its general adoption are almost inconceivable. I crime, both by the dread which the imprison- | PRISON DISCIPLINE. THE following is an ADDRESS TO BRITISH CHRISTIANS MY FELLOW COUNTRYMEN, Fifteen thousand of them, at least, are the Under this cruel system the agricultural population are rapidly decreasing by death. Females are flogged in the most indecent and disgusting manner, at the will of their oppressors I have seen it. The decrease on the sugar estates by death, THE DISBANDED SOLDIER. In the year 1785, a widow woman and her family resided in the city of Diet, in Holland, in a house in a rather lonely situation. Her husband had been an eminent carpenter, and he had bequeathed to his widow a comfortable residence, with some land, and two boats for carrying merchandise and passengers on the canals. She was also supposed to be worth some money, part of which she employed in a hempen and sail-cloth manufactory, for the of increasing her means of instructing purpose her children, consisting of a son and two daughters, in useful branches of business. One night, when the workmen were gone home, a person dressed in uniform, with a musket and broadsword, came to the house, and requested lodgings. "I let no lodgings, friend, said the widow: "and, besides, I have no spare bed, unless you sleep with my son, which I think very improper on account of your being a perfect stranger to us all." The soldier then showed a discharge from Diesbach's regiment, (signed by the major, who gave him an excellent character,) and a passport from Count Maillehospitably entertained, and at a seasonable bour withdrew to bed. Some hours afterwards, a loud knocking was heard at the door, which roused the soldier, who moved softly down stairs, and stopped at the hall-door, when the blows were repeated, and the door was almost broken through. By this time the widow and her daughters were alarmed; and they ran almost frantic through different parts of the house, exclaiming, "Murder! murder!" The son, having seized a case of loaded pistols, joined the soldier at the hall-door; while the latter, screwing on his bayonet, and priming his piece afresh, which was charged with slugs, requested the women to keep themselves out of the way of danger. Soon afterwards, the door was forced in, and two ruffians entered, who were instantly shot by the son, who discharged both his pistols at once. Two associates of the dead men, however, immediately returned the fire, but without effect: when the intrepid and plan of solitary confinement, will be found in the parish of Trelawney, from 1817 to bois, governor of Breda. Upon this, he was 1829, was 1394. Even on Christian proprietors' estates it is the same. Thousands of these deeply-injured and helpless beings are your brethren and sisters in Christ, and they are now forbidden to worship God. In the same town, when I and my brother Missionary were prisoners, during the late struggle for freedom, more than 100 were hung on one gallows, many were shot, and about 300 men and women flogged underneath it, till the ground was covered with their blood, of which flogging several died. They are an interesting and an affectionate 1. Meet once in every month to pray for the the most powerful of all moral instruments for the correction of the guilty; and when to these are added the application of religious instruction, the utmost means are exercised which society can employ for the punishment and reformation of the human character. This discipline admits of a great variety of combination, and is therefore adapted to the treatment of offenders of different classes of criminality. For successful examples of this nature, the Committee refer to some of our best houses of correction, and especially to the Penitentiary at Millbank. It is, however, from the United States that the most extensive experience on this subject is to be derived; where a system has been adopted which combines solitary confinement at night, hard labour by day, the strict observance of silence, and attention to moral and religious improvement. These plans are enforced with great success at the prisons of Auburn and Sing-Sing, in the state of New York, and at Weathersfield, in the state of Connecticut. At sun-rise, the convicts proceed in regular order to the several work-shops, where they remain under vigilant superintendence until the hour of breakfast, when they repair to the commonhall. When at their meals, the prisoners are seated at tables in single rows, with their backs towards the centre, so that there can be no interchange of signs. From one end of the work-rooms to the other, upwards Remember, if you now altogether hold of 500 convicts may be seen without a single your peace, help will arise from another individual being observed to turn his head quarter. But, oh! the guilt, if, at the day towards a visitor. Not a whisper is heard of judgment, it shall appear that the supine-count for so small a creature as a bird making a tone throughout the apartments. At the closeness of Christians has fastened the chains, of the day, labour is suspended, and the pri- and increased the oppressions, of his enslaved soners return in military order to their solifellow-men! tary cells; there they have the opportunity of reading the Scripture, and of reflecting in silence on their past lives. The chaplain occasionally visits the cells, instructing the ignorant, and administering the reproofs and consolations of religion. The