the spirit and intention which have too often guided the decisions or evidence, even in the court of Sierra Leone, to its shame and recorded disgrace; coroners' juries deciding without for one moment regarding the why or wherefore, and petit juries (composed solely of Africans) carried out with the same feeling, as far as the utmost constraining against evidence and justice would permit. Does not this fact cry to heaven and earth for reformation? Whilst the slave is liberated by the benevolence of England, her own native subjects are bound by the fetters of African superstition and ignorance, through the over-indulged expediency of trusting them with too much, to gratify them with the feeling that they are equally men. This revolution in their state, noble in intention, has become infamous in execution; and all the liberality of Government, religious zeal, or private exertion, that may be brought into the field for the African's happiness, here or hereafter, are so many edifices in the clouds, whilst their breasts are indifferent to that moral conscientiousness which dictates the verdict of a British jury. God forbid that as creatures of His wisdom I should deny that they have it within them, but it requires very different measures from those which have been adopted to draw it forth. Perhaps the best first step would be for the Government to invariably appoint a Judge from home, who would carry with him the justice and unflinching determination of those legislators under whose judgment and experience he has been taught the highest lesson of man to man-justice! justice! The Medical Department, Civil Establishment, consists of the Head Colonial Surgeon, at a salary of £400 per annum, with allowance for two horses at £40 each. His duty is to attend all the civil officers, gaol hospital, and he controls the Colonial hospital at the village of Kissey, which is under the immediate superintendence of two European Assistant Surgeons, at salaries of £200 each, with £40 allowance for horses. The Head Colonial Surgeon (at present Dr. Aitkin) makes quarterly tours through all the villages on medical inspection, each village having a small hospital, and African dressers and compounders; but all the difficult cases are immediately sent to Kissey on certificates from Dr. Aitkin, who also attends blacks and whites in town without pay. This is not part of his public duty, but it proceeds entirely from his inherent benevolence. He also attends merchant ships at so much charge upon the whole, but sometimes merchants think it to their interest to give a certain yearly allowance, sick or not. The medicines are not at the doctor's expense, however, but purchased from the Colonial apothecary, who receives the profit. Kissey Hospital.-A board sits at this hospital (situated in the village from whence it derives its name, nearly three miles from Free-town) to audit accounts, &c.; it usually consists of the Colonial and Military Surgeons, with two or three officials from town. It has a pharmacopolist, head and assistant African dressers, nurses, &c., and is for both sexes, and for merchant sailors, whose expenses the consignee pays to the Colonial Secretary. The Head Dresser receives from £75 to £80 per annum, and the Accountant about £80; the Resident Surgeon has a handsome house rent free. The present Surgeon, Doctor Clarke, of six or seven years' standing, published a book (more of a medical character) on the Colony, when he came home for health in 1844; its sale spoke its merit, as it was immediately bought up, and is not now easily to be got, all the English reviews recommending it so highly that it was purchased with avidity. Yet the missionary clique presiding over the dozy "Watchman" overhauled it unfavourably, of course; a compliment which was spiritedly returned by the author, through the paper published at the American settlement of Monrovia, southward of Sierra Leone, there being no means in the Colony but through the hands of his enemies. Doctors Aitkin and Clarke would be considered of professional ability in England; but their value is inestimable, situated as they are, from their extensive practice in the diseases incidental to the climate. The pharmacopolist to whom the dispensation of medicine is entrusted, at a salary of £200 a-year, is a person who has been more fortunate in a longevital success than many kinder predecessors. "I do remember an apothecary," Who lends a hand at Charon's ferry, To the Elysian fields of clover, By poisons which in time must kill us, Nor by prescribing rather little But from the simple fact that he, sir, Who would refuse (the long and short is) Oft lends a hand to Charon's ferry. Schedule of prices authorised to be charged for medicines by the Colonial Other medicines not included in the foregoing list to be sold at an advance of price not exceeding 100 per cent. on the invoice. Copied at Secretary's Office, 6th December, 1842. The Market is a handsome square, walled and palisadoed, containing stalls for the traders, the area for vendors