5. Mr. Curtin has, moreover, the hardihood to affirm that the magistracy of Antigua, if even they could be suspected of doing wrong and neglecting their high duties, are so watched and controlled by clergymen and medical practitioners that they would not dare to transgress. (What control, we should be glad to know, has Mr. Curtin exercised over them?) Nay, he even affirms that any man who acts ill is amenable to the Governor, and may be cited by him to his bar. This is melancholy!

6. In the same spirit, he assures us, that the harder the slave is worked the better off he is. Indolence being his besetting sin, the stimulus of long-continued toil, and night labour, and protracted sleeplessness, are essential to his well-being. Crop time is the heyday of Negro enjoyment; the fattening cane juice then swells out his flaccid frame, and inspires him with unwonted vigour. Why did he not also tell the Committee, that so kindly considerate are the planters, and so fearful of surfeiting the luxurious slave with the superabundance of the good things then bestowed upon them, that, to prevent the evils of repletion, they have actually, in their parental tenderness, made a law to cut off, in crop time, one-fifth part of the usual allowances? Happy slaves to be thus anxiously cared for !

7. Mr. Curtin could not recollect any instances (with one or two exceptions) of cruel treatment of slaves in Antigua, during his thirty years' experience; but, being reminded of a certain dungeon of a friend of his own, in which certain atrocities had taken place, the Rev. gentleman, in his too eager desire to vindicate his friend, maintained that at least his dungeon was not worse than the dungeons of others, there being many such in Antigua. But then, whatever might pass in the interior of these dungeons, he was at least able to say that they had the advantages of light and ventilation, so as to obviate all imputation on the humanity of those who erected those places of torture, and who had filled them with their wretched inmates.

8. But if there be evils existing in Antigua, and if slavery is to be deemed one of them, Mr. Curtin would have them all reformed in due time. He, too, is for emancipation, but, to suit his taste, it must be very gradual, nay, imperceptible, in its progress. The slave must not have the even tenor of his destiny disturbed by idle but inciting declamations about whips, and chains, and dungeons, and freedom, and such stuff. The planters must be left to pursue their own projects of amelioration, and then he has no doubt that, some fifty years hence, the effect of their assiduous cares will be seen in some approach to fitness for that freedom which, if rashly dealt out to them by modern visionaries, Mr. Curtin would regard as a curse and not a blessing.

But we must now take our leave of Mr. Curtin, and, after this exposure of his evidence, leave him to his own reflections, and to the admiration of all who love to contemplate bright specimens of dexterous evasion.

11. THE LORD HOWARD DE WALDEN.

This Noble Lord's evidence is confined to a document which he had extracted from some papers relating to certain items of civil and

ecclesiastical expenditure in Jamaica, and a summary of which will be found in our last number, No. 104, p. 461.

12. REV. JONATHAN TYERS BARRETT, D. D.

This witness merely laid before the Committee an abstract of information taken from the reports of the Society for the Conversion of Negro Slaves, a great part of which will be found in our preceding volumes by refering to the Index. Those who have read our successive numbers, or who have attended to the evidence of Mr. Wildman, in our last number, p. 456, will not be surprised by the language the Bishop employs in his recent correspondence with this country. Our institutions," he says, " are improving, and our chapels are building. These are measures much too slow for some persons. I confess I dread the consequences of precipitancy in a matter of such importance, and so materially affecting the property and security of His Majesty's subjects." In speaking of the insurrection, he is strongly impressed with the "atrocities attending it, and the "audacity of the slaves, as well as their duplicity and treachery towards their masters." He adds, "Their huts are all consumed, and the hospitals and stores on every estate are no longer open to their necessities." "The poor creatures are sullen and desponding, and, although they have returned to work, their behaviour is constrained and sulky, and they feel bitterly the effect of their own misdeeds." He says little of the equally great atrocities of the white rebels, but only regrets "the ebullition of public feeling" in "the destruction of many Baptist chapels." This is speaking lightly of such crimes as arson, and robbery, and murderous excesses, committed in open day even by magistrates. The bishop seems also to have yielded to the colonial prejudice against the missionaries. For what else does he mean by alluding to the mischief alleged to have arisen from "the perversion of Scripture, and the fatal effect produced thereby on the minds of the Negroes?" This evil he has been trying to counteract by printing extracts from the Homilies on rebellion, &c. The bishop has under him in the whole diocese of Jamaica, including the Bahamas, 28 catechists.--But what are they among so many?

