The drivers often inflicted punishment on the slaves in the absence of the overseer. He once, in travelling, was arrested by the shrieks of a woman who was undergoing a punishment with the cat. She was extended on the ground. She was raised up and sent to her work on his coming up; but she was unable to stand upright, so severely had she been punished. He was shown a whip, and he pronounced it to be what is called the cart-whip, the instrument commonly used. He had seen hundreds of them (p. 433). He believed the driver's whip to be still used on all estates except a very few where it has been abolished. He had many and many a time seen the slaves struck, in the field, with such a whip as that now shown to him (p. 440).

Mr. Barry produced a copy of the instructions given by the Society at home to all their missionaries (p. 456). These warn the missionaries generally to avoid meddling with political parties or secular disputes, and to enforce, by precept and example, a cheerful obedience to lawful authority. The West Indian missionaries are particularly enjoined to exclude from the Society all who relapse into polygamy and adultery, and all who are idle and disorderly, or disobedient to their owners, or who shall steal or act in any other way immorally or irreligiously. Their only business being to promote the moral and religious improvement of the slaves, they are not, in the least degree, in public or in private, to interfere with their civil condition; and they are diligently to enforce on the slaves the apostolical injunctions-Ephes. vi. 5-8, and Coloss. iii. 22-25. No person living in polygamy, or in concubinage, or in promiscuous intercourse, is to be admitted into the Society. The missionaries must take no part in civil disputes or local politics, and they are to keep at the remotest distance from all temptation to a secular or mercenary temper. No missionary can raise contributions for himself, or be allowed to receive donations, except for the mission (p. 467). A very interesting sketch is given of the state of the Wesleyan missions in the West Indies in 1830 (p. 461-466).

While Mr. Barry resided in St. Thomas in the Vale, he was surrounded by coffee plantations, and he was in the habit of hearing, almost incessantly, the sound of the whip, from morning till night. He could not mistake the sound of the driver's whip inflicting punishment for that of the mule driver. The regular and measured sound of the former was not to be mistaken. No man familiar with slave properties could mistake it. The crack of the whip is so loud that it can be heard at an immense distance. This use of the whip was so frequent that it ceased to surprise him (p. 470, 471).

It is well known in Jamaica, Mr. Barry observed, one of those facts indeed that every body knows, that in many cases overseers conceal from the inspection of surgeons severe inflictions of punishment. After the infliction, slaves are sometimes locked up for days in a state of solitary confinement. He fully understood this to be the case, though he could not prove it (p. 473).

Mr. Barry believed that, among the planters of Jamaica, humanity was the exception, not the rule.

He also believed that the slave population decreases, and this from causes connected with slavery. The maroons increase, and the

free black and coloured population increase; the decrease of the slaves must be ascribed to causes connected with their condition. One of these he believes to be excessive punishment. The punishments are so severe sometimes as to occasion death. The late hours at which they are obliged to labour, and their licentiousness, are also causes (p. 476).. Mr. Barry does not think that any laws which have been passed will restrain men from inflicting severe and unnecessary punishment, or secure the slaves any adequate means of redress. In very few cases, he is convinced, will the Negroes be willing to run the hazard of incurring a proprietor's or overseer's displeasure by applying for redress. The practice of inflicting corporal punishment hardens the sensibilities of the human heart, and magistrates who are themselves slave-holders are deeply interested in upholding the system, and feel also the strong influence of prejudice. He detailed several cases of oppression arising out of the power possessed by masters and overseers to oblige female slaves to submit to their desires, as well as cases of excessive punishment for other causes (p 414, 415, 469, 475, 488). Another at p. 479 seems hardly credible, and, as the papers relating to it were lost, it would have been better to withhold the details entirely.

Mr. Barry communicated a letter which he had received from Jamaica from a brother missionary, Mr. Bleby, dated Montego Bay, 24th April, 1832, proving the violent excitement still existing against the missionaries, though they had been declared innocent by the highest authorities. Mr. Bleby writes as follows:

"You will have heard through other channels of the proceedings on the north side about the time of your leaving Jamaica. The acquittal of the Baptist missionaries was a complete triumph, and disclosed such a scene of villany and corruption as will for ever stamp this country with disgrace and infamy. The suborning false evidence against Mr. Burchell, and the attempt to assassinate him after his acquittal,-the miserable mockery of justice in the cases of Gardiner and Knibb, and all the other acts of violence and injustice perpetrated by the infatuated colonists,-will tend only to unfold more fully the direful influence of slavery on the human mind, and subvert the wretched system they are intended to support.

"The people in Trelawney seem to have become as bad as in that hot-bed of oppression, violence, and infidelity, St. Ann's; and a foul attempt was made there to murder me a short time since, from which I was only delivered by the merciful interposition of Providence" (p. 488).

