They have neither priests nor rulers, all men being looked upon as equals, though considerable respect is shown to age; an old man being always allowed to drink first, and to have two wives, while the younger are restricted to one. When a young man is desirous of marrying, it is customary for him to give his sister to him whose sister he takes; or, if he have no sister, he will go to war for the purpose of taking a female prisoner, who is immediately adopted as his sister, and formally exchanged, no other dower on either side being required. They do not marry as early as the Abyssinians, but there is no frailty before marriage. Adultery is punished with death. The women, besides taking care of the house, assist the men in ploughing, and are entitled to an equal share in the produce of the land. When a child is born, the father gives it a name, which is generally derived from some circumstance connected with its birth, or an accidental mark on its body. The name of Mr. Salt's informant was Omazena, on account of his being born with a wart on his hand; others are called " Immagokwa," born in the night,-"Wokea," born while making booza,-"Wunnee," born on the ground, &c. When a man dies, he is buried without ceremony, in his clothes, and the relatives kill, and feast on, the cattle he leaves behind him, the wife having, for her share, the household furniture,-and the sons his arms, implements of agriculture, and land. The favourite occupation of the men is hunting; and they indiscriminately eat the flesh of the elephant, the buffalo, deer, &c., or whatever else they can procure. The Rhinoceros of this country has invariably two horns.

The arms of these savages consist of spears, shields, bows and arrows; and the tribe is continually engaged in war with the people of Metikul and Banja, who frequently invade the country for the express purpose of procuring slaves. When the Dazzela take any prisoners, they tie their legs, and employ them either in making cloth or manufacturing iron; and, if incapable of work, they kill them. A strong people, called Dippura, reside in the interior of the Dabanja country. The Duggala were said to be on the opposite side from Darfoor; and Yiba Hossa was mentioned as a mountain to which the people retired when pressed by an enemy. Several rivers, called Quoquee, Pusa, Kuossa, and Popa, flow through these districts, which are all said to run in the same direction as the Bahr el Abiad. It is three days' journey from the last-mentioned river to the Kuossa, and one from the Kuossa to Pusa; the other lying still further in the interior.

The only musical instruments in use among them are trumpets, made of the horn of the Agazen, pipes formed of bamboo, and a kind of lyre with five strings, called "junqua," whose tones are described as harmonious.

The tribe of the Shangalla, residing near the Tacazze, was noticed by Mr. Bruce. It appears to be a perfectly different people, in every respect but colour and form, from that of

We are far away from our dear homes, And where our mothers be,

Our homes beside the pleasant springs

And streams of Tacazzé.

The armed men came; our mothers fled
To seek the mountain caves,
And we, their children, left, were led
To be Antálo's slaves ;---
Strangers in stranger land we roam,
Far from our mothers and our home.

Generally speaking, however, the slaves in Abyssinia are very happy; and several of those with whom Mr. Salt conversed, who had been captured at an advanced period of life, preferred their latter mode of living to that which they had led in their native wilds; a circumstance which, in a great measure, may be attributed to the docility of their character, which allows them soon to be naturalized among strangers. "The situation of slaves, indeed," he says further, "is rather honourable than disgraceful, throughout the east; and the difference between their state and that of the western slaves is strikingly apparent. They have no long voyage to make; no violent change of habits to undergo; no out-door labour to perform; and no white man's scorn' to endure; but, on the contrary, are frequently adopted like children into the family, and, to make use of an eastern expression, 'bask in the sunshine of their master's favour.""

IRELAND AND NEGRO SLAVERY.

How much money has been paid by the British labourer and manufacturer to support slavery already? Let us see a balance-sheet, in which this and the other items named shall be put down; and then show how much is owing to the men of the cow-skin. Will not the Irish members help us in this? Cannot some confidence be put in them, that they will stand up in a mass in defence of the general empire upon this point, and trust to the gratitude of the whole community when the time shall come for showing it? Let them consider well how strongly this would tend to combine the general interest with theirs. Let them reflect in what numerous classes, hostile it may be to them hitherto on many points of belief or prejudice, this would quash the feeling of distrust, and substitute the confidence of fellow-labourers in one great cause. If the Irish members will come forward as one man, and stand in the gap between the English people and their enemies on the West India question, whatever may be the event, they will not fail in one point-the securing an adhesion to the cause of Ireland, which, first or last, will vastly overbalance the puny efforts of the cabinet to raise themselves in the eyes of their enemies by the depression of a gallant people. All good feelings will join and link themselves. The hearts of the legislature "thrill at Poland;" but, considering condition of the country," "the distress," &c., they cannot reconcile it to their consciences to grant any public money to assist the persecuted Poles. They will have no such scruples with respect to the persecuting West Indians. At this moment, unless surmise is wrong, they are haggling with them, to know the lowest price at which they will sell their nuisance. Could not something be done upon this point which should carry the name of Ireland into the far-off divisions of the globe, and give her one more link with the every where rising cause of man and of humanity ?-Westminster Review for April, 1833.

