the European or Coloured inhabitants, I will not now stop to inquire. The matter may possibly be investigated in another place. Nor is such an inquiry necessary to the object which I have in view-the repression of such disputes in future.

There are, I am well aware, such is human nature-to be found amongst all classes and colours, discontented individuals, with just sufficient talent to make others as discontented as themselves; and who, at the same time, are utterly reckless of the consequences naturally resulting from their discontent, and, I may add, disloyalty. I had hoped, however, that the strong expression of disapprobation, which had been conveyed by His Majesty's government with reference to the proceedings that took place here, and which the Governor was directed to communicate to the inhabitants, through the medium of a proclamation, would have convinced the most incredulous that the time for dissension has passed. But I regret to say, that I have heard since my arrival, that the seeds of disunion are not yet eradicated,-that the flame of discontent, although partially extinguished, still smoulders in the breasts of some-and that persons are yet to be found in this Colony who, notwithstanding the disapprobation to which I have just alluded, persist in defending the illegal conduct they have pursued, maintain that they were right, affect to believe that their acts will still be approved of from home, and moreover say, that were they again placed in a similar situation, they would act a similar part. To such persons, I would say emphatically, BEWARE! Errors, which are the result of ignorance or misconception, may be passed over; but, hereafter, neither in those who counsel a repetition of the transactions which have lately taken place here, and which have called for the just animadversion of His Majesty's government, nor in those who would adopt such pernicious counsel, can the plea of ignorance or misconception be admitted.'-pp. 1-5.

The speaker then adverts to an attempt which had been made in the December previous, to change the constitution of the colony, and thus breaks out in language, addressed, not so much to his hearers, as to persons in England, who take a warm interest in the moral state of our colonies.

How little, I would ask, do the advocates of Western Africa in England, know of the passions which have lately torn and convulsed this Colony, from one end of it to the other? How little are those benevolent spirits, who have supported the cause of African improvement" through evil report and good report," and who have urged their fellow-countrymen to expend their blood and treasure in its behalf, aware of the species of gratitude which has been exhibited in return? Think you, I would ask, Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, that England will persevere in her exertions for the good of this Colony, if the only return which she obtains, is a reiteration of complaint upon complaint, without one useful plan or object originating with the colonists themselves ?'-p. 6.

The Chief Justice then complains with good reason of the neglect of the regulations which had been made on the part of the government, to effect the draining of the streets and the burning of the surrounding bush: he then warmly enforces the

duty of attending to those measures for securing the public health; and assures the inhabitants that the intentions of the mother country are of the most beneficent description towards the colony, in proof of which he informs them that provision was at the moment making for the enrolment of a militia force within the colony.

The most interesting part of the charge embraces the Chief Justice's observations on the results of employing this colony as a means of obstructing or modifying the horrors of the slave trade; and the language which he used on the occaion seems to us to be a guarantee of the good faith and warmth of determination which actuate the speaker. The remarks to which we allude were appropriately drawn forth by a case in the calendar, of a man who had been charged with having kidnapped and sold to slavery, a boy, under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. The Chief Justice proceeds :

'I have heard-and from the source from which my information is derived, I am bound to believe what I should otherwise have deemed incredible that persons are to be found in this Colony, who, if not directly engaged in, aid and abet the abominable traffic in slaves. That such persons are to be found, I repeat it, in THIS COLONY-a Colony founded for its suppression, towards whose establishment, and in whose support so much wealth has been expended, and so many valuable lives sacrificed: and, further, that men holding respectable stations,-men, having all the outward appearance and show of respectability, are not ashamed-I should rather say, are not afraid to lend themselves to this nefarious, this abominable trade!

