had, even since last year undergone in men's minds, the bill was rejected in the House of Commons, by a majority of 7 members.--It would be very foolish for the friends of the West India colonies now to lay aside their efforts to prevent the accomplishment of a project like that which has just been defeated; but, for the present, I shall content myself with noticing one argument advanced, upon this occasion, by Mr Wilberforce. His object evidently was to produce in the minds of his hearers, a conviction, that it was possible, and even easy, to keep up the number of negroes required in the islands by the increase of those already there, and, of Course, without any further importation of negroes from Africa. In order to establish this position, he referred to the state of the negro population in the United States of America, where, he said, the negro population had doubled during the last 20 years. One way of oversetting this argument is by denying and disproving the fact, upon which it rests. If the reader will refer to the authentic and official statement relive to the population of the United States of America, which he will find in Vol. I. p 236 of this work, he will perceive, that, in the year 1790, when the first Census was taken in the American states, the total of the slave po pulation amounted to 697,697; and that, when the second Census was taken, in the year 1800, the total of the slave population was 876,790; being, in ten years, an increase of 179,093. Twice this latter number is 358,186; and not 697,697, as it ought to be, in order to enable Mr. Wilberforce to maintain his position. There has been no Census taken in America since the year 1500; previous to 1790, there never was any taken. Nothing can be known, as to the increase of the population, except what is known from those two Censuses; and, therefore, the conclusion is, that Mr. Wilberforce's assertion, as it is stated in the London newspapers, is not true. It may have been falsely reported in the newspapers; and, if not, we are to suppose, of course, that somebody has deceived Mr. Wilberforce; very likely some black preacher, or some white faced preacher with a dark mind; but, at any rate, he will now perceive the error and will, doubtless, be upon his guard against such misrepresentations for the future. My objections, however, to the fact reported to be advanced by Mr. Wilberforce are not confined to what I have already stated. We have seen that the number of slaves in America, during the ten years ending in 1800, rose from 697,697, to 876,790, making, in that ten years, an in

crease of 179,093; and this, Mr. Wilberforce's printed speech says, without impertation from Africa. Without any legally tolerated importation, if you please; and, indeed, without much importation from Africa; but, not so from St. Domingo, whence there were imported into the United States, about 70,000 slaves, between the years when the two Censuses were taken. That many of these had returned to St. Domingo, or had gone to the other West India islands, previous to the taking of the latter Census is true; but, that 30 or 40 thousand remained is certain; and, that they must have assisted in adding to the slave popula-. tion of 1800 in a degree beyond the number of those who were remaining of the slaves actually imported, no one can, I think, entertain a doubt. If, then, we allow the slave population of America, of 1800, to have received an increase of 50,000 from the importation from St. Domingo, it will follow, that the increase of the American slaves, in the space of ten. years, had been only 129,093, upon a former population of 697,697; which is an increase of little more than one third in 20 years, instead of that doubling, of which Mr. Wilberforce is reported to have spoken.— Having fallen into this account of the American slaves, I cannot refrain from observing, that General Washington, a person usually regarded as a very sincere friend to liberty, did, nevertheless, keep his three hundred blacks and mulattoes in a state of slavery to the day of his death; and, that, even in his will, he made no provision for. their being freed, till the death of his wife, an act, towards her, it has been thought, of no very great kindness, to say nothing about: the delicacy of it. She, however, appears to have seen the matter in its true light, and, as was reported, in the American pas pers, lost no time in getting rid of the title of slave-holder, so affectionately bequeathed to her. Returning to the argument of Mr. Wilberforce, or more properly speaking, perhaps, the argument which the reporters of debates have ascribed to him, I. cannot allow, that it ought to have had, much weight, had the fact, on which it was founded, been true. It was assumed, that the climate of the American States, is less favourable to the increase of the negro population than the climate of the West Indies is. But, that this was a mere assumption will not, I think be denied by any one who is at all acquainted with the nature of the two climates; and, who happens to know, as I do, that the negroes even in several parts to the north of Bostor,have increased,

