harsh voice, "Then I will teach you with the sjamboc."* The mother and her three children were sold to three separate purchasers; and they were literally torn from each other. How just the remark of Cowper, There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart It does not feel for man !'" The following notices of cases between masters and slaves, are extracted from the Annual Lists of trials before the Court of Justice, and its Commissioners, inserted in the Cape Gazette; and are only a small selection out of a multitude of such cases, in Cape Town and its vicinity, between the years 1817 and 1822. Brief as these notices are, they may suffice, without any comment, to exhibit, in a distinct light, the degraded condition of men in slavery, (even in its mildest state,) and the striking inequality of the Colonial laws and Courts of Justice, as they practically affect them and their masters:— Masters v. Slaves. Jacob, of Mozambique, slave of W. Servyntyn, for threatening the life of his master, and making resistance against the Veld-Cornet: condemned to be exposed to public view, made fast by a rope under the gallows; thereupon to be flogged, branded, and confined on Robben Island (to work in irons) for life. David, of Mozambique, slave of A. Laubscher, for an armed and violent attack upon his master: condemned to be hanged; which sentence received the sanction of the governor : Remitted, and returned to said master, with information to prisoner, on his release, that it is to his master's kind interference he owes his life, as the law certainly demanded the forfeit of it. [N.B. Had the slave been hanged, it would have been a loss to his master of about 2001.] Louis, slave of D. Hugo, for wilfully wounding his master: condemned to be hanged. Sentence remitted by the acting governor. April, slave of A. de Villiers, on a charge of murder: condemned to be hanged at the village of Stellenbosch, and his head and right hand to be cut off, and exposed to public view on a pole. Hendrik, slave of P. S. Tesselaar, on a charge of grossly ill-treating his wife, in consequence of which she was delivered of a dead child: condemned to be exposed to public view, with a rope round his neck, under the gallows; then scourged and branded; and afterwards to labour in irons, without wages, on the public works at Robben Island for life. Jasmyn, slave of Dirk Cloctè, on a charge of preferring a false complaint against the Landdrost of Stellenbosch, to His Majesty's Fiscal: condemned to be severely flogged. * Slaves v. Masters. Johannes J. Snyders, for the cruel treatment of a slave, who was said to have died in consequence: condemned to six months imprisonment. C. Jansen, European servant of J. R. Louw, on a charge of ill treatment preferred against him by Diedrik and Joseph, slaves of said Louw: condemned in a penalty of fifty rixdollars (31. 15s.) on behalf of the poor's box at the Paarl. C. A. Marais, on a charge of ill-treatment, preferred against him by his female slave Kaatje: defendant sentenced in a penalty of twenty-five rixdollars, and severely reprimanded. A. P. Zeeman and his wife, on a charge of serious ill-treatment, preferred against them by their female slave Theresa by sentence said slave to be judicially sold, and never to come again into possession of defendants or their relatives. O. C. Mostert, for cruel treatment of a female slave, in consequence of which she died condemned to be banished from this colony and its dependencies for twenty-five years. P. J. de Villiers, on a charge of illtreatment of his slave April: condemned to a confinement of three months in the prison of Stellenbosch. Which sentence, however, his Excellency the Governor commuted to a pecuniary fine. P. S. Bosman, on a charge of ill-treatment, preferred against him by his slave July. The complaint having been proved groundless, the plaintiff condemned to be flogged. [This case exhibits the most usual result of complaints by slaves against their masters.] D. Malang, on a charge of excessive ill-treatment of one of his slaves, of which his death was the consequence. Defendant acquitted of said charge, and the slave, Adam, condemned to be flogged. A whip made of Rhinoceros hide. Such are a few-a very few specimens of the outrages continually recurring on the part either of the oppressor or the oppressed, in a country where slavery is said to assume its mildest aspect. Yet, wretched as is this state of reciprocal enmity and suspicion, still more deplorable, if possible, is the dreadfully demoralizing influence of slavery upon the young, alike of the free and the enthralled population. Marriage and baptism, systematically discouraged by the masters in general, are rare among the slaves. Promiscuous intercourse is common. Illicit connexions with white men are encouraged among the young female slaves-frequently even prescribed by their Christian' owners. In Cape Town it is notorious as noon-day, that the rearing and educating of handsome female slaves, as objects of licentious traffic with the European, and especially with the rich Indian residents, is extensively practised among slave-holders. If such transactions are now managed with some greater regard to outward decorum than formerly, they are not on that account the less frequent; and I feel no hesitation in asserting, in the face of the authoritative dicta of the 'Quarterly Review,' that the practice of this disgraceful traffic is still common in the colony. While the female slaves are thus bred up to prostitution, the reaction of their depravity upon the morals of the white population is equally obvious and frightful. Brought up from infancy in collision with a brutalized race of beings, from whom all enjoyments but those of the senses are debarred, what can the youth of either sex learn earliest but the knowledge of evilthe language and the lessons of licentiousness? Who that has resided at the Cape can be ignorant of the general and premature profligacy of manners among the young men ? Who, indeed, but must be sensible that the ruling classes in every slave colony, are (and must necessarily be) depraved to an appalling extent by the early and uncontrolled indulgence of almost all the worst propensities of our nature?