were informed by the arrival of successive orders in council, by the appointment of protectors of slaves, and by the trial of a few slave causes, that they had rights; and when a man of any colour once knows to a certainty that he has rights which are withheld from him by parties close at hand, he is never contented again in his wronged condition. The planters were as restless in their way as the slaves. They resented the orders in council, and everything in the shape of admonition from home, as an unwarrantable interference with their management of their property; and they refused the slave registration and other observances prescribed by government. The language in their assemblies was audaciously disrespectful and petulant; and in Trinidad there was a proposition that the inhabitants should refuse to pay taxes till the last order in council was rescinded. In December 1831, a formidable insurrection broke out in Jamaica, which occasioned suspension of business and other loss, and was put down only by martial law; and in the following April the West India merchants in London endeavoured to make government liable for the losses thus incurred, and for all which, in the opinion of the planters, could be traced to the operation of the orders, or of other movements in behalf of the slave. When, at this meeting, the responsibility for all disorders was thrown upon the British government, and protests and claims were sent in to the colonial secretary, 'in consequence of the measures pursued by his majesty's ministers,' it was clear that a final settlement of the great question was at hand. It was now too late to desert the cause of the slaves, and hand them over to the arbitrary management of their owners. There must be a final issue; and the planters were bringing it on as fast as they could. If they had not done so, events would. In the three years from 1828, the production of sugar had so far lessened as that the imports in England had sunk from 198,400 tons to 185,660 tons. The planters believed that they could recover their ground if England would give them aid, and only leave them to manage their slaves in their own way; while England felt, not only that the negroes were fellow-subjects as well as the whites, but that no power on earth could roll back the years so as to reinstate the planters in their former position. By their present conduct, the West India merchants and proprietors hurried on the crisis at a rate not dreamed of by the friends of the negro at home.

On the 17th of April, the Earl of Harewood presented to the House of Lords a petition from persons interested in the colonies, for a full parliamentary inquiry into the laws, usages, and condition of the West India colonies, their past improvements, and possible future ameliorations-due regard being had to the best interests of the slaves themselves, and the rights of private property.' The committee was granted; and the last order in council was suspended for the time. On the 24th of May, the lord chancellor presented a petition from 135,000 persons, resident in and near London, praying for the speedy abolition of slavery, and that no delay might be caused by the appointment of the West India committee. Lord Suffield followed with twenty

one petitions to the same purpose. While these were discussed in the one House, Mr T. Fowell Buxton was moving in the other for a select committee to prepare for the extinction of slavery in the British dominions at the earliest possible moment. It is painful now to read the debate on this occasion, not only on account of the perpetual pleas which make the reader blush for the conscience of the legislature-pleas of the good food, light work, and relief from responsibility, of the slaves, and of their enjoyment of the blessings of Christianity-but on account of the timidity and supineness of many who called themselves the friends of the negroes. Mr Buxton had a hard battle to fight; but he stood his ground. He must have been aware that he understood the matter, while his opponents, of all parties, did not. He knew that the abolition of slavery was inevitable; and that the most speedy abolition would be the safest for all parties. He knew that a gradual preparation of a slave for freedom was an impossible thing; he knew that to leave the matter in the hands of the government was to give up the cause; he knew that to revert to the resolutions of the 15th of May 1823, was to acquiesce in another nine years' delay; he knew that to mix up in the same motion the questions of emancipation and of compensation to the planters would be to expose the great moral to all the risks of the minor financial question; and he therefore stood firm, amidst the entreaties of friends, the mockery of foes, and the somewhat contemptuous displeasure of the ministers, who on this occasion could not be ranked either with friends or foes. Lord Althorp, unaware what a work he and his colleagues were destined to do in a few short months, 'would not pledge himself to any immediate abolition of slavery, because he did not think that the slave-population was in a situation to receive that boon beneficially for themselves; but he thought that the legislature might employ itself most usefully in bringing the slaves to such a state of moral feeling as would be suitable to the proposed alteration in their condition;' and he moved an amendment on Mr Buxton's motion, in favour of 'conformity with the resolutions of this House of the 15th of May 1823.' Thus far were our statesmen behind the time, that one of the most honest, one of the most sensitive to the claims of justice, was unaware that the only possible education for the use of rights is in the exercise of the rights themselves, and was unashamed to revert to the barren resolutions of nine years before. In that spirit of rectitude which includes the truest mercy, Mr Buxton refused to surrender his motion, even if he should vote alone. Ninety, however, voted on his side, and 163 on the other. This majority of 73 on Lord Althorp's side was not so large as was expected; and it was probably outnumbered, a hundred times over, by the converts to Mr Buxton's view outside the House, who could bring an effectual force to bear on the government.