and do increase, faster than in any of the more southern latitudes. But, it is to be presumed, that, if Mr. Wilberforce had not spoken last in the debate, some one would have pointed out the wide difference be tween the West Indies and the American States in the means of affording subsistence ; for, there are, I imagine, few persons who will deny, that, at last, subsistence is the cause, and that its relative abundance is, therefore, the measure, of the increase of population. The lands in the West Indies are employed, not in the producing of all the subsistence they are capable of producing; but, in the producing of commodities, profitable to the mother country, and expended out of the islands. The lands in America, for the far greater part, are employed in the producing of bread corn. The contrast is, indeed, clearly shown in the short statement of a simple and undeniable fact; to wit; that the West Indians are supplied with a great part of their food out of the superabundance of the United States. In this circumstance the reflecting mind clearly discovers the true and only cause of the difference in the state of the negro population in the West Indies and that of the negro population in the United States. Very fallacious, therefore, is that argument, the conclusion of which is, that, because the negroes in the West Indies do not kce, up their population without importation, while the negroes of the United States do, those of the West Indies are worse treated than those of the United States. It is not t'hat the negroes in the West Indies have not enough to eat; but, it is that there is no food to bestow in that way which tends to increase population. The negroes in the West Indies, like the soldiers in a camp, are compelled to live, in a greater or less d gree, in a state of celibacy. Their state of life is not favourable to the procreation of children; and, to keep up their numbers, recruits must be brought amongst them; but, does it thence follow, that they are ill treated? That they are miserable? That they are deprived of all the comforts of life? that to place them and keep them in such a state is, in the language of the proposed bill, contrary to the principles

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of justice and humanity ?" I before ap pealed to the stance of great cities, parti Cularly London; and, if the slave trade ought to be abolished, because it produces, in itse f considered, a cvaste of lives; that is to say, because the deaths, amongst the slaves, exceed the births; if, for this reason, the slave trade ought to be abolished, why does not s me abolienist assert, that

London ought to be destroyed, or, at least, to be reduced to a size that would render it as wholesome as a small town? Why are not many trades abolished? For many are to be pointed out, in which the births do not half equal the deaths. How many factories and settlements have we formed, with the full expectation of being obliged to keep up the numbers of their inhabitants by migrations from home? Nay, do we not, I would ask Mr. Wilberforce, persevere in supporting, in this manner, the white population of the terrestrial paradise, commonly called the British Folly," at Sierra Leone, which to mamtain, about 16,000 pounds a year are extracted from the labour of the people of this country? Why, then, is the mere circumstance of a decreasing po pulation amongst the West India negroes to be urged as a proof that they are illtreated, and that further importations of them ought to cease?Having, as I think, shown, that the premises of the argu ment ascribed to Mr. Wilberforce are not founded in truth, and, that, if they were, they would warrant the conclusion that was drawn from them, I should, for the present, dismiss the subject, did it not appear proper, and even necessary, to take some notice of a passage, relative thereto, in a late number of the Edinburgh Review. At the close of their review of a pamphlet, enti ted, "A Defence of the Slave Trade," the Reviewers 66 say: we cannot but hope, "that this is the last expiring effort of an "opposition, which has too long success"Jully opposed the termination of a traffic, "the continuance of which is the foulest "blot that has ever stained the character "and conscience of a Christian natior." These gentlemen will now find, that they were deceived; and, if the disappointment should have the effect of checking a little the boldness of their speculations, particularly upon matters connected with politics, there can be scarcely any doubt of its proving greatly advantageous to the repulation of their very able, and, in many respects, excellent work. But, the passage, on which I more immediately had fixed iny eye, was the following, relative to the conduct of the House of Lords, in postponing, for the six months, the second reading of the bill sent to their Lordships from the Commons, on the 27th of June last. As to "the House of Lords, how far their being less under popular influence, and their "being of a more aristocratical spint than "the House of Commons, circumstances which, generally speaking, are produc"tive of practical benefit in a constitution

