or money, after one in the morning. Now, the dress-boxes of the winter-houses can occasionally boast a baronet's lady: this, however, being the extent of their attainments in that way: for how can the great be expected to listen to Shakspeare under the same roof with their shopkeepers? There is, in fact, no denying that the said great are marvellously at the mercy of the said little, in the matter of amusement; and there is no saying whether the latter will not, some day or other, make an inroad upon Almack's itself. Now, however, in spite of the said inroads, the best boxes at the Opera do begin to be worth exploring; since a beautiful Englishwoman of high fashion is "a sight to set before a king." Now the actors, all but the singing ones, in their secret hearts put up periodical prayers for the annual agitation of the Catholic Question; for without some stimulus of this kind, to correct the laxity of our religious morals, there is no knowing how soon they may cease to give thanks for three Sundays in the week during Lent. But Mr. Irving will look to this on their behalf; so they need not fear just at present. Now, occasionally during the said pious period, an inadvertent apprentice gets leave to go to "the play" on a Wednesday; and, having taken his seat in the one shilling-gallery, wonders during six long hours what can have come to the players, that they do nothing but sit in a row with their hands before them, in front of a pyramid of fiddlers, and break silence now and then by singing a psalm-for a psalm he is sure it must be, though he never heard it at church.-Now, every other day, the four sides of the newspapers offer to the wearied eye one unbroken ocean of small type; to the infinite abridgment of the labour of Chapter Coffee-house quidnuncs-who find that they have only one sheet to get through instead of ten; and to the entire discomfiture of the conscientious reader, who makes it a point of duty to spell through all that he pays for-avowed advertisements included; for in these latter there is some variety, of which no one can accuse the parliamentary speeches. By the bye, it would be but consistent in The Times to bestow their ingenuous prefix of "(advertisement)" on a few of the last-named effusions; and if they were placed ́under the head of " want places," nobody but the advertiser would see cause to complain of the mistake.-Now Fashion is on the point of awaking from her periodical sleep, attended by Mesdames Bean, Bell, and Pierrepoint on one side of her couch, and Messieures Myers, Stultz, and Davison on the other: each individual of each party watching with apparent anxiety to catch the first glance of her opening eye, in order to direct their several movements accordingly; but each having previously determined on those movements as definitively as if their legitimate monarch and directress had nothing to do with the matter: for, to say truth, notwithstanding her boasted legitimacy, Fashion has but a very limited control even in her own court-the real government being an oligarchy, the members of which are each lord paramount in his own particular department. Who, in fact, shall dispute an epaulet of Miss Pierrepoint's? and when Mr. Myers has achieved a collar, who shall call it in question ?-Now Hyde-park is worth walking in at four o'clock of a fine week-day, though the trees are still bare for there, as sure as the sunshine comes, shall be seen sauntering beneath it three distinct classes of fashionables ;—namely—

first, the fair immaculates from the mansions about May-fair, who loll listlessly in their elegant equipages, and occasionally eye, with an air of infinite disdain, the second class, who are peregrinating on the other side the bar-the fair frailties from the neighbourhood of the Newroad; which latter, more magnanimous than their betters, and less envious, are content, for their parts, to appropriate the greater portion of the attentions of the third class-the Ineffables and Exquisites from Long's and Stevens's. Among these last-named class something particular indeed must have happened if you do not recognise that arbiter elegantiarum of actresses, the Marquis of W; that delighter in Dennets and decaying beauties, the honourable L S ; and that princepretty-man of rake-hells and roués, little George W

Finally, March, among its other merits, is richer than any other month in illustrious birth-days: a qualification which I had inadvertently neglected to notice in regard to January, though it includes those of our own Newton, of Robert Burns, and of that musical miracle, Mozart. On the 2d of March 1564 was given to a world which was unworthy of him, Galileo Galilei-" The starry Galileo, with his woes." On the 8th of March 1684 was breathed into a human form that majestic spirit which afterwards was to alternately sigh and shout forth its high and holy aspirations, in the music of the Messiah. On the 15th of March, 1605, was born the gentle lover of the divine Saccharissa. On the 18th of March 1474, first saw the light that Atlas of modern art, Michel Angelo Buonarotti.-And lastly, on the 23d, 1554, Nature, in a melancholy mood, sighed the breath of life into the form of Tasso; and which breath, retaining the character that was thus impressed upon it, was but one long sigh for ever after.

