The Sun.
London, England, 1825-09-20 00:00:00

JAMAICA.

REPORT Of PROCEEDINGS at a MEETING convened to pro-
mote the ERECTION of ADDITIONAL PLACES of

Wonsurr in the ISLAND.
Pursuant to the requisition of his Honour the Mayor, a
Meeting was held on Wednesday, at the Court-house, King-
ston, for the purpose of raising a fund, by public subscription,
to be appropriated to the erection of one or more new places of
worship, under the government of the Episcopal Establish-
ment. At about eleven o'clock, the Hon. Joseph Barnes being
called to the Chair, the Bishop addressed the Meeting, which
was numerous and highly respectable. His Lordship spoke
at some considerable length. He stated that it had devolved to
him, in the discharge of the important'-duties which his Sove-
reign had entrusted to him, to institute inquiries into the mo-
ral and religious wants of the people of this extensive and im-
portant colony, and to propose measures of instruction com-
mensurate to their wants. Those inquiries had been partic-
larly directed to that part of the population, whose condition
had, of late, been an object of especial solicitude to the
Executive and the Legislature of England. • He alluded to
the slave population. It was with very considerable gratifi-
cation, said his Lordship, that he was enabled, at so early a
period of his ministry, as the Ecclesiastical Head of this Dio-
cese, to bear testimony to the circumstance, that since the abo-
lition of the slave trade, great intellectual changes had exhi-
bited themselves in the negro slave. Viewing this question in
its political aspect, he considered it one which should call forth
the attention of all classes of his fellow-citizens. It was entitled
to regard, no less from the commercial than from the Eccle-
siastical orders of the State. With the consciousness of this fact,
he made a confident appeal to their liberality on this occasion—
a liberality that was the more demanded from them, inasmuch as
the important changes in the social and moral state of the negro
were the result of those gradual measures which had, from time
to time, been adopted by them, as a-corresponding disposition
evinced itself on the part of the slave population, to render every
measure productive of its anticipated benefit. If he were re-
quired to state particularly in what respects the intellectual
change to which he alluded had manifested itself—he felt assured
that the experience of every one would yield a ready concur-
rence in his own conclusions—that it was remarkably demon-
strated in the decline, and, he hoped, rapid extinction, of the
popular superstitions of Africa. The horrid influence of that
ignorance, whose source diffused its poisonous stream froni their
African progenitors, was dying naturally ; and he doubted not
that a few years, aided by increased means of Christian instruc-
tion, would produce all those happy results which had been an-
ticipated by the people of England. He, however, felt himself
bound to declare publicly—(and to him it was a source of heart-
felt pleasure, to make this public acknowledgment of the sin-
cerity of those sentiments with which he had been received by
them on his first arrival to take upon himself the functions of his
office)— that all his inquiries had convinced him that the decrease
of crime—that the diminution of all the evils arising from a dis-
regard to the obligations of social life, and they were obligations
whose beneficial effects were seen in the rapid advances now
made in the civilized society of Europe—were to be ascribed to
those improved systems of management, and to that extended
protection, which, he was sure, had emanated from their uncon-
strained reflections on their own interest and their own security.

He felt fully assured, Ly his own short experience in the com-
munity, that they would cheerfully redeem the pledges of sup-
port which they had given him in their several addresses—that
they would concede the propriety of extending their munificence
to the claims which he made upon them for Christian instruction
to the negro—that they would fit him and prepare him for ex-
tending those opportunities of utility to himself and them—that
they would see that they did not render their own ameliorating
concessions abortive, by withholding themselves from assisting.
in drawing the slave into a respect for religion and a love of
good order ; effects which were perceptibly operating on the
negro's habits in his own voluntary relinquishment of the Sun-
day traffic, and his own desire to render the Sabbath a day of
rest and of Christian instruction. His Lordship here read a
communication from his Honour the i\layor of Kingston, rela-
tive to the fact of a change in the negro habits, being the growth
of time and of gradual amelioration; not forced by express le-
gislative enactment, but being the result of an increased reli-
gious feeling on the part of the negroes themselves. The ad-
vancement of the negro mind from barbarism to civilization,
said his Lordship, under the benign spirit of Christianity, had
ample testimony borne to it by several Ministers, well known
to the community he was then addressin:, the names of Mr.
Trew, Ur. Stainsby, and others of the island Clergy, in the
Report of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign
l'arts (a Report which his Lordship had only recently received
from England), had added weight to the conclusions formed by
his own experience. The testimony was so interesting and so
apposite to the purposes of the meeting, so calculated to stimu-
late their zeal, that his Lordship said he should request per-
mission to read an extract to the meeting, Ile then resumed.
Now, said his lordship, that I have (as a necessary part in
the exposition of an object in calling this Meeting) touched on
the subject of gradual amelioration, I ant' tempted to make my
unequivocal declaration, that it is the only means which expe-
rience holds out as an effectual remedy for the moral evils in
the condition of the slave. All violent measures, or rather

