its general adoption are almost inconceivable. I crime, both by the dread which the imprison-
To say nothing of the speed with whichment inspires, as well as by the reformation
public commands and information might of the offender. Inquiries have been insti-
be communicated in time of war, it might tuted relative to the conduct of prisoners re-
even be used by commercial men to convey leased from the Auburn Penitentiary, the
messages, with much more speed and cheap- prison at which this system has been longest
ness than could perhaps be secured by any observed; and of 206 discharged, who have
other known expedient.
been watched over for the space of three
years, 146 have been reclaimed, and main-
tained reputable characters in society.

PRISON DISCIPLINE.

ADDRESS TO BRITISH CHRISTIANS
RESPECTING SLAVERY.

MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,
There are in the island of Jamaica three
hundred thousand British slaves.

Fifteen thousand of them, at least, are the
children of Englishmen and Scotchmen.

Under this cruel system the agricultural population are rapidly decreasing by death. Females are flogged in the most indecent and disgusting manner, at the will of their oppressors I have seen it.

The decrease on the sugar estates by death, in the parish of Trelawney, from 1817 to 1829, was 1394.

Even on Christian proprietors' estates it is the same.

Thousands of these deeply-injured and helpless beings are your brethren and sisters in Christ, and they are now forbidden to worship God.

In the same town, when I and my brother Missionary were prisoners, during the late struggle for freedom, more than 100 were hung on one gallows, many were shot, and about 300 men and women flogged underneath it, till the ground was covered with their blood, of which flogging several died.

THE DISBANDED SOLDIER.

IN the year 1785, a widow woman and her family resided in the city of Diet, in Holland, in a house in a rather lonely situation. Her husband had been an eminent carpenter, and he had bequeathed to his widow a comfortable residence, with some land, and two boats for carrying merchandise and passengers on the canals. She was also supposed to be worth some money, part of which she employed in a hempen and sail-cloth manufactory, for the of increasing her means of instructing purpose her children, consisting of a son and two daughters, in useful branches of business. One night, when the workmen were gone home, a person dressed in uniform, with a musket and broadsword, came to the house, and requested lodgings. "I let no lodgings, friend, said the widow: "and, besides, I have no spare bed, unless you sleep with my son, which I think very improper on account of your being perfect stranger to us all." The soldier then showed a discharge from Diesbach's regiment, (signed by the major, character,) and a passport from Count Maillebois, governor of Breda. Upon this, he was hospitably entertained, and at a seasonable hour withdrew to bed. Some hours afterwards, a loud knocking was heard at the door, which roused the soldier, who moved softly down stairs, and stopped at the hall-door, when the blows were repeated, and, the door was almost broken through. By this time the widow and her daughters were alarmed; and they ran almost frantic through different parts of the "Murder! murder!" The house, exclaiming, son, having seized a case of loaded pistols, joined the soldier at the hall-door; while the latter, screwing on his bayonet, and priming his piece afresh, which was charged with slugs, requested the women to keep themselves out of

a

who

gave

him an excellent

THE following is an extract from the Eighth Report of the London Society for Promoting Prison Discipline :-The Committee have given to this subject their best consideration, and have no hesitation in declaring their conviction, that an effectual substitute may be found for the penalty of death in a well-regulated system of penitentiary discipline; a system which shall inspire dread, not by intensity of punishinspire dread, not by intensity of punishment, but by unremitting occupation, seclusion, and restraint. The enforcement of hard labour, strict silence, and a judicious plan of solitary confinement, will be found the most powerful of all moral instruments for the correction of the guilty; and when to these are added the application of religious instruction, the utmost means are exercised which society can employ for the punishment and reformation of the human character. This discipline admits of a great variety of combination, and is therefore adapted to the treatment of offenders of different classes of criminality. For successful examples of this nature, the Committee refer to some of our best houses of correction, and especially to the Penitentiary at Millbank. It is, however, from the United States that the most extensive experience on this subject is to be derived; where a system has been adopted which combines solitary confinement at night, hard labour by day, the strict observance of silence, and attention to moral and religious improvement. These plans are enforced with great success at the prisons of Auburn and Sing-Sing, in the state of New York, and at Weathersfield, in the state of Connecticut. At sun-rise, the convicts proceed in regular order to the several work-shops, where they remain under vigilant superintendence until the hour of breakfast, when they repair to the commonhall. When at their meals, the prisoners are seated at tables in single rows, with their backs towards the centre, so that there can be no interchange of signs. From one end of the work-rooms to the other, upwards Remember, if you now altogether hold of 500 convicts may be seen without a single your peace, help will arise from another individual being observed to turn his head quarter. But, oh! the guilt, if, at the day towards a visitor. Not a whisper is heard of judgment, it shall appear that the supine-count for so small a creature as a bird making a tone throughout the apartments. At the closeness of Christians has fastened the chains, but a recent discovery has shown, that, in birds, of the day, labour is suspended, and the pri- and increased the oppressions, of his enslaved the lungs have several openings, communicating soners return in military order to their soli- fellow-men! tary cells; there they have the opportunity Christians, I have seen the cruelties of of reading the Scripture, and of reflecting Slavery. I have partaken of the sympathy in silence on their past lives. The chap- of the Negro; help me in the glorious cause lain occasionally visits the cells, instructing of mercy-and success is ours. the ignorant, and administering the reproofs and consolations of religion. The influence of these visits is described to be most bene