influence of these visits is described to be most beneficial, and the effect of the entire discipline is decidedly successful in the prevention of London, Sept. 7, 1832. III. Vote for no man who will not give a distinct pledge that he will vote for the entire and immediate abolition of Slavery. IV. Petition Christian Slave-holders to commence Christians, I have seen the cruelties of I am, your friend, veteran stranger rushed on them like a lion, ran one through the body with his bayonet, and, while the other was running away, lodged and caused him to drop down dead on the spot. the contents of his piece between his shoulders, After the necessary legal investigation of this affair, the four ruffians were buried in a cros road, and a suitable inscription was placed over them. The widow made the soldier a présent to the amount of a hundred guineas of on money, and the city settled a handsome pension on him for the rest of his life. This veteran's name was Adrian de Griés; he was a native of Middleburgh, and was upwards of seventy years old at the time of this exploit. VOCAL MACHINERY OF BIRDS.-It is difficult to acbut a recent discovery has shown, that, in birds, as loud as some animals a thousand times its size; the lungs have several openings, communicating with corresponding air bags or cells, which fill the whole cavity of the body from the neck downwards, and into which the air passes and repasses in the progress of breathing. This is not all: the very bones are hollow, from which air pipes are conveyed to the most solid parts of the body, even into the quills and feathers. This air being rarefied by the heat of their body, adds to their levity. By forcing the air out of the body, they can dart down from the greatest height with astonishing velocity. No doubt the same machinery forms the basis of their vocal powers, and at once solves the mystery.— (Gardiner's Music of Nature.) MEMOIR OF JAMES STEPHEN, ESQ., THE LATE MASTER IN CHANCERY. ANOTHER, who has acted no undistinguished part in the great drama of life, has just quitted its stage, and gone to his eternal rest. Mr. Stephen died at Bath, on the 10th inst., of a diseased liver. He was in his 74th year. It is some years since Mr. Stephen retired from the field of politics; but those among us who recollect the busy, eventful period of Perceval's Administration, cannot forget the prominent part which Mr. Stephen took in all the Parliamentary warfare of the day. We have it in our power to furnish our readers with a short and authentic, though imperfect, memoir of this gentleman; and we know that they will thank us for it. He was descended from a respectable family in the county of Aberdeen, but he himself was born at Poole, in Dorsetshire, and educated at Winchester: we have often heard him say, that he owed all that was good in his character to the precepts and example of his mother, a lady of the name of Milner, an old family in the West of England. Mr. Stephen lost his father, who was also at the bar, in early life; being thus left to his own resources, he went to the West Indies, shortly after the acknowledgment of American independence, and practised at St. Kitt's for many years with great success. He here acquired that intimate knowledge of Colonial law for which he was justly celebrated, and, with it, he im bibed that horror of the Colonial system, which led him to become one of its most distinguished opponents. When he returned from St. Kitts, he obtained a very large and lucrative practice in the Cockpit, sharing with the late Chief Justice Dallas nearly all the Prize Appeals that came before the Privy Council. Our commercial readers will recollect how frequently the violation of neutrality led to the capture and condemnation of American vesseis. Mr. Stephen was the first to direct public attention to this important subject. in a small pamphlet, entitled 'War in Disguise; or, the Frauds of the Neutral Flags." It was published anonymously; but it evinced a knowledge of the subject, and an ability of pen, which could not fail to render its author a valuable auxiliary to the Government of the day; and Mr. Stephen was soon seated in Parliament for a Government borough. He suggested, and virtually, we be lieve, arranged the whole system of Continental blockade; which, for many years, occasioned greater embarrassment to Buonaparte, than all the other operations of the war put together. Of this system, Mr. Stephen was the great Parliamentary supporter, as the present Chancellor was its most strenuous opponent in the same arena. Whether it rested upon correct or mistaken commercial principle, it matters little now to inquire; but it most undoubtedly succeeded in checking the hostilities of what we may call the neutral belligerents, and in augmenting the difficulties of France. It had, too, another effect, which its author had indeed foreseen, but to which he was too highminded to attach the least importance-it annihilated the whole of that prize appeal business from which his professional income was derived. It was in consideration of this generous and patriotic sacrifice, that Mr. Perceval obtained for him the appointment of one of the Masters in Ordinary of the Court of Chancery, having previously offered to make him Attorney-General or a puisne Judge, which Mr. Stephen declined. since proved a judicious one,) for the protection of the unfortunate African! It was refused; but its benevolent projector has now received his