of fruit and vegetables, and is Leeches less than 6 inches square 0 8 Loan of clyster syringes each 0 1 0 (twice) 0 6 Pewter urethra syringes each 1 0 Flannel bandages per yard 0 6 0 4 abundantly supplied with every article of useful consumption. Beef sells at 4d., pork at 6d., and mutton at 7d. per lb.; fowls at 6s. to 8s. per dozen; bananas, plantains, and yams, proportionately cheap. This market was erected at the expense of Government, for the public accommodation, at one penny daily toll for each person exhibiting articles for sale. These tolls average from 20s. to 25s. per diem; there is also a plentiful supply of fish at very moderate prices. The hawkers' stalls are outside, and, being temporary, are removed every evening. The market opens at 6 a.m., and close at 4 p.m. The noise and chatter of so many different nations, each squabbling and bargaining in its own language, is amusing to a stranger. The women in every respect are the most industrious and active, though many of them have travelled to their morning's work from twenty to thirty miles, several with their pickaninnies, mounted pickaback. They are particularly civil to purchasers addressing them with "How do daddy, tank 'ee," or, Mammy, how do, tank 'ee." When a dispute arises, which is not unfrequent, they call a council of their own countrymen, and settle the palaver; but if the question cannot be arranged by the umpires, they proceed to the sandy beech, undress, leaving only a cloth about the loins, and fight it out like true Amazons. 66 The amusements to be enjoyed in Free-town are but few. About threequarters of a mile from the town to Kissey, is a well laid out race-course, at the expense of the European patrons of the turf, to which every evening may be seen wending their way the official, military, naval, and mercantile Nimrods, white, yellow, and black. The races are held annually in December, and some excellent races are run, patronised by the Governor and European ladies, for whom there is an excellent stand erected. The course is also accommodated with booths and stands for the canaille, and, as in more aristocratic meetings, an amusing row is not unfrequently the finish. Billiard-tables, both public and private, are pretty common; and a theatre was lately established under the auspices of Governor Macdonald, but from some cause or other did not prosper. Theatricals, Freemasonry, and all secret orders, are looked upon by the Africans with fear; they term them devil's-houses, and their attendants they believe have sold themselves to a certain distinguished gentleman, possessing the power of ubiquity, and who, in return, provides them with all the good things of this world, and promises them a warm reception in the next. Our intellectual and harmless theatricals, instituted for the purpose of dissipating the monotony and ennui of a Sierra Leone life, were grossly assailed by the "Watchman," edited by the Wesleyan missionaries, designating it as an unhallowed amusement; a fulmination replete with arrogance and self-condemnation. It would, indeed, have been apropos had the condemned aspirant to histrionic fame retorted by the performance of the "Hypocrite," when they might have found capital studies for Cantwell and Mawworm amongst their denunciators. The divine who would have been represented in the latter character, is well up in the part, if we may judge from the number who have grasped in vain at his skirts for assistance in this life, or aid towards that which is to come. Parties sometimes amuse themselves with boat-races, and regattas have been dreamt of. At the fall of the year there are subscription balls, and an interchange of such compliments pass between the garrison and gentlemen of the town. A tolerable library exists, which is supplied with books and periodicals from England. There are no reading or news-rooms, which, no doubt, would have been formed but for the lamented death of Sir John Jeremie, in 1841. Politics, and the more refined branches of literature, are confined to a few, who, having no connexion with the " Watchman” clique, may account for the peculiar dullness of that lunar (quasi lunatic) journal. It must be confessed that some of those better spirits, together with myself, threw in our mite at its commencement, but the acclimatising fever being less infectious than the stupidity of the editorial conductors, our contributions will be found deeply imbued with the contagion; so, before the disease had rendered us equally lunar, we escaped, pursued by the demoniacal howlings of the irremediably afflicted. Bless me! what extraordinary creatures some of the best meaning societies are represented by, in all quarters of the world, with the exception of Sierra Leone, according to the "Watchman." A Missionary Exploit, and a Snake in the Grass.-A "merry-making" was held by the native Africans in the neighbourhood of the Wesleyan Missionary Institution at "King Tom's," situate on the brink of the Free-town harbour, which gave offence to one of the preachers, who, in G |