The return of Buonaparte to Paris, and the reunion of the Alliance to resist his usurpation by force of arms, suspended all other measures; and, although the British government never lost sight of the abolition, it was not until the restoration of Louis XVIII. that any further steps could be taken towards it. By an additional article of the treaty between France and England, on the 20th November, 1815, the two nations renewed their pledge to promote the universal abolition, declaring that, in the mean time, each had prohibited, without restriction, their colonies and subjects from taking part in the traffic. The British Ministry have steadily pursued their benevolent object, by separate negotiation with the different powers. In 1814 the court of Spain consented to limit the supply of slaves to her own colonies ;—in 1817 she engaged that the trade should not be carried on north of the equator; and pledged herself to the entire suppression on the 30th May, 1820, the British government agreeing to pay 400,000l. as an indemnity for her losses thereby. The kingdoms of Portugal and the Netherlands agreed also to the entire abolition. They engaged with us to consent to a mutual right of searching all vessels suspected of carrying slaves; and that a tribunal should be established, consisting of persons of each nation, to decide in all cases of seizure. The concurrence of the Portuguese was obtained by the sacrifice of 900,000l. on the part of the British government. But while the great affair of the abolition was still neglected by the Allied Powers, the British government unceasingly laboured to overcome the prejudices and interests which opposed it;-every concession was wrung from them with the utmost difficulty. Notwithstanding all the endeavours made by this country, and all the pledges given by the other powers, we have now arrived at the melancholy fact, that at this moment the British nation alone sincerely and heartily resists the Slave Trade. Not one of the powers above enumerated has fulfilled its engagements. The French and the Americans have never consented to the mutual right of search, which offers the only means of effectually putting an end to the trade; for vessels under their flag, laden with their miserable cargoes, pass with impunity under the eye of our cruisers; and adventurers of all nations are thus enabled to embark in the traffic, and defy their authority. Nothing effectual will be accomplished until all the great powers consent to this mutual right of search for slaves, and each nation shall pass a law like that of England, which holds the slave-dealer guilty of felony. Sir George Collier, while in command of the British squadron stationed on the coast of Africa, concluded an able and interesting report on the state of the Slave Trade in 1820, in the following words: "Within the last year not less than 60,000 Africans have been carried off, principally in vessels under the French flag. Piracy upon the coast of Africa is increasing. A vessel so engaged has only to show the flag of France, and search by a British officer incurs a penalty. Such is the merciless treatment of the slaves, that no fancy can picture the horror of the voyage, crowded together so as not to give the power to move, linked one to another by the leg, never unfettered while life remains; forced under a deck, as I have seen them, not thirty inches in height; breathing an atmosphere the most putrid and pestilential possible, with little food and less water ;-subject also to the most severe punishment, at the caprice of the brute who commands the vessel." The scenes witnessed by the British seamen were such as to induce the crew of the Tartar frigate, (Sir George Collier's own ship), to offer to subscribe their pay to obtain the condemnation of a slave vessel, though they were to derive no profit from the sentence. Another vessel, called La Jeune Estelle, being boarded by them; an evident anxiety and confusion was observed among the crew, but search was made for slaves without success. The British Officer was preparing to leave her, when one of his men caught the sound of a human voice which proceeded from a cask on deck, and, on opening it, two young Negro girls were found within, in the last stage of suffocation. This induced a further search, and a man was discovered stretched beneath a plank below, in the same exhausted state. After the strictest scrutiny no other slaves could be found, and they reluctantly quitted the vessel. Some time after they had parted company, however, it rushed upon their recollection, that while in chase of the Frenchman, the Tartar had passed several casks floating on the sea; which doubtless contained the rest of the living cargo, whom this villain had thrown overboard to prevent detection; but by this time they had drifted so far to leeward that it was impracticable to examine their contents. Divine vengeance has lately given an awful warning to these inhuman traffickers. La