The Sun.
London, England, 1818-10-05 00:00:00

FCF.DERA AFRICANA.

[Nu. V 1

[Continued from our Paper of Wednesday.]

I must be as sparing of further extracts from
the work of 1807 as is consistent with the giving
a Lair view of its general effect ; for I hasten to
those new arguments that arise from subsequent
events.

After shelving how melt the national sin of
the Slave Trade had been aggravated by the ob-
duracy which Great Britain had, up to that pe-
riod, exhibited, by persisting in'and
,extending it
alter its cruel nature was fully known, and by re-
sisting long repeated efforts in Parliament for its
abolition, the antlinr again resorted to Scripture
for authority and precedents, to prove that these
were further characteristics of such provocations
as have been the revealed causes of Divine ven-
geance against offending nations; and then pro-
ceeded to strengthen his former inferences as
follows :

" Can it be denied then that we have In this great national
offence an adequate cause of the ii pleasure of Heaven, and
of the calamities which have fallen upon the country ? or cati
it he ,alleged that there is any cotemporary provocation that •
hears any proportion to the Slave Trade ? if other sins of the
saute heinous species could be justly charged upon us; if
the sorrowful sighing of the prisoner, the comphiint of the
poor oppressed, and the cry of innocent blood,' had gone up
against us from other regions titan Africa and the West
I tidies, still it ought to be shewn in those othercases, as in this,
that the crime WO been aggravated by equal obduracy, and
extended with equal perseverance, after Oil open exposure of
its guilt and solemn calls for reformation. lint, in these re-
spects, as well as in its magnitude and cruel effects, the Slave
Trade stands alone among our national offences' defying, like
Satan, in the foremost rank, the wrath of the Almighty."
" Could we suppose ourselves," he adds, " just arrived
fruits another Planet, impressed with our present itleas.of the
Divipe Government; but ignorant of the history of Europe
since the year 1787, and informed alone of the Parliainentary
discussions on the Slave Trade, and of those iniquities which
England has since committed against the African race, he
might naturally be disposed to inquire, ' Has 00 scourge from
Heaven yet appeared ? Have nO calamities, indicatory of the
Divine wrath, overtaken that guilty. land ?' Hot, should we
take up a history of the French Revolution, and of the fatal
wars that have ensued, and learn how strangely the prosperity.
the peace, and the security of England have been subverted
by them, what singular-evils we have endured ever since our
first refusal to abolish the Slave Trade, and by what still
greater evils we are at this moment threatened, it would he
impossible, I conceive, not to recognise, with wonder and
I with awe, the chastising hand of God. The only difficulty
would be, to comprehend how the living witnesses, butte of the
provocation and the punishment, could possibly be inohser-
vaut of the visible connexion between them."
" Never, to be sore, can phienomena more strikingly sup-
port any hypothesis of thiS kind, than the dates, the nature,
and the extent of our public calamities, the opinion that
they are Providential chastisements for the Slave Trade.—
A guilty, though highly favoured people, are called upon to
rendunce a criminal and cruel, hot long established practice,
as repugnant to the laws of God. They hear, deliberate,
and disobey ; while they still hesitate, a tremendous scourge
is weaving for them in a neighbouring land. The moment
they actually disobey, that scourge commences its in-
. filetions."
This idea Was nursued and extended by pointing
out the wonderful -uniformity by which all the
successive Parliamentary refusals to abolish the
Slave Trade had been speedily followed by those
new national disasters„: and mischiefi which the
author supposed, to be successive .visitations of
Povideuce for the renewed and aggravated of-
fence ; and which he compared to the successive
plagues of Egypt for the repeated refusals to let
the Israelites depart, in obedience to the Divine
command, Let my people go, that they may
serve sue." _

It seems impossible to read the work, and deny

that whether the Author's hypothesis eras
or nut, the progress of eve►it; had given it all
the plausibility- which could be derived from this
view of the subject. But the facts adduced be-
long chiefly to the peCuliar case of Eugland ;
and therefore shall be passed over without fur-
ther notice.

[le next adverted to the singular character of
the supposed chastisements, and of the callSe3
that produced them, and their cuirespondenee
in this respect with the supposed prOVoCall(ni.
" It is needless to point out the extiaordinary nature of the
second causes by which these calamities have ticen produced.
They have excited universal attoliishmeut. They bar' con-
founded the wisdom of the wise, and ate without a parallel in
the history of mankind. Even those who do not seriously
look up to the disposing power of an ail-wise and omnipotent
Ruler of the Earth, often speak of this case as if they did ;
liecause they have nu other !node of expressing their amaze-
ment at the strange progress of events. lint bow can a
devout mind possibly pass unnoticed the striking proportion
and • resemblance, as well as the singular coincidences in
lint of time, between these wonders and the sin of the
Slave Trade."
" I date the grand provocation, gh en by that crime, from
the public development of its nature and the o:ltirate
refusal to reform it. And when upon earth, since the de-
livery of the Israelites front E,zypt, was there an equal or a
similar case ?'' . .

" Ask now of the days that arc past which were before
thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and
ask from one side of Heaven unto the other, whether there
bath been any such thing as this great thing is, or bath been
heard like it ? Hath God assayed to take to himself a nation
out of the midst of another nation ? &c.'
" Let me with reverence imitate these awakening expostu-
lations, and ask Wit.; it ever before heard or known that God,
speaking by the voice of conscience and of his own revealed
laws, publicly called upon a great civilised and highly favour-
ed people to desist from spreading desolation and misery over
a large region of the globe, and from carrying iwto.horrible
bondage millions of has rational erratures,''' &c. &c.
It is wronging the argument to cite it thus com-
pendiously, because, as the Author observed, it
was an induction from many particulars ; and,
therefore, to omit any of them was to enervate
the influence of the rest. But, for • the sake of
necessary brevity, 1 shall here finish my ex-
tracts as to the case of England, and only add a
few that relate more directly to the conduct of
other Powers, and which contain facts little
known, and of the greatest importance in a gene-

ral view of the :subject.
The Author anticipated, as one probable objec-
tion to his hypothesis, that other nations had also
drunk of the phial of Divine wrath poured forth
upon Europe in the French Revolution ; and
some of them much deeper than England. His
answer to this, in substance, was, that some of
those other nations had partaken largely with
England in the sin of the slave Trade ; and, that
as to the rest, while he declined undertaking to
assign to each country its peculiar offences, he
might assume, that they had all given sufficient
provocation to merit their shares of the common
calamity. " Infinite wisdom," he observed," well
knows bow to punish many different offenders by
the same scourge, as through the same source of
evil."
lie did, however, venture to suggest one well-
known cause, which, in respect of three of the
great Powers of Europe, might be reasonably
supposed to have subjected them to the displea-
sure of God, the just and equal Judge of the
whole earth, and especially_ because it tbi3 Was