APHORISMS.

"the

THE pleasure of the religious man is an easy and a portable pleasure, such an one as he carries about in his bosom, without alarming either the eye or the envy of the world.--SOUTH. but errors immediately leading to the destruction Speculative absurdities may endure for ages; of society are generally dissipated by an application of the test of experience.-MACKINTOSH.

Material resources never have supplied, nor ever can supply, the want of unity in design, and constancy in pursuit.-BURKE.

A CURIOUS Contrast is presented between the ardour of the Ministry to resort to extreme measures in Ireland, and their placability where the Crown and people of Great Britain are really suffering wrong and insult. A race of colonial bullies, whom nothing but the interference of the British administration prevents from being crushed like cock-roaches by their own negroes, may insult the head of the Government, and organise associations for illegal violence upon their countrymen, and the ministers, as meek as mice, shall be ar- The infirmities of human nature undermine the ranging, with the home branch of the cart-conspiracies of the wicked, perhaps even more whip dynasty, the price at which they will than they loosen the union of the good.-lb. consent to abate their nuisance. The whole horse has been paid for by the British public by a poll-tax; and when the question is of substituting working in harness for drawing by the tail, the Ministry is in negotiation with the barbarian for paying him the price of the horse over again as the price of his consent. The slave-owner, whose slave, and all he has, has been bought for him once out of the pockets of the British public, is to be told he shall be paid the price over again, on condition that he will consent to employ free labour afterwards. Why is not he rather charged with the difference between the expense of slave-labour and of free ?-and why is not he asked to lay down the cost of protecting him from the just retribution which his own obstinacy has brought almost upon his head?

The blood of man should never be shed but to redeem the blood of man. It is well shed for our

family, for our friends, for our God, for our country, for our kind. The rest is vanity; the rest is crime. Ib.

As young men, when they knit and shape perfectly, do seldom grow to a farther stature, so knowledge, while it is dispersed in aphorisms and observations, may grow and shoot up, yet, once inclosed and comprehended in methods, it may, perchance, be farther polished and illustrated, and accommodated to use and practice, but increaseth no more in bulk and substance.-BACON.

THE TOURIST.

MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1833.

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE AGENCY ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY,

At a Meeting held on the 1st of April, 1833.

RESOLVED, That immediate measures be taken to promote addresses to the several metropolitan members, to induce them to attend in their places on the 23d inst., and support the measures of Government, should they go to the extent of entire abolition of Colonial Slavery; or, should an unsatisfactory measure be proposed, then to support such an amendment as may be deemed necessary by the anti-slavery party.

REFORM IN THE FRENCH COLONIES.

WHILST a Whig administration, aided by all the liberality of a reformed Parliament, are see-sawing between the West Indians and the justice and humanity of the whole nation, the French Ministry are carrying their schemes of colonial reformation with a lusty hand. The contrast between the position of the two governments at this particular juncture is very striking, not merely in this, but in other respects. The one carry, with a haste that exhibits wonderful confidence in their strength, the bill to establish military law in Ireland-the other signally fail in their attempts to obtain the admission of such a state, as a state of siege in France in cases of revolutionary commotion; the one declare their disposition to place the emancipation of the slave from bondage on measures which, when disclosed, shall prove safe and satisfactory, and yet fear to propose any scheme of emancipation whatever-the other make no pledges, no promises, no disclosures, neither fawn for favour nor deprecate opposition; but, placing their measures on the ground that the Government, recognizing the progress of civilization in the colonies, proceeds to discharge its public duty by bringing legislation to its aid, submit boldly their propositions for the future government of those colonies, with a view to the extinction of slavery, and carry them by a majority of 110 to 4 dissentient voices. The journals say that the whole colonial retinue was mustered among the auditory in this important sitting of the 1st of March, but that the announcement of the state of the votes was received with high approbation both in and out of the Chamber of Peers. What a contrast is this with the paltering and dishonesty of our Ministers-to the promise to-day, and the hope deferred to-to the assertion of the past

morrow

THIS animal, though wild, is distin- | distance. During this time he seems in guished by a degree of sagacity and cha- the most violent agitation, striking the racter which make it both docile and in-ground violently with its fore-feet, and teresting. It is found in rocky and bounding from rock to rock. mountainous places, and is very common in Piedmont, Switzerland, and Germany. It is about the size of the domestic goat, varying in colour, according to the season, from an ash colour to nearly black. This animal is greatly admired for the beauty of its eyes, which are round and sparkling, and strikingly indicative of the liveliness of its habits and temperament. Its head is furnished with two small horns, rising from the forehead almost between the eyes, of a beautiful black colour, and terminating in so sharp a point that the mountaineers have been known to bleed cattle with them.