This question is one which implicates not two quarters of the world only, but three-not Europe and Africa only, but America. It is necessary to survey the whole area of the operation of negro slavery, in order to give the true history of any one

CHAP. VIII.]

part. There was at this date an infant movement in the United States which was destined to signalise our century as the Reformation distinguished its own age. Some who live nearest to the cradle of this reformation are only now-five-and-twenty years after its birth-beginning to perceive with any clearness the magnitude of the event; but so it is with all the great transitions in the world. While the Reformation was going on, multitudes of ordinary people in Germany were living on as usual, in unconsciousness that anything remarkable was befalling the world; 'likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;' and if any stranger had inquired of them about the new prophet and his doctrine, they would have denied that such existed, till the fire-shower of Luther's denunciations came to burn up the superstitions of the age. Thus it was now in the United States, where the gibbet and the tar-kettle and the cow-hide were preparing for the patriots of the community; and the time was drawing on, when the rights of petition to congress, of the press, and of free speech, were to be suspended, in order to be restored with increased security, for the object of freeing the soil from negro slavery. Before this could happen, some noble hearts must be broken, some precious lives sacrificed, some public halls burned, and many private dwellings laid waste; but the end was decreed, and the beginning was now made. In 1830, two young men had been wont to walk across the common at Boston, and discuss the right way of setting about the abolition of slavery in America; and they and another-poor and obscure, all three of them-had met in a garret, and there, with their feet upon a wood-pile, and by the light of a single candle, they had solemnly resolved steadfastly to measure their moral force against the hideous evil. It has fallen to them and their followers to contend for a wider emancipation than that of the negroes-to be the champions, in the New World, of freedom of opinion, speech, and the press; and before their work-now secure, but not fully accomplished-is finally dismissed from their hands, it may appear that yet other kinds of freedom have been brought in and established by them. The conflict between the powers of light and darkness, of liberty and tyranny, in the United States, is now, in the middle of the century, approaching its issue. At the time when Mr Buxton stood up in the British House of Commons, refusing to yield his point, an indomitable brother-reformer over the seas had presented his manifesto in one of the finest declarations ever given to the world. No one knew better than Mr Buxton, and no one would have been more eager to explain the fact, that the brother-spirit over the seas had infinitely the harder lot, and the most arduous work, of the two for his portion. It was only by living on bread and water that the confessor of this mighty cause could obtain means to publish his paper. When it sold particularly well,' says his partner in the sacrifice, we treated ourselves with a bowl of milk.' In the small, shabby first sheet of The Liberator, printed with old types, we find the manifesto which will not be forgotten while the Anglo-Saxon liberties and language last. 'I am

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aware,' says Garrison, that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest-I will not equivocate-AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead. It is pretended that I am retarding the cause of emancipation by the coarseness of my invective, and the precipitancy of my measures. The charge is not true. On this question my influence, humble as it is, is felt at this moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in coming years-not perniciously, but beneficially-not as a curse, but as a blessing; and posterity will bear witness that I was right. I desire to thank God that He enables me to disregard the fear of man, and to speak His truth in its simplicity and power.' There were persons in the House of Commons who exclaimed against coarseness and precipitancy, and called out for soft words, and a mincing gait towards the object-the gaze reverting to the resolutions of nine years before. But the men who understood the case knew that events-and not any impulse of impatient mindsnow called for a thundering utterance, and a tread that should shake the ground. The demand for liberty was now one which could not be neglected. The property question might be considered too; but it must not be permitted to cause the delay of the greater argument. Though defeated on the division, Mr Buxton had made this clear; and from that day there was no more halting on either shore of the Atlantic.

A vote of relief in money to the West India colonies, on account of a destructive hurricane in Barbadoes, St Vincent, and St Lucia, was now made to include Jamaica, on account of the recent insurrection, and raised from £100,000 to £1,000,000. The chancellor of the exchequer declared that it would require £800,000 to rebuild the premises destroyed by the insurgent slaves. It was in this same year that the slaves in America heard of Garrison's manifesto; and from that time they ceased to rise. Till then, revolts had been frequent-several taking place every year. Since Garrison, the 'peace-man,' has arisen in their behalf, there has not been one.

