The reviewer reviewed; : or some cursory observations upon an article in the Christian Observer for Jan. 1816 respecting the slave registry bill ; in a letter to a member of parliament, by Thomas Venables

THE

EEVIEWER REVIEWED.

' [tS'lS^^bH /'?c.'^

Printed by J. Darling, 31, Leadenhall-Street.

THE

REVIEWER REVIEWED;

on
SOME CURSORY OBSERVATIONS

UPON

^.V ARTICLE IN THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER

FOR JANUARY I8I6,
nESPECTING

A LETTER TO A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT,

THOMAS VENABLES.

What compensatioa can be found for the absence of impartiality and
candour? Christian Observer, Jan. 1810, p. 57.

PRINTED FOR J. M. RTCIIAUDSON, COIINHILI,, OPPOSITE THE
ROYAI. EXCHANGE, AIJJD J. RIDGEWAY, PICCADILLY.

1816.

Digitized by tlie Internet Arcliive

in 2011 witli funding from

Associates of tlie Boston Public Library / The Boston Foundation

http://www.archive.org/details/reviewerreviewedOOvena

THE

REVIEWER REVIEWED.

•' In all discussions which rehite to the condition of our slave colonies, this
" inconvenience is very sensibly felt ; men reason respecting them upon
*' analogies which have no foundation in truth, and therefore give an

** easy credit to assertion* tli^ most fallacious." Chriiiiun Observer,

Jan. 181G, p. 3g.

My DEAR SIR,

IN the conversations we haye had
together on the subject of the Slave Registry
Bill, I have ventured to assert, that the advo-
cates for the bill have created a monster of the
imagination, and have di-essed it in every shape
of horror, that they may the more easily recon-
cile the public and the legislature to measures
which they recommend as necessary for the de-
struction of this chimera, but v/hich have in

tmth

6

truth other ultimate objects, the nature and
extent of which they do not expressly develope i
a contraband slave trade, prevailing in our colo-
nies under the circumstances which their in-
vention has painted, would be, as they truly
tell us, an evil of greater magnitude than that
regulated trade which vv^e have abolished. Anx-
ious as they are to find a firm ground for the
first step in their projected career, and failing
lamentably in matter of fact, they resort to al-*
legations and inferences, the ftillacious and illi-
beral nature of which is somewhat disguised by
the garb of humanity with which they are
clothed, and by the close connexion tliey affect
with popular feelings. " If we cannot prove
"^ the existence of illicit importation of slaves
''' into the colonies,'' say these casuists, " yet
" that practice is at least possible ; while pos-
•'* sihle, it will he contemplated hy the colonists ;
'- and so long as it is contemplated, the planters
•' will maltreat and destroy their slavesT And
this, they contend, although facts may fail
them, is ground sufficient for their biU. In
various productions of the press have tliese

propositions

7

propositions been maintained, but in none
with more boldness and virulence tlian in an
article in the Christian Observer for January,
which, amidst a long succession of observations,
unfounded and most illiberal, has stumbled upon
one or two just remar!:s, which I have selected
and prefixed to this letter.

The article in question professes to review a
pamphlet, which common fame attributes to
Mr. Stephen, entitled, " Reasons for establish-
" ing a Registry of Slaves in the British Co-
" lonies, &e. &c. 1815;" and although the Re-
viewer is not sparing of eulogy to the author
whom he pretends to analyse, yet (to prove
himself a zealous disciple of the school to which
he belongs) he does not content himself with
mere approbation, but with the bitter animosity
of one that has been sorely wounded in the con-
test, he adds his own large contribution of in-
jurious misrepresentation, and in casuistry and
in calumny leaves even his master at a distance
behind him.

■ Both these w]'iters appear to be av/are that a
penal law, so important in all its bearings as

that

that which they recommend, can hardly be jiiS*
tified to Parhamcnt, except by the certified
existence of some prevailing evil, against which
it may provide a wholesome remedy; they pre-^
tend, therefore, that they possess a body of evi-
dence of facts, of wliich, however, they equally
betray their diffidence, by the superior import-
ance which they endeavour to annex to what
they call their presinnptive evidence.

