In the opinion of those who examine things with impartiality, this assembly, instead of reforming ancient abuses, rather gave rise to new enormities; and many transactions of this council have excited the just complaints of the wisest men in both communions. They complain that many of the opinions of the At the death of Leo, which happened scholastic doctors on intricate points (that had in 1521, Adrian succeeded to the papal formerly been left undecided, and had been chair, and, at his accession, found Italy wisely permitted as subjects of free debate) in a state of universal commotion, chiefly were, by this council, absurdly adopted as occasioned by the incipient reformation; articles of faith, and recommended as such, and Adrian, "thinking that the principal sciences of the people, under pain of excomnay, imposed, with violence, upon the connerve of Luther's influence lay in the bur-munication. They complain of the ambiguity dens imposed on the people by the priest- that reigns in the decrees and declarations of

tentment and cheerfulness, it must excite sentiments under all circumstances favourable to the good order of society. That fire-side luxury, with which every domestic endearment has associated itself in the English character, has rendered the people a sort of home-lovers, unmindful in their state, as West Indian colonists, of the social out-of-door advantages of a tropical climate. While the evenings of the French and Spaniards partake of the luxurious revellings belonging to a love of the fields and flowers, and breathe that "spirit of the sweet south stealing and giving odours," to which the adventurers were accustomed in their early days, and to which inclination as well as social habit prompts them in their colonial character -the English, in the same soft hours of the land-breeze, still linger at the table as if to perpetuate rather the recollections of "the spicy nut-brown ale" than that more consistent portion of the old characteristic in which joy and happiness associated themselves with the "merry bells" and "the jocund rebec's sound," and

The evenings of the Spaniards in Cuba are seldom passed without some exhibition of rational felicity, even in all the drawbacks of their political condition. The attention of the stranger, wandering in the first hours of starlight through the streets of their towns, is continually called aside to some festive party with the guitar, or to some happy knot of beings whose amusements are heightened by more varied music, where the dance is seen, and the measured tones of its national accompaniment, the favourite castanet, is heard. But, perhaps, the most interesting of these evening amusements, combining at once pleasure with surprise, is where the guitar is accompanied by the voice of the improvisatori singer. But improvisatori singing, which is peculiar to the Italians and Spaniards among European nations, has decided facilities arising out of the construction of these modern derivative languages of the Latin. The constraint of metrical structure in unpremeditated versification gives an idea of difficulty; but the continued interchange of vowels and consonants, and the accentuation and emphasis of every word, render the harmonious construction of lines easy in these languages; and rhyme, which most modern nations adopt to conceal defects or compensate for monotony, is entirely dispensed with by the improvisatori. Having a language, then, which possesses elegance, precision, and energy, and unfettered by the trammels of rhythm as an additional grace, the charms of poetical composition are secured to those who are sufficiently endued with the soul of melody to accompany the notes of music with the utterance of poetical sentiment. Preluding first, like the nightingale, who pours forth the commencement of her music "as if the sounds were cast to the dear leaves about her," the graceful turbanet of the matronly Senora, the bright eyes of the love-enticing Donzella, or the natural flowers with which the Spanish maidens always garland their dark tresses in the evening, is generally the inspiration of the song. I give here the poetical sentiments of a Catalan youth, who was remarkable for his improvisatori talent, as a specimen of one of these evening contests of love and gallantry, the nightly musical lessons with which mistresses task their lovers under the starlight skies of a West Indian April.

"Could I, inspired by ladies' eyes,

Gain by my song a garland flower
From some fair brow whose beauty vies
With her's who owned the Paphian bower,
How, in this soft and moonlight hour,

When eyes like stars around me shine,
Should the kind influence of their power
Give utterance to this song of mine,
And win the wreath that poets won,
In times when gallant deeds were done.
Yes,-might the meed be what I ask,
I could not choose but win the prize,
For the sweet song can be no task
Inspired by love and ladies' eyes;
Then, gentle Inez, would 1 rise,
And claim from thee the garland now;
Nor would thy lovely hands despise

To place the wreath on Juan's brow;
For beauty knows the wreath she wears
Love and the minstrel claim as theirs."
The Spanish colonists do not possess the
same gardening disposition as the French, at
least they do not show the same attention to
arrangement and exact management. The
distinction, indeed, is that which we find in
the difference of temperature in the respective
places of their birth. The Spaniard derives
his origin from a more riant soil and climate
than the Frenchman, and is more associated
with the orange groves of his own genial land
than with the parterres and flower-beds of his
more northerly neighbour. To every cottage
of Cuba a garden is, however, attached; and,
if not much characterized by order and neat-
ness, it has yet an evident predilection for the
fragrance and beauty of flowers, among which
the rose, the lily, the jasmine, and the holy-
hock are conspicuous. There is also about its
productions that sentiment of pleasure which
attaches itself to the knowledge that the light
luxury of a fruit or vegetable supper, the uni-
versal evening meal of the Spaniard, is drawn
from the toil of the cottager's own hands, or
from the active spirits of his little household.