ficial, and the effect of the entire discipline

They are an interesting and an affectionate and it is in your power to give them civil and people, when treated like human beings; religious liberty, if you will conscientiously adopt the following Resolutions :

1. Meet once in every month to pray for the
immediate and total abolition of Slavery.

II. Conscientiously abstain from ever using any
produce raised by slave labour. Oh! that Christians
would all do this (and what a trifling sacrifice at the
altar of mercy): then must the system fall.
III. Vote for no man who will not give a distinct
pledge that he will vote for the entire and immediate

abolition of Slavery.

IV. Petition Christian Slave-holders to commence

this work of mercy. It is in their power so to do;
estates with free labour, and, instead of having the
men could be found who would conduct their
curse, they would enjoy the blessing of the Father of
the oppressed upon their properties.

V. Use all your influence to promulgate these
principles.

I am, your friend,
And the friend of the Negro,
WILLIAM KNIBB,
Baptist Missionary from Jamaica.

is decidedly successful in the prevention of London, Sept. 7, 1832.

the way of danger. Soon afterwards, the door was forced in, and two ruffians entered, who dead men, however, immediately returned the were instantly shot by the son, who discharged both his pistols at once. Two associates of the fire, but without effect: when the intrepid and veteran stranger rushed on them like a lion, ran one through the body with his bayonet, and, while the other was running away, lodged the contents of his piece between his shoulders, and caused him to drop down dead on the spot. After the necessary legal investigation of this affair, the four ruffians were buried in a cross road, and a suitable inscription was placed over them. The widow made the soldier a present to the amount of a hundred guineas of our money, and the city settled a handsome pension on him for the rest of his life. This veteran's name was Adrian de Griés; he was a native of Middleburgh, and was upwards of seventy years old at the time of this exploit.

VOCAL MACHINERY OF BIRDS.-It is difficult to ac as loud as some animals a thousand times its size;

with corresponding air bags or cells, which fill the whole cavity of the body from the neck downwards, and into which the air passes and repasses in the progress of breathing. This is not all: the very bones are hollow, from which air-pipes are conveyed to the most solid parts of the body, even into the quills and feathers. This air being rarefied by the heat of their body, adds to their levity. By forcing the air out of the body, they can dart down from the greatest height with astonishing velocity. No doubt the same machinery forms the basis of their vocal powers, and at once solves the mystery.— (Gardiner's Music of Nature.)

MEMOIR OF JAMES STEPHEN, ESQ., THE

LATE MASTER IN CHANCERY.

