The National Register. — London, England, 1815-12-31 00:00:00

814 etertion of Mr. Pitt, who to our ears never spoke with greater force or nobler ardour than when he pleaded the ' cause of the injured African. In this cause we too have joined our humble voice to those of a Rornilly, and a Hol land: in this cause, from an instructor of our early youth, a pious clergyman, who carried his views so far as to ab stain from sugar as from blood till the abolition of the trade was effected, we imbibed the zeal of a missionary ; and in th cause, with humility to our Maker, with tenderness to the real interests of those who are the present possessors of s'aves by inheritance or purchase, but with unabated ardour for the end of ultimate though gradual emancipation,. we shall labour till its final completion is either attained, or in certain though distant prospect. At present the actual trade in slaves is abolished and made crimia.al by Great Britain. America,Szeeden,France, and Halland, have we bk liege also assented to the abolition ; and we hope it will hereafter become the public law of all .leurope, to consider as pirates all vessels carrying slaves from Africa or elsewhere. The object of the abolitionists, whom we may identify with Mr. Wilberforce, has been to put a stop to the trade, to protect by law the persons of the present slaves as far as possible from injury, and to look to time alone for effecting the final destruction of the state of slavery altogether. Because it is obvious, that to unfetter entirely those who have been hitherto kept in the rno,t cruel subjection to individual tyranny in some in stances, and in all cases in a state the most unnatural, and inconsistent with the views of a benign providence in the creation of man, would be only to subject the master to the slave, and to produce an insurrection of the blacks, wh;.cli won't] terminate in the most horrible outrages. The vise physician knows that a sudden crisis is always dan gerous, and that the best remedies are those which operate the most gently. To hurry the course of emancipation is therefore not our view. As far as law is concerned,we have Clought it most wise to offer no interference, confident that it will come gradually in time, and sill then and then only be unaccompanied with any danger. We profess to treat slavery as the gangrene of our civil state ; we apply our re medies in the first instance to stop its progress, and in the next to relieve the patient from immediate torture ; but for the final removal of it we must trust to nature. .We must not, however, be content with an appar6it stoppage of the trade, we must see that it is real. The law is passed, but is it obeyed ? We are informed, from good authority, that it is not : that the slave trade is now carried on as a contraband traffic. Evidence of the fact is not wanting ; nay, such public evidence as cannot be disputed. We have ourselves long since possessed private information of shipments of goods to Africa, for the supposed purpos e of this trade ; but the seizures and condemnations o yes. ads taken in the tact of slave.carrying are more manifest vroofs of its existence. During the war, the British Go 'ernment had means of preventing this traffick, which it Las lost by the peace. In the first place, it assumed the power, or, as it Ii called, right of search;•and we hope, for this, at least, it may never be abandoned. For, whatever may be thought of the right to stop a gentleman or a tra s eller on the highway, and ask him to IE4 us see whether be is not carrying arms to those who may design to rob us ; yet, surely, we should feel no difficulty in, at any time, takin; up a Gipsey, who had just stolen a child from its miserable parents, and conve:•ing her to the next constable, ho may put her into the stocks, or into prison ; nor bilAll we evf it good manners, DEC. ST. as regards nations, can be violated by this right. In the next place, the number of British men of war, in propor tion to merchant ships, who will no longer sail under con. voys, but when and where they can, will be so diminished, that it will be impossible any longer to guard the coast of Africa, to scour the seas, or watch the ports in the islands, to prevent the trade. For these, and obvious other rea. sons, there is very great danger now, that the trade, which was secretly beginning to spring up again during war, will be carried on to a great extent in peace, if not prevented by some prudent and effective measure of internal regula. tion in the islands. _ _ The horrours of a contraband trade in slaves, are ap. palling to humanity. The miseries of a middle passage, con.. ducted with the secresy, with the avarice, with the savage ferocity, and with the atrocious villainy of a crew of smug.. glens, a gang of known robbers and self.convicted felons, rend the heart. To give the smallest opening to it, by omit. ting to close every inlet through which it may be effected at either end of the voyage, would be no less than to make a tacit league with the worst outlaws of society ; to look on in silence, while the Demon of Avarice, by midnight invocations, summoned from Hell itself, to hot and instant and increasing action, all the Furies that can afflict huma. nity ; to look on, we say, and congratulate ourselves on comparative innocence, because we ourselves tamely ab• jured all interference in the horrid orgies. Not to do all we can to prevent the smuggling of slaves into our Islands, whether from Africa or from neighbour.. ing islands, is to participate in the guilt of connivance at the Slave Trade. The British Government has, with the greatest sincerity, we believe, now fairly entered into the cause with us, and where it has possessed absolute power, as in Trinidad, and some of the newly acquired Islands, has introduced a simple, wise, and efficacious measure fur the prevention of the Slave Trade ; by requiring each mas. ter to register annually the state of his slaves, as well as their names and conditions, much in the same way as regis ter, of ships are taken here in England, to prevent the violation of the Navigation laws, by covering foreign bot• toms. Thus the increase of slaves beyond the original stock, except by propagation, is easily prevented, and the state of the slaves greatly ameliorated. Notwithstanding some opposition from the planters, and some non.register combinations formed at first in Trinidad, the law was put in execution without any actual disturbance; the combiva. lion was broken to pieces, without an eflint by the Gover. nor, and the result has been of the greatest advantage ; but yet such as to prove clearly, that the contraband trade has been carried on to some extent. It is now proposed to extend this law to Jamaica and other islands ; but these, having legislatures fur their inter. nal regulation, have raised the outcry of independence. The former, in particular, has recently given broad hints of imitating the Americans, and hoisting a bit of striped bunt. ing for themselves, if we dare to interfere, as they call it, between the master and his slave, and violate the sacred rights of Creolian freedom. To this we have a short an• swer ; if they .will quietly ameliorate the condition of their slaves, and enact laws to prevent the infraction of the la►v of Nature against slave smugglers and kidnappers, now happily made the law of England and its dependant colo. nies, the British sovereign will doubtless gladly concur in those laws. But. if they will offer all sorts of resistance to the introduction of Christianity among the slaves, and keep no watch against ; but rather ullur a premium to encourage, a• •, • . -‘. • ou olicy • . 1„. %. wk, ite ir_ ... - ~ oi.. tq 014 5 1 .4 ... t ilh ~., 1 4 40 „„r riv%, yt ~ • • . ~. i : , . 46 ' • , , , i • ) 411 " • . . , • . 4 . - THE. NATIONAL REGISTER.