
On the other hand, the relative position of the
Slave and his master admits of no discussion. It is
founded and maintained in fraud, and fraud only,
and of course cannot be recognized by other powers,
or by the Slave himself. The inalienable rights of
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, have not
been so inefficiently upheld by the wise through all
the struggles of advancing civilization, as to admit of
their appearing among the unsettled questions of the
nineteenth century.
In the case of the African, it is sometimes pleaded
that his condition is greatly improved by his cap-
tivity amongst white men; but this does not palliate
the means by which the improvement has been
brought about. The condition of a human being
who has passed his days in virtue, is raised beyond
all conception by his release from this life; but the
murderer who helps him to Heaven must not expect
on that account to escape retribution.


9
We must recognize, therefore, the institution of
Slavery as sinful without mitigation, and that it is
the perfect right of the Slave to break his bonds
whenever practicable. It would be well, however,
that the acknowledgment of this right should always
be accompanied by explanation. The great doctrines
upon which is based the argument for emancipation
also proclaim the sin of meeting violence by violence.
He, therefore, who would instil into the Slave the
propriety of resorting to any means inconsistent with
a forgiveness even of the tyrant who has most tres-
passed against him, counsels him to reject the very
creed upon which rests the surest hopes of the free-
dom of his race. There are, I fear, some who pro-
fess themselves friends of the slave who will renounce
this application of the doctrine; but to the common
heart it will commend itself by its simple truth. All
attempts to arouse the fears of the Slave-owner by
threats or attempts of violence, have only led to in-
creased severities and a stronger dislike of emancipa-
tion; while by stimulating the lower feelings of the
negro they must have tended to subdue those quali-
ties of his nature by which alone he can permanently
hope to defeat the injustice of his oppressors. If it
is possible for the slave to escape without fraud or
violence, it is his duty to do so,—otherwise it is his
duty to submit to his lot, and to regard it as the
will of that Being who will requite in his own time,
and who has expressly forbidden a return of treachery
for treachery, or blow for blow.


10
men
2. Having thus considered the interests of the
Slave-owner individually, and the extent to which
his position is to be respected, we have now to con-
template the effect which the abolition of Slavery
would produce upon the interests of the State.
Of the two great arguments commonly used on
this head—the danger of a war of races, and the
certain ruin which must result from diminished pro-
duction, the latter only is worthy of attention. It
is against all experience to suppose that those who
have shown docility and patience under oppression
and ill-treatment, will all at once assume an oppo-
site nature when their grievances are removed. The
supposition is also at variance with the oft-repeated
assertion made by Southern men in defence of
Slavery, that the negroes, in their present state, are
contented, happy, and well-cared for, and feel a
strong affection for the families of their owners.
This state of things could only have grown up under
a mild rule, and it is therefore vain to allege in the
face of it, that the negroes are only kept from at-
tempting to exterminate the whites by the superior
force which the latter, by means of the institution
of Slavery, are enabled constantly to exercise. It
may be said that the advantage consists in the power
to check any combination for violent ends; but it
would be unreasonable to assume that a race of “con-
tented and affectionate” people are only waiting for
the power to combine in order to become discon-
tented and savage; that it is a peculiarity, in fact, of
peaceable natures to become fierce and malignant in


11
the aggregate! If, however, reason were not suffi-
cient to decide this point, the example of the Bri-
tish West Indies would be conclusive. In no State of
America does the negro population preponderate more
over the white than in South Carolina, where it is
335,314 against 259,084, while in British Guiana,
in 1834, it was 71,916 against 3006. If the experi-
ment of complete emancipation has taken place safely
in Guiana, it may surely be attempted elsewhere
without dread; * and, apart from the evidence of the
docility of the negro, it must seem a satire upon the
white population of the Southern States, to suppose
them doubtful of their skill and courage to counteract
any possible “ combination” of an equal number of
that race, whose intellect and energies they have ever
held in scorn.
· So abundant are the evidences of the feebleness of
the blacks, and their generally inactive and submis-
sive spirit, that the argument of fear, when urged by
the white man, appears to be degrading to the posi-
tion which he occupies, and one which the advocates
of emancipation should therefore treat with utter dis-
regard. The other argument, however, to which I
have alluded, the effects of emancipation in causing
diminished production, is one of undeniable weight.
* In the Island of Mauritius the population was 8844 white
against 84,464 coloured. Of the slaves, about 40,000 are estimated
to have been imported Africans, and consequently far less ripe for
freedom than those in the other British possessions, or in the
United States. Yet this island formed no exception to the general
results.


12
That sudden freedom of choice on the part of the
negro between labour and idleness would always be
followed, more or less, by a selection of the latter,
was a fact easily to be inferred from his physical con-
stitution: nor was it indeed often denied until the
ardour of debate occasionally outran discretion. The
result of the experiment in the British possessions
has at length effectually closed all discussion on the
point, and shown that the anticipations of evil in
respect to it have a solid foundation.
I recognize this argument, therefore, as possessing
great weight, not in opposition to emancipation, but
in opposition to any plan of emancipation in which
it shall not have been duly considered. It is a simple
task to sweep away evils if we are reckless as to
those we substitute in their place; but it is the na-
ture of all truly righteous acts to be free from attend-
ant mischief. Now, to the extent that emancipation
causes a diminution of labour, it must not only throw
land out of cultivation, and produce individual ruin,
but deprive a large portion of the inhabitants of the
globe of the necessaries of life. The English peasant
must pay more for her cotton gown, and the farmer
of New York must diminish his consumption of sugar;
and although deprivations of this kind may at first
sight appear simple, they are certain to produce
many disastrous results both on the moral and phy-
sical condition of mankind. It will not do, therefore,
to exclaim, “ Such things are not to be heeded. Our
first great duty is to get rid of the crying sin of


13
Slavery, at all hazards, and without regard to conse-
quences.” The Creator has so ordered the world
that even here prosperity is a certain result of virtue;
and the power of showing that such is the case forms
one of our strongest aids in awakening the sordid-
minded to His will. If, therefore, in carrying out
any measure of duty we act so as to bring injurious
consequences immediately in its train, we destroy our
most convincing argument to induce others to do
likewise. With regard to emancipation in the Bri-
tish colonies, it has been well observed, “ An effort
must be made to show those tropical countries which
still cling to Slavery, that this moral triumph has
entailed no counterbalancing sacrifice; that economi-
cally, as well as morally, all parties have gained by
the change. If this can be done, the slave-holding
countries will follow our example from interested
motives; and the abolition of Slavery will create that
high and delicate sense of the rights of all human
beings, which at present does not exist among them,
and to which, therefore, we should appeal in vain.
On the other hand, if we do not succeed in making free
labour at least as available as slave labour, we shall
have given to the Slave-owners an additional motive
for adhering to Slavery, and, by affording them an ad-
vantage over us in the markets of the world, a stimulus
to increase the number of their slaves and the activity
of the slave-trade.” That these results have actually
taken place is now matter of history; and it there-
fore more especially behoves those who may hereafter


14
case
legislate for the abolition of Slavery to guard against
the evil.
If, indeed, we arrive at the conviction that there
is no way of stepping from sin but such as in its
first effects shall lead to disaster,—that the imme-
diate consequence of a return to obedience must in-
evitably be bitter—it will of course be our duty to
submit to it; but reason and experience combine to show
that sacrifices of this kind are not required, and that
they only follow as the penalty of our own imperfect
plans. In the case of emancipation being effected
without any arrangement to prevent a diminution of
produce, the poor sugar consumer of civilized coun-
tries is exposed to daily privations destructive of
health and comfort, which are comparatively unfelt by
his wealthy neighbour; and hence a glaring disparity
is evident in the distribution of the suffering conse-
quent on the measure. That such a disparity could not
arise under the laws of Providence as the necessary
working of an arrangement wholly just, will be ad-
mitted by all. It is a contingency which the framers
of an Emancipation Act are bound to provide
against; and the plea that the great end of their
plan is a righteous one, will no more justify neglect
on this point than it would if we were to bring a
man into the open air after we had wrongfully confined
him amidst infection, without taking precautions that
the act of justice should not cause injury to others.
Of course if no party is able to suggest a less im-
perfect method of carrying out a paramount duty
rs


15
no
than one which involves a disregard of minor duties,
which should be concurrently performed, it is best to
act as far as our light will go, but we must not com-
plain when we experience the natural consequences
of our want of clear perceptions, nor regard them as
unavoidably flowing from obedience to the Divine
laws. At the same time, also, we are bound to look
with more leniency on those who, under such circum-
stances, refuse to follow our example, than if instead
of rejecting truth in an imperfect form, they could
be charged with spurning her when presented to
them in her fair proportions.
3. The remaining argument that the welfare of
the negro is involved in the continuance of Slavery,
since the restraint to which he is subjected is essen-
tial to prevent him from falling into barbarism, is
wholly unsupported by experience. Even supposing
the effects of emancipation to be such as to drive the
white population from the country, owing to their
inability to render it productive, there is no reason
to believe that the condition of the negro in his
uncontrolled state would be lower than it is at pre-
sent. In Hayti, where the most unfavourable cir-
cumstances have been presented, the course of the
people is still stated to have been one of progress
rather than of retrogression, and “ the population has
been doubled by a natural increase since the estab-
lishment of freedom.”
It may be said that it is in opposition to the fact
of the negro having been raised in the social scale


16
by transportation from freedom in Africa to Slavery
in the West, to suppose that his improvement would
not be stopped by permitting him, without restric-
tion, to select his own mode of life. But such is
not the case. The negro does not advance in Africa,
because a pestilential climate keeps all white men
from its shores, save those who, by means of the
Slave-trade, brutalize the natives, and divert them
from the pursuits of industry; but on the continent
of America the negro, even if he dwelt in a com-
munity of his own, would be brought constantly
under the influence of traders and missionaries, and
although his improvement would be slow, it would
not be suspended. It would proceed, indeed, at a
greater pace than can ever be hoped for under
Slavery; more especially such Slavery as that which
now exists in the United States, where the predomi-
nant effort of the master is avowedly to crush the
development of all moral or intellectual power. That
any condition of unregulated freedom is superior to
Slavery is also supported by the fact that the free
coloured population of the Southern States (described
by Southern orators as occupying the most unfavour-
able position in which the African race could by any
possibility be placed) show, a duration of life far
exceeding that of their servile brethren.
But although the argument of the maintenance of
Slavery being desirable for the welfare of the negro
is wholly untenable, it must be admitted that any
plan of emancipation will prove vitally defective


17
which fails to provide the certainty of his steady and
rapid advance. The condition of the people of St.
Domingo and Liberia, although it may be one of
progress, is certainly not such as to present to
slave-holding countries any very striking conception
of the injury they inflict upon the race by with-
holding from them their liberty; nor can the act
of unriveting their chains, and permitting them to
vegetate in freedom, be regarded as a fulfilment of
what is due for three centuries of wrong. However
gratifying might be the act of Abolition, it would be
a bitter disgrace to a civilized people to permit it to
be accompanied by the avowal that with all their
intelligence they are unable to devise a means to
avert the disastrous idleness which threatens to result
from it, and which, by preventing any satisfactory
advance of the long-injured race, if not by leading
to their actual deterioration, would rob the measure
of its brightest fruits. For any plan, therefore, to
be thoroughly welcome to the friend of the negro,
it is essential that it should provide against the
danger of his falling into that degree of sloth, the
proverbial root of all evil, which would impede
his progress in civilization; and although the want
of power to suggest such a provision is not to be
admitted as an argument against the demand for
immediate emancipation any more than the want of
power to devise a preventive for the falling off of
the productive capabilities of the country, it would,
as in that case, show the friends of emancipation to