The ihaster, in the arrangement of his forces,
decently gives the precedence to that little
strength of direct testimony which he boasts of
possessing, and he brings up his presumptions
and inferences in the second line ; but the dis-
ciple, aware of the poverty of this display, re-
verses the order of battle, and places in the front
his specious array of presumptive evidence. He
asks his readers " on which side does the pre-
sumption of truth lie? Is it, or is it not, rea^
sonable to believe? Is it at all improbable?
and subsequently (for " vires acquirit eundoj')
Does it require much evidence to prove ? He
winds up tliis part of his argument by an inti-
xnation, that from all these premises, he is en-
titled

9

titled to infer, that in order to justify the for-*
midable measure he Teeommends, it is not ne^
cessary to establish the fact of illicit importa-
tion*, '

Now, my dear Sir, I positively object to thiij
manoeuvre of the Reviewer, as contrary to all
the estabUshed laws of logic, equity, and fair
dealing. If the fact of colonial participation,
and under circumstances warranting a presump-
tion of general reliance upon illicit trade, " as a,
potential resource,'' cannot be established, all
this presumptive evidence of the pamphleteer,
and of his Reviewer, so far from tending to
prove the guilty furnishes strong indications of
the innocence of the accused colonists. We
shall be compelled to acknowledge, that while
the planters have remained faithfully obedient
to the law of aboHtion, and subjected to its in-
evitable effects, they have had the merit of re-
sisting the temptation, and opportunity for
doing otherwise.

And this consequence will implicitly be ad-
mitted

* Christian Observer, p. 40 and preceding.

10

Hiitted in eases where we are able not merely to
repel the charge, but to establish, by direct evi-
dence, tiie contrary fact. If Jamaica, for in-
stance, can shev/ to our satisfaction, that it has
jaot, in a single instance duiing the last eight
years, been contaminated hj the alleged guilt,
having, mean time, had its temptations and fa^
cilities in common v/ith all the other islands, we
must fairly acknowledge, that to one-half our
colonial territory the calumnious imputations of
the Keviewer and of his author do not in the
smallest degree attach.

What, think you, v/ould be the general feel-
ing, if an individual were put upon his trial, by
a course of proceeding like that of the Reviev/er?
This " man is charged v/ith fs^lonious practices;
" we cannot prove the fact, but we can shew
*' you that he is poo?' ; . that he uses, and some-
" times wants, the articles v/hieh he is accus-
" ed of stealing; that such articles have been
" lying conveniently in his w^ay ; and that the
" chances of detection were in his favour." Such
a process, you are well aware, could not be
heard before any English tribunal.

Nor

11

Kor indeed (to do the accusing party justice)
<lo they rest their presumptive evidence here*
for they endeavour to persuade us that the ac-
cused is, in this case, destitute of every prin-
ciple which could controul his criminal propen-
sities; the terror of the law, or the compunc-
tions of conscience, are by him equally unfelt.
And these injurious inferences are supported
upon the grounds, that planting in the West
Indies is an uncertain speculative adventure;
that before the abolition of the slave trade, the
planters purchased, and that they do yet possess
slaves ; and that, during the period when the
African slave trade was pronounced by the law
of Great Britain to be " necessary" for the cul-
tivation of their properties, they opposed, on
various pleas, its abolition.

Agriculture, it seems, in Britain, affords a
Steady, unvarying profit ; but in the colonies it
is a lottery. The West India planter is a game-
ster, a character reprobated by every code, how-
ever lax, of morals. But the West Indian is
not merely a gamester ; he is, generally speak-
ing, an insolvent gamester; and there is no-
thin sr

1^

1 M

tiling uncharitable in imputing, to s'u&h a cllatw
racter, a selfish pursuit of his own ends, by
means of oppression and cruelty *,

Will the British farmer, think you, acquiesce
in the justice of this contrast? I apprehend
not. Agricultural pursuits, in every climate, are
subjected, like other human concerns, to a vari-
able success ; and more especially so during re-
volutionary periods like those which the po-
litical world has experienced for a quarter of a
century past. That the colonies, during a part
of that period, have laboured under an accu-
midation of difficulties, and that plantations
in the West Indies are occasionally visited by
calamities of a peculiar nature, it were useless
to deny ; but under a pressure so long and so
great as that which they have recently expe-
rienced, did the marks of general insolvency ap-
pear? Or is it true, that rarefy has a large
body of men, either agricultural or commercial^
sustained so firmly the continued attack of com-
plicated adversity ?

It

* Christian Observer, p. 34 and 35.

13

It would be quite imfdr to give the Ke-
viewer s further presumptive evidence, resting
upon the character of the planters, in any lan-
Uuaffe but his own.