Rodeur, a French vessel, in 1819, carried a cargo of 160 slaves, from Calabar to Guadaloupe. On her passage the ophthalmia broke out among the Negroes, and thirty-six of these poor wretches having lost their sight, were thrown overboard alive as unsaleable. But a heavy retribution followed. The inhuman Captain and all his crew caught the infection, and out of twenty-two seamen, only one man preserved his sight to steer the ship into her destined port. This vessel on her voyage fell in with the Leon, a Spanish slave ship, the whole crew of which were struck blind by the same contagious malady: but the French, unable to give them the smallest help in their desperate condition, abandoned them to their fate, and the devoted vessel was never heard of more! We fear that a strong feeling of despondency has begun to spread itself in England, as to the final success of our negotiations with the other powers of Europe, to obtain the entire suppression of the Slave Trade. But for our parts we do not permit ourselves to indulge this apprehension. Looking back upon the successful exertions of our Abolitionists in 1807, who, from small and most discouraging beginnings, grew into a mighty body which overcame the host of prejudiced and interested men who stood against them, we are sanguine in our confidence that truth and feeling will ultimately prevail, and that the rulers of other nations will render this tardy justice to the voice of humanity. Time is necessary to break down that systematic disregard to the cries of the oppressed, which the sordid spirit of gain employs every effort to stifle; but as better principles advance with better knowledge, a policy more equitable will doubtless be adopted: and those who now dare to defend the Slave Trade, will shrink, as they did in England, from the just indignation of a merciful and enlightened public. But while exertions are thus making to suppress the trade in slaves, let it not be forgotten that our duty does not end there. We are bound to educate the Negroes who cultivate our own Colonies, in the practical faith of Christianity, in order to prepare them for receiving the great boon of emancipation. It is time that the advocates of the abolition should inquire what progress has hitherto been made towards the completion of their main design. Fifteen years have now elapsed, since Great Britain, by law, forbade the introduction of all slaves into her Colonies: and if the Planters, instead of attempts to smuggle new Negroes into their estates, had diligently employed that period in improving the condition of their slaves, we think that by this time the greater part of them might have been reconciled to serve as free labourers, under masters who had learned to treat them as Christians and fellow-subjects. We believe the life of the slaves in our islands is already much ameliorated, for the Act of 1807 made it the interest of the Colonists to enlarge their privileges, and to afford them that knowledge which would raise them from their degraded state. Possibly it may not yet be safe to set them free; the sudden acquisition of liberty by men not duly prepared for this mighty blessing, would lead to consequences equally fatal to themselves and to their masters. But let us remember, that it is our duty to admit them to an equal participation of the rights of freedom the instant it can be safely bestowed, and that until this justice is rendered them, we lie under a heavy responsibility for continuing those shackles which are wholly incompatible with the spirit of Christian liberty. L. ENGLISH EMIGRANTS. "Go then, well worthy of the praise ye seek, COWPER. THE unhappy disposition to foreign residence which is become so prevalent among our countrymen is greatly to be regretted, and (to confess the truth) I cannot much resent the feeling of indignation with which these Emigrants are regarded at home. I had not been in France for some years; but on landing lately at Boulogne, I acknowledge that I came strongly impressed with these prejudices; and, if I parted with a considerable share of my spleen upon finding there some excellent friends, whose rank and conduct commanded the respect of their neighbours, I am not the less persuaded that the greater number of my countrymen abroad would be far better at home; and that, in abandoning their own country, they share in the public odium excited against those of our nation, who, by their vices and their follies, have justly incurred the contempt and ridicule of foreigners. In this, as well as other popular stations on the Continent, the British inhabitants are divided into two very unequal portions. The minority consists of a society of very respectable invalids and economists, whose chief study (next to the care of their health and fortune), is to avoid all collision with the majority, and scrutinize the character of every new arrival, before they venture by look or language, to make any advances of national courtesy. This caution has, |