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REVIEW.

THE SINFULNESS OF COLONIAL SLAVERY. By ROBERT HALLEY. London: Hamilton. pp. 28.

THE rapid progress which the anti-slavery cause has recently made cannot fail to gratify every humane and Christian mind. The religious part of the community have been effectually aroused by the persecution of their missionaries; and an active, extensive, and systematic co-operation has thus been obtained. The previous supineness of religious men was a matter of deep regret to many friends of Christianity. It gave some appear ance of sanction to the impious appeal which the slave-holder made to revelation, and greatly weakened the hands of those philanthropists who were seeking to burst the bonds of colonial servitude.

It has afforded us pleasure to see many of the ministers of religion, both in the Establishment and among Dissenters, exerting their influence for the promotion of this righteous cause. No labour of love can be more appropriate to their office; no work of mercy and justice can more cogently be enforced by the mild principles of their faith. They are thus following the example of their Master, in the promotion of human happiness; and cannot fail, by a patient continuance in such labours, to secure his approval.

The publication before us was delivered as a lecture at the Monthly Meeting of Congregational Ministers and Churches in London, on the seventh of February last. It displays an extensive acquaintance with the subjectexposes the futility of the appeal which Colonial writers make to revelation in support of their system-and exhibits, in a luminous and impressive manner, the murderous character of Colonial Slavery. Mr. Halley has evidently acquainted himself with the details of the question which he undertakes to discuss, and the manner in which he has exhibited his information is alike creditable to his head and heart. He has committed a slight mistake in his statement of the case of Haiti. The emancipation of the negroes is represented as having already taken place previously to the civil war between the royalists and republicans. But the reverse of this was the case. The two parties took to arms in 1790; but the proclamation of Polverel, giving freedom to the slaves, was not issued till August, 1793; and the decree of the French Assembly, abolishing slavery throughout, was passed in February, 1794. This fact strengthens our case, by

showing that slavery has been abolished with safety, even amid the carnage and brutality of a civil war. The following extract furnishes a fair specimen of the author's style:

"I must confine myself to one most fearful charge, but that demonstrably true. It is a murderous system. Its victims are nigh unto death; they are ready to be slain.

In ten years, the slave population of our colonies has been diminished by 50,000. What a tale of intense misery does that single fact un fold! That population should increase, is one of the most constant laws of nature; and when prudential arrangements do not impose a restraint upon early marriage, a consideration totally inapplicable to the state of the negroes, the increase proceeds with surprising rapidity. But we have here the very reverse of nature's laws. Let us hear no more of comparison with the growing population of Britain. Even the starving paupers of Ireland rapidly multiply, and spread over the world. If then the prolonged labour of our fac

tories, or the scanty food of the Irish poor, is able
to effect no sensible alteration in this great law of
nature, what must be the physical suffering which
every ten years is working out a destruction of
seven per cent!

"This decrease was, immediately on its discovery,
ascribed to some inequality in the sexes. Returns
were called for, and that assertion was immediately
refuted. The free negroes have rapidly increased.
During the last American war, 740 fugitive slaves,
from the Carolinas, were located in Trinidad, and
were there apprenticed. Though doing the same
work as the slaves, yet with limited toil, and suf-
ficient food, they had in seven years increased to
above 1000, when the slave-gangs around them
had uniformly diminished. Can there be, bre-
thren, a more awful condemnation of the whole
system?

"This diminution is taken upon the gross estimate of the registers. But, says Dr. Collins, in excuse of the system, domestic slaves, and workmen in towns, increase as rapidly as any other class in the West Indies. There must be, therefore, a proportionably greater decrease than 50,000 upon the smaller number of plantation slaves alone. Upon the examination of the registers of several large sugar plan'ations, the decrease in the ten years was as much as from twelve to twenty per cent, and even much more in the Mauritius. Indeed, where complete accuracy was obtained, in the neighbourhood of Port Louis, 12,000 slaves had, in seven years, decreased to less than 7,000. But, it may be said, why cite the Mauritius, which bears no resemblance to the West Indies? No, I trust it is like no spot on God's earth. Its horrid tales are unparelleled, of teeth torn away-eyes struck out-arms, legs, breasts, cut off and more horrid tortures, proved by indisputable evidence, judicial records, oaths of the military, and reports of Commissioners. I adduce it for the same reason as 1 refer to the Antilles; because the British colours wave over them both, elsewhere the favourite standard of liberty, but in the Indian Ocean and the Mexican Gulf, the emblem of bondage, oppression, and death. Let us tear down our flag; or wash away its stain, whether it be the scarlet of Jamaica, or the deeper crimson of the Mauritius.