al view, are likewise beneficial in the "present instance, is a point on which we "will deliver no opinion. Happily, such

questions as that of the abolition of the "slave trade rarely occur. Legislatures "are not constructed with a view to their "determination; and, if the peculiar con"stitution and temper of the House of Lords "should operate unfavourably on this great "question, however we might regret the "circumstance, we should be very slow in drawing any inferences concerning the "general utility of that bely."--Wonderful forbearance! They shall be slow (and this they say while the bill is before the Lords) in declaring the House of Lords quite useless, even though it should not pass Mr. Wilberforce's bill! But, why should we be surprized? Is not this the spirit, the intolerant spirit, by which the most busy of the abolitionists have been actuated, and which has been apparent in all their conduct. from the time the question of abolition was first agitated to the present hour? They always assume, as a truth universally admitted, that their opponents are men actuated by the most selfish motives; men destitute of every feeling of humanity and of every sentiment of religion, deaf to all the admonitions of conscience, and, in short, animated by a soul, which they have sold to the devil. Such seems to be the opinion of a person, who has lately written to me, through the hands of a common friend; but, without giving me permission to publish his letter. This gentleman bids me bow down before the disinterested perseverance of Mr. Wilberforce. I do not know that Mr. Wilberforce is not disinterested; nor do I think it very difficult for any man to make a great display of disinterestedness with a fortune of twenty or thirty thousand a year. But, as to the question of the slave trade, I will venture to assert, that neither Mr. Wilberforce nor his officious supporter can produce a single shadow of proof, to justify the insinuation, that I am not disinterested. I have no private interest whatever to answer by the continuation of the slave trade; I am neither related to nor connected with, either directly or indirectly, any person having a private interest in that traffic; nay, though, since I have duly considered the question, I have always been an advocate for the continuation of the slave trade, I never have, till very lately, been personally acquainted with any one WestIndia planter or merchant. The conduct, which I have, in this respect, pursued, has proceeded from a sincere conviction, that the sum of human misery is rather lessened

than augmented by the slave trade; and, that the abolition of that trade would provď greatly injurious to my country. Insinuations, like that above alluded to, I, there. fore, despise; and, the infliction of that eternal wrath, with which the modest insinuator is pleased to menace me, I am happy to reflect is lodged in other hands than his. This gentleman says, that, after the most mature consideration, he is convinced of the iniquity of the slave trade, and that it ought to be abolished. He talks incessantly of his conscience, and, vows that. so help him God," such and such are his opinions. And, does he think, that nobody has a conscience as well as he? And, what opinion, or expression of mine, either public or private, could have emboldened him to call the army the God of my adoration?" But, as was before observed, this is their constant practice. This is the way, in which they have invariably treated their opponents. The publications, which they have made against the planters of Jamaica, would have cost them their ears, cropped off a hair's breadth at a time, if made against any other class of their fellow subjects. Upon the score of disinterestedness I will, at any time, venture on a comparison with this gentleman, be he who he any, or with his friend, Mr. Wilberforce. I have no purpose in view but the good of my country. I have nobody to please; nobody to humour; I am under no promises; my hands are as clean as Mr. Wilberforce's; I never touched the public money myself nor did I ever enable, or endeavour to enable, or wish to enable, any other person to touch it, or to keep it; I am under no afluence but that of my own mind; I hunt after neither pelf nor praise; I wish to see my name inscribed neither in the Court Calendar nor in the Calendar of canting Saiots. When this vehement monitor of mine shall find that time, for which he seems to wish, for the purpose of entering at large upon the subject of the slave trade, I would recommend him to begin his labour (and no trifling labour it will prove) by answering a pamphlet, published in 1790, entitled, "Doubts on the Abolition of the Slave "Trade, by an old member of parliament," which never has yet been answered, except by frothy declamation and violent abuse. Upon this pamphlet the Edinburgh reviewers observe, that it is the best they have ever read in defence of the s.ave trade. They do not attempt to answer it; but, with that sort of candour which has always marked the conduct of the writers on their side of the question, they insinuake

