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The Committee observe, that if this report should be found to contain very few interesting details, nor give account of any great' progress in the work, in which they are engaged, it ought to be considered that the operations of the Board have only just commenced; that the objects requiring attention were manifold; that the funds, though the contributions in the end have proved liberal, were collected gradually; that the correspondence with Europe is very slow, and impeded at present-and that, therefore, it has been impossible to effect much in so short a time, and with these difficulties before them.

The receipts during the last year had amounted to near $5,000 rix dollars.

The endeavours of the Commission had been chiefly directed towards the establishing of a Free School in Long-street, Cape Town, upon the new plan of education. The school was then educating 87 boys and 65 girls, making together 152 children; besides 22 grown-up persons and apprentices, who attend the scliool in the evening. The Committee lament that a considerable proportion of these children did not belong to those classés, for whose more immediate benefit the Free Schoof was founded: measures had; however, been taken to as eertain the number, and ensure the attend. ance of the real poor, who had neglected, till now, to avail themselves of the oppor tunity given them. The establishment of a similar school, at Simon's Ten, was in contemplation. A teacher, well acquainted with the Lancasterian mode of education, was hourly expected from England; application to this effect having been made by his Excellency the Governor to the Colonial Agent in London in August last. Besides this, several schoolmasters from the country districts had attended the Free School in Cape Town, and had thus had an opportunity given them of becoming acquainted with the new mode of teaching. Indeed, many of the masters had already introduced the leading peculiarities of this system into their schools, and the accounts which had been received from the country, concurred in stating the most favourable and encouraging results.

As to the distribution of Bibles, the Com mittee had been much limited in their exertions, from want of books; though they had not failed to avail themselves of every opportunity for the purchase of small quantities of English and Dutch Bibles and Testaments, and of Dutch and English school

books. They had been assisted by the Government Printing-press, in procuring a sup ply of English and Dutch alphabets, spelling-books, and reading lessons.

The Committee regret, that they had not had the means of satisfying all the demands for Bibles, Testaments, and school-books, made by the respective ministers and schoolmasters in the country districts, but flatter theruselves that they should soon be enabled to do so, a large supply having been writ ten for to their agent in England. From the great and increasing prevalence of Mahometanism, especially among the lower or ders in Cape Town, the Committee think themselves called upon to make every effort towards the dispersion and comprehension of the Scriptures among this class of its population.

The Report thus concludes:--

"When the Committee call to mind the great and almost incredible success attending the new mode of education, they see it coupled with the most promising and extensive advantages. Surrounded by nations yet in darkness, they would offer to them the blessed Gospel of salvation. The new mode of education, manual, expeditious, and full of life, seems, of all other means, most likely to fix the mind, and interest the feelings, of an active yet uncivilized people. Of this the Committee are fully aware; nor will they leave the interesting subject much longer a question.

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By means of teachers educated on the new system, and subject to the controul of the Bible and School Commission, they are. encouraged to think that they may thus be able to extend the knowledge of Christianity, of civilized language, and of useful arts, to the different and unenlightened tribes of Southern Africa. The Committee cannot bot feel persuaded, that the most promising and effectual method of converting a barbarous people to true religion, is by imparting to their minds a love and a susceptibility of knowledge, and by transforming their va grant, plundering habits into those of order, honesty, and industry.

"Extending thus their views, the Commit tee do not, however, overlook the more immediate, and the more imperative duty of affording education and dispersing the Scriptures to the Colony in particular."What they have already done in this respect is now submitted to the judgment of the pub lic; what they will do hereafter is left to its candour to determine."

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VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

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FRENCH SLAVE TRADE, bart THE passing month has in some des gree developed the plans and intentions of the French with respect to the African Slave Trade, and the Island of Hayti.

On the 29th of August, a circular letter issued from the Administra tion of the Customs, informing the French merchants that the Slave Trade is now re-established in all its ancient privileges, and may be carried on from such ports as have a public bonding warehouse. The merchants are allowed to export all the foreign merchandize required for this trade, as well as the articles of interior growth or fabric, including arms and ammunition, free from duty. This exemption is extend ed to the provisions required both for the crew and the slaves. The merchants must enter into a bond to employ the whole of their lading in the purchase of Negroes: they must prove the extent of their importations into the French colonies, by specified certificates; and the number imported must be at least equal in value to the goods exported. The trade in Blacks (la traite des Noirs), and likewise the trade of the French colonies, is permitted to be carried on only in French ships. And the Negroes may be imported not only into Martinique and Guadaloupe, but into all the other French colonies of which the Government shall have recovered pos

session.