"But, to confi e ourselves to the West Indies, it
has been shown in the Anti-Slavery Reporter,
and never, as far as I know, contradicted, that on
actual decrease, there has been, since the aboli-
the ordinary law of increase. compared with the
tion of the slave trade, a waste of life to the
amount of 740,000 huran beings. I have some-
times endeavoured to obtain data from which to
compute the number of Africans originally trans-
ported to these Western Islands. It must have
been much more than 7,000,000. I wish I could
find reason to believe that estimate approached
near the truth. There are now some 700,000,
Neither war
the scanty and miserable relics.

when raging in Europe-nor the plague in Con-
stantinople-nor the mournful cholera in India,
its birth-place-t
-nor any other crime of man, or
curse of God, has effected so general a destruction
as British avarice has wrought in the West Indies.
Are the charities of Englishmen frozen? Are
their hearts, if they have any, incased in steel and
adamant? Delay a little longer-amuse your
selves with preparatory measures and gradual
laid their bodies in the last rest of the weary, and
emancipation, and a less tardy liberator will have
transferred their souls to the avenging millions
beneath the altar.

"The system is murderous through an exhausting

and merciless exaction of labour. I need not go
into detail; for Mr. Stephen has proved that the
average work of negroes, the women in the same
gang as the men, is more than sixteen hours a
day; and much of it, as cane-holing, peculiarly
laborious. There is also the night-work of the
crop season, on an average five, and, on
estates, six months in the year. Then it is sugar

some

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against slave-life. During this protracted period,
on some estates the negroes work all the day and
half the night; on others, six days and three
nights in the week; and, on many, thirty-six
hours' continuous labour, and ten hours' rest. We
have this last statement upon the evidence of Mr.
Wildman, a humane and Christian proprietor,
who went out to examine the state of his negroes.
He saw immediately there was a gain of produce
He reduced the labour of crop
by a loss of life.
to sixteen hours in the twenty-four, and for this
act was bitterly persecuted by the neighbouring
planters. But
observe the consequence :-before
the change on that estate, the yearly births aver-
aged three for 280 slaves; when he left they
amounted to ten. There was the mother of three
children, who, on his arrival, complaining of the
excess of labour, said, 'slave woman never holds
child in her arms.'

"Besides all this, the slave, not like an English-
man who gains his livelihood by his toil, has to get
his livelihood when his master's work is done.
When can he cultivate his own provision-ground
He is allowed for this purpose his Sabbath (no,
poor man, not his Subbath, but his Sunday) and
part of Saturday. The last Jamaica slave code
allows twenty-six Saturdays in the year, which I
have seen disingenuously represented as so many
holidays. But as twenty-six days of labour, even
in that climate, are totally insufficient to maintain
a family, he must be compelled to cultivate his
provision ground on the Sabbath. The Methodist
Missionaries state, they did not expect a planta-
tion-slave, even though religiously disposed, to
attend worship, if his ground was at any distance,
Is not
more than one Sabbath in three or four.
this the climax of cruelty? British Christians,
the negro must toil on that sacred day, when you,
relieved from the cares of life, enjoy the quietude
of devotion, sing the sweet songs of Zion, and
prepare for the everlasting repose of heaven. In
the Mauritius, at least on some estates, the Sab-
bath is the day of terror and dread: the Saturday
night is often spent in restlessness and anxiety:
with the holy light that beams grateful on the
Christian world, although there impiously dese-
crated, the slaves are mustered, the weekly register
of

punishment is exhibited, and the culprits, stretched upon frames by ropes, are beaten with rattans, which tear the flesh from their bones."

SINGULAR PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.

THE journal of Mr. Kay, one of the Wesleyan Missionaries in South Africa, contains the following remarkable account of the deliverance of a poor sick Hottentot from the jaws of a lion. The account bears date December 2, 1829.