that the author has assumed a false character, and that he is a mere writer by trade; which insinuation I assert to be utterly groundless. The character assumed was a true one; the author was, and is, an English gentleman perfectly independent, entirely unconnected with the slave trade, with the West-India colonies, with trade of all sorts, and, the pamphlet was the result of the reading and inquiries of a whole year of his life, set apart to those purposes. I may, perhaps, shortly be at -liberty to mention his name to the public; but, in the mean-time, I cannot help expressing a hope, that, through some means or other, a new and cheap edition of his valuable work will find its way into extensive circulation. Having already trespassed upon the patience of the reader beyond the hope of forgiveness, I will trespass a little further, in order to request him to bear in mind, what is the description of persons, what is the sect, or rather, what are the sects, by whom the nation are led in their outcry against the slave trade and the West-India planters: the Quakers and the Methodists: these are the godly crews, on whose sleeves the people, in this case, have pinned their faith and their consciences. Observe, too, that it is only the modern Quakers, who have been moved by the spirit of negro-loving. Their ancestors both bought and sold negroes in Pennsylvania; and, yet they are so inconsistent as to revere the memory, and to applaud (most justly) the statutes of the founder of that once happy province; yea, a thousand thousand times more happy and more virtuous than it now is, under the sway of those who have abolished negro. slavery, and who, for the far greater part, have exchanged the real piety of their forefathers for a despicable cant. The crack-brained Benezet, and Warner Mifflin, surnamed, in his country, THE HYPOCRITE, by way of eminence, were the beginners of this series of disputes. Their successors amongst us are well known; and yet, upon the subject of the slave trade, we have the mortification to see no small portion of the people following the heels of the two sects above-mentioned, one of which makes it an article of its creed to resist the lawful demands, the just, the immemorial rights, of the Church; while the other is incessantly reviling her clergy and dishonouring her service. And, shall I, and all those who entertain the same sentiments, because we will not fall into the ranks; because we will not swell the motley cavalcade, of which the chiefs of

these new-fangled mongrel sects are at the head, be stigmatized as reprobates; as men void of all religion, morality, and feeling? Shall we silently submit, to be told that we are not Christians, and to be threatened with perdition, because we refuse to become followers of Benezet and Warner Mimin? Barefaced abuse one might meet with a smile; but, the cool impudence, with which these pretenders to exclusive piety preface their arguments with the axiom, that all those are damned who do not subscribe to their opinions; this it is that calis forth indignation, and, where it is possible, punishment. To themselves. alone it is, that the leaders of the abolition. ists have to ascribe the imputations of cant and hypocrisy. They have constantly been the aggressors, They began with their inflammatory charges of impiety and cruelty; and aggression, except amongst souls too base to feel, never fails to be met with an attempt, at least, at punishment. Selfishness has been the standing charge. Just as if it were a proof of selfishness for men to endeavour to preserve their property and defend their character! What a shameful perversion of the meaning of words! What an outrageous assault on the common sense of mankind!Here I put an end to these remarks, with the expression of a hope, that, now that the House of Commons have stopped the progress of the abolition bill, that the Edinburgh Reviewers wi coolly revise their opinions, and, in future, check any disposition they may entertain to question the general utility of the other branch of the legislature. I do hope, that, while these gentlemen scruple not to applaud the system of government, by which the parish paupers in England have been swelled in number to more than a million; while, without a murmur, they behold the parish officers of Wales disposing of the rates in shipping off their poor to slavery in America; while they pass in silence over all the imprisonments, the beatings, the whippings, the tortures, the hangings, the mock-legal murders, that are inflicted on the white slaves in certain parts of Europe: yes, I do hope, that, while the Edinburgh Reviewers can see all this with such perfect sang froid, they will, though the slave trade should not be abolished, be very "slow' indeed in throwing out hints for abolishing the parliament!