19
am
places-although we do a small evil that a great good
may come we must remember that in no case is it
permitted for us to seek our ends by conduct of this
description. So long as we do not see that we can
work towards the good we desire by wholly unexcep-
tionable means, we may be sure that we have not yet
hit upon the true path, and that it is our duty still
to pause—not in apathy, but with an earnest seeking
for direction, and the assurance that our efforts will
be rewarded. It is therefore better that Slavery
should not be abolished, than that it should be abo-
lished by denying compensation, because this would
amount to the sin of acknowledging sufficient light
to recognize the laws of God, and daring, while in
possession of it, to assert that they can be worked out
by fraudulent designs.
The eagerness to carry out a favourite point by
measures, of the perfect justness of which we entertain
a doubt, is a sure way to retard our final aim. That
justice cannot be inconsistent with itself, that there
must be some way of redressing every evil which shall
be free from injury to any human being, should al-
ways be borne in mind, and each scheme rejected,
until that one is presented which satisfies the con-
science as being consistent with integrity to all. If
we o'erleap these points, and professing to serve
Heaven, offend, for the sake of “ expediency,” in the
slightest degree against our sense of duty, we destroy
that coherency which can alone give strength and
beauty to our plan, and introduce at once the elements
of its ruin.
c 2


SECTION II.
OF THE MEASURES HITHERTO TAKEN FOR THE
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.
HAVING considered the points to be provided for
in any measure which may be proposed for the
Abolition of Slavery, it is proper to review the means
which have already been taken or suggested by the
United States or other nations for their accomplish-
ment. If we can find in any quarter that the diffi-
culties connected with them have been fairly met
and overcome, the trouble of further inquiry will
be spared, and America can have no pretext for a
single moment to delay emancipation. If, however,
only a portion of them have been got over, the task
still devolves upon us of providing for the remainder;
while, if none can be shown to have been success-
fully grappled with, we shall have to discard all
consideration of what has already been proposed or
adopted—useful only as a warning—and to suggest
an independent plan.
The British Emancipation Act, of 1833, stands
forth as the measure upon the success of which the
progress of emancipation in other slave-holding
countries was considered greatly to depend. De-


21
praved as mankind may be, no doubt can exist that
the majority, if unperverted by false fears of damage
to themselves, would prefer to show kindness instead
of cruelty to their fellow-men; and it was therefore
reasonable to entertain a certain trust, that if the
measure adopted by Great Britain should be found
to produce or threaten no injurious consequences,
it would, after a fair trial, be speedily imitated by
other nations. Such imitation has, however, in no
single instance taken place. Eleven years have
passed, and although the friends of emancipation in
the United States and elsewhere, have used their
constant efforts to hold up the example of Great
Britain, and to pourtray in the brightest terms the
results of her experiment, the feeling on the question,
so far from having advanced, has undergone a most
unfavourable change, and the prospects of the co-
loured race are less hopeful now than at any former
period. The inquiry suggests itself, Can this effect
have arisen from the working of a judicious measure,
or is it the natural consequence of attempting to
achieve a good end by unjust and imperfect means?
and an examination as to how far the British Act
was framed in accordance with the conditions which,
in the preceding section, have been shown to be
essential to success, will lead us to an answer.
These conditions required that provision should be
made for compensation to the planter, for the mainte-
nance of the productive power of the country, and for
the certain advancement of the coloured population.
1


22
There appear to me to be few instances of more
fatal delusion than that which is nursed by the
people of England regarding the compensation voted
by Parliament to the parties interested in this ques-
tion. From the commencement of the debates by
which that vote was preceded, down to the present
time, a constant outpouring of self-gratulation has
always attended any reference to the matter. It
was originally announced as “a costly sacrifice,"
widely spoken of in the House of Commons as a
“ lavish sum,” a “munificent gift," "an instance
of magnanimity such as never occurred before,” &c.,
and universally admitted out of doors, and even by
foreign nations, as a “ noble vindication of the right
of property.” Subsequently it has been described not
only by ardent abolitionists, but by political econo-
mists as “ a measure reflecting quite as much credit
on the wisdom and honesty as on the generosity of the
British Nation;" and these ideas (too agreeable to the
national vanity to stimulate any very close question-
ing from less informed persons) meeting with uni-
versal reception, have led to a belief not only that
our past sins in connexion with Slavery have been
effectually wiped out, but that England is entitled
to boast of her singular virtue, and to cast stones at
those countries which refuse to imitate her example.
A little consideration would dissipate this error.
It must readily be perceived that the Act of Eman-
cipation was nothing more than an act to provide for
the abandonment of a heinous sin, in which the State
S


23
of Great Britain had through a long period indulged;
and that even if its provisions had been framed in per-
fect wisdom and justice, the spirit in which it should
have been adopted was that of deep humiliation for
the past, together with a sense that in merely ab-
staining from a continuance in wickedness, we could
certainly acquire no right to boast of having done
anything to claim the especial praises of our fellow-
men. Under the most favourable circumstances,
therefore, the subdued tone of sincere repentance
would have been alone appropriate, coupled with that
patient interpretation of the sins of others which a
newly awakened consciousness of our own enormities
is calculated to beget. But the mode in which
the claim for compensation was dealt with, was not
such as to entitle us even to the amount of gratifica-
tion which might thus have been enjoyed, since it
was characterized by features of injustice, showing
too plainly that we were not prepared to effect our
withdrawal from the sin of Slavery without com-
mitting a new infringement of the moral law.
In bringing forward his plan, Lord Stanley (then
Mr. Secretary Stanley,) having distinctly recognized
the claim of the planters to full compensation for the
withdrawal of their legal title to property in the
coloured race, took as his estimate of the value of
that property the sum of thirty millions sterling,
being 800,000 slaves at 371. 10s. each; and the way
in which he proposed to meet this amount was by
a direct payment of twenty millions, and by conti-
was


24
nuing to the holders a right of property in the labour
of the negroes for periods (according to their class
as predial or non-predial) of twelve and seven years,
the value of such labour being considered as equi-
valent to the balance. It will be seen from this that
the Government, after admitting the utter sinfulness
of Slavery, refused to abolish it at once, and entered
into a sort of composition; they were willing to incur
a certain expense, but could not summon resolution
to meet the full amount. Thirty millions being re-
quired, they could make up their minds to go as
far as twenty; and to raise the remaining ten, they
resolved to rob the negro of his labour for a further
period of twelve years. It is true, a pretext was
urged for this course, that "immediate emancipation
would be no less ruinous to the slave than to the
master;" and that the period for the prolongation of
Slavery “under the specious title of apprenticeships,
where nothing was to be learned, and no wages were
to be paid,” was alleged to be necessary as a proba-
tion. But, even if we admit the necessity of en-
forcing the labour of the negro for a certain term
preparatory to complete emancipation, it is difficult
to see how it justifies the appropriation of the value
of that labour. The work might have been enforced
so as to keep up the industry and discipline of the
negroes, while the ten millions, at which it was esti-
mated, might have been paid over to them; or if it
had been deemed dangerous to place them suddenly in
possession of money, it might have been reserved for


25
ce
their benefit at some future period. Apart from
this, however, the plea for the necessity of the ap-
prenticeship, as far as regarded a large class of the
negroes (if not the whole of them), was shown at
the time to be completely untenable, for no one
attempted to assert that the class of artificers and
mechanics were not fit for instant liberty. Although,
therefore, it may be admitted that as respects two-
thirds of the required payment, the British Govern-
ment were disposed to act honestly, it is obvious
that the “noble example of the maintenance of the
right of property,” as far as it was involved in the
remaining third, was to be upheld only at the ex-
pense of the coloured race.
Still, under this arrangement-supposing the esti-
mate of the value of the Slaves at thirty millions to
have been fairly made — the compensation to the
planters would have been complete, however question-
able the means of raising it. If it had been carried
out, no question, as far as the strict maintenance of
the right of property amongst ourselves was concern-
ed, it could have been raised; and although reproach
would still have attached to the Government, it
would have arisen simply from the fact that after
having sinned for upwards of two centuries, upon
awakening at last to a sense of their guilt, they had
thought it better to continue sinning for twelve years
longer than to increase their payment of twenty mil-
lions to thirty. The doctrine promulgated by this
line of conduct being, that it is inexpedient to pursue


26
virtue at all costs, and that there is a point at which
a continuance in wickedness may be permitted by
Providence to prove more profitable than a departure
from it.
But the full compensation declared by the Minister
to be due, was not destined to be paid even in this
or any other form. During the progress of the de-
bate, the advocates of the negro succeeded in showing
that there was no just ground, even as a matter of
safety, for prolonging the state of Slavery, under the
title of apprenticeship, for the periods proposed; and
Lord Stanley, finding that he could not carry the
measure if he persisted in that prolongation, reduced
the periods from twelve and seven years to seven
years and five. The question naturally arises, In
what way was this reduction made up to the Slave-
owner ? The Minister had stated that “ he had
considered the period of apprenticeship to be part of
the compensation paid to the proprietor,” and it is
evident that upon a reduction of this part, it became
necessary that an increase should be made in some
other way. To the consequent interrogatory " Whe-
ther, as he had reduced the period of apprenticeship,
he intended to increase the compensation ?” a simple
reply in the negative was given, Government having
previously admitted the breach of faith, by announc-
ing that “ They had strenuously endeavoured to
perform their portion of the engagement; but from
the claims made upon them it became impossible,
notwithstanding their utmost exertions, to carry it


27
U
into effect." Having no choice but to break their
pledge, or to resign, they determined on the former
course; and of just so much compensation as was
represented by the term of apprenticeship taken off,
the proprietors were consequently defrauded.
Thus then upon the confession of the Minister this
very measure of compensation, so universally quoted
as a noble instance of national integrity, was marked
by a breach of faith which has few parallels in
modern legislation. The proceeding, indeed, was so
flagrant, that no excuses were attempted; and it was
evidently the nearly unanimous feeling of Parliament
that it had better be suffered to pass unnoticed. It
was seen that a call for the sum necessary to make
up the thirty millions would meet with universal
opposition, and no one was prepared with a plan by
which justice might have been satisfied without so
fearful a drain upon the resources of the country; a
drain which, owing to the system of taxation, must
have fallen chiefly on the industrious classes. Al-
though, therefore, every member must have felt that
the sum awarded was an unjust sum—that the pro-
prietors were entitled to nothing or to more, the in-
justice, in the eagerness to gain a certain end, was
wilfully overlooked, and evil was deliberately sanc-
tioned that good might come.
It will, perhaps, be alleged that the fact of the
planters having consented to receive the compensa-
tion awarded, shows that no breach of faith can be
considered to have taken place, the two parties being


28
entitled to make what bargain they pleased. But
this plea is denied, because the planters were not left
to their own free action, but driven by intimidation
to accept the terms proposed. The Government were
aware that by the discussion of emancipation the ex-
pectations of the coloured population had become
excited to a pitch at which disappointment would
have proved dangerous, that the unreflecting masses
in England were determined also to have the measure
passed without inquiring very rigidly into the means,
and that consequently if the planters refused what
was offered, they would, as the excitement increased,
have to be content with less. The intimidation thus
created proved sufficient to induce the consent of
the West India interest, and also perhaps to impress
them with gratification at having got off so well: but
there is evidence that this gratification was only such
as is felt by men who, having fallen into powerful
and unscrupulous hands, find that by giving up a
portion of their property they will be permitted to
escape with the remainder.
So notorious was the existence of this intimidation,
that unreproved references to the advantages to be
derived from it were of constant occurrence during
the debates. “Wait for a little period,” urged some
members, " and a fourth of the money will be quite
sufficient;" and one member more ardent than the
rest, after connecting the “growing intelligence ” of
the people with a probability of their “sponging off
the national debt,” animated by the advantage which
WIE
rrer


29
the Government had already taken of the fears of
those with whom they had to deal, urged it very
naturally as a plea for further spoliation. “We had
a contest with Ministers the other day, and what has
been the result? They yielded. Was ever such con-
duct witnessed on the part of any Ministry before?
Did not Ministers pledge themselves to the West
India body to give them twenty millions and twelve
years' apprenticeship? and yet after that contest, they
the next day, without notice, came to a decision to
take off six years of that term; and the West India
interest gave in, for they were afraid. But if you on
this side of the House will be but united as you ought
to be—if one hundred and fifty of you will but stand
by one another, I will be bound that the Ministers
will give up everything."
In condemning the breach of faith which was
thus practised on the Slave-owner, it is not necessary
to overlook the misconduct of his class. In no case
can the character of the party with whom we have
to deal bear in the slightest degree upon a ques-
tion of right, save that it is necessary for us to act
with more scrupulous fairness in our dealings with
the corrupt than with the virtuous, inasmuch as any
deviation into which we might fall would be attri-
buted by the upright to unintentional error, while by
the unprincipled it would be perpetuated as an ex-
ample. It was urged amidst the many unweighed
suggestions which abounded on all sides, that the
planters should be deprived of compensation on ac-
0
ase


30
CO
nse
count of their having broken their engagement to
assist in promoting the Ministerial scheme. This
scheme was agreed to be carried out by the Govern-
ment on the understanding that the planters should
co-operate; and if the planters failed to perform this
part of their engagement, the Ministers were obvi-
ously at liberty to cancel the entire bargain. But
the cancelment of a bargain to work out emancipa-
tion by a particular method, could give them no right
to do more than change it for some other method,
consistent with honesty (which of course might be
adopted independently of the consent of the planters),
or else to leave the question undisturbed. In the
House of Commons, however, an opinion seemed pre-
valent that because the planters had agreed upon a
certain mode, of giving up a legal right, and had
afterwards failed to fulfil their part of the agreement,
it became just for the Government to take that right
from them by force, although in the contract there
was no stipulation for such a penalty.
Having shown that the course pursued by Great
Britain regarding compensation cannot be taken as
an example by other nations, the Government, not-
withstanding their immense resources, having been
either incapable or unwilling to grant its full
amount; the next step will be to examine if her
plan of emancipation included that which is to be
regarded as the second element of success ;-viz: a
due provision for the maintenance of the productive
power of the country.


