heaven and hell. As heathens, it is a good thing they have no religion, because they would then require time, and would hold meetings, to perform its rites; and as these privileges or rights would be denied them, it would add to their present burdens the most unbearable of all oppressions, and be the cause of endless stripes and persecutions. Christianity is worth suffering for, but the Pagan superstitions will ever be burdensome and profitless to their votaries.

A species of witchcraft, called Obeah, is very common among the Negroes. Its efficacy is attributed to some infernal supernatural agency. The description which Bryan Edwards has given of this superstition, is, upon the whole, faithful and correct. For this terrible superstition no other remedy has ever been found but the Christian religion, as taught by the missionaries; and that is certainly an infallible cure. It must be acknowledged, that, in this respect at least, the missionaries have rendered an important service, both to the cause of humanity in the West Indies, and to the interests of the proprietors. It has often been observed, and truly too, that in those parts where a missionary has resided a few years, and has met with proper encouragement, Obeah has totally disappeared; while, in the adjoining neighbourhood, where the communication is not frequent, the ignorant Negroes submit to the imposition as much as ever.

When it is said, the Negroes have no religion, such of them as are happily under the instructions of the missionaries must be excepted. Most of these are much attached to the Christian religion, and, considering their condition in life, are very regular in their attendance at public worship, and exemplary in their general conduct. The obvious reformation in the characters and morals of the Negroes that attend upon the missionaries, is frequently attributed, by the planters, to their own superior manage

ment. But the single fact, that no such reformation takes place among those who are not within the sphere of the missionaries' exertions, though under managers equally skilful, is sufficient to refute all such speculative reasoning. That many of the Christian Negroes conduct themselves in a manner highly creditable to their profession, is indisputable; and yet this very circumstance often exposes them to the hatred and persecution of their masters. Could Christianity be reduced to a mere system of moral duties, and divested of its purity and devotional spirit, it would probably excite less disgust and opposition; but while it teaches men to live soberly, righteously, and godly, it will subject its sincere professors, who are slaves, to perpetual vexations. The patience and constancy of some of the Christian Negroes under severe sufferings on account of their religion, are truly astonishing. Neither the whip, nor the stocks in the dark hole, nor their being deprived of their allowance of food, nor the additional work laid on them, can conquer their attachment to their chapel and their Bible. Some among them will, of course, relinquish their holy religion, and sacrifice their brightest hopes, through a timid fear of temporary punishment, or the promise of trifling gain.

Who can reflect on this sad state of things, without feeling a rising sigh of pity that hundreds of thousands of human beings should be held in such a degraded and wretched condition? and that all their children, yet unborn, should be doomed to it "for ever?" A casual view of it makes humanity revolt with horror.

By this system, degeneracy is nurtured, domestic relations are destroyed, and almost every rational comfort which this world can afford, is either forbidden or embittered. To hear the planters talk of the "many little comforts" enjoyed by the slaves, might indeed soften the asperity with which a mere traveller might otherwise

treat the system; while, to a disinterested person, better acquainted with the facts of the case, it would be an outrage upon his senses and his judgment. A transient resident in the West Indies can know little or nothing of slavery as it exists on the plantations. Though he travel the country over, he will still be in the dark respecting this mystery of iniquity. The planter will not, of course, present himself for examination. He is interested in concealing the evils and enormities of Negro slavery. The most odious part of the system is necessarily withdrawn from public view. Every stranger is treated with hospitality; how then can he attribute any thing inhuman to this kind host? But, whatever such persons (chiefly sailors and merchants), on their return to Britain, report in palliation of a system with which they had no opportunity of becoming thoroughly acquainted, should be listened to with great caution. Their knowledge extends no further than to what they heard from an interested party, or saw in the few slaves employed in domestic concerns, or as jobbers, whose condition, generally, is much better than that of the plantation gang.