13. MR. EDMUND SHARP.

Mr. Sharp lived in Jamaica from 1811 to 1832, and had been a book-keeper two years, and an overseer afterwards on various estates, having on them from 150 to 600 slaves. He has no property there himself. He had observed the following improvements of late:-1st. Slave evidence was allowed against free persons, though, he admitted, so recently that no instance of its operation had come under his observation. 2nd. Marriage was allowed, but with the owner's sanction. 3rd. The separation of families was forbidden. Plantation labour commenced at sunrise and continued to sunset,† with intervals of two hours and a half. The hardest work is digging cane-holes, but it is not so hard

* This, however, is a mistake. The law is just in the same defective state

as ever.

The law says, from five in the morning till seven at night.

as coal-heaving; 70 cane-holes is a day's work for an able man or woman. When dug by task the slave saves time, sometimes two or three hours, with which he does what he pleases. The other work of an estate is comparatively light. In crop-time about 26 persons are employed about the works, so that 52 are required for keeping spell, dividing the night between them. Those who keep spell at night leave the field half an hour before the others. On strong-handed estates, affording three spells, the night labour is lighter, and one spell rests the whole of every alternate night. He considers 26 days in the year, with occasional reasonable additions, sufficient for cultivating their grounds; he does not say whether with or without Sunday labour. The slave seldom has to resort to his master's store for food if he properly employs his own time. His property is his own to sell, or will, as he pleases. Mr. Sharp's remarks on population partake of all the hackneyed and mistaken notions of the colonists on that subject, and may be fairly thrown aside as unsound both in fact and argument. Mr. Sharp finds it difficult to decide when the slave will be fit for emancipation; but he is quite sure he will not work when free beyond his own few immediate wants. The condition of the slaves is much improved, Mr. Sharp thinks, of late years; but here he blunders in confounding law with practice. Catechists are occasionally employed to teach the slaves, but he does not specify what is taught, or how much time is given to instruction. The slaves were improving in disposition, but they have been unhinged by late events. They now look to emancipation as leading to a life of idleness, free from all restraint. Emancipation in their present state would lead to all excess, and property and life would be insecure. The African dreads it as a subjection of the weak to the strong, and the old and young would become destitute; and the property of the planters, without labourers, would become valueless.+ Nine hours a day, prescribed by the Order in Council, is too limited for the manufacture of sugar. Sending out two pair of shoes would be ruinous.§ The matter of food should be left to the kindly feelings of planters, who must be the best judges.|| Immediate emancipation would be the greatest misfortune that could befal the slaves (p. 779–781).

Mr. Sharp had known free men cultivate coffee, never sugar. The free man would not degrade himself by labouring with the slave. If all were free, still they would not labour in the field; and this he inferred from no free man ever having done it. On coffee plantations, free men, he says, work with their own slaves. Yet he does not believe the free would cultivate the ground for hire in any case. Free

* And yet nothing is more certain than that even now, in a state of slavery, the old and young are not maintained by the masters, but by the slaves.

+ What, then, is to become of the labourers? Are they to die of freedom? Mr. Sharp makes the present labour out of crop to be only nine hours and a half, and the Order in Council does not forbid the planter to hire night labour. § Why send them out? Are there no hides in the island?

Unfortunately this is a bad dependence, as is proved by experience; witness the Leeward Islands (above, p. 514).

men sometimes cultivate sugar canes for their hogs. The lands of the Negroes are generally well cultivated. On good soil 26 days are enough; not on bad soil. Poor soils will not yield enough by 26 days' cultivation. Some cultivate on Sundays and at their dinner hours. The punishments he inflicted were rare, and with switches, not with the whip. The whip in the field, he thinks, may be abolished; he has done without it himself, and substituted solitary confinement, and the stocks, and switches which draw blood but do not leave marks; they are inflicted on the posteriors of men and women, and on both by the hands of men (p. 782-786).

The hogs of slaves were shot when they got into the cane pieces (p. 786).