(the Hottentot in question) went out on a "About three weeks or a month ago, he hunting excursion, accompanied by several other natives. Arriving on an extensive plain, where there was abundance of game, they discovered a number of lions also, which appeared to be disturbed by their approach. A prodigiously large male immediately separated himself from the troop, and began slowly whom were young, and altogether unaccusto advance towards the party, the majority of tomed to rencontres of so formidable a nature. When droves of timid antelopes, or springbocks only, came in their way, they made a great boast of their courage, but the very appearance of the forest's king made them tremble. While the animal was yet at a distance, they all dismounted to prepare for firing, and, according to the custom on such occasions, began tying their horses together, by means of the bridles, with the view of keeping the latter between them and the lion, as an object to attract his attention, until they were able to take deliberate aim. His move

ments, however, were at length too swift for them. Before the horses were properly fastened to each other, the monster made a tremendous bound or two, and suddenly pounced upon the hind parts of one of them, which, in its fright, plunged forward, and knocked down the poor man in question, who was holding the reins in his hand. His comrades instantly took flight, and ranjoff with all speed; and he, of course, rose as quickly as possible, in order to follow them. But, no sooner had he regained his feet, than the majestic beast, with a seeming consciousness of his superior might, stretched forth his paw, and, striking him just behind the neck, immediately brought him to the ground again. He then rolled on his back, when the lion set his foot upon his breast, and laid down upon him. The poor man now became almost breathless, partly from fear, but principally from the intolerable pressure of his terrific load. He endeavoured to move a little to one side, in order to breathe; but, feeling this, the creature seized his left arm, close to the elbow; and, after once laying hold with his teeth, he continued to amuse himself with the limb for some time,

biting it in sundry different places down to the hand, the thick part of which seemed to have been pierced entirely through. All this time the lion did not appear to be angry, but he merely caught at his prey, like a cat sporting with a mouse that is not quite dead; so that there was not a single bone fractured, as would, in all probability, have been the case had the creature been hungry or irritated. Whilst writhing in agony, gasping for breath, and expecting every moment to be torn limb from limb, the sufferer cried to his companions for assistance, but cried in vain. On raising his head a little, the beast opened his dreadful jaws to receive it, but providentially the hat, which I saw in its rent state, slipped off, so that the points of the teeth only just grazed the surface of the skull. The lion now set his foot upon the arm from which the blood was freely flowing; his fearful paw was soon covered therewith, and he again and again licked it clean! The idea verily makes me shudder while I write. But this was not the worst; for the animal then steadily fixed his flaming eyes upon those of the man, smelt on one side, and then on the other of his face, and, having tasted the blood, he appeared half inclined to devour his helpless victim. At this critical moment,' said the poor man, I recollected having heard that there is a God in the heavens, who is able to deliver at the very last extremity; and I began to pray that he would save me, and not allow the lion to eat my flesh, and drink my blood.' While thus engaged in calling upon God, the beast turned himself completely round. On perceiving this, the Hottentot made an effort to get from under him; but no sooner did the creature observe his movement, than he laid terrible hold of his right thigh. This wound was dreadfully deep, and evidently occasioned the sufferer most excruciating pain. He again sent up his cry to God for help; nor were his prayers in vain. The huge animal soon afterwards quietly relinquished his prey, though he had not been in the least interrupted. Having deliberately risen from his seat, he walked majestically off, to the distance of thirty or forty paces, and then laid down in the grass, as if for the purpose of watching the man. The latter, being happily relieved of his load, ventured to sit up, which circumstance immediately attracted the lion's attention; nevertheless, it did not induce another attack, as

the poor fellow naturally expected; but, as if
bereft of power, and unable to do any thing
more, he again arose, took his departure, and
was seen no more. The man, seeing this, took
up his gun, and hasted away to his terrified
companions, who had given him up for dead.
Being in a state of extreme exhaustion, from
loss of blood, he was immediately set upon his
horse, and brought, as soon as was practicable,
to the place where I found him. Dr. Gaulter,
who, on hearing of the case, hastened to his
relief, and has very humanely rendered him
all necessary attention ever since, informs me
that, on his arrival, the appearance of the
wounds was truly alarming, and amputation
of the arm seemed absolutely necessary. To
this, however, the patient was not willing to
consent, having a number of young children
whose subsistence depends upon his labour.
As the Almighty had delivered me,' said he,
from that horrid death, I thought surely he
is able to save my arm also.' And, astonish-
ing to relate, 'several of his wounds are al-
ready healed, and there is now hope of his
complete recovery."