ANOTHER, who has acted no undistinguished part in the great drama of life, has just quitted its stage, and gone to his eternal rest. Mr. Stephen died at Bath, on the 10th inst., of a diseased liver. He was in his 74th year. It is some years since Mr. Stephen retired from the field of politics; but those among us who recollect the busy, eventful period of Perceval's Administration, cannot forget the prominent part which Mr. Stephen took in all the Parliamentary warfare of the day. We have it in our power to furnish our readers with a short and authentic, though imperfect, memoir of this gentleman; and we know that they will thank us for it. He was descended from a respectable family in the county of Aberdeen, but he himself was born at Poole, in Dorsetshire, and educated at Winchester: we have often heard him say, that he owed all that was good in his character to the precepts and example of his mother, a lady of the name of Milner, an old family in the West of England. Mr. Stephen lost his father, who was also at the bar, in early life; being thus left to his own resources, he went to the West Indies. shortly after the acknowledgment of American independence, and practised at St. Kitt's for many years with great success. He here acquired that intimate knowledge of Colonial law for which he was justly celebrated, and, with it, he imbibed that horror of the Colonial system, which led him to become one of its most distinguished opponents. When he returned from St. Kitts, he obtained a very large and lucrative practice in the Cockpit, sharing with the late Chief Justice Dallas nearly all the Prize Appeals that came before the Privy Council. Our commercial readers will recollect how frequently the violation of neutrality led to the capture and condemnation of American vesseis. Mr. Stephen was the first to direct public attention to this important subject in a small pamphlet, entitled "War in Disguise; or, the Frauds of the Neutral Flags." It was published anonymously; but it evinced a knowledge of the subject, and an ability of pen, which could not fail to render its author a valuable auxiliary to the Government of the day; and Mr. Stephen was soon seated in Parliament for a Government borough. He suggested, and virtually, we be lieve, arranged the whole system of Continental blockade; which, for many years, occasioned greater embarrassment to Buonaparte, than all the other operations of the war put together. Of this system, Mr. Stephen was the great Parliamentary supporter, as the present Chancellor was its most strenuous opponent in the same arena. Whether it rested upon correct or mistaken commercial principle, it matters little now to inquire; but it most undoubtedly succeeded in checking the hostilities of what we may call the neutral belligerents, and in augmenting the difficulties of France. It had, too, another effect, which its author had indeed foreseen, but to which he was too highminded to attach the least importance-it annihilated the whole of that prize appeal business from which his professional income was derived. It was in con

sideration of this generous and patriotic sacrifice, that Mr. Perceval obtained for him the appointment of one of the Masters in Ordinary of the Court of Chancery, having previously offered to make him Attorney-General or a puisne Judge, which Mr. Stephen declined.

He retained his seat in Parliament, and supported the measures of his party; as will be seen by looking into the Parliamentary reports of the period: indeed, a sort of personal, though good-humoured hostility, obtained between him and the late Mr. Whitbread, on most political questions. On one, however, Mr. Stephen exhibited the most decided independence of his party; and, rather than forfeit that independence, he resigned his seat. He planned a scheme for the registration of Slaves, the more effectually to check all illicit trading; but, though this scheme has since been adopted with unqualified success, Lord Liverpool's Cabinet, after the death of Mr. Perceval, refused, in the first instance, to sanction it; and Mr. Stephen withdrew himself from them. He never returned to public life. He always complained, and with reason, of this treatment: according to the received etiquette of political alliance, the solicited support of an auxiliary in Parliament is entitled to a return. Mr. Stephen had received his official appointment, not as a reward for Parliamentary service, but as a compensation for the patriotic sacrifice which he had made of his professional resources for the good of the public: the only compensation that he ever asked, was the patronage of this, his favourite scheme (and it has

since proved a judicious one,) for the protection of
the unfortunate African! It was refused; but its
benevolent projector has now received his reward in
the approbation of his Maker: "Thou hast well done,
good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord."

It is very little known, that the germ of that re-
form which has since taken place in the Court of
Chancery, under the auspices of Lord Brougham,
was planted by Mr. Stephen. Some accidental cir-
cumstance, we believe, led to an investigation of
the fees taken in the Masters' offices. It had been
the practice, for many years, to estimate the length
of actually calculating the number of folios-and such
of documents, copied for the use of solicitors, instead
estimates were, by mutual consent, always made
with great liberality-to the unreasonable and im-
proper advantage of all parties, except the clients.
The practice was unknown to the Masters per-
sonally; but, when it reached Mr. Stephen's ears,
he at once directed a minute inquiry into the extent
of the profits thus unfairly made; and not only
strictly prohibited the practice for the future, but
gave away to charity that which could not otherwise
be restored to justice. We have heard, that the sum
he thus refunded amounted to several hundred
pounds. At this time, the choice of the Master to
whom a cause should be referred, rested virtually
with the solicitors, and they of course would not
carry their business to an office which was more
rigid than any other in the taxation of costs. For a
time, therefore, Mr. Stephen's office was compara-
tively deserted; and, although he made repeated
representations to Lord Eldon of the injustice which
was thus done to him, it was not until he had for
years sustained annually a heavy pecuniary loss,
that Lord Eldon consented to make the first step
towards reform which Mr. Stephen suggested, that
references to the Masters should be made in rotation.
Mr. Stephen retained his office for twenty years;
and then, following the graceful example of Sir Wil-
domestic tranquillity.
liam Grant, retired to spend the residue of life in

