36,000; he contrasts with these the silence and indifference of all classes in France; which were so general, that not a single petition from any one town or corporation, was raised against the Article in the Treaty, while, on the contrary, one was presented from Nantes, imploring_the_prolongation of the Trade: so completely, it seems, has France become demoralized!

M. Grégoire comments upon the Sixth Resolution of the Friends of the Abolition, passed at the meeting in last June, (the Duke of Gloucester in the Chair,) in which it is stated, that This Society conceive that the disposition mani'fested in France in favour of the Slave Trade, at a time when a renewed zeal has been excited for the institutions ' of religion, proves, unquestionably, that the true nature and effects of the Trade are not known in that country.'

First,' replies our Author, The inclination manifested towards the Slave Trade, is not the result of ignorance as to its real nature and the effects of this traffic. This inclination is dictated by avarice, horrid avarice, which esteems nothing sacred.'

Secondly, It is painful but necessary to say to this respectable Society, that this novel zeal for religious institutions, scarcely exists but in the desires of real Christians, that is to say, of a few individuals. Some pompous ceremonies are but an equivocal evidence of piety: it is by the reformation of manners that we must estimate its effects. We must judge of the tree by its fruits; and France, contemplated under this aspect, presents a deplorable picture of moral deterioration: "Do to no one that which you would "not have done to you;" "Do to others as you would they should "do to you;" "love your neighbour as yourself:" these are the maxims which emanate from heaven: this is the rock upon which all the paralogisms of covetousness must inevitably be wrecked.'

The Author records the memorable declarations of two pontiffs of the Roman Church, against the Slave Trade; an authority which we have not been accustomed to see exerted on behalf of the general rights of oppressed humanity. Pope Alexander the Third, in a letter to the king of Valentia, remarked, that Nature not having made any slaves, all men had an equal right to liberty.' Paul the Third, in two briefs, dated June 10, 1587, hurled the thunders of the Church against the Europeans who should spoil and enslave the Indians, or any other class of individuals. The Author adduces a similar authority, in obviating the common pretext which he anticipates on the part of the enemies of the Abolition, under the name of reasons of state:

'Cette raison, si fameuse chez les publicistes, que le Pape Pie V. appeloit la raison du diable, est le bouclier derriére lequel se re

tranchent des hommes qui veulent échapper à l'impunité, derriére lequel s'ourdissent les attentats les plus crians contre les peuples.' Wo to the policy, continues our Author, that would found the prosperity of a nation on the misery of others; and wo to the man whose fortune is cemented by the tears of his fellow-men. It is according to the established order of things under the control of Providence, that whatever is iniquitous should be at the same time impolitic, and that fearful calamities should be the chastisement of crime. The individual culprit suffers not always here below the punishment due to his offence, because, to use the words of St. Augustine, God has eternity to punish in. It is not so with nations: for in their collective capacity, they do not belong to the future state of existence. In this world, according to the same Father, they are either recompensed, as the Romans were, for some humane virtues, or punished, as so many nations have been, for national crimes, by national calamities. These calamities are events, to which in England the ministers of religion have often called the attention of their auditory. France, who for a century past, has waged impious war with the Almighty, and with Divine truth, has drunk of the cup of bitterness. Who knows if the dregs are net still reserved for her. This language we must expect to be ridiculed as fanaticism by certain personages: this is one of the lesser trials to which I have acquired the habit of the most perfect resignation.'

Our readers will not fail to appreciate such sentiments as these, which need not the consideration of the character and situation of the individual from whom they proceed, to give them interest and weight. How far the fears which the Bishop expresses for his country, may be esteemed prophetic of the issue of the impending conflict, a few months will probably enable us to form more than a conjecture.

The Author proceeds to compare the outrages of the Europeans upon Africa, with those committted by the Algerine pirates, which it is disgraceful to the Continental Powers not to have adopted long ago the most vigorous measures for suppressing.

And yet will any one dare say,' he exclaims, that the enornities committed by the Algerines at all equal those we have inflicted upon Africa? What would Europe say, if, suddenly, a second Genseric, a descendant perhaps, or at least a follower of the king of the Vandals, landing upon our coast, were to invade us, saying, I come as a liberator?

M. Gregoire ventures to conjectnre the language which the African conqueror might plausibly maintain; and among the examples to which he supposes him to appeal, he cites the pressgangs of England, and the degradation of Ireland. He supposes him to demand of those who pretend that African slaves are

necessary for the cultivation of the West India colonies, whether he has not an equal right to bear away European artists and artisans, as more expert than his fellow countrymen, and as necessary, therefore, to the promotion of industry and of the useful and polite Arts in his states.

A White Code which my paternal goodness is about to prepare, 'shall legalize these measures, and shall be the standard of the Black Codes, published among you for the government of the

'Antilles.'

'I do not see,' pursues our Author, in a fine strain of contemptuous irony which subsequent events have almost converted from satire into history, I do not see what argu'ments could be opposed to those of this second Genseric.

Si le succés couronnoit son entreprise, bientôt à ses pieds il verroit en extase et bouche béante, cette multitude d'individus qui dans tous pays n'ont que des idées, des sentimens d'emprunt. En flattant la cupidité par des pensions, la vanité par des décorations, il rendroit tous les arts tributaires. Au Parnasse, où il faut toujours quelqu' idole, on s'empresseroit de briser les statues des hommes qui auroient cessé d'etre puissans, pour y substituer celles des hommes qui le seroient devenus. Une foule de livres seroient dédiés a Genseric, le grand, le bien aimé, etc: les savans attacheroient son nom à des decouvertes etrangéres à ses connoissances; la plupart des hommes de lettres chanteroient ses louanges; le génie même, ébloui par ses conquêtes, s'aviliroit peut-être en lui présentant des complimens adulateurs sous la forme de menace niaise, dans le genre de celle qu' adressoit Boileau à Louis XIV.

