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these acts were negatived by the English Parliament-the Earl of Dartmouth, President of the Board, declaring, on the last of these occasions, "We cannot allow the colonies to check or discourage, in any degree, a traffic 80 beneficial to THE NATION." All this was done because this traffic was supposed to be highly advantageous to the shipping and commerce of England. England was the guarantee to her colonies. What she sanctioned, they durst not call in question; how could they judge it to be wrong? The Mitigation Society say, that the West Indians ought to remember that they have had the advantage and the usufruct of the slaves." Not so: not they only. The shipping interest, the general commercial interest, the revenue, the political power of England, have all been equally gainers. But at any rate, the nation patronized the trade the nation created the slave population. The Acts of Parliament told the colonists that they were safe in buying-the Acts of Parliament entreated, almost commanded, them to buy. The Acts of Parliament of those days must be interpreted by reference to the mind of Parliament in those days; and, doing so, no human being can suspect that any one of those Parliaments ever contemplated negro slavery as a thing which ought not to be, or the contracts perfected under their eye in regard to that traffic as less entitled to the perpetual protection of their authority, and their successors' authority, than any other species of contracts entered into at the same time about land or stock in England itself. It is clear, then, that the nation is bound to protect these colonies from danger, and to compensate them if they sustain loss. Whatever experiments, therefore, are made, must, in common justice, be made at the expense of the nation. The Mitigators even they are indeed compelled to admit something of this; but it is always attended with a hesitating, detracting, envious, hypocritical sneer; insomuch, that the man who reads the Edinburgh Review or their Reports, and believes that they are speaking bonâ fide, without any mental pharisaical reserve-that they speak freely, and are ready to act fairly, any such

man must really be, as to the matter of intellect, almost worthy of adding one more to their phalanx. He must be the very same sort of person who lifts up his eyes in a pious tremor when he hears HENRY BROUGHAM, ESQ.!!!

Yes, BROUGHAM! talking in St Stephen's Chapel, about "an indignant Providence," and "the awful curse of Heaven on colonial iniquity !”* Euge! euge! euge!-We shall have him sporting a VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY of his own inditing by and by.

Mr Barham, from whom we have already quoted several conclusive passages touching the misrepresentations of the Wilberforce and Buxton party, is the only writer on the subject who has ventured to draw out a specific plan, whereby, according to the supposition, all the difficulties of the case are capable of being surmounted. Immediate emancipation, he agrees with every rational being in considering to be, what Mr Pitt once called it," sheer insanity," (by the way, the Mitigation Society chooses to render these words of Mr Pitt by " an extremely delicate measure.") Ere any emancipation can take place without the gross est injury to the negroes themselves, he says, as all must say, that a long course of moral and religious instruc tion is necessary. But what is his plan? Neither more nor less than that the Government of this country should, de plano, buy up the whole land and claves of these colonies, at a cost, as he estimates it, of, at the least, ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT MILLIONS STERLING. This trifling addition being made to the national debt, he proposes that the Government shall indemnify itself by commencing a mo nopoly of the trade of raising sugar, coffee, &c. in the West Indies. The Government, he says, (but what says history?) will be the cheapest and thriftiest, and therefore the most thriving and flourishing, of farmers and sugar growers. In short, we shall make immensely rich by our speculation, and out of our overplus of revenue be enabled to provide adequate means for improving the moral and religious, and thence, by consequence, and at no distant period of time, the political condition of the negroes.

Mr Barham is a man of clear views,

* Vide Mr Brougham's harangue in the debate on Mr Buxton's motion.

and an excellent writer; and, accordingly, whoever turns to his book will find this plan laid down in all due detail, and the thing made to wear a feasible enough aspect, primâ facie. But although it is at present impossible for us to go into the matter, we suspect our readers will really have no great difficulty in excusing us. To say the truth, we have mentioned the thing not so much with a view to the detail and merits of the plan itself, as with the view of letting plain people see what sort of difficulties they really are that environ a subject of which so many idle and ignorant fools are eternally chattering, without semblance or shadow of anything like modesty or diffidence. An addition of one hundred and twenty-eight millions to the national burden under which we already labour! The prospect of Mr Canning turning farmer-general of the West Indian islands, and of our making rich by means of his stewardship! And then the patronage and the Whig outcry!-But, ohe, jam satis!—And yet we cannot but smile at ourselves for having omitted to state, that it has been suggested, even by Mr Barham, that we might have a company of West Indian Directors! Perhaps the East Indian Directors would be kind enough to volunteer this slight additamentum to their present toils!