measures that have not received a corresponding enlargement
of reflection in the mind of the negro, will infallibly defeat the
beneficent object of a benevolent spirit. He alluded, he said,
to measures designed, if he might use the observation, to change
him, as it were, per saltens„ and not with a due regard to the
general unfolding of his moral perceptions. All human expe-
rience bears testimony to this momentous truth. He who
would scorn its precept is an injudicious friend of humanity.—
If we advert only, said the Reverend Prelate, to the growth of
the human body; with whose growth we perceive the intellectual
expansion of man ,to be intimately connected, we see it arriving
at maturity by the gradual and simultaneous extension of all its
functions, both mental and corporeal ; and such it was in the so-
cial habitude of man—we must teach him habits of utility, we
must instruct him in the advantages which those will bring
about, before we shall rouse his attention or redouble his exer-
tions to attain them. This must be the work of time. St. Paul,
in illustrating the gradual progress of religion in the soul, 're-
presents, by a similar figure, the newly admitted Christian as
receiving•the benefits of the doctrines of the holy faith, by
modified circumstances—the milk first, as most accord-
ant to the slow development of the economy of animated na-
ture, till we become fitted for the reception of substantial food,
by the robust action of the system. It is, however, with you,
said his Lordship, to accelerate or retard the operations of,
this law of our social as well as animal nature. He the de-
cl'ared his confidence in their liberality and benevolence,' and
concluded by assuring them that, feeling that the cause of
the laity from the claims of interest, was the same as that
of the clergy—that the propagation of the Gospel was the
best means of securing the integrity of the Colonial Empire
—and that Christianity, by ditrusing a conciliatory spirit,
was the extending of happiness to one and all—he sat doWn
under the conviction that as auxiliaries, they would, by the
resolutions of that day, be found powerful and unwearied, and
evince themselves the judicious friends of the human race.—
(Kingston Chronicle.)

TOASTS.—Some men would wish the world, to
think well of them, yet they cannot be merry without vice, nor
meet without endeavouring to corrupt each other as much as
possible. Many young and old think it a high piece of wit to
mvent toasts which modesty blushes to repeat; but, Wisdom
says, our own vices arc too much for us, with'out endeavouring
to corrupt the minds and morals of every one around us ; and,
therefore, whatever these fine gentlemen.may think ..of them-
selves, they ever were, and ever will be, the pests of society,
and contempt of wise men. Let them use the following toasts;
if they do not serve to mend their morals, they Will, at least,
mend their manners :-'--
1. May the King live long that seeks his people's love.
2. May liberty never make us licentious, nor restraint ever
make ns sad.
3. May we never seek more liberty than constitutes our hap.
piness, nor more feedom than tends to public good.
4. May we never desire plenty, but to relieve the unhappy
and succour the distressed.

5. May we be happy enough to. find friends, but.never SO
miserable as to put them to a severe trial.
"6. May we be more ready to correct our own faults . than to
publish the faults of others.
7. May we never be such slaves to custom as to take one step
inviee, for the fear of being unfashionable.
8. May we never rashly believe the reports we hear, not
hastily censure the man we hear not.
9. May we never be so far misled as to think a rich man wise
merely for his wealth.
10. May we never be so extravagant as to beggar ourselves
from being ashamed of poverty, nor so covetous as to live beg-
gars for fear of being poor.
11. May the better fortune of others never put us out of con-
ceit with our own.
12. May we never speak what' we are inamed to repeat, nor
do that which we may blush to hear repeated.
13. May we always be assured that happiness is a jewel not
to be purchased by all the Sovereigns in tl e world.
14. May envy like a bubble, burst, and n erit shine.
15. May every one's conduct be so uniform that he may not
be ashamed to take a retrospective view of it.
RICHARD T (JUNE it,
Blacking Manufacturer, 114, London Road, Southwark.

The building of the new Post Office advances
with great rapidity ; the entire arrangement of
the inter for offices is under the judicious direction
of Mr. FREELING and his son.

A AI ERIC A.

COURT-MARTIAL ON COAIMODORE PORTER.
NEW YORK, Auo. 22.,—The Court. Martial at Washington
have found Commodore Porter guilty of both the charges pre.
fCrred against him, and adjudged that he be suspended for the
term of six months. The sentence has been approved of by the
PRESIDENT of the United States.

The first charge against the Commodore was—"Disobe,
dience of Orders, and conduct unbecoMing an Officer," in hav-
ing while in command of the United States' naval forces in the
West Indies, on the 14th November, 1824, with. a part of the
said forces landed on the island of Porto Itico, in the dominions
of the King of Spain, then and still in amity with the United
States, and committed in a forcible and hostile manner'acts of
hostility against the subjects of the said King of Spain, in con-
-1 travention of the law of nations, and in violation of his instruc-
tions from the United States. '

In deciding upon this charge, the Court " feels itself called
upon to ascribe the conduct of the accused which is deemed
censurable, to an anxious disposition on his part to maintain
the honour, and advance the interests of the nation, and of the
-service."

The 2d charge was—" Insubordinate conduct, and conduct
unbecoming an officer."

(From the Boston'Centinel of August 27.)
The last National Journal contains an article signed by this
officer, in which he makes comments on the publications re-
cently made by Mr. Randall, late Special Agent to Cuba,
Mr. Coxe, the Judge Advocate, and to some editorial remarks
in the Journal, in which he refers to the proceeding of the.
Courts respecting him, an official record of which is now in the
press, for his vindication of the remarks of the two former, and
in allusion to the latter, he has this paragraph :—" I have only
to say, that I have been tried and, judged by my Peers, and I
how with deference to their decision. I have endeavoured
throughout my trials to defend my honour as become a man,
and 1 trust that 1 can bear my punishment without repining.—
No one has heard me murmur. at my sentence; and until they
do, no apology appears necessary for either the Court or the
prosecution. Ido not express a doubt that strict justice has
been dispensed...to me, and I know not what causes induce you
(the Editors) to believe that doubts rest on the minds of others,
as the article alluded to would seem to imply."
The Washington. Gazette says—Among the visitors at the
Court Martial on Wednesday, we observed the French Admi-
ral commanding the fleet lately arrived in Hampton Roads.