We have been obliged to curtail much of his his-
tory, even as a public man; but we must not omit
to mention a circumstance most honourable to his
manly frankness of character. In early life, among
other resources which difficulty had suggested, he
reported in the gailery of the House of Commons,
for one of the daily papers, we believe, the Post.
Afterwards, while he enjoyed a seat in that House,
and had done so for many years, a question arose in-
volving the general respectability of the reporters,
when Mr. Stephen, speaking in their support, de-
clared his early connection with their body as an
alliance he felt glad to avow. It argued no common
mind to make this open declaration in the aristocra-
tic atmosphere of the House of Commons; but Mr.
tion, not less than by birth.
Stephen was a gentleman by feeling, and by educa-

We have scarcely left ourselves room to advert to
tion with this holy cause, that his name will be
his Anti-Slavery writings, although it is in connec-
handed down to future ages, as one of the illustrious
dead. He had been a determined enemy of the whole
speeches and his private remonstrances with men
system for many years; and had, both by his public
in power, done more to open their eyes to the op-
pressions and atrocities of Slavery, than, perhaps,
any other man in existence; while his high cha.
racter, and acknowledged experience, combined to
give a weight to all he said, which made the West
Indian interest regard him as their most formidable
lished his masterly "Delineation of Slavery."
antagonist: but it was not till 1824, that he pub:
Resting, as it does, not upon the disputed testimony
of strangers, but upon the admissions and statements
of the Colonists themselves, it shows up the system in
a manner which sets all controversy for ever at rest.
It has not been even attempted to answer the second
volume, which was published some years after the
first; and its truth and accuracy are specifically
established upon oath, before the Lords' Committee,
Their Lordships are thus spared, as they will here
after be told, all farther trouble, if they are sincere in
done that for them.
wishing to prove what Slavery is: Mr. Stephen has

Our readers will recollect with melancholy interest
his pointed remarks on this subject when he occu-
pied the chair at the last Anti-Slavery Meeting at
Exeter Hall. The dying opinion of this veteran in
the Anti-Slavery cause will be not less gratefully
received. A few weeks ago, when cautioning one of
his children against the danger to which he ex.
posed his health by over-exertion in support of it,
he expressed himself as follows:-

-

"It is not intended by God that man shall have the honour of finishing this work. I now feel con

vinced that he will signally interfere with his own arm. Let us leave it to him, my dear George, he will do it his own way; he has said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' May he visit our guilty oppo. nents in mercy!" It is believed that these were the last words he ever uttered on the subject.

When once

It would not, perhaps, be going too far to say that Mr. Stephen was one of the ablest pampleteers of the age. As a speaker, he was gifted with unusual powers of language and energy of manner. fairly launched in his subject, he showed that nature had marked him for a rhetorician. He was too ve. hement and impassioned, perhaps, for the taste of modern assemblies; but he rarely failed to carry his audience with him. It was, however, in writing that he chiefly excelled. The emphatic style and clear and pointed reasoning of his earlier publications evince a power and acuteness which have been but rarely equalled In the first year of his life his political principles were decidedly liberal,-we had almost said radical; but experience and observation moderated them to such a degree, that his friends considered him a Tory; though he was always so free from the least taint of bigotry or prejudice, that it would be unjust to class him with either party. In proof of his early political prepossessions, it may be mentioned that he is said to have called his youngest son, an equally ardent advocate of the Negro, after General Washington, though that gentleman does not, we believe, use the patronymic of the father of the United States: yet, as in his most liberal days Mr. Stephen had no taint of republicanism, it can only have been out of respect for the public character of the distinguised patriot that he named his son after him,

But who shall describe him in private life? It is not possible to express the respect, the affection, the almost reverential esteem, in which he was held by the large circle of relatives and friends in which he moved. We dare not trust ourselves to enter upon this; our ink is diluted with our tears. In person he was rather tall, and was well proportioned: the character of his features was intelligence and openness; the expression of his high forehead and his deepseated eye was very remarkable. We once heard a public man, distinguished by his own firmness of nerve and feature, say of him, "The look of Stephen, when angry or indignant, is terrific." But of late years this animated expression was rarely shewn, unless when called into play by the wrongs of the unhappy Slave; and then, indeed, would his countenance lighten up to a brightness that almost startled the by-stander. It was the fierceness of that holy anger which sinneth not. On other occasions he was gentle to tenderness, and meek even to humility. He has entered into that "rest which remaineth for the people of God."

