'nies.' He goes still further; and tells us, that, though many are idle and ragged-yet 'a distinction' between the 'industrious' and the lazy will continue to exist among the human race in every 'country and in every society;' and that the proportion of the former to the latter, is greater among the negroes, in the colonies, than among white men, in the mother country. The quantity of "provisions raised (by the slaves, says he, p. 143,) is prodigious, and the quantity sold very great. One quarter of each island 'producing more perfectly than another the different kinds of pro'visions, a very considerable trade is consequently carried on be⚫tween them; and the towns, and the shipping, are chiefly supplied with country provisions by the slaves. Many of them gain con'siderable sums by this means. I have given a negro forty dol'lars in the course of a few weeks, for provisions to supply the new negroes, or the sick and profligate slaves. The number of hogs, goats, and poultry of all kinds, raised by them, is astonish'ing, and at a little trouble and no expense. From them the white 'people purchase such things for their supply: and, I affirm, from 'personal knowledge, that no labourers, and but few of the sinaller farmers in this country (England) have any thing like the stock "of such animals, as are owned by industrious negroes.' 'Many tradesmen, (p. 145,) and those more ingenious among them, earn ⚫ considerable sums of money by making furniture of various kinds, 'such as tables, stools, chairs, bedsteads, baskets, &c.' Now, compare all this abundance with what they receive gratuitously. Their master (id. p.) gives them annually a good English blan'ket; but the industrious slaves have just as good sheets as he has. 'Stools and chairs they get made by the tradesmen on the estate. "In their clothes, even at their common field labour, they are not ' only clean but often fine. At work, both men and women appear in robes equal to any that servants here can afford; and when 'visiting or receiving their friends, and on Sundays and holidays, 'I must add much better.' Now, the dress annually received ⚫ from their masters consists (only) of a hat, jacket, shirt and trowsers, to common slaves; but to more confidential persons, double, "besides a linen and a check shirt.' They get from their masters no greater supply of provisions, than is barely necessary for decent subsistence. They have but one day in the week to work for themselves; and yet we are told, that they raise more provisions, and produce more of every thing, in this scanty period, than day labourers in any country, who have seven times their number of working days! A great deal is undoubtedly to be allowed, for the extreme productiveness of the vegetables, which they chiefly cultivate; but, with every allowance, there can be no question that they can work, and do work, as much as other men, without the artificial stimulant of a cowhide. Indeed, when we thus see them, even in their present degraded state, aspiring to fine clothes,' clean linen,' 'good sheets,' and decent furniture'-what hopes might we not have of their industry, when once freed from bon

dage, and permitted to work, in all things, and at all times, from the same motives as other men. Is it the cartwhip that makes some negroes' earn considerable sums of money,' by making tables, chairs, bedsteads,' &c.? Must we still be told, that is necessary to flog negroes into industry, when, with only one day in the seven for work, they not only raise abundance of provisions for themselves, but supply, in a great measure, the shipping, the towns, and the less productive quarters of the islands? And can we anywhere find a more satisfactory confirmation of what Dr. Smith so long ago proved to be the fact, with respect to free labourers, and slaves, that the former will produce much more than the latter; and that, on every account, a free servant is cheaper than a bond one?*

But the planters will tell us, that they are going on, as fast as they can, with the work of amelioration; that they treat the negroes, now, a great deal better than they did formerly; and that, if we will only let them alone, they will ultimately do as much as can be done with the unfortunate beings, whom Providence has placed under their mastery. We have scarcely ever conversed with a Southerner, who did not express a sincere regret, at the necessity of keeping up our system of slavery-and who did not heartily wish, that no negro had ever been brought into the country, and that every one, who is in it, were well out of it. These are honourable regrets and wishes; and we have abundant reason to think, that they are shared by the great body of slave-holders in the United States. Nevertheless, we must despair of ever seeing the blacks put in train for enjoying the common rights of men, under the management of no other persons besides their present lords and masters. From their very childhood, they have seen themselves separated to an infinite distance from their negro slaves; who, instead of enjoying leisure, or opportunity, to teach their own young ideas how to shoot, have only been able to cultivate their master's cotton or tobacco plants, and to perform a variety of other work, which belongs to beasts alone. It is one of the master's earliest and strongest associations, therefore, that a negro is little superior to an ox; and, mistaking a deficiency of education, for a want of original abilities, they will tell you, as one of those unquestionable facts which grow up with us, that a black is infinitely below the white, in all those great attributes, which distinguish man from other animals. A negro, say they, no more doubts that the earth is flat, than that his own nose is flat; and, as to the extent of its surface, he has no idea of its going beyond his master's plantation. He is as ignorant of every thing else, as he is of geography; and you cannot persuade his master, that the whole of this ignorance may possibly arise from a want of adequate tuition. These are the natural prejudices of a master; prejudices, which, there can be little doubt, would for