The first thing which strikes us with dismay in this ordonnance, is, that it contains no limitation whatever respecting the parts of the African coast to which these expeditions of blood and carnage are to be directed. We are the more disappointed and alarmed at this omission, because the public had been assured by Lord Castlereagh, standing in his place in the House of Commons, that the French Govern

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ment had pledged itself to prohibit their Slave Trade to all parts of the African coast where we could shew that that trade had been effectually suppressed. But in this ordonnance we cannot discover the most distant hint of any such prohibition, although both Governments must be aware, that, to comply with the spirit of the pledge given to Lord Castlereagh, the French Slave Trade should have been authoritatively restricted to the southward of the Equator, and the whole coast to the northward of that line should have been exempted from its ravages. Now, however, the French Slave Trade has been allowed to commence, without any reference to that engagement on the subject of its limitation, which, it was hoped, would have turned aside the overflow of misery and devastation from that part of the coast at least where some progress had been made in rectifying the former disorders. To that very part it is, as the most contiguous and convenient, that the trade will doubtless be now directed. ed. And not only has no restriction been imposed on the French merchant in this respect, but an order, we have reason to believe, has already been delivered by our Governs ment to the Count de la Chartres, the French Ambassador, for the immediate transfer to France of Senegal, Goree, and their dependencies. What, then, have we to expect, but that the next accounts which are received from Africa will announce the. re-appearance of slave ships at Senegal, at Goree, in the Gambia, in the Sierra Leone, and along the whole space of interme diate coast; and that all the melan. choly predictions contained in our Number for June last, will be fully realised, if not surpassed? We know, from the very best authority, that as early as the beginning of July the Moors on the banks of the Senegal

of the necessary adjuncts of this accursed traffic; what has been, what will and must be, while this wide-wasting calamity is permitted to pursue its unrestricted course.

were exulting in the prospect of the renewal of their ancient atroci ties; and that not only there, but along the whole line of the Wind ward Coast, the chiefs and Black traders, who had begun to reconcile themselves to the new and better order of things which had been established there, were eagerly listen ing for the first rumour of the revival of the French Slave Trade to abandon their peaceful employ ments, and to commence in Afri. ca the preliminary work of pillage and death. We cannot but think that it would have been well if our Government, not only had refused to surrender her African settlements to France, but had interfered to prevent the sailing of a single slave ship from her ports, until her engage ment respecting the limitation of the trade had been carried into effect. For, even supposing that this point should hereafter be effected, still how are we to repair the mischief and the misery even of the next six months of unrestrained Slave Trade on the northern coast of Africa? The agriculture, the fair and legitimate commerce which had been created, completely paralysed;-every benevolent institution overthrown;-the conductors of those very institutions, perhaps, seduced into the ranks of the slave traders, and perhaps contriving how to make the objects of their former care its first victims;-the general security destroyed;-the fair face of the country deformed by conflagration-contention, and profligacy, and pillage, every where prevailing; and all our opening prospects of good quenched in the blood and desolation of Africa!-We sicken at the anticipation! Would to God it were but one of those daydreams of horror which a vivid imagination may create! No! No! These are, on the contrary, dreadful realities. They are not the colouring of a heated fancy, but the sober description of the matter of the unvarnished statement

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But we must turn to St. Domingo, the colony, avowedly, with a view to which the Slave Trade has been revived by France.A petition had been presented to the Chamber of Deputies, by the former colonists of St. Domingo, calling its attention to the state of that island. The petition was referred to a Committee, the chairman of which reported to the House on the 16th instant the result of their deliberations. The chairman wasGeneral Desfourneaux, who had formerly served in St. Domingo, and who, it is said, had been named the new Governor and Commander-in-chief of the colony by M. Malouet, the late Minister of the Colonies, whose death was announced about a fortnight ago. The reporter begins with a most unfair and exaggerated statement of the com mercial advantages which had ac crued to France from the possession of St. Domingo, and which are dis played in such a manner as to excite the cupidity of all classes of the community. We, in this country, know, by dear-bought experience, the real value of West-Indian praperty, the cost to the country at which it is defended, and its general unproductiveness, not only to the planter, but to the merchant who may be so improvident as to become his creditor.The reporter next proceeds to examine the means of re-establishing the colony of St. Do mingo. There has as yet, he observes, been no authentic informa tion obtained by Government respecting the dispositions of the chiefs who divide this colony be tween them; but he knows Christophe and Petion well enough to believe that they would be eager to acknowledge the sovereignty of the King. In that case, the King should be entreated to grant to them, and to various other Negro chiefs whom

stated, that delay would produce new difficulties; and that they required, for the re-establishment of their estates, fresh funds, which they could not obtain without some regulations which should postpone the existing claims on their properties to those of the persons who might now. make them the necessary advances. The reporter observed, that both these statements had appeared to the Commitee to be founded in justice. With a view to obviate the evils of delay, and to take advantage of the most healthy season, he recommended that the expedition should sail the beginning of November. While the colony, torn by intestine wars, to destruction,

