XXXI. CHAP. and sanctioned by him; and soon after a circular was issued from the Colonial Office, which absolutely prohibited the flogging of women, or the use of the whip in the field. 1833. 86. refuse to act on the resolutions of Parliament. These limitations of the power of the masters do not The colonies at first sight appear very serious, and certainly they are not of such a kind as to be repugnant to any humane mind. They were dangerous, however, not from what they enjoined, but from the expectations which they would awaken; and the utmost apprehensions were felt in the colonies that they might lead to a general belief among the negroes that slavery had been really abolished by the British Parliament, and that it was the local legislatures which were withholding the inestimable boon. This danger, as appeared in the sequel, was far from being imaginary; and it was much increased by the efforts of the missionaries and Baptists, whose prudence and judgment were not equal to their zeal or humanity, and who led the slaves to expect that the day of their final deliverance was at hand. Angry resolutions, in consequence, were passed by the legislature in several of the islands, in which resistance was openly threatened, and severance from the mother country spoken of as probable. The well-known weakness of the colonists, however, placed between the might of the mother country on the one hand, and a vast negro population on the verge of insurrection on the other, forbade any such attempt; and the irritation evaporated in angry recriminations and strong resolutions. Riots of a very alarming character, however, took place in several districts, some arising from the indignation of the planters at the missionaries, others from the highly excited feelings of the negroes in consequence of their preachings. Shrewsbury, a missionary in Barbadoes, was a victim to violence of the first kind, and only saved his life by flying from the colony; and the imprudent zeal of another, named Smith, in Demerara, produced an insurrection among the blacks of so threatening a character that mar XXXI. 1833. tial law was proclaimed in the colony, and continued in CHAP. force for five months. Under it Smith was brought to trial on a charge of having incited the negroes to revolt, concealed their intention to rise, when known to him, and refused to serve in the militia on the ground of his clerical office. At the most, he was only guilty of the two last charges of the first no adequate evidence was adduced. He was found guilty generally, however, by the court-martial, and sentenced to death; but the sentence Feb. 24, was commuted, most justly, by the home Government into 1821. banishment from the colony. Before the communication, Ann. Reg. however, could reach the colony, Smith was in his grave, 15. having died in prison in consequence of a confinement of xi. 968, 997, five months in an unhealthy situation, and in a pestilen- i. 336, 338. tial climate.1 1 1823, 133, 135, 137; 1066; Mart. insurrection These unhappy proceedings, in which imprudent 87. though benevolent zeal on the one side, were met by Forced transelfish resistance and judicial iniquity on the other, had 1832, and the effect of retarding in a most distressing manner, as which then such collisions always do, the progress of real and safe broke out. improvement in the condition of the negro population. Matters continued for the next eight years in a state of constrained and sullen tranquillity; the masters brooding, on the one hand, over the many real and still more numerous supposed wrongs they had received from the British Government, and the slaves waiting impatiently for the concession of freedom which they still believed had been granted to them by the Imperial Legislature, and was only withheld by those of their own island. Matters, however, were brought to a crisis by the violent collision which took place between the rival parties in the course of the discussion of the Reform Bill. Mr Brougham, Mr Buxton, and many other of the Liberal chiefs, aware what a popular topic the instant abolition of slavery was with a sincere and respectable portion of the people, brought it forward as a prominent topic on the hustings; and the former of these carried Yorkshire in VOL. V. 2 D XXXI. 1833. Nov. 20, 1831. CHAP. Consequence of his protestations on the subject. The accession of the Whig Government to power confirmed the hopes which these declamations had awakened, and an imprudent act of Government brought matters to a crisis. In November 1831, during the height of the Reform fever, by which every part of the empire was sufficiently agitated, Orders in Council were issued by Government, which fixed the hours of labour, appointed slave-protectors, and contained various other regulations calculated to prepare the slaves gradually for emancipation. They were to be enforced in the Crown colonies by the authority of Government; in those which had their own legislature, by fiscal privileges granted to such as conformed to them. These regulations were considered by the slaves as amounting to unconditional freedom, and they became impatient that it was not formally proclaimed. The consequence of this not being done was, that a vast conspiracy was secretly organised among the negroes in Jamaica in the end of 1831, which ere long