These creatures live in flocks of from four to fourscore, which are, in a great measure, secured from danger by their extraordinary powers of perception and communication. Its vision is remarkably acute, and the scent so good that it can discover the approach of a man at the distance of a mile and a half. Upon the slightest danger being perceived by one of the flock, he alarms the rest by uttering a hissing noise, of the length of one respiration, which is produced by expelling the air violently through the nose, and is heard at a great distance. After this alarm the animal again looks round, and, perceiving that his fears were not groundless, continues to hiss at intervals till he has spread the alarm to a great

But the skill of this animal is shown most strikingly in its mode of descending precipices, and of leaping from one height to another, inaccessible to every living creature but itself. They always mount and descend in an oblique direction, and will often throw themselves down a descent of thirty feet, striking the rock three or four times with their hind feet to diminish their velocity, and will light with perfect security on some excrescence or fragment just large enough for their feet to rest upon. Their legs are formed by nature for this arduous travelling, the hind being rather longer than the fore legs, and bending in such a manner, when they light on them, as to break the force of their fall.

The hunting of the chamois is very difficult and dangerous. The most usual mode of killing them is by shooting them from behind projecting rocks. In chasing them, however, the huntsman exposes himself to greater peril; for if the animal finds itself too closely pressed, he will sometimes turn upon the hunter, and, driving at him with his head, endeavour to throw him down the nearest precipice. In this case the hunters find it safest immediately to prostrate themselves, and allow the goat to pass over them and precipitate itself from the height.

WILLIAM PITT, afterwards Earl of Chatham, was born November 15, 1708, and educated at Eton, whence, in January, 1726, he went as a gentleman commoner to Trinity College, Oxford. When he quitted the university he served for a time in the army; but his talents leading him more decisively to another field of action, he entered on a political life, as member of parliament for the borough of Old Sarum, in February, 1735. In this situation his abilities were soon distinguished. It was on the occasion of the bill for registering seamen in 1740, which he opposed as arbitrary and unjustifiable, that he made his celebrated reply to Mr. Horatio Walpole, who had attacked him on account of his youth. "I will not undertake," said Mr. Pitt, "to determine whether youth can be justly imputed to any man as a reproach; but I will affirm that the wretch who, after having seen the consequences of repeated errors, continues still to blunder, and whose age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object either of abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his grey head should secure him from insults. Much more is he to be abhorred who, as he has advanced in age, has receded from virtue, and becomes more wicked with less temptation who prostitutes himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country."

It was soon thought important to obtain his co-operation with government, and in 1746 he was made joint vice

treasurer of Ireland, and, the same year, treasurer, paymaster-general of the army, and a privy councillor. In 1755, thinking it necessary to make a strong opposition to the continental connexions then forming by the ministry, he resigned his place, and remained for some time out of office. In December, 1756, he was appointed secretary of state, from which the King removed him, but reappointed him at the request of the nation, conveyed by addresses to the throne. Mr. Pitt was now considered as prime minister, and the efficiency of his administration was soon proved by the brilliant successes which marked the period of it in all parts of the world. On the accession of George the Third, however, being strongly opposed in his proposition to declare war against Spain, he resigned his office, and was followed, into more private life, loaded with tributes of honour and respect. He did not enter, however, into the ranks of an undiscriminating opposition, but only came forward against measures which demanded, from the consistency of his character, a decided resistance. One of these was the question of general warrants, the illegality of which he maintained with all the force of his genius and eloquence. A search or seizure of papers, without a specific charge alleged, would be, he contended, repugnant to every principle of liberty. The most innocent man could not be secure. "By the British constitution," he continued, every man's house is his castle. Not that it is surrounded with walls and battlements. It

may be a straw-built shed. Every wind of heaven may whistle round it. All the elements of nature may enter it; but the King cannot-the King dare not."

