Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-07-02
From tie LondOn Times.
Colonial Slavery.

The French Cabinet sustained another
check in the chamber of Deputies on Mon
day. The debate on colonial Slavery did
not admit of the process of suflocation which
the Ministry endeavored TO apply TO it. The
shocking disclosures made in the speeches
Of Nj Nj. de Lasteyrie and Ledru-Rollin, lit
orally spread horror through the Assembly,
and at length made the Ministry feel that the
only safe course was to yield TO the result of
the unanimous burst of Indignation to which
the Chamber gave utterance. 1t will be re-
collected that the debate took place upon Pc
titions against colonial Slavery, bearing H.
600 signatures. 1t was proposed by the OPP
position to refer these petitions TO the con-
sideration of the President of the Council
and the colonial Minister, who insisted on
passing 10 the order of the day. Towards
the close of the debate, however, the ~revela-
tions made by the advocates of the petition
ers, produced an explosion of feeling, and
M. Guizot himself exclaimed from his seat
that they would no longer oppose the propo-
sition. At the suggestion OF NJ. Dupin, the
petitions were referred also to the Minister of
Justice, which was intended as a rebuke to
the insufliciency of the colonial Minister
The desire Of the French nation 10 accom-
plish the abolition of Slavery led 10 the
duUlllOn u d Ia" III jury lptO, lh'tliutu 40
the lorerunner of that object. This project
provided for the establishment of free work
shops, the granting one day a week to the
| slaves, to enable them, by their industry, to
purchase their freedom, the limitation of the
hours of labor, the encouragement of mar
rage, and the promotion of education. The
instruments by which these %sevcra! provi-
sions were to receive effect, were the colo
NAL magislracy and the slave-owners them
selves, who also constituted the majority Of
the former body. The practical effect has
been that the law has become a dead letter,
all its provisions being utterly a%boriive, and
the condition of the slaves, physical and
moral being worse than ever. There Is, in
fact, no ad administration Of justice where Il
remedy is sought by a slave against his pro-
p%rietor. The tribunals are composed OF a
majority of slave-owners, and if there be a
few individuals in the minority disposed to
administer Justice, they are overruled by pub
lie opinion in the colony. To such a scan
dalous pitch has the fragrant defiance of ev-
cry principle of justice in the conduct of
these tribunals been carried, that in some in
stances, where they have pronounced an ac-
%quittal, or a nominal punishment against de-
l|inquent proprietors, the atrociIy Of the Grim
inal has been so great, that the colonial Co
vernon has felt compelled to exercise a dis
cretion with which he is invested, by eXiling
the offender from the colony. We know not
in what terms to impart TO the English pub
lie an adequate notion Of the crimes perpo-
trated by masters against slaves disclosed in
this debate, crimes which we believe have
no designation in the vocabulary of cTimina.
Jurisprudence. We can only select one OF
two of the many instances given by Nj. LIE
dru-Rollin, and NJ. dc l.asteyrie.
We have already mentioned that the muir
der of a slave by "A master is visited by the
tribunals with the nominal punishment OF Z
few DAYS Imprisonment. But murder is the
most venial of this catalogue of inquiries
An AGED mother is tied naked by the fou
limbs, and her son is compelled to hold he
while the whip is applied 10 the naked bac'
of the woman, until her offspring is covere
with the blood which spouts from her.
A female, five months gone with child,
bound upon a ladder by the four limbs, IA bl
+ let of wood being stuffed between her bosoi
and the ladder, to render her back convex
The lash is then applied, until premature d
livery is produced under the operation OF Il
torture. The blows inflicted upon her he.
have broken out her teeth, destroyed one
F., her eyes, and deprived her of hearing; a
! :. the man." exclaimed NJ. Ledm-Rolli
Il ''who thus proved himself more cruel tn
,he eXeculloneT, and more meXoIable IN