Mr Whitmore (the maker of the motion of the 23d of May) came to the support of the East Indian free-traders, &c., and to the attack of the West Indian colonists, on grounds and with arguments of an avowedly commercial character. This was all as it should have been nothing could be fairer than the principle of action which he, like others, acted on, and, unlike others, avowed in the House. But to what does his argument amount? Our steamengines, and other machinery, have, said he, enabled us to bring the cotton of the East to England-manufacture it into cloth-send it back to Hindostan—and, after all, undersell the Hindoo manufacturer on his own soil. For this, says the logical gentleman, we owe some reparation to the Hindoo; and that reparation ought to be made, by enabling him to come into the sugar market of Europe, on equal terms with the West Indians.

Now, in the first place, be it observed, that in spite of fine phrases, this was not a motion for making the su

gar trade free and open, but only for admitting the East Indians to a share in the monopoly which already exists.

But, secondly, we really are blind to the justice of the plan. What you take from the cotton manufacturers of India, pay back from the pockets of the planters of Jamaica. That is the simple proposition. Had Mr Whitmore proposed to restrain the manufacturer of England from competing with the manufacturer of India, as to the Indian market, we should have been compelled to admit, that there was at least a greater semblance of equity in the scheme. But the West Indians, what have they done about the East India cotton? Do they not themselves clothe every negro man, woman, and child, they have, in cotton goods of English manufacture?-and if you take from them the sugar trade, wherein, at the present moment, from a variety of circumstances over which they have as little control, as the Hindoos have over the machinery of Soho, they are not prospering, will no recompence be due to them in their turn, and will the East Indians be willing to pay that recompence exclusively out of their own pockets?

But what is the truth? The English cotton manufacturers are strongly represented in the House of Commons, and the West Indian planters can scarcely be said to be represented there at all.

This is the true root of all this evil. We have established these colonies deliberately-and we have given them colonial governments and assemblies— and we have invested these with privileges and powers, which they have, for ages, exercised under our eyes, and with our approbation. Withthese colonial governments weare now beginning to deal exactly as if they were possessed of no lawful character or power whatever; and what the consequences of this interference may be, is a subject far above us. Will nothing, however, be accepted as a lesson? Have we managed all our colonies wisely and well? Have we kept them all? Is there nothing in the past history of our empire, to teach us prudence at least, if we must say nothing of justice? Are we prepared, either to see these colonies turned into negro-land, or into dependencies of some other Christian power? These are, at least, questions to which our rulers ought to be

meditating an answer. Or if they be already resolved to answer both in the negative, what avails all this idle and timid tampering? Why not speak out NOW?

In regard to the personal character, and for many of the former acts of Mr Wilberforce, we entertain feelings far more respectful, than some of the expressions into which circumstances of more immediate influence may have betrayed us, might seem to correspond with. We allude to the deep and most serious fears which we have been unable to throw aside, both as to the welfare of the British colonies, and the true interests of the West Indian negroes. It may be very true, that government was too long of taking up some of these matters, and that in so far thanks are due to those who urged and impelled the government. That the method of this interference, however, has been most unwise-that the benevolent spirit of Mr Wilberforce has suffered itself to be made both the dupe and the tool of people, with whom he has no natural bond of connectionof whose real objects he even now, perhaps, will entertain no suspicion that their machinations, backed by the

authority of his name, have already been productive of most fearful dangers-that ere these pages see the light, they may have been productive of much worse-and that at all events there is no further need for interference of any kind-these are propositions to which we anticipate no dissent from any rational mind, that has condescended to bestow due attention upon the important matter before us.

We would fain hope, that whatever pertinacity self-interest may dictate elsewhere, Mr Wilberforce at least will take warning, and deny to the chicaneries of the next session that support that not much less than fatal support-which, from whatever combination of ignorance and zeal, he was led to bestow on those of the last. The public cannot be dangerously affected by the declamations, any more than by the calculations, of mere merchants; but there are others who sound a trumpet, to which the English ear is and ever should be alive, and who unfold colours that can never be too reverently honoured, provided only they be displayed under the guidance of Reason.