" That the terror of punishment and infamy
" will often restrain those who know no other
^* fear, is unquestionably true ; if it were not
" so, human legislation would be an idle
" mockery. Yet the efficacy of penal laws,
** upon the conduct of those who acknowledge
*' no higher and more generous obhgation, is by
*' no means certain. Now, with respect to the
" crime of slave trading, one thing is quite
" clear, that not only the great mass of society
" in the West Indies, but ^ large number of
" persons in this country, consider it as no
" crime at all. Nine years have not elapsed
*"' since they proclaimed this opinion loudly and
** earnestly. In the Parliament of Great Bri-
** tain this doctrine was supported by advocates
*' of high rank and great public consideration.
^* In the colonial assemblies, not a solitary voice
'* was raised to oppose it. In addresses, in
" speeches, in votes, aiid resolutions, the slave

" trade

14

**' trade was there justified, nay, applauded, as
" an excellent scheme for mitigating the horrors
" of African bondage. The same things are
" not said now, it is true ; no man who should
" adopt, and promulgate as his own, the opi-
" nions of the Jate council and assembly of Ja-
" maica on this subject, would find admittance
" into decent society. But why suppose this
" silence the result of conviction? For what
" reason are those, who, under the constrain-
" ing power of an act of parhament, and no
" less-constraining force of public opinion, de-
" part from the profession of faith of the West
*' Indian legislatures, entitled to unreserved
" credit? Has any argument been advanced
" since the year 1806, which had not been
** reiterated before ? Have any new facts been
" discovered — -or has any new fight broken in
" on them since that time ? If we give these
" men credit for the sincerity of their past pro-
" fessions, what motive, except the dread of
" punishment, can now prevent their conti-
" nuance of the practice they so lately defended
*' and extoUed? How far, then, is this fear

" fikely

15

" likely to operate ? Just so far as the law cau
" be enforced with vigilance and rigcur. Like
" any other felon, the slave trader will calculate
^* the means of detection and his chance of
" escape, and vnW act accordingly."

And a Uttle further, " In this situation, is the
" chance of detection, of accusation, or of con-
" viction, very formidable? Is it sufficiently
" so to restrain men, who, by their OAvn re-
" peated avowal, acknowledge on this subject
" no restraint of conscience?"

Now I ask you whether the utmost stretch of
Christian charity will admit of a belief that this
writer is unaware of the gross delusion which
he is here practising upon his readers, many of
whom he must presume to have no retrospect
to the changes which time has produced both in
laws and opinions ? and I must be permitted to
doubt the sincerity of that wish with which he
commences his criticism, " that some person
" competent to the task would write a full and
*' impartial history of the abolition of the slave
" trade*," since such a history could not be writ-
ten
* Christian Observer, p. 28.

16
ten without a fair display of the sanction which
that trade, not many years ago, received both
in the opinions of wise and good men, and in
the positive enactments of the British legisla-
ture.

Let not the purport of this observation be
mistaken, nor what is here said be cited in jus-
tification of the calumnious assertion, that the
opposers of the Registry Bill are advocates for a
renewal of the slave trade ; parliament and the
nation, after a long and patient hearing, have
pronounced its sentence ; and I do not know
the soHtary individual existing who does not
wish that, by the general concurrence of all
the European powers, Africa may be seen
exerting her native energies, after having been
freed from any contact of that trade : but if the
colonists who opposed the abolition of the slave
trade can therefore fairly now be said to acknow-
ledge " no higher and more generous obligation
" than that of penal laws — no restraint of con-
" science;" and that we may presume them
guilty whenever they are tempted to be so,
there is no contumacy, agamst present law or

universal

37

universal justice, in maintaining that under tlie
same sentence must be included all those states-
men and legislators, from tlie time of Queen
Anne downwards, who after deliberately consi-
dering the " nature of the trade," not only pro-
vided for it express encouragement in our sta-
tute book, as " advantageous to Great Britain,
** and necessary for supplying her plantations
" and colonies with a sufficient number of ne-
*' groes at reasonable rates*," but who, in ano-
ther instance, even considered, as an advantage-
ous article of a treaty with his Catholic Majesty,
the concession of the Assiento contract, as it
was called, by which we contracted for a supply,
by British trade, of 144,000 slaves to the Spa-
nish colonies. Every nobleman and gentleman
who, during twenty years, in either house of
parliament, spoke or voted against the abolition,
are comprised also under this sweeping moral
condemnation.

To readers of " The Christian Observer," it
were needless to remark, that neither in the Old

B or

* 23 Geo. II. cap. 31. Preamble.

