*

supply of manufactured goods from whom they please; but, will it be believed? a prohibitory duty has just now been laid on East India Rum!!

'These sacrifices, enormously great as they are, are not the whole of the burden imposed upon this country, to enable the planter of the West Indies to continue the expensive, the ruinous system of slave cultivation, which, without such support, he would long ago have been forced to abandon, and to have adopted a better; we will mention another item. The expense of our slave colonies during the year 1824, a year of profound peace, for naval and military defence, and other contingencies, amounted to upwards of One Million Six Hundred Thousand Pounds, and this is an expense which is going on from year to year; while, on the contrary, INDIA MAINTAINS HERSELF—her defence and government cost us nothing. The expense of every establishment connected with her, at home or abroad, is defrayed from her own resources.

1

'But it is said, the West Indies are a source of wealth to the mother country;-that they give extensive employment to her manufacturers. On the contrary, as matters are now managed, they are a dead weight; a source of enormous expense, without any adequate return. It is calculated, that, on account of the West Indies, we have added ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLIONS to our National Debt. But to say nothing of this, whether it be more or less; to say nothing of the MILLIONS which this nation has annually to pay for interest upon this mighty sum; to say nothing of the incalculable loss which this country sustains, from our Trade being cramped and limited, by protecting duties to favour the West Indies; to say nothing of the sum levied upon the consumers, the people of England, Ireland, and Scotland, in an enhancement of the price of their sugars, &c., by the operation of these duties, which prevent the produce of the East Indies being brought into fair competition with the West; and which sum, whatever the amount, goes not into the Treasury, but direct into the pocket of the West Indian planter;-to say nothing of all these, we have besides, as stated above, before we derive any profit from the trade of the West Indies, for defence and other contingencies, and in their part of the bounty, an absolute outlay of more than TWO MILLIONS per annum; a sum, in itself, nearly as great as the WHOLE AMOUNT of our manufactures consumed in our West India Colonies.

In an address to the Cotton Manufactures, it is further remarked, that

"It is an indisputable fact, that a large proportion of the human race are willing to wear cotton clothing; and that you can supply them with that clothing at a much cheaper rate than they can pro

See England Enslaved by her own Colonies; and, for information, "Huskisson's Speech,' March 21st, 1825,

cure it from any other quarter, provided only you are allowed to take their produce, freely, in exchange for it? At present your export of cotton goods, large as it is, is not sufficient to meet the wants of a fortieth part of that immense population, who would gladly buy their clothing of you, if they might but pay you for it in the fruits of their labour.

“You have witnessed, on former occasions, the beneficial effects of fresh openings for our commerce and manufactures. A few years ago, a new trade was opened with about twenty millions of people in South America, and you know what extensive benefits you derived from it. Hence you may form some idea of what the effect would be of opening a free and unrestricted trade with more than twenty times that number-I mean, with nearly five hundred millions of people in Asia.

"What was it which prevented you, until lately, from trading with South America! What, but the restrictions imposed on that trade by the Governments of Spain and Portugal ?

"And what now prevents your trading with the five hundred millions of China, Hindoostan, and the rest of Asia? What but the restrictions imposed on that trade by your own Government? You have only, as it appears to me, to ask that these restrictions should be removed, in order to its being done. So reasonable a request could hardly be refused, more particularly as it is in strict agreement with the very liberal principles of trade which have been avowed, and which, in a variety of other instances, have been acted upon, by his Majesty's Government."

We need not add another word to this. Let there be but corresponding exertions made by the merchants in India, to support the claims of the advocates of unrestricted intercourse between England and her Eastern possessions, in this country, and their united efforts must and will prevail.

SONNET.

WHO sees thee must adore ;-thy beauteous face
Reflects thy bright intelligence of mind,

While in thy faultless form, that thralling grace
Makes love my fate, and willing choice combined.

Yes, I do love thee, sweetest of thy kind!
Deep and indelible the sudden stroke

Effaces all that love had graved before,

And makes me feel, alas! how true I spoke

Those fatal words- Who sees thee must adore!'
Yet why should I my destiny deplore ?

'Tis ecstacy to love thee, though despair

Hang o'er the future like a moonless night,-
O'ershading all that hopeful fancy there

In gilded visions summon'd into light.

B. G. B.

ON THE CIVILIZATION OF THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA, AND THE EDUCATION OF NEGROES.