31
That a reduction in the work performed by the
negroes would be the result of emancipation, unless
some measures could be designed to avert it, was
foreseen by the British Government: and the plan
adopted to meet the evil was, as we have seen, the
establishment of a period of apprenticeship or modi-
fied Slavery preparatory to complete abolition. Into
the provisions of this plan it is unnecessary to enter,
its failure having been so complete as to lead to its
discontinuance in the various colonies on the 1st of
August, 1838. At that period, therefore, the negro
was suffered to come into possession of unrestricted
freedom, without any further method having been
devised by the Government for guarding against his
withdrawal from steady labour. The consequences
of this neglect in diminishing the productive power
of the West India colonies were such, to use the
words of a Report of a Committee of the House of
Commons on West Africa, as to give “an extraor-
dinary stimulus to the Slave-trade for the supply of
Cuba and Brazil,” and the extent to which the dimi-
nution of produce took place will be shown by the
following tables :-


32
QUANTITIES OF PRODUCE IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN FROM THE YEAR 1831 TO 1843,
BOTA INCLUSIVE.
Years.
Population.
Sugar.
Molasses.
Rum.
Coffee.
Cocoa.
galls.
Slaves.
800,000
1831
1832
1833
cwt.
4,103,800
3,773,456
3,646,205
cwt.
323,306
553,663
686,794
7,844,157
4,713,809
5,109,975
lbs.
20,030,802
24,673,920
19,008,375
lbs.
1,491,947
618,215
2,125,656
Apprentices.
769,000
1834
1835
1836
1837
3,843,976
3,524,209
3,601,791
3,306,775
650,366
507,495
526,535
575,657
5,112,400
5,453,317
4,868,168
4,418,349
22,081,490
14,852,470
18,903,426
15,577,888
1,360,355
439,447
1,612,304
1,847,145
99
Freemen.
750,000
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
3,520,676
-2,824,372
2,214,764
2,151,217
2,508,552
2,502,591
638,007
474,307
424,141
430,221
471,737
605,611
4,641,210
4,021,820
3,780,979
2,770,161
3,823,128
2,802,138
17,588,655
11,485,675
12,797,739
9,927,689
9,186,555
8,251,892
2,149,637
959,641
2,374,301
2,920,298
2,490,597
1,496,554


33
was
On this head it has been remarked :* “ The extent
to which the quantity of produce annually raised
in the British sugar colonies was reduced, and the
cost of production enhanced by emancipation, is start-
ling to contemplate. The decrease in production
was not confined to sugar; it extended to all the
staple products of these colonies; and it can be shown
that it was occasioned by the consequences of eman-
cipation alone.
" It has been proved by the evidence given to the
West-India Committee of the House of Commons,
that from 1837 to 1840, in British Guiana much
less work was done in every stage of cultivation;
that production had fallen off, and some estates had
been put out of cultivation. In Trinidad the difficulty
of procuring continuous labour was such, that Mr.
Burnley assured the committee, were he proprietor of
every estate in the island he would throw the half
out of cultivation, convinced that he could produce
more by concentrating the work of the available
labourers on the rest. In Jamaica the produce of
the large estates was reduced one half, and the
estates of the poorer proprietors were entirely de-
serted by the labourers. In Grenada no estates had
been actually thrown out of cultivation, but the crops
had been so diminished that the result was much the
same.”
It will thus be seen that, as far as regards the
second point to be provided for, the British measure of
* Spectator, 15 April, 1843.


34
emancipation affords no safe example; and it now only
remains for us to inquire if it gives any guiding light
upon the third point, viz.; the duty of providing for
the certain advancement of the coloured population.
That a great advance has taken place in the
intellectual and moral condition of the negroes in
some of the West India Islands, from the date of the
Emancipation Act, must be admitted by all who will
consult the various statements put forth since that
time. In Jamaica, the calm and cheerful antici-
pations which grew out of the reports of their admir-
able conduct on the 1st of August, 1838—the open-
ing day of freedom—have been more than fulfilled;
and there is ground to believe that under a con-
tinuance of favourable circumstances a degree of
civilization would be reached, in which they would
not suffer by comparison with the labouring classes
of other countries.
The progress which has thus taken place may be
attributed to the faithful efforts of their religious
teachers, and to the vigilance of the Home Govern-
ment in enforcing the fair working of the new system.
The Emancipation Act itself made no actual pro-
vision for the advancement of the negro, but merely
set him free to work out his own progress, and to
conquer the effects of past ill-usage. The results,
therefore, as far as they have gone, will probably
be quoted to show that nothing more was necessary;
but a little reflection will satisfy us that such an
argument would not hold good, and that the course
me


35
of Great Britain has been as short-sighted upon this
point as upon those we have already considered.
If the negro has already advanced morally and
intellectually, so as to fulfil all ordinary anticipations,
what more, it will be asked, can be required? It
is plain that this state of things would be perfectly
satisfactory, with one proviso, viz.; the certainty
that it is not a merely temporary progress, but such
as will be steadily maintained.
This certainty is wholly wanting, and there is
evidence that the prospect is of the most precarious
kind. No effective mode having been devised by
the Government to ensure the constant industry of
the negroes, their labour since 1838 has only been
attained at an enormous cost, and in an uncertain
manner. It is true that the acquisitive propensity
strongly marks their character; but the activity of
this one impulse has not proved sufficient to over-
come, even partially, their constitutional indolence,
except when stimulated to a great degree. The
consequence is, that the rate of wages, even for such
labour as can be obtained, is so high as to render
it impossible for the West India planter to compete
either with the slave or free produce of other coun-
tries; and although, even under the recent altera-
tion of the sugar duties, an amount of about a million
and a quarter sterling will annually be paid as pro-
tection on that article alone, we are told that,
without larger sacrifices on the part of the mother
country, it will be impossible for the proprietors to
an
D 2


36
continue cultivation. At a public meeting at Anatto
Bay, on the 19th of June last, resolutions were passed
affirming that, under existing circumstances, “the
colonies are doomed to ultimate ruin," and that the
inhabitants (both white and coloured) “ scarcely
know whether to surrender themselves to despair, or
to attempt to remonstrate with the Government.”
It is added also, that the approaching necessity for
the abandonment of estates “ will cut off all prospect
of civilization for the children of Africa, and thus
entail a curse more grievous and deplorable, if possi-
ble, than the curse of slavery—the curse of savage
existence and enduring barbarism.” Again : “ A pro-
prietor," under date the 8th of July, alluding to the
recent measures, writes from Grenada, “ As things
were, men fancied they might struggle on, in the
hope that better times might come round; but now
all hope is destroyed :" while from other quarters
anticipations of the same gloomy nature have been
forcibly proclaimed. It must be admitted as pro-
bable, that these statements, although they coincide
with the representations of the West India body in
the House of Commons, greatly exaggerate the evils
to be apprehended, and that the present amount of
protection will prove sufficient to prevent an aban-
donment of cultivation; but they serve to confirm
a very general impression, that no great reduction
could take place without endangering this end, and
that upon the continuance therefore of an enormous
annual sacrifice the welfare of the negro depends.


37
“ If, under the difficulties of the present crisis,” says
Mr. Gurney in his “Winter in the West Indies,”
“ the prohibitory duties on slave-grown coffee and
sugar should be relaxed or extinguished, a market
of immense magnitude would immediately be opened
for the produce of the slave labour of the Brazils,
Cuba, and Porto Rico. The consequence would be,
that ruin would soon overtake the planters of our
West Indian colonies, and our free negroes would be
deprived of their principal means of obtaining an
honourable and comfortable livelihood.”
Now when we consider that the cost of this pro-
tection presses chiefly upon the poorer classes of
England, it is impossible to avoid the apprehension
that it may not always be patiently submitted to.
At all events, little can be said for the wisdom or
justice of a Government which has left the civi-
lization of the coloured race to be dependent on
the maintenance of an artificial price for one of the
chief necessaries of life—an article equally in de-
mand by the rich and the poor, and of which the
free use is absolutely essential as a preventive of
serious diseases.
Symptoms of impatience have already been widely
manifested. “The high price of colonial produce,"
writes Mr. Oldfield, “for the last few years, has
created throughout the country a very general feeling
against the prohibitory duties upon the sugar and
coffee of Brazils and Cuba ;" and in one of the
London journals the case has been strongly put. In


39
emu
growing civilization, we become impressed with the
idea of a class of persons cruelly placed by defective
legislation in a false position. It is no reproach to
the negro that he does not work more continuously.
In a country where twenty-six days' work during the
year is sufficient to supply food for the labourer and
his family, it would be difficult, even if he possessed
the energy of a European, to prevent him from fall- ·
ing into idleness, unless some motive could be awak-
ened in addition to those which ordinarily operate.
He has been placed in a position which even the
British or Anglo-American labourer would be unable
to resist, and which must inevitably unfit him to
submit cheerfully to the low rate of remuneration
which, under natural circumstances, is paid for un-
skilled labour in every other part of the world; a
rate to which he must nevertheless approach, or be
abandoned to self-government, whenever his present
artificial condition shall be disturbed.
Although in the foregoing considerations we have
looked only to the effects of emancipation on the
moral condition of Jamaica, and some other islands
where they present the most favourable aspect, we
find them fraught with alarming probabilities. The
worst anticipations may therefore be entertained for
the fate of those communities where, owing to a
higher rate of wages, the necessity for prolonged
industry is less. From evidence collected by the
Agricultural and Immigration Society of Trinidad
three years after full emancipation, it appeared that


40
in that island an active labourer 6 could easily save
six or seven dollars per week;" but that, although it
was possible even for women to perform three " tasks"
a day with ease, “ very few of the labourers performed
two tasks, many only three or four in the week, and
some not more than one;" that plunder of canes was
carried on to a great extent, and could not be checked,
because the planters were afraid the labourers in
such case would leave their work and go elsewhere;
that the greater number squandered their earnings
in “ drinking, gambling, and dissipation;" that so far
from employing their spare time in raising provisions
and small stock,“ produce of that kind had fallen
off,” owing to the carelessness caused by high wages;
and, finally, that the labour actually performed was
“ dirty and slovenly, and infinitely worse than it was
in the time of slavery.” It may be urged that some
of this evidence came from questionable, because
interested, sources; but it found confirmation from
other quarters: and even if only partially correct,
it must lead to conclusions of a very unfavourable
kind. It was shown on the most reliable testimony
that “ drinking was becoming more prevalent even
amongst the women," and that the habit threatened
6 in two or three years to demoralize the whole
labouring population;" that the vice of gambling
was increasing also every day; that “ instead of
improvement in agriculture, everything had retro-
graded;" and that although no peasantry in the world
were so well able to pay for the education of their
me


41
OOI
children, they showed" the greatest reluctance to
incur the expense.”
In the third case, then, as in the others, no due
precautions were either adopted or suggested; and it
will therefore appear, that in all the points essential to
the success of emancipation, the British measure was
deficient, and that it must consequently be discarded
from the consideration of those who desire to pro-
mote in other countries the freedom of the coloured
race. It is not unsatisfactory to arrive at this con-
clusion, because, if the measure could be shown to
have been sound, the fact of its not having been imi-
tated by other nations would present a sadder
augury than need now be entertained.
Nor can those who refer to the opinions and motives
avowed on this question in the British Parliament feel
surprise at the failure of their counsels. At an early
stage of the discussion, Lord Stanley took occasion
explicitly to deprecate a consistent adherence to prin-
ciple. Recognizing the experiment as one “more
mighty, as well as more important and more interesting
in its results, than any experiment ever attempted to
be carried into effect by any nation in any period of
the history of the world,” his lordship deemed it im-
possible to be carried through without sacrificing
“ some of those abstract principles — those wild,
though benevolent theories,” which are founded on
the great rule of conscience, that you have no right
to keep any man subject to any conditions except
such as are imposed upon him by the laws of nature.


