DEMERARA.

(From the Missionary Chronicle.)

DECEASE OF MR. JOHN SMITH.

TIDINGS of this affecting conclusion of Mr. Smith's sufferings have just reached England.

The Directors have not, as yet, themselves received information of the event, nor is the intelligence direct from the colony; but the account arrived by way of Barbadoes, is attended with so many marks of authenticity, and is rendered so probable by a letter from Mrs. Elliot, dated 14th and 15th January, brought by the same Conveyance, (quotations from which are given hereafter,) that it cannot be reasonably doubted.

The Barbadoes Mercury of the 14th of February contains the following statement: "Demerara, Feb. 6.-Died this morning, at twenty minutes past one o'clock, in the Colonial Gaol, where he had been confined as a state prisoner since the 26th of November last, on the termination of his trial by general court-martial, on a charge of high treason, sentence thereon having been transmitted to his Majesty for his final decision, John Smith, missionary. He had heen in a poor state of health, and had medical advice for a considerable time previous: and since he took seriously ill, about three weeks ago, has been attended regularly by skilful physicians. We are happy to state, by personal inquiry and inspection, that this unfortunate man had the utmost attention and kindness shown to him by the humane keeper of the prison (Mr. Padmore) all the time of his confinement. His apartment was airy and commodious; and he had always at his command every comfort which his taste fancied, or his necessities required. He has left a widow to deplore his fate, and lament his loss."

The Directors give the extract entire, hoping that the representation of the attentions paid to the deceased (the only alleviation to their feelings which, in a temporal view, the case can supply,) is con

sistent with the fact. They understand. from Mr. Elliot, that the character of humanity attributed to Mr. Padmore, the keeper of the prison, is well-merited; and for every act of kindness and sympathy shown by him to the deceased, the Directors sincerely and publicly offer him their warmest acknowledgments.

Thus has been brought to its present close the tragical scene of persecution, which has been for years preparing in Demerara, against the faithful servants of Christ; and which has at length found its victim in one amongst them, who, for fidelity and diligence, stood in the foremost rank. The finger of truth, guided by the unanimous voice of the Christian church, will inscribe on its records the name of JOHN SMITH, as one of its martyrs, in the cause of spreading the Gospel of their common Lord amongst the enslaved sons of Africa. But the hand of death, in putting a close to the tribulation and sufferings of this martyr, has fixed an immoveable seal on the guilt of the act, by which that issue has been produced. The chains of the prisoner have been broken, not by the act of merey from his gracious earthly Sovereign, (though it was extended, as soon as the need of it was known) but by the mandate of the King of kings, which has separated the accusers and the accused, till the day when both shall stand before his throne of judgment, to hear the irreversible decision of that supreme court, to which the groanings of the oppressed have carried the appeal.

With what shadow of justice the sentence of his judges in Demerara, which has led to this awful catastrophe, was passed, will now, more than ever, claim from the highest administrators of law and equity to all the subjects of these realms, the most serious investigation and decision. The question which, it was hoped, would terminate on the title of Britons to civil rights, must be now adjudged on the laws by which their lives are protected, wheresoever residing, under their guardian care. It was a point of interesting import at all times; it has become one of momentous consequence.

Let it not be said, that mercy was in, tended, though justice dictated the verdict.

The friends of the deceased now, as they have ever done, reject the pretended boon. The last Chronicle contains, though in the mildest form that the expression of proper feelings would allow, the claim, and the only claim, which their sense of duty to the deceased permitted them to prefer to his Majesty's Government-that of justice, according to the laws, as administered in these realms. They did not crave, for they never believed that the criminated and even then condemned missionary ever needed mercy, on any charge legally affecting li berty or reputation, much less on any accusation that, by the laws, threatened life. Their convictions of what the firm and ingenuous mind of Mr. Smith himself would dictate on the subject, strengthened their sense of obligation towards him in this respect.

They could not, indeed, but entertain considerable fear, that his keen sense of the injustice done him would not allow him to avail himself of the offer of personal liberty, upon any conditions which, however intended on the part of his Majesty's Government, would seem to imply, if accepted by him, an acknowledgment of culpability; especially, if it were found that his acceptance would bar his legal appeal against the whole proceedings instituted against him. In addition to the impression of injury created by all the transactions of his trial, he had himself heard the clamorous altercations of his judges, in coming to their verdict, (for he was at that time confined in the room over that in which they assembled,) he had heard the loud shout that arose, when, as he supposed, the sentence was come to, and the impression left on his spirit was, and could only be, entirely opposite to that of acquiescence in the penalty so laid upon him. He would be aware, that his enemies in the colony were not ashamed openly to declare their disappointment and regret that their victim had been, on any terms whatever, delivered from their rage. Let not this be said to be calumny; for if the public press may justly be taken as a vehicle of public sentiment or feeling, it stands recorded on one of their journals. The editor of one of the newspapers observes, We shall not be precluded from adverting to the universal feelings of disgust and dismay it has produced, with reference to its possible tendency."