-by sensuality, unfeeling selfishness, † arrogance, * A writer in that Journal, in reviewing a little volume, entitled “Notes on the Cape of Good Hope," in 1821, endeavours to discredit the author's report of the state of morals, and the anecdotes he has given to illustrate the influence of slavery in destroying female delicacy. I know, however, that that author was correct both in his opinions and facts on this point; though I differ from him entirely in his estimate of the comparative happiness of the slave population. + The influence of slavery, in hardening the feelings, and in destroying even the most powerful of our natural affections, is almost incredible. Such facts as masters selling their own children by slave women, are at the Cape far from unfrequent. I shall mention only one which occurred a few months ago. The wife of an extensive farmer (a person mentioned by Latrobe, and who resides about one hundred miles from Cape Town,) died in 1825, when, in conformity with the Dutch law of succession, the conjunct property was brought to public sale, in order that the children might receive their respective shares. The old woman had exacted a promise from her husband on her death-bed, that he would emancipate certain slave-children in the household, and not allow them to be sold, because they were known to be the children of one of their own sons, who was now settled on a neighbouring estate. The old man, desirous to keep his promise, was resolutely opposed (incredible as it may seem) by his son, the very father of the children in question. rage, revenge? If the African colonists, as a body, are, notwithstanding all this, less corrupted than the mass of slave-holders in some other countries, they owe it chiefly to the comparatively limited extent of their slave population, and to the early marriages, and simpler and purer manners, of the majority of the country inhabitants. I wish not to speak of them harshly. There are, I am well convinced, a great number of pious, humane, and truly worthy people at the Cape, to whom the above observations do not in any respect apply. I am also convinced, that, in spite of all their defects and disadvantages, the Cape Dutch, regarded as a body of men, possess many estimable qualities. If they have acquired many of an opposite description, it is because they have been so long doubly debased by the curse of slavery, and the deprivation of good government. Let England remove that unspeakable curse, and govern them as she should do,-and then I will venture to say with confidence of my fellow Colonists, that there is no moral or intellectual excellence, of which they will not speedily be found capable.* Y. Quoth Murphy, "Then mend it, and I'll tell you how: I used to be bother'd as you are, but now The motive for this opposition to the dictates of nature-to his mother's dying request and his father's solemn promise-was sordid avarice. If the children were not sold, he would lose his share of their price-of the price of his own flesh and blood! He insisted that they should be produced at the public sale. The law was on his side, and his father could not refuse his demand. But the old man's regard to his last promise to his deceased wife, and his indignation at his son's inhuman conduct, induced him to stand up at the sale, and after mentioning the above details to the whole assembly, to declare his determination to re-purchase the children himself at whatever price, and to grant them their freedom, as he had pledged himself to do. The old man's conduct was approved of, and no one offered to compete with him in bidding for the children; yet the relator of this anecdote, who was present on the occasion, heard neither surprise nor indignation expressed at the conduct of the son, nor any censure passed upon him, with the exception of a remark made by a Moravian missionary. * While this article is passing through the press, the Cape Town Gazette of June 31 bas reached England, containing an Ordinance of the Lieutenant-governor in Council, regulating the future treatment of slaves in that colony. The provisions of this ordinance are of a highly important character, and well calculated, if faithfully enforced, to protect the slaves from very gross maltreatment, and to obviate some other of the most glaring abuses of the former system. But no regulatious that human policy can frame, are sufficient to eradicate the worst evil of slavery that moral leprosy, which taints alike the master and the bondman. Happy will it be for the Cape colonists, if, instead of imitating the insane conduct of some of our West India planters, they have the wisdom to meet this enactment in the spirit of candour, and, by aiding and anticipating (ere it be yet too late) its beneficent provisions, gradually redeem their growing settlement, and their happier offspring, from the load, and the loss, and the degradation of slavery. IRISH POLITICS. In a Letter from an Irish Protestant in Dublin, to his brother-in-law in London. To Mr. Cyril Skinner, Fleecy Hosiery and Haberdashery Warehouse, at the sign of the Sheep's-head, Ludgate-hill. Dublin, September 29th, 1826. MY DEAR CYRIL,-I begin my answer to your last long letter, by replying to the postscript which commissions me to send you the address of the Mr., whom your excellent aunt at Hampstead is desirous to make the consignee of her intended contribution of tracts and flannel waistcoats for the suffering poor of this country. The individual in question, whom I recollect a distinguished member of the charitable circles here, was transported about six years ago for robbing the poor-box at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Mrs. Eustace (to whom I beg my kindest regards) will probably be able to ascertain, by