pected next to deny the rotation of the earth, or that the moon exhibited mutable phases.

But, looking back at the extent of what we have written, we must now return for one moment to the Professor Playfair's work, and then conclude. After remarking that the existing law of gravitation has been wisely selected out of an infinite ' number;' he hints at the existence of a still more general principle, and thus terminates his work :

If we consider how many different laws seem to regulate the other phenomena of the material world, as in the action of Impulse, Cohesion, lasticity, Chemical Affinity, Crystallization, Heat, Light, Magnetism, Electricity, Galvanism, the existence of a principle more general than any of these, and connecting all of them with that of Gravitation, appears highly probable.

The discovery of this great principle may be an honour reserved for a future age, and science may again have to record names which are to stand on the same levels with those of NEWTON and LAPLACE. About uch ultimate attainments it were unwise to be sanguine, and unphilosophical to despair.'

This is language and sentiment worthy a Professor of Natural Philosophy. It would be well, we think, if the ingenious writer in the Edinburgh Review, whose whimsical dreamings relative to a formula which should comprise the trajectories described by every particle of matter in the universe we detailed in our December Number, could attend a course of Mr. Playfair's lectures.

It only remains for us to remark, that neither of these volumes contains the science of optics. Whether it is that this branch of knowledge does not constitute a portion of the Edinburgh course, or that the learned Professor means to treat it separately, are questions on which we must leave those of our readers who may be so inclined to speculate, till either a new volume from the same Author, or a preface to a new edition, furnish the requisite information

Art. Vi De la Traite et de l'Esclavage des Noirs et des Blancs. Par un Ami des Hommes de Toutes les Couleurs. pp. 84. Paris. Adrien Egron, Imprimeur. 1815.

On the Slave Trade and the Slavery of Blacks and Whites. By a Friend of Men of all Colours.

BUONAPARTE has abolished the Slave Trade in France.

With respect to the motives which have dictated this absolute decree of the Usurper's, in contempt of all the opposing interests and other obstacles which we were taught to believe stood in the way of justice and humanity, there is, probably, but one opinion. Unsusceptible of any passion but ambition, the mind of such a man is not to be diverted from its oneness of

object by any consideration of so remote a policy as that of morality, or by any such weakness of feeling as giving way to the opinions of others, or to the convictions of his own mind, one degree beyond what it has become expedient to do, or to feign. All that we can know of such a man are- -his acts. The relation which those acts have to his settled purpose, only a mind of equal capacities of good and evil is competent always to detect: while the hidden motive of his actions is frequently veiled from every eye but that of Omniscience. Nothing, however, could be a more ludicrous misapprehension, or could betray more completely an inability to understand the stuff and texture of such a mind, than the idea that any compunctious visitations of conscience, or any relentings towards good, were likely to prompt him to the inconsistency of virtue. If there were room in the thoughts of Buonaparte, at this crisis of his fortunes, for any other purpose than that of evident policy, one would be apt to believe that his adoption of this measure was in calm, magnanimous derision of the Potentates and Statesmen assembled in Congress, to deliberate, among other things, upon this point of simple humanity: who, after detaining Europe in anxious suspence for so long a period, have brought forth a Declaration on the subject, which declares nothing so clearly as the guilt of all the parties implicated in this hypocritical toleration of the traffic. In the language of this eloquent pamphlet, we may render it thus :-- We know that the Slave Trade is a crime, but let us agree to commit 'the crime for five years longer.' Upon this famous Declaration the simple decree of Buonaparte's is a covert satire, whether designed or not, of the keenest description.

Buonaparte abolishes the Slave Trade in France Henry the Eighth abolished popery in this kingdom. The circumstance by which the lives and liberties of millions may be preserved, is not to be the less rejoiced in, because hypocrisy, or turbulent ambition, blindly working the counsels of Providence, was the agent. How often do we find the means which the Almighty selects for accomplishing the mightiest good, those which we should have deemed both unlikely and unfit; those which human wisdom would have disdained to employ ; or to which human pride would have revolted from the idea of being indebted! The instrument is, perhaps, detestable. The man can claim no gratitude for the benefit he confers. The Almighty accepts the unavailing efforts, the very will and wishes of humble goodness; but He employs the rod of the oppressor, and the sword of the conqueror, to do his work. They are fitter weapons for such harsh and unhewn materials as they are employed upon. He makes the wrath of man to praise him. It is little, after all, that the combined efforts of patriots and philanthropists seem capable of effecting: the circumstances of the world are against men, who have to

proceed with a scrupulous attention to means as well as end, to integrity, sincerity, and honour: while there is something in the unincumbered operations of simple absolute power, hastening to the accomplishment of its object with the indiscriminating force of necessity, that makes us feel how much fitter an instrument it is of vast and extensive benefits, could its agency be but securely directed to such a purpose.

The pamphlet which has suggested these remarks, is one of singular interest. It is written by a man of considerable celebrity, M. Grégoire, formerly bishop of Blois, whose name has been brought prominently forward in connexion with the late changes in France. As we believe only two or three copies of the pamphlet have yet reached this country, we conceive that our readers will not be displeased at our making from it rather copious extracts.

The motto which the Author has selected for his title page, is from an English writer :-

If you have a right to enslave others, there may be others who have 'a right to enslave you.'-( Price on the American Revolution.)

There is a characteristic simplicity in this position, which has the force of a thousand arguments.