"Grand roi, cesse de vaincre, ou je cesse d'écrire."

'Des libellistes, humblement soumis à la censure de la police africaine, iroient journellement chercher le mot d'ordre dans une antichambre; ils seroient chargés de diffamer les écrivains qui refuseroient de prostituer leurs plumes et tout homme à caractére qui, même sans être frondeur, ne se déclareroit pas admirateur de Genseric; ils répéteroient, jusqu'à la satieté, qu'il est le Pére de ses sujets, l'objet de l'amour et de l'admiration generale; dans l'espérance qu'il daigneroit abaisser sur eux un regard protecteur, ils canoniseroient le Salomon, le Titus, le Trujan, le Marc-Aurele, qui auroit daigné conquérir l'Europe et qui daignera la régénérer: et comme on apprécie presque toujours la légitimité des entreprises par leur issue & les résultats, on béniroit Genseric, on maudissoit son devancier jusqu'à ce que lui même fût supplanté par quelque autre dominateur qui seroit béni & maudit à son tour. L'Histoire de France depuis vingt-cinq ans dispense de chercher ailleurs des exemples à l'appui de cette assertion.'

The Author closes the first chapter of his work with a reference to the sensation produced among the Haytians by the obnoxious article in the Treaty of peace, and the formidable

VOL. III. N. S.

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aspect which they would oppose to an invading army that should attempt to reduce them again to slavery. Their minds are imbued with this principle, that no individual may be deprived of his liberty, if he has not forfeited it by crime and been legally condemned. They know that the oppression of an individual is a menace against all the rest, an act of hostility against all mankind.' If they had had representatives at the Congress of Vienna, they would, no doubt, have procured the acknowledgement that the right of France to subjugate them, is as illusive as that which they might arrogate to themselves of subjugating France.

To debase men, is the infallible way to render them vicious: slavery degrades at once the master and the slave: it hardens the heart, extinguishes the moral sense, and leads to all descriptions of calamity.'

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Here we must suspend our notice of this interesting pamphlet. In our next Number we shall present to our readers an abstract of the second chapter, On the traffic and slavery of the Whites;' the subject of which is so distinct, that it may seem to many persons unconnected with that of the preceding pages. It exhibits to us a clergyman of the most intolerant Church, pleading for universal toleration, and maintaining the consistency of the true rights of man, with the rights of Cæsar and of God.

Art. VII. A Sermon occasioned by the Detection and Punishment of Criminals, guilty of Robberies and Murder in the Counties of Essex and Hertford; preached at Bishops Stortford, March 19, 1815. By William Chaplin, 8vo. pp. 34. Price 1s. Conder,

WE E are not surprised that the Author of this judicious and impressive discourse was strongly urged to give it to the public. Not merely local interest and feelings must have been excited by the circumstances which gave it birth; but the nature of those circumstances, and especially their originating in a practice prevalent to a melancholy extent, and by many regarded with a lenient eye, gives to the subject an universal importance.

In the month of March, 1814, the crimes of burglary and murder were committed by two men, at Berden, in the county of Essex. All attempts to discover the perpetrators were fruitless, until the following January; when two of the Bow-street officers, apprehended two labouring men residing in Bishop's Stortford. In their houses was found a large assortment of picklock keys, together with a complete

apparatus for housebreaking; besides many articles of different species of property evidently stolen. Some of these articles were sworn to by the proprietors who had lost them, and the culprits were committed to prison on their depositions; under strong suspicion, at the same time, of being concerned also in the murder at Berden After a short confinement in separate cells, they both confessed themselves guilty of that deed, each however accusing the other of being the actual perpetrator. At the ensuing assizes they were tried at Hertford, and convicted of robberies in that county,-and the sentence being suspended, they were subsequently conveyed to Chelmsford to take their trials for their deeds at Berden. On Monday the 13th of March, they were both executed in that town; together with two other men for murders in separate and distant parts of the county. Such are the awful circumstances which gave rise to the following discourse.

Although the two malefactors first mentioned were not suspected of fouler deeds, yet it seems they were well known to be great poachers, and received very extensive and lucrative sanction in that nefarious practice.' pp. v, vi.

From the text, Ps. cxix. 158. the preacher draws a striking picture of the various characters of transgressors; expatiates on the grief which the true Christian must feel in beholding them; and presents appropriate considerations on the duty of avoiding of whatever may, directly or indirectly, sunction the deeds of transgressors, on the imperative duty of promoting true religion among all classes,-on personal humiliation,--and on the inestimable excellency of the Gospel, and the way of salvation which it proposes to the guilty sons of

men.

If our limits permitted, we could extract many interesting passages but we must confine ourselves to a single point, the offence, before adverted to, of poaching, or obtaining game and fish by snares, nightly prowlings, and other illegal methods. Happy should we be if we could fix the attention of the religious public on THIS IMPORTANT OBJECT. Few, perhaps, are aware that this crime,-the precursor of the most atrocious robberies and of many murders,-is extensively committed through the country. From thoughtlessness, culpable ignorance, or false inferences from their disapprobation of the Game-Laws, many even respectable persons do not hesitate to buy, for their own use or for sending as presents, the produce of this wicked practice: a practice which, like smuggling, is the bane of decency and industry, of morals, education, and religion, among the poor in many parts of England. By this HORRID PRACTICE, the vast demand of the London market for venison, hares, pheasants, &c., is, in a great measure, regularly supplied!-Many, no doubt, have been participants in this guilt, who, on becoming apprized of its nature and consequences, will shudder,