18

or uS^ew Testament can any precept be found
which forbids the purchase and possession of
slaves, or the use of their labour in their bond-
age; the authority, indeed, leans the other way**
and our holy religion seems to discourage all at-
tempts at officious interference respecting the
civil and political relations of men.

In morality a man can seldom go wrong while
he is strictly obeying that which is directed by
the laws of his country ; and you will recollect
that Horace gives this rule indefinite latitude — •

Vir bonus est qtiis ?
Qui consulta patrum, qui leges, juraqiie sertat.

The colonist who ten or twelve years ago en-
deavoured to add advantage to Great Britain
hy purchasing slaves for the purpose of increas-^
ing the produce of his estate, was, under this
fule of action, doing his duty; and in 1807 he
was, by the same authority, enjoined to aban-
don all reliance upon a further supply of slaves
from Afi*ica, and to manage his property as ad-
vantageously as he could with his present stock.

I confess myself utterly unable to guess upon

what

19
v;hat authority the Reviewer advances the fol-
lowing assertion : — »

" The case is shortly this. In the colonies.
** and in this country, there is a large body of
" persons, planters, merchants, ship-owners, and
** mariners, wli6 conceive they have a deep and
** permanent interest in the continuance of this
" traffic ; who, by their own avowal, are withheld
** by no scruples of conscience from embarking
*' in it; who can be restrained from such spe-
** culations by nothing but the fear of detection;
" and who, by artifices that are obvious and
" easy of execution, may evade that danger*."

To his round affirmation I can only oppose as
tound a denial. I have, as you are well aware,
an extensive acquaintance with the colonies, and
the various classes connected with them, and I
know of no such persons, planters, meixliants,
ship-oivners, or mariners, as those here alluded
to, or whose conduct is regulated by such " spe-
** culations"

Why, it may be fairly a?.ked, did the colonists
B 2! . so

* Chrisllati Observer, p. 35.

20

so long and so pertinaciously oppose the abo-
lition ? was it not under a conviction that the
law, when passed, must bind them ? When
IMr. Ei-ougham, in 1810, introduced his bill,
making all participation in the trade felomous*^
was he not supported by the colonial party in
the House of Commons ? one of whomf, (wha
Voted in the small minority of 1807 against the
abolition) is reported to have said, " that if he had
*• at another time objected, on the ground of its
" inexpediency and impracticability, to a mea-
" sure which was not then the law of the coun^
" try, he knew what was now his duty, in defe-
" rence to what is the law of the country." It
must be left to the Keviewer, and to those who
adopt his uncandid judgments, to pronounce that
these ought not to be taken as the sentiments of
the colonists generally, until facts shall be
brought to warrant a contrary conclusion.

And facts, the Reviewer too teUs us boldly,
he will produce. Parturiunt monies! lo! we
have a doubtful, case, of one poor negro boy in

St.

* 51 Geo. III. cap. 23.
+ Mr. G. Hibbert. See Cobbett's Debates.

21

St, Kitts : a newspaper advertisement in Santa
Cruz, offering rewards J^r the detection of illicit
trade : and again appears the case of the census
in Trinidad, although his fellow-labourers, the
Edinburgh Reviewers, have told him that it
will not stand the test of examination ; but, no
matter ! the pious readers of the Christian Ob-
(server may shun the heterodox pages of the
northern journal, and the story tells well ; as it
charges a good roimd amount of illicit trade,
which may compensate for the puny exhibition
of Charles, the negro boy of St. Kitts,

If this ^yill not do, there is still the resource
of promising facts, vv^hich for certain reasons
cannot yet be revealed. These the African In-
stitution will produce in its own good time. The
little island of Nevis is threatened to be impli-
cated for its full share in the discovery. The
Reviewer has seen the documents, and he

r

pledges his veracity to his readers that they af-
ford the most ample, precise, and convincing
proof, that within the last four years, and espe-
cially in the year 1814, the practice of smug-
gling

22

gling negroes has been carried on to a considerr
able extent in several islands.

From what cause offences committed in 1814,
and which admit of such proof, have not abeady
been detected and punished, we are yet tp learn;
and the accused planters have to lament, that at
least the cases, if they be not among those which
are already reported to Parliament, have not
long ago been stated, as an opportunity would
have thus been afforded for investigating the
facts and the circumstances. You, my dear Sir,
may rest assured that the instances of illicit
trade, which are to be so amply, pr^isely, and
convincingly proved, are totally unknown to all
the principal proprietors of West India property
in and about London.