The work is divided into two chapters. The first treats upon the African Slave Trade. The Author begins by adducing from Ancient History the memorable conduct of Aristides, and of the Athenians who acted by his advice, in rejecting the proposal confided to him by Themistocles, to deliver his country by burning the fleet of Xerxes.* Aristides, persuaded that even that object would be purchased too dearly by an act repugnant to morality, declares to the assembly that the means proposed would be highly advantageous, but that it is unjust; and it is rejected, In a treaty with the Carthaginians, Gelon, king of Syracuse, expressly stipulated that they should not sacrifice anymore children to Saturn. With these illustrious instances of national virtue, our Author contrasts the Article in the Treaty of Paris, three and twenty centuries after, by which the French are allowed to steal or buy the natives of Africa for five years longer, for the purpose of transporting them far from their country, and from every object of their affections, and of selling them as beasts of burden, to moisten with their labour the soil, the fruits of which shall belong to others; and to drag out a painful existence, with no other consolation at the end of the day, than that of having taken another step towards the grave.

'Aristides and Gelon were idolaters, we are Christians!'

* M. Grégoire's memory has been treacherous. It was the combined fleet of the Lacedæmonian and other Grecian States.

Leaving these facts to make their own impression, our Author then proceeds to combat the different pretexts and evasions, to which the advocates of the Slave Trade have had recourse for the past five-and-twenty years; not scrupling to consider the ministers of the French King, on whom the responsibility of the Article devolved, the organs of the Slave merchants. Referring to the allegations of those who would depreciate the Africans in the scale of intellect,

'One might answer them,' he says, sure of rights. In the eye of the law, ter's equal.'

that talents are not the meaNewton's servant was his mas

The Author quotes, in terms of deserved reprobation, as a blasphemy against Nature, and the Author of Nature, a sentence from a recent French publication, asserting that the Negro is not susceptible of any virtue. The work alluded to, is entitled, Mémoires sur l'Esclavage colonial. Par M. l'Abbé 'Dillon. 8vo. Paris. 1814.' So that, it seems, this infernal traffic was not without its advocates among the clergy of Paris. In opposing the above assertions, he refers to a work, Sur la Litérature des Négres;' and in the Notes, to a publication entitled, Le Cri de la Nature; par M. Juste Chanlatte,' printed at Cape Henry, in 1810, (we presume the production of a native,) which he says is written with the energy of Tacitus. In this is given an account of the infernal invention, of which the Christian White-men have the exclusive honour, of bringing a pack of blood-hounds, at a great expense, from Cuba, whose arrival was celebrated as a triumph, and whose natural voracity they provoked by a stimulating diet. The day on which the first experiment of their ferocity was made upon a Negro bound to a post, was a festival for the Whites of Cape-town, who were assembled round the amphitheatre, to enjoy this spectacle, worthy of cannibals.

But what mode of reasoning can be effectual,' our Author subsequently exclaims, with men who, if we invoke religion or mercy, answer us by speaking of cocoa, of bales of cotton, and the balance of trade? For, they will reply, what will become of commerce, if you suppress the Slave Trade? Do you find an individual who saysIn continuing it, what will become of justice and humanity?'

M. Grégoire informs us of the infamous attempts that were made to represent the friends of the Slave Trade, in Paris, as having sold themselves to the English, and as having voted, at the Constituent Assembly, in favour of England against France. "The feeling which unites all good men in defence of the Africans,' he says, 'was strengthened by the indignation excited by

the libels of certain individuals, who, judging other men by the feelings of their own heart, can attach no credit to disinterested virtue, but always attribute to others the vilest motives.'

Non, la postérité ne pourra jamais concevoir la 'multitude et la noirceur des menaces, des imposteurs, des outrages dont, jusqu'a l'epoque actuellement inclusivement, nous fùmes les objets, et dont plusieurs d'entre nous ont été les victimes: on essaya même, et sans succès, de flétrir le nom de Philantrope, dont s'honore quiconque n'a pas abjuré l'amour du prochain. Puis, d'aprés le langage usité alors, il fut du bon ton de répéter que les principes d'équité, de liberté, étoient des abstractions de la métaphysique, voire même de l'idéologie, car le despotisme a une logique et un argot qui lui sont propres.'

We are informed, in the next paragraph, that privateers were ready to set sail for the coast of Guinea, in the hope that, after the expiration of the five years allowed for continuing the traffic, it would be indefinitely 'prolonged.' This fact, the accuracy of which we see no room to doubt, appears to us decisive as to the wisdom of that Article in the Treaty of Paris. M. Grégoire excepts, however, from the general condemnation to which the planters are subjected, some individuals, who, whether they were influenced by benevolent motives, or had been led to feel the necessity of accommodating themselves to circumstances, had meliorated the condition of their slaves, and had even, in some cases, raised them into free cultivators of the soil, awarding them a quarter of the produce. This system, he adds, had been established by Toussaint Louverture, and is followed up by his successors to the present time, as fully developed in a work on the colonies, and particularly on St. Domingo, by Colonel Malenfant, published at Paris in 1814.

The Author proceeds to cite the examples of Denmark, 'which has the glory of being the first state that abolished 'the trade;' of the United States; and of England; and the subsequent conduct of the Governments of Chili, Venezuela, and Buenos Ayres, which have made this measure one Article of their constitution. He cites the names of Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and anterior to them in the work, the celebrated Frenchman, Benezet, as in the first rank of those to whose persevering exertions, so great a proportion of these results is to be ascribed. He contrasts with the number of the English petitions against the Slave Trade, especially with those from ristol and Liverpool, towns in which, formerly, a friend to the Alcans would have stood in danger of being insulted, the one having 27,000 signatures, the other,