CONSTANCY.

IF Kitty's rolling full blue eyes
Each amorous thought inspire,
Not less dark Cloe's do I prize,
Jet black, and all on fire.

True, I love Delia's slender frame
And ever pensive air,

Yet Phillis fans an equal flame,
The antidote of care.

From endless change all order springs,

Our being, thoughts, and breath,
Each hour of life its chances brings,
And not to change is, death.

Then blame not if affection roves,

And rival flames perplex,

But think the youth who oft'nest loves

Is truest to the sex.

M.

SLAVERY AND ITS ADVOCATES.

THERE is a species of moral obligation incumbent on all who are connected with the press, to support the cause of humanity upon every public question. If the means adopted to obtain a praiseworthy end be not those which we may think the best that could be used, still, if they have nothing wrong in them, it is idle to make a stalking-horse of them to draw off attention from other points, and to bury the main object under a mass of senseless vituperation and sullen invective. Such, however, has been the course pursued by the publications which have espoused the cause of slavery in this country-incited by private interest, for which they sacrifice every honourable principle, and stifle those better feelings that are perpetually struggling to be uppermost. As may be expected, such are weak allies in a bad cause. They are the mercenary auxiliaries of an army making little more than a show on the day of battle. We do not pretend to be in the secrets of the "saints,” but we cannot forget that they have been the indefatigable friends of humanity, and stood forth firmly even when they stood alone in its cause. The praise which they have fairly earned, they are entitled to keep, without misrepresentation of motive. The names of Clarkson and Wilberforce will descend to posterity with honour, when trifling religious peculiarities are forgotten. Men who merit the praise of consistency in one of the noblest causes of humanity, need not fear the feeble attacks of raillery. They may well afford to be loaded with epithets of censure, and to be styled charlatans and "humbugs,” because they have not rested content with demolishing the traffic in slaves, but go farther, and endeavour to effect the ultimate abolition of slavery itself. Upon this question we fearlessly enroll ourselves on their side, and trust that the British public will continue to afford its aid to all friends of the abolition, and assist in removing this curse of Heaven, this noon-day pestilence, from their country, as the disgraceful traffic must have been removed from the ocean, had a lately deceased minister performed but half his duty to mankind at the general peace.

The object of the enemies of slavery in the proceedings which have so enraged the West Indians and their friends, was simply to ameliorate the condition of the negro, by recommending that the scourge should be no longer the excitement to colonial labour-that time should be spared to the slave for cultivating his garden without applying the Sunday to that purpose and that every means should be allowed him, compatible with his situation, for acquiring moral and religious instruction. This has been regarded by the colonist as an unlawful interference in his private affairs. We hold that the permission of slavery is a stain upon a modern government, let its interested advocates say what they may; and that where it already exists, the removal of the stigma in the most politic manner is a solemn duty. But what has been the head and front of offence among the supporters of slave-abolition, and indeed on the part of his majesty's ministers, but that they have taken the mildest and most considerate step they could adopt, and at as good a time as could have been chosen, for effecting a just and politic object? That it was a practicable step we have seen, for the island of Tobago has adopted it, and Saint Kitts (unless the slave-owners of Barbadoes, Jamaica, and Demerara should fit out an expedition to prevent it, as

the Barbadoes people threaten to do for destroying Methodist chapels) will follow the example. Though not directly in point, Grenada has shown a liberal spirit in another way, by admitting free persons of colour to the privileges of the constitution. There was nothing in the letter of Lord Bathurst, recommending this amelioration, that could be deemed rash or Quixotic. It did not hint at emancipation, a measure of which the tenure of property, the composition of society, and the state of the negro mind and habit, forbade the contemplation but as a distant event, in which the present generation of slaves could have had little chance of partaking. So remote was such a subject from the contemplation of government, that it would not admit the question to be discussed, and only confined itself to bettering the condition of the negroes, leaving farther steps to time. This was all intended or implied in the communication to the colonies, which was so sneered at in Jamaica, and which one of the planters of Barbadoes (a Mr. Hamden—what a misnomer!) asserts caused the insurrection at Demerara. This person's assertion we do not believe. The negroes do not peruse the newspapers, but their masters do; and if that insurrection did not arise from other causes, the tocsin was sounded by the slave-owners themselves, whose unseemly conduct at the idea of an interference with their concerns by the British government, and their intemperance and open rioting in other islands, might well fix the attention of the slave, and induce him to believe that his masters kept something behind the curtain and did not display such anxiety for the trifling concessions alone recommended by the British minister. We believe that government will never be regarded, by the majority of the planters, as entitled to take any steps respecting the negro that may, perchance, lead now or at any future time to his emancipation. The slave, his children, and children's children for ever, are regarded by them as so many cattle-the whole and sole property of their owners, who will not be dictated to how they shall manage or dispose of them. The negro has no rights; he and his posterity are to be slaves interminably, and deserve no better fate! That there are some who think otherwise among the slave-holders we know, but we speak here of the majority. A planter possessed of a considerable estate in one of the larger islands, and a long resident on it, declared the other day in London, that could free labour be brought to bear he should be the first to hail it as highly advantageous for all; but added, if I whispered such an opinion at home I should be compelled to fly from my property.-" By the negroes ?"-"No, by my brother planters!"