The Directors feel that the issue now so deeply deplored by them does not relax the duty of seeking redress for the injury done by these proceedings to their deceased missionary, to the cause of missions, to the violated laws of their country; nor of endeavouring to obtain future protection for the lives and liberty of other individuals

engaged in the same disinterested and benevolent labours. The object is now somewhat changed: but that justice which cannot be done to the person, must be sought for to the character of the martyred missionary.

The measures of the Directors, since their last report, have more particularly been directed to obtain a remission, on the part of His Majesty's Government, of the recognizance required of Mr. Smith, not to return to the West Indies; but the arrival of the news of his death, on the morning on which a.: appointment was made for presenting a Memorial to that effect, has rendered that proceeding inapplicable. They had also submitted a case, embracing the legal bearings of the whole question, to the opinion of several Counsel, eminent in different departments of the law, and have required their advice as to the measures proper to be pursued for obtaining the desired redress. Some hindrance in the further proceedings must necessarily take place, from the change occasioned in the case by the decease of Mr. Smith, but the Members of the Society may be assured that no evitable delay shall be incurred. It is, no doubt, generally known, that some proceedings have taken place in the House of Commons, which will probably lead to a full investigation of the transactions in Demerara, connected with this subject, to which the public will look with earnest attention. In the mean time, in order that the friends of the Society and of Missions, may be apprized of the topics on which, most probably, the discussion will turn, they will find, in the subsequent pages, some extracts from a series of most able remarks on Mr. Smith's case, in point of law, given in a Morning Paper of the metropolis.

The Directors had received a letter, dated the 12th January, signed and partly written by Mr. Smith, probably the last which he ever wrote, a few days prior to the arrival of the report of his decease, which is subsequently given. It affords them an unspeakable satisfaction that their own letter to him reached his hands in time to prevent him from dying in uncertainty as to the opinion they had formed upon his case, and without the assurance of their confidence in his innocence, and of their sympathy in his sufferings. It seemed to administer to him the only consolation of a temporal kind which his mind needed. Mrs. Elliot, in her letter, states, that it " cheered him." A perusal of the Trial had long ago rendered unnecessary the declaration which his letter contains, in answer to the inquiry which the Directors thought it their duty to make, whether he

had, in any degree, by correspondence with other associations, or otherwise, stepped beyond the proper line of his duties to their Society, as marked out in his instructions. The declaration is, however, of importance, as containing the refutation given by a dying man to the assertions still loudly made in the country-that Tracts of the most injurious tendency are copious ly circulated, by the means of missionaries, amongst the Negroes in the Colonies. The London Missionary Society circulates no Tracts whatever; and its Directors prohibit the booksellers who send out books, Catechisms, and other publications ordered by them, from putting in the packages any thing not contained in the order.

The Directors acknowledge, with sincere thankfulness, the many testimonies of approbation and assurances of support received from the Associated Members of the Friends of the Society, in various parts of the country, during the past month; and for the declaration of cordial interest taken in the case of Mr. Smith, by several distinguished personages, and other highly respected individuals, who had not previously directed their attention to its proceedings. These expressions of public feeling the Directors regard as of high importance, not merely to their own Institution, but to all Societies formed for the support of Christian Missions to the Heathen, wheresoever carried on. It will be impossible for such Societies to proceed in their benevolent labours with confidence, and to invite, with becoming integrity, individuals to commit their lives and liberty to their care and direction, if a due security cannot be assured to them, while conducting themselves blamelessly, in the just administration of law, especially in the dependencies of the British Crown. To this point the attention not only of the friends of Missions, but of the community at large, is now directed with the most unequivocal earnestness; and the subject caunot be disposed of on any terms short of positive security. The lives of Missionaries must be protected, as effectually as those of other Englishmen, from the caprice, or jealousy, or ill-will of Governors, and other inhabitants of the British Colonies. The political constitution under which Britons live, the generous dispositions which they cherish, the love of the laws which they cultivate, all require this; and the Sovereign and the Parliament of the United Kingdom are too wise, too just, and too patriotic, to wish to withhold it.

The Members of the Society will feel, in its full extent, the importance of the cause in which Divine Providence has

called them to engage not merely in the promotion, but in the defence of the Gos. pel; and the Directors are rendered confident by the assurances which the occasion has called forth, (though they never had a doubt on the subject,) that they shall receive from them and the Public at large, all the support and countenance which the exigency may require. The enemies of Christian Missions in all parts of the world, and especially in the Eastern and Western Dependencies of the British Empire, have shown the zeal and ardour with which they are prepared to embrace every occurrence that can throw discredit upon, and inspire distrust in, those engaged at home and abroad, in carrying on these divinely authorized efforts of Christian benevolence. They have shouted their imagined triumph, gained by the temporary effect of their misrepresentations of the commotion in Demerara, and their false comments upon it, through the whole world. Such triumphs can only be short.

