LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

WORKS IN THE PRESS.

The Rev. Henry Card, M.A. Vicar of Great Malvern, has been for some time engaged in preparing a Life of Bishop Burnet, drawn from Papers partly preserved in the Library of the British Museum, and partly in the Archives of one or two noble Families. He is induced to make this statement in the hope that other Families may make similar communications.

Dr. A. Tilloch will shortly publish, Dissertations, introductory to the Study and right Understanding of the Language, Structure, and Contents of the Apocalypse.

The Rev. James Bean has in the Press a second Edition of his Sermons, entitled, Parochial Instruction.

A Work, entitled, Metrical Medulla of the Chronicles of England, from the Conquest to the Death of George III. With Notes, drawn from the Harleian MSS. and from Authorities not accessible to common Readers, in one Volume, is preparing for Publication.

A Memoir of Central India, with the History, and Copious Illustrations of the past and present Condition of that Country. By Sir John Malcolm. In two Vols. 8vo. with an Original Map, a Geological Report, and Comprehensive Index, is in the Press.

Mr. Charles Dubois, F.L.S. is about to publish in a small Volume, An Easy Introduction to Lamark's Arrangement of the Genera of Shells; being a Free Translation of that Part of his Work (L'Histoire des Animaux sons Vertébres,) which treats on Mallusca with Testaceous Covering: to which are added Illustrative Remarks, Additional Observations, and a Synoptic Table.

Captain A. Cruise, of the 84th Regiment, has in the Press, A Journal of a Ten Months' Residence in New Zealand, which will appear next Month in an 8vo. Volume.

The Author of Domestic Scenes has nearly ready for publication, a New Novel, entitled, Self-Delusion; or, Adelaide d'Hauteroche, in three Vols.

The Rev. G. Wilkins, Author of the History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, &c. &c. will shortly publish in a duodecimo Volume, An Antidote to the Poison of Scepticism.

Mr. Robert Meikleham, Civil Engineer, has in the Press,

A Practical Treatise on the Various Methods of Heating Buildings by Steam, Hot-Air, Stoves, and Open Fires; with some Introductory Observations on the Combustion of Fuel; on the Contrivances for Burning Smoke; and other Subjects connected with the Economy and Distribution of Heat. With numerous Explanatory Engravings.

James Shergold Boone, M.A. will publish in a few days, a Poetical Sketch, in three Epistles, addressed to the Right Honourable George Canning, entitled, Men and Things in 1823.

Dr. Forster is about to publish, Illustrations of the Mode of Maintaining Health, Curing Diseases, and Protracting Longevity, by attention to the State of the Digestive Organs; with Popular Observations on the Influence of Peculiarities of Air, of Diet, and of Exercise, on the Human System. In one Vol. 8vo.

Mr. Earle has in the Press a Work, containing Practical Remarks on Fractures at the Upper Part of the Thigh, and particularly Fractures within the Capsular Ligament; with Critical Observations on Sir Astley Cooper's Treatise on that Subject, and a Description of a Bed for the Relief of Patients suffering under these Accidents and other Injuries and Diseases which require a State of Permanent Rest, &c. &c.

The Rev. R. Warner will shortly publish the first Part of, Illustrations Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous, of the Novels by the Author of Waverley, with Criticisms General and Particular.

Historical Notices of Two Characters in Peveril of the Peak, are preparing for publication.

A New Novel will appear in the course of a few days, entitled, Edward Neville, or, the Memoirs of an Orphan. In three Vols.

Mr. Thomas Taylor, the Platonist, is engaged in preparing for the Press, a Mathematical Work, entitled, the Elements of a New Arithmetical Notation, in some respects Analogous to that of Decimals; by which, expressions producing a great variety of infinite Series may be obtained, which can by no other means be found; the Series discovered by the Moderns, for the quadrature of the circle and hyperbola, are shown to be aggregately incommensurable quantities; and a Criterion is given by which the Commensurability or Incommensurability of infinite Series may be infallibly and universally ascertained. The Work will be published in

Svo.

THE

BRITISH CRITIC,

FOR JUNE, 1823.

ART. I. An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire, in behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies. By Wm. Wil berforce, Esq. M. P. 8vo. pp. 82. Hatchard and Son. 1823.

ART. II. A Counter Appeal, in answer to "An Appeal" from William Wilberforce, Esq. M. P. designed to prove that the Emancipation of the Negroes in the West Indies, by a Legislative Enactment, without the Consent of the Planters, would be a Flagrant Breach of National Honour, Hostile to the Principles of Religion, Justice, and Humanity, and highly injurious to the Planter and to the Slave. By Sir Henry William Martin, Bart. 8vo. pp. 60. Rivingtons. 1823.