42
It was particularly sought to impress upon Parlia-
ment at the outset that they were “ dealing with
realities, and not with abstract principles," although
it was omitted to be shown what light other than
that derived from abstract principles should guide
them in dealing with anything. It was as if the
Minister had said, “ We are about to deliberate with
a view to avert evils which we have drawn upon our
heads by disobedience of primary laws;—we seek to
proclaim to other nations that we now recognize those
laws; and this attempt, more important and interest-
ing in its results than any other in the history of the
world, requires for its practical and safe operation
that on minor points those laws should be dis-
obeyed. It is vain to allege that while the very
foundation of our measure consists in the assertion of
an abstract principle, it is inconsistent to urge a
departure from abstract principles in carrying it out.
Arguments of this nature are wild, inexpedient, and
unstatesmanlike. The government of the world is so
ordered, that while a departure from abstract princi-
ples, on a great scale, inevitably brings the severest
penalties, an infringement on minor points is often
attended with the best results.” The views on this
head expressed by the proposer of the measure met
with ready sympathy from those whom it was his
business to conciliate; the only difficulty being such
as must inevitably arise in all similar cases,-namely,
that although the various speakers uniformly recog-
nized the propriety of an occasional departure from
00


principle, each of them seemed to differ as to the
direction in which that departure should be per-
mitted.
It is not, indeed, clear that the Government acted
distinctly, even at starting, upon any principle what-
ever; for while, on the one hand, the Minister re-
ferred to the measure as an act of “ justice and hu-
manity,” which was imperatively called for, even
though it would be attended with economical disas-
ters, thereby recognizing those principles as his sole
motive, he afterwards constantly alluded to it as a
“ great boon,” and even boasted that “ the Govern-
ment had not called upon the negro to pay any part
of the debt which he owed to the State for his free-
dom.” From this it is evident that while the Go-
vernment at times recognized the inherent claim of the
negro, it was at other times felt that no such claim
existed, and that emancipation therefore was a piece
of liberality by no means absolutely called for. On
the opposition side it was also evident that little ad-
vance had been made towards a comprehension of the
moral argument on which the claim for freedom solely
rests. Sir Robert Peel could not recognize it, but
thought that liberty should be sold to the negroes,
and wished Great Britain to take a lesson from
Spain. “He did think it possible that by adopting,
on a large scale, the principle of the Spanish law-
by holding out to the slave, as a stimulus to labour,
the prospect of emancipating himself gradually by the
produce of it, by aiding that produce, when it
va
ce


44
III
VOISE
2
W
ert
reached a certain amount, by a grant out of the
public treasury, we should be promoting the most
advantageous measure. If we had lain down the
principle of aiding the slaves, by a grant a long way
short of twenty millions, to purchase their freedom
by their own labour, it would have been more for the
interest of the slave than the course we were then
pursuing.”
On the other hand, those who distinctly recognized
the claim of the negro, and were, in this respect, able
to comprehend and distinctly act upon a principle,
showed that on other points they were not equally
inflexible, and that while they clamoured for a strict
adherence to the moral law in one direction, they
were willing to sacrifice it in another. Thus, while
the Government admitting the claim of the planter
to full compensation, permitted themselves to de-
part from principle by granting a lower amount
than they had acknowledged to be due, the friends
of the negro, contended that the planters were not
entitled to any compensation, and that the payment
of it was a fraud upon the people of England, voting
for it at the same time in all its alleged injustice for
the sake of getting freedom for the slave. On all
sides the readiness to concede principle—to arrive, in
fact, at a desired end by improper means-was une-
quivocally manifested.
That a measure entered into with such feelings
should bring disappointment to its promoters, is con-
solatory to the friends of truth; for, if it had yielded


46
err01
lors
going considerations too much importance has been
attached to existing and coming evils, since, although
they are of undoubted magnitude, they admit of an
easy remedy; that this remedy has already been
recognized, and put in train for adoption; and that
if it had been made part of the original plan, no
difficulties would have arisen.
Now, we are entitled to believe that there are few
errors which, even in the darkest hour, may not
be retrieved by those who sincerely set about the
task; and I am therefore far from denying, in the
present instance, that a remedy is to be found. But,
inasmuch as the leading members of the British
Senate, by whom the original measure was sanc-
tioned, have not yet manifested a sense that its
failure arose out of their departure from the straight
path, it is to be feared that any remedy that may
at present find favour in their eyes will hardly be
such as to enable them to regain it. On the sur-
face, therefore, there is nothing to inspire confidence;
but it is, nevertheless, proper that we should pause,
to enter into a short examination of the schemes
proposed..
The most unpromising feature of these schemes
consists in their showing a total misconception of
the cause of the evil which they are intended to
cure. This evil, whatever it may be, cannot ori-
ginate in the smallness of the population in the West
Indies, because the distress now complained of has
arisen solely from emancipation; and emancipation,


47
TI
while it has not reduced the number of coloured
inhabitants, has actually doubled their working
capacity, owing to the fact — that the labour of a
free man, when it is fairly brought out, is twice as
productive as that of the slave. It is evident, there-
fore, that the evil has nothing to do with a scarcity
of hands, but that it must be looked for in the de-
fective legislation, which permits existing energies to
lie dormant.
" The result of our own enquiries," writes Mr.
Gurney, in 1840, " is a conviction that the present
population of Jamaica, if its force be but fairly ap-
plied under a just and wise management, will be
found more than adequate to its present extent of
cultivation.” The schemes, however, to which the
British Government have directed their attention,
seem based on the idea that the existing distress
arises from the want of a sufficient number of labour-
ers, instead of from the absence of a salutary arrange-
ment by which those already in the colonies might
be rendered effective; that the problem, in fact, of
the superiority of free over slave labour is to be
solved by employing an extra number of hands to do
the old amount of work, and it is consequently their
policy to encourage immigration, even at an enormous
outlay. Whatever doubts may attach to this course,
as to its effecting the desired end, there might be no
objection to the attempt, provided it could be con-
ducted on principles of justice: a short examination,
however, will show that there is little prospect of


48
immediate success; and that even if success is tempo-
rarily achieved, it will be by measures so com-
pletely objectionable as to lead inevitably to ultimate
disaster.
The sources whence immigration is looked for are
Western Africa and the East Indies. Regarding the
first, it has been made evident that if effected to any
extent it must be by means little different from those
of the slave-trade. Materials for voluntary immigra-
tion scarcely exist. The most eligible would be found
amongst the Kroomen; and of the chances of success
in this quarter, by any honest means, an idea may be
gathered from the Report on West Africa, by a Com-
mittee of the House of Commons in 1842. “ As we
proceed up the coast, we fall in, between Cape Pal-
mas and Cape Mount, with a very singular race of
men consisting of many small tribes, known com-
monly by the collective name of Kroomen, scattered
along a considerable range of shore ; much given,
though not exclusively, to maritime pursuits; forming
part of the crew of every English man-of-war and
merchantman on the coast; known by a distinctive
external mark, and neither taken as slaves themselves
nor making slaves of others. Their numbers are un-
certain, but are undoubtedly considerable, and seem
to be increasing ; and their confidence in the English
character is ascertained. But it seems doubtful whe-
ther permission for large numbers to leave their
shores could be obtained without some present to
their chiefs; and their attachment to their own


50
disposed to emigrate to our colonies, some of the
unhappy persons who are held there in bondage
should be purchased and manumitted for that
purpose.”
The great plea for resorting to strong measures to
induce immigration consists in the advantages that
would accrue to the African on being transported to
the British colonies—a fact which is dwelt upon by
the Committee of the House of Commons with great
earnestness. The same plea, however, to a less extent,
might have been urged to justify slavery. The
question for our consideration is not if the African
can be benefited by immigration; but whether, sup-
posing such to be the case, the benefit can be con-
ferred upon him by honest means. The attachment
of the negro to his country is well known to be
amongst the strongest feelings of his sluggish nature;
and it is no more possible to tempt him to leave it by
holding out those advantages of civilization which
white men consider inducements, than it would have
been possible to tempt a Sioux or a Fox to abandon
his hunting grounds to partake of the refinements of
New York. No doubt we might purchase immigrants
upon the plan proposed by the Trinidad Society, to
the ultimate advantage of the parties thus acquired;
and supposing it to be impossible to set them free in
their own land, and at the same time not culpable to
become a party—even from good motives—to a trade
in human flesh, and also that it was quite certain that
for every « unhappy person” so removed some new
.


51
victim would not be required to fill the gap, the
scheme of the Society might perhaps be listened to.
Regarding the second quarter whence immigration
is looked for, some striking facts are already before
the world. From 1834 to 1838 no fewer than
20,000 Hill Coolies were exported from British India
to the Island of Mauritius, with such success, as far as
the interests of the planters were concerned in in-
creasing cultivation, as to awaken a strong desire in
the West India colonies for a similar advantage; and
in July, 1837, an Order in Council was issued by the
Government, allowing the importation of Hill Coolies
into British Guiana under contracts for a period of
five years. Four hundred were accordingly intro-
duced, and a much larger number would have fol-
lowed, but for a timely exposure of the practices by
which these immigrations had been promoted, which
caused the authorities to issue a prohibition. From
what is understood, however, of the views of the Bri-
tish Government at the present time, it is believed
that under certain restrictions the traffic will be
largely renewed.*
* The Times of the 21st of August last gave insertion to the fol-
lowing :-“HILL COOLIES.—A correspondent informs us that the
10,000 Coolies which Government has allowed to be transported
from Calcutta and Madras, are to be sent one half to Demerara,
and the remaining 5,000 in equal proportions to Jamaica and
Trinidad ; these three colonies having given the requisite securities
in regard to them. They are to leave the East Indies some time
between the months of October and March. Each ship in which
they are conveyed must carry a surgeon, and the number of Coolies
E 2


52
The first immigrations to Mauritius were charac-
terized by singular atrocities. In a Despatch to Lord
Glenelg, dated the 21st of May, 1839, Sir W. Nico-
lay says, “ That very nefarious practices have been
resorted to in many instances in order to procure
labourers for embarkation, is beyond all doubt;" and
Mr. Anderson, a member of the Committee of Inquiry
on Indian Labourers, alleges, that “ many of them
have been actually kidnapped from their own country,
which they have all been induced to leave under cir-
cumstances of gross fraud.”
It is stated, that out of 19,050 Coolies introduced,
only 205 were women. Despite the most vigilant
watch on board the ships in which they were trans-
ported, many suicides were committed. On board
one ship, the “ Lancier,” there appears to have been
five, and in another, the “ Indian Oak,” twelve
attempts took place, of which three were successful.
The general mortality appears to have been excessive
both during the voyage and after their arrival. In
British Guiana, also, a dreadful loss of life is stated
to have occurred.
Icces
in each is to be regulated in terms of the Passengers' Act. It is
expected that the cost of transporting them to the West Indies will
be about 121. per head. The transport of these, it is thought,
will require from 50 to 60 vessels of 400 tons each. It is under-
stood that Government mean to apply to Parliament early next
session for an act to permit the introduction of any number of
Coolies to the West Indies.”—Greenock Advertiser.
The last papers received from the West Indies announce that the
Demerara legislature have voted, in accordance with the terms of a
Despatch from Lord Stanley, 75,000l. for the encouragement of
Hill Coolie emigration.


