The Sun.
London, England, 1826-10-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT a THE PUBLIC JOrRNAL4.

We have received the copy of an ordinance for im-
proving the condition of the slaves at the Cape of Good
Hope, issued by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council
of that Colony on the 19th of June last, and decreed
to take effect from the Ist of August. Consisting of
50 articles, it is longer than the Portuguese or French
Constitutional Charters, and embraces nearly the same
regulations as the Order in Council transmitted to
Trinidad and the other West India islands without
colonial assemblies. It is well known that the colony
of the Cape is subject to Dutch law—that it has no pre-
tence to a local legislature, consisting of planters, in-
terposed between the Crown and the servile population,
and that theretbre an ordinance of the King in Coun-
cil has immediately on its promulgation all the force
of a statute. It is also pretty generally known, that
the Dutch, who enjoy and exercise a mild Govern-
ment at home, have generally been remarkable for
their harsh and oppressive conduct abroad—thst the
indulgent master in Europe is transformed into a little
despot in passing the Line, and that more cruel and
unfeeling treatment has been inflicted on the slave
population in their colonies than in those of countries
where civil freedom was unknown. This code of in-
dulgence and amelioration was therefore as neces-
sary at the Cape of Good Hope as in the West In-
dies, though the circumstances of the countries are
very different, and field labour neither so geeeral nor
severe. The chief points embraced in the ordinance
of the Cape Government may be enumerated in a
few words. As in the other slave colonies, the work
of amelioration begins with the appointment of a
guardian of slaves, who, at the Cape of Good Hope, is
to unite the functions of the inspector of the slave re-
gistry with those of the new office. The two appoint-
ments do not appear to be incompatible, as in fact the
registrar, without being formally nominated guardian,
has hitherto, to a certain extent, acted in that capa-
city ; but as neither ought to be a sinecure, and each
is connected with important duties, the sooner they are
disunited the better. It would be needless to de-
fine the powers or to enlarge on the responsibili-
ties of an office which is almost sufficiently ex-
plained by its name. The second important point in
the ordinance before us relates to the observation of
Sunday. Sunday markets are prohibited ; the slaves
are protected against the exaction of labour on that
day, and masters are prohibited, under penalties, from
restraining their slaves from going to church. We
observe, however, in this ordinance no provision for
securing to the slaves a portion of any other day for
making their markets and cultivating their gardens—
a provision which is contained in the, Order in Council
for Trinidad. The third regulation of importance
restricts slave labour ii, the fields, or gardens, to ten
hours for one portion of the year, and twelve hours
the other. We may mention as the fourth, the article
which limits the infliction of corporal punishment to
twenty-five stripes for male slaves, and abolishes pub.
lic flogging entirely as respects females. We mention
public flogging, because a species of domestic -chat.
tisement by " whipping privately on the shoulders" is
still very carefully retained. The Governor-in Coun-
cil, however, would make this punishment to,be a very
delicate affair ; for the offending female is only to be
flogged " to such moderate extent as any child of free
condition, may be, and usually is punished and cor-
rected, in any school for the education of youth in
this colony." We cannot say, how young boys and girls
are corrected at the Cape of Good Hope, but we are
afraid that the slave system must have made terrible
inroads on the schools, as well as on the domestic
economy of the planters, if a flogging which would
affect an offending slave is applied to the back of a
child. By another article, the testimony of a slave, is
to be received In aid or in explanation of the evidence
of his stripes, if he complains of hard treatment,
and may be admitted ill civil cases except when
his master is one of the parties. A provision is
made for allowing the solemnization of marriages be.
tween slaves belonging to the same or different mas-
ters. If the masters give their consent, no person
can, of course, forbid the banns ; and if they refuse, the
guardian may overrule their objections, or dispense
with their authority. The children of such marriages
belong to the owner of the mother. It is provided in
another clause, that children between three and ten
must be sent to the free schools. The article which
relates to manumission, is, of course, of great import-
ance ; but differs little in this ordinance from that
which appears in the Trinidad order in council. As a
savings' bank is already established in the colony, pro-
vision is ordered to be made, to give the fullest effect
to its regulations in favour of slaves, who may make it
a deposit for their earnings. They are to receive 4
per cent. on every sum above 255., and, in contem.
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of an ordinance for improving the condition ofluothisill
slaves at the Cape—an ordinance which would never
have been issued, had not the zealous friends of the
oppressed Africans, supported by the voice of the
country, forced upon the Government the adoption of
those measures of justice and humanity to which the
West India colonists are now making such clamorous,
but, we trust, ineffectual resistance.—Tintes.

