WAGES OR THE WHIP.

Under the most mitigated system, slavery is still labour obtained by force; and if by force, I know not how you can stop short of that degree of force which is necessary to extract involuntary exertion. A motive there must be; and, ransack your invention as you will, it comes at last to this Inducement or Compulsion: Wages or the Whip."—Mr. Buxton's Speech in the House of Commons, May 24, 1832.

THE time is well nigh arrived when the question must be promptly disposed of, whether the cultivators of the soil now in bondage in the colonies are to continue their labour from that universal stimulus, the desire of reward, or from that unnatural stimulus by which their labour has been so long unrighteously exacted, the lash. The present tract is undertaken in no acrimonious spirit towards those who are so unfortunate as to remain still unconvinced that the higher motive of reward will yield as profitable a result as the debasing corporeal chastisement now exercised throughout the colonies. It may in some measure influence even the prejudiced colonist to place before his view, in contra-position, such proofs as the history of negro labour affords of the different results from the two systems. In doing so, one or two instances will serve as well as more. shall, therefore, give but two-one of foreign slaves, the other of British slaves.

WAGES.

In Mexico, 150 Spanish free blacks, with occasional additions when the season is late, or the work has been retarded by accidental causes, produce 450 tons of sugar, or 1,008,000 pounds weight.

THE WHIP.

I

In Cuba, 150 Spanish black slaves produce no more than 180 tons of sugar, or 403,200 pounds weight.*

WAGES.

THE WHIP.

OF BEING STIFF WITH THE

"In four years and three months, and Priscilla got thirty-nine each. under this change of management, Domingo and Lena got twelve each there were forty-four births, and only went to the sick-house UNDER PREforty-one deaths, giving an increase TENCE of three in the number of the gang. LICKS. It was no pretence with Thus, by humane treatment, and la- Santy. I got some peppers out of bour stimulated by reward, the gang the garden, and STEEPED THEM IN of 288 became 291, showing an in- HOT WATER, AND BATHED PRISCILLA benefit is thus stated by himself: "The annual nett clearance of the estate (which had previously been heavily encumbered) was above three times more than it had been for ten

crease of three; and the planter's own

years before."

AND DOMINGO.

July 14. Santy brought home at four o'clock. Gave him thirtynine severely.

July 31. Had an iron collar put round Santy's neck, and gave him thirty-nine for his last trip."

The flogging and pickling is thus carried on throughout the year.

Thus, in the course of seven years, from 1812 to 1819, by cruel treatment and coerced labour, the gang of 140 declined to 86, showing a decrease of 54. This decrease of the material, by which the estate can be successfully worked, will show that a process far other than a clearance of the estate was rapidly going forward.t

It will perhaps be said that I have drawn from a source which should be considered as an exception to the general kindness of treatment on a West India estate; but why should I think so? It has occurred that the Piercefield manager's own account has been accidentally revealed: where the whole cannot be seen, we must judge by the part that can be seen. Could access be had to similar documents from other estates, I doubt Here we have palpable, commercial proof, in pounds avoir-not that the same course of flogging and pickling would be dupois, of the balance in favour of free labour over slave shown up. The extravagance to which the apologists of slavery resort in extenuation of the cruelties laid to their charge was exhibited by the city pro-slavery champion recently at an antislavery lecture, held at Brunswick Chapel, Mile End. avert the indignation raised by a recital of the Moss's cruelty in rubbing Cayenne pepper into the eyes of their victim, Mr. L - was hardy enough to express his entire belief that the girl rubbed the pepper into her own eyes.‡

labour.

In the next instance, I shall not be able to bring out the deficit against slave labour so arithmetically palpable-that is, not in pounds avoirdupois-as in the foregoing; but I shall place life against life, instead of sugar against sugar, and that

in one of our own colonies.