53
The treatment of the labourers by their new
masters seems to have been characterized in many
instances by the grossest personal violence and in-
justice; a fact which can hardly cause surprise, when
the treatment previously endured by the negroes from
the same hands is called to mind, together with
the circumstance that after the slave-trade was abo-
lished, the Act of Parliament regarding it was
admitted by a Secretary of State to have been
violated to no less an extent than 25,000 times by
the people of Mauritius. * The fate of an ignorant
* It is difficult to obtain information on which reliance can be
placed regarding transactions in Mauritius; but the following para-
graph in the Times of the 15th of July last tends to confirm existing
suspicions, and to show that, after all that has passed, little sense
of the duties of humanity has been awakened in that island :-
“ The Indian papers brought by the last overland mail record a
shocking instance of mortality in a Coolie ship,' employed to
bring back from Mauritius a number of Coolies whose time had
expired. When she left Calcutta to go to the Mauritius with
210 Coolies (the full number permitted), she only lost three of
them, including a woman, who died in child-birth. When she
returned, she brought 270 Coolies—nearly a third more than her
permitted number—and of these she lost seventeen. To the fact
that so much more than the proper number was carried, do the local
writers, who take the humane view of the question, attribute the
increase of mortality, and the melancholy event gives them an oppor-
tunity of contrasting the conduct of the public authorities at the Mau-
ritius with that of the authorities of Calcutta. At Calcutta, as we
have seen, no more than the right number could be shipped, and
there are at the same place a variety of regulations concerning the
supply of provisions for the voyage. At the Mauritius, on the con-
trary, no such regulations seem to exist, or if they do exist, they are
completely inoperative ; and the assertion is well borne out, that after
the engagement of the Coolies has expired, all concern for their


54
Hindoo entrapped into such a community, unac-
quainted with their language, without money, and
unable to return to his own country for five years,
(save at an expense, under the most fortunate cir-
cumstances, of forty rupees,) can hardly be the sub-
ject of favourable anticipations; and when it is taken
into consideration that under the circumstances into
which the immigrant is thrown, the sanctity of his pe-
culiar religious views is unavoidably broken through,
while at the same time the presence and exertions
of Christian Missionaries are understood to have been
discouraged as tending to render him restless and dis-
satisfied, it will not be matter of wonder that in one
of the despatches from Sir Lionel Smith, the Gover-
nor, it is stated, that “the Coolies already introduced
had given themselves up to a degree of disgraceful
licentiousness which no person acquainted with their
character and habits in India (dissolute as they are
known to be) could possibly believe.” *
welfare ceases. There appears to be no necessity for providing
medicine or medical attendance, and all that the captain is bound
to furnish is a pound and a half of rice daily, two pounds of salt
fish per week (which is found positively injurious), and some salt
and wood, with accommodations for cooking. No regard is paid to
the number of Coolies put on board, and the owners may cram
their vessels as much as they think fit. Thus, while every pre-
caution is taken on the voyage from India to the Mauritius
through the humane exertions of the Bengal authorities, the very
reverse is the case on the voyage back. The Government of India
is totally powerless in this matter, and the local writers urgently
call for the interference of the home Government. In two ships, it
seems, no less than sixty-one persons have perished.
* It is curious that, in the face of this, Sir Lionel Smith has no


55
The extent of the frauds by which these immi-
grations were effected can hardly be conceived; yet
it is quite evident that so long as immigration con-
tinues it can only be by similar means. In support
of the assertion that " in the absence of fraud no
labourer from among the Coolie race could be induced
to leave his country,” a significant fact was mentioned
a year or two back in the House of Commons. It
was stated that a Mr. Dowson, who had himself
been engaged in exporting Indian labourers to the
Mauritius, became so convinced of the fraudulent
system by which the Coolies were entrapped, that
he determined not to employ the crimps and duffa-
dars to procure them, but to send a special agent.
" My orders,” he said, “ were to engage no Coolie
without first explaining to him the nature of the
employment, and that he was to leave his country
for a period of five years." It proved a fruitless
mission, for he did not succeed in procuring a single
Coolie, and that at the very time that duffadars sent
by another party were engaging Coolies by hundreds
in the immediate vicinity. On the possibility of
hesitation in asserting that “although he will not promise that no
injustice or oppression shall be practised towards those who may
hereafter emigrate, they will be infinitely better off than in their
own overstocked country, and that their mercenary habits will be
gratified to the ultimate advantage of India and Mauritius.” The
bettering process appears from this view to consist in drawing a
man from his home, family, and friends, in order to gratify his
“mercenary habits,”-even though such gratification may lead to
a “ disgraceful licentiousness” previously unknown.


56
arranging a system by which fraud might be pre-
vented, Lord Auckland, as Governor-General of
India, gave his opinion :-“I greatly fear that though
amendment and caution would no doubt come with
time, no strictness of regulation, no vigilance on
the part of the authorities, would immediately pre-
vent the frequent infliction of grievous oppressions
and deceits upon large numbers of persons, helpless
from their poverty and from their utter ignorance
and inexperience.”
It is impossible to convey to the ignorant Coolie
any idea of the nature of the engagement into which
he enters when he consents to emigrate. He knows
nothing of geography, nothing of the sea, nothing
of the effects of separation from home; and although
these things may be represented to him in due form,
the representation will make little impression, espe-
cially while it is sedulously coupled with appeals to
those“ mercenary habits” which form the worst
and most active feature of his character, and which
it is the duty of his fellow men to endeavour to
repress. If it can be shown that the Coolie, when
his ignorance is removed, is willing to serve in a
foreign country, and to undertake an agreement after
experience has rendered him competent to do so,
there can be no objection to permission being granted;
but there is but one way in which this experience
can be conveyed to him. If he really understands
the nature of a sea voyage and foreign labour at
the time of consenting to emigrate, he will of course


57
S
a
not wish to withdraw that consent when he finds that
his views are confirmed. It would be very safe,
therefore, for the Government, if they felt sure that
he had not been imposed upon, to adopt any method
by which this fact might be tested and the doubts of
their opponents effectually removed. They might, for
instance, instruct the commander of each immigrant
ship, after having been two days at sea, to call all the
passengers before him, to acquaint them that the
passage, of which they had now had forty-eight hours'
experience, would last for many weeks, and that they
had then the option of continuing or returning. If
no deceit had been practised, they would of course
proceed; and thus, as far as the sea voyage was
concerned, it would be evident they acted of their
own free will. Again, as it might still happen that
they had been grossly deceived regarding the nature
of their destination and the work required of them,
they might have an opportunity, say for three
months after their arrival, of testing the lure which
had been held out to them, and then of returning if
they found that they had been misled. So far, how-
ever, are those who tempt the Coolie by the “infinite
advantages” of emigration from being disposed to rely
upon his satisfaction at these advantages when he
comes to have experience of them, that a method the
very opposite of this is considered necessary. Once
on board ship, and bound for the West Indies, he has
no opportunity of escape for five years; unless, indeed,
at the end of a less time he may have succeeded in


58
ON
accumulating 121. sterling, and should be willing to
sacrifice it to purchase his deliverance.
In a measure of emancipation, then, the defects
of which has led to the adoption of remedies such as
these, we can find nothing but what is to be shunned ;
and even if the method above stated were adopted
so as to prevent the Coolie immigration from being
what it now is—a new form of slavery, although one
gross feature of injustice would be removed, the dis-
astrous clumsiness of the whole would still stand
forth. When we see the planters openly denied the
full compensation admitted to be their due, the produce
of the colonies reduced nearly one half, the coloured
race perilled by habits of luxurious indolence, the
slave-trade stimulated, and the prejudices of slave-
holding countries confirmed, we almost come to the
conclusion that further mischief is impossible; but
when we are told that, in consequence of these things,
a permanent protection is to be granted to the planters
out of the pockets of the poor of England—that an
immigration is to take place of thousands of labourers
(to restore the country under freedom to its pros-
perity under slavery), at an expense for each, for five
years only, of 241. sterling—and that an influx is to
be permitted amongst the coloured population of a
new race, notoriously “ dissolute,” and prone to “ dis-
graceful licentiousness,” we learn that the evil may
yet by one means be increased, and that this means
is to be found in the adoption of“ remedies” suggested
by those who continue the disregard of principle in
which alone it had its origin.


59
In closing this section, it is necessary to touch
upon an experiment in connexion with the slave
question, which has been widely promoted for nearly
thirty years,—that of the American Colonization So-
ciety, for shipping off to their settlement of Liberia
the free people of colour residing in the United
States. Whether this scheme, however, has any bear-
ing on emancipation so as to bring it strictly within
the scope of our inquiries, it is somewhat difficult to
ascertain; its promoters having occasionally described
it as comprehending “ the only possible mode of
emancipation, at once safe and rational, that human
ingenuity can devise,” and at other times, as 6 dis-
claiming all intention whatever of interfering in the
smallest degree with the rights of property or the ob-
ject of emancipation, gradual or immediate.”
The total receipts of this society are alleged to
have amounted to 300,000 or 400,000 dollars; and
I find, by a recent New York journal, that “the
colony of Liberia now numbers 2,463 persons, of
whom 645 were born in Africa." From this state-
ment, taking into consideration that there are
386,348 free negroes in the United States, and
2,487,355 slaves, and that the turn of the slaves
for removal is not likely to come till the free blacks
are got rid of, the Society certainly does not seem to
call for notice as an instrument of emancipation.
The practices by which even the above limited
results have been obtained are such also as to con-
firm this conclusion. “If the free people of colour,”


60
said the Southern Religious Telegraph of the 19th
of February, 1831, “ were generally taught to read,
it might be an inducement for them to remain in
this country; we would offer them no such induce-
ment.” A scheme which involves the keeping of
nearly 400,000 persons in total ignorance, with the
view to bring about a state of misery and degrada-
tion that may drive them in desperation from their
homes, and which is persisted in, though the emi-
gration of less than one per cent. of the popula-
tion thus debased has been its sole encouragement
during thirty years, can hardly be shaken in the
minds of its supporters by any appeal to reason
or morality. They must have reached that last
stage of infatuation, to which disaster, and not
warning, must supply the cure.*
Dismissing, however, all consideration of the failure
* “ It appears questionable whether Liberia will ever raise food
sufficient for a very moderate population ; and it certainly never
can export any quantity of tropical produce. During the time
we remained in the river St. Paul, our vessels were crowded by
respectable and intelligent mulattoes, all of whom, with the excep-
tion of the coloured editor of the Liberia Gazette, and one or two
others in the pay of the Society by whom they are sent from
America, complained bitterly of the deceit that had been practised
towards them, and of the privations under which they were then
suffering. An intelligent mulatto said to me, on my questioning
him on the subject, . It was not exactly kidnapping, but we were
inveigled away under false pretences.'
“ As to civilizing Africa by means of Liberia, it is well known,
that from the time the colony was first established it was constantly
at war with the natives until their partial extermination left the
strangers in peaceable possession.”—Laird's Expedition.