By the 14th of the next May, the government had declared that they had found the pressure of public opinion on the subject of slavery too strong to be resisted; and they had brought forward, by the mouth of Mr Stanley-who had become colonial secretary-a series of resolutions, which were to be debated on the 30th of the same month. In the speech of the secretary, introducing the resolutions, nothing is more remarkable than the narrative given of West India distress; a distress so frequently recurring, so incessantly complained of, in all conditions of war and peace, and of changing seasons, as to shew that the secret of prosperity does not lie in slavery, and that there was some fatal fault in the system which the planters were so unwilling to have touched. There was nothing in this narrative to surprise the economists, in or out of the House; and the economists and the friends of the negro, and the most enlightened of the advocates of the planters,

were alike sorry to see in the resolutions a clinging to the unsound method of 'gradualism,' in the abolition of slavery. It was proposed that all children born after the passing of any act of emancipation, and all that should be under six years old at the time of its passage, should be declared free; that all others, then slaves, should be registered as apprenticed labourers, being considered free, except for the restriction of being compelled to labour for their present owners, under conditions, and for a space of time to be determined by parliament; that a loan, not exceeding £15,000,000 should be offered to the planters; and that parliament should provide for the expense of a local magistracy, and of means of education and religious training of the negroes.

Mr Buxton declared at once against the compulsory apprenticeship, as a device pregnant with mischief. He was joined by one who had been a member of the government, Lord Howick, who had resigned office from his inability to countenance this provision, and his reluctance to introduce confusion into the government by his opposition, otherwise than as an independent member of the House. This apprenticeship arrangement was one great difficulty, and the loan was another. The planters and their advocates considered the amount a mere pittance, and yet were sure they could never repay it. With a good grace, the loan of fifteen millions was converted into a gift of twenty millions; and the term of apprenticeship was reduced. Mr Buxton was so well supported in his opposition, that government had no choice but to yield. The field-slaves were to have been apprenticed for twelve years, and the house-slaves for seven: their terms were now reduced to seven and five. As to the money part of the affair, there were many who saw and declared that, in strict principle, there could be no claim for compensation for deprivation of that which, from its very nature, never could have been property; and such opposed any payment at all to the planters, as they would have refused to purchase a slave who could be freed without. But the greater number, seeing how long the law had recognised human beings as property, and on how bare a legal basis all right to property rests, were willing to avoid subtle controversy, and to close the dispute rather with generous concession than with rigidity; and the gift of twenty millions was voted with an alacrity which must ever be considered a remarkable and honourable sign of the times. The generous acquiescence of the people under this prodigious increase of their burdens has caused the moralists of other nations to declare that the British act of emancipation stands alone for moral grandeur in the history of the world; while those of other nations who do not happen to be moralists, see in it only an inexplicable hypocrisy, or obscure process of self-interest.

On the 30th of August 1833, the Emancipation Act passed the Lords. The name, and much of the substance of slavery was to expire on the 1st of August 1834. The young children were then to be free; and the government fondly hoped, against the warnings of those who understood the second nature which overgrows the first in the holders of irresponsible power, that the parents would, from the same

hour, be morally and civilly free-bound only in the salutary obligations to virtuous labour. However that might be, the day was within view when all should be wholly free. To her great honour-and not the less because the act proved to be one of true policy-Antigua surrendered the right of apprenticeship, and set her slaves wholly free on the appointed day. Elsewhere, the arrangement worked so illthe oppression of the negroes was so gross, and to them in their transition state so intolerable-the perplexities were so many, and so difficult to deal with -that government was soon convinced that 'gradualism' was as impracticable under the name of freedom, as of slavery in three years, the term of apprenticeship was shortened; and presently afterwards the arrangement was relinquished altogether.

The season of emancipation was dreaded by some of the slaveholders, who had spent all their lives in fear of negro risings. To others it appeared that the danger of revolt was when the negroes were suffering under tyranny, and not when they were relieved from it. On both shores of the Atlantic, however, expectation stood on tiptoe to watch the moment which should give freedom to 800,000 of the enslaved race. The Carolina planter looked well to his negro quarter, to see that his 'hands' were not abroad after dark. Garrison and his band sat waiting for tidings-with more faith in the negro temper than anybody else, but still with some anxiety for the cause. The British parliament looked benevolently forth, in the consciousness of having done an act which should stand alone in the history of the world. The British peasant thought affectionately of the black brethren whom he, as a freeman and a tax-payer, had helped to release from bondage. And when the tidings came-the narrative of how the great day had passed over -there was such joy as is seldom excited by one event among opposite interests. Garrison and his band were as much relieved as the Carolina planter; and the English peasant was as proud and pleased as the British parliament. The 1st of August fell on a Friday; and there was to be holiday from the Thursday night till Monday. The missionaries did their duty well; and they completely succeeded in impressing the people with a sense of the solemnity of the occasion. The arrival of that midnight in the island of Antigua, where the negroes were to be wholly free at once, was an event which cannot be read of without a throbbing of the heart. It was to the negroes their passover-night. They were all collected in their chapels-the Wesleyans keeping watch-night in the chapels throughout the island. The pastors recommended to the people to receive the blessing in silence and on their knees. At the first stroke of midnight from the great cathedral-bell, all fell on their knees, and nothing was heard but the slow tolling bell, and some struggling sobs in the intervals. The silence lasted for a few moments after the final stroke, when a peal of awful thunder rattled through the sky, and the flash of lightning seemed to put out the lamps in the chapels. Then the kneeling crowd sprang to their feet, and gave voice to their passionate emotions-such voice as might be expected

