Barbados

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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

TWO LETTERS,
SEVERALLY ADDRESSED TO
THE EDITOR OF
THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER
AND THX
EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER,
RELATIVE TO THE
SLAVE-CULTURED ESTATES
OF THE
gocteta for tf)e propagation of tf>t 4£o£pelU

BY THE REV. JOHN RILAND, M. A.
* • *
CURATE OP YOXALL, STAFFORDSHIRE.

LONDON:
JOHN HATCHARD AND SON, 187 I«eBI^DILLY.

MDCCCXXVIII.

ADVERTISEMENT.

IT having been represented to the writer of the following Letters, that a reprint of
the first of them, from the January Number of the Christian Observer, accompanied
with the prefatory remarks and notes of the Editor of that periodical, which he has
kindly allowed to re-appear in their present form; and that a publication also of
the writer's defensive address to the Christian Remembrancer, which the conductors
of that publication declined to insert ; might assist in calling the attention of the
members of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to their Slave Estates in
Barbadoes ; the author offers these few pages to public consideration. All anxiety
to vindicate himself from the aspersions of an anonymous opponent he desires to
forget, in his wish to have the question itself impartially investigated ; with a view,
either to prove that the Corporation has done all that can possibly be effected for
their Slaves, or to stimulate its Agents, without farther delay, to carry on to per
fection the work of improvement, with a view to a safe but a certain emancipation
of their bondsmen. If he is asked, What can the Society properly do in this
respect ? he would first inquire, " What has it already done ? " Have those who
manage the Codrington estates fully adopted, as a commencement of their bene
volent labours, the reforms proposed by the Government ? Have they provided
adequate means of educatiop, and religious instruction to their slaves ? If so, let
them specify the hours of instruction, the names and numbers and sex of the
pupils; the kind of instruction — its progress; the names of their adult Slaves, who,
after more than a hundred years of possession, can read their Bibles ; the names
and number of their schoolmasters, and how long they have been employed. To se
cure the due observance of the Sabbath, what equivalent time have they given the
Slaves for marketing and cultivating their provision grounds ? What have they done
as to marriage? Let them produce the regulations of the estate on this subject.
Have they established a Savings Bank, and taken pains to teach the Slaves its use,
and to encourage their accumulation of property, with a view to purchase their
freedom? Have they given to them a right of redeeming themselves, or
any of their family, with the fruits of their industry and savings ? What precise
limits have they affixed to arbitrary punishments by their managers, overseers, and
drivers ? Have they abolished female flogging, and what is the substitute ? Have
they abolished the use of whips and cats in the field, as a stimulus to labour?
Have they adopted any plan of substituting wages for coercion ? How much land
have they allotted to each Slave for his own use, and what time, as before asked,
do they allow for cultivating it ? As to the labour exacted from the Slaves, let
them produce the series of journals of plantation labour for the last twenty years,
and state in what manner the fruit of their toils has been expended ? Has it been
laid out for the benefit of the Slaves themselves, to enable them gradually to pur
chase their freedom ? or been expended on a college for White inhabitants ? I
might ask various other questions, of which these are a sample, and to which
the members of the Society themselves, no less than the British public, will expect
a specific answer. Let it be seen distinctly what has been already done, and then
it may easily be pointed out what remains to be achieved.

{from THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER FOR JANUARY 1828.

To introduce the following letter
which we have received from the
Key. J. Riland, it is necessary to
state, that in the last Number of
the Christian Remembrancer ap
peared a Review of the Rev. D.
Wilson's "Thoughts" on Slavery,
and a long letter to the Editor by
S. H. P., animadverting upon some
statements made by Mr. Riland in
his " Memoirs of a West-Indian
Planter," and on others by the
Christian Observer relative to the
slave estates of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel.
Our readers are aware that we
have several times expressed an
earnest wish for more ample and
Specific information than we have
been yet able to obtain relative to
the Codrington estates in Barbadoes,
which have been held for more than
a century by the venerable Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts. In our Number
for last May (p. 316), in noticing the
highly interesting Report read and
the addresses delivered at Freema
sons' Hall, we lamented the total
silence which prevailed on this sub
ject. In January last (CO. p. 58),
we had also made the same com
plaint relative to the society's last
year's Report. We might add, that
the new Report, just published, is
equally barren of tangible specific
details, such as the society are ac
customed to give respecting their
other stations. The notice this
very year is only the same, word
for word, which has been published
year after year for many years,
without a tittle of new matter. It
tells us, indeed, that a minister " has
been provided for theNegroes, whose
whole attention is to be" [" is"
still in 1827 just as it was, " is," in
1820, the last Report that happens

to be before us, and we know not
how much longer back— " is to be,"
after more than a century of respon
sible occupation, and after genera
tion upon generation has passed
away into eternity] " to their im
provement in moral and religious
knowledge;" that " schools upon
the national system have been form
ed;" that " time will be [" will,"
still in 1827, just as it was in 1820,
and we know not how many years
before] allowed to the Negroes dur
ing the week for the cultivation of
their own provision grounds ;" but
no definite results — no list of the
baptized, the married, the catechu
mens, the communicants, as in other
stations ; no notice of how many
children and adults actually attend
the schools and can read; how much
time is allowed for instruction, and
many other particulars necessary to
be known. But we must not en
large upon this part of the subject
in these preliminary remarks ; our
object at present being only to in
troduce Mr. Riland's letter,
Mr. Riland, it seems, had la
mented these deficiencies, like our
selves ; and had thought with us,
that the friends of the society, that
our prelates, and clergy, and muni
ficent laity, had a right to demand
from their West-India agents a more
specific account of these matters ;
and he had accordingly expressed
his opinions in his " Memoirs of a
West-India Planter." His state
ments, as well as those in the Chris
tian Observer, S.H-P-, in the Chris
tian Remembrancer, has undertaken
to refute.
We had intended to have taken
up the question somewhat at large
in our present Number, so far as our
own share of S. H. P.'s censure is
concerned, being sincerely thankful
A 2