61
len
of this Society, it seems inexplicable that at its first
formation any one should have been found to regard
it in the slightest degree as an aid to emancipa-
tion. The getting rid of the free blacks would
render slavery more safe, and slaves more valuable;
and that men who now refuse to recognize the sin-
fulness of the institution would, under such circum-
stances of increased temptation, manifest a better
disposition, is hardly to be expected. “Without
slaves the plantations would be worthless, there
are no white men to cultivate them,” is one ground
of protest against the views of the abolitionists; the
destruction of the rights of property and the ruin
of the proprietors, if freedom were granted without
compensation, being another; both of which must
be admitted valueless, if the scheme of the planters,
voluntarily, and at a great expense, to ship away
these cultivators and their own “right of property"
at the same time, is to be received in good faith.
The present value of the slave population is some-
times estimated at two or three hundred millions
sterling; and the supposition that there is an in-
tention of sacrificing this amount, either at the
shrine of prejudice or principle, is not warranted
by any self-denying horror of slavery or of the co-
loured race hitherto manifested by the Southern
States.
But it will be urged that those who advocated the
Liberia scheme as an instrument of emancipation, did
so with the understanding that its effects would be
me-


62
gradual, and that it would take " at least” a hundred
years to accomplish its object. Such was certainly
the case, and this gives us an additional reason for
dismissing it from our consideration. The scheme of
sinners to insure that the advantages of sin shall be
enjoyed by themselves and denied to those who may
come after them, cannot present much that is in-
structive. When the present race are called to
their account, we may believe their best plea will
be found in having sought virtue while it was yet
permitted them, and not in having directed their
efforts to an end, which has already been made known
to us as fore-ordained of Heaven, that their sins shall
be repented of by a third and fourth generation.
Having arrived at the conclusion that in seeking
the repression of slavery we can derive no help from
precedent, we must now enter upon the question with
minds as free as if it had never been the subject of
legislation. In taking this step our only course is to
recognize boldly the duties it involves—duties which
were sought to be defined in the first section of these
remarks—and to see if, by strictly attempting to
fulfil them, we cannot render our task more easy than
if we were to adopt the politician's plan, and to con-
tent ourselves with expedients by which they might
be evaded.


63
· SECTION III.
OF THE MEANS BY WHICH EMANCIPATION SHOULD BE
EFFECTED.
In looking at the points for which, in abolishing
slavery, it is essential to provide, viz. the compensa-
tion of the planter—the permanent productiveness of
the State—and the welfare of the coloured race, we
observe the simple fact that the accomplishment of the
whole would at once be within our power, if we could
fasten upon some method by which the industry of
the negro in a state of freedom could be prevented
from falling below what he yields in slavery, at the
same time that the rate of remuneration should be
such as is paid under natural circumstances for labour
of an analogous kind in other parts of the world. If
this object could be attained, the source whence the
means of compensation to the planter for the loss of
his exclusive title to the labour of the slave is to be
derived would immediately become apparent; and the
mere practical arrangement by which such compen-
sation should be conveyed to him would alone remain
to be considered, because, as no diminution of labour
would take place, it would be impossible for the slave-
owner to be deprived of any portion of it without some
one else reaping the advantage, and there would, there-
fore, be nothing to do but to adjust the balance between


64
ma
them; so that the loss sustained by one party from
the labour-market being thrown open, might be made
up by the other, who had taken the opportunity to
come into it. The substitution of wages for the pre-
sent cost of supporting the slave, supposing them to
be at the same rate as is usually given for unskilled
labour, would not act as a disturbing cause, since the
slave never performs above half the work of a free
man; and for this occupation a rate of wages that would
supply him with all he now gets, viz., food, clothing,
lodging, medical attendance, maintenance in old age,
&c., would be more than equal to what is usually at-
tained in free communities; few instances being known
of a peasantry who, simply by working each other
day, are able to insure these necessaries. *
Our chief object, then, must be to ascertain if there
is any mode consistent with justice by which the na-
tural powers of the negro may thus be developed so
as to induce on his part an obedience to the great
condition of all human progress-that each man shall
exert such faculties as may have been bestowed upon
him to the fullest extent that is consistent with the
happiness of others.
It will hardly be contended that the faculties of the
negro in his present stage can be beneficially deve-
*“In the laborious occupation of holing, the emancipated negroes
perform double the work of a slave in a day. In road-making the
day's task, under slavery, was to break four barrels of stone. Now,
by task-work, a weak hand will fill eight barrels, a strong one from
ten to twelve barrels.”—Gurney.


65
wa.
loped in any other way than by the rudest occupa-
tions of agriculture or art, and it is therefore by con-
stant diligence in this direction that he best fulfils
the duties of his being. It is true he is capable of
warm domestic feelings; but the proper action of
these, so far from being inconsistent with healthy in-
dustry, would render it light and cheerful. Now the
exercise of these powers of usefulness which he pos-
sesses can only be drawn from him as it is drawn
from others, by acting in some way upon his predo-
minant desires. In a high state of civilization all
the faculties of the mind are more or less in exercise,
and everything in nature, therefore, stirs us to acti-
vity; but in a lower stage the lower faculties are alone
powerful, and the means of suggesting motives to ex-
ertion are consequently very limited. That they are
not so limited, however, in the present instance as to
be inadequate to the desired end, we have sufficient
reason to believe; because we have seen that even
the slave-trader and slave-owner, acting in all the
ignorance of selfish depravity, have been able in
their blind way to achieve the object of compelling
the negro to work; and it would be monstrous to
suppose that a success which has been attained by
such minds is beyond the reach of that wisdom which
seeks its ends only by virtuous means; that the
short-sighted cunning, in fact, of predominant pro-
pensities can grasp even temporarily what the harmo-
nious action of reason and morality would attempt in
vain.


66
In considering the negro in his present stage of
mental development, we perceive manifestations of
strong sensual appetites, intense domestic attachments,
cautiousness, love of money, vanity, and a disposition
to reverence. These then are the chief materials pre-
sented for us to work upon in endeavouring to lead
him to useful ends ; the remaining mental faculties
being rarely, either singly or combined, so eager for
gratification as to impel him to attain it by self-denial
in other respects. But while we see that the gratifi-
cation of the lower faculties which I have named
would present the only inducement that would stimu-
late him to exertion, we are required to bear in mind,
that as they are already predominant, his advance-
ment can only be aided by calling into play those
which are at present inactive; so as to bring the
various powers of the mind to that harmonious and
active state to which they approach among more civi-
lized races. This being the case, it must be improper
to hold out as a bait any additional gratification of
the inferior faculties, and hence a difficulty arises ;
since, if we are forbidden to stimulate the only desires
which are strong enough to act as inducements, it is
not at first sight easy to discover by what means we
are to operate upon him at all. “It may be very
well,” it will be said, “to appeal to intellect, benevo-
lence, conscience, taste, and all the finer powers, and
to show how he might gratify them by the produce of
his labour; but until by long training these powers
have been rendered active, we shall only appeal to


68
any
and to refuse to associate with him until he became
industrious, we should accomplish our end; but none
of these means are open to us, since the former would
be an outrage on his liberty, and the latter is an
impossibility. By taking food, and by enjoying the
society of his wife and children, he merely gratifies
natural faculties without in any way interfering with
the happiness of others.
One of the strongest propensities of his nature,
however, and intimately connected with his other
domestic impulses, is his attachment to home or
country. This feeling, innate in all men, has
long been observed to display itself with singular
force in the character of the negro. Amongst all
races there exists to a greater or less degree a blind
attachment to the place they have long inhabited,
apart from the mere effect of association, which can
never be entirely overcome, and which has evidently
been implanted by the Creator for the wisest pur-
poses. To man, in a rude stage of society, it seems
especially essential, since as the first step towards
founding communities, or the pursuit of agriculture,
it is necessary for him to adopt a permanent loca-
tion; a necessity to which he is adapted, and the
fulfilment of which is rendered agreeable to him by
the existence of this faculty. In many of the lower
animals the same propensity is to be remarked, “Mi-
gratory animals,” it has been observed, “return
thousands of miles to reach the same spot that they
inhabited the year before. In doing this, they have


69
no apparent motive but attachment to the place. It
cannot be to find food, for they often pass other lo-
cations which are superior in this respect to their
own homes; nor can it be attachment to their former
companions, for they go with them and return with
them. In many instances they not only return to
the same country, but to the same tree or bank, or
house, and even to the same nest. The propensity
seems also powerfully developed in the cat, who will
leave all her old friends, and taking her kittens in
her mouth, return several miles to her accustomed
residence.” That this propensity exists in man, as
well as in the lower animals, irrespective of the ef-
fects of reason or association, is shown by the fact
that it is usually strongest in the least cultivated
minds, while if it were a consequence of the in-
creased powers of association which high training
brings, it would of course be found to increase in
force with the progress of civilization. So far from
this being the case, we have evidence of the feeling
being manifested in the most intense form by the
most barbarous races; cases of death from nostalgia,
the peculiar disease caused by its morbid action,
having been reported even amongst the aborigines
of Van Dieman's Land. It is from its activity, too,
that much of the repugnance to emigration amongst
the lower classes of society which is shown under the
severest pressure, and where the opportunity is af-
forded them of taking their entire families, and of
accompanying their friends, is to be accounted for;
se


72
the peasantry are described to be in the “ Deserted
Village.” “ Of all beings in the world,” said Mr.
P. M. Stewart, an advocate of the West India in-
terests, “those most attached to localities are the
negroes.”
In the state of Virginia, when the original bill for
an appropriation to the Colonization Society was
under discussion, a Mr. Brodnax is reported to have
observed, in relation to a clause for the compulsory
transportation of free blacks, “It is my opinion that
few, very few, will voluntarily consent to emigrate,
if no compulsory measures be adopted. Without it,
you will still, no doubt, have applicants for removal
-people who will not only consent, but beg you to
deport them. But what sort of consent?-a consent
extorted by a species of oppression, calculated to
render their situation among us insupportable!” To
which another member, Mr. Fisher, added, “If we
wait till the free negroes consent to leave the State,
we shall wait till time is no more. They never will
give their consent.”
The best informed writers also allude to the same
peculiarity. Mr. Gurney speaks of them as “fondly
attached to their humble homes,” and alludes to the
strength with which this feeling sways them, (whether
they be “educated or uneducated,") to account for
the fact that, in the island of Dominica they prefer
remaining to labour in the old districts, instead of
giving way to the temptation of squatting in idleness
on the wild lands. Describing the Antilles, and the
re


73
constant convulsions by which they are devastated, it
is remarked by Mr. Breen, in his work just published
on St. Lucia, “ The fact is, between fires and hurri-
canes and earthquakes, the bewildered inhabitant of
these islands scarcely knows where to go or what to
do; and yet with all their disadvantages and dangers,
he still fondly clings to the wild western rocks of his
birth.” Mr. Featherstonhaugh relates that Mr. Madi-
son, the Ex-president, once informed him that he had
assembled all his slaves,—and they were numerous,-
and offered to manumit them immediately, but that
they instantly declined it, 'alleging, amongst other
reasons, that they had been born on his estate, and
that if they were made free they would have no home
to go to. Mr. Burnley, of Trinidad, by whom more
than ordinary opportunities were possessed of observ-
ing the negro character, says, “The African is found
to be naturally attached to the spot which he inha-
bits. Even the peon who migrates annually from the
adjoining continent to labour in Trinidad, regularly
returns when the crop is over to his accustomed
home.” This kind of attachment is no less obsery-
able even in the midst of his original barbarism.
“ The great object of the krooman, or the fishman
(the most prone to emigration of all the negro race)
is to get,” says Mr. Laird, “ the means of purchasing
as many wives as will keep him in idleness in his own
country.”
Now the gratification of this propensity—this love
of home-involves, as does also the gratification of
V-
ry-


75
has consequently an incontestable right to demand
at any time to be restored to the state whence he was
so iniquitously removed. No social laws, therefore, can
properly be enforced against him until the best atone-
ment within reach has been offered for this original
sin, and which must consist in giving him the option of
living in that country which he is entitled to consider
his own, and where he would now have existed but
for our misdeeds. When this offer has been made,
and the acceptance of it refused, he becomes at once
and for the first time a voluntary member of our
community, and, of course, bound to submit to every
law which we may adopt; it being at the same time
incumbent on the Government that such laws shall
be entirely consistent with the enjoyment on his part
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The plain course of duty, then, is at once to set
him free, and to give him the option of a passage
to Africa; intimating to him that if he prefers to
remain where he is, so far from being permitted to
live in idleness or in the habitual indulgence of
any other vice, such laws will be adopted with regard
to him as may seem best calculated to promote his
own advancement and his general usefulness to so-
ciety. Upon the condition of obedience to these
laws the consent on the part of the Government to
his remaining should distinctly depend, and banish-
ment should consequently be the penalty for their
infringement.
Now, after what is known of the intense attachment


76
of the negro to his accustomed home, no matter on
what continent that home may be, after the in-
effectual efforts that have been witnessed both in
the British possessions and in America, by means of
bribery, fraud, and persecution, to induce him, when
it has been needed, to quit the soil to which he has
become attached, it cannot be believed for one moment
that if set free in the United States he would select
transportation to Africa rather than consent to the
condition of continuing an amount of labour equal
to that which he had executed during slavery,-an
amount which, in a state of liberty, would be less
than half of what he might with ease perform. Let
this condition, therefore, be enforced, and all danger
of the negro becoming less useful in freedom than in
slavery would be at once removed.*
By a step of this kind, then, it is in the power
of the United States to comply at once with that
point of the moral law which requires that no parley
should be held with sin. They have only to recog-
nize the iniquity of slave-holding, and they may cast
it off to-morrow. A little examination will show that
by the plan now stated, not only would the great
* In some of the older West India islands, where the coloured
population is comparatively dense, the negroes, in order to obtain
subsistence, find it necessary to perform an amount of work equal to
their work as slaves. Yet, although instead of the alternative of a
voyage to Africa, they have the power of merely removing to a
neighbouring island, in order, by a tenth part of the labour, to
attain the same profit, they are not only contented, but for the
most part desirous to remain.