broke out in an open insurrection, so formidable as to justify entirely the fears expressed by the planters on the subject; and as if the severities of nature were to be added to the calamities induced by man, a dreadful hurricane about the same time devastated the islands of Barbadoes, St Vincent, 1832, 270. and St Lucie, and destroyed property to the amount of £1,700,000.1 1 Ann. Reg. 88. in Jamaica. Dec. 20, 1831. The first symptoms of insubordination appeared on Insurrection December 20, when the negroes on several estates refused to go to their work, alleging that they were free, and not obliged to do so. From this they proceeded to break into houses and take arms, or bring out weapons of their own which they had secreted, and, assembling in large bodies, marched in every direction over the island, inciting the slaves to join them, and burning or destroying every plantation or building which came within their reach. The houses and settlements of free people of colour, however humble, shared in the devastation equally with. XXXI. 1833. the larger plantations of the European. The unchained CHAP. African marked, as he had done in St Domingo in 1789, his first steps towards freedom by murder, conflagration, and every crime at which humanity recoils. The whole island was illuminated at night by the light of burning edifices; the sky darkened by day with the vast clouds of smoke which issued from the conflagrations. Martial law was proclaimed on the 30th, the militia called out, and Sir Willoughby Cotton, with three hundred regular troops, marched to Montego Bay, the centre of the insurrection. Several engagements took place with the rebels, in which they were routed; but when the insurrection was put down in one quarter, it broke out in another, and it was not finally suppressed till the middle of January, before which property to the amount of above £1,000,000 had been destroyed. A proclamation was wisely issued by the governor, offering a free pardon to such as laid down their arms, excepting the ringleaders, which had a very beneficial effect; and it appeared from the confessions of some of the latter who were shot, that the insurrection had been occasioned by the assurances given to the negroes by the Baptist missionaries, that the Orders in Council in November preceding had in reality Ann. Reg. given them their freedom, and that it was only withheld 271. by the selfish opposition of the local government.1 1 1832, 270, 89. The Resistance the nies to the and Orders in in the colo Council. This calamitous outbreak excited, as well it might, the utmost alarm among the West India proprietors. parliament of Jamaica solemnly protested against Orders in Council, as an unjustifiable, uncalled-for, perilous interference with private property, and threw upon Government the whole responsibility of carrying them into execution. This example was immediately followed by such of the islands as had local legislatures; and on behalf of such as had none, a great meeting of West India proprietors was held in London in April, at April 17, which a petition was agreed to, praying for an inquiry into the condition of the West India negroes, and what 1832. CHAP. could further be done to ameliorate their condition con XXXI. 1833. sistently with their own interests. So obvious was the danger, so strong the case made out at this meeting, that the prayer of the petition, which was presented by Lord Harewood to the House of Lords on the 17th April, was acceded to by Government, and meanwhile the Order in Council was suspended. At the same time a grant of £100,000, which had been granted to the sufferers in St Vincent and the other islands by the hurricane, was 1 Parl. Deb. extended to £1,000,000, and made to extend to the April 20, 1832; Ann. sufferers under the Jamaica insurrection, where, it was Reg. 1832, stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the loss by the burning of buildings alone exceeded £800,000.1 273, 274. 90. transports immediate tion. But matters had now arrived at such a point under Universal the combined influence of the Reform passion, and the in favour of anxiety for instant negro emancipation in the mother emancipa country, that rational or prudent measures were no longer practicable. The excitement on this subject throughout the whole country went on at an accelerated rate during the whole autumn and winter subsequent to the passing of the Reform Bill; and the pledges exacted from candidates for seats in the first reformed Parliament were so numerous, that it had become a matter of certainty, before the discussion came on in the House of Commons, that Government had no alternative but to concede. The recent insurrection and frightful calamities in Jamaica, so far from operating as a warning of the danger of concession, were considered as only an indication of the reverse, because they were regarded as signs of the danger, not of granting emancipation, but of withholding it. A great part of the nation, including a vast majority of the urban constituencies, were seized with a passion on the subject not less strong than that which had carried reform, and more estimable, as being less impelled by selfish ambition, and more springing from humane feelings. In a word, the nation had arrived at one of those phases, so well known and of frequent |