preparing to leave her, when one of his men caught the sound of a human voice which proceeded from a cask on deck, and, on opening it, two young Negro girls were found within, in the last stage of suffocation. This induced a further search, and a man was discovered stretched beneath a plank below, in the same exhausted state. After the strictest scrutiny no other slaves could be found, and they reluctantly quitted the vessel. Some time after they had parted company, however, it rushed upon their recollection, that while in chase of the Frenchman, the Tartar had passed several casks floating on the sea; which doubtless contained the rest of the living cargo, whom this villain had thrown overboard to prevent detection; but by this time they had drifted so far to leeward that it was impracticable to examine their contents. Divine vengeance has lately given an awful warning to these inhuman traffickers. La Rodeur, a French vessel, in 1819, carried a cargo of 160 slaves, from Calabar to Guadaloupe. On her passage the ophthalmia broke out among the Negroes, and thirty-six of these poor wretches having lost their sight, were thrown overboard alive as unsaleable. But a heavy retribution followed. The inhuman Captain and all his crew caught the infection, and out of twenty-two seamen, only one man preserved his sight to steer the ship into her destined port. This vessel on her voyage fell in with the Leon, a Spanish slave ship, the whole crew of which were struck blind by the same contagious malady: but the French, unable to give them the smallest help in their desperate condition, abandoned them to their fate, and the devoted vessel was never heard of more! We fear that a strong feeling of despondency has begun to spread itself in England, as to the final success of our negotiations with the other powers of Europe, to obtain the entire suppression of the Slave Trade. But for our parts we do not permit ourselves to indulge this apprehension. Looking back upon the successful exertions of our Abolitionists in 1807, who, from small and most discouraging beginnings, grew pre into a mighty body which overcame the host of judiced and interested men who stood against them, we are sanguine in our confidence that truth and feeling will ultimately prevail, and that the rulers of other nations will render this tardy justice to the voice of humanity. Time is necessary to break down that systematic disregard to the cries of the oppressed, which the sordid spirit of gain employs every effort to stifle; but as better principles advance with better knowledge, a policy more equitable will doubtless be adopted: and those who now dare to defend the Slave Trade, will shrink, as they did in England, from the just indignation of a merciful and enlightened public. But while exertions are thus making to suppress the trade in slaves, let it not be forgotten that our duty does not end there. We are bound to educate the Negroes who cultivate our own Colonies, in the practical faith of Christianity, in order to prepare them for receiving the great boon of emancipation. It is time that the advocates of the abolition should inquire what progress has hitherto been made towards the completion of their main design. Fifteen years have now elapsed, since Great Britain, by law, forbade the introduction of all slaves into her Colonies: and if the Planters, instead of attempts to smuggle new Negroes into their estates, had diligently employed that period in improving the condition of their slaves, we think that by this time the greater part of them might have been reconciled to serve as free labourers, under masters who had learned to treat them as Christians and fellow-subjects. We believe the life of the slaves in our islands is already much ameliorated, for the Act of 1807 made it the interest of the Colonists to enlarge their privileges, and to afford them that knowledge which would raise them from their degraded state. Possibly it may not yet be safe to set them free; the sudden acquisition of liberty by men not duly prepared for this mighty blessing, would lead to consequences equally fatal to themselves and to their masters. But let us remember, that it is our duty to admit them to an equal participation of the rights of freedom the instant it can be safely bestowed, and that until this justice is rendered them, we lie under a heavy responsibility for continuing those shackles which are wholly incompatible with the spirit of Christian liberty. L. ENGLISH EMIGRANTS. "Go then, well worthy of the praise ye seek, THE unhappy disposition to foreign residence which is become so prevalent among our countrymen is greatly to be regretted, and (to confess the truth) I cannot much resent the feeling of indignation with which these Emigrants are regarded at home. I had not been in France for some years; but on landing lately at Boulogne, I acknowledge that I came strongly impressed with these prejudices; and, if I parted with a considerable share of my spleen upon finding there some excellent friends, whose rank and conduct commanded the respect of their neighbours, I am not the less persuaded that the greater number of my countrymen abroad would be far better at home; and that, in abandoning their own country, they share in the public odium excited against those of our nation, who, by their vices and their follies, have justly incurred the contempt and ridicule of foreigners. In this, as well as other popular stations on the Continent, the British inhabitants are divided into two very unequal portions. The minority consists of a society of very respectable invalids and economists, whose chief study (next to the care of their health and fortune), is to avoid all collision with the majority, and scrutinize the character of every new arrival, before they venture by look or language, to make any advances of national courtesy. This caution bas, indeed, become very necessary; for the whole Continent, is overrun with our idlers, and adventurers of all descriptions, who bring great discredit upon the British character. I have heretofore seen too much of this in other parts of Europe, and, as a plain Englishman, I have often found it necessary to entreat my foreign friends not to judge of us by such samples, but rather to suspend their opinion of the moral and intellectual worth of our nation, until they can take a nearer view of us on our own shores. The desire to visit distant countries is a natural and honourable disposition, provided it can be gratified without sacrificing those first duties which a good patriot feels towards his own land. Few can command the fortune or the leisure for such peregrinations, without encroaching on the funds and the time which are due to the service of a family and a profession; and even that small number, who by birth and estate are thus entitled to indulge in foreign travel, have no right to waste the opportunity in a course of vagrant amusement; but, amidst the excitements of striking scenery and manners, they are bound to gather as they go such materials for improvement, as every nation, with its peculiar customs and contrivances, can abundantly supply. Bacon says, "It is a strange thing that in sea voyages, where there is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries, but in land travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the most part they omit it, as if chance were fitter to be registered than observation." Valuable knowledge is indeed to be collected every where from diligent inquiry and personal intercourse. A well-educated and right-principled English traveller cannot fail, under these advantages, to bring back a store of information which may be profitably laid out among his countrymen at home. Such a man, whose mind has been familiarised with the character and usages of foreign nations, is sure to return with a heart more warmly attached to the land of his fathers, and a judgment more fully convinced of the national blessings he enjoys. A traveller better known for his eloquence than his morality, has expressed his wonder at the indifference with which so many hurry along from place to place, without gathering either wisdom or profit by the way. He asks, "Who can wander from Dan to Beersheba, and exclaim, all is barren?" Sterne's reproof is exceedingly just; for every cottage, and every peasant face, nay every rock and tree, which passes in review, conveys to an enlightened understanding some pleasing or some useful impression. Such minds are never at a loss;-they turn every incident and object to advantage; "they find sermons in stones, and good in every thing." Among the British travellers abroad are to be seen many impelled by necessity, escaping with ruined reputations and shattered fortunes, from the view of friends and creditors whom they dare not face. Another class are those whose sole object is amusement. Some merely restless and frivolous, never happy but in a whirl; others, of more dissipated taste, impatient of the restraints of English society, and plunging into the excesses of those countries, where morality governs with a looser reign. A third class are the valetudinarians, wandering in search of health; some dragging their wasted bodies to a distance from every comfort that sickness requires; and others of morbid fancy, who persuade themselves that they have every imaginary ailment, and are haunted by a restless melancholy, that drives them from place to place, plunging into every bath, and sipping at every mineral spring, wasting their time and their money in dreary hotels,-for ever miserable. The last class are the economists, who, having acquired habits of undue expense during the period of high rents and commercial speculation, choose rather to part with their country than with their indulgencies. They retire into cities and towns of favourite resort abroad, where they may command at an easy rate many of the gaieties, though few of the comforts, of elegant life. People of this class, I believe, sadly deceive themselves, in preferring self-banishment |