4

to him, though his tone is not very
friendly towards us, that he has
opened the way for a discussion
highly important, especially to the
friends and members of the society.
We would hope to convince even
our brother Editor, to the much im
proved tone of whose work we most
gladly bear witness, and whom we
are far from censuring for opening
his pages for the discussion, pro
vided he does so impartially on all
sides of the subject ; that his corre
spondent S. H. P. has not given, by
any means, a just statement of the
matters in question ; and, above all,
that it is an unjust and fearful thing
to make the Gospel of our Redeemer
an abettor of West-India slavery.
We hope to convince him that West-
India slavery is an utterly unchris
tian institution ; and to point out the
duty of the society to expurgate
itself from its share of the guilt, (for
the British public now know and
feel that guilt is involved in volun
tary slave-holding, unaccompanied
by wise and provident, but effectual,
steps towards emancipation), by
making its agents do far more than,
from any thing in the Report, we
can learn they have yet done to
wards constituting their slaves free
Christian villagers, labouring for
hire upon their estates ; " not
using their service without wages,
but giving them for their work."
But againwe must check our pen for
the present, leaving Mr.Riland to his
own defence; and reserving ours,
if defence be needed, to a future
Number. We only lament that
S. H. P.- should have allowed him
self, we would hope unintentionally,
to make our work appear hostile to
the Society itself, when every candid
reader must see that our only object
was that its members should really
know how their own affairs stand,
and be enabled to convey to their
own slaves in Barbadoes the same
blessings, temporal and spiritual,
which they wish to secure for the
natives of India or North America.

The Rev. J. Riland to the Editor of
the Christian Observer.
As you have been the immediate
though innocent cause, by reviewing
my work, of my exposure to the
attack of a writer under the signa
ture of S. H. P., in the Christian
Remembrancer, you will, perhaps,
have the kindness to allow me an
opportunity of explanation. We
are, indeed, on this occasion, fel
low-sufferers; and this must be my
excuse, if, in the course of the fol
lowing remarks, I should venture,
indirectly, to include yourself, in an
apology for the editor of Memoirs
of a West-India Planter.
I. I certainly said, that Mr. Cole
ridge found, in 1825, a driver on
the i Barbadoes estate of the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel ;
but I he"veF casl~a~slur"upon the
Society, by calling it " a Christian
corporation, which retains an estate
worked under the whip." Yet these
words are formally marked by
S. H. P. as a quotation. What I
did say referred to the state of things
in 1793; wtar^^yan Edwards de
fended a Christian corporationjjiich,
unquestionably, at that timet.'i.watk-
,ed its estate under the whip/' But
our accuser says, "The whip is grad
ually falling into disuse ; and, in most
well-ordered estates, is only used
as a punishment for theft and other
crimes ; but with the cessation of
the use of the whip, the name of
driver lias not yet expired — a mo
nument of the barbarism of former
times." When, however, the go
vernment at home, in 1826, urged
the abolition of the whip, the Bar
badian legislature declared, in reply,
that the safety of the inhabitants,
the interest of their property, andr
the welfare of the slaves themselves,
forbade them to comply with Earl
Bathurst's recommendations to pro
hibit the punishment of women by
flogging ; and the use of the whip
in the field. To forbid, by legisla
tive enactment, the flogging of fe
male slaves, would, in the judgment
of the Assembly, be productive of the
most injurious consequences. The

5

power of inflicting summary punish
ment, by the whip, the Assembly
considers to be inseparable from a
state of slavery*. Now, sir, the
words in italics are officially address
ed, in 1826, to the colonial depart
ment, from an island containing " a
monument of the barbarism of former
times." Assuming, however, the
correctness of the statement, that
the Society's estate is no longer
worked under the whip f, and also
* Papers presented to Parliament by
his Majesty's command, &c. &c. 1827.
Part I. pp. 271—274. This document
contains 600 closely printed folio pages.
¦f We had not intended to enter farther
into the subject at present ; but we do not
think it right to permit this " assumption "
of Mr. Biland's to pass without a few brief
remarks, which we can fully substantiate.
S. H. P. has ventured to assert that the
corporal punishment of slaves, and the
use of the driving whip in the field, have
been abolished on the Society's estate ;
and ue professes to ground this assertion
on the evidence of the Kev. Mr. Pinder.
Mr. Pinder indeed intimates, that cor
poral punishment is not, in general, re
sorted to on the Society's estate : but this
is no more than every West-Indian pro
prietor is ready to assert of his own estate ;
and no more than the legislature of Bar
badoes have said in terms still more expli
cit of slave estates in general. And yet
that same legislature have absolutely re
fused to abolish the corporal punishment,
even of females, by the infliction of the
whip on their bared bodies. On the So
ciety's estate, we may assume, that a mi
nute record of arbitrary punishments by
the manager is kept. Let it be produced
for the last ten or twenty years, and we
shall see how the account stands. But,
supposing corporal punishment, at the
will of the manager, were abolished, and
the stocks, or the tread-mill, or some other
device substituted for it, what has this to
do with the driving whip in the field 9 Mr.
Pinder does not, and indeed cannot say
that that is abolished ; and the only ground
S. H. P. has for affirming it, is that he
supposes the use of the driving whip in
the field, to be included under the term
corporal punishment, a supposition which
only shews his ignorance of the subject.
He ought to have known, that the use of
the driving whip is no more regarded in
Barbadoes as punishment, than the people
of this country regard a coachman as pu
nishing his horses, when he quickens their
pace by the crack or smack of his whip,
or a rider, as punishing his horse, when
he goads him with the spur. Mr. Pinder
is misrepresented, therefore, when he is
quoted as saying, that the driving whip is