It is the colonial mind — it is the general con-
templation of these practices " as a potential re-
" source," and the influence w^hich that con-
templation must have on the managemeni of
islaves, that are presented to us as evils impe-
riously demanding this strong legislative remedy ;
and against such arguments the single fact that

Jamaica

23
Jamaica is not implicated, is in itself a host.
Santa Cruz is no longer ours ; Trinidad is al-
ready subjected to a registry ; and if it should
be true that felony has been committed in Nevis
or in St. Kitts, let us see whether the guilty
cannot be punished, without the mighty move-
ment by which we are now invited to convulse
all our old colonies.

I pass over all the details by which the Re-
viewer and his author have, in a spirit of gross
iiliberality, endeavoured to misrepresent the ge-
neral condition of the slaves, and the laws of
manumission ; not because the fallacious charac-
ter of their remarks does not deserve animad-
version and admit of refutation, but because
these subjects are but remotely, if at all, con-
nected with the Registry Bill. If the abolition
be generally an effective law, and so considered,
(which I contend to be the fact), its influence is
operating, and this formidable innovation is not
requisite for its support.

I leave too entirely out of consideration the
question which this Reviewer has largely dis-
cussed of constitutional right; let him enjoy

without

24

without molestation his triumph in the power
by which that right, if asserted, can be repressed !
The British Legislature will doubtless consult
its dignity rather than its power, and its de-
cision will probably rest upon the questions of
necessity and of expediency ; other evidence
than that of this Reviewer, or of the author he
eulogises, will be received as to the.facts of ilhcit
trade and of oppressive practices ; as to the com-
petency of the local legislatures for all the pur-
poses of internal government; and as to the
progress already made in ameliorating the con-
dition of the coloured population, whether slave
or free.

The spirit which animates the Reviewer cg,nT
not be better exposed than by his own sugges-
tion of the means of furnishing the legislature
and the public with new information upon these
subjects, and I will give it to you in his oivn
words : — -

" One suggestion, however, connected with
•*' this topic, we beg leave to submit to the
*' African Institution. Hitherto aR the evidence
« given to the public on the interior condition

« of

S5

^^ of the slave colonies has been derived from
" the white population — from those against
" whom the charge of oppression is advanced.
" But there will be found in the islands a large
" number of persons of colour, whose liberal
" education and extensive acquaintance with
" the state of West-Indian society, eminently
" fit them to assist in forming an accurate de-
" lineation of it. If a fund were raised for
" bringing over to England a few witnesses of
" this class from each of our slave colonies, a
" body of testimony might be collected of in-
" calculable value. There are at present in this
" country more persons than one of this num-
" ber, from whom we have received communi-
" cations as to the recent proceedings of the
" white colonists, to which it is impossible to
** listen without horror and indignation*."

What, let me ask you, can be the character
of evidence thus obtained? A free person of
polour who came over on these terms must be

aware

* Christian Observer, p. b7.

2G
aware of the nature of those opinions which
would be acceptable to his employers ; and he
would be one too who, bankrupt in property,
and hopeless of resources in the colonies, made
no sacrifice in abandoning that residence for
ever. Irritated, perhaps, by personal resent-
ments and by disappointed speculations, he
would earnestly look up to his purchasers and
employers for an establishment ; the best means
of obtaining which he would not unreasonably
conjecture to be abuse of the government and
of the society which he had relinquished.

Can such a suggestion be dictated by a can-
did and impartial mind? is this the spirit of
fair investigation ? or is it the precept of an in-
quisitor who has already condemned and wants
a colour for injustice ?

Other indications are not wanting of the dis-^
ingenuous mind with which the original author
and his Reviewer have advocated their cause;
their coarse, indiscriminate abuse of all the co-
lonial legislatures (that of Jamaica included),
and their utter silence as to what has been re-
cently

27

teritly done in this our greatest colony in favour
of the free people of colour, are at variance with
all candid' discussion in the pursuit of truth.

The Reviewer has passed lightly over the ac-
cusation vv^hich his author, with triumphant in-
dignation, l;)rought against the colonies — tliat
of not attaching the slaves to the soil. We
were assured by the author of " Keasons, ^c. &c."
that, setting aside all other instances of a spirit
directly opposite to the spirit of abolition, it
would be singly enough to say, that this mea-
sure had ''not yet been adopted in any of the
islands. — " It is," he tells us, " a sufficient in-
" dication of .^Jicfact he wishes to establish, that
" plantation slaves are not yet annexed to the
*' estate they cultivate, so as no longer to be
" severed from it by execution at law*." Has
the Reviewer been av/are that this choice of a
test of the colonial mind was unfortunate, as the
<3^ircumstance selected will be shewn to have
been strictly consistent both with prudence and
humanity? But ^yhiie the Ke viewer forbears

to

* Reasons, &c. &c. p. 48.

