confidence in the men of colour, to treat them as the equals of the whites, to promote the marriages of men of colour with white women, and of women of colour with white men; but to pursue a system directly the reverse with the blacks. Within the first week after the pacification of the colony, he was to order all the black generals, adjutant-generals, colonels, and chiefs of battalions, on service in their respective ranks in the continental divisions of France. He was to put them on board eight or ten ships in the different ports of the colony, and despatch them to Brest, Rochefort, and Toulon; he was to disarm all the blacks, excepting ten battalions of 600 men each, commanded by one-third of black officers and noncommissioned officers, one-third of officers and non-commissioned officers of colour, and onethird of white. Lastly, he was to take all necessary measures for securing the enjoyment of civil liberty to the blacks, and to confirm the orders of classification and labour which Toussaint-Louverture had established. But Le Clerc suffered himself to be prejudiced against the mulattoes: he participated in the antipathy of the creoles against them, who hate them worse than even the blacks: he sent Rigaud, their chief, out of the colony.

The mulattoes were alienated, and they now joined the blacks: Le Clerc placed his confidence in the black generals, as Dessalines, Christophe, Clervaux, &c. and not only retained them in the colony, but gave them important commands. He consented to allow ToussaintLouverture to reside in the colony: nevertheless having afterwards detected a secret and culpable correspondence of this general, he had him arrested and conveyed to France; but the black staff, generals, adjutant-generals, colonels, and chiefs of battalions retained their situations. When the First Consul was informed of this conduct, he was exceedingly concerned the authority of the mothercountry in the colony could only be established through the influence of the men of colour: it was to be feared that by the delay in removing the black chiefs from the colony, the opportunity had been lost. It was impossible for persons who had governed as sovereigns, whose vanity was equal to their ignorance, to live quietly and submit to the rule of the mother-country; the first thing necessary for the security of Saint-Domingo was, therefore, to remove from 150 to 200 of the chiefs. In this proceeding no moral principle would have been violated, since all generals and offi

cers are bound to serve in any part of the state in which it may be thought proper to employ them. As all these black chiefs were in correspondence with Jamaica, and with the English cruisers, this measure would at once have deprived the whole population of its military leaders, and cut off every channel of communication with foreigners. Finally, it would have been much more proper for Toussaint to have returned to France as a general of division, than as a criminal answerable to the mother-country, not only for old offences which had once been pardoned, but for other crimes of subsequent date.

The decree of the 28th of Floreal, 1801, which ordained the continued slavery of the blacks in Martinique and the Isle of France, and their liberty in Saint-Domingo, Guadaloupe, and Cayenne, was just, politic, and expedient. It was necessary to secure the tranquillity of Martinique, which had just been surrendered by the English. The general law of the Republic was the liberty of the blacks: if this particular law had not been made for this colony and the Isle of France, the blacks of those colonies would have demanded the benefit of the general law: the consequent reaction would have fallen

much more heavily on the blacks of Saint-Domingo. Had the government remained silent, and the blacks continued slaves at Martinique, they would naturally have asked why, notwithstanding the law, persons of their colour were kept in a state of slavery at Martinique? It was, therefore, incumbent on the government to say: "The blacks shall be slaves at Martinique, and at the Isles of France and Bourbon; and they shall be free at Saint-Domingo, Guadaloupe, and Cayenne;" and to proclaim the status quo as a principle.

It cannot be supposed that there are men extravagant enough, after the experience of past events, to insist that the First Consul ought abruptly to have given liberty to the blacks of Martinique, and of the Isles of France and Bourbon: the consequence of this would have been insurrections in both these islands, and the continuance of their separation from the mother-country; as well as the destruction of the colony of Martinique, which had just been restored by the English in a quiet and prosperous state. Many thousands of the white French inhabitants would have become the prey of the ferocious African population. As to the continuation of the slave-trade, that could not affect the blacks of Saint-Domingo,

who were desirous that it should be kept up to recruit and augment their numbers: they had encouraged it for their own advantage.

The question of the liberty of the blacks is very complicated and difficult. In Africa and in Asia it has been resolved; but it has been so by means of polygamy. The whites and the blacks there form parts of the same family. The head of the family having white and black wives, and wives of colour, the white and mulatto children are brothers, are bred in the same cradle, bear the same name, and eat at the same table. Would it then be impossible to authorize polygamy in our islands, restricting the number of wives to two, a white one and a black one? The First Consul had several conferences with theologians to prepare this grand measure. The The patriarchs had several wives in the first ages of Christianity: the Church permitted and tolerated a species of concubinage, the effect of which was to allow one man to have several wives. The Pope and the Councils have the authority and the means to authorize such an institution, because the object of it is the conciliation and harmony of society, and not the increasing of carnal pleasures. The effect of these marriages would be confined to the