of Mr. Coleridge's assurance that
the property is " remarkably flou
rishing," we have then a direct proof
that the whip is no longer wanted_
not used on the Society's estate* He saya
no such thing. If it has been laid aside,
let it be shewn the exact date when, and
by what kind of order, this most important
change has been effected, and also what
stimulus has been substituted for it; for
even S. H. P. will hardly affirm that the
Society's slaves will work without a sti
mulus of some kind. But we are exceed
ing the limits of a note ; and must reserve
for a future occasion our farther remarks,
by which we hope to convince even
S. H. P. that he and still more the vener
able Society, have been kept in the dark
as to the treatment of their slaves. Be it
remembered, that four or five successive
generations of slaves have grown up from
the womb, and descended to the grave
under the Society. It will remain to be
seen, how many of these have grown up
in civil bondage, and in moral and spiritual
ignorance, living in concubinage, and even
in polygamy, and driven to their labour
like the beasts of the field, and as much
slaves, after more than a hundred years'
" preparation for freedom," as when the
Society first became their owners. We
are at issue with S. H. P. on these and
variousother points ; and we shall be amply
rewarded for our trouble, if we can only
open the eyes of the venerable Society to
the deceptions which, we are persuaded,
have been practised upon them, with re
spect to the real condition of their de
pendents in Barbadoes. In the mean time,
we ask only one question of S. H. P. : Can
he shew that even a single Christian mar
riage has been celebrated among the slaves
during upwards of a century that they
have belonged to the Society ? If he can,
let him give us the number and the dates.
These matters must all be promptly acces
sible to the members of the Society, in the
documents at their office; for it would
indeed shew a most culpable inattention,
if every thing relative to their slave
estates is not minutely registered in
their books, and open for reference to all
members of the corporation. There can
be no reason, therefore, why S. H. P.
should not tell us at once, and without
waiting to send to the West Indies, how
all these matters stand. We ask at pre
sent for no more than exactly such a " Sy
nopsis " as is given of all the Society's
other stations, to which a dozen pages are
devoted in the last Report. Let S. H. P.
present us with such a table for the last ten
or twenty years. It needs not occupy above
a page, and will help us materially in form
ing our estimate of the real condition of
affairs. Does S. H. P., or does our brother
Editor, think this request unreasonable ?
EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.

to support the Wj^Jndja_sjrctem.
" The generaTsubstitution of con
finement," said Mr. Pinder, in 1823,
" for corporal chastisement, has been
found to answer all the ends of cor
rection." I thank the Christian Re
membrancer for the opportunity it
has afforded us of refuting the re
presentations of our opponents on
the great question of the whip.
2. But we are accused of implicat
ing the members of the Society in
" the guilt of being slave-holders."
The mensbers of the Society, I
reply, scarcely know they have slave
estates ; but, of the guilt of slave-
holding, Bishop Porteus says, " The
Christian religion is opposed to sla
very ire its spirit and in its principle:
it. classes men-stealers among mur
derers of fathers and of mothers, and
the most profane criminals upon
eartht" Mr. Burke says, " Slavery is a
state so improper, so degrading,, and
so ruinous, to the feelings and capa
cities of human nature, that it ought
not to be suffered to exist." Dr.
Paleysays, " The West-Indian slave
is placed for life in subjection to a
dominion and system of laws the
most merciless and tyrannical that
ever were tolerated upon the face
of the earth." The deeply learned
and pious and orthodox prelate ef
Salisbury, Dr. Burgess, in his valu
able treatise against the slave trade
and slavery says ; " The very ex
istence of slavery, as long as it is
permitted, must be a heavy re
proach to this country, and a dis
credit to the age which can tolerate
iti Whatever a Machiavellian in
politics or commerce may urge to
the contrary, slavery and the slave
trade ought to be abolished, be
cause they are inconsistent with the
will of God." Bishop Horsley says;
" What can the utmost humanity
of the master do for the slave ? He
may feed him well, clothe him well,
work him moderately ; but, my
lords, nothing that the master can
do for his slave, short of manumis
sion, can reinstate him in the con
dition of man. But the Negro Slave
in the West Indies ! — my lords, you

may pamper him every day with
the choicest viands — you may lay
him to repose at night on beds of
roses — but with all this, he is not in
the conditon of man} he is nothing
better than a well-kept horse. This
is my notion of slavesy." And
again says Horsley ; " No such sla-
very as that in the West Indies- is to
be found in Grecian or Roman his-
tory ! so stolen, so transported !
Who can sanction it ?  Slavery is
injustice, which no considerations
of policy could extenuate ; impolicy
equal in degree to its injustice."
Speaking of the slave trade — and let i
the Christian Remembrancer say
how wide is the link between mak
ing slaves and the tvilling retention \
of them, without a full intention of
giving them their unalienable right
of freedom at the first moment that
it can be done with safety to them
selves and their neighbours — Bishop
Horsley says in one of his speeches
in the house of lords ; " Positively
I affirm, that the New Testament
contains an express reprobation in
terms, an express reprobation of the
slave trade by name, as sinful in a
very high degree. The Apostle, St.
Paul (1 Tim. i. 9, 10), having spoken
of persons that were lawless and
disobedient, ungodly and sinners,
unholy and profane, proceeds to
specify and distinguish the several
characters and descriptions of men
to whom he applies those very ge
neral epithets ; and they are these,
< murderers of fathers, murderers of
mothers, man-slayers, they that de
file themselves with mankind, men-
stealers.' Man-stealing is placed
by the Apostle in the scale of
crime next after parricide and ho
micide. Your lordships cannot
doubt, that this text condemns and
prohibits the slave trade, in one at
least of its most productive modes.
But, my lords, I go farther : I main
tain that this text, rightly inter
preted, condemns and prohibits the
slave trade generally, in all its
modes ; it ranks the slave trade in
the descending scale of crime, next
after parricide and homicide. The