was rapidly veruence of a pro

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he names, all the marks of honour and all the pecuniary advantages which befit their situation and that of the colony. As this hope, how ever, may by possibility be disappointed, the Chamber ought, with a view to all events, to pray his Majesty to send a sufficient amount both of land and sea forces to occupy the colony, and to hoist there the white flag as the signal of a general amnesty Taught by the experience of past failures, such an expedition could not now fail to be crowned with success. And if even the most tranquillizing assurances were re ceived respecting the intentions of the chiefs, it would still be necessary to transport thither, along with the colonists, a sufficient force to put them in possession of their estates, found and secret policy, was ap: and to secure them in it. The reproaching the end marked out for porter confidently promised a happy it by the commercial interests of a result from the proposed expedition, rival nation, France could not remain whether it were necessary to use inactive. He therefore proposed to force, or the proprietors were rein- the Chamber, to pray his Majesty to stated with the general consent of present to them laws for the intethe population. To ensure this suc- rior regulation of St. Domingo, as cess, however, several things were well with a view to the Blacks alnecessary. ready there, as to those who should hereafter be introduced; for fixing the civil and political rights of men of all colours, possessed of property in the colony; and for regulating the order in which the creditors of the colonists should be entitled to enforce repayment. He further proposed, that his Majesty should also be entreated to take the necessary measures for sending back the colonists to St. Domingo, and with them such sea and land forces as should be required to secure a suc cessful issue to the expedition.

The Government must commence its operations by entering frankly, and in good faith, on the great question of the condition of the Blacks ("Il faut aborder franchement et loyalement la grande question de l'etat des Noirs.") It must make to the Blacks all the conces sions which the progress of civilization in Europe, combined with the well-being of the colony, will require. The Blacks must be made to feel, that France requires from them regular and assiduous labour, confined to the plantations to which they belong, without wandering or disorder: a labour, however, which shall be paid for, and which shall be unaccompanied by harsh treatment. The colonists must return to their estates, with the desire to draw thence an income, by making them

After this exposée, our readers will naturally be anxious to obtain some authentic information respecting the present state and future prospects of Hayti, especially as it seems to be the hinge on which the e slavetrading speculations of France chiefly turn. The re-possession and re-culisland to be favourite objects with the French and in the expectation of effecting them, they have been eager to

productive, and to superintend their tivation of this will the

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labourers with humanity and kind Dness.s Hier basins The The petition of the colonists had

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plunge anew into all the horrors of the African Slave Trade. They have incurred the disgrace and the guilt, however, of recommencing this criminal traffic for the sake of an object which we do not scruple to pro nounce to be unattainable. Hayti, or the French part of St. Domingo, is occupied by the African slaves, or their descendants, who formerly tilled its soil, under the impulse of the lash, for French masters; but who, since the year 1791, have been emancipated from bondage, and are now the proprietors of that very soil formerly watered with their blood and tears. Their number is estimated at about 600,000, consisting entirely of Blacks and People of Colour. Since the death of Dessalines, in 1806, they have been unhappily divided into two rival states, one under Christophe, occupying chiefly the northern, and the other under Petion, occupying chiefly the southern part of the island. The capital of the former is Cape Henry, formerly Cape François, and of the latter Port-au-Prince. For several years a sanguinary war was carried on between these rival parties, in which Christophe had perhaps the advantage; but still their forces proved to be on the whole so nearly balanced, that there was little prospect that in any short time one should be able finally to prevail over the other. In this case, too, it must have been obvious to both parties, that the continuance of the war would in the end have enfeebled them so much, as to make them an easy prey to their former oppressors. A Haytian author, the secretary of Christophe, who has published a History of recent events in that island, makes this observation with much feeling: “ Ici nait,” he observes, la reflexion la plus triste pour humanité. Nous sçavons que nos dissensions font la joie des amis de l'esclavage; que nos tyrans communs en veulent a nos jours; qu'ils ne calculent pas moins qu'une annihilation totale de la population d'Hayti,qu'ils voudraient pouvoir rem:

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placer par des nouveaux malheureux transportées des contrées Africaines. Nous connoissons toute la profon deur de leur sceleratesse, et nous nous empressons, a l'envi, de les servir efficacement, en nous entredetruisant nous mêmes. O delire des passions! O inconcévable fatalité! Où n'emportez vous pas les hommes qui ecoutent les factices illusions ds l'ambition? Ne craignons nous pas que nos ennemis ne nous appliquent justement ces vers :

Et prodigues d'un sang qu'ils devroient menager,

Prennent, en s'immolant, le soin de nousTM venger."

In consequence, probably, of this conviction, strongly felt on both sides, hostilities have of late been suspended, as if by mutual consent; and although there has been no for. mal armistice, perfect tranquillity has reigned throughout the island. The French newspapers, indeed, have industriously circulated reports of recent battles between the rival chiefs, but they are utterly without foundation. At the beginning of August last, the date of the latest ac counts, no action, nor any hostile movement, had taken place for near three years.

Under these circumstances, both Christophe and Petion appear to have applied themselves with great assiduity to the improvement of the population under their government, to the encouragement of industry and good morals and the increase of knowledge among them, and to the preparation of adequate means of defence against any attempts the French may make on their liberty and independence. We could produce many proofs of the rapid progress which has been made in these objects. One of the most striking we have met with, is contained in a small book, of 130 octavo pages, printed at Cape Henry a few months ago, which has just reached up. The typography is highly respectable. It is entitled "Almanach Royal d'Hayri pour l'Année 1814.”.

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