TOSH'S ELOQUENCE.

all would indulge in that vapid violence against persons, which the spirit of party is rarely wanting to applaud. But as it is, the man of superior mind, standing upon his own strength, knows and feels that he is not speaking to the lolling, lounging, indolently listening individuals stretched on the benches around him: he feels and knows that he is speaking to, and will obtain the sympathy of, all the great and enlightened spirits of Europe; and this bears and buoys him up amidst any coldness, impatience, or indifference, in his immediate audience. When we perused the magnificent orations of Mr. Burke, which transported us in our cabinet, and were told that his rising was the dinner bell in the House of Commons; when we heard that some of Mr. Brougham's almost gigantic discourses were delivered amidst coughs and impatience; and when, returning from our travels, where we had heard of nothing but the genius and eloquence of Sir James Mackintosh, we encountered him ourselves in the House of Commons;―on_all these occasions we were sensible, not that Mr. Burke's, Mr. Brougham's, Sir James Mackintosh's eloquence was less, but that it was CHARACTER OF SIR JAMES MACKIN. addressed to another audience than that to which it was apparently delivered. Intended for the House of Commons only, the style SIR James Mackintosh never spoke on a would have been absurdly faulty: intended subject without displaying, not only all that for the public, it was august and correct. was peculiarly necessary to that subject, but There are two different modes of obtaining a all that a full mind, long gathering and con- parliamentary reputation; a man may rise in gesting, has to pour forth upon any subject. the country by what is said of him in the The language, without being antithetic, was House of Commons, or he may rise in the artificial and ornate. The action and voice House of Commous by what is thought and were vehement, but not passionate; the tone said of him in the country. Some debaters and conception of the argument of too lofty have the faculty, by varying their style and and philosophic a strain for those to whom, ge- their subjects, of alternately addressing both nerally speaking, it was directed. It was im- those without and within their walls, with efpossible not to feel that the person addressing fect and success. Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Sheyou was a profound thinker, delivering a la-ridan, Mr. Canning were, and Lord Brougham boured composition. Sir James Mackintosh's is, of this number. Mr. Burke and Sir James character as a speaker, then, was of that sort Mackintosh spoke to the reason and the imaacquired in a thin house, where those who gination, rather than to the passions; and this, have stayed from their dinner have stayed for together with some faults of voice and manner, the purpose of hearing what is said, and can, rendered these great orators (for great orators therefore, deliver up their attention undis- they were) more powerful in the printed retractedly to any knowledge and ability, even if ports, than in the actual delivery of their somewhat prolixly put forth, which elucidates speeches. We ourselves heard Sir James Mackthe subject of discussion. We doubt if all intosh's great, almost wonderful, speech upon great speeches of a legislative kind would not Reform. We shall never forget the extensive require such an audience, if they never tra- range of ideas, the energetic grasp of thought, velled beyond the walls in which they were the sublime and soaring strain of legislative spoken. The passion, the action, the move- philosophy, with which he charmed and transment of oratory which animates and trans- ported us; but it was not so with the House ports a large assembly, can never lose their in general. His Scotch accent, his unceasing effect when passion, action, movement are in and laboured vehemence of voice and gesture, the orator's subject; when Philip is at the the refined and speculative elevation of his head of his Macedonians, or Catiline at the views, and the vast heaps of hoarded knowledge gates of Rome. The emotions of fear, revenge, he somewhat prolixly produced, displeased the horror, are emotions that all classes and de- taste and wearied the attention of men who scriptions of men, however lofty or low their were far more anxious to be amused and exintellect, may feel:-here, then, is the orator's cited, than to be instructed or convinced. We proper field. But again; there are subjects, see him now! his bald and singularly formed. such as many, if not most, of those discussed head working to and fro, as if to collect and in our House of Commons, the higher bearings then shake out his ideas; his arm violently of which are intelligible only to a certain or- vibrating, and his body thrown forward by der of understandings. The reasoning proper sudden quirks and starts, which, ungraceful as for these is not understood, and cannot there- they were, seemed rather premeditated than fore be sympathised with, by the mass. In inspired. This is not the picture which Deorder not to be insipid to the few, it is almost mosthenes would have drawn of a perfect oranecessary to be dull to the many. If our tor; and it contains some defects that we wonHouses of legislature sat with closed doors, der more care had not been applied to remedy. they would be the most improper assemblies -New Monthly Magazine. for the discussion of legislative questions that we can possibly conceive. They would have completely the tone of their own clique. No one would dare or wish to soar above the common-places which find a ready echoing cheer