original word which the English
Bible gives, men-stealers, is avSoa-
iroSt<;riQ. Our translators have taken
the word in the restricted sense
which it bears in the Attic law ; in
which the c"ikj/ avSpairoSiafiu was
a criminal prosecution for the spe
cific crime of kidnapping, the pe
nalty of which was death. But
your lordships know*, that the phra
seology of the Holy Scripture, es
pecially in the preceptive part, is a
popular phraseology ; and my noble
and learned friend opposite to me
(Lord Thurlow) very well knows,
that avSpairoBt-rriQ, in its popular
sense, is a person who < deals in men,'
literally a slave-trader. That is the
English word, literally and exactly
corresponding to the Greek. That
noble and learned lord knows very
well, that the Greek word is so ex
plained by the learned grammarian
Eustathius,andbyothergrammariansof the first authority. Although the
Athenians scrupled not to possess
themselves of slaves, yet the trade
in slaves among them was infamous.
But whatever they might think of
it, we have reason to conclude,
from the mention made of ' slave-
trader ' by St. Paul, that if any of
them should ever find their way to
heaven, they must go thither in com
pany with murderers andparricides*."
With the name and authority of
Horsley, I beg to unite those of
Dr. Johnson, who closes his memo
rable argument in favour of the
Negroes, by saying; " No man is by
nature the property of another ; the
rights of nature must be some way
forfeited before they can justly be
taken away." "My dear friend,
Dr. Bathurst," said Johnson, with a
warmthofapprobation, "declared he
was glad that his father, who was a
West-Indian planter, had left his
affairs in total ruin ; because, hav-
* See Bishop Horsley's .Speeches in
Parliament, 1813, pp. 252, 539. The
above brief extracts are detached and
dismembered : his lordship's arguments
should be studied in the addresses them
selves as published by Mr. Heneage
Horsley; their strength being much
diluted' by such scanty citations as those
in the text.

ing no estate, he was not under the
temptation of having slaves." Dr.,
Bathurst died in 1762. I mention
the date as shewing what was even
then stirring in the bosoms of some
among the countrymen of Porteus.
I will only add, as respects the
" guilt" of voluntarily retaining our
fellow-creatures in slavery, what
Mr. Southey says in his recent tale
of Paraguay. The Christian Ob
server may have taken the epithet
" guilty " from this very passage.
0 foul reproach ! but not for Spain alone,
But for all lands that bear the Christian
name !
Where'er commercial slavery is known,
Oh, shall not justice trumpet- tongued
proclaim
The foul reproach, the black offence, the
same ?
Hear, guilty France, and thou, O Eng
land, hear !
Thou who hast half redeemed thyself from
shame,
When slavery from thy realms shall dis
appear,
Then, from this guilt, and not till then,
wilt thou be clear.
With regard to the responsibility
attached to a large corporation, I
fully allow the difficulty of managing
distant agents, especially upon a slave •
estate. " A thousand Englishmen,"
says Mr. Coleridge, "leave England;
and settle on an island in another
hemisphere. How shall they ba.
governed?" Even at home such
things are understood to have
their difficulties. The Quarterly
Review, when speaking of those
archbishops, bishops, temporal
peers, and other exalted personages
who are patrons of the Bible So*
ciety, talks of the " want of fore-.
sight and circumspection in the
ostensible guardians of public insti
tutions." " The high and exalted,
personages," say they, " who lend
their names for the purpose of
patronising such establishments,.
seldom enjoy the leisure required,
for the due superintendance of
their affairs. The management of
these falls, therefore, into the hands,
of busy, incompetent, and interested,
retainers. The noble and venerable
individuals who fill the stations of
president and vice-presidents, are all
of them entitled to the highest re-

s

spect, on account of their private
worth ; but they have allowed them
selves to be deceived by artful and
designing men, who have used their
names as a cloak to conceal their
own views and purposes. It is upon
them that we call to consider se
riously, ere it be too late, a sys
tem of procedure which, we are
sure, minds such as theirs can
not understand without condemn
ing. (Quart. Rev. No. 71. p. 28.)
We would ask the Quarterly Re
viewer and the Christian Remem
brancer, to what corporation such
remarks are to be limited ?
I shall confine, sir, my own
share of personal explanation to
the above heads of accusation ; the
replies to which are of no . further
consequence, than as affecting the
general question of the abolition of
slavery, and the implication of a
Christian society in upholding it.
But I beg your permission to improve
the present opportunity of stating
the actual progress of reform in
the island of Barbadoes ; by way
of inviting the Christian Remem
brancer to explain, by what means
the Society's Negroes have escaped
the general contamination and op
pression surrounding them ; and in
what manner the Society obtained,
with such high success, a body of
agents able and willing to manage
a sugar estate on Christian prin
ciples; selected, as most of them
must be, from the insular commu
nity. And first, with regard to
marriage. By Parliamentary Re
turns (No. 353 ; May 9, 1826), it
appears, that, during the five years
ending Dec. 31, 1825, only one
marriage took place among the
80,000 slaves of Barbadoes; and
this was solemnised in the parish
of St. Lucy by Mr. Harte, — none
having been celebrated before
throughout the whole island ! The
President tells Lord Bathurst
so lately as March 14, 1826,
" that there is no law existing in
Barbadoes, by which the marriage
of slaves is authorized or sane
tioned." In what state, then, have
the Society's Negroes been living,-