"On the 6th of April a letter was brought to me which had been taken up in the enclosure in the front of the house, evidently written in a disguised hand by some person who can write well, threatening me with tar and feathers, and the demolition of the house, unless I left the town. The letter was signed 'Mob.' This I did not think necessary to take notice of, further than to request several of our people to sleep in the lower part of the house as a guard the following night. The next evening (Saturday the 7th) we had just sat down to tea, when a band of white ruffians forced an entrance into the house, and came up stairs into the room where we were sitting. They were nearly all armed with bludgeons.. Thinking they had the appearance of constables, I addressed myself to the two first, and enquired what was their business with me; they answered, they were come to take tea with us. A number of them then seized me, and with much abusive language, cursing me as a preaching villain, &c., forced me backwards to the other side of the room, one of them striking me a heavy blow on the head. One of them having brought a keg of tar into the room, several of them held me

fast against the window frame, while others covered my head, face, and breast with tar. In the meanwhile another of the ruffians took the candle from the table and attempted to set me on fire by applying it to my pantaloons; but, being frustrated in this attempt, he attempted, by putting the candle to the tar on my breast and neckcloth, to effect my destruction; but Mrs. Bleby, seeing his design, dashed the candle from his hand on the floor, by which means it was extinguished. By this time an alarm had been given, and several people came to my assistance;-the ruffians who were up stairs, hearing the scuffle below, left me and went down stairs, and ultimately succeeded in making their escape. It appears that in the dark several of the ruffians were mistaken by their fellows for me and Mr. Whitehorne, the Baptist missionary, whom they expected to find with me, and so severely beaten with their bludgeons, that one is not expected to recover; another has his scull fractured, one his collar-bone broken, and another his thumb disjointed. Mrs. Bleby twice thrust herself between the assailants and me; the first time one of them seized her, and threw her with violence on the floor, from which she is still suffering; the second time she interfe:ed two of the ruffians dragged her away, and attempted to lock her up in the pantry, but could not succeed, as she clung to them, and got out with them. The child was lying on the sofa asleep; but being disturbed by the noise, and beginning to cry, one of the fellows called out, Throw the child through the window,' which Mrs. Bleby prevented by snatching it up in her arms. When they were gone down stairs, she succeeded in getting away through the back door with the child, without a bonnet, and with only one shoe, having been pretty well covered with tar in her efforts to prevent them from injuring me.

"Having made my way down into the yard, the same man who attempted to set me on fire rushed on me, and aimed a violent blow at my head, which I avoided by stooping. I again ran up stairs, and one of them struck at me on the stairs with a bludgeon: but the blow, falling short of me, fell with a tremendous noise on the stairs. I finally succeeded in making my escape over the fence at the back of the house, and took refuge in the house of a person of colour who offered me shelter and protection" (p. 489).

Mr. Barry was asked whether he would not have been perfectly justified in interfering on behalf of the suffering slaves, when he witnessed marked violations of the law. He replied,

"Your Lordships must see the very delicate situation in which we were placed ; a very strong feeling of prejudice existed against our mission, and it was our desire to meet that prejudice as far as we could, and this was also the wish of our managing Committee; if we had interfered in any degree in the circumstances to which the question alludes, the cry would immediately have been raised by the planters, Here are these missionaries interfering between the relative duties of master and slave;' and that would greatly add to the effect of the often-raised though unfounded report, that we were agents to the Anti-Slavery Society at home. We certainly have very frequently, under those circumstances, done violence to our own feelings; but we were restrained entirely by these prudential motives" (p. 494).

The following is Mr. Barry's view of the general circumstances of the men who fill the situation of overseers in Jamaica :

"The men who go to Jamaica for the purpose of being overseers are generally adventurers, who hope to improve their secular interests by that change; they are generally men of humble character in life-men who possessed little or no influence in their own country. Any man acquainted with the general feelings and principles of human nature must admit that there is a strong desire to govern in the human mind-a strong tendency to the possession of authority. These men, when introduced to properties, are, in the first instance, to a very great extent,

debarred from all the advantages of religion and religious worship: it is not necessary for me to go into particulars to prove this; it is well known that such is the case throughout the whole island of Jamaica; and of course whatever elevating impulse or principle they might have previously possessed must, under those circumstances, very soon become deteriorated; independently of this, they have the example of their attorneys and overseers before their eyes living in a constant state of demoralization. While inferior officers upon the properties, they are invested with authority over the slaves, and that authority may be improperly exercised, from a variety of causes; some of these, I have stated, may be excited by a refusal of the Negress to satisfy the impure desires of the person placed over her, and also the influence of passion and prejudice in those men; and I believe it will hardly be denied, that in the same proportion in which they become inured to the infliction of corporal punishment the feelings of humanity become benumbed and deadened. That benumbing and deadening influence will increase in an increased proportion of the infliction of punishment, and the co-operation of these causes I do generally assign as the reason why we see so little humanity among the overseers generally. There may be other causes which will operate, but these I believe to be the principal" (p. 501, 502).

