free people, and not by the masters of slaves. Their laws can never reach, could never cure the evil. There is something in the nature of absolute authority, in the relation between master and slave, which makes despotism in all cases, and under all circumstances, an incompetent and unsure executor even of its own provisions in favour of the objects of its power.'"Slave Colonies," &c. p. 131.

The West India advocate who writes in the Quarterly Review, frankly admits, that it is not to acts of the colonial assemblies, nor yet, in his judgement, to acts of the British Parliament, that we are to look for the means of the most important improvement. If the master be willing,' he argues, there is scarcely any improvement in the condition of his slave 'which he cannot effectuate without a legislative act; and if he be an unwilling agent, a legislative act will commonly afford but a very unavailing remedy.' As regards the personal treatment of the slave, this is to a certain extent true; but, in reference to the Slave Code and the whole social system which it perpetuates in the Colonies, the most willing and humane individual can effect little. The Reviewer cannot be so ignorant as not to know this. Many of the evils are such as can be remedied only by an efficient legislative reform. Mr. Brougham has pledged himself to bring forward a Bill early in the next Session, which shall embrace the following distinct objects:

First; to make negro evidence admissible in all cases, in all courts, leaving of course its credibility to the consideration of the court and jury.

Secondly; to prevent the use of the whip, as applied to women, entirely, and as a stimulus to labour, whether for men or women. Thirdly; to attach all slaves to the soil, rendering them inseparable from it under any circumstances.

Fourthly; to prohibit persons holding West India property, or any mortgage upon such property, filling any office, civil or military (except regimental), in the West Indies.

And Lastly; to secure, by such means as may be safe at once to the Owner and the Slave, the gradual, but ultimately the complete admission of that injured class of men to the blessings of personal liberty.'

With this proposed measure distinctly before him, the Reviewer does not scruple to say: Were we compelled to 'choose between the two, we should much rather trust to the voluntary exertions and sacrifices of the colonists for the improvement of their slaves, than to any laws promulgated either at home or abroad for that purpose.' What does this declaration imply? That, in the opinion of this advocate of their own, the Colonists are men whom no laws can effectually bind or restrain; that the Colonial laws are mere parchment,

and that the acts of the British Legislature would be little better. So convinced is this Writer of the futility of any legal enactments, whether originating with this country or with themselves, that he would rather trust to the bare chance of a slave-master's generosity, whose tender mercies are, it seems, a surer protection for the slave, than the laws! Law. which every where else binds together civilized society, whose voice is the harmony of the world, to whom all things in heaven and earth do homage, the very least as feeling her 'care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power,'-Law, this universal mother of peace and joy," is, in the West India Colonies of Great Britain, a step-mother harsh, and cruel, and faithless, the instrument of the oppressor, the Scourge of the defenceless; or rather, a nullity, an empty form. As regards Colonial Legislation, this is but too true. It remains to be seen,--and surely, for humanity's sake and for the honour of England, the experiment is worth making,whether there are not means of rendering the laws enacted by a British Parliament somewhat more effective.

Against Mr. Brougham's proposed measure, (unless it be to the fourth provision,) it will scarcely be pretended that any specific objection can lie. They are admitted to be desirable reforms, but not now. The whip,' says the Reviewer, cannot be safely prohibited at this moment. Of the expediency of attaching the slaves to the soil,' however, he is not at ⚫ present so clearly convinced: he has not had time to make up his mind, and requires more extensive information.' But he is strongly inclined in favour of the most important boon,'-the making the testimony of slaves admissible evidence;' though its expediency would seem not to be so clear as the friends of the measure have generally imagined. Of the moral grounds for extending to this portion of our fellowsubjects, the common rights of humanity, this Writer seems wholly regardless;-so deeply tainted is his mind with the fundamental prejudice on which the whole system of colonial legislation is built. But Mr. Brougham's proposed measure cannot be charged with being vague, Utopian, violent, revolutionary, or even unreasonable. No doubt, Messrs. Baring, Bernal, Manning, and Co. will profess that the object is even highly desirable, but, not at this moment.' This was the delusion attempted to be practised by the gradual abolitionists' of the slave-trade, to the very last; and Mr. Clarkson remarks, that they were always considered as the most dangerous ene

6

mies of the cause. This insidious but impotent defence will be the last strong-hold of the patrons of an unparalleled system of slavery. But the interests of the Colonies, not less than the claims of outraged humanity, demand an immediate adoption of these unexceptionable provisions. No reason that ought to satisfy the country can be given, why another session, another Parliament should expire, without this act of justice being recorded in the statute-book. Let the voice of the nation say, Now;-for any thing short of immediate redress in respect to at least the first three objects, will be an insult to humanity and a delusion on the country.