ECONOMY OF "THE TIMES" OFFICE.

The following statement is extracted from Professor Babbage's late work, on The Ecoproduction which, from the vast variety of nomy of Machinery and Manufactures,—a interesting facts it contains, the important principles deduced from them, and the nervous and felicitous style in which it is written, is every way worthy of its distinguished almost extreme illustration of the advantages author. We present it to our readers as an accruing to manufactures, from the application of machinery and the division of labour.

"The establishment of The Times newspaper is an example, on a large scale, of a manufactory in which the division of labour, both mental and bodily, is admirably illustrated, and in which also the effect of the domestic economy is well exemplified. It is scarcely imagined, by the thousands who read that paper in various quarters of the globe, what a scene of organized activity the factory presents during the whole night, or what a quantity of talent and me. chanical skill is put in action for their amusement and information. Nearly a hundred persons are employed in this establishment; and, during the session of parliament, at least twelve reporters are constantly attending the House of Commons and Lords; each in his turn, after about an hour's work, retiring to translate into ordinary writing, the speech he has just heard and noted in short-hand. In the mean time fifty compositors are constantly at work, some

of whom have already set up the beginning, whilst | have familiarised ourselves with the mode in |
others are committing to type the yet undried manu-
script of the continuation of a speech, whose middle which it must be conducted. We are far from
portion is travelling to the office in the pocket of the thinking that perfection has been attained;
hasty reporter, and whose eloquent conclusion is,
on the contrary, we are free to acknowledge
perhaps, at that very moment, making the walls of
St. Stephen's vibrate with the applause of its hearers. that we have failed to realize our own ex-
These congregated types, as fast as they are composed, pectations. In the hurry of preparation
are passed in portions to other hands; till at last the some few articles have been admitted which
scattered fragments of the debate, forming, when
united with the ordinary matter, eight-and-forty a more rigid censorship should have excluded.
columns, re-appear in regular order on the platform Those who are practically acquainted with
of the printing-press. The hand of man is now too this class of literature, will be aware of the
slow for the demands of his curiosity, but the power difficulty which is sometimes experienced by
of steam comes to his assistance. Ink is rapidly sup-
plied to the moving types, by the most perfect me- an Editor in selecting from the materials
chanism;-four attendants incessantly introduce the with which he is furnished. To reject an
edges of large sheets of white paper to the junction
of two great rollers, which seem to devour them with article is to displease a friend, and to attempt
unsated appetite; other rollers convey them to the by the scissors or the pen to bring it into
type already inked, and having brought them into shape, is to hazard the charge of presump-
rapid and successive contact, re-deliver them to four
other assistants, completely printed by the almost tion or bad taste. The luckless wight on
momentary touch. Thus, in one hour, four thou-whom the unenviable office of deciding in
sand sheets of paper are printed on one side; and
an impresion of twelve thousand copies, from above
three hundred thousand moveable pieces of metal, is
produced for the public in six hours."

THE TOURIST.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1832.

HUMAN expectations are frequently falsified by experience. Many a philosopher has delighted himself with speculations, which a single experiment has been sufficient to disprove. Before the application of this decisive test, he may have prided himself on the accuracy of his views, have exulted in the originality and completeness of his theory. But no sooner has it been submitted to an infallible criterion, than it has been proved defective and illusory,-the offspring of conceit or of partial knowledge. Such also has been the case with literary adventurers. Ignorant of their own capabilities and of the demands of the public mind, they have committed themselves to undertakings which they were incompetent to conduct-they have begun to build without counting the

cost.

The discovery of their own unfitness is soon made to others, and cannot but ultimately be forced on themselves. For a time they may struggle against the conviction. Vanity may suggest many excuses for the insipidity of their productions, and hope may beguile them with the prospect of better things. Various artifices sorted to, to compensate their deficiency, till at length the neglect into which they fall, or the explicit and general condemnation which they receive, compels the abandonment

of their ill-conducted labours.

are re

It is not for us to say, what our own success has been; we may, however, be permitted to remark, that neither neglect nor condemnation has been our lot. Friendly strictures, indeed, we have received, and thankfully acknowledged. We invite their repetition whenever the contents of our columns may call for them. He who refuses to avail himself of the suggestions of others must have a most overweening conceit of his own powers.