niatle'rihe cugojid
justice
of the
,et
at the
the presentivianioni.ord House,iNaliyiao i
sr,
gleinaedralleniy.
been entitled to praise. The steadiness of his temper
and urbanity of his manners form an agrecaliile contrast
to those of many of our civic and police Magistrates,
while his observations are usually marked by moral
feeling and practical good sense. But when a man has
obtained an authority for his opinions by the reputa-
tion of a sound understanding, there is a correspond-
ing necessity for guarding against the consequences of
any erroneous principle that he may
occasionally ad-
vocate. In our Mansion House R f
Report 4:lTuesday,
an account was given of a little boy being charged
with picking a gentleman's pocket of a silk handker-
chief. The robbery was proved ; and, indeed, the
ntainour was found upon lam. He
prayed to be for-
given, as it was his tiro offence, and stated that lie had
neither father, mother,_ nor home, and at night slept in
the brickti elds and such-like places. This is a picture
of youth,
loneliness,
and
notappdestitution,ear
t
thatiat isge boy'serfeetl
heart-rending.
statement was disproved, or that he was known as an
justice. It was not
shown tha
lied offenders—or that any inducement but the
stings of hunger and immediate want, with a total ab-
all human and moral protection, bad caused
to any
to anyrs of
bar&
gang of young but
Isioeiflitn oetidof r
f violatealybl the aice
the laws. Under these circumstances,
we do not think the remarks of the Lord Mayor were
distinguished for that just reasoning and sound sen.

timent, which, in general, characterise his magi-
sterial opinions. He said, it appeared. harsh to
proseeute such a child, but really it was a charity to
do so ; he was- certain there were some thout:and
of those little delinquents in London, whom it
would be mercy to them to transport, and it would
materially tend to the safety of the public." What?
transport a child of eleven years of age, who was driven
by the extreme of misery to steal a handkerchief; and
that his first offence ! Is this the way to produce
penitence and reformation ? Would the transferring
such a boy limn the brick-fields, where he existed in
a state of nature, to the interior of a convict ship, he
likely to awaken in him a moral sense, or create in
him a capacity of improvement ? And then, bow
would such an application of the Criminal Code tend
to the public security ? Let boys of eleven be trans-
ported l'or seven or fourteen years, an 1 they will return
at eighteen or twenty-five years of age, in the vigour
of' youth and the maturity of vice, to practice with
more dangerous hardihood the criminal acts which the
most depraved association and a sense of total self-
abasement will not fail to have confirmed. Here was
ease rather for one of those numerous religious and
charitable societies that undertake to apply the funds
affbVded by the benevolent to the relief and improve-
merit 01 those who are surrounded by the perils of
want and temptation. There is no country, and per-
haps never was a country, in which so much of private
wealth was appropriated to charitable purposes as in
England, and yet no country-affords the sad spectacle
of so many juvenile offenders whom ignorance anti
hunger familiarize with crime. It would be well if a
large portion of the funds that are employed on spe'
culative plans of benevolence were applied to the relief
and improvement of those destitute children who, like
the young culprit at the Mansion-house, live in brick-
fields and such places, as desolate in the midst of this
crowded metropolis as if no tie ever existed between
them and human kind. If the mode of preventing
crimes were better understood among us, there would
be a less indiscriminate and revolting use of cruel or
sanguinary punishments.—Morning Herald.
The information which we have received from al-
most every quarter of Great Britain and Ireland has
enabled us to make up the following impartial state-
mem of the results of the harvest in the United -King-
dom. Time particulars must be peculiarly interesting
sat the present moment. The Wheat crop, being less
liable to injury from drought than most other species
of produce, has suffered less, undoubtedly, in all
parts, than the other descriptions of grain. In some
particular counties the crop of Wheat may be consi-
dered a full. average, but in many quarters it can
scarcely be estimated at more than a very moderate
average, having been forced by the heat into a prema-
ture ripenesS, which diminished its quantity as much
as it added to the excellence of its quality and condition.
—Though Barley is said in some districts to be a good
crop, we cannot assert upon time whole, judging
front the cOncurrent testimonies received from most
of the counties, that the crop exceeds two-thirds
of the usual average, but the quality has every ap-
zarance of proving excellent. As to
.the crop of
Oats, the accounts, we are sorry to say, are of a
very different nature. This species of produce has
everywhere sustained the Most severe injury from
the weather. The straw was often so short that
it was found extremely difficult in many cases to
• reap them. ' Even according to the most favourable
accounts, it is impossible to Suppose that the crop in
Great Britain exceeds half the average.- The South
-of 'reland is the only district in which this crop has'
been in any degree .productive, and time exportation
from that quarter is expected to equal that of last year.
The quality of the Oats is in general good ; but the
ear has not been so heavy as usual. The prospect in,
the case of Beans and Peas is not lesS discouraging.
The crop of these is every where considered extremely
deficient. In sonic counties they will not pay the ex-
penses of cultivation, the crops having been entirely
ruined.. 'Potatoes, in the early part of the season,
were deficient in quantity, and inferior in quality ; but
the rains latterly have produced a beneficial
,effect, and
the general results in this article will probably in some
degree falsify our gloomy rantieipations. Two of the
articles on which the price of butehers' meat must
always in a great measure depend (bay and turnips)
are both very deficient crops. Flay will scarcely reach
half its usual average in point of quantity. Though
in good condition, the want of moisture, and its pre-
' Mature ripeness, have tended considerably to deterio-
rate its quality. This circumstance may at first induce
finners to sell their cattle at a lower rate, especially in
winter; but it would certainly tend in time end, if not
counteracted, to increase the present prices of butchers'
meat. Besides all these unfavourable circumstances,
we learn that the stock of foreign grain on hand is
small, and that the importation from Ireland had been
Considerably less than usual.—Brilish Press.

