Lutheran, 3; Calvinist, 3; Jews, 2; Universalists, 1; Swedish Lutheran, 1; Moravian, 1; Congrelaticosualists, 1; Unitarians, 1; Covenanters, 1; Black Baptists, 1; Black Episcopalians, 1; Black Methodists, 2. The Methodists, Mr Palmer tells us, are becoming the most numerous sect in the United States. Mr Fearon gives us this account of the state of religion at New York.

Upon this interesting topic I would repeat, what indeed you are already acquainted with, that legally there is the most unlimit-ed liberty. There is no state religion, and no government pro

secution of individuals for conscience sake. Whether those halcyon days, which I think would attend a similar state of things in England, are in existence here, must be left for future observation. There are five Dutch Reformed churches; six Presbyterian; three Associated Reformed ditto; one Associated Presbyterian; one Reformed ditto; five Methodist; two ditto for blacks; one German Reformed; one Evangelical Lutheran; one Moravian; four Trinitarian Baptist; one Universalist; two Catholic; three Quaker; eight Episcopalian; one Jews' Synagogue; and to this I would add a Small Meeting which is but little known, at which the priest is dispensed with, every member following what they call the apostolic plan of instructing each other, and "building one another up in their most holy faith." The Presbyterian and Episcopalian, or Church of England sects, take the precedence in numbers and in respectability. Their ministers receive from two to eight thousand dollars per annum. All the churches are well filled: they are the fashionable places for display; and the sermons and talents of the minister offer never-ending subjects of interest when social converse has been exhausted upon the bad conduct and inferior nature of niggars, (negroes); the price of flour at Liverpool; the capture of the Guerrière; and the battle of New Orleans. The perfect equality of all sects seems to have deadened party feeling: controversy is but little known.' Fearon, p. 45, 46.

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The absence of controversy, Mr Fearon seems to imagine, has produced indifference; and he heaves a sigh to the memory of departed oppression. Can it be possible (he asks) that the non-existence of religious oppression has lessened religious knowledge, and made men superstitiously dependent upon outward form, instead of internal purity? To which question, (a singular one from an enlightened man like Mr Fetron), we answer, that the absence of religious oppression has not lessened religious knowledge, but theological animosity; and made men more dependent upon pious actions, and less upon useless and unintelligible wrangling.

* Mr Fearon mentions a religious Lottery for building a Presby VOL. XXXI. NO. 61. K

The great curse of America is the institution of Slavery-of itself far more than the foulest blot upon their national character, and an evil which counterbalances all the excisemen, licensers, and tax-gatherers of England. No virtuous man ought to trust his own character, or the character of his children, to the demoralizing effects produced by commanding slaves. Justice, gentleness, pity, and humility, soon give way before them. Conscience suspends its functions. The love of command-the impatience of restraint, get the better of every other feeling; and cruelty has no other limit than fear.

"There must doubtless" (says Mr Jefferson), " be an unhappy influence on the manners of the people, produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave, is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions; the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to the worst of passions; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his morals and manners undepraved by such circumstances." Notes, p. 241.-Hall, p. 459.

The following picture of a slave song is quoted by Mr Hall from the Letters on Virginia.

"I took the boat this morning, and crossed the ferry over to Portsmouth, the small town which I told you is opposite to this place. It was court day, and a large crowd of people was gathered about the door of the court-house. I had hardly got upon the steps to look in, when my ears were assailed by the voice of singing; and turning round to discover from what quarter it came, I saw a group of about thirty negroes, of different sizes and ages, following a rough-looking white man, who sat carelessly lolling in his sulkey. They had just turned round the corner, and were coming up the main street to pass by the spot where I stood, on their way out of town. As they came nearer, I saw some of them loaded with chains to prevent their escape; while others had. hold of each other's hands, strongly grasped, as if to support themselves in their affliction. I particularly noticed a poor mother, with an infant sucking at her breast as she walked along, while two small children had hold of her apron on either side, almost running to keep up with the rest. They

terian church. What will Mr Littleton say to this? he is hardly prepared, we suspect, for this union of Calvin and the Little Go.. Every advantage will be made of it by the wit and eloquence of his fiscal opponent;-Nor will it pass unheeded by Mr Bish.

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came along singing a little wild hymn, of sweet and mournful melody, flying, by a divine instinct of the heart, to the consolation of religion, the last refuge of the unhappy, to support them in their distress. The sulkey now stopped before the tavern, at a little distance beyond the court-house, and the driver got out. My dear Sir" (said I, to a person who stood near me), can you tell me what these poor people have been doing? What is their crime? and what is to be their punishment?" "O" (said he), "it's nothing at all, but a parcel of negroes sold to Carolina; and that man is their driver, who has bought them." "But what have they done, that they should be sold into banishment?" "Done" (said he), thing at all that I know of; their masters wanted money, I suppose, and these drivers give good prices." Here the driver having supplied himself with brandy, and his horse with water (the poor negroes of course wanted nothing), stepped into his chair again, cracked his whip, and drove on, while the miserable exiles followed in funeral procession behind him."-Hall, 358-360.