This diabolical system offers no prospect of speedy alleviation: though sooner or later it will certainly cease to exist. By what means it will be annihilated we cannot predict, beyond that of the gradual decrease of the Negro population. If the present rigorous method of management be continued without abatement, it is highly probable that in a hundred years hence there will scarcely be a vestige of Negro slavery in the West Indies, unless new Negroes be imported; a practice which, though prohibited, it is to be feared is not yet wholly suppressed. According to some of the returns (the writer has not seen all of them) at the last registry, it appears, that in the three preceding years that is, 1817, 1818, 1819-the slaves de

creased nearly three and a half per cent.; and there was no pestilence nor scarcity of food during that pe riod. This decrease must surely be occasioned by some radical evil or grievous oppression. It is always greatest on sugar plantations.

Much of the hardships and cruelties now endured by the slaves must be attributed to the absence of the proprietors. In some of the West-India settlements (it may be so in all), scarcely one plantation in ten is blessed with the residence of its owner. The absent proprietor has his business conducted by an attorney, whose remuneration is ten per cent. on all the produce. The attorney seldom manages the estate himself, nor does he often reside on it. He visits it occasionally-about once a month-to see that the work is going on, and to push forward the making of sugar. The quantity and the quality of the produce seem to be the only things which interest most of the attorneys: all besides they leave to the managers, scarcely controuling them in any thing. That the manager should work the slaves beyond their strength, to prepare as much produce as will satisfy the attorney, on whom he depends for his situation, is not surprising, espe cially as he knows they dare not complain but at the hazard of severe punishment. Besides, the managers take more of the Negroes to wait upon them, and to be variously em, ployed in their own concerns, than the proprietors themselves require: this, of course, diminishes the strength of the gang, and lays an additional burden on those who do the plantation-work. The absent proprietors cannot be aware of the impositions practised on their slaves. Wherever the owner resides on his plantation, the wants of the slaves are better supplied, and their rights are less invaded; but mere hireling masters feel little or no interest in making the Negroes comfortable, and as happy as their condition will admit. Some proprietors of plantations, who reside in Britain, are de

servedly esteemed for their humanity and benevolence, who nevertheless do nothing to ameliorate the deplorable condition of their own slaves abroad. This neglect of an imperative duty cannot surely proceed from any other cause than ignorance of the real state of those with whose circumstances they ought to be intimately acquainted.

The above remarks are to be understood as applying to the condition of the slaves generally. There are, it is to be hoped, some exceptions. Some good masters (an absentee may be a good man, but can hardly be called a good master) are diffusing as much comfort among their Negroes as the nature of slavery will admit, and they find their account in so doing. These exceptions are, however, very rare; and even if they were ten times more numerous, still we must remember, that the uncontrouled will of the most virtuous individual is but a fearful thing to live under. The British nation has done well in obtaining from government enactments prohibiting the importation of Africans into the West Indies; but what single legislative measure have we, as a nation, yet adopted, for lightening the grievous burdens under which those already there are daily suffering; for protecting them against oppression; for raising them in the scale of being; or for securing their posterity from interminable bondage? To nurture this system of slavery is a foul blot on the British character, which every lover of his country should dedicate his whole life to efface."

FABER ON THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY.

(Continued from page 487.) 3. THROUGH these mighty changes, we are now dwelling upon the or ganic remains or the fossilated ruins of the productions of the third and fifth and sixth demiurgic periods; and wonderful are the mercy and goodness displayed in this gradual

forming of our habitation. By such a process, a store of fuel is laid up in the bowels of the earth ready for our use; when, by the increase of the human species, the forests, which always spread themselves over uninhabited countries, should gradually disappear: and secondary rocks, convenient for every purpose of ornament or utility, are provided; when the primary granitic rocks. would, from their unyielding hardness, have been nearly impracticable.

4. With the theory thus exhibited, the actual formation of our globe perfectly agrees: and, what to the Christian is most deeply interesting, this very formation, after it has been thoroughly examined and systematized, serves to corroborate the minute accuracy of the brief scrip tural history of the creation. Thus, in an age of spurious reason and daring infidelity, does proof accumulate upon proof, that the Bible is indeed the word of God.