Mr. S. says "As a beginning of By what one dare hardly to speak my general plan, I had, towards the of as an accident, the Plantation end of the year 1783, taken the whips Journal of the manager of the estate and all power of arbitrary punish- of Piercefield fell into the hands of ments, from all the overseers and their the most eminent of the negro's white servants, which occasioned my friends. I proceed to give extracts chief overseer to resign, and I soon therefrom, and their dissonance with dismissed all his deputies, who could the course of proceeding in the Barnot bear the loss of their whips. badoes estate, on the other side, will "I resolved to make a further ex- prepare my readers for a material difperiment, in order to try whether I ference of result. could not obtain the labour of my

negroes by voluntary means instead of the old method, by violence; when, for a small pecuniary reward over and above their usual allowances, the poorest, feeblest, and, by character, the most indolent negroes in the whole gang, cheerfully performed the holing of my land for canes (generally said to be the most laborious work) for less than a fourth part of the stated price paid to the undertakers for holing. I repeated the like experiment the following year with equal success; and, on the 18th of November, 1789, I gave all my slaves tenements of land, and pecuniary wages by the hour, the day, or the week, for their labour and services."

May 29." Dick Orton complained

that Mary Daniel had stolen two large
bunches of Bananas out of the Banana
Walk. At two o'clock the gang was
called over, and she was severely pu-
nished.
"Priscilla was also punished for
quitting the watch, &c."

June 7.-" Priscilla came in and
received thirty-nine. She brought
Betsy, who was also punished. Pu-
nished also-Domingo, Lena, Betsy
Peters, Joe and Mary Daniel, for
missing grass last night. Santy
brought home at noon by Scipio and
Adams. Gave him, at two o'clock,
thirty-nine, SEVERELY,
PICKLED HIM.

AND THEN

To

I have another proof in favour of the negro, which, were there no others on record, would fully satisfy me that the whip is a wanton and needless exercise of cruelty in order to stimulate him to labour.

In a conversation which I held, a few months ago, with a West India planter of twenty-seven years' standing, he related the following anecdote :-A cotton-field was in course of picking, when the evening of Saturday drew nigh, and the overseer made an exclamation to this effect: "Before Monday comes round, half the cotton remaining unpicked will be lost." On this, one of the gang advanced, saying, " Massa, suppose you pay-a-we, we pick him to-morrow, massa;" to which all cheerfully consented. Here the negroes were willing, after the full week's labour, to surrender their day of rest, so far as it was a day of rest, and the benefit to arise from their market concerns, to attain an immediate and tangible benefit by their extra labour. With such evidence as this in proof of their willingness to labour freely for an adequate remuneration, is not the outcry against emancipation mere drivelling?

*See Dr. Dickson's Mitigation of Slavery.

N. P.

+ See Appendix to Mr. Stephen's Delineation of Slavery, 2nd volume. So preposterous a supposition as this squares with nothing but what is said to have been the decision of a Dutch jury in a matter of some INTRICACY for want of satisfactory evidence. In a squabble between two men, one sustained the loss of his nose, said by him to have been bitten off by his antagonist. The party so charged declared his innocence, and asserted that the sufferer was himself the perpetrator. On these conflicting assertions the jury June 8." This morning, Santa consulted long, and the case turning wholly on general character, in which the party first charged had a preference, he was at length acquitted under the following verdict:-" That as nothing could, by man, be declared to be See the Report of Mr. Ward, envoy to Mexico, made to the Right Hon. absolutely impossible, a man might bite his own nose off." The gentleman G. Canning, March 13th, 1826.

must unquestionably have formed one of this Dutch jury.

THE FLYING SQUIRREL.

THIS curious animal is one of eleven species of the squirrel, or sciurus; so called from two Greek words, which signify "tail" and "shade," and which designate the use of its tail as a, kind of umbrella. It inhabits the birch-woods of Finland, Lapland, and other Arctic regions, and is also found in Asia, in the woods of the Uralian Chain, and in various parts of North America. It lives principally on the shoots and buds of the birch and pine, generally in solitude, except at one period of the year, and builds its nest of the softest mosses, in the hollows of trees, at a considerable height from the ground. It is principally distinguished from the better-known species of squirrel by a lateral membrane extending from the fore to the hind legs, and which so far serves the purpose of a wing or sail as to have conferred the name of the flying squirrel.

It is, however, to be observed, that this term is improperly applied; for although

APHORISMS.