Whilst speaking of the ostentatious devotion of the Spanish character I would not forget to remark the peculiarities of the Angelus Domini and the Ave Maria; more especially the effect which this observance produces, in the varied circumstances of a crowd, to the eyes of a stranger. A recent traveller in Spain has given a strikingly vivid description of it; and the observance is just as rigid in the colonies as in European Spain-the only Catholic country which still retains this vestige of the piety of the times of old :

"At sunrise, a large soft-toned bell is tolled from the tower of the cathedral three times, summoning all the inhabitants, wherever they are, or however occupied, to devote a few moments to the performance of a short prayer, in honour of the Virgin, called the Angelus Domini. At the close of the evening the bell tolls again, and, to a foreigner, it is curious, and not uninteresting, to observe the sudden and fervent attention which is paid in the streets, within and without doors, in the alameda, on the river, by every body, high and low, the idler and the labourer, the horseman and the pedestrian, infancy and age, to this solemn sound. The crowds in the promenade all suddenly stop, and each group repeats within his own circle the consoling prayer. The lover suspends his compliments; the mistress changes her laughing eyes to a demure look, and closes up her face; the politician breaks off his argument; the young men are abashed in their gay discourse, and take off their hats; the carriages are drawn up; and all worldly business and amusement are forgotten, for about three minutes, till the cheerful tinkling of lighter bells announces that the orison is over."

There is this additional circumstance, however in the evening service to the Virgin in the colonies: the domestic slaves, at the conclusion of the prayer, come into the presence of the master, and, kneeling and bowing before him, solicit his benediction. If it is refused, the slave knows he has been guilty of some dereliction of duty, and does not fail either to make intercession for pardon, or, by diligence, to secure that forgiveness of which he is only sure when the benediction becomes a testimony that the sun no longer sets upon his master's wrath: the master, too, is very glad by this compromise to be able to say his Pater Noster with sincerity. It is after this orison that the salutation of good night is pronounced to all those encountered in the evening's walk or in the household. Aware of the practical morality which the evening bells of the Ave Maria call forth, it powerfully excites feelings of mutual charity and forbearance, and soothes the heart to meekness and to peace.

"Tum pensilis uva secundas Et nux ornabat mensas cum duplice ficu: Post hoc ludus erat cuppá potare magistrâ : Ac venerata Ceres, ut culmo surgeret alto, Explicuit vino contractæ seria frontis."-HOR. It is scarcely worth while to note the common-place remark that in the observances and formularies of the Catholic devotion, the Spaniards are more exact, solemn, and ostentatious than any other people of the same religious faith; or that their women affect much the serious and devout in worship, assuming the sable garb as their religious costume. This same spirit is found among them in the colonies: the females are veiled during the celebration of mass,-kneeling, or sitting like the orientals, on little carpets carried to church by their servants for that especial purpose. Spanish courtesy assigns them the place nearest the altar: there are no seats. There were formerly in the colonies various sumptuary laws regulating the dress of the women of the THE following extracts from a memoir by mixed race, but society has fallen into a disuse Mr. Fisher of the late Sir T. S. Raffles, pubof these distinctions The regulation which lished immediately after his decease, in the formerly existed, prohibiting coloured women oldest of the British periodicals, exhibit the from kneeling on cushions at church, was fre- views of that enlightened and estimable public quently abrogated for a price in favour of par- servant, with reference to this interesting subticular families, and the royal diploma rescind- ject. Mr. Raffles quitted England for India ing the degrading restraint operated politically, with a subordinate appointment in the service and elevated those on whom it was conferred of the East India Company. His talents reto the rank and dignity of European subjects. commended him to Lord Minto, who appointed Misfortune has taught Spain to fix the perma-him his lieutenant in the government of the nency of her colonial empire in the last of her transatlantic possessions on a principle more consistent with good policy than complexional distinction, so that this prejudice is now no longer regarded.