(1.) Moses assures us, that the primitive waters of Chaos were once universally diffused, so that the dry land or the rocks of the first formation did not appear; and that, when these waters were originally gathered together into one place, and when the rudiments of the earth had thence forthwith emerged above their surface, they did not immediately support any living bodies: for the separation of land and water took place on the third day, whereas fishes were not made until the fifth day. (Gen. i. 9, 10, 20-23.)

Exactly similar is the testimony of Mr. Cuvier, deduced from a close scrutiny into the conformation of the globe which we inhabit.

"It is impossible to deny," say's he, "that the waters of the sea have formerly, and for a long time, covered those masses of matter which now constitute our highest mountains; and further, that these waters, during a long time, did not support any living bodies. Thus, it has not been only since the commencement of animal life, that these numerous

changes and revolutions have taken place in the constitution of the external covering of our globe: for the masses, formed previous to that event, have suffered changes, as well as those which have been formed since. They have also suffered violent changes in their positions: and a part of these assuredly took place, while they existed alone, and before they were covered over by the shelly masses. The proof of this lies in the overturnings, the disruptions, and the fissures, which are observable in their strata, as well as in those of more recent formation, which are there even in greater number and better defined." (2.) Moses teaches us, that the earth was brought into its present state, not instantaneously, but by a series of consecutive operations, which he assigns to several different periods, each period being styled a day.

Such also is the conclusion, forced by the observation of naked facts upon Mr. Cuvier. "The importance," says he, "of investigating the relations of extraneous fossils with the strata in which they are contained, is quite obvious. It is to them alone that we owe the commencement even of a theory of the earth: as, but for them, we could never have even suspected that there had existed any successive epochs in the formation of our earth, and a series of different and consecutive operations in reducing it to its present state. By them alone we are enabled to ascertain, with the utmost certainty, that our earth has not always been covered over by the same external crust: because we are thoroughly assured, that the organized bodies, to which these fossil remains belong, must have lived upon the surface, before they came to be buried, as they now are, at a great depth."

(3.) Moses describes the occurrence of no more than a single formation of each class of vegetables and animals: so that, although many genera may have become

extinct anterior to the formation of man, and although many species of genera now existing may have perished in the waters of the deluge, still no new formation of any new species or genus has subsequently occurred*.

With this account the opinion of Mr. Cuvier perfectly and remarkably agrees.

To a superficial inquirer it might appear strange, that whole genera of now unknown animals and plants should have been destroyed by those primeval revolutions to which our globe has been subjected, and yet that the now existing genera of each should have been preserved. Hence such an inquirer might be apt to fancy, that the destroyed genera and the now existing genera could never have been contemporaneous, but that the latter must have been

lowed and certain fact, of many genera of Gen. It may be said, that the alanimals having become extinct anterior to the creation of man, contradicts the scriptural doctrine, that death first entered into the world through the Fall.

To this I reply, that by the fall man indeed first became subject to death, agreeably to the original penalty imposed upon eating the forbidden fruit: but no then first became liable to it. intimation is given, that the brute creation

Milton poetically represents Adam and Eve, as beholding the slaughter of animals by animals, for the first time, immediately after the fall: this, however, is warranted, neither by Scripture, nor by the peculiar conformation of rapacious and carnivorous animals. On the contrary, as it is a palpable fact, that myriads of birds and beasts and fishes must have perished before even

the formation of man; so it strikes me as highly probable, that, in the way of a merciful warning, our aboriginal parents had been presented with the spectacle of animal death, both natural and violent, previous to the day of their unhappy transgression. They were solemnly assured, that the penalty of eating the forbidden fruit was death. Hence it is reasonable to

believe, that the threat did not denounce that in the death of animals they had something wholly unknown to them, but beheld a striking exemplification of their own fate in case of disobedience.