We have now proceeded sufficiently far to know the nature of our undertaking; we have learnt somewhat of its difficulties, and

this case devolves, is frequently perplexed
by his public engagements being opposed to
the gratification of his private friendship.
It shall be our honest endeavour for the
future to do what is right in this case. In-
stead of aiming, like the old man in the
fable, to please all, we will keep in view our
obligations to the public, and the regard
which is due to our own character. Our

friends must bear with us, if we occasionally
reject, or slightly alter their papers; what
is excellent in itself, and may do credit to a
work of higher literary pretensions than our
own, may yet be unsuited to our pages.

POETRY.

THE LUTE. BY L. E. L.
Oh! sing again that mournful song,
That song of other times!
The music bears my soul along,
To other, dearer climes.

I love its low and broken tone;
The music seems to me

Like the wild wind when singing lone
O'er a twilight sea.

It may not sound so sweet to you;
To you it cannot bring
The vallies where your childhood grew,
The memories of your Spring.
My father's house, my infancy,
Rise present to my mind,
As if I had not crossed the sea,
Or left my youth behind.

I heard it, at the evening's close,
Upon my native shore;

It was a favourite song with those
Whom I shall see no more.

How many worldly thoughts and cares
Have melted at the strain!

'Tis fraught with early hopes and prayers-
Oh, sing that song again.

[The following sonnet is from the pen of Caroline, daughter of Dr. Symmons, the biographer of Milton,

and was wrtten, as her father testifies, in the middle
of her twelfth year.]

ON A BLIGHTED ROSE-BUD,
Scarce had thy velvet lips imbibed the dew,

And Nature hail'd thee infant queen of May,
Scarce saw thine opening bloom the sun's broad ray,
And to the air its tender fragrance threw,
When the north wind enamoured of thee grew;
Now drops thy head, now fadrs thy blushing hue-
And by his cold, rude kiss thy charms decay:
No more the queen of flowers, no longer gay.

So

blooms a maid, her guardians-health and joyHer mind array'd in innocency's vestWhen suddenly, impatient to destroy,

Death clasps the virgin to his iron breast. She fades-the parent, sister, friend, deplore

The charms and budding virtues now no more!

THE PRIVILEGES OF SLAVERY!

No pains shall be spared to secure the literary respectability of "THE TOURIST." It will be the effort of its conductors to combine instruction with entertainment; to secure, by the variety and sterling character of its contents; the improvement, as well as the interest of its readers: but while anxious to secure the literary character of our publication, our solicitude will be directed especially to the exclusion of whatever would offend the most delicate sense of moral propriety. Deeply impressed with the importance of religion, we shall gladly aid its ON Thursday evening, the 4th inst. the annual diffusion. To parents of families, and to the meeting of the Cinq Ports Bible Society was held at Ministers of religion, we therefore confi-esting manner on the inestimable value of the Sacred Dover. The various speakers expatiated in an interdently appeal for support. Volume, and on the blessings which were derived to society wherever its divine influence extends. At the close of the proceedings, Mr. Baldwin, one of the Agency Anti-Slavery Society's Agents, who was present, rose, and asked the Chairman's permission to make a few observations, which having been accorded, Mr. B. said, that during the two preceding evenings he had occupied that room, in endeavouring to shew the duty which devolved upon his audience. as men and as Christians, to demand the immediate and utter extinction of that foul disgrace

It is our intention, from time to time, to introduce such papers as shall assist in the establishment of moral principles, and the elucidation of Scripture facts. Cheap editions of valuable works will also receive early notice, and brief critiques on our most popular writers will occasionally be inserted, To the cause of humanity and religion, we pledge ourselves. There is one subject, however, in which we take more than ordinary interest. Believing the slavery of our Colonies to be a monstrous violation of the rights of our common nature, inconsistent with the principles of our Constitution, and repugnant to the spirit and precepts of the Christian faith, we shall lose no opportubringing down upon it the indignation of the nity of exposing its enormity, and of thus public mind. The aspect of the times calls for strenuous exertions on behalf of the Negro race; for their oppressors are now as intent on their exclusion from the privileges of Christianity, as from the comforts of social life.

