CHAP. VI.] GOVERNMENT RESOLUTIONS. 385 with a due regard to the well-being of the parties concerned." The enactments which he hoped would follow upon the adoption of this resolution were such as would ordain the freedom of all children born after a certain day, and mitigate the condition of such slaves as were never to be freed. Mr. Canning seized at once upon the weak point the "gradualism." He contended that if slavery was repugnant to the principles of the British constitution and of the gospel, no terms ought to be held with it. It should be met by no proposal of gradual abolition, but by a demand for its immediate extinction. He declared, however, that while the spirit of English society and government was not that which could fraternize with slavery, it was certain that the legislature the maker and regulator of the British constitution had sanctioned slavery in the colonies during preceding centuries. As for the rest of his speech, it amounted to much the same as those of everybody out of the band of associated abolitionists. He did not go quite so far as Mr. Baring, who, in the same breath, declared himself as sincere an abolitionist as any man, and deprecated all mention of the subject of slavery in that House,1 rebellion and bloodshed being sure to follow. He did not, like Mr. Baring and some others, regard the welfare of West India property as the only important consideration in the case. He did remember, as too many did not, that the negroes were a party in the case, and that their fate was an element in the question. But he was not prepared to assert any principle, or to contemplate any course of action, which should bring the abolition of the institution into question practically, within any assignable time. He proposed resolutions declaratory Government of the expediency of immediately ameliorating the resolutions. condition of the British slave population; of the hope that such amelioration might fit the slaves for freedom; and of the desire of the House that these objects should be accomplished at the earliest period that the safety of all parties would allow.2 This was as much as the most sanguine of the abolitionists had expected to obtain; and it was more than their adversaries were able to bear. After a long debate, Mr. Canning's resolutions were carried without a division; and it was ordered that they should be laid before the King by certain members of the privy council.3 Then arose a prodigious clamor in the country, on the part of the West India interest. The government was declared to have gone over to ultra-abolitionism; and West India property fell in the market. As for the colonies, when the news of the debate arrived, there was much anger; but there was at first little fear. Mr. Canning's resolutions were looked upon as mere declarations mere words; and abolition "in the abstract is 1 Hansard, ix. p. 256. 2 Ibid. pp. 285, 286. 3 Ibid. وو p. 360. as little formidable to a slaveholder as slavery in the abstract is disturbing to the heart of an abolitionist like Mr. Baring, whose action in the matter consisted in recommending universal silence on the subject. It soon appeared, however, that the resolutions, and the House that had passed them, really meant something. Government A circular, dated from Downing Street, on the 24th of circular. May, reached the functionaries of the different islands; and in this circular they read the doom of slavery. It did not convey anything which appears to us very tremendous. It drew the attention of its recipients to the debate in the House,1 and gave a decisive intimation that there must be an end of the flogging of women, and of the use of the whip in the field. It was not the nature of these particulars which affected so deeply the West Indian mind. It was the fact of the interference at all; the prospect of further interference; the dread of emancipation at last; and before all these there was the besetting vision · the panic which comes upon the slaveholder with every breath from over the seas - his cold horror at noon — his nightmare in the dark - the apprehension of insurrection, if any one of a million of negroes should hear that the British government was thinking about them. To other people it appears that the very time when the negroes are least disposed to rebel is that when they know that their cause is in good hands; and that nothing is so likely to drive them to insurrection as the feeling that they have none to help them. In another country, and at a later time, this has proved eminently true. Before 1832 there were numerous revolts among the negroes in the slave-states of North America; the average number being twelve in a year. Since Garrison rose up to be the Moses to this multitude of bondmen, there have been no insurrections at all. The slaves are aware that their cause is in better hands than their own; and they wait, in trust and hope. The House of Assembly in Jamaica was passionate, according Reception in to its wont; talked of proclaiming the independence Jamaica. of the islands, if Parliament should attempt to dictate to them; talked of addressing the King to remove Lord Bathurst (the signer of the circular) from His Majesty's councils; talked of repealing the Registry Act; but did none of these things. What they did was to appoint a committee to consider what steps should be taken in consequence of the receipt of the circular; and they finally voted that they would take their own way of being just and kind to their slaves; and would not attend to any dictation from the mother-country. They also voted an address to their governor,2 in which they declared against making any alterations in their slave-code. 1 Annual Register, 1823, p. 130. 2 Ibid. p. 133. CHAP. VI.] BARBADOES AND DEMERARA. 387 In Barbadoes there was a rising; but it was of the slaveholding party. In slaveholding countries, the poorest order Reception in of freemen are, as everybody knows, a peculiarly de- Barbadoes; praved class, for reasons obvious enough. Where there are slaves to do the work of a society, industry is opprobrious, and idleness is honor. Such freemen as are too poor to have slaves, and to avoid work, are in a disgraced position; and none but the degraded would hold that position. A missionary at Barbadoes, named Shrewsbury, was believed to have written home to those who sent him that the lowest class of white men in that colony were ignorant and depraved. It is probable that he did so write; and that what he wrote was true. A multitude assembled round his chapel1 while he was in the pulpit, and silenced him with the noise of cat-calls and other clamor. The preacher stood in his place till he could be heard, and then went on with the service. The rioters next put out placards, inviting the missionary's enemies to assemble at the chapel on the following evening. They did so, and levelled the building with the ground. A placard put forth by the governor, Sir Henry Warde, offering a reward for the apprehension of any of the persons engaged, was answered by one issued by the rioters, threatening vengeance on