WHIG AND TORY.

DEAR MR NORTII, You know it has been said by some one, "Let me make songs for a people, and I care not who makes their laws.' If a song can be supposed to be so effective on the opinions of the public, how much more potent an engine is a popular Magazine! That your political lucubrations, diffused as they are far and wide throughout the British empire, have done the state service, I well know ;—as an Englishman, I acknowledge the useful labours of our northern brethren with gratitude, and I willingly offer my tribute of praise. Your essays on these subjects have an energy of expression, and a happy adaptation of humour, which, at least as long since as the days of Horace, has been observed to cut down an adversary with more effect than the most weighty argument. By these means, aided at the same time by forcible reasoning, the public mind has been guided in the right way, and a salutary antidote has been afforded to those

poisons which faction of the worst description is continually scattering in the way of the heedless, through the channel of a licentious press. In this beneficial labour the pen of your friend Tickler is eminently conspicuous. Like the Roman moralist, to whom I have already made allusion, he exposes his adversaries to ridicule. He excites, indeed, the smiles of his friends, but his touch is sharper than that of the Bard of the Sabine Villa; he brandishes the scalping knife of the Poet of Aquinum; and if he tickles, it is with a cat o' nine tails.

After this ample admission of the merits of this and other able contributors to your respectable miscellany, as well as those of your own composition, I cannot refrain from taking the liberty of pointing out one particular, in which I think that you, he, and all the rest of your critical and political fraternity, have fallen into an egregious error. Let us calmly argue the point, and I do not despair of convincing you that

my view of the subject is correct, and that you will be induced to change that language, which, I must confess, gives me pain. You and your friends, the votaries of the incomparable Maga, all agree in calling yourselves Tories! I positively deny that you have any right or claim to this obnoxious appellation. What is a Tory? Consult history-examine their tenets-scrutinize their doctrines. Do they agree with you in any one point except in an opposition to the Whigs; and when I say the Whigs, I consider your abhorrence of that clamorous corps, as confined to the modern Whigs, whom Burke has well demonstrated to be utterly unlike their ancient predecessors. They bear the same name, indeed, but they have no more resemblance to each other than there is between Alexander the Great, and Alexander the coppersmith; the character of the Whigs of the nineteenth century, is no more that of the patriots who effected the glorious Revolution of 1688, than Lords Somers, Godolphin, and their compeers, were copies of the sour covenanters of the North, from whom the term was originally borrowed, and thrown in the face of the friends of freedom by their slavish adversaries. As a retort courteous, the Liberals of those days (they will pardon me for using a word which is at this moment in bad odour) bestowed on their opponents the nick-name of Tory, which belonged to a savage horde of Irish banditti, the genuine prototype of those wretches who, in the present time, harass that unhappy country by their nocturnal murthers and conflagrations.

This, good Mr North, is not a title to be proud of, though persons of respectability have been willing to be thus characterised, in opposition to the Whigs, without too nicely canvassing the origin and etymology of the name. But what was the political creed of the Tory faction at the era of 1688? Their distinguishing tenets consisted in a firm belief in the divine right of kings, a horror of opposition to regal authority, however tyrannically used, all which was to be submitted to with passive obedience; and resistance to the most arbitrary authority was strongly deprecated. These notions might be pardonable in men who had so recently suffered the overbearing despotism of unfeeling and cruel ReVOL. XIV.

publicans of all tyranny the worst. Whilst such were their politics, in religion, although they did not entirely abandon the Reformed doctrines, or Church of England, they were supposed to look on the Church of Rome with a partial eye, as its discipline was more favourable to subdue the feelings of freedom in the minds of its votaries, who were trained to a necessary degree of flexibility by the over-ruling influence of the priesthood. They could even overlook the intolerant bigotry of James, for the sake of obtaining, what was to them, the gratifying quiescence of his absolute sway.