reward in the approbation of his Maker: "Thou hast well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." It is very little known, that the germ of that reform which has since taken place in the Court of Chancery, under the auspices of Lord Brougham, was planted by Mr. Stephen. Some accidental circumstance, we believe, led to an investigation of the fees taken in the Masters' offices. It had been the practice, for many years, to estimate the length of documents, copied for the use of solicitors, instead of actually calculating the number of folios-and such estimates were, by mutual consent, always made with great liberality-to the unreasonable and improper advantage of all parties, except the clients. The practice was unknown to the Masters personally; but, when it reached Mr. Stephen's ears, he at once directed a minute inquiry into the extent of the profits thus unfairly made; and not only strictly prohibited the practice for the future, but gave away to charity that which could not otherwise be restored to justice. We have heard, that the sum he thus refunded amounted to several hundred pounds. At this time, the choice of the Master to whom a cause should be referred, rested virtually with the solicitors, and they of course would not carry their business to an office which was more rigid than any other in the taxation of costs. For a time, therefore, Mr. Stephen's office was comparatively deserted; and, although he made repeated representations to Lord Eldon of the injustice which was thus done to him, it was not until he had for years sustained annually a heavy pecuniary loss, that Lord Eldon consented to make the first step towards reform which Mr. Stephen suggested, that references to the Masters should be made in rotation. Mr. Stephen retained his office for twenty years; and then, following the graceful example of Sir Wildomestic tranquillity. liam Grant, retired to spend the residue of life in We have been obliged to curtail much of his history, even as a public man; but we must not omit to mention a circumstance most honourable to his manly frankness of character. In early life, among other resources which difficulty had suggested, he reported in the gallery of the House of Commons, for one of the daily papers, we believe, the Post. Afterwards, while he enjoyed a seat in that House, and had done so for many years, a question arose involving the general respectability of the reporters, when Mr. Stephen, speaking in their support, declared his early connection with their body as an alliance he felt glad to avow. It argued no common mind to make this open declaration in the aristocratic atmosphere of the House of Commons; but Mr. Stephen was a gentleman by feeling, and by education, not less than by birth. We have scarcely left ourselves room to advert to his Anti-Slavery writings, although it is in connection with this holy cause, that his name will be handed down to future ages, as one of the illustrious dead. He had been a determined enemy of the whole system for many years; and had, both by his public speeches and his private remonstrances with men in power, done more to open their eyes to the oppressions and atrocities of Slavery, than, perhaps, any other man in existence; while his high cha. racter, and acknowledged experience, combined to give a weight to all he said, which made the West Indian interest regard him as their most formidable antagonist: but it was not till 1824, that he pub lished his masterly "Delineation of Slavery." Resting, as it does, not upon the disputed testimony of strangers, but upon the admissions and statements of the Colonists themselves, it shows up the system in a manner which sets all controversy for ever at rest. It has not been even attempted to answer the second volume, which was published some years after the first; and its truth and accuracy are specifically established upon oath, before the Lords' Committee. Their Lordships are thus spared, as they will here after be told, all farther trouble, if they are sincere in wishing to prove what Slavery is: Mr. Stephen has He retained his seat in Parliament, and supported the measures of his party; as will be seen by looking into the Parliamentary reports of the period : indeed, a sort of personal, though good-humoured hostility, obtained between him and the late Mr. Whitbread, on most political questions. On one, however, Mr. Stephen exhibited the most decided independence of his party; and, rather than forfeit that independence, he resigned his seat. He planned a scheme for the registration of Slaves, the more effectually to check all illicit trading; but, though this scheme has since been adopted with unqualified success, Lord Liverpool's Cabinet, after the death of Mr. Perceval, refused, in the first instance, to sanction it; and Mr. Stephen withdrew himself from them. He never returned to public life. He always complained, and with reason, of this treatment: according to the received etiquette of political al-pied the chair at the last Anti-Slavery Meeting at liance, the solicited support of an auxiliary in Parliarment is entitled to a return. Mr. Stephen had received his official appointment, not as a reward for Parliamentary service, but as a compensation for the patriotic sacrifice which he had made of his professional resources for the good of the public: the only compensation that he ever asked, was the patronage of this, his favourite scheme (and it has done that for