TRINIDAD.A proposition is, it is said, to be submitted to parliament for preventing any further importation of slaves into the island of Trinidad, a proposition, of which, I think, every one must readily ap

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prove. This is a question not at all connected with that of the slave trade generally; and still less with the question of the slave trade now carried on to our old colonies. It is a question, whether it be, or be not, good policy to prevent the further spreading of British capital over colonies in the West-Indies; and, the opinion entertained by the best informed men, is, that our old colonies, well kept up, are quite sufficient for us. Indeed, it seems like downright madness to begin settling another large island in the West-Indies, while we are driven to such miserable and disgraceful expedients as we now are to furnish a force, sufficient merely to preserve tranquillity, in the islands which we already have. To retake the Dutch colonies was proper enough, though of very little importance as to the great object of the war. We had scarcely evacuated those colonies: the colonists were British in heart, and not a few of them by birth: the capital was almost exclusively British were it only for the sake of affording these persons an opportunity of sending home their property, or of disposing of it upon better terms at another peace, it was right to take possession of the Dutch colonies. But, as to Trinidad, it is, as yet, a wilderness. Before it can possibly defray its own internal expenses, it will have cost us half a million, to be extracted from English labour; and, what is of still more importance, it will have cost the lives of several thousands of British soldiers and sailors, employed for its protection, internal and external. For these reasons, it is to be hoped, that the above-mentioned proposition will be carried. Trinidad is perfectly useless to this kingdom; a dead charge; and, therefore, ought, as soon as possible, to be got rid of. The possession of it conduces not, in the smailest degree, to the safety of our old colonies. Its ports never were of much service to our enemies; and, the truth is, that it was obtained at the peace, merely for the purpose of making a show; merely that the ministers might have something to tell the people that they had gained. for them; something to keep in countenance, just to save from hiding his head, that lofty toned minister, who had so often and so pompously promised them" indemnity for "the past and security for the future," Having answered this useful purpose, the island may now, I think, be, with great advantage, evacuated, first destroying the fortifications and public buildings: or, at least, it will be wise to give it up at the peace, though, in the estimate of objects of exchange, it certainly would not reckon for

much. At any rate, it would be unwise to suffer, and even encourage, British capital to be expended upon it; and, to prevent such expenditure, the parliament has only to pass (as I trust they will pass) a law to prevent the further importation of slaves

into it.

ANTIGUA.From the proclamation of the governor of this island, which proclamation will be found in a preceding page of the present sheet, it appears, that the intercourse between Antigua and the United States of America is not menaced with that interruption, the consequences of which, were, when the last advices came away, hanging over the head of Jamaica. Its ems strange, however, that Mr. Nugent, the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, should have received orders from Lord Camden, different from those sent out by his Lordship to the Governor of Antigua.- -Be this as it may, the public will be very glad to bear, that, if the ministers have not disavowed the measure adopted by Governor Nugent, they do not intend to persevere in it; and that orders are, by this time, probably, goneot! for the rescinding of the resolution of council issued in Jamaica on the 21st of November last; for which see the present Volume, p. 208. But, the ministers and the persons they employ should recollect, that the giving of a plaister does not make compensation for a broken head. It is true, that the counter order will reach Jamaica before the expiration of the time mentioned in the resolution of council; but, when will the intelligence of this counterorder reach the United States of America? For, observe, that, officially, it cannot reach America except through Jamaica. A notification may, indeed, be made through the American papers much sooner; but, even that can scarcely be done before the middle of April, leaving but a very short space of time for the purpose of counteracting the effects of the resolution of council. So that, as the least probable evil arising from this precipitate measure, we may be sure that provisions will be, for a time, less abundantly furnished to Jamaica from the United States; that they will, of course, be dearer than they would have been; that this will add to the expenses of some planters, and will decrease the subsistence for the slaves of others.

NAVAL INQUIRY.-The reader will remember, that a board of Commissioners, at the head of which was Admiral Sir Charles Pole, was established, by act of Parliament, in December, 1802, for the purpose of inquiry into the abuses in the