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THIS unrivalled edifice was founded by | the irresistible interest which it inspires Henry the Sixth, together with the princely is to be traced to the richness of decoraestablishment to which it is attached. By tion for which this style is distinguished. referring to his will we find that his de- "Let it be inquired," says an enthusiassigns in these undertakings have not been tic writer, referring to this edifice, "whereaccomplished by his successors, although, in doth the charm consist that so comwhen we regard the magnificence of the pletely takes possession of our senses in whole mass of buildings, and the pre-gazing from west to east on the whole eminence of the chapel over all other Gothic buildings, we can scarcely regret the deviation. With respect to the latter, it is of the order of architecture which has generally been termed florid Gothic; but it is difficult to say whether

length of the interior? Is it from its
admirable state of repair, neatness of
condition, regularity of decorations, just-
ness of proportion, beauty of design, or
from that indescribable something that
reminds us of the humble abilities of our

present workmen in masonic power, their utter inability to raise a mighty standard in this way?" Whatever may be the cause, it is impossible for any one to approach it without a feeling of reverence. The architectural skill of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries is here displayed in its utmost perfection. Without, the prodigious stones of which it consists, the vast buttresses by which it is supported, the loftiness and extent of the building, the fine proportions of the towers and pinnacles; and, within, the grand extended view, the admirable

arched roof, without the support of any pillars, displaying all the richness of its fine fan-work, and the matchless paintings on its windows, all combine to impress the beholder with emotions which can be better felt than described. The attention, moreover, is not withdrawn from these objects by any busts, statues, or inscriptions; but the whole furniture and decoration is highly calculated to perpetuate the effect of the first coup d'œil.

An exception to this statement is taken by the learned historian of Cambridge. "It must be confessed," says he, "that some littlenesses and human weaknesses are too obvious-I mean those minute devices of the arms of York and Lancaster with roses, portcullises, fleurs de lis, and crowns. These little patches on greatness, these heterogeneous intermixtures, religiously considered, are quite out of place, and, architecturally, are quite opposite to sublimity and grandeur."

The greatest curiosity connected with this edifice is the stone roof, a structure which some do not hesitate to say surpasses the ingenuity of modern architects to imitate. There is a tradition that Sir Christopher Wren went once a year to survey this roof, and said that if any man would show him where to place the first stone he would build such another. It was constructed in 1513, in consequence of a grant of £5000 to defray the expences of carrying on the building. It is in the form of a grand Gothic arch, without any pillar to uphold it (though of immense span), the buttresses and towers of the chapel being its only support. In the middle of this roof, and in the flattest part of it, are fixed perpendicularly, at equal distance from one another, stones adorned with roses and portcullises, every

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work of three succeeding kings-Henry | obsolete sports of the ancient Hoc-tide, an old
the Sixth, who founded it, the Seventh, Saxon word, said to import the time of
who farthered, and the Eighth, who scorning and triumphing,' which must have
been observed about this time of the year,
finished it."
might have degenerated into the April fooleries."

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ALL FOOLS' DAY.

FIRST OF APRIL.

"THE first of April, some do say,
Is set apart for All Fools' Day;
But why the people call it so,
Nor I, nor they themselves do know.
But on this day are people sent
On purpose-for pure merriment;
And though the day is known before,
Yet frequently there is great store
Of these forgetfuls to be found,
Who're sent to dance Moll Dixon's round;
And, having tried each shop and stall,
And disappointed at them all,

At last some tells them of the cheat,
Then they return from the pursuit,
And straightway home with shame they run,
And others laugh at what is done.
But 'tis a thing to be disputed,
Which is the greatest fool reputed,
The man that innocently went
Or he that him design'dly sent."

Poor Robin's Almanack, 1760.

"Yet in the vulgar this weak humour's bred,
They'll sooner be with idle customs led,
Or fond opinions, such as they have store,
Than learn of reason's or of virture's lore."
Withers.

April the first stands marked by custom's rules,
A day of being, and for making foo s."

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine, for
July, 1783, says, "I have often wished to know
the first foundation of several popular customs,
appropriated to particular seasons, and been
led to think, however widely they may have
deviated from their original design and mean-
ing, of which we have now wholly lost sight,
they are derived from some religious tenets,
observances, or ceremonies; I am convinced
that this is the case in Catholic countries,
where such like popular usages, as well as reli-
gious ceremonies, are more frequent than
amongst us; though there can be little doubt
but that the customs I refer to, and which we

Another author "thinks that he clearly demonstrates its origin from the primitive Christians, who, by way of conciliating the Pagans to a better worship, humoured their prejudices by yielding to a conformity of names, and even of customs, where they did not essentially interfere with the fundamentals of the gospeldoctrine. Among these, in imitation of the Roman Saturnalia, was the Festum Fatuorum."