them. Our readers will recollect with melancholy interest his pointed remarks on this subject when he occuExeter Hall. The dying opinion of this veteran in the Anti-Slavery cause will be not less gratefully received. A few weeks ago, when cautioning one of his children against the danger to which he exposed his health by over-exertion in support of it, he expressed himself as follows: "It is not intended by God that man shall have the honour of finishing this work. I now feel con vinced that he will signally interfere with his own arm. Let us leave it to him, my dear George, he will do it his own way; he has said, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' May he visit our guilty opponents in mercy!" It is believed that these were the last words he ever uttered on the subject. When once It would not, perhaps, be going too far to say that Mr. Stephen was one of the ablest pampleteers of the age. As a speaker, he was gifted with unusual powers of language and energy of manner. fairly launched in his subject, he showed that nature had marked him for a rhetorician. He was too ve. hement and impassioned, perhaps, for the taste of modern assemblies; but he rarely failed to carry his audience with him. It was, however, in writing that he chiefly excelled. The emphatic style and clear and pointed reasoning of his earlier publications evince a power and acuteness which have been but rarely equalled In the first year of his life his poli. tical principles were decidedly liberal,-we had almost said radical; but experience and observation moderated them to such a degree, that his friends considered him a Tory; though he was always so free from the least taint of bigotry or prejudice, that it would be unjust to class him with either party. In proof of his early political prepossessions, it may be mentioned that he is said to have called his youngest son, an equally ardent advocate of the Negro, after General Washington, though that gentleman does not, we believe, use the patronymic of the father of the United States: yet, as in his most liberal days Mr. Stephen had no taint of republicanism, it can only have been out of respect for the public character of the distinguised patriot that he named his son after him. But who shall describe him in private life? It is not possible to express the respect, the affection, the almost reverential esteem, in which he was held by the large circle of relatives and friends in which he moved. We dare not trust ourselves to enter upon this; our ink is diluted with our tears. In person he was rather tall, and was well proportioned: the character of his features was intelligence and openness; the expression of his high forehead and his deepseated eye was very remarkable. We once heard a public man, distinguished by his own firmness of nerve and feature, say of him, "The look of Stephen, when angry or indignant, is terrific." But of late years this animated expression was rarely shewn, unless when called into play by the wrongs of the unhappy Slave; and then, indeed, would his coun tenance lighten up to a brightness that almost startled the by-stander. It was the fierceness of that holy anger which sinneth not. On other occasions he was gentle to tenderness, and meek even to humility. He has entered into that "rest which remaineth for the people of God." ECONOMY OF "THE TIMES" office. The following statement is extracted from Professor Babbage's late work, on The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures,-production which, from the vast variety of interesting facts it contains, the important principles deduced from them, and the nervous and felicitous style in which it is written, is every way worthy of its distinguished author. We present it to our readers as an almost extreme illustration of the advantages accruing to manufactures, from the application of machinery and the division of labour. "The establishment of The Times newspaper is an example, on a large scale, of a manufactory in which the division of labour, both mental and bodily, is admirably illustrated, and in which also the effect of the domestic economy is well exemplified. It is scarcely imagined, by the thousands who read that paper in various quarters of the globe, what a scene of organized activity the factory presents during the whole night, or what a quantity of talent and mechanical skill is put in action for their amusement and information. Nearly a hundred persons are em.. ployed in this establishment; and, during the session of parliament, at least twelve reporters are constantly attending the House of Commons and Lords; each in his turn, after about an hour's work, retiring to translate into ordinary writing, the speech he has just heard and noted in short-hand. In the mean time fifty compositors are constantly at work, some of whom have already set up the beginning, whilst others are committing to type the yet undried manu script of the continuation of a speech, whose middle portion is travelling to the office in the pocket of the hasty reporter, and whose eloquent conclusion is, perhaps, at that very moment, making the walls of St. Stephen's vibrate with the applause of its hearers. These congregated types, as fast as they are composed, are passed in portions to other hands; till at last the scattered fragments of the debate, forming, when united with the ordinary matter, eight-and-forty columns, re-appear in regular order on the platform of the printing-press. The hand of man is now too slow for the demands of his curiosity, but the power have familiarised ourselves with the mode in | some few articles have been admitted which THE TOURIST. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1832. HUMAN expectations are frequently falsified are re It is not for us to say, what our own success has been; we may, however, be permitted to remark, that neither neglect nor con demnation has been our lot. Friendly We have now proceeded sufficiently far to know the nature of our undertaking; we have learnt somewhat of its difficulties, and this case devolves, is frequently perplexed POETRY. THE LUTE. BY L. E. L. Oh! sing again that mournful song, I love its low and broken tone; Like the wild wind when singing lone It may not sound so sweet to you; I heard it, at the evening's close, It was a favourite song with those How many worldly thoughts and cares 'Tis fraught with early hopes and prayers- [The following sonnet is from the pen of Caroline, daughter of Dr. Symmons, the biographer of Milton, and was wrtten, as her father testifies, in the middle of her twelfth year.] ON A BLIGHTED ROSE-BUD, And Nature hail'd thee infant queen of May, Now drops thy head, now fadrs thy blushing hue- And by his cold, rude kiss thy charms decay: So blooms a maid, her guardians-health and joy— Her mind array'd in innocency's vest- Death clasps the virgin to his iron breast. THE PRIVILEGES OF SLAVERY! No pains shall be spared to secure the literary respectability of "THE TOURIST." It will be the effort of its conductors to combine instruction with entertainment; to secure, by the variety and sterling character of its contents; the improvement, as well as the interest of its readers: but while anxious to secure the literary character of our publication, our solicitude will be directed especially to the exclusion of whatever would offend the most delicate sense of moral propriety. Deeply impressed with the importance of religion, we shall gladly aid its On Thursday evening, the 4th inst. the annual diffusion. To parents of families, and to the meeting of the Cinq Ports Bible Society was held at Ministers of religion, we therefore confi-esting manner on the inestimable value of the Sacred Dover. The various speakers expatiated in an interdently appeal for support. Volume, and on the blessings which were derived to society wherever its divine influence extends. At the close of the proceedings, Mr. Baldwin, one of the Agency Anti-Slavery Society's Agents, who was present, rose, and asked the Chairman's permission to make a few observations, which having been accorded, Mr. B. said, that during the two preceding evenings he had occupied that room, in endeavouring to shew the duty which devolved upon his audience. as men and as Christians, to demand the immediate and utter extinction of that foul disgrace It is our intention, from time to time, to with the principles of our Constitution, and to Britain-COLONIAL SLAVERY. But he doubted whether he had addressed to them any argument so powerful to that end as was supplied in an observation which had that day fallen from_the representative of the Parent Bible Society (the Rev. T. Brooke, of the Established Church,) who, in giving a detail of its operations, stated that Bibles had been distributed among the Slaves of certain estates in the island of Antigua, with the consent of their Christian mind to be an invaluable boon, which directed the sinner to a Saviour, and was fraught with consolation to the weary and heavy laden, by flowed fully and freely to us; its invitation," od inspiring a hope full of immortality. Its blessings every one that thirsteth," was addressed to all, and yet the poor enslaved African could only receive it by permission of his fellow-mortal and fellow-worm" Mr. B. trusted they would bear this in mind, and owners! Now, the Bible was admitted by every m. ceaselessly call for the annihilation of a system which is ery ly APHORISMS. ANOTHER diversity of method, whereof the consequence is great, is the delivery of knowledge in aphorisms, or methods, wherein we may observe that it hath been too much taken into custom out of a few axioms or observations upon any subject, to make a solemn and formal art, filling it with some discourses, and illustrating it with examples, and digesting it into a sensible method: but the writing in aphorisms hath many excellent virtues, whereto the writing in method doth not approach. For first, it trieth the writer, whether he be superficial or solid: for aphorisms, except they should be ridiculous, cannot be made but of the pith, and heart of sciences; for discourse of illustration is cut off; recitals of examples are cut off; discourse of connexion and order is cut off; descriptions of practice are cut off; so there remaineth nothing to fill the aphorisms but some good quantity of observation; and therefore no man can suffice, nor in reason will attempt to write aphorisms, but he that is sound and grounded. But in methods Tantum series juncturaque pollet, Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris ; as a man shall make a great show of an art, which, if it were disjointed, would come to little. Secondly, methods are more fit to win consent or belief, but less fit to point to action; for they carry a kind of demonstration in orb orcircle,one part illuminating another, and therefore satisfy; but particulars being dispersed, so best agree with dispersed directions. And lastly, aphorisms, representing a knowledge broken, do invite men to inquire farther; whereas methods, carrying the show of a total, do secure men as if they were at farthest.