under the superintendence of their
minister ; who writes, that " a dis
position on the side of the pro
prietor to impart, and of the slave to
receive, religious instruction, is evi
dent ; nor can there be any doubt,
but that an efficient system of re
ligious tuition, interwoven with
some judicious immunities, under
the guidance of clergymen of the
Established Church, through the
subordinate agency of catechists,
will be readily embraced by most
proprietors." Reform, it would
seem, yet continues to have no
present tense. By a recent act,
indeed (Oct. 1826), clergymen are
permitted to marry slaves, " being
the property of the same owner,"
and " producing the consent, in
writing, of the owner ;" it being
also provided, that " marriages, so
contracted, shall confer on the
parties no privileges inconsistent
with their owners' rights ! " Papers,
&c. Parti. 204.— By^the revised
consolidated slave-code, of the
same date, some new penal in
flictions, by the whip, on the slave
are formally authorised.
In point of fact, the reformation
in Barbadoes has retrograded ; and
will of necessity do so, while its
regulations, as Burke long ago said,
are " totally destitute of an executory
principle." On this point, Mr.
Coleridge somewhat enlightens us.
" In all communities," says he,
" where slavery is established, there
ought to be good laws to protect
the slaves, and independent judges
to enforce their provisions : if there
be neither one nor the other, in
either case one great corrective of
the excesses of the free, one great
guarantee of the safety of the bond,
one great fountain of civilization
throughout the whole state, will be
lost. As long as the slave con
fides in the protection of a power
superior to his master, he will pro
bably labour in tranquillity; but
if he finds that there is no such
power, or that such power is preju
diced against him, it is nothing but
an ordinary impulse of human na
ture, that, in case of oppression, he

should strive to obtain that by his
violence which has been, or which
he suspects will be, denied to his
petition. In Barbadoes, the laws
are administered by some twenty-
seven or twenty-eight judges. They
are all planters and merchants, and
are appointed by the Governor :
not one of them has ever been
educated for the bar ; nor is any
previous knowledge of the law
a necessary or an usual qualifica
tion for the office. They neither
comprehend the extent, nor are
agreed upon the validity, of the
laws which they are called upon to
interpret ; they adhere to no fixed
principles ; they are bound by no
precedents. It is next to impos
sible, in so small a community,
that any cause should come into
court in which some of these judges
will not be directly or indirectly
interested. Their ignorance, or
shallow acquaintance with the duties
of their office, may cause them, in
moments of wrong-headedness or
passion, to violate every form of
law, and trample upon every prin
ciple of justice." Again, says
Mr. Coleridge ; " To suppose that
a major-general or a rear-admiral,
who depends for the best part of
his pay upon the generosity of the
colonists themselves, can effectually
represent the office of the king in
the British constitution, is quite idle.
The principle of honour, which
Montesquieu, with some reason, as
serts to be at least a great spring of
action in all constitutional monar
chies, does not exist in the colonies.
I use the term honour in the sense
of Montesquieu, and mean nothing
with regard to the conduct of indi
viduals. The forms indeed of the
English Parliament are too gigantic
for the capacities of little islands ;
the colonists are not elevated by
the size, but lost in the folds, of the
mighty robe which was never des
tined for their use." Little must be
the sagacity of that reader who does
not see in the above citations from
Mr. Coleridge's Six Months in the
West Indies, a virtual confession of

the confusion, injustice, and merce
nary character of Barbadian econo
my. " Let not the colonists," writes
Mr. Coleridge, in another part of his
book, "imagine, that pieces of plate,
slaughtered men of straw, nor even
grants of money can divert the seri
ous gaze of enlightened philanthropy
from the very recesses of their dwell
ings." Of the case of Mr. Harte,
a correspondent in this very num
ber of the Christian Remembrancer
writes ; — " Had it been the inten
tion of the planters, &c. of Barba
does, to alienate from them all re
spectable men of all classes in this
country, I am persuaded that mea
sures more decisive in this view,
than those recently taken by them,
could not be devised." As a further
illustration of the wretched moral
state of Barbadoes, and of the supe
riority of the free Black and Co
loured population to the Whites, it is
proved, by the Parliamentary Re
turns of 1826, that, in five years, the
paupers among the former class were
one ; and, in the latter, one thousand
and ninety-eight. The respective
numbers of the two classes are, in
the former case, 16,000 ; in the
latter, 4500. " The lower Whites
of that island," says Mr. Coleridge,
" are, without exception, the most
degraded, worthless, hopeless race I
ever met with in my life." See also
his account of the White tenantry.
Yet, one might suppose from the
representations of some persons,
that, on the college estate, a para
dise of slaves was opened in these
wilds of despotism, sensuality, and
practical infidelity ! There may
be, and I doubt not there are, im
provements ; but let us be made
acquainted with their full extent;
and especially what plan has been
laid down for ultimately making
the Society's slaves free labourers ?
Has any system of gradual emancipa
tion been introduced ? Has one day
in the week, for example, been given
them to work out their freedom,with
a right, as their good conduct and in
dustry prosper them, of purchasing
another and another, till they have

10

paid the Society their price and
become free ?
The question now waiting a reply
from the Christian Remembrancer
is, In what essential degree the Ne
groes of the Codrington estate are
treated differently from the rest
of their fellow-bondsmen ? Is the
unborn babe one step nearer be
ing free than its forefathers who
have died slaves in the Society's
service ? Does the Society educate
its children to be Christian freemen.
As to Mr. Finder's picture of the
happiness of the slaves, I could easily
give a parallel, in an account of the
GENERAL TREATMENT OF THE AL-
gerine captives, supposed to be
laid before the European Consuls by
their superintendant, on hearing that
Lord Exmouth was steering towards
the Straits of Gibraltar; — " Pre
viously to the commencement of
their daily work," (I quote Mr. Pin-
der's words, with only a few mutatis
mutandis, as " ramparts" for "field,"
" punch," for " melons," &c.)
" warm tea is handed round to
every individual. Their labour,
from sun-rise to sun-set, is alleviated
by two regular suspensions, of half
an hour for their breakfast, and an
hour and a half for their dinner.
This latter meal is dressed for them
against their return at noon ; so
that the interval is passed in refresh
ment, without care or fatigue.
While occupied in the ramparts,
which they havelately been strength
ening, draughts of water are con
stantly supplied, by a person ap
pointed for that purpose ; who
occasionally gives out also melons,
and other juicy vegetables, which
have been found particularly' ser
viceable to some slaves, born in the
north of Scotland, and who lan
guished a little under the beams of
an African sun. The bastinado is
very rarely inflicted ; milder-punish
ments are found to answer all the
ends of correction. Once a year,
a day is given up entirely to re
joicing. They have a dance in
the court of the prison ; which
the priests of the mosque,