77
objects of maintaining the prosperity of the country
and the progress of the negro be accomplished, but
—such is the harmony of just and natural legislation
-it would also, in its practical arrangements, present
full means, to the minutest fraction, of affording com-
pensation to the proprietors.
And first, as to the practical part of the plan, so far
as it is to provide for the enforcement of continued
industry. It is of course to be understood that the
negro is to be set entirely at liberty, with the world
before him where to choose his dwelling-place; nay,
more, that he should have the option of a free passage
to Africa, so soon as arrangements could be made to
that effect. But if, as assuredly would be the case,
he should cling to his present home in preference to
Africa, it must be an imperative condition of his remain-
ing in the United States that he shall pursue such a
course as will prove consistent with his own happiness
and the general happiness of the people ; that amongst
an industrious race, actively using their various talents,
it shall not be a permission to him alone to live in open
disregard of the duty of contributing by the best exer-
cise of his powers to the common weal. To gain the
privilege of remaining he will, of course, accede to the
condition; but his promise would soon be broken,
unless means could be taken constantly to enforce it.
To effect this, imprisonment would obviously be useless,
and personal inflictions would be still more objection-
able; the former would be disregarded by the indolent,
and the latter would only debase and harden both the
con


78
са
sufferer and his judge, while each alike would prove
more or less inconsistent with the Christian code.
Indolence is a peculiarity of his race, and if those
amongst whom he desires to live cannot overcome this
peculiarity by just and humane treatment, all that
they are entitled to do is to forbid him to remain,
and to banish him to the country in which alone he
can rightfully claim a residence. This penalty, there-
fore, is the only one that can legitimately be used ; but
as it has been found in all countries to be the most
severe, and such as, in the case of the negro, would be
more terrible than death itself, it would prove amply
sufficient for its object. It should, therefore, constantly
be kept before his eyes as the immediate consequence of
disobedience.
Towards this end a general registration of the co-
loured population should be effected, and an amount
of labour equal to the average labour of a slave should
be fixed as the daily “ task” of each. At the end of
every three or six months the negro should be re-
quired to deliver or to transmit to an officer, ap-
pointed by the Government for that purpose, a cer-
tificate or certificates from the employer whom he
may have served, of his having performed the required
amount of labour (of course bodily infirmity would
prove an exemption) during the specified period ; fail-
ing in which, he should be declared liable to deporta-
tion. Further details as to any grace which might be
allowed after such failure, when the full consequences
of his course were presented to him, and when he


79
e
might desire an opportunity of amendment, need not
be considered here : he might perhaps be permitted
in a second three months to make up the defalcation
in the first, or he might be received on probation at
some Government depôt, and allowed an opportunity,
by employment at road-making, or in some other
manner, of working the required time and averting
his sentence. Forbearance of this kind, however
should have well-defined limits, and, as an example
to others, a second offence should be followed by his
immediate departure.
But although it will be seen that by this means the
industry of the country will be kept up to its present
amount, we must be careful to avoid a fallacy which
found a prominent place in the debates of the British
Parliament, viz.: that if you do not take away the la-
bourer from the soil, his former proprietor can have no
claim for compensation for the loss of his services. It
is true, when the supply of labour remains the same,
if the slaves upon emancipation quit their master, he
can easily supply their place by others, and at a rate
of wages not exceeding his previous outlay; but, under
these circumstances, what takes place ? During the
old system, in order to cultivate an estate an outlay
of capital was required to purchase the requisite num-
ber of hands, and this outlay was, of course, so much
to be taken off the value of the land. If a certain
number of acres required an outlay of 1000 dollars
to render them profitable, a person in purchasing those
acres would not give so much for them by 1000 dol-
e no
152810


81
plan presents itself. Let each person granting cer-
tificates of the employment of negroes be required
to use annually for each a Government stamp, say, for
example, to the amount of thirty-two dollars, and to
each proprietor of a slave at the date of emancipation
let there be given a deed of exemption (to be called a
compensation deed) from the use of such stamp. Es-
timating the value of a slave at 500 dollars, the yearly
interest upon this at 6 per cent, would amount to
thirty dollars ; and in order that the marketable
nature of his slave property might still attach to
the “ compensation deed,” by which it is represented,
the holder should have the power of transferring his
right of exemption either temporarily or permanently
to others. As no one would be able to employ a
negro without paying thirty-two dollars per annum, or
the possession of one of these deeds, the annual market
value of the privilege they convey could never, under
any natural circumstances, fall below thirty or thirty-
one dollars, because it would always be desirable for
an employer to purchase at that price exemption from
the stamp, and consequently the market value of the
deed itself would stand at 500 dollars. By this
arrangement, therefore, the proprietor would receive
full compensation, and the price of land would remain
undisturbed, — since each person buying an estate
would reckon as at present, that it would cost him
500 dollars, or the annual interest of that sum for
every labourer whom he might employ to work it.*
* Of course, in carrying out this plan, it would be essential not
ey
•
G


82
The final absorption of the compensation deeds thus
created would take place at no distant day; as the
negroes, by the influence of a well-regulated freedom,
gradually attained to respectability and competence,
certificates would be purchased by individuals amongst
them desirous of getting rid of the necessity of speci-
fied labour. Such purchases would be analogous to any
other investment, and would, in fact, supposing the
compensation due to the proprietor had been trans-
ferred, as in Antigua, to the land, be the same as if
they had purchased so much real estate. The annual
income derivable from such estate will be represented
by the artificial increase to the value of their labour,
if they choose to work ; and in the event of their
living upon their savings, it will be represented by
the exemption from that taxation which property must
have borne if they had been suffered to live in idle-
ness on any other terms.* .
nciple.
to lose sight of the difference of value arising from sex, age, &c.;
but as no difficulty would arise from this circumstance, it is enough,
in this place, to indicate the general principle.
To promote the convenience of the holders, the deeds of exemp-
tion might be transferable with quarterly or half-yearly coupons
attached, which could be forwarded to the Government offices
along with the labour certificates, in lieu of the stamp they must
otherwise bear. Supposing the holder had not employed any
labour during the period, he would of course dispose of them in the
market to those who had.
* These regulations regarding labour should also apply to the
coloured population already free; but, as in selling, or in voluntarily
granting emancipation, their owners gave up to them the amount
which, under a system for the due maintenance of industry, would


84
Inc
It is plain from the foregoing considerations that it
is in the power of the United States to turn from the
sin of slavery, not only without even temporary damage
to any worldly interest, but with the assurance of an
increased prosperity. The half-time labour (for it
would not amount to more) of the free coloured popu-
lation would soon be voluntarily extended, and by
every hour so gained the wealth of the country and
the value of its soil would be proportionably increased.
Before dismissing these suggestions, I must not omit
to mention a difficulty—the only one present to my
mind—which, although slight in its nature, might be
alleged as likely to interfere with their success. Those
who may be disposed to concede at once the utter
improbability of the American negro preferring trans-
portation to Africa, to comfort, protection, and freedom
in his native land, will still, perhaps, point to the
West Indies, and remind us that although he may, in
the first instance, be landed in Africa, he would soon
find that he had it in his power to quit that continent
for the British colonies ; that his passage would be
eagerly provided by active agents, and that represen-
tations would be industriously made to him of the
luxurious indolence which he would there be permitted
to enjoy. I do not believe that these representations
would have the effect desired, because we have already
seen that the negroes will not purchase exemption
from toil at a cost of a sacrifice of home, even when
the removal is only to a neighbouring colony ; but it


85
is, nevertheless, desirable that their influence should
be prevented. To this end it may be assumed that
the British Government (supposing them unable to
devise means of bringing their colonies to a healthy
condition) would readily undertake to prohibit the
introduction into these possessions of immigrants
transported to Africa from the United States. Despite
the defective plans of their statesmen, it cannot be
doubted that the people of England are sincere in their
abhorrence of slavery ; and we may therefore fairly
hope that they are not destined to the humiliation of
finding that, instead of being the leaders of emancipa-
tion, they form the only impediment to its course.
To conclude. It will perhaps be asked by those
who have paid attention to the general tenor of my
views, if there is not, some contradiction to the doc-
trine maintained in them throughout—that sin is in-
variably the parent of disaster - in a plan which
claims to abolish slavery in the United States without
inflicting the slightest suffering ; and if it is not dan-
gerous to assert that a crime so grievous can be sud-
denly cast off, and, with it, all apprehension of the
judgments of the Creator ? I reply, that those judg-
ments have already fallen, and that the immediate
effect of a sincere repentance will be, not to wipe out
the penalties thus far incurred, but to avert those
which must, with every day's continuance of evil,
inevitably accumulate, — penalties which, although
unseen in their approach, are foreknown by those who


86
eve
un
trust in the justice of Heaven, and are not less present
to them as things that must be, when the wrong-doer
stands boastingly in the glare of success, than when
the threatenings of his failing fortunes may be dis-
tinctly heard. In the degrading terror avowed at the
consequences of granting freedom to the negro—in the
self-condemning caution with which the app roach of
knowledge, the common foe of tyrants, is barred from
his mind—in the impatience of contradiction which,
even among equals, renders the bowie-knife an argu-
ment–in the absence of steady enterprise and provi-
dent cultivation — in the misgivings which, amidst
every boast of national power, tell of three millions
of enemies,— enemies that might have been friends,
clustered on the soil — and in that wilful deadening
of the moral sense which, manifested first in a denial
of the primary right of humanity, ends in a reckless
repudiation of every other claim, the penalties of
slavery past and present are sufficiently unfolded.
When to these we add that the “ Union," which might
have formed a type of the eventual brotherhood of
nations, is rendered insecure and soulless; that in its
legislative halls even the right of petition is denied,
and that LIBERTY, as she dwells in the land of Wash-
ington, is made a bye-word and a jest to distant regions
of the earth, the conviction rises that the future can
have little more of warning to impart, and that if
America – reckless that the responsibility and peril of
sin increases with the light bestowed-continues to


87
cling, amidst the spreading radiance of Christianity, to
the darkest barbarism that ever disgraced the world,
the hour of her severest doom must rapidly approach.
That this doom may be averted, and that she may yet
gain the course to which she once seemed destined,
will be the earnest prayer of all who faithfully seek
the advancement of mankind.
NOTE.
" THE RIGHT OF PETITION.”
SINCE the date of the foregoing letter the rule of
Congress prohibiting the reception of petitions against
Slavery has been rescinded. “We think,” says the
New York Courier and Enquirer of the 7th of De-
cember last, “every person who appreciates the real
character of the liberty we enjoy must be heartily
gratified at the success at last achieved by John
Quincy Adams, in his long-continued efforts to procure
the rescinding of the disgraceful rule which has hereto-
fore excluded a certain class of petitions from the
floor of Congress. The right to petition is certainly
one of which no citizen should ever be deprived, and
we sincerely rejoice that the representatives of the
people have at last concluded to hear, with at least a
show of respect, the petitions of those by whom they
are chosen, and from whom they derive all the power
are
er


88
they possess. We trust now that these petitions on
the subject of Slavery will be received, read, and
referred to an appropriate Committee like all other
papers; and that the subject will be considered and
presented to the country precisely as its great impor-
tance and its merits deserve."
LONDON :
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY, Wilson, and Fley,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.