A contributor to the Gentleman's Magazine conjectures that "the custom of imposing upon and ridiculing people on the first of April may have an allusion to the mockery of the Saviour of the world by the Jews. Something like this, which we call making April fools, is practised also abroad, in Catholic countries, on Innocents' Day."

Dr. Pegge thinks the custom arose from the rejoicing at the commencement of the new "which formerly began, as to some puryear, poses, and in some respects, on the 25th of March, which was supposed to be the incarnation of our Lord; and it is certain that the commencement of the new year, at whatever time that was supposed to be, was always esteemed an high festival, and that both among the ancient Romans and with us. Now, great festivals were usually attended with an octave, that is, they were wont to continue eight days, whereof the first and last were the principal; and you will find the first of April is the octave of the 25th of March, and the close, or ending, consequently, of that feast, which was both the festival of the Annunciation, and of the new year."

Mr. Donce says,

"The making of April fools, after all the conjectures touching its origin, is certainly borrowed by us from the French, and may, I think, be deduced from this simple analogy. The French call their April fish, (Poissons d' Avril) i. e. simpletons; or, in other words, silly mackarel, who suffered themselves to be caught in this month. But, as with us April is not the season of that fish we have very properly substituted the word fools."

A writer in 1708 derives the custom from

one of which is no less than a ton weight. retain, took their rise whilst these kingdoms the time of Romulus, when the Romans carried

off the Sabine women!

The Romans, on the first day of April, abstained from pleading causes; and the Roman ladies performed ablutions under myrtle-trees, crowned themselves with leaves, and offered sacrifices to Venus.

In the north of England, persons imposed upon are called April gowks.

Each of these is upwards of a yard in were wholly Catholic." That the singular custhickness, and projects beyond the other gious observance is most probable, although tom of fool-making had its origin in some reliThe Jews are said to attribute the origin part of the carved work. There is a the researches of our antiquarians have estab- from the mistake of Noah in sending the dove curious passage in its praise in Fuller's lished little else than that the custom is very out of the ark before the waters had abated, on History of Cambridge, which, for its en- ancient and very general. Much has been the first day of the month among the Hebrews thusiasm, deserves to be quoted. "The written upon the subject, a good deal of learn-which answers to our first of April. chapel in this college," says he, "is one ing and diligence has been displayed, many very recondite theories have been formed; all of the rarest fabrics in Christendom, which, however, have not led to any very wherein the stone-work, wood-work, and satisfactory or plausible conclusion. Having glass-work, contend which most deserve none better to offer of our own, we will give admiration. Yet the first generally car- the various opinions of others, and leave our rieth away the credit (as being a Stone-readers to choose the one which may appear to henge, indeed), so geometrically contrived them the most reasonable. that voluminous stones mutually support each other in the arched roof, as if art had made them to forget nature, and weaned them from their fondness to descend to their centre. And yet, though there be so much of Minerva, there is nothing of Arachne in this building-I mean, not a spider appearing, or cobweb to be seen on the Irish wood or cedar beams thereof. No wonder, then, if this chapel, so rare a structure, was the

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Mr. Brand "is inclined to think the word

.

all here is a corruption of our northern
word, auld," for old; because he finds, in an
ancient Romish calendar, a Feast of Old
Fools:" he adds, "It must be granted that
this feast stands there on the first day of ano-
ther month, November, but then it mentions,
at the same time, that it is by a removal---

The Feast of Old Fools is removed to this
day;' such removals, indeed, in the very crowded
made."
Romish calendar, were often obliged to be

In a note, Mr. Brand suggests "that the

In Scotland, upon April Day, they have a custom of "hunting the gowk," as it is termed.

This is done by sending silly people upon fools' errands, from place to place, by means of a letter in which is written :

:

"On the first day of April

Hunt the gowk another mile."

It will be remarked, from the foregoing extracts, that writers are little agreed as to the prime origin of this almost universal custom, which, from its universality, must have been of a very general nature. The study of the customs, sports, and pastimes of the people is,

by no means, either useless or unprofitable: some useful knowledge of mankind will be acquired, for wisdom may be extracted from the follies and superstitions of our forefathers.