Shortly after this period Sir William Pynsent, a man of considerable property, died, and, from his admiration of Mr. Pitt, disinherited his own relations, and made him heir to the bulk of his estate. It is a singular fact that a like circumstance had occurred to him in the earlier part of his life, the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough having bequeathed him £10,000 expressly for defending the laws of his country, and endeavouring to prevent its ruin. In 1766, the Rockingham ministry proving unable to maintain its ground, a new ministry was formed, and Mr. Pitt was made Lord Privy Seal. At the same time he was created a peer, with the title of Earl of Chatham. He continued in office but a short time, resigning, for the last time, in 1768. He was at that time sixty years of age, and suffered dreadfully from gout, so as to be incapacitated for public business. He interfered, however, most strenuously against the measures pursued by ministers in the contest with America; and, after one of his greatest efforts in a speech on this subject, he sank into the arms of his friends around him, and, being conveyed home, survived but a few weeks. cannot better close this sketch than with some passages illustrative of the Earl of Chatham's powers of oratory, which we shall extract from Butler's Reminiscences.

We

"No person in his external appearance was ever more bountifully gifted by nature for an orator. In his look and his gesture, grace and dignity were combined, but dignity presided; the terrors of his beak, the lightning of his eye,' were insufferable. His voice was both full and clear; his lowest whisper was distinctly heard; his middle tones were sweet, rich, and beautifully varied; when he elevated his voice to its highest pitch, the house was completely filled with the volume of the sound. The effect was awful, except when he wished to cheer or animate; he then had spirit-stirring notes, which were perfectly irresistible. He frequently rose, on a sudden, from a very low to a very high key, but it seemed to be without effort. His diction was remarkably simple, but words were never chosen with greater care; he mentioned to a friend of the Reminiscent, that he had read twice, from beginning to end, Bailey's Dictionary; and that he had perused some of Dr. Barrow's Sermons so often as to know them by heart.

"On one occasion, Mr. Moreton, the chief justice of Chester, a gentleman of some eminence at the bar, happened to say, 'King, lords, and commons, or,'(directing his eye towards Lord Chatham), as that right honourable member would

sense.

call them, commons, lords, and king.' The only fault of this sentence is its nonMr. Pitt arose, as he ever did, with great deliberation, and called to order: I have,' he said, 'heard frequently in this house doctrines which have surprised me; but now my blood runs cold! I desire the words of the honourable member may be taken down.' The clerks of the house wrote the words. Bring them to me,' said Mr. Pitt, in a voice of thunder. By this time Mr. Moreton was frightened out of his senses. Sir,' he said, addressing himself to the Speaker, I am sorry to have given any offence to the right honourable member, or to the house: I meant nothing. King, lords, and commons-lords, king, and commons-commons, lords, and king-tria juncta in uno. I meant nothing! Indeed I meant nothing.' I don't wish to push the matter further,' said Lord Chatham, in a voice a little above a whisper; then, in a higher tone, the moment a man acknowledges his error, he ceases to be guilty. I have a great regard for the honourable member; and, as an instance of that regard, I will give him this advice :—a pause of some moments ensued; then, assuming a look of unspeakable derision, he said, in a kind of colloquial tone-Whenever that member means nothing, I recommend him to say nothing.'

"But the most extraordinary instance of his command of the house is the manner in which he fixed indelibly on Mr. Grenville, the appellation of the Gentle Shepherd. At this time, a song of Dr. Howard, which began with the words, Gentle shepherd, tell me where,'-and in which each stanza ended with that line, was in every mouth. On some occasion, Mr. Grenville exclaimed, 'Where is our money?-where are our means? I say again, where are our means?— where is our money?' He then sat down, and Lord Chatham paced slowly out of the house, humming the line, Gentle shepherd, tell me where!' The effect was irresistible, and settled for ever on Mr. Grenville the appellation of the Gentle Shepherd.'

CRIMINAL LAW REFORM.