*Wealth of Nat. B. I. c. 8.

ever prevent the voluntary adoption of any system, that aimed at ultimate, though distant, emancipation. We are none of us so absurd as to think of giving the rights of men to beings, who have not the other attributes of men; and, where one class of human beings are considered as very little superior to dumb beasts, there is very little hope, that measures will ever be taken to give them a superiority.-There is, also, another cogent reason for believing, that masters, when left to themselves, will not be likely to their slaves in the way of gaining eventual liberation. All that they can call their own depends upon their slaves; who, it is naturally concluded, would be sure to put it in jeopardy, if they were released from absolute servitude, or permitted to acquire any more information. They have the most powerful of all motives, therefore, for keeping negroes in a state of utter ignorance and brutalism. Their fears are very natural; though, we think, they are destitute of good foundation; and we have no doubt ourselves, that some system might be devised, which, while it should not at all endanger the interests of the master, would nevertheless insure the ultimate freedom of the slave.

We must now turn to another part of the discussion, in which, we think, the English philanthropists have not taken exactly the right course. They have given their opponents a very needless advantage, by comparing our present slaves with the villeins of the middle ages; a comparison, which, so far as we can see, holds in only this one unimportant particular-that the former, like the latter, live together, in villages, on their masters' plantations. By admitting the comparison, in its full extent, we cannot help admitting, also, the consequences, which follow from it; and, when the Colonial Legislators ask us,* What is the fair deduction 'from these cases? That time and the regular course of human 'affairs will accomplish, in the British Colonies, what they brought ' about in the Roman Empire, and in modern Europe, without ⚫ direct legal enactments and little assistance from any positive in'stitutions-we do not see how their antagonists can possibly refute them. They have keen and close reasoners to deal with; reasoners, indeed, whom they have been in the habit of treating with contempt,-but who have taken advantage of their loose comparisons, and shallow arguments, with the skill and ingenuity of masters. Ever since the mother country had Colonies, she has let them outreasoner her, because she has considered them as destitute of all power to reason; and has, therefore, neglected to take sufficient precautions, or to lay out sufficient strength. Indeed, it is the great characteristic of John Bull, to consider all beyond his own island as a night of ignorance; and to answer all arguments by doubling up his fist, and uttering Nestor Ironside's 'pish!' This is the way in which he lost his other American Co

* Art. XVI. of a Report of the Jamaica Assembly, on the proposed Registry Bill, agreed to Dec. 20, 1815.

lonies; and it is the way, in which the present will be lost, unless he condescends to treat their inhabitants as reasonable beings.