WE fall not from virtue, like Vulcan from heaven, in a day. Bad dispositions require some time to grow into bad habits; bad habits must undermine good, and often-repeated acts make us habitually evil; so that by gradual depravations, and while we are but staggeringly evil, we are not left without parentheses of consideration, thoughtful rebukes, and merciful interventions, to recal us to ourselves.-SIR THOMAS BROWN.

An elevated genius employed in little things appears like the sun in his evening declination; he remits his splendour, but retains his magnitude, and pleases more though he dazzles less.-LONGI

NUS.

Swearing is properly a superfluity of naughtiness, and can only be considered as a sort of pepper-corn rent, in acknowledgment of the devil's right of superiority.-ROBERT HALL.

Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, and extract on of that living intellect that bred they do preserve, as in a vial, the purest efficacy them.-MILTON.

tion we raise against the living labours of public men-how we spill that seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books-since we see a kind of homicide may be thus committed, sometimes a martyrdom, and, if it extend to the whole tion ends not in the slaying an elemental life, but impression, a kind of massacre, whereof the execustrikes at that ethereal and fifth essence, the breath of reason itself, and slays an immortality rather than a life.—Ib.

We should be wary, therefore, what persecu

RIVER OF VINEGAR.

this apparatus assists them in leaping
from bough to bough, which they fre-
quently do at the distance of ten yards,
yet the animal can scarcely be said to fly;
as it can only move in one direction, and
even then cannot keep an even line, but
sinks considerably before it can reach the
place it aims at. Sensible, however, of
this incapacity, the squirrel, with an
amazing degree of sagacity, mounts the
higher on the tree from which it springs
in proportion to the distance it wishes to
reach, and thus seldom fails to accomplish
its object. The various endowments of
this animal enable it to live apparently in called, in the language of the country, Rio
IN South America, near Popayan, is a river
a state of security and happiness: the Vinegre. It takes its source in a very elevated
great rapidity of their movements defend-chain of mountains, and, after a subterranean
ing them from the attacks of less nimble progress of many miles, it re-appears, and
animals, and the similarity of their colour forms a magnificent cascade upwards of 300
to that of the trees on which they are feet in height. When a person stands beneath
found causing them to be discerned with this point he is speedily driven away by a very
fine shower of acid water, which irritates the
great difficulty, and so preserving them
from the attack of rapacious birds.
eyes. M. Boussingalt, wishing to ascertain
the cause of this phenomenon, analysed the
water of the river, and found, among other
substances, sulphuric and hydrochloric acids.
The following is the result of the analysis:-
Sulphuric acid, 0,00110; hydrochloric acid,
0,00091; alumine, 0,00040; chalk, 0,00013;
soda, 0,00012; silex, 0,00023; oxyde of iron
and magnesia, traces.

SEEDS OF THE LABURNUM.

Ir is generally believed that the seeds of the laburnum (cytisus laburnum) are very poisonous, and, in consequence, children are frequently warned against eating them. Their poisonous quality is also mentioned in some botanical works; but, as no notice is taken of this opinion in Dr. Christison's Treatise on Poisons, or in Dr. Beck's Medical Jurisprudence, it may be of some importance to mention the following circumstance:-On Saturday last (September 15, 1832), I was called to see three children, of the ages two and a half, five, and about seven respectively, who, having been sent into the garden to amuse themselves, were induced to eat a small quantity of the seeds of the laburnum, which they mistook for mouse peas. Very shortly afterwards, all the children were taken very sick, and vomited repeatedly, the youngest and the oldest with less violence than the other. After vomiting, they were soon relieved, and in the evening had recovered their usual health and spirits.

About thirteen years ago, I knew two young

well by steeping the seeds of laburnum in
their mouths, to the end of passing a needle the

more easily through them, in threading them
into necklaces. The ladies were in age about
eighteen and twenty-three, and the symptoms
of their illness were headache and slight
vomiting; after vomiting, they soon recovered.
The seeds of laburnum are kidney-shaped,
dark brown, have naturally a polished exterior,
and, when perfectly ripe and dry, are so hard
that a needle is not easily forced through
them; on this last account it is that they are
occasionally soaked previously to threading
them, but, I believe, not if the needle can be
passed through them without it, as soaking is
deemed to lessen, somewhat, the brightness of
their natural polish. As, too, the threading
is frequently begun before the soaking is found
to be necessary, the moistening them in the
warm saliva is a very natural resource for pro-
ducing the softening required at the instant.-
Loudon's Magazine of Natural History,
Communications from Dr. G. Johnston and

J. D.

"And yon shrine, where fame is
A spectral resident-whose pallid beam,
In shape of moonlight, hovers o'er the pile-
Makes this a sacred part of Albion's isle."