'I say, Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, that it has come to the ears of the government of this Colony, that such aid and assistance have been afforded in the fitting out of ships well known to be destined for such unlawful traffic, and that vessels have been fitted out from time to time by persons such as I have described, residents of this Colony, for the Gallinas and elsewhere, with the objects and purposes of which it is impossible they could have been unacquainted. We have not as yet had sufficient proof laid before us, to bring the offence home to the guilty. Let me, however, solemnly warn those to whom the imputation applies, that the eye of the government is upon them; and that, whatever be their station in society, or however great their ill-acquired riches, they shall not, if convicted, escape the severest punishment which the law awards to their offence.

Is it to be tolerated, I say, Gentlemen of the Grand Jury, that this Colony, established for the express purpose of suppressing this vile traffic, should be made a mart for carrying it on? Is it to be borne that this harbour, miscalled-if all I have heard and am led to believe be true-the harbour of Freetown, should shelter within its bosom, while the British flag waves over its ramparts, vessels, purchased after their condemnation by the Mixed Commission Courts, to make a second and a third experiment in the slave trade? to be perhaps again captured by our cruizers, and again bought up by the skulking foreigners who prowl about this place, as the one best calculated for their iniquitous purpose?

'I have since my arrival here taken some pains to ascertain the number of liberated Africans imported into this Colony within a given period, as compared with the number now located in the different villages, and although the census of the latter is not quite complete, I have every reason to believe, that whereas there have been imported into the Colony of Sierra Leone within the last ten years, upwards of 22,000 Africans,* who have obtained their liberation through the medium of the Mixed Commission Courts, and have been located here at the expence of the British government, an expence which, upon the most moderate calculation, including that of the Civil Establishment of this Colony, and of the naval and military force attached to it, together with the sums paid to the higher and subordinate officers of the Mixed Commissions, amounts to 3007. per man, or nearly seven millions sterling in the course of ten years, there are not now to be found in the whole Colony above 17 or 18,000 men! That this decrease does not arise from any disproportion in the number of births to that of deaths, I need only refer you to the fact, that within the last year-and that one of the most fatal known in the Colony-the portion of births to deaths was as 7 to 1. Judging from this ratio, and making every allowance for the necessary casualties, there ought to have been at the present moment an increase of population to the amount of, at least, one-half upon the whole, instead of such a diminution as I have stated. What then is the conclusion to which I come, and to which every honest, unprejudiced, and right-thinking man must come, upon the subject? Why-appalling as the fact may be, and incredible as it must appear to many-that the slave-trade is either directly carried on, although of course not openly and ostensibly, or that it is aided and abetted in this Colony.'-pp. 13—16.

We do not consider these sentiments, and the sanguine terms in which they are expressed, worthy of deep attention, so much on account of their proceeding from an isolated officer, as in consequence of the strong presumption which we are justified in entertaining, that they are sanctioned by the government itself. A vast deal has been done for the cause of humanity in the midst of great obstacles in Sierra Leone; so much, indeed, that it becomes imperative on the government to consider well, what, under a better system of administration, this colony can do in furtherance of its humane policy. The vigorous local government, of which Mr. Justice Jeffcott forms so distinguished a member, may furnish, before long, very good reasons, not to our ministers alone, but to the people of England in general, for retaining and keeping, in a state of due organization, a colony which is already on the eve of being consigned to the list of condemned portions of our colonial possessions.

*To this number may be added those emancipated, by the Vice Admiralty Court, from 1808 to 1819-viz.

13,000

22,000

'Total number liberated since the abolition of the Slave-trade 35,000

ART. IV.-Commentaries on the Life and Reign of Charles the First, King of England. By J. D'Israeli. Volumes III. and IV. 8vo. London: Colburn, and Co.

1830.