We have been chiefly indebted to Brand's interesting work on the antiquities, customs, habits, &c., of the people of England, in two vols. 4to. for the above remarks; and we cannot

avoid recommending the interesting works of Mr. Hone, The Table Book, and Every Day Book, in which much that is novel and interesting will be found regarding our popular antiquities.

SPELL-WORK.

T.

MANY of our readers have heard and read of the SPELL System on sugar plantations, yet few of them probably are aware of its fearfully oppressive character. For the information of such we insert the following description of this murderous system, taken from No. 104 of the Anti-Slavery Reporter. We have lately had an opportunity of obtaining the opinion of a gentleman thoroughly conversant with the economy of a sugar plantation, and he strongly confirms our previous conviction of its accuracy.

"An intelligent person, who kept spell as a book-keeper for four years in Jamaica, is ready to testify, if called upon, to the uniform practice, in his time, to divide into two spells that part of the first and second gangs not occupied as coopers, in making casks, or as waggoners, or mule-drivers.

"The following is a sketch of the working of those two spells, which we will call A and B, a white book-keeper being allowed to each, who had the same length of night-duty as the slaves :"On Sunday, at 6, P.M., the spell A went to the works and put the mill about, remaining there till midnight, when it went to rest as soon as relieved by spell B. At day-dawn, on Monday, spell A went to the field, and continued cutting canes there for the mill till noon. At noon it resumed its place at the works, and continued there till midnight on Monday, when it took rest till day-dawn on Tuesday, and was then again in the field cutting canes till noon; and thus it proceeded on each succeeding day of the week, except that on Saturday it did not always retire at midnight, but remained sometimes to two or three on Sunday morning, till all the cane-juice was boiled off. During the same week, the spell B came on duty at the works at midnight on Sunday night, and continued there till noon on Monday, when it went home; but, at two, P. M., it was again in the field, cutting canes for the mill from that time until dusk, when it went home to rest till called up again at midnight to relieve spell A. And so the work proceeded the whole week, only that at mid

night on Saturday there was no call of spell B,

however late might be the boiling.

"The succeeding week, the spells were changed, so that the spell B began work on the Sunday evening at 6 P.M., and so had the very same tale and hours of labour, both at the works and in the field, which the spell A had had the week before, and A the same as B had had. Thus each spell, during every twenty-four hours, was twelve hours at the works, and six hours in the field, the whole of their sleep being taken from the six hours which then alone remained to them. And the same must of absolute necessity be the case still, if the manufacture of sugar be continuously carried on, on estates not having more than from two hundred to two hundred and fifty negroes, embracing a large majority of sugar estates. Is not this toil dreadful, and most wearing and exhausting? And it affects the women still more than the men. Can women, by any possibility, breed under such circumstances? It is altogether impossible."

NOTES ON THE ISLAND OF CUBA.

FROM THE UNPUBLISHED MEMORANDA OF A

TRAVELLER.

No. I.

varied and shadowy, with all its inequalities contrasting their tints with the deep cerulean sky, which stretched now in serene and unclouded beauty over the wide sea we had lately left; it presented a picture more rich and more diversified than what the most splendid ima