28

to give that peculiar importance which his au-
thor had given to this accusation, he might
have offered some apology for the positive and
opprobrious terms in which it was charged
against the colonies.

Neither the Reviewer nor his author can be
ignorant of the amelioration of opinions, man-
ners, and laws, which in the last twenty-five
years has taken place in our colonies, and which
is still in progression ; they cannot believe that
the condition of our West-Indian slaves is the
" most extreme and abject slavery that ever de-
graded and cursed mankind * ;" that " they are
" subjected, by solemn legislative enactments,
" to punishments most severe and humiliating
" for the slightest offences ;" that *' over these
" wretched captives a few Europeans, like Hug-
" gins and Hodge (or like those who live in
" courteous association with such characters),
" exercise an unlimited authority, legislative and
" domestic;" that "hfe presents to them no
" better hope than a refuge to that last sanc-

" tuary

* Reasons, &c. &c. p. 4.

59
** tuary where the wicked cease from troubling
" and the weary are at rest*." These things
they assert, but they cannot believe them ; for
where they have raked for their calumnies,
truth must have stared them in the face, and
they cannot be ignorant that, generally speak-
ing, the slaves in om- colonies are contented in
then- situation ; that their labour is lighter far
than miUions of men in Europe gladly undergo
for their daily bread; that their food, their
clothing, their punishments, are subjected to
legal regulations, and that both in the laws by
which they are governed, and the humane spirit
by which those laws are administered (and which
pervades too the exercise of the masters' discre-
tionary power), their condition has been during
many years past in progressive amelioration.

Neither can Y»^e admit that these gentlemen
are ignorant that the abuses against which they
professedly direct their Slave Registry Bill are
either creatures of their imagination, or, so far
as they can possibly be proved to exist, are in

nature

* Christian Observerj p. 44.

30

^latnre and degree insufficient to justify a pro--
ceeding so rash and violent. But those who
consult the author of " The Heasons, &;c." and
his Reveiwer, will be at no loss to discover that
the measure of a general registry is a matter
of indifference, except as it is one step (and a
bold one too) in the disfranchisement of our co-
lonial legislatures, who, however prudently at-
tentive to extend protection and privileges to
the different classes of the population under
their jurisdiction, might and would probably,
stop short of any direct measures of general
emancipation.

That our Reviewer has reconciled his mind,
to the accomplishment of that purpose, and at
no great distance of time, you will discover by
his triumphant allusion to the glorious state of
St. Domingo, and by the decent terms in which
he points it out to the legislators of Jamaica, at
the very mxOment when he had reason to expect
the result of their anxious investigation of eveiy
matter connected with the professed objects of
this bill. " Even now a negro empire is rising
" in 'the Caribean Seas, in fearful strength and

'' energy.

31

*^ energy. The slave-diivers of Jamaica may
^* yet stnit thek hour as legislators, and publish
" their childisli boasts of independence; but
" they have, in King Christophe and President
" Petion, near neighbours, who may ere long,
" if they heed not the calls of mercy and jus-
" tice, address these blusterers in a style yet
" more peremptory than their own*."

That the Reviewer heartily wishes to see all
the negroes of Jamaica as free and happy as the
subjects of King Christophe now are, and the
white population disposed of by means like
those which extinguished that class in St. Do-
mingo, and all the public and private wealth
which Jamaica now produces sacrificed, as that
of St. Domingo has been, I will not positively
affirm, but I will venture to assure him that a
speedier way of accomplishing those purposes
cannot possibly be adopted than by the dis-
franchisement of those " blustering legislators,"
of whom he speaks with so much unbecoming
levity, and whose hour (as he is pleased to call

it)

* Christian Obserrer, p. 58.

32

it) is certainly come, whenever the British Par-
liament is induced to pass the Registry Bill.
I am, kc. &c.

THOMAS VENABLES.

P. S. I have just learnt that the legislature
of Jamaica has sent home a Report and a body
of evidence, which is printing, and which, so
far as relates to that great colony, will afford a
complete refutation of those calumnies which
the Reviewer has so industriously endeavoured
to propagate and to justify.

FINIS.

Printed by J. Darling, 31, Leaclenliall Street, London.