THE propriety of civilizing, instructing and converting our West Indian Slaves, the propriety of improving their condition, increasing their comforts, and preparing them by degrees for emancipation, are points upon which Christian Philanthropists cannot disagree. The best means of ef fecting all or any of these works, the time and care which they may be expected to demand, and the success with which they will probably be crowned are subjects of considerable difficulty and doubt. Yet were the controversy confined within these its proper limits, we should not despair of its speedy and useful termination. A system of colonial government might be devised, which should not sacrifice the interests either of the Planter or the Slave. Experience would gradually acquaint us with its faults, and suggest the improvements of which all new systems stand in need. And without any domestic struggle, or any colonial insurrection, the West Indies might be brought into as happy and as prosperous a condition as the remaining portion of the British Empire.

Unhappily there is no disposition to proceed in this orderly VOL. XIX. JUNE, 1823.

manner. Instead of confining the discussion to the present state and future prospects of the Negroes, our orators love to declaim upon what is past never to return. Instead of taking a candid view of the difficulties and the proceedings of the planters, it is the fashion to condemn them unheard, and not listen to a single syllable in mitigation of punishment. The worst acts of the worst times are raked together with a diligence which might have been better employed, and carried one and all to the account of the present generation. Our language is ransacked for its strongest terms of contumely and commiseration, and while the latter are applied to the wretched sufferers from slavery, the former are employed in describing the disgraceful conduct of their masters.

Nor is this the mere result of individual prepossessions. Exaggeration and invective are not confined to the orators from whom they may be always expected. They are adopted on the present occasion by more sober emancipationists. They are a constituent part of their plans for Negroe improvement. They furnish argument as well as eloquence to the party by whom they are adopted. The burden of Mr. Wilberforce's Appeal, and Mr. Buxton's Speech, is-do not trust the Colonial Legislators do not expect mercy or justice from Planters-legislate for the slaves in England, or their condition never will be mended. This is the grand panacoea, and it sets out with assuming that the negroes are indescribably wretched, and their tyrants incurably cruel. As long as there is a chance of accomplishing a reformation on the spot, every body perceives that it ought to be tried. Parliamentary interference can only be justified by necessity; by a complete proof that the Colonial authorities are unwilling or unable to act. Consequently Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Buxton and Mr. Brougham must accuse and convict the Planters or abandon their favourite measure. They do not come into court without bias or partiality. They desire to carry a particular scheme, and unless they can persuade us to believe some disputable assertions their desire will never be accomplished.

Those persons therefore who wish to form a correct opinion respecting the debates and pamphlets of the day, must remember that the real question is,-where and by whom shall the Negroes be protected and improved? The undertaking ought to commence with the executive government, and be steadly pursued through a series of years. It is the duty of his Majesty's Ministers to stimulate the local authorities, to ascertain and point out the errors of existing laws, and to suggest the requisite alterations and additions. It is their duty more especially to foster and superintend the

religious instruction of all orders of the West Indian population. And when their measures require the interposition of Parliament, it should be temperately and cautiously used. But to say that every thing must be done upon this side of the water, to threaten the Planters with unconditional emancipation, to pretend that their estates can be reformed without their consent and against their will, is the desperate and dangerous scheme of visionary men. We abstain from any remarks upon the eventual liberation to which the advocates of this scheme advert, because we believe that they are the best friends of Negro Freedom who for the present say least about it. And in justice to its less judicious supporters we are bound to confess that their propositions, upon this subject, are moderate if not practicable. Agreeing with them however in the end to be pursued, we most decidedly object to their method of pursuing it. Their immediate object is to take the internal government of the West Indies into the direct and exclusive care of the House of Commons, and never have we seen grosser misrepresentations and blunders, than the facts and arguments by which that system is recommended to the public.

Mr. Wilberforce's Appeal commences with pronouncing "the Negro Slavery of the British Colonies a system of the grossest injustice, of the most heathenish irreligion and immorality, of the most unprecedented degradation, and unrelenting cruelty." In support of this sweeping assertion, he refers, first, to the diminution of numbers as a proof that the slaves are ill used: but he does not venture to affirm the truth of this demonstrative fact in stronger language than, "unless I am much misinformed." The contempt in which slaves are held is another favourite topic; and under this head his evidence is a hundred years old.

"It were well if the consequences of these impressions were only to be discovered among the inferior ranks of the privileged class, or only to be found in the opinions and conduct of individuals. But in the earlier laws of our colonies they are expressed in the language of insult, and in characters of blood. And too many of these laws still remain unrepealed, to permit the belief that the same odious spirit of legislation no longer exists, or to relieve the injured objects of them from their degrading influence. The slaves were systematically depressed below the level of human beings. And though I confess, that it is of less concern to a

* An act of Barbadoes, (8th Aug. 1688,) prescribing the mode of trial for slaves, recites, that "they being brutish slaves, deserve not, for the baseness of their condition, to be tried by the legal trial of twelve men of their peers, &c." Another clause of the same act, speaks of the "barbarous, wild, and savage