-LORD BACON. (Advancement of Learning.) A religion without its mysteries is a temple without a God.-ROBERT HALL. Justice is itself the standing policy of all civil government; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.-BURKE. To equal robbery with murder, is to reduce murder to robbery; to confound in common minds the gradations of iniquity, and incite the commission of a greater crime, to prevent the detection of a less.-DR. JOHNSON. Politeness is the art of making a selection from what one thinks.-MADAME DE STAEL. It often happens that men who arraign religion have first been arraigned by it; and their defiance of truth is only a refusal upon conscience.-BISHOP WARBURTON. Christianity is not only a living principle of virtue in good men, but affords this further blessing to society, that it restrains the vices of the bad; it is a tree of life, whose fruit is immortality, and whose very leaves are for the healing of the nations.ANDREW FULLER. hensions to burrows very remote. As an instance SUPERSTITIONS. THE following anecdotes are recorded in "Our chief mate told us, that on-board a ship escaped from some other vessel, but had not previ. ously been discovered to have taken refuge on this. Another of our officers mentioned, that on one of his voyages, he remembered a boy having been sent up to clear a rope which had got foul above the mizen-top. Presently, however, he returned back, trembling, and almost tumbling to the bottom, declaring that he had seen "Old Davy" aft the cross-trees; moreover, that the evil one had a huge head and face, with prick ears, and eyes as bright sion; to all of whom the apparition glared forth, and as fire. Two or three others were sent up in succeswas identified by cach to be "Old Davy," sure enough." The mate, in a rage, at length mounted himself, when resolutely, as in the former case, searching for the bugbear, he soon ascertained the innocent cause of so much terror to be a large horned owl, so lodged as to be out of sight to those who ascended on the other side the vessel, but which, when anyone approached the cross-trees, popped up his portentous visage to see what was coming. The mate brought him down in triumph, and "Old Davy," the owl, became a very peaceable ship-mate among the crew, who were no longer scared by his horns and eyes; for sailors turn their backs on nothing when they know what it is. Had the birds, in these two instances, departed as secretly as they came, of course they would have been deemed supernatural visitants to the respective ships, by all who had heard the one or seen the other," THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. ACUTENESS OF HEARING IN ANIMALS.-Cats and dogs can hear the movements of their prey at incredible distances, and that even in the midst of noise, which we should have thought would have overpowered such effects. Rabbits, when alarmed, forcibly strike the earth with their feet, by the vibration of which they communicate their appre of the discriminating power of the ear of the elephant, we may mention a circumstance that oc. curred in the memorable conflict of shooting the maddened elephant at Exeter 'Change. After the soldiers had discharged thirty balls, he stooped and deliberately sunk on his haunches. Mr. Herring, conceiving that a shot had struck he's down!" and so he was only for a moment. Hamiable, and hospitable race of people, and leapt up with renewed vigour, and at least eighty balls were successively discharged at him from dif him on a vital part, cried out, 'He's down, boys! ferent positions before he fell a second time. Previous to this he had nearly brought down the build ing of Exeter 'Change by his furious lunges, flying round his den with the speed of a race horse. In the midst of the crash of timber and the hallooing of the assailants, he recognised the voice of his keeper in his usual cry, Chunee bite-Chunee bite which was his command to kneel, and the noble beast actually knelt, and received a volley of balls that terminated his suffering."-(Gardiner's Music of Nature.) THE above is a representation of one of the gives much interesting information respecting fire induces them to keep a sacred fire constantly burning, which they feed with odoriferous wood, both in their temples and in the private houses of such persons as possess sufficient wealth to afford this expense. In one of their temples at Bombay, Niebuhr asserts that he saw a fire which had burnt unextinguished for two centuries; and so jealous are they of the sanctity of fire, that they never even blow out a light, lest their paying the honour of worship to the heavenly breath soil the purity of the flame. As well as bodies, they firmly believe in the influence which they exert on the destinies of this world, and the lives of individuals, although they are for the most part in entire ignorance of those facts and theories respecting them which modern science has unfolded. TITLE TO SLAVE PROPERTY. (From the Watchman, Aug. 6, 1831.) "AT a meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the parish of St. Thomas in the Vale, Jamaica, held at the Court House, on the 30th ult. It was resolved: "1st. That the property we hold in Slaves in this Island has been lawfully acquired, under the authority of the