and other individuals are invited
to witness ; and a comfort
able dinner is provided on the
occasion. These, and various
other excellent regulations, being
pursued under the main direction
of, &c. &c." The whole of the
Barbadian statement might be as
easily paralleled— the question re
maining, not how slaves are treated,
but how Mohammedans and Chris
tians justify the retention of slaves ?
What is the doctrine of the Koran
on the point at issue ? Of Chris
tianity, the Bishop of Salisbury
justly observes, it does not merely
" enjoin humanity to the master in
the treatment of his slaves, but
it condemns him for keeping them
at all" Lord Exmouth, however,
convinced the Algerines, by argu
ments peculiar to his profession,
that such representations were fal
lacious : and the consequence was,
the immediate abolition of White
slavery in the Dey's territories.
I am, &c. j. riland.
*%* I trouble you, Mr. Editor, with
a postscript, to say, that the Christian
Remembrancer,though he is pleased
" to acknowledge the politeness with
which I have conveyed my senti
ments," declines inserting a reply
which I sent him, " as it is not his
intention to enter into the general
question of slavery at present." I ad
mire his prudence ; for the Christian
writer, who undertakes to reconcile
Barbadoes slavery with the spirit of
the Gospel of our Redeemer, would
indeed have a difficult task on his
hands : but 1 am not so well con
vinced of his justice, in allowing an
attack to be opened upon me in
his pages, and shutting them against
my reply,though conveyed, as he con
fesses, in an unexceptionable manner.
But the merits of Barbadoes slavery,
he must full well know, will not bear
discussion : but discussed they must
be — they shall be; and though the
Christian Remembrancer may en
deavour to confine all the " reci
procity" to one side of the argument,
there are. I am persuaded, many

11

members of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel, who will
not be satisfied with this prudent
silence, but will institute a full in
quiry, as to what has been actually
achieved, in fact as well as upon
paper, and what yet remains un
accomplished, towards making the
Society's slaves free, and happy,
and enlightened Christian servants
and villagers, instead of the hope
less thrals of West-Indian bondage.
I ask for nothing rash or imprudent ;
but let us have something specific,
tangible, and ultimately effectual
towards effecting the great object
which the country at large demands,

as the clear duty of a rich and
powerful, a Christian, and a mis
sionary corporation. — The writer in
the Christian Remembrancer com
plains of my speaking of" the driv
ing whip"on the Codrington estates;
but as the compiler of the Society's
own Reports does not scruple to
allow of the slaves being designated
by the term " stock," which, in
England means brute beasts, and
not intellectual, human, and immor
tal beings, he ought not to wonder
if they are driven by the usual in
strument employed to drive "stock "
in other places. . R

The following is the letter which I addressed to the Editor of the Chris
tian Remembrancer, but which he declined inserting : —

To the Editor of the Christian
Remembrancer.
Sir, — As theEditor of theChristian
Observer is a party concerned in
the accusations brought forward by
your correspondent S.H. P. in your
Number for December, I have sent
him what I have to offer in reply ;
as far, at least, as I judged a reply
to be necessary. On such exten
sive subjects it is easier to write
vo)umes than paragraphs ; and, on
the present occasion, I have done
little more than copy, in my own
defence, the representations of
others. It is a question of fact, and
not to be determined by decla
mation. What use your editorial
brother will make of my communi
cation has been left, without reserve,
to his own decision. You will, I
trust, do me the justice to suspend
your opinion both of his conduct
and mine, till you have read our
apology. With regard to the paper
of S. H. P., I am aware that the
publishers of periodical works do
not hold themselves responsible for
the whole of what they insert ; and,
in the example before us, I do not
accuse you of authorizing the use
of whatever intempterate expressions
may have escaped the pen of an
anonymous writer, fervent in his
own cause. A question so serious
cannot be affected by personalities ;

and I have no wish to recriminate.
I think that I shall be able to clear
myself of error, and certainly of in
tentional error; and you will sym
pathize with me in the hope, that
from our collision will be struck out
sparkles of truth and charity. My
principal purpose in now addressing
you is, rather to express my regret
that you, in the responsible cha
racter of editor of a work professing
to uphold the principles of our Re
formed church, established, as you
will admit, on a system very distinct
from the despotic pretensions of the
Papacy, should directly maintain
opinions on slavery such, as I hoped,
are becoming obsolete among all
divines deriving their doctrines from
the Scriptures ; and interpreted, as
those Scriptures are, by the formu
laries of the national church. This,
as I think, you have done in your
Review of the Rev. Daniel Wil
son's Thoughts on Colonial Slavery,
contained in the Amulet. You
tell us, that Mr. Wilson cannot
bring " a single text, either from
the Old or the New Testament,
which shews that slavery should not
be permitted, under any circum
stances." But slavery and any cir
cumstances are such indefinite terms
as not to affect the inquiry speci
fically connected with West- India
slavery, as administered by the ex-

12

isting colonial laws and practices.
It is this kind of slavery — I speak
not of other kinds — against which the
voice of the public is now directed.
If it should be pleaded, that the
Gospel justifies the Barbadian sys
tem, I beg at once to retire from
the field. I utterly despair of ob
taining any advantage against a
writer shattered by defences which
I should deem to be impregnable.
But, in respect to the question con
nected with the alliance between
the Scripture and slavery, let me
solicit your attention to what Bishop
Horsley said, in parliament, during
the debate of the 5th of July, 1799 :
— " My lords, I do certainly admit,
that there is no prohibition of slavery
in the Bible, in explicit terms, such
as these would be ; ' Thou shalt not
have a slave,' or, ' Thou shalt not
hold any one in slavery ; ' there is
no explicit reprobation of slavery
by name. My lords, if I were to
say that there was no occasion for
any such prohibition or reprobation,
because slavery is condemned by
something anterior either to the
Christian or Mosaic dispensation, I
could support the assertion by grave
authorities — not by the authorities
of the new-fashioned advocates of
the rights of men — not such autho
rities as Vattel or Tom Paine. My
lords, what is the definition of sla
very in the imperial Institutes ?
' Servitus est constitutio juris gen
tium, qua quis dominio aiieno con
tra naturatn subjicitur.' And they
are called slaves, servi ; because
commanders were accustomed to
sell prisoners of war ; and to save,
servare, those who otherwise would
have been slain. And what is the
comment of Vinnius upon these pa
ragraphs ? That among Christians
this institution of the law of nations
is not in use, because the ' law of
charity has taught Christians, that
captives are not to become the
slaves of the captors ; that they
ought not to be sold, ought not to
be compelled to hard labour, nor to
submit to many other things in the
servile condition.' The Christian

