The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-26 00:00:00

SLAVERY AND BLASPHEMY.

The American papers bring us no news so interesting
as that which we have received from our private corre-
spondent. We find several communications exhibiting the
heart-rending sorrows of the internal slave-trade, but, at this
late hour, we cannot make room for them. 'We must work
them up into an article for our next. No pressure of matter,
however, can induce us to delay the insertion of what we
cannot but deem the most atrocious and revolting document
we ever met with. It is the sentence ofdeath passed by Judge
O'Neall, at New Orleans, on a man named Brown, for aiding
a slave to escape I crown is actually to be executed in April.
The address of the judge to him presents the most revolting
combination of cold-blooded cruelty with an affectation
of piety which ever came to our knowledge. This judicial
outrage must reduce the state of Louisiana to the lowest
pitch of public infamy. Hitherto, in all civilised states, the
punishment of death has been annexed only to acts having at
least some measure of criminality; it is annexed now to the
fulfilling of a sacred duty, both to God and man. Hitherto,
even in the United States, we have been accustomed to see
the friends of the slave only mobbed and murdered by vio-
lence, like the martyred Lovejoy; but at length they are to
be murdered by law, and slaughtered with the coolness and
pomp of a legal execution. What a fearful element of society
must the institution of slavery be, if its maintenance requires
that assisting an escape from it shall be made punishable
with death ! Or what can arrive but a universal combination
of the human race for its overthrow, when the blood of the
free and the just is thus to be poured out, in order to slake its
diabolical thirst for revenge !
The following is the murderous and revolting sentence
of " the Honourable (1) J. B. O'Neall," as quoted by the
Liberator from a New Orleans paper :
" John L. Brown,—lt is my duty to announce to you the
consequences of the conviction which you heard at Winns-
boro', and of the opinion you have just heard read refusing
your two-fold motion in arrest of judgment for a new dial.
You are to die I—die a shameful, ignominious death, the death
upon the gallows. This annunciation is to you, I know,
most appalling. Little did you dream of it, when you stepped
into the bar, with an air as if you thought it was a rine
frolic. But the consequences of crime are just such as you
are realising: punishment often comes when it is least ex-
pected. Let me entreat you to take the present opportunity
to commence the work of reformation. Time will be
afforded to you to prepare for the great change, which may
he just before you. Of your past life I know nothing, except
that which your trial furnished. It told me that the crime
for which you are now to suffer, was the consequence of a
want of attention on your part to the duties of life. The
strange woman' snared you—she ' flattered with her words,'
and you became her victim. The consequence was, that, led
on by a desire to serve her, you committed the offence of aid-
ing a slave to run away, and depart from her master's ser-
vice ; and you are now to die for it You are a young man,
and I fear have been an idle as well as a dissolute one. If
so, these kindred vices have contributed a full measure to
your ruin. Reflect upon your past life, and make the
only useful devotion of the remnant of your days in pre-
paring for death. ` Remember now thy Creator in the
days of thy youth,' is the language of inspired wisdom.
This comes home appropriately to you at this trying moment.
You are young, quite too yaung, to be where you are, and, if
you had remembered your Creator in your past days, you
would not now be in the felon's place to receive a felon's
judgment. Still, it is not too late to remember your Creator ;
he calls early, and he calls late ; he stretches out the arms of
a father's love to you, to the vilest sinner, and says, Come
unto me, and be saved. You can perhaps read; if you can,
read the Scriptures ; read them without note, and without
comment, and pray to God for assistance, and you will be
able •to say, when you pass from prison to execution,
as a poor slave said, under similar circumstances, I
am glad my Friday has at last come.' If you cannot
read the Scriptures, the ministers of our holy religion will
be ready to aid you ; they will read and explain to you,
until you will be able to understand, and, understanding, to
call upon the only One who can help and save you, Jesus
Christ, ,'the Lamb of God, who takcth away the sin of the
world.' • To Him I commend you ; and through Him may
you have
high, which that opening of the day-spring of mercy from on
ich shall bless you here, and crown you in an ever-
lasting world as a saint for. ever and ever. • The sentence of
the law is, that you be taken hence to the place from whence
you last came, thence to the gaol of Fairfield District, and
that there you bq.closely and securely confined until Friday,
the 26th day of April next, on which day, between the hours
of ten in the forenoon and two in the afternoon, you will be
taken to the place of public execution, and there be hanged
by the neck till your body be dead ; and may God have
mercy on your soul."—Anti-Slavery Reporter, Feb. 22, 1844,

DRAINING the-HAARLE-IVI LAKE.
The determined industry, the phlegmatic persever-
ance, of the inhabitants of the United States of Holland
have been exhibited to Europe by the laborious under-
takings which, on every side of Reiland, present them-
selves. Nearly a seventh part of this land has been
rescued from the sea; and wherever the traveller is
placed ho recognizes the marvellous barriers that have
been formed to prevent its encroachments: ho sees an
artificial coast, formed from the granite rocks of
Norway, dykes, buttresses, constructed with a solidity
which seems to promise to resist even time
itself. Amongst the objects which have long oc-
cupied the attention of the Hollander has been
the drainage of the lake of Haarlem, and the conversion
of its bed into cultivated land; various projects have, at
various times, been conceived, have been discussed, and,
from various reasons, abandoned. A plan, which was
considered feasible, was laid before the States-General
in April, 1838, and great hopes were entertained that
the idea which was suggested was one.which might easily
be carried into execution. After, however, due and careful
deliberation it was abandoned, in consequence of the re•
jection of a Bill brought before the second Chamber.
At length the Government has undertaken the great
work, and every prospect is entertained of the successful
issue of the enterprise. A vote has been obtained from
the Chamber of 4,533,333 dollars, but this sum will bo by
n• means adequate to the expenditure that must neces-
sarily be made. It has been ascertained by calcula-
tions, founded upon the profit obtained by other
drainages in Holland, that so large an interest will be
returned that a loan of much greater extent may very
safely be advanced. The lake of Haarlem is calculated
to be about fourteen English miles in its greatest length,
and as many in breadth. About 70,000 acres are covered
by it, and it has been asserted that every year nearly
250 acres are encroached upon. The depth of the water
has been variously estimated, but it is supposed to be,
upon an average, twelve feet and three quarters, and the
mass about thirteen and three quarter millions of cubic
reeds of water. The manner in which it has been de-
cided to carry out the drainage is as follows
A channel is to be formed, one hundred and forty-
three feet and a half in width, supported on each side
by an enormous dyke; into this is to be poured, by
means of six steam engines, each of two hundred horse
power, the whole of the water contained in the Haar-
lem Meer, and three sluices are to conduct it into
the German and the Zuyder sea. It is expected that
this undertaking, commenced in May, 1840, will be
completed in the course of the present year. It is un-
derstood that it will be requisite that every spring, the
action either of steam engines or water mills, should be
called into action, to preserve the rescued land from
fresh inundation. Of what Holland is capable an
idea may be formed from the recollection that large
tracts of land are below the level of the sea, and that
not only the safety, brit absolutely the existence of
the country is dependent upon the dykes, which have
been at various times raised up. Near the great dyke
of the folder is the Beemster Polder, a tract of land of
upwards of 8,000 acres over which water rolled uninter-
ruptedly, and where now there exists a healthy, indus-
trious populutiou of 3,000 souls.--Polytechnic Review.