Too many of the planters dislike the idea of slave-instruction; their power would necessarily be abridged, more decency be observed in intercourse with the negroes, and many long-standing vicious habits be changed, to which they naturally have a repugnance. They have not been sparing in the exhibition of their bad spirit on the present occasion. In Jamaica they have repealed the registration bill, and have talked loudly and presumptuously of defying the government at home, and being free like the Americans, as if there had been any analogy between the Pennsylvanians and New Englanders of America and their cause, and that of the West Indian slave-holders !* What is Jamaica

It is not, then, the proceedings in parliament that make the negro dissatisfied; the selfish spirit and noonday violence of the colonists are the causes, and act immediately upon the slave-population.

but the property of Britain by the right of conquest, a colony unable to support itself against its immense slave-population, without digging inglorious graves for the brave soldiery whom it is necessary to send from England for its safeguard? These colonists, then, are like the fly on the coach-wheel, swelling and buzzing in their own impotency. Have these islands cost us no life and treasure? was not the trade of the merchant to other countries shackled for their benefit, and does it not continue so? and was it too much to ask a slight concession for the cause of humanity in return? Away, then, with such boastings. Let, therefore, the consequences of their obstinacy be upon their own heads; for we boldly assert, what is as clear to us as noonday, that the negro population of the West Indies, if not instructed and prepared by degrees for eventual emancipation, and the being amalgamated into free society, will, by the unerring operation of natural causes, by and by burst its thraldom in its savage state; and fearful will the moment be.

66

But if any thing were wanting to show the spirit with which the planters viewed the sober request of the minister, we may turn from Jamaica to Barbadoes, where men, not of the rabble, and boastful that they are not so, demolish the dissenting chapels, and call upon all persons who are true lovers of religion" to put an end to Methodism in the West Indies. When the governor offers a reward for the perpetrators of the outrage, he is answered by a proclamation from these brutal rioters, who style themselves "nine-tenths of the community," and even go so far as to print bills, calling upon other colonies to imitate their example. Can they now libel Wilberforce for speaking of their moral depravity? This is a specimen of what sort of stuff negrodrivers are formed, and is a melancholy picture of the social manners of Barbadoes and the hopelessness of such persons ever amicably and cordially uniting with government to blot out the national dishonour. Lovers of "true religion," no doubt, they are; and what their notion of "true religion" is, it may not be difficult to conceive!

The insurrection in Demerara, though its origin be enveloped in mystery, affords a clue by which it may be unravelled. On the proceedings in parliament and Lord Bathurst's communication reaching their ears, the rage of the planters caused the first stir. They placarded Mr. Wilberforce and the abolitionists, and their invectives were open, vulgar, and outrageous. Thus they naturally attracted the attention of their slaves. This colony once belonged to the Dutch, and was noted for the cruelty and oppression of the slave-holders. The negroes could not naturally credit that so much effervescence had burst forth among their masters on account of the demand of such small sacrifices; and being ripe for revolt from others causes, it immediately appeared. This is the probable and natural course of events, and the symptoms of insubordination in the other colonies have been caused in the same manner. The colonists have therefore their own conduct to thank for it. The obstacles presented to the permission of slaveamelioration are far greater among the slave-holders than those to moral instruction among the slaves. Letters from the colony state that one thousand negroes have been killed, hunted down, and executed, while no white persons appear to have lost their lives. The severity of these executions (if the accounts be correct) seems very extraordinary. The common mortality of slaves in Demerara is said to be greater than in any of our other colonies, and has been