The planters, Mr. Barry admitted, speak a great deal about the amelioration of slavery, but he did not believe that they, including the legislature, were willing to effect it. They might be more willing if a state of amelioration did not include the information of the Negro mind, and thus militate against the perpetuation of the system; for he was convinced they would ever be opposed to whatever was calculated to make inroads on the continuance of slavery. He believed the planters and the legislature to be most decidedly anxious for the perpetuation of slavery, and they have publicly declared their purpose to maintain it (p. 509). The punishment of the whip is frequently aggravated by inflicting further licks with the ebony bush, which contains a number of small but sharp prickles (p. 512).

An overseer, Mr. Barry thinks, has the power of inflicting great personal suffering on slaves without violating the letter of the law. He may confine a slave; he may inflict tremendous punishment within the legal limit of 39 lashes; and even if he violates the law he runs no great risk of detection, slaves being prevented by the dread of subsequent punishment and ill treatment from preferring complaints. (p. 531.)

"An old lady in Spanish Town, a proprietress of slaves, was one day visited by one of our female subordinate teachers, a most intelligent woman; she had previously spoken to a slave belonging to this old lady on the subject of religion; however, she did not think it would be prudent to allow this slave to meet in religious society without the consent of the owner: she waited upon the owner, and told her that she had spoken to this woman on the subject of religion, and that she hoped she (the owner) would throw no obstacles in the way; she said, 'I certainly cannot allow her to pray (which is the general expression for religion in Jamaica); she is a young woman, and I must keep her to breed;' and that was the sole objection which the lady had to her meeting in religious society (p. 531).

Mr. Barry states that the law does not recognize the separation of families; but he is inaccurate in this statement, for there is no law which prohibits either separation by private sales, or separate levies

in execution, though if families are levied upon together, which is not necessarily the case, they must be sold together. He adds,

"A lady, a member of our society in Kingston, of the name of Miss Barrett, unfortunately became indebted; the child of a female slave was seized, I think by the marshal; after the seizure the woman herself came to my house. I lived immediately opposite, and was well acquainted with the mistress, and she told Mrs. Barry that such an act had taken place, and she hoped that the minister would interfere. I was not at home, and knew nothing of it until afterwards; the child was sold, and I knew that woman in consequence to die of a broken heart.-I knew another instance of the same kind in Spanish Town, though not followed by the same effects; it was a young man, the son of a slave woman, who was sold from her, not by consent of the mother; she was totally averse to it; she lived near our chapel yard, and was engaged in cleaning the chapel; and I have frequently seen her weeping bitterly on account of her loss, though the boy was not removed to any great distance" (p. 535).

2. VICE-ADMIRAL C. E. FLEMING.

This officer's evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons will be found in our last number, p. 378-392. In his evidence before the present Committee, he makes a mistake in supposing that the use of the whip in the field was forbidden by the disallowed act of 1826. There was no clause to that effect in that act; a motion indeed was made to substitute the cat for the driving whip, but it was rejected. A whip being exhibited to him, he allows that that is the whip generally used for punishing slaves. He had seen it applied both to men and women when lagging behind (p. 550).

Were any one to tell him the whip was not used as a stimulus to labour he would not believe him. He had never heard it denied (p. 552). In other points his evidence is much the same as in the Commons.

3. WILLIAM TAYLOR, ESQ.

Mr. Taylor's evidence before the House of Commons will be found in our last number, p. 319--341.

Mr. Taylor repeated his belief that overseers have the power of inflicting a very great degree of personal suffering on slaves without violating the letter of the law.

"I have known," he says, "eighteen lashes cause a degree of suffering that was dreadful, and called for notice; but, the law having allowed thirty-nine lashes, the parties who sought redress were completely baffled. The case was one of a young girl of eighteen who received eighteen lashes; it was one on which many men felt deeply, and the chief magistrate of the parish took it up very warmly, and the official people of the parish took it up very warmly, but the overseer set them all at defiance by simply pointing to the statute. It was in October 1830. The chief magistrate was Mr. Custos Maize of St. Andrew's ; the public prosecutor of the parish was Mr.Clement; the person offended against was a girl, Jane, of Temple Hall; the perpetrator was Martin, the overseer of Temple Hall. They carried the thing as far as they could do; it went before the Attorney General" (p. 570).

In this instance, Mr. Taylor thinks that if the overseer had violated the letter of the law, he would have been punished. The cause assigned for the punishment was insolence. The cause she gave was a very different one, and that was believed. He had heard many