BYRON.

like a regular detail inconsistent with the space which we can allot to the subject. On the other hand, the building, in its present state, is so replete with objects of engrossing interest, and so richly furOUR notices of this edifice, whether nished with the most valuable contribuhistorical or descriptive, must of necessity tions of art, as equally to forbid us to be exceedingly limited and defective. Its enter on a general detail, and to force us history, on the one hand, extends over so to a very scanty selection. In making many centuries, and involves so many this we shall freely avail ourselves of interesting events, as to render any thing whatever sources of authentic informa

tion are within our reach, to which we need not refer the notice of our readers.

It has been said, that the building of the Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster, is "involved in mists too dense for the sun of antiquarian research to dissipate." It is perfectly true that its early history is sufficiently crowded with preposterous legends, fables, and dreams. But, in spite of all the trickery of its reverend possessors, its chronology has

From the time of the Confessor to the reign of Henry III., little appears to have Been done to the Abbey; but, in the year 1220, the latter monarch laid the first stone of a new chapel, in honour of the Virgin Mary, on the site now occu-rebuilt, and the western towers compied by Henry the Seventh's chapel; but pleted; but it is to their immediate suclittle was done to the building until the cessors that Westminster Abbey is most year 1245, when it was more actively pro- indebted, in the restoration of the exte-. secuted, and that with a prodigality of rior of Henry the Seventh's Chapel to its expense which at the period was unparal-original beauty, after it had become so leled.

would be open to receive English and other foreigners of distinction.

statues which ornament the peristyle, I placed Climbing, says he, one of those enormous myself above it, like Anchises of old, upon the shoulders of Encas.

would hardly be too strong to do justice
to its merits. The genius that could con-
ceive, and the talents that could execute,
so noble a monument of art, will for ever
rank the name of Ronbiliac in the highest
class of human intelligence."
It is impossible to describe the scene which
There are some singular contrasts pre-presented itself before me; and, were it other-
sented by the monumental inscriptions wise, imagination is incapable of conceiving
here, which naturally suggest how few
so sublime a spectacle. The inhabitants
words are sufficient to immortalize real of the whole earth seemed assembled in one
vast multitude; while the murmur of innu-
merit, and how many are requisite to set merable tongues, in different languages, as-
off none. Dryden's monument, for ex-
ample, only bears the name, "J. DRY-
DEN," under his bust, with these few
words in Latin: "Born 1632, died May
1, 1700;" and that to the memory of
Sheridan might easily escape notice, the
only memorial of him being a black
marble slab which covers his remains;
while others, whose names are seen al-
most for the first time on their tombstone,
are introduced to posterity with an epi-
taph which might be mistaken for a
history.

cended like the roaring of an ocean. Confusion could scarcely be greater in the plains of Shinar, when the descendants of Noah fled from the superstructure of their ignorance and folly. As far as the eye could reach, the tops of all the houses in Rome were laden with spectators. A single square, in the spacious area below, was preserved free from the multitude by the whole body of the pope's military, who had formed themselves into a quadrangle. Every other spot was occupied; and so closely were the people united, that their heads in motion resembled the waves of the sea. variety of colours blended together, and, glittering in the sun, produced an effect of equal novelty and splendour. It surpassed all I had ever seen or imagined; nor do I believe any country upon the globe ever produced its parallel.

The

of this amazing spectacle, a loud flourish of While I was occupied in the contemplation trumpets from two opposite sides of the area announced the approach of cavalry. First entered the nobles, in habits of green and gold, mounted upon sumptuous chargers, who came prancing into the centre of the military quadrangle. Other troops followed; and the whole corps, saluting the balcony over the grand portals of St. Peter's, from which his holiness was to appear, arranged themselves in order.