But should the present Parliament leave this solemn duty undischarged, Mr. Stephen reminds us, that the Electors of the United Kingdom will soon have another opportunity of exercising one of the most cherished rights and one of the highest responsibilities of British citizens; and he calls upon them to let a regard to this momentous question have the paramount influence it deserves in deciding their suffrages. Mr. Clarkson remarks, at the conclusion of his History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, that the contest had been useful in the discrimination of public character. In private life,' he says, it has enabled us to distinguish the virtuous from the more vicious part of the community. It has shewn as the general philantrhopist. It has unmasked the vicious in spite of his pretensions to virtue. It has afforded us the same knowledge in public life. It has separated the moral <statesman from the wicked politician. It has shewn us who, in the legislative and executive offices of our country, are fit <to save, and who to destroy a nation. It has furnished us ⚫ also with important lessons. It has proved what a creature man is; how devoted to his own interest; to what a length of atrocity he can go, unless fortified by religious principle." The present contest is not less instructive; and the test it furnishes, may be turned to as good an account, not for the purposes of clamour, but of action. We do not say that those who take part with the Colonists may not be honourable men, or, in private life, amiable men, or, in public life, wellmeaning men ;-but they furnish by their conduct, the strongest evidence that they are not men in whom moral principle steadily predominates over any inferior consideration,-that they are not fit to be the legislators of a free people, not politically trust-worthy. A hundred and ninety-three gentlemen voted in the present Parliament, that the Missionary Smith, hurried

* Vol. II. pp. 581, 2.

to an untimely grave, was not punished too severely by his unprincipled persecutors. Let their names be had in timely remembrance. Let every British female that can exert an honourable influence, think of the shameful practice of subjecting women to the whip of a brutal task-master,-of wives. torn from their husbands, and children from their mothers, in consequence of the state of the law which makes them mere chattels, and remember who are the men who plead, in a British House of Commons, for the toleration of these enormities, the cry of which is going up to heaven. Let every Christian minister remember, that this is not a political question, like that of Catholic Emancipation, nor one in which neutrality can be innocent. The blood of the Missionary Smith, the suf ferings of the Missionary Shrewsbury, call upon them to exert themselves within the proper sphere of their influence, in giving a right direction and impulse to public opinion.* It is their duty to inform themselves fully on this question, and to bring forward, in a popular form, the grand principles which it involves, in order that the operation of that opinion may not be blind, impassioned, and momentary, but steady and intelligent, founded on a distinct view of the nature and enormities of the system. Let the claims of 630,000 unconverted fellow-subjects in our West India colonies, be remembered too when the Missionary prayer-meeting is convened, and the address or recital given. Let the solemn and affecting language of the Litany remind the worshipper, of these children of misery, when, to the supplication, That it may please thee to shew 'pity upon all prisoners and captives,' and, That it may please thee to defend and provide for all that are desolate and op'pressed,' he utters the response, We beseech thee to hear us, Good Lord.' And let the luxuries at our tables at times recal the pathetic expostulation of the Apostle, "Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died."

* We notice with satisfaction some efforts of the kind on the part of individuals, to which we can only refer by mentioning the titles. 1. A Sermon on Slavery. Preached at Kettering. By John Keen Hall, M.A. 8vo. Hamilton. 1824 2. Observations upon Slavery; setting forth, that to hold the Principle of Slavery is to deny Christ. By Robert Lindoe, M.D. 8vo. Hatchard. 1824. 3. Is the System of Slavery sanctioned or condemned by Scripture? 8vo. Arch. 1824. There may be some others which have escaped our notice. Mr. Wilberforce's Appeal (8vo. Hatchard. 1823.) ought to be in the hands of every one.

Art. II. Joannis Miltoni Angli de Doctrina Christiana Libri duo Posthumi.-A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, compiled from the Holy Scriptures alone: By John Milton. Translated by Charles R. Sumner, M.A. Librarian and Historiographer to His Majesty. 4to. London, 1825.

(Concluded from Page 18.)

WE have dwelt the longer upon that part of the Treatise before us which relates to the Deity of Christ, because it is the only one on which either the authority or the arguments of Milton can be likely to mislead. We have seen, that he has the advantage of the argument, so far as his objection bears on the unguarded attempts at explication on the part of certain orthodox divines; but, as he proceeds to substantiate and clear his own scheme, he lays himself open to the remark of Waterland, that it is far easier for an objector to shew the ignorance of the other party and to betray his own, than it is for either party to extricate a subject out of all perplexity and doubtfulness. When the Socinian is to prove that Christ is a man only, or an Arian, that he is a creature, and that Scripture can bear no other possible interpretation, they come off so indifferently and with such manifest marks of disadvantage, that they do but expose themselves'-we will not say with this 'haughty bitter polemic, to the pity or derision of their adversaries, but to an easy refutation. It is, as he argues, an indirect proof of the Catholic doctrine,'-a presumption at least in its favour, that whereas there are but three schemes, in the main, Arian, Socinian, and Catholic, one of which 'must be true,'—and it can be shewn that the former two are utterly repugnant to the whole Scripture taken together, the third is the only one that can be true according to the Scripture. We have already remarked, that the Arian creed, with which Milton's but too closely symbolized, is very far removed from scepticism. We should say that it was more nearly allied to dogmatism, which ought to be its opposite, were not doubters the most credulous persons, and sceptics the greatest dogmatists in the world. But what we mean is, that the Arian creed is not made up of the mere negations of disbelief, like that of the Unitarian, but includes a series of propositions far more staggering to reason than even the arithmetical contradiction disingenuously imputed to the Trinitarian doctrine,propositions which involve alike faith, reason, and practice in perplexity.