THE LATE SIR THOMAS STAMFORD
RAFFLES AND COLONIAL SLAVERY.

island of Java. On the cession of Java to the Dutch, Mr. T. S. Raffles was appointed by the company, lieutenant-governor of fort Marlbro',

on the island of Sumatra. In each of these stations he exerted his influence and authority

Among the several laws and regulations which were established during the government of Mr. Raffles on Java, the act of the British parliament, declaring the slave trade to be a felony, was made a colonial law.

PORT MARLBRO' OR BENCOOLEN.

and profligacy and immorality obtruded them-
selves every where. In addition to these dis-
gusting features, the oppression and debauchery
which naturally spring from the system of
slavery, and are peculiar to it, filled up the
frightful picture of misrule which this new
connexion presented to its lieutenant-governor
on his arrival. Not only were his prospects
cheerless and discouraging in the respects
already mentioned, but he had to associate
with, and seek co-operation from, men who
had long acted under this system, so diametri-
cally opposed to his own views, and who might
therefore be reasonably supposed disinclined,
which it would be his wish to introduce.
through habit, to acquiese in the changes

66

Of

"A general registry of slaves was also introduced, and other measures adopted, with the concurrence of the principal inhabitants, which contemplated the final extinction of slavery on the island: and when called upon to resign the government, foreseeing that his object would be for a time defeated, by the restora- Bencoolen, under such inauspicious circumEntering on his career of public duty at tion of the colony to the King of the Netherstances, he nevertheless formed with coollands, and in the hope of interesting his successors in its final accomplishment, he estab-ness, and pursued with steadiness and perseverance, his plans of reform. He appears lished a voluntary society of persons friendly to have given his earliest attention to the to the measure, which he designated the subject of forced service and slavery. 'Java Benevolent Society."" the former he traced the history with great accuracy; the Malay law stipulated, it ap-peared, that after the decease of a debtor, his children, in the first instance, and, after their death, the village to which he belonged, should be still liable for the debt. Thus not only the original contractors were rendered slave debtors, as they are termed, but their offspring, and eventually the people in general, were reduced to the same hapless state. Under the plea of recovering debts, and considering the people as debtors, they were compelled to work; and as the colony, in fact, contained no equitable court for the impartial adjudication of all the numberless questions which would constantly arise between debtor and creditor, the system in its operation became one of lawless violence and oppression on the one hand, and of constantly recurring, though but too frequently unavailing, resistance on the other.

"It is well known that this residency was one of the East India Company's earliest possessions, and, having been formed on the bad principles which prevailed at the time when the company first took possession of it, was for more than a century cursed with all the abominations which attend the system of colonial slavery. Its population during that period consisted of a few demoralized Europeans, a small number of half-domesticated Malays, and a considerable body of native African slaves called Caffres, whose wasting numbers were from time to time recruited by the importation of fresh victims, obtained at an enormous expence. Of the latter description of persons the company possessed a considerable establishment, and all the other Europeans resident in the settlement were, of course, accustomed to the anomalous luxury of slave-service and property in human flesh. "The whole history of this settlement, if correctly written, would give an instructive view of the misery, folly, and commercial disap. pointment which are the concomitants of this system. It is beyond all question that, for many years, Bencoolen afforded to its possessors no commercial advantage; on the contrary, by a reference to the annual parliamentary statements of the East India Company's affairs, it will appear that, for the forty years last past, it entailed upon them an annual loss, amounting frequently to more than 100,000l. "Yet it must be acknowledged that the spirit of enterprise was not backward to suggest plans, nor that of speculation to essay means, by which it was presumed the colony might eventually be rendered productive to its owners; but as the execution of all these plans rested on compulsory unremunerated labour, and property in the persons of men, the uniform result was disappointment, failure, and loss of capital.