laws of the United Kingdom, and that it ought to be held as sacred as any other description of property sacred as any other description of property belonging to his Majesty's subjects. "3d. That it has ever been the pride and boast of the British constitution that no individual, however humble, can be deprived of his property without full and ample compensation. If, therefore, we are compelled to part with ours, we claim the right of being paid the worth of our lands, buildings, slaves, and other plantation property, not according to their present value, but the amount of what they would have been sold for before they were deteriorated by the acts and misrepresentations of this party:" (meaning those who are pleading for the freedom of the Slaves.) It is rather strange that the freeholders of St. Thomas in the Vale did not perceive that by the last of these resolutions, they not only declare their slaves entitled to their liberty, but also to full compensation for the whole of their unpaid labour, which has here tofore been applied solely to their masters' benefit. Should this resolution be enforced, the whole wealth of the Indies would not be sufficient to repay the injured Africans and "In what manner are they procured? Part of them by fraud. Captains of ships from time to time, invited Negroes to come on board, and then carried them away. But far more have been procured by force. The Christians landing upon their coasts, seized as many as they found, men, women, and children, and transported them to America. It was about 1551, that the English began trading to Guinea: at first, for gold and elephant's teeth, but soon after, for men. In 1556, Sir John Hawkins sailed with two ships to Cape Verd, where he sent eighty men on shore to catch Negroes. But the natives flying, they fell farther down, and there set the men on shore, 'to burn their towns and take the inhabitants.' But they met with such resistance, that they had seven men killed, and took but ten Negroes. So they went still farther down, till having taken enough, they proceeded to the West Indies and sold them. "It was sometime before the Europeans found a more compendious way of procuring ་ | African Slaves, by prevailing upon them to To st the mauner wherein Negroes are procured in a yet stronger light, it will suffice "SESTRO, Dec. 29, 1724.-No trade to-day, came on board to-day, and informed us the peo- "The 31st.-Fair weather, but no trading yet. We see each night towns burning. But "The 2d of January.-Last night, we saw "The second extract taken from the Journal of a Surgeon, who went from New York on the same trade, is as follows: The Commander of the vessel sent to acquaint the King, that he wanted a cargo of slaves. The King promised to furnish him, and in order to do it, set out, designing to surprise some town, and make all the people prisoners. Some time after, the King sent him word, he had not yet met with the desired success, having attempted to break up two towns, but having been twice repulsed: but that he still hoped to procure the number of Slaves. In this design he persisted, till he met his enemies in the field; a battle was fought, which lasted three days, and the engagement was so bloody, that four thousand five hundred men were slain upon the spot.' “Such is the manner wherein the Negroes Gospel to the Heathens!" are procured! Thus the Christians preach the I know it will be said, that however bad the original title might have been, it has become good by lapse of time and the law of the land. But no length of time can justify robbery and murder, and no English law can abrogate the Divine law: "He that stealeth his hands, he shall surely be put to death." a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely be put to death." Even though the statutes of England may be adduced to justify the Slave-trade, they cannot be brought to justify the present system of Slavery, or the reducing the children of the victims of the Slave-trade to bondage. THE HYDROSTATIC BED FOR THE learned and ingenious author of the "Ele- "A trough of convenient length and breadth and a foot deep, was lined with metal to make it water-tight; it was about half filled with water, and over it was thrown a sheet of the India-rubber cloth, as large as would be a complete lining to it if empty. Of this sheet the edges, touched with varnish, to prevent the water creeping round by capillary attraction, were afterwards secured in a water-tight manner, all round to the upper border or top of the trough, shutting in the water as closely as if it had been in bottles, the only entrance left being through an opening at one corner, which could be perfectly closed. Upon this expanded dry sheet, a suitable mattrass was laid, and constituted a bed ready to receive its pillow and bedclothes, and not distinguishable from a common bed, but by its most surpassing softness or yielding. The bed was carried to the patient's house, and she was laid upon it; she was instantly relieved in a remarkable degreesweet sleep came to her; she awoke refreshed; she passed the next night much better than usual; and on the following day Mr. Earle found that all the sores had assumed a healtby appearance; the healing from that time went on rapidly, and no new sloughs were formed. Dr. Arnott claims no property in the invention. He gives permission to any person to construct the bed, and wishes the invention to be generally known for the benefit of humanity. |