LONGEVITY.It has been a custom with Mr.
Thomas Perks, ofthe Lye Waste, for the last ?0 years,
to invite every year all the poor widows
.of the neigh-
bourhood, who are upwards of 60 years of age, to a
feast. At the last, which took place, on Thursday,
the sth inst., there were twelve widows present, whose
ages amounted to nue thousand years.—Pottery
Mercury.

MONi EXTRAORDINARY FACT.--A piece or
iron two inches and three quarters long, and two
ounces and a half in weight, (the breech of a musket
that, burst h) discharging it) was lately extracted 44,
our Infirmary, from the eye of a poor man, named
Robert Peters, a small farmer residing at Leeswood
near Mold, in Flintahire, after having endured the
met exeruciatirg pain for a period offonr years and
ten ynaritles, during tehich time it remained in his
load .!—Chester Paper.
CHAR" °V MunnErt An inquest was held on
Alonday morning, at the I.o:—btpublic-house, in Toad-
lane, Manchester, ca theani,
Alice Attlebury,
otherwise Greenhaingtioi,nal.twigo,n
_trit,t(clyol;)tflte town, who died
early on Saturday
been most brutally bv°Zequence d having
The inquest was adjourned to Thurnalden in the street.
ay next. Th.
prisoners in the mean time remain in
chafer Paper.
In.addition to the various means designed to incul-
cato religious knowledge, a
gentleman of Maltatotlinlutaas
invented a Travelling i
pulpit, and at the, lad
visitation of the clergy there, applied to have it
licensed ; but as no idea of such a vehicle had ever
entered the contemplation of any of our legivlutors,
spiritual or temporal, the applicant was refused.—The
discoverer of the travelling pulpit, however, by another
slight exertion of his intellect, discovered also that it
would travel as well without a licence as with one, and
it now sets on' regularly every Sunday morning at six
delock, from the house of the inventor, with a number
of preachers, who hold. forth in turns to numerous
congregations at the villages they visit ; a dozen villages
are thus supplied on lin same day by one pulpit. This
is religious econotuye-.Brighton Gazette.