Gives more than female beauty to a stone, And Chatham's eloquence to marble lips." There is, nevertheless, an irresistible Another very striking monument is that interest connected with this place. The to Fox, by Westmacott. He is repre- spectator cannot but feel that he is sented as dying in the arms of his coun- walking among the monuments, and His form and features are depicted treading on the dust, of the greatest try. with great fidelity, and the expression of of his countrymen and of his species. By suffering in his countenance can scarcely that curious anachronism peculiar to fail to awaken a painful sympathy in the public cemeteries, his imagination is at mind of the spectator. Near him is seen once brought into immediate contact with a negro, whose anxious and grateful exthose men whose names have illustrated pression is intended to commemorate the the pages of history at different and dispolitical achievement which of itself would tant periods, and a feeling is excited suffice to attach to him the lasting vene- nearly corresponding in character with ration of posterity: we mean the aboli- that eagerness for posthumous celebrity tion of the slave-trade. There is one which distinguished and actuated the more monument which deserves some- mighty dead" around him-a desire thing more than a mere casual mention; factitiously to extend the limits of his this is to the memory of Joseph Gas- existence by a temporary and imaginary coigne Nightingale, Esq., and the Lady intercourse with them. We cannot but Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Washing- admire that national taste and sentiment ton, Earl Ferriers. The design of this which has crowded this spot with so many masterpiece of art (the last ever executed affecting associations; for though we canby Ronbiliac) is singularly pathetic. It not more powerfully realize the equalconsists principally of three figures in sta-izing power of death than by visiting the tuary marble, representing Lady Night- spot where the ill-fated Queen of Scots ingale and her husband, and the personi-sleeps beside her vindictive and perse-brow; while enormous plumes were seen

fication of death. The latter is represented as a complete skeleton, in shroud-like habiliments, raising his fatal dart to pierce the bosom of the lady, who appears sinking to the grave in the last stage of debility. Her husband is seen rushing forward, extending his right arm to ward off the attack of the monster, while with his left he clasps his dying wife to his breast, whose languid helplessness beautifully contrasts with the energetic and muscular attitude of her husband. The figure of death is distinguished by wonderful anatomical correctness, and is represented in an attitude of eagerness and resolution. "It is almost impossible," says a writer in describing this monument, "to speak of such a masterly work without a degree of admiration bordering upon enthusiasm; yet even the language of enthusiasm itself

66

cuting sister, where Pitt and Fox moulder
within a few paces of one another, and
the bitterest enemies lie together, and
"in their death are not divided;" yet
here also we most fully appreciate that
general tendency of the human mind to
preserve intellectual greatness and moral
worth in perpetual remembrance, and
thus acquaint ourselves with some of the
noblest features of our nature, while con-
versing the most closely with the monu-
ments of its frailty.

THE CEREMONY OF THE PAPAL
BENEDICTION.

DR. CLARKE received a card of invitation,
from the Major Duomo of his Holiness, pur-
porting that his apartments near the Vatican

At this instant a bell tolled; and, throughout the whole of that vast multitude, such a silence prevailed as one would have thought it impossible to produce without a miracle. Every tongue was still, and every eye directed and venerable figure of the pope, standing erect toward the balcony. Suddenly the majestic upon a lofty and self-moving throne, appeared through clouds of incense burning around him. As he advanced, his form became more and more distinct. All behind was darkness and mystery. The most costly robes decorated his body; a gorgeous tiara glittered on his waving on all sides of the throne. As he approached the light, with elevated front and uplifted hands, he called aloud on the Almighty. Instantly the bare-headed multitude fell prostrate. Thousands, and tens of thousands, knelt before him. The military, with dier was seen with his face to the earth. A a crash, grounded their arms; and every solvoice, which penetrated the remotest corner of the area, then pronounced the benediction. Extending his arms, and waving them over the people, he implored a blessing upon all the nations of the earth. Immediately the cannons roared, trumpets screamed, music. played, all the bells in Rome sounded, the guns from St. Angelo poured forth their thunder; more distant artillery repeated the signal, and the intelligence became conveyed from fortress to fortress throughout the remotest provinces Clarke. of the empire. From Otter's Life of E. D..