PUBLISHED BY S. HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET.
CLENDON ON EXTRACTION OF TEETH. 2nd Edit.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE EXTRACTION OF TEETH,
Being a practical Inquiry into the advantages and propriety attending the employment of properly
constructed Forceps, and an Exposition of the dangers to which the use of the Key is liable.
By J. Chitty CLENDON, Surgeon-Dentist, 2nd edit. enlarged, Price 4s. fcap. 8vo, with Plates.
“ This little book, written in an excellent spirit, deserves to be examined by every person who gives ad ice on diseases
of the teeth, or operates upon them for their removal. We have never seen a more satisfactory literary production devoted to
a single subject (the extraction from the pen of a dentist. In the present case we have a sound practical work, evidently
the result of a simple and sincere desire to be useful in the art, not hastily produced, but based on careful reflection and ex.
perience, and well meriting the best character that can be given to it by a medical journalist."--Lancet.
COOPER'S OSTEOLOGY.
LECTURES ON OSTEOLOGY, including the Ligaments which connect the Bones
of the Human Skeleton.
By B. B. COOPER, F.R.S., Surgeon to Guy's Hospital, &c. 8vo, with Plates, Price 8s.
MORTIMER ON THE TEETH OF CHILDREN. 2nd Ed.
OBSERVATIONS on the GROWTH and IRREGULARITIES of CHILDREN'S TEETH,
followed by Remarks and Advice on the Teeth in general.
By W. H. MORTIMER, late Surgeon Dentist to the British Embassy, Paris. Just Ready.
PILCHER ON DISEASES, &c. OF THE EAR.
A TREATISE ON THE STRUCTURE, ECONOMY, AND DISEASES OF THE EAR.
By George Pilcher, Senior Surgeon to the Surrey Dispensary.
A NEW AND IMPROVED EDITION,
In which an entirely new set of Plates is given, with additional Illustrations, 8vo, Price 12s.
The perusal of this work has afforded us much pleasure-A work was wanted to place the whole subject within the grasp
of all surgcons who choose to devote some little exclusive or particular study to the diseases of the Ear, and this has fairly
and well supplied the place."- Johnson's Med. Chir. Review.
BELL ON DISEASES, &c. OF THE TEETH.
THE ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, AND DISEASES OF THE TEETH.
By Thomas Bell, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S.,
Lecturer on Diseases of the Teeth at Guy's Hospital, and Professor of Zoology in King's College.
Second Edition, 8vo, Price 14s. Containing upwards of 100 Figures, illustrative
of the Structure, Growth, Diseases, &c., of the Teeth.
RAMSBOTHAM’S OBSERVATIONS IN MIDWIFERY.
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS IN MIDWIFERY, WITH A SELECTION OF CASES.
By John RAMSBOTHAM, M.D. A New Edition, Enlarged and Revised. 1 vol. 8vo. Price 12s.
"This is an excellent work, and well deserves a place in the first rank of practical treatises on the Obstetric Art. It is
pleasing to read, neither repelling us by diffuseness or tediousness, nor ever admitting of our laying dowu the book dissatisfied
with what we may have read as an insufficient development of the subject. It is characterised throughout by the eloquence
of simplicity and plain good sense, and it has the inestimable merit of keeping perpetually close to the point."-
Johnson's Med. Chir. Review.
STOWE’S CHART OF POISONS. 10th Edit.
A Toxicological Chart, exhibiting at one view the Symptoms, Treatment, and mode of Detecting
the various Poisons, Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal; to which are added, Concise Directions for
the Treatment of Suspended Animation.
By W. Stowe, M.R.C.S. Varnished and mounted on cloth, with roller, 6s., or 2s. the plain Sheet.
"We have placed the Chart in own Library, and we think that no medical practitioner should be without it. It
should be hung up in the shops of all chemists and druggists, as well as in the dispensaries and surgeries of all general
practitioners." Johnson's Med. Chir. Review.


PUBLISHED BY S. HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET.
MORGAN'S SURGERY.
FIRST PRINCIPLES OF SURGERY. By G. T. MORGAN. 8vo. Price 18s.
“A very excellent Treatise on Surgical Pathology, in which the author explains the leading principles of that Science with
much clearness and method. The work is highly creditable not only to his talents and industry, but to his faculties of ob.
servation and reflection. With a perfect knowledge of every thing done before him, and all the illustrations furnished
by the diligence of contemporary inquirers, Mr. Morgan shows very considerable originality, and great strength as well as
soundness of judgment on all the topics embraced by his plan.
It may be safely recommended as an excellent treatise on the leading principles of Surgical Pathology."
Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Jan. 1845
PHILLIPS'S PHARMACOPOEIA. 4th Edit.
A Translation of the Pharmacopeia Collegii Regalis Medicorum Londinensis, MDCCCXXXVI,
with copious Notes and Illustrations; also a Table of Chemical Equivalents.
By Richard Phillips, F.R.S., L. and E. 8vo, Price 10s. 6d.
SPRATT'S OBSTETRIC TABLES. 4th Edit.
These Tables are designed on a similar principle to Mr. Tuson's Anatomical Plates,—the Views
being disposed in hinged layers, the raising of which shows a progressive advance in the subject
under consideration. There are 19 Tables, most of which are made to furnish several successive
views by means of this mechanical adaptation. 1 Vol. 4to, Price 28s. coloured.
INSANITY AND CRIME.
CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE CONSIDERED
IN RELATION TO CEREBRAL ORGANIZATION.
BY M. B. SAMPSON.
2nd Edition with considerable Additions, 8vo. Price 5s.
“We recommend this work to our readers with an assurance that they will find in it much food for reflection."
Johnson's Med. Chir. Review.
“Statesmen and Philanthropists, Humanity and Christianity, owe to Mr. Sampson a debt of gratitude, for having placed
the question of capital punishment, and the Insanity of Criminals upon intelligible principles, which if adopted will put an end
to the doubts and difficulties in which these topics have been hitherto involved, and will prepare the way for some rational
and satisfactory legislation."-Law Times.
PROCTER ON THE SYMPATHETIC NERVE.
A TREATISE ON THE USE OF THE SYMPATHETIC NERVE AND ITS GAN.
GLIONS, with their Influence on various Diseases of the Abdominal and Pelvic Viscera.
By T. B. PROCTER, M.D. 4to, Price 7s.6d. with Plates.
HOCKEN'S OPHTHALMIC MEDICINE.
A COMPLETE CONDENSED PRACTICAL TREATISE ON OPHTHALMIC
MEDICINE.
By E. O. Hocken, M.D. Fcap. 8vo, Part 1, Price 3s. To be completed in 3 parts, Price 10s. 6d.
DR. JAMES JOHNSON'S TOUR IN IRELAND,
WITH MEDITATIONS AND REFLECTIONS. 8vo, Price 8s. 6d.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR,
EXCURSIONS TO THE PRINCIPAL MINERAL WATERS OF ENGLAND, 8vo, 5s.
PILGRIMAGES TO THE GERMAN SPAS. 8vo, Price 9s.
CHANGE OF AIR, or the Pursuit of Health and Recreation. (4th Edition) 8vo, Price 9s.
ECONOMY OF HEALTH, or The Stream of Human Life from the Cradle to the Grave.
(4th Edition), 8vo, Price 6s. 6d.
AN ESSAY ON INDIGESTION. (10th Edition) 8vo, Price 6s. 6d.
PRACTICAL RESEARCHES ON GOUT. 8vo, Price 5s.6d.
THE INFLUENCE OF TROPICAL CLIMATES ON EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONS;
(61h Edition) with additions by J. R. MARTIN, late Presidency Surgeon, and Surgeon to the
Native Hospital, Calcutta. 8vo, Price 18s.


NEW MEDICAL WORKS,
PUBLISHED BY
SAMUEL HIGHLEY, 32, FLEET STREET,
OPPOSITE ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH.
ASHWELL ON DISEASES OF WOMEN.
Now Completed.
A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE DISEASES PECULIAR TO WOMEN, Comprising
their Functional and Organic Affections. Illustrated by Cases derived from Hospital and Private
Practice.
By Samuel Ashwell, M.D., Member of the Royal College of Physicians in London, Obstetric
Physician and Lecturer to Guy's Hospital, 8vo. Price £1 ls.
« In concluding our still imperfect analysis we must in justice to the author declare our conviction that his work on
Female Diseases is the most able and certainly the most standard and practical we have yet seen. It will, now that it
is completed, find its way into the library of every practitioner, and justly confer on its talented author, a very high
place in the first class of Obstetric Physicians."-Medico-chirurgical Review
"Situated as is Dr. Ashwell in extensive practice, and at the head of the Obstetric Department of a large Hospital,
it could not be but that his work must contain very valuable information--the results of great experience. The book is
full of important information and excellent practical description."-Dublin Medical Journal.
al Review.confer on its taleen. It will, "o work on
SELECTA E PRÆSCRIPTIS; 9th Edit., Improved.
SELECTIONS FROM PHYSICIANS' PRESCRIPTIONS; containing
Lists of the Phrases, Contractions, &c., used in Prescriptions, with Explanatory Notes.
The Grammatical Constructions of Prescriptions.
Rules for the pronunciation of Pharmaceutical Terms.
A Series of (350; Abbreviated Prescriptions, illustrating the use of the preceding Terms-and
A KEY, containing the same in an Unabbreviated Form, with literal Translation.
32mo, Price 5s.
“A very useful work for Students preparing for an examination in pharmacy.”- Pharmaceutical Journal.
A SERIES OF
ANATOMICAL SKETCHES AND DIAGRAMS.
With Descriptions and References.
BY THOMAS WORMALD and A. M. M WHINNIE,
Teachers of Practical Anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. 1 Vol. 4to. Price 26s.
“This work is now complete and is in every way calculated to fulfil its object--that of presenting a series of clear
and simple views of the more important parts of the Body-furnishing a useful guide to the Student in the Dissecting
Room, and from its character as a book on Regional Anatomy, cqually acceptable to the Surgeon. The subjects have
been judiciously chosen, and the lithographed Drawings which are mostly coloured, are executed with great fidelity.”
Medico-chirurgical Review.
“ Remarkable for their correctness, perspicuity, and neatness of execution.”-Forbes' Medical Review.
THE ANATOMICAL REMEMBRANCER,
OR, COMPLETE POCKET ANATOMIST, 2nd Edition. 32mo. Price 3s. 6d.
“The Anatomy is correctly given, and the descriptions though condensed to the very highest degree, still remain clear
und intelligible."-Lancet.
MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL REVIEW, New Series.
Arrangements have been completed to give to this Journal a development in the Review DE-
PARTMENT, that has not been attempted by any Journal in Great Britain or elsewbere. Each Num.
ber will contain Three Hundred pages of closely printed CRITICAL ANALYSIS of all the best Works,
Foreign and Domestic, forming a Quarterly LIBRARY of ProGkESSIVE PRACTICAL MEDICINE
AND SURGERY.
The First Number of the New Series was published on the 1st of January, 1845.
HIGHLEY'S GENERAL MEDICAL CATALOGUE
Oi Modern Works, with their Prices and Dates. Price ls.
Corrected to the end of 1844.












JAN 27 1930