THE history of the Stuarts, particularly of Charles the first, affording at all times a prolific source of political warnings and instructions, may be read with peculiar interest and advantage at the period in which we actually live. Most of the states upon the continent have either arrived at, or are fast hastening towards, an epoch in their social condition, similar to that in which Charles found himself involved upon his accession to the throne, and against the natural tendency of which he ineffectually struggled during the greater part of his stormy reign. The question of the monarchical principle which the agitations, caused by the "reformation" brought into discussion nearly two hundred years ago, and which it required fifty years to settle in this country,-still remains to be decided in most of the nations of Europe. France has taken exactly forty years in bringing down the prerogatives of the crown to the level in which they can best harmonize with the rights of her people. Spain, though unenlightened by a free press, will soon follow her example. The people of Belgium have already made great strides towards the same important object, and it is due to their sovereign to observe, that so far as matters have yet gone, he appears to have sacrificed all selfish notions of kingly power to the desire of securing the welfare of his subjects. Germany, too, begins to warm with the sentiment of liberty which has lain so long dormant in her heart, and in the course of a few years the whole continent, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pole, will of necessity obtain free constitutions.

We say " of necessity," because it is impossible not to see that the press of Franee, overflowing with liberal ideas, uttered from the Chambers, or expressed by the able publicists who write in the more eminent journals, will bear to every corner of the continent the torch of freedom. The French language is understood every where. Sanitary laws, despotic decrees, can no more resist its inroads upon distant nations, than they can change the weather, or alter the direction or mitigate the force of the winds. Executive government is every day becoming weaker, not only in the unmixed monarchical states, but in those which enjoy liberal constitutions. The advance of knowledge, the increasing habit of discussing every subject connected with the national interests, are progressively taking the superintendence of public affairs out of the hands of the king's officers. The power of opinion anticipates the resolves of cabinets, and directs or supersedes them, as the exigency of the case may require. The tendency of the wishes and of the operations of mankind is towards democracy. Royalty is becoming unfashionable; courts are beginning to be considered as cumbersome, and

VOL. XV.

etiquette as nonsensical. The privileges of the peerage are looked upon as a remnant of feudal barbarism; their fulsome titles have been already dropped in the French chamber: it is proposed in this country that their rank should be no longer hereditary, but confined to the person upon whom it may hereafter be conferred; in the course of time it will be altogether extinguished. The army, no longer ignorant of the rights of its fellow citizens, feels that it is of the people, and is every where for them. The fact was proved lately in France, with the loss of two thousand lives, and still more lately in the Netherlands without the cost of a single drop of blood. The just complaints of nations, no longer resisted by armed batallions, will, on the contrary, be supported by them, and the rule of despotism will be annihilated.

It has been justly remarked, that the late French revolution resembled, in many points, the revolution of England. Mr. D'Israeli imagines that he has found in the earlier example of Scotland all that was done for liberty in England in 1688. There is no doubt that the proceedings of the Scotch animated the English; they had many common causes of provocation, and kindred rights to maintain. So the unliberated nations of Europe will see in the history of our Stuarts, as in the magic glass of superstition which was supposed to disclose a prophetic vista of futurity, most of the difficulties which they will have to combat, and all the advantages which they may expect to conquer. The history of tyranny is every where the same. So is that of the communities who once firmly resolve to be free. Nothing can eventually oppose their determination. This was true at all times, but in no age more true than in this, when the mere ensigns of ancient authority have lost all their charm.

The constitutional charter of France has wisely separated religion, as an establishment, from the state. This is an example which other nations must, sooner or later, adopt. It is necessary for the interests of religion itself, which is injured and degraded when allied with political machinery. No religion ought to be encouraged which cannot stand of itself; if it require the prop of human laws, it cannot be a true religion. It must be nothing more than a pretext for patronage, a secular institution created by men for their own worldly purposes, and a continued insult to the Deity. The religion which has power to attract and fix men's minds, will exercise that power without the assistance of legislators, and will be infinitely better cultivated if left to its own course. The poorer the ministers of the gospel are, the better; the better they will instruct the rich, the better attend to the spiritual wants of their needy fellow creatures. This is a subject upon which England has much to learn, and will have not a little to do. But the day for this business has not yet arrived, though we can perceive the faint gleanings of its dawn. Here, again, the history of the Stuarts will furnish governments and communities with a knowledge of