The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-08 00:00:00

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money down for every thing they purchase
and their purchags are to an incredible amount."
Thus it would be sin that the merchants had no rea-

son to compluin of?ietnancipation. Indeed he had not
found a merchant ii 01.1 the colonies he had visited who
had not told him thtp.ime tile ; and even some of the

planters themselves' had: joked with hire, and said,
" What fools you English people are—if you had given
the 20,000;000/. to the negroes, we might have thought

through their brains or a dagger through their hearts ;
but I am so convinced now of the blesings connected
with emancipation, that I could. go down on my knees

and embrace theirs, and blesi them for their efforts in

overthrowing the olcl system." Thus they would
perceive that gmandipitinn Vias a blessing not merely

to the negro, but to the planter. . Fie would now say

a few words on the moral and religious advantages which
the negro had acquired by emancipation. He could
never forget the interviews which hehad had with negroes

in various colonies, on the subject of emancipation, and

you were wise men, but you have given it to us, who
will profit by it in many other ways." One of them
said, " I have put 14,000/. into my pocket, for
which lam much obliged to you." So that when they
took into consideration that the price of sugar had con-
siderably advanced during the last two years, and that
the quantity exported froiii the colonies bad been very
little short of that VN hich was exported during the palmy
days of slavery, it would be seen that the planters
were gainers in every way. They had the interest of

the 20,000,0001. coming into their pockets every year,
at a much' less expense than they could during the
period of slavery. He had not yet met with a planter
who had stated he would return to the old system if he
could, and he would do them the credit of saying that
they had uniformly spoken of the day on which
the negroes were liberated as the first day of freedom
they had enjoyed He well remembered on one occa-
sion a planter saying to him, " Mr. Scoble, I recollect
the time when if 1 had seen Buxton or Wilberforce, I
should have felt it my duty to have put a pistol-ball

the benefits which they had derived from the liberty se-
cured to them by British law. He remembered on one
occasion a group of negroes who were labouring by the
way side, coming round the vehicle in which he was
travelling, and inquiring who he was. On understand-
ing his name was Scoble, they were most delighted, and
rejoiced to see him, and expressed their gratitude in
their own way, for the efforts that had been made
for them by the people of England. To show that they
now felt their independence he would just mention
that it was a common saying in Trinidad,

when their masters were inclined to be severe, or

applied coarse epithets to them, which they ut-
tered in the creole French, " Baton, changez son but,"
the meaning of which was that the stick had changed
hands. The masters began to feel that now, and to know

that, they must attach the negroes to their persons, as
well as to their colonies, if they wished to derive any
benefit from emancipation. Many of the planters were
anxious to bring the negroes under a certain system of
laws ; but he knew that the vigilance of the people of
England would prevent that. It was not his intention
to go into detail with reference to the conduct of the
planters, since the Ist of August, 1838. He would
not speak of the persecutions which their Missionary
friends were at this moment enduring in Jamaica. He
would not speak of the conduct of Jamaica juries
and of Jamaica Judges.—( Hear, hear.) He would not
denounce the conduct of the planters in reference to the
tricks they had attempted to play on the emancipated
population with reference to the amount of their wages,
the made and time of paying, nor the cheating that had
been going on in the shape of mulcts and fines on the
negroes for not performing what they were pleased to
call a day's work, nor of making the negroes pay
higher rates. He would say nothing about eject-
ments ; but would reserve all that for another occa-

sion. Still, notwithstanding all that the negroes had
suffered from their masters since the Ist of August
1838, they were well worthy of the confidence of the
people of England, and had shown that it was because
they valued the good opinion of the people of England
that they had been so industrious, so ste, dy, and so
peaceable as they had proved themselves to be. Then,
again, with reference to schools, they were springing
up in all the colonies, and many of the planters,
though by no means friendly to education, found that
it was a link which would bind the negroes to their
plantations, and therefore they were desirous of having
schools. Many of the planters were assisting societies
in supplying different plantations with suitable teachers
for the negro population. The details on that subject
would be extremely interesting, but he was afraid there
was not time that evening to go through them.
Mr. Scoble then prOceeded.te-mention some interesting
facts in connection with the progress of education
throughout the colonies he had visited. In British
Guiana a very large numbers of negroes were
brought up under the instruction of the agents
of the London Missionary Society. He probably did
not estimate the number too high when he said that not
less than 20,000 negroes received instruction of some
sort from the agents of that Society. In connection with
their various stations they had schools, and a large num-
ber of children were in the habit of receiving daily in-