"When Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles first took charge of this government, he found the settlement in the utmost poverty and wretchedness: for religious worship, or for the administration of justice, scarcely any provision existing, and education almost totally disregarded on the other hand, gaming and cock fighting not only permitted, but publicly patronised by the government. There was, in fact, neither security for person or property to be found. Murders were daily committed, and robberies perpetrated, which were never traced, nor indeed attempted to be traced:

:

matra that took place after his arrival, and,
after explaining to them the principles and
views of the British Government with regard
to the abolition of slavery generally, he gave
to each of the slaves a certificate of freedom.
To the old and infirm, small stipends were
also allotted for subsistence during the re-
mainder of their lives. This measure made a
considerable impression at the time, and pro-
mised to be followed by the most favourable
results. Indeed, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
continued long enough at Bencoolen to enjoy
the satisfaction of passing a regulation, with
the entire concurrence of the native chiefs, by
which slavery was eventually abolished, and
the laws regarding debtors so modified as to
the British Government."
render them consistent with the principles of

PULO NEAS.

"The first of these measures was the con

clusion of a treaty or treaties with the chiefs

of a small island, situated off the south coast of Sumatra, called Pulo Neas. This treaty was a measure rather of benevolence than of policy. The inhabitants of the island, who rank among the most beautiful and well-formed specimens of the human family, have, from that very circumstance, excited the cupidity of almost all the Mahommedan chiefs in the neighbourhood; who, it is believed, have been long in and the most shocking scenes of plunder and the practice of trading to this island for slaves, rapine have been the necessary consequence. So extensive has been the traffic in the ill

starred inhabitants of Pulo Neas, that Neas slaves are well known all over the east, and highly prized for their superior comeliness and artless manners, which qualities have every where obtained for them the highest price. It to this hateful traffic, in connexion with some was chiefly for the purpose of putting an end not very great commercial advantages which it was thought would result from the arrange

which was never confirmed."

SINGAPORE.

On this island Sir Stamford Raffles hoisted the British flag on the 29th of February, 1819.

"In legislating for this settlement, the slavetrade and slavery were expressly prohibited. No individual could be imported for sale, transferred, or sold as a slave, after the establishment of the settlement; or, having his or her fixed residence in the island, can now be considered or treated as a slave under any denomination, condition, colour, or pretence whatever.' The usages respecting bond debtors were of course materially modified, and a continued residence of twelve months at Singapore was declared to constitute a fixed residence, and to entitle the party to all the benefits of the British constitution.

"Of the African slaves, or Caffres, the pro-ment, that Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles took perty of government, there were, when Sir the island under British protection, by a treaty, Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived (men, women, and children), upwards of 200; being mostly the children of slaves originally purchased by the East India Company; that mode of keeping up or augmenting their number having of course been discontinued, in obedience to the act of the British_legislature which abolished the slave-trade. The Caffres had been considered as indispensable for the duties of the place; they were employed in loading and unloading the Company's ships, and other hard work, for which free labourers might have been engaged with great advantage to the employer. No care was taken of the morals of the Caffres; in consequence of which, most of them were dissolute and depraved, the women living in promiscuous intercourse with the public convicts. This, it was stated, was permitted for the purpose of 'keeping up the breed;' but the children, in the few cases where children were produced, were left in a state of nature, vice, and wretchedness; and the whole establishment had for many years been on the decline, both as it respects numbers and efficiency.

"Yet were there not wanting persons in Bencoolen, as in England, who eulogised this system as the perfection of human policy, and asserted that the Company's Caffres were happier than free men. Such were not the views of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who, fully convinced of the contrary, caused the whole of the Company's slaves to be brought before the first assembly of the native chiefs of Su

"A most convincing proof of the intelligence displayed by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in the establishment of Singapore, is the excellent constitution of government under which he placed it, and which has been already briefly described. His wisdom and discernment were no doubt apparent in the choice of the spot selected by him for the settlement. The energy of his character was manifested by the promptitude and decision with which he executed his design, and obtained possession of the island. But if there be one circumstance more than any other which shows a combination of those qualities with a high degree of benevolent feeling, which manifests great intelligence and great benignity united, it is the care which

325

he took to guard his infant establishment against that bane of all colonial speculation, slavery.