6

it may mark the commencement of a series relates to their work. All unnecessary conof steps which shall result in an entire reform versation is forbidden. Profane swearing is of our criminal law. In this country, the never overlooked. A strict watch is kept that minds of the benevolent have too long been no spirituous liquors may be introduced. Care interested in this great subject to but little is taken that all the prisoners have the benefit practical purpose. We may, however, rejoice of religious instruction. The prison is accordin and take encouragement from the achieve-ingly open at stated times to the pastors of the ments of benevolence elsewhere. In America, different religious denominations of the place. capital punishment is in a great measure un- And as the mind of man may be worked upon known; and as we think it highly desirable by rewards as well as by punishments, a hope that our own countrymen should be convinced is held out to the prisoners that the time of will extract from the writings of Mr. Clarkson good behaviour. For the inspectors, if they their confinement may be shortened by their of its inexpediency, as well as its barbarity, we an account of the penal regulations in the have reason to believe that a solid reformation state of Pennsylvania, illustrating the working has taken place in any individual, have a of an opposite system:— power of interceding for his enlargement; and the executive government of granting it if they think it proper. In cases where the prisoners are refractory, they are usually put into solitary confinement, and deprived of the opportunity of working. During this time the expenses of their board and washing are going on; so that they are glad to get into employment again, that they may liquidate the debt, which, since the suspension of their labour, has been accruing to the gaol.

"As there is now but one capital offence in Pennsylvania, punishments for other offences are made up of fine, and imprisonment, and labour; and these are awarded separately or conjointly, according to the magnitude of the

crime.

"When criminals have been convicted, and sent to the great gaol of Philadelphia to undergo their punishment, it is expected of them that they should maintain themselves out of their daily labour; that they should pay for their board and washing, and also for the use of their different implements of labour; and that they should defray the expenses of their commitment, and of their prosecutions and their trials. An account, therefore, is regularly kept against them; and if, at the expiration of the term of their imprisonment, there should be a surplus of money in their favour, arising out of the produce of their work, it is given to them on their discharge.

"An agreement is usually made about the price of prison-labour between the inspector of the gaol and the employers of the criminals.

"In consequence of these regulations, they who visit the criminals in Philadelphia, in the hours of their labour, have more an idea of a large manufactory than of a prison. They see nail-makers, sawyers, carpenters, joiners, weavers, and others, all busily employed. They see regularity and order among these. as no chains are to be seen in the prison, they seem to forget their situation as criminals, and to look upon them as the free and honest labourers of a community following their respective trades.

66

And

In consequence of these regulations, great advantages have arisen both to the criminals "As reformation is now the great object in and to the state. The state has experienced a Pennsylvania, where offences have been comdiminution of crimes to the amount of onemitted, it is of the first importance that the half since the change of the penal system; gaoler and the different inspectors should be and the criminals have been restored, in a persons of moral character. Good example, great proportion, from the gaol to the commureligious advice, and humane treatment, on nity, as reformed persons; for few have been the part of these, will have a tendency to pro- known to stay the whole term of their conduce attention, respect, and love, on the part finement. But no person could have had any of the prisoners, and to influence their moral of his time remitted him, except he had been conduct. Hence it is a rule, never to be de- considered, both by the inspectors and the parted from, that none are to be chosen as executive government, as deserving it. This successors to these different officers but such as circumstance, of permission to leave the prison shall be found on inquiry to have been exembefore the time expressed in the sentence, is of plary in their lives. great importance to the prisoners; for it ope"As reformation, again, is now the great ob-rates as a certificate for them of their amendject, no corporeal punishment is allowed in the ment to the world at large. Hence no stigma prison, no keeper can strike a criminal, nor can is attached to them for having been the inhaany criminal be put into irons. All such pu-bitants of a prison. It may be observed, also, nishments are considered as doing harm. They that some of the most orderly and industrious, tend to extirpate a sense of shame. They tend and such as have worked at the most profitable to degrade a man, and to make him consider trades, have had sums of money to take on himself as degraded in his own eyes; whereas their discharge, by which they have been able it is the design of this change in the penal to maintain themselves honestly till they could system that he should be constantly looking get into employ. to the restoration of his dignity as a man, and to the recovery of his moral character.

up

"As reformation, again, is now the great object, the following system is adopted* No intercourse is allowed between the males and the females, nor any between the untried and the convicted prisoners. While they are engaged in their labour, they are allowed to talk only upon the subject which immediately

We sincerely wish success to this enlightened and humane attempt, and we hope that

* As cleanliness is connected with health, and

their work; and to bathe, in the summer season, in a large reservoir of water, which is provided in the court-yard of the prison for this purpose.

"Such was the state, and such the manner of execution, of the penal laws of Pennsylvania, as founded upon Quaker principles. So happy have the effects of this new system already been, that it is supposed it will be adopted by the other American states. May the example be universally followed! May it be universally received as a truth, that true policy is inseparable from virtue; that, in proportion as principles become lovely on account of their morality, they will become beneficial when acted upon, both to individuals and to states; or that legislators cannot raise a constitution upon so fair and firm a foundation as upon the gospel of Jesus Christ!"