religion gives out general principles,
which will work an amendment by
degrees ; and trusts for the eradi
cation of moral evil to the slow and
silent operation of those general
principles. But, my lords, if you
will conclude that whatever is not
expressly prohibited or reprobated
in the Holy Scriptures, is sanctioned
by them, the inference will be ex
travagant and dangerous. Because
the Christian religion positively en
joins, as it does enjoin most posi
tively, the submission of the indi
vidual to the existing government,
be it what it may, or in what hands
it may ; would your lordships infer,
that the Christian religion gives its
sanction to the injustice and op
pressions of Nero and Caligula ?
Yet, my lords, to all this the argu
ment goes, if from the no-condem
nation of any thing in holy writ,
we are to conclude the approbation
of it ; and, by consequence, the in
nocence of the practice." — "Beware,
my lords, how you are persuaded
to bring under the opprobrious
name of fanaticism the regard which
you owe to the great duties of jus
tice and mercy ; for the neglect of
which, if you should neglect them,
you will be answerable at that tri
bunal where no prevarication of wit
nesses can misinform the judge —
where no subtilty of an advocate,
miscalling the names of things,
' putting evil for good, and good
for evil,' can mislead his judgment*."
— In the debate of the 24th of June,
1 806, the bishop trod over the same
ground ; arguing also the essential
difference between the servitude of
the Jewish Theocracy, and the sla
very of the British colonies; and
adding, " But have we any prohibi
tion of the Slave Trade in the New
Testament ? None, my lords ; abso
lutely none ; and for the same rea
son, the crime, in its modern shape,
was unknown in the times of the
promulgation of the Gospel f." 
Bishop Horsley, I am aware, was
* " Speeches in Parliament, &c." 1813.
pp. 247. 257.
t p. 538.

IS

referring more immediately to the
trade in slaves, but I am anxious to
be instructed, how many degrees^
may I call it of guilt?— are interposed
between such as kidnap, or pur
chase Negroes, and such as compel
these Negroes, when in their pos
session, to work their estates, whe
ther under the lash, or even by the
stimulus of milder penalties ? This
is the main inquiry which demands
the attention of the trustees of
Codrington college. Few of them,
it is imagined, would accept the
devise of valuable property in the
shape of a Roman-Catholic or Uni
tarian Chapel ; and with the un
derstood condition, that high rents
would continue to be paid, from
the punctual attendance of large
congregations assembled under the
faithful successors of Bellarmine
and Priestley ; and that the pro
ceeds, after necessary expenses,
should be devoted to the propaga
tion of the Gospel. They would be
startled at the very mention of such
a legacy, and might consider it as a
kind of posthumous insult, to be
repelled by feelings which would
turn contempt into virtue. The
justice of the parallel must be left
to the decision of casuists not im
mediately concerned in the present
controversy. If any modification
of West-Indian slavery could soften
it into something really like the
servitude of patriarchal times, when,
as Horsley again says, " Abraham's
confidential slave, sent to choose a
wife for his master's eldest son,
found the lady designed by provi
dence to be joined in marriage to
so great a man as Isaac, in the la
borious office of drawing water for
her father's cattle ; and the slave of
Abraham, that came upon this
happy errand, was received by the
parents of the bride with all the re
spect and hospitality with which
they could have received his mas
ter;" or, if the Barbadian system
were assimilated to the slavery of
the heroic ages, " when the slave
and the free-born lived so much
upon a footing, that you could

hardly distinguish the one from the
other; when the Princess Nauvir
caa took a part in the labpur of her
female slaves, and the slave gjrls,
when the common task was finished,
were the play-mates of the princess;"
or, if the bondage of the colonies
were as gentle as the indigenous
slavery of Africa, where between
owners and domestics there is no
external distinction : " they are
dressed alike, they are fed alike,
they are lodged alike, and they are
all employed alike ; the master
cannot legally sell his domestic
slave, unless for crime, and with
the consent and approbation of the
family * :" if these things could be I
But as things really are, " I scorn,"
as Mr. Coleridge says, " with an
English scorn the Creole thought
that the West-Indian slaves are
better off than the poor peasantry.
of Britain : they are not better off;
nothing like it ; an English labourer
with one shirt is worth, body and
soul, ten Negro slaves, choose them
where you will-)-." To the same
effect speaks Bishop Horsley : "My
lords, with concern and indignation
I have heard it argued in this house,
that under the kind treatment of the
planters, the Negroes live as com
fortably as our own peasantry^."
I bring these two witnesses into
court, as affording perfectly unsus
picious evidence to the fact, that
the vice of the colonial system
is incurable, and that the most
benevolent endeavours, on the part
of the society, will be nugatory, till
the entire policy of the West Indies
is altered.
While we who profess and call
ourselves Christians, and mem
bers of one and the same church,
attach ourselves, ostensibly in
the spirit of favouritism, to our
selected societies — divided, also,
from each other by such questions
as that before us — and while, in this
manner, we rend the seamless robe
• " Speeches, &c." pp. 212, 3.
f " Six Months in the West Indies."
2d Edit. p. 303.
} " Speeches, &c." p. 522.