It ought to have been asserted and proved, a long time ago, that, in no essential particular, can the negroes, in the Colonies, be compared with the former villeins of England. There are but two sorts of villeins, with whom any body pretends to liken negro slaves; namely, villeins in gross, and villeins regardant. The former, our readers know, were the personal servants of the master; the servants who performed all the menial offices about his house. When these came to be too numerous for such purposes, a part were made villeins regardant, or predial slaves.* And this leads us to describe the only state of slavery, with which our present system can be at all compared. Predial slaves, it is admitted on all hands, were a sort of tenants at will. They lived in the country; owned and occupied little pieces of ground; and, unlike the villeins in gross, who could be sold at any time, and to any person, they were attached to the soil, and only changed masters, when the land changed owners. There was always an implied contract between them and their masters. A contract supposes volition; volition, liberty; and, though we have to acknowledge, that, at first, there was but a very little freedom on the part of the tenant; yet, little as the leaven was, it proved sufficient, ultimately, to leaven the whole lump. By the conditions of the Feudal System, which William, the Conqueror, carried over to England, the baron and his vassals were mutually necessary to each other; the baron to the vassal, because the vassal needed the protection of his influence and head,-the vassal to the baron, because the baron needed the defence of his hands and weapons. In fact, therefore, there was about as much liberty on one side, as on the other. As civilization advanced, however, the barons quarreled with each other less than formerly; of course, required the aid of their tenants less frequently; and thus their rights of mastership became gradually extinct, for want of exercise. The rights of the vassal, in the mean time, took an inverse direction. By being attached to the soil, and by occupying a given piece of groundwhich, in consequence of no interruption, on the part of the lord, went, by inheritance, from father to son-the common law at length gave them an independent title to the land; insomuch, that, by this, and several other collateral means, the English villeins, says Judge Blackstone, 'have long ago sprouted up into copy'holders."

We wish to impress it deeply on the minds of our readers, that it was by this natural progress of society, and not by the Magna Charta, or by a charta of any kind, that the greater part of Englishmen enjoy their present liberties. We have been so often told, how this instrument was obtained, sword in hand; how Running-Mead became immortalized thereby; and how complete a

*Millar on the British Government, p. 203.

safeguard it is to the freedom of all Englishmen, (with `double emphasis upon the word), that we cannot let go this opportunity to give our humble opinion of its merits. It does appear to us, then, that there is no possible foundation for the rhetoric and flourish, that have been wasted on the subject; and that, if numbers are to be our criterion of judgment, the grant of King John-if it was a magna charta of any thing--was a magna charta of sla, very. Through all its provisions their is a constant distinction between freemen and slaves; and the very first article declares, that it is to the former alone that the subscript liberties are conceded. Concessimus etiam omnibus liberis regni nostri pro no'bis et heredibus nostris imperpetuum omnes libertates subscriptas.' Again, what a most abominable principle of servitude is implied in the following extract from the 4th article! It speaks of destroying and laying waste men, as if they were little superior to cabbage-stalks. Custos terre hujusmodi heredis qui infra etatem ' fuerit non capiat de terra heredis nisi rationabiles exitus et rationa'biles consuetudines et rationabilia servitia et hoc sine distruc'tione et vasto HOMINUM vel rerum.' Article 15th directs that, • liber homo non amercietur pro parvo dilecto,' &c.; and that 'vil'lanus eodem,' &c. The expression-Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus rectum vel justiam-is often quoted by itself, as if it applied to every individual in the nation; when, in fact, nothing is more evident, from the context, than that it was meant exclusively for freemen. The sentence, which immediately precedes it, begins with the words, Nullus liber homo capiatur etc.; and the words 'libero homini' were omitted after 'Nulli' in the phrase alluded to, because their expression, just before, sufficiently indicated the class of persons, to which it had reference. It is somewhat singular, that these evident recognitions of slavery should have escaped the research of all the writers on English law; and that, in particular, so cautious a commentator as Judge Blackstone should have told us, among a number of other things, how, lastly, (which alone would have merited the title that it bears, of 'the great charter) it protected every individual in the free enjoy'ment of his life, his liberty, and his property;'* or that even Dr. Miller, whose treatise is, in many respects, so commendable, should have committed the great mistake of saying, it is probable that 'before the time of William the Conqueror, they (the privileges of 'freedom) were extended to the greater part, if not the whole, 'of the ancient vassals.' We certainly can find no warrant for these assertions. Vassalage of the most abject kind existed a long time after this period; and, we must think, that a great part of Englishmen no more owe their liberties to King John's magna charta, than to Koah's leather apron.

Those liberties, as we said above, are the gradual result of progressive civilization. And it yet remains to inquire, whether our