... .
struction through the agency of those worthy and excel
lent men. The desire for instruction was intense-amon

the negro population, aad with respect to religious in-
struction it was remarkable. The negro population of the
West Indian Colonies might be said to have but one hook,
and a desire for one book only—that book was the Bible.
The demand for Bibles in the West Indian Colonies

had increased greatly. When in the colony of Berbice
he (Mr. Scoble) was introduced to a negro named
" Ned.' Ned, during the period of slavery, had been
taught to read by a Scotch soldier, under very singular
circumstances. The soldier took a fancy to Ned, and
offered to teach him to read if he would engage to
teach others. The engagement having been entered
into, and Ned having been taught to read, he instructed
those with whom he was associated in one of Mr.
Blair's plantations on the west side of the Berbice
river. After a time Ned was found teaching his, fellow
slaves, for which he was flogged severely. He was dis-
covered a second time teaching, and a second time
received a flogging. A third time he was discovered,
and then arose the question, what was to be done with
him, for Ned was too valuable a man to kill. At length
it was determined to send him to the Cange ; but they
forgot that Ned took his learning with him—( Hear,
hear)—for as soon as he reached the estate to which he
was banished he commenced teaching.—(Hear, hear,
hear.) Having procured paper, pen, and ink,
Ned wrote to the friends he had left behind as
follows :—" I am going on very well on these plan-
tations—people are beginning to learn to read—hope
you are going en well, and will remember your promise"
(for Ned always brought those whom he taught to read
under the same engagement that he originally entered
into, namely, to teach others).—(Hear, hear.) His
epistle closed with these words, " Go on, and don't mind
a good' licking."—(Great laughter.) On the Ist of
August a considerable; number of copies of the Sacred
Scriptures were distributed among the negro population.
Many of the negroes put in their claims on the west side
of the Berbice river to the missionary station in con-
nexion with the mission station for bibles, and the
missionary thought that by ordering 100 copies he would
have an ample supply, but after a time he found there
were 1,000 more negroes than he had thought of, able to
read the Scriptures, and had therefore to give a very
large order that he might be able to meet the demand
made upon him. He attributed that in a great mea-
sure to the labours of Ned, and others brought under
the engagement to teach their fellow-slaves to read after
they had received that blessing themselves. Nothing
was more delightful than a Sabbath-day at one
of the mission stations in the West India colonies ; and
he had known many negroes to walk five, ten, and fif-
teen miles for the purpose of attending the early morn-
ing service, and it was most gratifying to witness their
order and regularity, and attention to the duties of the
Sabbath. He was happy to have that opportunity of
bearing testimony to the services rendered to the cause
of religion by thegreat majority of missionaries with whom
he had come in contact in the British colonies. They
were Iva' worthy of support, and he trusted that when
the claims of the colonies were fully understood, the
number of these devoted men would be increased ten-fold.
Many of the colonies could not boast of a missionary ;
other colonies were so miserably supplied with religious
teachers that they might he said to be in a state of des-
titution. For instance, in Barbadoes, it was
true the
Bishop resided there, and a considerable number of
churches were scattered throughout the island, but_ very_
little instruction was imparted to the negroes. Some of
the clergymen were eminent for their piety and
f
usefulness, but still there were very few, compa-
ratively speaking, of the population co-
lony, brought under the course of religious in-
struction. Again, as to Trinidad, the aof that
Roman Catho-
lies might be said to have that colony in their posses-
sion. Very few Protestants were to be found in it ;
and there was large room for missionaries in that
colony, as well as in Barbadoes. The colony most
richly supplied with Christian labourers, which be had
British Guiana. There were about Bor
visited,
agents"'aosf the London Missionary Society there, 10
they were labouring most diligently and assiduously.
There were also five Wesleyan ministers there
doing' a great amount of good, but even
in British Guiana there was abundant room
for more labourers. The small islands were left almost
destitute of religious instruction, but he trusted the
Christians of Great Britain would meet the call that
was being made on them for instruction with a liberal
spirit. He had intended to have gone rather more
into detail on some subjects connected with the points
to which he had adverted, but he felt that he had said
enough that evening to convince them that the idle