CHAP. IX.]

from this excitable people. Some tossed up their free arms, and groaned away at once the heart's burden of a life. Families and neighbours opened their arms to each other. Some prayed aloud, after the lead of their pastors, that they might be free indeed; and a voice was heard in thanksgiving for a real Sabbath now, when the wicked should cease from troubling, and the weary be at rest, and the voice of the oppressor should be no more heard, and the servant should be free from his master. In some of the chapels the noble spectacle was seen of the masters attending with their negroes, and, when the clock had struck, shaking hands with them, and wishing them joy. The rest of the holiday was spent partly in mirth, as was right, and much of it in listening to the addresses of the missionaries, who urged upon them with much force, and in the utmost detail, the duties of sobriety and diligence, and harmony with their employers. On the Monday morning, they went to work-that work which they were proud of now, as it was for wages.

Fair as was this promise, and well as the conduct of the negroes has justified the highest expectations of their most sanguine friends, no reasonable persons were so sanguine as to suppose that all parties would be satisfied-that an act of parliament could neutralise all the evil results of an iniquity that was centuries old-that the striking of that cathedral clock was to silence all discontents for the future as well as the past. From the nature of things it could not be so. The planter could not, at the striking of that clock, put off his habits of command, and his lifelong associations of inferiority with the negro race. He could not, in a moment or a year, become an economist, a practical man, carrying on his business with the close attention and care and thrifty skill held necessary in the employers of free labour elsewhere. And the negroes would certainly work in a very different way, and to a very different amount henceforth. The husband and father might, and no doubt would, accomplish much more actual work between year's end and year's end; but some of it would be for himself-on ground of his own; and the women would be almost universally withdrawn from field-labour; and they would keep their children under their own care at home. As the possession of land was, in the eyes of negroes, the symbol of all earthly power and privilege, it was certain that their great ambition would be to buy land; and thus, again, more labour I would be withdrawn from the existing estates. And these estates were in that bad state of tillage which always co-exists with slave-labour; and the conditions were thus unfavourable to a change of system. The probability seemed to many to be that there would be a decline in the production of sugar, and distress among the planters, not remediable by any kind or degree of aid from England, ending probably in a transfer of the estates from the representatives of the old system to those of the new. A tone of fretful triumph would have to be borne with for a time from the enemies of emancipation; and, perhaps, a temporary deficiency of sugar-entailing further sacrifice on the English working-classes who had so cheerfully undertaken

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their share of the twenty millions of compensation; and, in some future time, every white might have sold his plantation to a black or mulatto capitalist. There would be much evil in all this, if it should happen; but after so long and grievous a sin, some retributive penalty must be expected; and there were bright points both in the near and distant prospects. The negress was now under the protection of a husband, and had a home in which to labour and rest. Christianity could now be preached, without dread and without omission. While regretting any decline in the outward fortunes of the planters, no considerate person could for a moment put those outward fortunes into the scale against the moral and material interests of the vast majority of residents in the West Indies; and, as for the supply of sugar, there is a broad belt surrounding the world-here studded with South American ranchos, there feathered with African palms, and beyond, watered by the rivers of India, and strewn with the islands of the eastern archipelago-where sugar enough may be grown for the needs of the whole race. The centuries bring with them their own resources. Ours brought a rich one in the insight and impulse to extinguish a mighty sin. Necessity and justice were seen and heard to demand it; the thing was done; and necessity and justice may always be trusted to vindicate themselves.

CHAPTER IX.

HUS far the Whig ministry had wrought and prospered well. They had undertaken their great works with a clear view of what ought to be done, and a determination to do it; or, if they at any time fell short in either of these requisites, the sympathy or opposition of the liberal party soon brought them up again. Among many deficiencies and weaknesses which they were now to exhibit, the most fatal, and one of the most inexcusable, was in regard to Ireland. It required no miraculous wisdom to see that Catholic emancipation would not tranquillise Ireland while she suffered under the burden of what the Times called 'too much Church.' In the most orderly state of society in any country, it could not be expected that between six and seven millions of inhabitants of one religious faith would pay a portion of their produce to support a Church which included only a few hundred thousands-a Church which they conscientiously disapproved, and whose funds they saw to be ample, while their own priesthood had nothing to depend on but the precarious contributions of their flocks. On the one hand was a Church numbering 853,000, with four archbishops, eighteen bishops, and a law which authorised its clergy to derive an essential part of their incomes from tithes; and this in a country where tillage was the almost universal means of subsistence, and the