To The Editor Of The Time...
The Times, 1824-02-14T00:00:00

Sir,-Ally correspandenee witl the Rev. Thomas Cooper, as I have already declared to him, is closed. Rliv answers to the queries I addressed to him are, in several instances, direct and fair. Pacts, connected vwith the bistory of his mission to Jamaica, have thus been elicited, whicli are not,lo be gathered from his letters, nor from the pamphlet entitled " Negro Slavery ;" and, concerning the im- portance of these facts to a correct estimate of the value of MIr. Cooper's Report, the impartial public, if they have deigned to attend to our correspondence, will decide. I have informed iMir. Cooper that letters written by him to Mr. Vauglhan?,a planter of eminence and high character, to the contents of which I have access establish to umy conviction the fairness of the two follewing condlusions x- '-]st, That tbe assertion which he has sanctioned, that I he does not recollect to have seen a sinzle whi;e man in Jamaicawhoslhowed any serious concen about religion, txcepting some Missionaries,' cannot Gif his memory deserve any corfidence whatever) be s!rictlv true. : 2d, That his ' peculiar views of Gospel truth' ate unfortunately ill adapted to the purpose of convertCng to Christianity suchI a de- scription Of demoralized persons as, by his report, are tbe Negroes on the estate to which his mnission was directed.' The bearing of these inferences uoon the confidenoe due to M1r. Cooper's Report cannotbe questioned. Can we refy upon the candour an2 accuracy of a statement wh:ch contains a charge so sweepingk as that thus advanced against the white inbabita?ts of Jamaica, fa charge neither retracted nor qualified when presented by me to his reconsideration), if in the very limited number of .Mlr. Cooper'm acquaintances in Jamaica (af- ter excluding illssionaries) were to be found men like Mir. Oates and Mlr. Vaughan, whom I the rather poinf out, as with the latter (introduced to him for that very pirpose by the former) he was in fanliliar intercourse and correspondece upon the object of his reli. gious mission? Is it not reasonable to doubt, whether, through hasty zeal or defect of memory, Mr. Cooper may not, in other in- stances, less easy of detection, have jeen betrayed into misrepresen- tation ? The otber conclusion isindireet cootradictionof theconstantaimof fiucii nop wousu wiiriigiy maKc us be- ile;e that the ill successbof his mission has been caused entirely by the insurnountable obstacles opposed to him by the slave system of' Jamaica In proof of these conclusions, I offer to produce my vouchers (hiis owrn letters to AMr. Vaughan), which, however, f am unwilling to publish without his consent: and most unaffectedly I repeat, that although. these letters are, in my opinion, irresisuible evidence of the justness of my inferences, they are yet highly creditable to his zeal and to hts motives. MWark what is h:s repl nteCloiko the (irh instant:ply-in the Chronick of " You are at full liberty to send my two letters to The Tines or any other paper, as soon as you please, with the express understand- ing that r.Vaughan's are also to be published. if I see cause to request it. I had no idea, when, in your hrst letter. you so triumph- antly mentioned this correspondence, thit you had any design of publislhing a part without the whole." Sir, if l\r. Vaughan's letters exist, they are in Alr. Cooper's pos- session; and Mr. Vaughan, who is as Mr. Cooper well knows, in Jamaica, would probably tell us, tiar of his letters to MIr. Cooper he retained no copies. I undertake for 1r. Vaughan, that lUr. Cooper may, whenever he pleases, aublish any letters which Dlr. Vaughan has written to hip-i: they would, I doubt not, confirm the inference I have drawn from his or n. Again, then, I ask, wil Alr. Cooper request the publication of hfis own lettera, that he may have an opportunity of controverting my construction of then ; or is he centent that my unferences shall be tken for granted ? H7ere I would condude; for I will notaengage in a controversy with Mr. Cooper upon the vast subject of negro slavery, of which there would be no end, were I required to detect and expose the fallacy of all his new hearsay stories and stale misrepresentations; butt his last letter demuands frori me a few explanations which I shall strictly confine to the points peculiar to our correttpondence. Air. Cooper did communicate to my relative his design of appear- ing in pnnt, and Air. RI Hibbert, who supposed that he was about to relate tlih simple history of the labours ot his mission, was not a little surprised when, receiving from him the pamnphlet on Negro Slavery, he found that Air. Coper had committed himself to the hands axti projects of others, and sanctioned judgments upon matters out of the reach of his abilities, habits, and opportunitiec of obser- vation. His writings would at no time have becn publicly noticed by AIr. R. libbrt, nor inleed by me, out of any personal consi- deradon for my relative; but if I, who do not recollect that I ever conversed with M1r. Cooper, saw reawsn to aninmadvert upon his chazges againist the inhabitants of Jamiaica, I was at liberty, it will perrhaps be granted, to choose my own time for so doing. Iam assured by Alr. R. IHibbert, that Mr. Cooper's conversa- tions at East Ifi(le amounted to a declaration that his mission had been a " total fidlure ;" and indeed, in one of his letters to ir. Vauglian, written only two months before his departure from Ja- maica, he used thesecwords--" the failure of nry vindertaking." Mr. Cooper will find that I have disclaimedl all interference with his religious opinions, excepting so far as a reference to them might serve to correct his own Report of the causes of hig iU success among the Negroes. He has, by that Repurt, stanmped an iuport- ance upon the nature of those opinions, and he must not complain if I seek to show the influence they were calculated to have upon the result of his labours. Alr. R. Ifibbert knew that he was an nitawrian, but there axe cert.ain tenets Wwhich hIave ino counexion wihh Unitarian principles, and wVhich arc, as 1 can prove, entertained by Air. Cooper, with which iMr. R. Hibbert was unacquainted, and they are such as, in his opinion, rendered itlr. Cooper untit for pro- duelne any .XRf effeetln~on rh,. ,,o,,,lt,vRtp ,nlindl, r,f NAf GEORGE HIBBERT- Portlanilplace, Feb. 12, 124. TO THE EDITORl OF TIjE TIiTBS.