any one who should give information, and warning all missionaries not to set foot in Barbadoes, a place which did indeed seem as alien as it thus declared itself from the religion of Christ. Mr. Shrewsbury was obliged to fly for his life. Such proceedings could not end at the point they had reached; and now ensued an excited state of suspense as to what was to happen next. And so it was in another colony, Demerara, whose name and fame were deeply disgraced this year. When the cir- in Demerara. cular reached the colony, the members of the govern 2 ment and other gentlemen talked of it in the presence of their domestic slaves, without making any express communications to the negroes on the subject of it, and even endeavoring to keep it secret from the field-hands. When the Court of Policy passed regulations in accordance with the instructions of the circular, pains were still taken to conceal the whole affair from the negroes. From what they heard from the house-slaves, they naturally supposed that orders for their emancipation had arrived from England, and that they were to be defrauded of it. In most slave regions, this would have led to a massacre of the whites; and it no doubt would here, but for the influence of a missionary of the Independents, to whom the Episcopalian clergyman of the colony ascribes the whole merit of the fact that not a drop of the blood of white men was shed. This Smith, the missionary, John Smith, had been in the colony for missionary. 1 Annual Register, 1823, p. 133. 2 Edinburgh Review, xl. p. 243. even seven years, during which time he had trained his flock to habits of order, industry, submission, and peace. Under his care, marriage became almost universal; and not one marriage in fifty was violated. There was an extraordinary deficiency of religious ministers in this colony; and that one man could have effected what Mr. Smith did, shows what may be done by the calm and steady zeal of one man, whose single object is the improvement and happiness of his neighbors. Just before the changes caused by the circular, the Governor, whose object was to "make head against the sectaries," among whom he included all the religious bodies in the colony except the one Episcopalian flock, the Dutch and Scotch churches, as well as the Methodist and Independent missionaries, had issued a prohibition to all the negroes to attend public worship, except by means of a pass from their owner; these owners being under no obligation to grant such a pass. When the slaves found themselves thus hindered in their worship, and believed themselves debarred from the liberty which the King had granted them, they rose upon their masters. They shed no blood; but they imprisoned the whites, and put some in the stocks. The first who rose were some upon the east coast,1 who had suffered most by the deprivation of liberty to attend church, and they were joined by others who thought more of the other cause of complaint. The rising took place on the 18th of August. On the 19th, martial law was proclaimed. On the 20th, the insurrection was completely over. While no white was sacrificed, about two hundred negroes were killed and wounded in the first instance; forty-seven were executed; and the floggings of many more were worse than death,a thousand lashes being a frequent sentence. So much for the insurrection. It was Mr. Smith's story, in connection with it, which makes this particular revolt conspicuous above others in the history of our time. The Governor kept the colony under martial law for five months after this insurrection of two days; and one of the persons brought to trial under this martial law was the missionary, Mr. Smith. Now was the time, during the reign of martial law, for "making head against the sectaries." The one Episcopalian clergyman, however, gave the Governor no help in the valiant work. His testimony is all in favor of the “ sectary under persecution. He declared his conviction, that "nothing but those religious impressions which, under Providence, Mr. Smith has been instrumental in fixing-nothing but those principles of the gospel of peace which he has been proclaiming could have prevented a dreadful effusion of blood here, and saved the lives of those very persons who are now, I shudder to 1 Annual Register, 1823, p. 135. 2 Hansard, xi. p. 968. 3 Ibid. p. 407. 3 CHAP. VI.] SMITH THE MISSIONARY. 389 which to write it, seeking his." Under this reign of martial law, the pastor was kept in prison for two months before trial; in apartments the one under the roof, exposed to burning heat, and the other on the ground, fetid from the stagnant water visible under the boards of the floor. He was an invalid before his arrest; and his death under these circumstances is not to be wondered at. The mode and conduct of the trial abounded in illegalities; and his conviction took place, on the evidence of three negroes, who afterwards confessed that they had been wrought upon to allege what was wholly false. The charges were,1 of having incited the slaves to revolt; of having concealed their intention to rise; and of having refused he did on the ground of ill-health and of his clerical office serve in the militia, several days after the suppression of the rebellion. But the real purpose of the trial is obvious, through all the ill-supported pretences put forward in the military court which assembled in the name of justice. "No man," declared Mr. Brougham in parliament,2 "can cast his eye upon this trial without perceiving that it was intended to bring on an issue between the system of the slave-law and the instruction of the negroes." This was, in truth, the cause in question; and John Smith was its martyr. The life of martyrs in a cause so vital and so comprehensive as this is rarely or never given in vain and few have been laid down to more effectual purpose than that of the Demerara missionary. 3 ; He was sentenced to death; but his persecutors had not the courage to subject themselves to the consequences of executing a judgment so obtained. They transmitted the sentence to England, for the decision of the British government. The British government rescinded the sentence of the court-martial, as far as related to the penalty of death, but decreed Mr. Smith's banishment from the colony. No time was lost in transmitting the information to Demerara; but before it arrived, the missionary was in his grave. His medical attendants had repeatedly declared that if he had not a better apartment, he must sink; but he was not removed; nor was he allowed a change of linen, nor the attendance of a friend to relieve the cares of his worn and wearied wife. He died on the 6th of February, 1824. The funeral was ordered to take place at two o'clock in the morning,* that no negro tears might be shed over the pastor's coffin. The widow and her friend, Mrs. Elliot, intended to follow the coffin; 5 but the head-constable declared that this could not be permitted. "Is it possible,” cried Mrs. Elliot, "that General Murray can 1 Hansard, xi. p. 984. 3 Annual Register, 1823, p. 137. 2 Ibid. p. 996. |