66 no

The law by which slaves are governed in the Carolinas is a provincial law as old as 1740, but made perpetual in 1783. By this law it is enacted, that every negro shall be presumed a slave, unless the contrary appear. The 9th clause allows two justices of the peace and three freeholders, power to put them to any manner of death: The evidence against them may be without oath.-No slave is to traffic on his own account.Any person murdering a slave is to pay 1007.-or 14l. if he cuts out the tongue of a slave.-Any white man meeting seven slaves together on an highroad, may give them twenty lashes each.-No man must teach a slave to write, under penalty of 1001. currency. We have Mr Hall's authority for the existence and enforcement of this law at the present day. Mr Fearon has recorded some facts still more instructive.

⚫ Observing a great many coloured people, particularly females, in these boats, I concluded that they were emigrants, who had proceeded thus far on their route towards a settlement. The fact proved to be, that fourteen of the flats were freighted with human beings for sale. They had been collected in the several States by slavedealers, and shipped from Kentucky for a market. They were dressed up to the best advantage, on the same principle that jockeys do horses upon sale. The following is a specimen of advertisements on this subject.

66 TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD

"Will be paid for apprehending and lodging in jail, or delivering to the subscriber, the following slaves, belonging to JOSEPH IRVIN, of Iberville.-TOM, a very light Mulatto, blue eyes, 5 feet 10 inches high, appears to be about 35 years of age; an artful fellow-can read and write, and preaches occasionally.-CHARLOTTE, a black wench, round and full faced, tall, straight, and likely-about 25

years of age, and wife of the above named Tom.-These slaves decamped from their owner's plantation, on the night of the 14th September inst. Fearon, p. 270.

The three" African churches," as they are called, are for all those native Americans who are black, or have any shade of colour darker than white. These persons, though many of them are possessed of the rights of citizenship, are not admitted into the churches which are visited by whites. There exists a penal law, deeply written in the minds of the whole white population, which subjects their coloured fellow-citizens to unconditional contumely and never-ceasing insult. No respectability, however unquestionable, no property, however large, no character, however unblemished, will gain a man, whose body is (in American estimation) cursed with even a twentieth portion of the blood of his African ancestry, admission into society!!! They are considered as mere Pariahs-as outcasts and vagrants upon the face of the earth! I make no reflection upon these things, but leave the facts for your consideration. '-Ibid. p. 168, 169.

That such feelings and such practices should exist among men who know the value of liberty, and profess to understand its principles, is the consummation of wickedness. Every American who loves his country, should dedicate his whole life, and every faculty of his soul, to efface this foul stain from its character. If nations rank according to their wisdom and their virtue, what right has the American, a scourger and murderer of slaves, to compare himself with the least and lowest of the European nations?-much more with this great and humane country, where the greatest lord dare not lay a finger upon the meanest peasant? What is freedom, where all are not free? where the greatest of God's blessings is limited, with impious caprice, to the colour of the body? And these are the men who taunt the English with their corrupt Parliament, with their buying and selling votes. Let the world judge which is the most liable to censure-We who, in the midst of our rottenness, have torn off the manacles of slaves all over the world; -or they who, with their idle purity, and useless perfection, have remained mute and careless, while groans echoed and whips clank'd round the very walls of their spotless Congress. We wish well to America-we rejoice in her prosperity--and are delighted to resist the absurd impertinence with which the character of her people is often treated in this country: But the existence of slavery in America is an atrocious crime, with which no measures can be kept-for which her situation affords no sort of apology-which makes liberty itself distrusted, and the boast of it disgusting.

As for Emigration, every man, of course, must determine for himself. A carpenter under 30 years of age, who finds himself

at Cincinnati with an axe over his shoulder, and ten pounds in his pocket, will get rich in America, if the change of climate does not kill him. So will a farmer who emigrates early with some capital. But any person with tolerable prosperity here, had better remain where he is. There are considerable evils, no doubt, in England: But it would be madness not to admit, that it is, upon the whole, a very happy country,-and we are much mistaken if the next 20 years will not bring with it a great deal of internal improvement. The country has long been groaning under the evils of the greatest foreign war we were ever engaged in; and we are just beginning to look again into our home affairs. Political economy has made an astonishing progress sinoe they were last investigated; and every Session of Parliament. brushes off some of the cobwebs and dust of our ancestors. The Apprentice Laws have been swept away; the absurd nonsense of the Usury Laws will probably soon follow; Public Education and Saving Banks have been the invention of these last ten years; and the strong fortress of Bigotry has been rudely assailed. Then, with all its defects, we have a Parliament of incstimable value. If there be a place in any country where 500 well educated men can meet together and talk with impunity of public affairs, and if what they say is published, that country must improve. It is not pleasant to emigrate into a country of changes and revolution, the size and integrity of whose empire no man can predict. The Americans are a very sensible, reflecting people, and have conducted their affairs extremely well; but it is scarcely possible to conceive that such an empire should very long remain undivided, or that the dwellers on the Columbia should have common interést with the navigators of the Hudson and the Delaware.

England is, to be sure, a very expensive country; but a million of millions has been expended in making it habitable and comfortable; and this is a constant source of revenue, or, what is the same thing, a constant diminution of expense to every man living in it. The price an Englishman pays for a turnpike road is not equal to the tenth part of what the delay would cost him without a turnpike. The New River Company brings water to every inhabitant of London at an infinitely less price than he

In a scarcity which occurred little more than 20 years ago, every judge, (except the Lord Chancellor, then Justice of the Common Pleas, and Serjeant Remington), when they charged the Grand Jury, attributed the scarcity to the combinations of the farmers; and complained of it as a very serious evil. Such doctrines would not now be tolerated in the mouth of a schoolboy.