It was always my wish, when I should re.gination could paint or describe. The middle visit Jamaica, to spend some portion of my ground of this scene, a wide extent of forest, earliest leisure in a voyage to the Island of over which the evening mists were gathering, Cuba. Having arranged my affairs, that I showed, by occasional breaks, the spots where might have to myself the undisturbed enjoy the gentle hills and valleys undulated, or ment of a few months, I engaged, on the 5th where luxuriant pastures and extensive savanof January, 1821, a passage on board the brig nas stretched a wide undappled surface of Emerald, then about to sail for a cargo of grass. Nearer to the eye, the ocean lay, green timber. We set out from the harbour of and bright, flickering as it heaved with the M** * *, a north-side port, at ten at red glare of the setting sun-beam, while the night, the usual hour at which vessels quit giant trees upon its borders were seen growing that part of the coast. They so settle their within the very margin of the sea. There was departure as to wait till the land-breeze comes neither sand nor ooze between the forest and sweeping from the mountains strong and the ocean. All was as silent as death. Nosteady, in order that they may make a fair thing was heard but the occasional cry of the wind of it, and, having the advantage of run-sea-gull, or the drowsy wing of the pelican as ning before the breeze under the lea of the she lagged over the heaving waters, with her land, slip from one shore, through waters over-loaded gorge stored with provender for whose undulations, beneath the lambent pu- her clamorous and expectant young ones, in rity and resplendent skies of a West Indian their home on the earthy sea-cliffs. One cotnight, scarcely rise above the gentle ripples of tage and a few canoes on the main-land, and a summer tide, and arrive at the other coast a fisherman's hut and a pinnace among the just as the trade winds are freshening up with keys, were all the evidence that man was an the increasing brillianey of the opening day. inhabitant of these regions. As I gazed upon I loitered on deck till I saw the watch-fires on the quiet yet luxuriant scene, I could not help the Jamaica mountains grow dim and indis- recurring to the fate of the gentle race that tinct in the shadowy mistiness of the receding once owned these shores. The boundless shores. When I looked out again at sun-rise, wastes before me, which formerly saw them the bold and picturesque summit of the pico wandering amid the fragrant and flowery Torquino, one of the loftiest mountains of shades as "thick and numberless as the gay Cuba, was lifting its head before me, with the motes that people the sun-beam," scarce now vapours rolling in dense masses over the forest retain a vestige that any but the present posplains. By midday we were safely anchored sessors of the soil had awakened the echoes of within that range of sunken reefs that stretch the exhaustless forests. Friendly and gentle out from Cape Cruz some miles towards the in their dispositions, simple and artless in their straggling line of green islets, bounding the manners, living in the luxury of indolence and Bay of Bayamo. They are a part of that ease, they seemed, in their innocence, amid cluster of coral rocks and mangrove shoals to the bountiful land they occupied, to realize which, from their fresh beauty amid the bright the condition of our first parents and the early and placid waters, Columbus, when he first days of Paradise. They knew no wisdom like saw them, gave the poetical appellation of the knowledge of good and evil, and the curse "the gardens of the king." On account of the of labour and its attendant misery. But avamultiplicity of these rocks and reefs, it is cus- rice and ambition came among them; and the tomary for English vessels, proceeding thither, luxurious repose, that hung like a spell over to take with them a pilot from Jamaica. Ours the thickly-peopled shores and blissful groves was Ramon, a Spanish youth, of mixed Indian of the happy islanders, was reversed, and the descent, a native of Maracaibo, a man of un- fragrant bowers, the home of "the swarming commonly mild, handsome features, but with myriads of idle and light-hearted creatures," a temper which blended the contradiction of became the silent woodland wastes that I then cheerfulness, and a sullen habit of silence and beheld them. reserve, a peculiar trait in the Indian character. Under his guidance we were instructed and strong tides which prevail on the extento take advantage of the comparatively high sive bays of this island, to facilitate the navigation of its waters. We passed through the ship's channel, avoided the Canal de Bolandras, whose depth, as its name imports, only enables sloops to pass, and anchored for the night, just before sunset, in that wide sweeping curve of the coast called the Media Luna, with Martillo before us.

With the first dawn of day-light we were again under sail, and by sun-set had anextremely shoal, so that we landed with some chored in Manzanilla Bay. The coast was difficulty at the Corbel - a temporary fort, the walls of which were constructed of the husky case which forms the footstalk of the Palmetto (areca oleracea). The fort itself, elevated about eight feet from the water's edge, was composed of the logs of the cedar and hard wood of the country. It was mounted with ten or a dozen pieces of cannon, of a Being now at that part of the shore where calibre sufficiently heavy to carry shot with the Torquino Mountains form the south-effect to a great distance-a necessary provieastern background of the landscape, the beau- sion, in consequence of the shallow waters of tiful peak, as it rose majestically over the conthe bay. This temporary defence has been tiguons hills, at the hour of sunset, became an since removed, and a substantial fortress object of peculiar grandeur. The volume of erected in its place; but, frail as it was at the fleecy clouds which all the afternoon had been period of my visit, it was not to be despised as gathering midway around its summit, illu- a protection to the coast. A few weeks premined by the intense rays of the setting sun, vious to my arrival, a Columbian brig of war, shone like a mantle of burnished gold. Through the Libertador, in company with a felucca, these arose, glowing in purple radiance, the having run up the coast, landed a party of mountain itself, looking out distinct, but armed seamen in the harbour, under cover of

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