The Whigs of the epoch of the Revolution, were the very reverse of all this:-Liberty was the great object of their care; but they had the good sense to see that the prerogative of the crown was necessary to establish it. They knew that this essential weight was requisite to keep the whole machine in order;-nothing less could restrain the ambition of the aristocracy, and the turbulence of an emancipated people. With the greatest wisdom, they defined the duties, as well as the rights, of the governed, and of those who govern. They saw the connection between arbitrary power and Catholicism ;-they set King William on the throne, and took effectual means to secure the Protestant ascendancy.

Having thus taken a rapid view of these two parties, as they heretofore existed, let us see to which class Esquires North, Tickler, and Co. properly belong. Do we see, in their writings, a desire to invest the Sovereign with absolute power? Whilst they venerate and love our amiable Monarch, and whilst they record con amore all the homage of affectionate duty paid to him by his northern subjects during his visit to their fine metropolis, we do not see them casting themselves under the wheels of the Idol of Toryism, which, like the Indian Juggernaut, crushes its devoted worshippers. Do we see them courting and flirting with the old Lady of the seven hills, and attempting to bring her into rivalship with her reformed, but (by her) reprobated Daughter? No-Mr North, your sentiments and your arguments all savour of those which I have attributed to the Whigs of former days. Are you then, my good friends, Whigs, and have you been

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talking the language of Whiggism as Moliere's Mons. Jourdan did prose all his days without knowing it? No, you are not Whigs-the name which was honourable in King William's time, is so no longer. The adage, no less true than trite, will well apply here, Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.

The supporters of the throne are become more enlightened; they have seen the charms of liberty, and they are convinced of the danger of unlimited power even to the hand that wields it. They have actually taken post on the very ground occupied by the patriots of 1688; and their adversaries, for the mere sake of opposing them, have left their original station, and retired to the very confines of republicanism. Here they were met by a band of still fiercer foes, the Radical Reformers. These enthusiasts, with more or less affectation of adherence to the pure principles of the constitution, have evinced a determination to overturn every stone of that venerable fabric raised by the wisdom of our ancestors. Some of these innovators may be dupes; but the great mass of them shew, with little disguise, that their grand object is the plunder which must fall to the lot of the most daring amidst the general scramble. It cannot be denied, that these miscreants are the offspring of the Whigs. The wind of their breath in the inflammatory speeches in Parliament, în tavern dinners, and Palace-yard meetings, like the fabled impregnation of the classical mares, by the afflation of Zephyrus, has engendered these monsters. This Hippomanic progeny have a strong resemblance to their origin; but, like the religious sects which approach nearest to each other without actual coincidence, their repulsion is increased according to the ratio of approximation. But the parent and child are far from acknowledging their mutual affinity. The Whig, like Sa

tan at the infernal gate, on beholding the hideous features of Anarchy and her brood, is ready to tell these terrific spectres,

I know ye not-nor ever saw till now Sight more detestable than them and thee But the Radicals, more savage than Milton's hellish crew, stand firm and unreconciled to those who gave them being; satisfied that their own efforts will in time enable them to satiate their " immeasurable famine," they admit not these allies.

Far be it from me to imagine, that you, the loyal supporters of the constitution, are to be classed with those unfortunate Whigs, who have deserted the principles of their predecessors, and are now rejected on all sides. Let them possess and enjoy their ancient appellation-it suits them well-it declares the stock from whence they sprung. But let the word Tory be erased from the political vocabulary of the present day let this shadow of a name vanish with the doctrines which are now extinct, and which are, I believe, scouted by every Englishman. Divest yourself, my good Christopher, without delay, of this odious appellation; let it be no more heard under the social tent on the heath, or in the Ambrosian festivities of the Divan in Auld Reekie. Names are of much power in fixing the opinions of mankind. Not a few persons may be repelled from the instruction of your pages, because they hear that Christopher North is a Tory!

If a distinguishing title is necessary to a true Briton, let one be found that will make manifest your real sentiments, unmixed with the slang of party. Be assured that such an adop tion would be duly appreciated; it will raise you in the estimation of your contemporaries, and your name will then go down to remote posterity with a higher degree of honour.

Semper honos, nomenque tuum, laudesque manebunt.

Believe me, dear Mr North,

Your steady friend and admirer,

SILURIENSIS.

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