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 purpose
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,

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