to Britain-COLONIAL SLAVERY. But he doubted whether he had addressed to them any argument so powerful to that end as was supplied in an observation which had that day fallen from_the representative of the Parent Bible Society (the Rev. T. Brooke, of the Established Church,) who, in giving a detail of its operations, stated that Bibles had been distributed among the Slaves of certain estates in the island of Antigua, with the consent of their owners! Now, the Bible was admitted by every Christian mind to be an invaluable boon, which directed the sinner to a Saviour, and was fraught flowed fully and freely to us; its invitation, "O! with consolation to the weary and heavy laden, by inspiring a hope full of immortality. Its blessings every one that thirsteth," was addressed to all, and yet the poor enslaved African could only receive it by permission of his fellow-mortal and fellow-worm! Mr. B. trusted they would bear this in mind, and ceaselessly call for the annihilation of a system which

was alike a disgrace to England and Christendom. A very numerous and respectable auditory cordially responded to these appropriate sentiments.

TITLE TO SLAVE PROPERTY. (From the Watchman, Aug. 6, 1831.) "AT a meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the parish of St. Thomas in the Vale, Jamaica, held at the Court House, on the 30th ult. It was resolved:

"1st. That the property we hold in Slaves in this Island has been lawfully acquired, under the authority of the laws of the United Kingdom, and that it ought to be held as sacred as any other description of property belonging to his Majesty's subjects.

African Slaves, by prevailing upon them to make war upon each other, and to sell their prisoners. Till then they seldom had any wars: but were in general quiet and peaceable. But and avarice, and then hired them to sell one the white men first taught them drunkenness another. Nay, by this means, even their Kings are induced to sell their own subjects. So Mr. Moore, Factor of the African Company in 1730, informs us: When the King of Barsalli wants goods or brandy, he sends to the English Governor at James' Fort, who immediately sends a sloop. Against the time it arrives, he plunders some of his neighbours' "3d. That it has ever been the pride and At other times he falls upon one of his own towns, selling the people for the goods he wants. boast of the British constitution that no in-towns, and makes bold to sell his own subjects.' dividual, however humble, can be deprived So M. Brue says, I wrote to the King (not of his property without full and ample com- the same) if he had a sufficient number of pensation. If, therefore, we are compelled slaves I would treat with him. He seized to part with ours, we claim the right of being three hundred of his own people, and sent paid the worth of our lands, buildings, slaves, He adds, 'Some of the natives are always word, he was ready to deliver them for goods.' and other plantation property, not according ready, when well paid, to surprise and carry to their present value, but the amount of off their own countrymen. They come at what they would have been sold for before night without noise, and if they find any lone they were deteriorated by the acts and mis- cottage, surround it and carry off all the people.' representations of this party:" (meaning those Barbot (another French Factor) says, Many who are pleading for the freedom of the of the Slaves sold by the Negroes are prisoners Slaves.) of war, or taken in the incursions they make into their enemy's territories. Others are stolen. sexes, are stolen away by their neighbours, Abundance of little blacks of both when found abroad on the road, or in the woods, or else in the corn-fields, at the time of year when their parents keep them there all the day to scare away the devouring birds.' That their own parents sell them, is utterly false: whites, not blacks, are without natural affection! procured in a yet stronger light, it will suffice "To set the manner wherein Negroes are

It is rather strange that the freeholders of St. Thomas in the Vale did not perceive that by the last of these resolutions, they not enly declare their slaves entitled to their liberty, but also to full compensation for the whole of their unpaid labour, which has heretofore been applied solely to their masters' benefit. Should this resolution be enforced, the whole wealth of the Indies would not be sufficient to repay the injured Africans and their descendants the heavy arrears due to them. But whenever these "humble individuals" attempt to recover the property of their own bodies, and to retain their own "SESTRO, Dec. 29, 1724.-No trade to-day, labour for their own benefit, they are mur-though many traders came on board. They in dered with the most unchristian barbarity. formed us, that the people are gone to War within land, and will bring prisoners enough in two or three days; in hopes of which we stay.

If we examine into the title of the "Freeholders" to their "Slaves," we shall find it to be the very worst that can be. Volumes might be, and indeed are, filled with accounts of the illegal and barbarous manner in which this property was first produced: an extract from John Wesley's "Thoughts on Slavery," will answer our present purpose:

"In what manner are they procured? Part of them by fraud. Captains of ships from time to time, invited Negroes to come on board, and then carried them away. But far more have been procured by force. The Christians landing upon their coasts, seized as many as they found, men, women, and children, and transported them to America. It was about 1551, that the English began trading to Guinea: at first, for gold and elephant's teeth, but soon after, for men. In 1556, Sir John Hawkins sailed with two ships to Cape Verd, where he sent eighty men on shore to catch Negroes. But the natives flying, they fell farther down, and there set the men on shore, 'to burn their towns and take the inhabitants.' But they met with such resistance, that they had seven men killed, and took but ten Negroes. So they went still farther down, till having taken enough, they proceeded to the West Indies and sold them.