14

of Christ, how melancholy is the
consideration that the infidel by
stander is all the time watching our
movements, and reporting, among
our worst enemies, the discords of
those who ought to assist each other
in unity of spirit ! I will not shrink
from an avowal of the opinion, that
the college estate in Barbadoes is,
at present, stained by the moral
pollution of the general system. Its
slaves may, or may not be, far hap
pier than they appear in Mr. Pinder's
sketch. I do not impeach its cor
rectness, as far as his daily personal
inspection brings him acquainted with
Jitcts; but if — as in all similar cir
cumstances must, more or less, be
necessarily the case — he depends
upon the reports of subordinate
agents, he is liable at least to take
things upon trust ; and who will say
that all who do the under-work of
superintendency are invariably wor
thy of confidence ? We are aware,
at home, of the impositions prac
tised upon the heads of families by
their domestics, and upon public
bodies by their inferior officers; and
it is not extravagant to assume, that,
in what Mr. Coleridge calls " the
land of effeminacy, emasculation,
and vice" (p. 328), the general sus
picion of mankind about the unfaith
fulness of inferior agents, may receive
some degree of illustration. Al
lowing, however, that the Codrington
slaves are in the highest state of co
lonial felicity, they have certainly a
mark round their necks, indicating
their yet being in bondage : they are
not free men ; and so far they are,
they must be, unhappy. They are
tethered within a certain enclosure,
and, unquestionably, work by con
straint for their owners, whatever
be the stimulus to industry or the
penalty of idleness. A sick man is
sick, although he may toss on beds
of eider-down, and have at command
all the powers of Ude. He has, in
deed, his moments of excitement ;
but his happiness soon retires be
fore the succeeding languors.
As the name of Bishop Porteus
has been introduced on this occa

sion, I beg leave to remind you, sir,
of the share.he took in the debate
of the 24th of June, 1806, when he
fought in the same ranks, with the
same weapons, and with the same
success, as his lordship of St. Asaph.
Of the slave trade, he declared, that
the assertion of it being counte
nanced by Christianity was " one
of the greatest libels ever published
against that religion. But it is said
there is no inhumanity in the African
trade ; for that, practically speaking,
we are doing the slaves on the coast
of Africa a great kindness, by taking
them from an infinitely worse con
dition than that in which we place
them — that we save the Negroes
from death, by carrying them to our
plantations. Now, my lords, sup
posing that to be the case, I think
you give them no blessing for it ;
because I think that perpetual sla
very is worse than death*." — I leave
these remarks, sir, to your own con
sideration, as connected with your
apparent wish, the opening of
a new traffic in slaves with the
Ashantees. Allow me to repeat, at
this point, the anxiety of the aboli
tionists to be taught the different
measures of criminality between the
buyers and the stealers of men. If,
indeed, we can be positivety assured
that ten thousandNegroes,purchased
of the king of the Ashantees, shall,
immediately on their arrival in the
West Indies, and after a middle
passage of tranquil enjoyment, be
placed in the circumstances you
describe ; namely, under " civil re
gulations for their well-being, ren
dered as salutary as the wit of man,
enlightened by the beams of the
Gospel, can devise — exchanging ido
latry for the religion qfjesus;" —
if this were really done by colonial
agents, who would merge every other
feeling in a wish purely to make the
miserable happy, and to bless the
bondsmen of superstition with the
light of Revelation, I, for one, would
withdraw my subscription from the
Anti-Slavery, and Church Mis-
* " Substance of Debates, &c." 1806.
pp, 117,118.

sionary, and Bible Societies, and
throw my sovereigns into the trea
sury of a new order of philanthropists,
in the full confidence, that the in
stitutions I shall then have deserted
will lose also thousands of their
present adherents, who will flock to
another standard, and hail the com
mencement of a colonial Millennium.
Till this splendid experiment be
made, or attempted to every practi
cable extent by the present owners
of Barbadian ecclesiastical property
— for such is virtually the college

15

estate — I am too likely to remain
under the influences of that cloud
of ignorance and prejudice which is
said to darken the mind of an abo
litionist. — I am, sir, your obedient
servant, JOHN KILAND.
Yoxall, Jan. 19, 1828.
P. S. The citations from Bishop
Horsley are taken from an authentic
Report ofhisParliamentarySpeeches,
published by the Rev. Heneage
Horsley, at Dundee, in 1813.

As the Editor of the Christian
Observer has complained of the
grievous dearth of information in
the society's Reports, and has re
quested only such a synopsis as is
given at large respecting all the so
ciety's other stations, I append
the heads of that synopsis in the
society's Reports. They are, l.Name
of the station ; 2. The number and
names of the society's agents, dis
tinguishing whether missionaries, ca-
techists, schoolmaster on the na
tional system, or other schoolmaster ;
3. The date of their respective ap
pointments ; 4. The salary of each ;
5. The number of the population,
distinguishing whether male or fe
male ; 6. The number of baptisms ;
7. The number of marriages ; 8. The
number of burials ; 9. The greatest
number of communicants; and 10.
The number of scholars, distinguish

ing whether male or female. It
surely will not be said that these
particulars are not on the society's
books, in reference to their own
slaves, when they give minute lists
of all of them in every Report, for
every other station. To these, in
the case of a slave estate, ought of
necessity to be added some others,
such as those specified in my ad
vertisement prefixed to this pamph
let, and in the Editor of the Chris
tian Observer's note at page 5 of it.
It will be consoling to learn, that
many of these particulars are satis
factory ; but chiefly so, as a basis
for the safe and speedy emancipa
tion of the slaves, under a wise and
equitable system, calculated as much
to do honour to the society, and
to bring down the blessing of God
upon their labours, as to benefit
the slaves themselves.

LATETY PUBLISHED, BY THE SAME AUTHOR,
MEMOIRS OF A WEST-INDIAN PLANTER. Price 5s. extra bds.

Ellerton and Henderson. Printers,
tioDgh Square, London.

3 9002 00571 7369