The Members of the London Missionary Society will, from a conviction of what their duty requires, steadfastly prosecute the labours in which they have engaged. They will feel that, through the sufferings of their Missionary, Smith, an honour has been conferred on their body. It has been no unusual thing for Missionaries of all Societies, worn out with labour and the effects of climate, calmly to resign their lives as the last pledge of their fidelity: but it has not till now happened, in recent times, that a Missionary has been called to yield his life to the rage of his persecutors, vented under the forms of law. May it be the last which the history of the Christian Missions shall have to record!

The Directors beg to repeat their invitation to ministers who may possess the needful qualifications for such a station, to offer their services, for a limited period, in that interesting part of the world. Mr. Elliot is desirous of resuming his labours, and the Directors would be happy if, on his return, he were accompanied by one or two fellow-labourers.

Letter of Rev. John Smith, dated 12th January, addressed to the Treasurer and Secretary.

Colony Jail, Demerara,
January 12, 1824.

Dear and honoured Sirs,-I have just received your kind and sympathizing letter of the 19th November, and will endeavour to answer it by this packet, if my emaciated frame will enable me to bear the fatigue of so doing.

It will be the less necessary at this period for me to enter into particulars respect ing the causes of the revolt, and my alleged concern in it, as you will be made fully aequainted with the latter by the documents that have been long since forwarded to the Society by Mrs. Smith, and by those which Mr. Elliot took with him.

The real causes and objects of the commotion among the negroes (concerning which you wish me to procure and send you authentic copies of all documents which can offer the needful information,") are not, I think, very difficult to ascertain. I, rather Mrs. Smith, has sent every document which came within our reach. There are very few written documents that I know of on the subject. It is the opinion of the only two real friends I have in the colony at present, that a deputation sent out by government to investigate the causes of the revolt would discover wonders, and I have no doubt of the correctness of their views.

You seem to be aware, in some measure, of the unceasing animosity which the colonists in general, and the planters in particular, have to the instruction of the slaves, and to faithful Missionaries on that account; but you can have no just idea of the rancour and fury they display against a missionary when any report is raised against him, which is not unfrequent, and always has turned out to be false, as far as my know. ledge has extended. The following extract from the Guiana Chronicle of the 11th of February 1822, may give an idea of their malicious dispositions towards missionaries:

"We have had occasion repeatedly to express our opinion of the Sectarian Propagandists, who send forth their missionaries out of a pretended zeal for the salvation of souls. They (the missionaries) to be sure, are too wise and cunning to make direct attacks from the pulpit on public men and measures, but in respect of their wild jargon, their capricious interpretations of the Bible, and the doctrines they inculcate, although in themselves they are to be despised and slighted, yet in point of the pernicious tendency they may have upon the minds of their hearers, we do think no caution can be too great, no vigilance too strict. Instances are not wanting of their imposture in this part of the world; their manner of raising revenue in support of their church, is not unknown; neither is the way in which the contributions are sacrilegiously squandered. That fact alone ought to weigh against all their solemn professions of being actuated solely by a pure love of godliness, and apostolic zeal in the cause of Christianity. The influence they possess in the minds of the negroes is

more widely ramified than is imagined, or would be readily believed. It is no longer proper to say they are insignificant. In the common acceptation of the word, they are truly so, but from their calling and canting, they have acquired a degree of importance in this colony not attainable otherwise. Let them be looked after now more strictly than ever, and we pledge ourselves to do for them in proper colours, whenever we may be furnished with the authentic particulars of any immoral or illegal wan derings from the path of their duty."

This extract is not selected for its singu larity, (for such attacks are not unfrequent in this colony) but to show how the mis sionaries are regarded.

You say, 66 you hope I have not been left to struggle unbefriended with the power of my enemies." Thanks be to God, I have not been left altogether without a friend. The Rev. Mr. Elliot has stood by me, and exerted himself much in my behalf, and a kind Providence raised up, unexpectedly, a warm and most zealous friend in the Rev. Mr, Austin. Nor must I omit the name of Doctor Chapman, who has taken a warm interest in my cause; but the pious and independent principles of these gentlemen prevent them from having much influence in these matters; and Mr. Arrindell, whose friendship I must not forget to name.