"It was sometime before the Europeans found a more compendious way of procuring

to give an extract of two voyages to Guinea on
this account. The first is taken verbatim from
the original manuscript of the Surgeon's
Journal.

"The 30th.-No trade yet; but our traders came on board to-day, and informed us the people had burnt four towns: so that to-morrow we expect slaves off.

"The 31st.-Fair weather, but no trading yet. We see each night towns burning. But we hear many of the Sestro men are killed by the inland Negroes: so that we fear this war will be unsuccessful.

"The 2d of January.-Last night, we saw a prodigious fire break out about eleven o'clock, and this morning see the town of Sestro burnt down to the ground; it contained some hundred bouses. So that we find their enemies are too hard for them at present, and consequently our trade spoiled here. Therefore about seven o'clock we weighed anchor, to proceed lower down."

"The second extract taken from the Journal of a Surgeon, who went from New York on the same trade, is as follows: The Commander of the vessel sent to acquaint the King, that he wanted a cargo of slaves. The King promised to furnish him, and in order to do it, set out, designing to surprise some town, and make all the people prisoners. Some time after, the King sent him word, he had not yet met with the desired success, having attempted to break up two towns, but having been twice repulsed: but that he still hoped to procure the number of Slaves. In this design he persisted, till he met his enemies in the field; a battle was

fought, which lasted three days, and the engagement was so bloody, that four thousand five hundred men were slain upon the spot.'

"Such is the manner wherein the Negroes Gospel to the Heathens!" are procured! Thus the Christians preach the

I know it will be said, that however bad the original title might have been, it has become good by lapse of time and the law of the land. But no length of time can justify robbery and murder, and no English law can abrogate the Divine law: a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely be put to death."

"He that stealeth

Even though the statutes of England may be adduced to justify the Slave-trade, they cannot be brought to justify the present system of Slavery, or the reducing the children of the victims of the Slave-trade to bondage.

THE HYDROSTATIC BED FOR
INVALIDS.

THE learned and ingenious author of the "Ele-
ments of Physics," has recently given to the
world one of those inventions, which show the
beneficial power of science in alleviating the
sufferings of humanity. It is a bed, of which
the substratum is water, and which, in conse-
can support the most delicate invalid without
quence of the peculiar properties of that element,
sensible inequality of pressure. The idea oc-
curred to Dr. Arnott, in endeavouring to miti-
gate the sufferings of a lady who, after a pre-
mature confinement, passed through a com-
bination and succession of low fever, jaun-
dice, and phlegmasia dolens of one leg.
debility, she rested too long in one o
In her state of extreme depression and
had rested all suffered-a slough formed on the
ture, and the parts of the body on which she
sacrum, another on the heel, and in the left hip,
on which she had lain, much inflammation
began, which termined in abscess. Mr. Earle's
bed for invalids, with air pillows, was tried

without success, and her life was considered in imminent danger. It was then the hydrostatic bed was first constructed, of which we give the following account in the words of the inventor:

"A trough of convenient length and breadth and a foot deep, was lined with metal to make it water-tight; it was about half filled with water, and over it was thrown a sheet of the India-rubber cloth, as large as would be a complete lining to it if empty. Of this sheet the edges, touched with varnish, to prevent the water creeping round by capillary attraction, were afterwards secured in a water-tight manner, all round to the upper border or top of the trough, shutting in the water as closely as if it had been in bottles, the only entrance left being through an opening at one corner, which could be perfectly closed. Upon this expanded dry sheet, a suitable mattrass was laid, and constituted a bed ready to receive its pillow and bedclothes, and not distinguishable from a common bed, but by its most surpassing softness or yielding. The bed was carried to the patient's house, and she was laid upon it; she was instantly relieved in a remarkable degree— sweet sleep came to her; she awoke refreshed; she passed the next night much better than usual; and on the following day Mr. Earle found that all the sores had assumed a healthy appearance; the healing from that time went on rapidly, and no new sloughs were formed. Dr. Arnott claims no property in the invention. He gives permission to any person to construct the bed, and wishes the invention to be generally known for the benefit of humanity.