Many free people lived about the estates he managed; some were mechanics, and some cultivated land, if they could get it, raising food for themselves, and growing cocoa, arrow-root, &c.; but he had never seen them acquire much property beyond that. Many slaves acquire property, not only by cultivation, but by raising hogs and poultry. A slave of Mr. Mitchell's, on Bushy Park, a mason, who built the works there, had slaves of his own, and possessed some houses in Spanish Town: he treated his own slaves kindly, as far as he knew (p.787, 788).

Mr. Sharp admitted that slaves working at task-work were much more industrious, that they might gain time; but did not believe, notwithstanding this, that they would work for wages. The book-keepers and overseers are bound to inspect the Negro grounds, for they make a return on oath every three months. The return is made and sworn to, but the grounds are not always inspected. There are few proprietors in Jamaica; therefore the slaves cannot be attached to them their attachment to an overseer depends on circumstances (p. 789, 790). Mr. Sharp is, on the whole, the fairest colonial witness we have met with.

14. ANDREW GRAHAM DIGNUM, Esq.

The evidence of this gentleman before the House of Commons will be found in our last number (104, at p. 440-442). That given before the House of Lords hardly differs from it, and need not be re-stated. He tells the same absurd story, with embellishments, of his going, at the head of an armed party, into a Negro village, and having a disclaimer from them of any wish for freedom. Mr. Dignum's credulity is the most absurd part of this absurd story and of the sweeping inference he draws from it. It may be useful to give Mr. Dignum's explanation to the slaves of what he meant by freedom, and which, doubtless, is the orthodox colonial doctrine on the subject. The following dialogue takes place between him and Timothy, the head driver, an intelligent man. There was a great number of slaves listening to it. 66 Timothy," said Mr. Dignum, "suppose your master says he will give you free to-morrow ;-but this is not your land: you may take your hogs and poultry with you. But, if he makes you free, you must go and work some where for any body who will take you; and he must get some one in your place, and give him this house." He said,

of

"Ah, you hear the word the Captain say!" Mr. Dignum continued, "Your master says you are free, and you may go away, Timothy. You get on the road, and are very hungry, and have nothing to fill your belly. You know that Negroes do not like to see free people coming to their place to beg for food. You will be turned away like a dog, as you always turn away the free people when they come to beg you here. You will be driven away in the same manner. Then you will get very sick on the road, and call for doctor. Now, Timothy, you must recollect master will not pay for doctor. When you are his servant, it is his interest to keep you in good health. Now you work for him, and you have a comfortable house according to your desert." He said, "You hear the good word the Captain say. I hope the Captain does not suspect any one of us. We are all good people. Massa, we no want for free;" meaning they had no wish to be emancipated.

What a driveller must Captain Dignum have appeared in the eyes of Timothy, if he regarded this conversation as serious! And how much more surprised will he be if he should hear that the Captain had produced it on oath, before a Committee of the House of Lords, as a proof that neither he nor his fellows desired their freedom!-(p. 813.)

As for Mr. Dignum's circumstantial details respecting the evidence taken in Manchioneal, which he says showed a connection of the late insurrection with St. Domingo and a general ramification throughout the island (all this being stated on mere hearsay),-together with the story of Mr. Panton's slave having taken a letter from St. James to Manchioneal, and afterwards having killed himself,-there is not one syllable of it in the examinations taken by the Jamaica Assembly, and which. have been laid on the table of Parliament. The whole, therefore, must be regarded as a fable, as the mere gossip of Mr. Dignum and his informants (p. 814-821).

Mr. Dignum understood that the sectarian chapels were destroyed by the militia, aided by the slaves belonging to the sectarian congregations; but this he only knew from newspaper rumour. A slave of his own had belonged to a Methodist chapel, who told him he was not obliged to contribute money, but he nevertheless did do so. All he knew of the bad instruction given by the sectarian missionaries was from newspaper reports. He knew nothing of it himself (p. 818, 819). And as to free men being mendicants, he only knew of that too from hearsay, however confidently he had spoken of it (p. 820). He saw no jealousy on the part of the slaves to his entering their houses, though he went at the head of an armed party; but still he thought they would be jealous of the visits of a protector. The appointment of a protector, moreover, would degrade the master's authority in the eyes of the slaves, and would breed discontents and complaints, and do much evil (p. 824).

Mr. Dignum said that, in the late insurrection, great barbarities, amounting to murder and rape, had been committed by the slaves, in every instance where whites had fallen into their power, such as ripping open bowels, and scalping heads, and throwing children into the