such restraint is equally necessary to keep up a constant supply of home-born Slaves for the cultivation of your lands; you will perceive that these important purposes can in no other way be so easily, so effectually, and so expeditiously obtained, as by the adoption of the schools here proposed. Assuming, then, that you are resolved upon the measure, the next consideration is, how are sufficient funds to be provided for carrying it into effect? Now I apprehend that in this there will be very little difficulty, as one great excellence of Dr. Bell's plan is, that it is attended with but a very. trifling expence. To defray this expence, I would propose,

1. That a general subscription should be set on foot in this country, which I am persuaded would be an extensive and a liberal one. In my own diocese, and particularly in the opulent cities of London and Westminster, I would exert my utmost influence to promote it, and would myself begin it with the sum of £.500.; and if the occasion called for it, would at any time be ready to double that sum.

2. I can entertain no doubt but that the British legislature, which has already manifested so laudable a concern for the temporal happiness of the Negroes, will not be indifferent to their spiritual. welfare, nor refuse their assistance in promoting it, by encouraging the establishment of these parochial schools.

3. The

3. The Society for the Conversion and religious Instruction and Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands (of which I have the honour to be President) have I think the power, and would not, I am confident, want the inclination to contribute some share of their moderate revenue towards forwarding the plan proposed; as one part of their institution is the education of the young Negroes, and they are allowed by their charter to şend out schoolmasters to the islands, as well as missionaries.

4. Lastly. If these funds should not prove sufficient, a very small parochial rate might be raised on the Proprietors of lands in every island, to which (as they are to reap all the benc fits of the institution, in the increase of their native Negroes, and will consequently save all the enormous sums formerly expended in the importation of fresh Slaves from Africa) they cannot, I think, reasonably object.

to

These are the sources which will, I doubt not, furnish an abundant supply for the support of the establishment here proposed; and the Planters will in a few years, at a very trivial expence * the Proprietor, raise up a race of young Christian Negroes, who will amply repay their kindness by the increase of their population, by their fidelity, their industry, their honesty, their sobriety, their

See the Appendix.

humility,

humility, submission, and obedience to their masters; all which virtues are most strictly enjoined, under pain of eternal punishment, by that divine religion in which they will have been educated, and render them far superior to their unconverted fellow-labourers. This is not merely assertion and speculation. It is proved by fact and by experience; by the conduct of the Slaves who have been converted from Paganism and instructed in the Christian religion by the Moravian missionaries in the English and Danish islands, where the number of converted Negroes amounts to upwards of 24,000; who so far excel the unconverted Negroes, in the conscientious discharge of all the duties attached to their humble station, that they are held by the Planters in the highest estimation, and are purchased at a higher price than their Heathen brethren.

I cannot therefore help flattering myself that you will, without hesitation, adopt this benevolent system. It may be tried at first in one parish in any of the islands, and if it should succeed in that (of which there can be no doubt) it will of course encourage you to extend it gradually through every parish in every British island. The first step must be to provide for each parish a proper schoolmaster, well instructed in Dr. Bell's mode of education, who will be easily obtained on very moderate terms from this country; and the next,

to

to erect one or two cheap wooden buildings, of dimensions sufficient to contain all the Negro children of the parish, and which may not only serve as a school room for them, but also as a place of worship on Sundays, both for the children and the adult Negroes who are desirous to attend divine service: for some care must also be taken of these last, while the education of their children is going on. The schoolmasters therefore may be empowered to require their attendance in the school room on Sundays, as well as that of their children, and the clergyman of the parish in which they reside will probably have the goodness to add his influence and exhortations for the same important purpose; and also to prepare a short form of public prayers for them, consisting of a certain number of the best Collects of the Liturgy, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, together with select portions of Scripture, taken principally from the Psalms and Proverbs, the Gospels, and the plainest and most practical parts of the Epistles, particularly those which relate to the duties of slaves towards their masters. The schoolmaster also may be directed to read to them a plain, useful discourse, selected from some of our English printed sermons, or from the abridgment of Bishop Wilson's Instructions for the Indians, or from Mr. Duke's Lectures to the Negroes, and other

other publications of the same nature, to be chosen by the rector of the parish, under whose superintendance the parochial schools must wholly be placed.

By these means the adults, as well as the Negro children, will enjoy the advantage of religious instruction. But then, that they may have sufficient time for receiving it, it will be necessary to indulge them with the whole of the Sunday for that purpose. It will be said, perhaps, that they are already so indulged; for on Sunday they are released from all labour on the plantations: it is considered as their own day, and they employ it in any way they think fit. This is very true; but there are two most unfortunate circumstances which prevent the Sabbath from being to them what it was, by its original institution, intended to be to the whole human race (whatever their condition or complexion might be), A DAY OF REST FROM LA

BOUR, AND A DAY DEDICATED TO THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF God.

The first of these circumstances is, THE WANT OF À DAY, OR PART OF A DAY IN EVERY WEEK, FOR THE CULTIVATION OF THEIR OWN LITTLE PATCHES OF LAND; which want renders it necessary for them to employ a part of the Sunday for that purpose. The other is, the PUBLIC MARKET which is allowed to be held on Sundays, where the Negroes go to dispose of the produce of their lands, their poultry, fruit, and vegetables, and where they commonly

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