"The result has been such as every wise man and sound politician would expect, and is well calculated to impart a lesson of wisdom even to the most untractable and besotted advocates of the odious system so long pursued in the western world. Had Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, instead of holding out to the inhabitants of Singapore the liberty and personal security which are proper to the British constitution, and ought to be enjoyed in all countries which bear that name, and instead of admitting them to colonize on the easiest imaginable terms, proceeded to people the island by importations of African or any other slaves, and had he transcribed for their government a few pages of the Jamaica or any other of the slave codes (matured, as we are told those codes have been, by the wisdom of experience!)-there would have been at this day, in Singapore, just as many inhabitants as its rulers could find chains to hold there, and just as much work done by them as could be extorted from unwilling labourers by the mechanical operation of the lash or the thumb-screw; or rather, which is more probable, the East India Company, true to their interests, and wise to discern them, and profiting also by their long experience at Bencoolen, would ere this have abandoned the island, writing off the expense it had occasioned to them, as a heavy disbursement connected with an abortive attempt, to profit and loss. But such has not been, and it is confidently hoped never will be, the case with Singapore. There, a free, well-protected commerce creates wealth, and wealth commands industry, to any extent which the exigencies of that commerce may require. The people come and go at their pleasure. All ranks enjoy the cheering sunshine of hope, and feel that powerful motive to exertion in full such principles has hitherto been, so it may be presumed that it will continue to be, prosperity." The following concluding lines are highly descriptive, and honourable to the subject of the memoir of which they form a part.

operation among them; and as the effect of

PASCAL.

versal philosophers that has appeared in who was his intimate friend, and a very BLAISE PASCAL, one of the most uni- | have been written by the father of Pascal, any age or nation, was born in Clermont, able mathematician. in France, June 19th, 1623. From his infancy he manifested extraordinary pow- suits, he naturally passed on to their apers of mind, and made great proficiency plication, and gave his attention to natuAfter devoting some time to these purin every branch of study to which he ral philosophy. He soon distinguished turned his attention. His early predilec- himself by the ingenuity of his experitions seemed to lean to mathematics, and ments, and raised his reputation above the most singular accounts are preserved all competition by two treatises, the one of the aptitude that he manifested in on the equilibrium of fluids, and the "The practices and principles which he father, perceiving the bent of his mind, childhood for the exact sciences. sought to extirpate were cruelty, tyranny, and unwilling that he should be so abHis other on the weight of the atmosphere. fraud, and ignorance; those which it to have been his wish to introduce were know-sorbed by his favourite study as to negledge and justice, by the efficient administra-lect the languages and other necessary tion of equal laws, the recognition of personal departments of education, threw obstacles and relative rights, the total abolition of bond in the way of his improvement, service and slavery, and by education." locked all books which treated on those and up subjects. He could not, however, divert him at work with charcoal on his chamhis son's thoughts, and one day surprised ber floor, and in the midst of figures. On learning from him what he was doing, he discovered, to his utter amazement, that, without any knowledge of the technicalifurther than he had determined them by ties of the science, nor of its axioms reflection, he had discovered the proof of the thirty-second proposition of the first book of Euclid, that the three angles of every triangle are equal to two right angles!

AN ELEPHANT.

An elephant, belonging to Mr. Boddam, of the Bengal civil service, at Gyat, used every day to pass over a small bridge leading from his master's house into the town of Gyat. He one day refused to go over it, and it was with difficulty, and by goring him most cruelly, that the driver could get him to venture on the bridge, the strength of which he first tried with his trunk, showing clearly that he suspected it was not sufficiently strong. At last he went on, and before he could get over the bridge gave way, and they were precipitated into the ditch, which killed the driver, and considerably injured the elephant. It is reasonable to suppose that the elephant must have perceived its feeble state when he last passed over it. It is a well-known fact that elephants will seldom or never go over strange bridges without first trying with their trunks if they be sufficiently strong to bear their weight, nor will they ever go into a boat without doing

the same.

impressed with his vast superiority, that they submitted to him questions involving So deeply was the scientific world now the greatest difficulties; and one of these problems gave occasion to perhaps the talent. It was to determine the curve happiest exertion of his mathematical described in the air by the nail of a tion; which curve was thence called a coach-wheel while the machine is in moroullette, but is now commonly known as the cycloid. Pascal offered a reward of forty pistoles to any one who should give a satisfactory answer to it. No perown at Paris, which he composed during son having succeeded, he published his a sleepless night, and tortured with toothache!

indulge in mathematical pursuits. He
From this time, he had full liberty to
understood Euclid's Elements at first
sight, and at sixteen years of age he
wrote a "Treatise on Conic Sections;"
which Des Cartes read, and supposed to

entirely forsook these studies, as unworthy the attention of a life, and devoted At twenty-four years of age, he by which he nearly lost his life, in riding and religion. It is said that an accident, himself to the solitary pursuit of morals over the Pont Neuf, at Paris, was the means of first turning his attention to the affairs of religion, and from this time he became a perfect devotee. He was not,