Under my persecutions and afflictions, it affords me no small consolation, that the Directors cherish the assurance of my entire innocence. That I am innocent of the crimes which they have laid to my charge, I have not only the testimony of my own conscience in my favour, but the attestation of all my friends, who have made strict inquiries into my conduct relative to this affair. The instructions I received from the Society I always endeavoured to act upon, and in order to vindicate the Society from the vile aspersions made against it by its enemies, as to its having a concealed object in view, viz. the ultimate liberation of the slaves-I laid over the instructions as a part of the proceedings of the Court Martial on my trial, that publicity might be given to the real object of the Society.

It appears as if the Directors have some apprehensions of its having been possible, that I have diverted my mind, in some measure, from the real object of my mission, and entered into a correspondence and connexion with some of those Societies which are formed for the gradual abolition of slavery. I can assure the Directors this is not the case, no letter or correspondence of the kind ever having occurred between' me and any Society. All my papers were seized without a moment's warning, and

underwent a most rigid examination, by a Committee of Gentlemen who were by no means my friends, and yet nothing of the kind was ever pretended to be discovered. For every other information, I beg leave to refer the Directors to the documents already forwarded, and to Mr. Elliot.

I suppose, by this time, you are at no loss to know whether I am pursuing my labours at Le Resouvenir. Indeed, had not the revolt occurred, I must have relinquished them, at least for a considerable time, in order to seek the restoration of my declining health in a more salubrious climate; but my close imprisonment, with its innumerable privations, has prevented me from taking that step, and has brought me to the borders of the grave.

It grieves me, dear Sirs, that I am now a useless burden upon the Society. I have endeavoured from the beginning to discharge my duties faithfully. In doing so, I have met with the most unceasing opposition and reproach, until at length the adversary found occasion to triumph over me. But so far have these things been from shaking my confidence in the goodness of the cause in which I was engaged, that if I were at liberty, and my health restored, I would again proclaim (all my days) the glad tidings of salvation amidst similar opposition; but of this I see no prospect. The Lord's hand is heavy upon me, still, I can praise His name, that though outward afflictions abound towards me, yet the consolations of the Gospel abound also, and 1 believe He will do all things well. I am, dear Sirs, in much affliction,

Your useless, but devoted Servant, (Signed) JOHN SMITH.

Extract of a Letter from Mrs. Elliot, dated

Demerara, 14th January, 1824.

Mrs. Smith and myself have received very kind letters from the Directors; I need not say how very welcome they were to us. Our dear brother Smith is much worse, and is removed to a higher room. Dr. Chapman attends him. I have permission to visit him, and go daily poor man, he is very low. I fear he will not live to see the result. Mrs. Smith is with him day and night in the prison.

There were four negroes hung in town last week, and poor Sandy was hung, up the coast. Our good and faithful friend, Mr. Austin, hearing they intended to make out a story to answer their purpose from Sandy's confession, left town with our friend Mr.C. (Dr. Chapman). They arrived just as the troops reached the estate; but our enemies were quite disappointed, for Sandy told them, that Mr. Smith never

taught them to rebel, and died praying for poor Mr. Smith, that God would deliver him from his enemies. Achilles, belonging to the Baron (an estate near Le Resouvenir), really, as they said, preached to them. He told them that religion had restrained them (the negroes) in this instance; and said Mr. Smith knew nothing of the rebellion until it had broke out. What he said made a great impression on all pre

sent.

Houndsditch, March 22, 1824.

My Dear Sir,-I send you such extracts from Mrs. Elliot's letter as relate to our once persecuted, but now happy brother, and I think it is only a fair conclusion to admit, that the report of his death is correct. Believe me, dear Sir, yours sincerely in Christ,

RICH. ELLIOT. Addressed to the Secretary.

Jan. 15.-Brother Smith is very ill in deed. I fear he will soon leave this world of sin and misery. He is not able to sit up a quarter of an hour without fainting; last night he said, I think I shall soon go to my bed, never to get up again. I replied, I trust, brother Smith, you can say, that although your outward man is decaying, your inward man grows stronger and strong

er.

He answered, Yes, I can say so. thank God, my mind is kept in perfect peace. Jesus is my all, heaven is my home, and I shall soon be there. He then complained much, and said, he had not strength to pray. I wish brother Elliot was here to pray with me; for when I try to pray, I can only say, Lord have mercy on me; and then the pain and the cough prevents me going any further. What a mercy that our heavenly Father has promised his Holy Spirit to help our infirmities. At another time I said, I hope you are resigned to the Divine will, and that you do not dwell too much on your trials. He assured me he did not; and said, I try to forget the past, and to look to the future. He often says, What a mercy I have not to seek the salvation of my soul now, for my bodily pains are so great, that I cannot think, or read, or pray long together. God will not leave me at last in my trouble; no, I find him a God near at hand, and not afar off. The Directors' letter cheered him; but I fear before you get this, his poor feeble frame will be committed to the grave.

We give the following additional parti-^ . culars.

The Minutes of the Court Martial in the case of Mr. Smith, the missionary at