inquiry at the Colonial office, whether he be still at Sydney Cove, or ordered on to try the air of Norfolk Island for the further benefit of his morals. As to family concerns, your sister, myself, and the little ones are perfectly well. Our two little boys promise to be excellent scholars, but they are picking up, along with their learning, such an "intensely" national accent at Mr. O'Farrel's academy, that we, or rather their mother has resolved, when the present quarter is out, to send them over to be cured at a Cumberland boarding-school. Little Caroline, for whose sake we always keep a Lancashire maid, has hitherto escaped; but your sister has been grievously alarmed of late by certain symptoms of an incipient brogue in the shoulders, which she attributes to the malign influence of Counsellor Bogberry's seven unmarried daughters, whom our little girl is sure to encounter every day, when she is taken to walk within the railings of Stephen's-green. Apart from this, Caroline is all that we could wish. She is growing up as beautiful as possible, and, what you will not be sorry to hear, the character of her beauty is perfectly English. I am thoroughly aware of the mistakes into which the partiality of parents betrays them respecting the mental capacities of their children; but our "little lady," or rather yours, for it was you that first gave her the title, independently of being un. commonly quick and observant for her age (she was only seven, the 15th of last July) evinces a power of remembering the names of the principal capitals of Europe, of such an extraordinary kind, as to astonish even me. She has been this moment with me, to give me a "kiss for Uncle Cyril," with a request, (I give it verbatim,) "that I would express to him the profound delight she feels at understanding, that by the new arrangements at the Post-office, it will be sure to reach its destination in six-and-thirty hours." The kiss was certainly hers; but, between ourselves, I suspect that the speech was made for her above stairs. She delivered it, however, like a darling as she is, without missing a single word. Having despatched these important matters, I pass on to the views. and suggestions upon Irish affairs with which your letter abounds. I know that of all things you like frankness in a friend. I shall, therefore, be as frank as possible, even to pointing out with as little cere2 K Dec. 1826.-VOL. XVII. NO. LXXII. mony as if I were addressing an abstract Englishman, the occasional mistakes and contradictions into which you have fallen in your observations upon the recent occurrences in this country. You say that you had almost brought yourself to be a friend to the Catholic claims, but that their proceedings at the late elections have alarmed and disgusted you. You speak of the elective franchise, as the most important privilege conceded to them, but accuse them of ingratitude in having exercised it against their landlords. Here, my dear Cyril, you do not reason with your usual accuracy; and one of the causes is, that you know little or nothing upon the subject. Permit me to assist you with a fact or two. In the year 1791, the Catholic cause was in such disrepute, that a member of the Irish House of Commons could not be found to present their petition. In the following year, alarms of reform at home, and symptoms of an impending war with France, produced the bill, giving the right of admission to the bar, and to the profession of attorneys, and establishing the right of intermarriage with Protestants. The latter provision, by the way, was a relief to us-for previously, if any one of us should take to wife "the heretic girl of his soul," no matter how he might curse the Pope, or swallow beef-steaks on a Friday, he was by a process of Parliamentary conversion, held and taken to be to all intents and purposes a Papist. In 1793, came the war with France, and along with it the further privileges which the Catholics now enjoy. Among them was the elective franchise. Now, with respect to this, if you look into the historical documents of the period, it will there appear to have been the right of all others the most vehemently desired by the Irish Catholics, and one which nothing but fear, or a tardy sense of justice, could have extorted from the Irish parliament. But in Ireland, as elsewhere, there are two kinds of history-one compiled from state-papers and Parliamentary debates, and similar materials, upon which no man of sense that ever made a speech himself, or assisted in the getting up of a parish petition, can depend;-the other, and by far the nearest the truth, that comes out over a bottle of wine from the living witnesses of the transactions they record. Now this latter class of historians are in the habit of relating, that the framers of the Catholic petition in 1793 were secretly stimulated to put forward the elective franchise, as a right without which they would not be satisfied, by a body of Protestants who were still more anxious on the subject than the petitioners; and who do you think these were ?- Why men who hated the Catholics and their religion as much as ever Doctor Duigenan did-the Protestant aristocracy of Ireland. This sounds very oddly; but the secret historian says they reasoned thus: "We have hitherto secured our seats for the counties through the present Protestant freeholders; but a spirit of reform is making way among them, and their number is very limited, so much so, that Catholic wealth and influence, increased as they will be by the new rights about to be given by this bill, may in a little time detach them from us. How then are we to retain our present supremacy in the House of Commons, and to neutralise, as far as may be, the intended concessions? By granting the Catholics the elective franchise upon a scale of qualification as low as possible. With this provision, the counties must continue ours; for ours are forty-nine fiftieths of the landed property of the island, and upon the land we can at all |