In entering on this subject, it is impossible to refrain from contemplating, with a sigh, the enormous expenditure so uselessly made in the Establishment of Sierra Leone, which is either abandoned, or about to be so, after a terrible loss of life, an almost total failure of every object to which the public ardently looked forward, and every ameliorating effect corresponding to the assistance and liberal subscriptions supplied. Africa, which has, for so many centuries, bled at every pore from European cupidity, still suffers in her wretched population; nor has any visible advantage hitherto resulted, which can be reckoned as the commencement of a remunerating process likely to redeem the past, which, by enlightening her debased and ignorant sons, and teaching them the rudiments of useful learning and Christian truths, might reclaim them into the great family of man, partaking of, and augmenting from their own stores, the inexhaustible products of nature, which a genial commerce and enlightened views might establish. To accomplish the amelioration of the much injured African, nothing more is requisite than the cul. tivation of his faculties: how long will it be ere the promoter of this desired end shall be convinced, that it is by the formation of negro schools, amid our islands or in Europe, wherein the sons of Africa may gain an insight into the simplest truths of knowledge, and thence return to their native abodes to disseminate their new lights, that we may look forward, by little and little, by slow but certain steps, to obtain this most important result? The power of becoming intelligent and well informed, appertains to the African as well as the European. The celebrated Blumenbach gives us a most entertaining account of a little library, which he possesses, of works written by negroes, from which it appears, that there is not a single department of taste or science in which some negro has not distinguished himself." Without venturing to pronounce so sanguine an encomium as this, the following observations, from a Memoir of M. Pacho, recently read before the Geographical Society of Paris, with an early copy of which we have been favoured, are so entirely in accordance with our own opinion, that we perform only our duty in recommending them to the public notice and favour.

Stationed for many years at the confines of the interior of Africa, M. Drovetti (the late Consul-General of France at Cairo) had peculiar advantages for considering the great problem of exclusion from intercourse, which attached to the central parts of this great portion of the globe we know not how to bestow the term of States on those African hordes, which, bounding their exertions to their phy

sical wants, scarcely exist in a higher sphere than the palms on which they chiefly subsist.

Nevertheless, in the number of young Africans which arrive every year in the valley of the Nile, M. Drovetti has found an intelligence and natural sagacity, of which the European manufactories of the Pasha of Egypt daily supply convincing proofs. But this position involves apparently this difficulty-why, if the Negroes be thus intelligent, as individuals, do they remain, as a race, in complete torpidity? Why do they invent nothing among themselves > Why have they never formed ports, or constructed boats or shipping, to navigate the rivers of their immense continent? Why have they had no lawgiver, to mould, or conqueror, to condense and create a powerful people from bands of slaves? Is the climate a cause of this apathy? A great writer has asserted this position; but facts have long proved, that the genius and merits of nations have no thermometrical grade. Can this effect arise from a natural degradation of species? The reveries of a few disordered materialists are disproved by a thousand facts, which clearly confirm the truth. The whole human race on earth are one family. In sober reason, we must attribute the true source of the moral phenomenon, not to the influence of climate on the human being, nor in any partial classification, (an injurious idea on the bounties of creative power,) but in the geographical character of the inhabitable spots in reference to their residents. In our view, it is allowable to consider the leopard's skin, by which the ancients ingeniously designated Libya only, as truly applicable to Africa entire.

That vast ocean of sands, amid which are some spots of earth, must ever have rendered communication with each other very difficult, and their union, politically speaking, impossible. Moreover, the immense Zaarah forms a new zone of separation betwixt these disunited spots and the maritime shores of Africa. This zone, a dreary and burning desert, placed between the centre of the continent and the civilized world, presents to the latter a barrier, which she has hitherto found insurmountable. Without wandering into the obscurities of history to establish this point, it may be assumed, that, while all the civilized states have, at various epochs,* sought to penetrate into the heart of Central Africa, no one has ever accomplished this end.

In modern times England has devoted herself to the search, and has lavishly expended her gold in pursuit of the golden dust of Africa; her numerous class of enlightened travellers have perished

It is recorded by Pliny, that, Julius Cæsar declared, that but for the tempting baits of ambition, he should have preferred the glory of exploring Africa, and discovering the sources of the Nile, to every other enterprise.

amid the wastes and pestiferous rivers of Africa. Other nations have made similar efforts, and experienced similar results: the only return for these painful sacrifices have been, the rectifying of some of our geographical opinions and positions, they have seen new lakes, rivers, and mountains,—the maps have been improved,—but the native Africans remain the same.

Nevertheless, the African, with his woolly hair, flat nose, and thickened lips, is Man, as much as ourselves. We have for centuries ventured to call him our slave ;—the voice of Europe, of nature, at length prevails, and Africa is free. But Europe must not halt at the mere recognition of native rights; she must add the highest value and importance to it, by enlightening this much-injured race. The darkness of Islamism surrounds, as a dense vapour, unhappy Africa, retains her surface as its domicile, and watches her as a prey. This malign spirit gains on her population; it is supreme in Soûdan; it encamps in the desert with the numerous Tuarick; in Abyssinia it has nearly overshadowed the cross; and we find it governing the much sought for Tombuctoo. Thus, even if we succeeded in exploring these regions; if Islamism, tempted by gold, assisted our savans to pass these long-closed barriers, she would restrain us by her escorts, and watch and repress every step: we might rectify our maps, collect geological specimens, write tours, and enrich cabinets, but the native African will remain buried in darkness, reproachful to the present era and prospects of the human

race.

It is not in paying wages to Mohammedan false guides, or despatching travellers to be devoured by the insatiate deserts, that we shall ameliorate the social state of the Negro. It will be by creating a link betwixt the most distant spots of Africa and Europe, by accustoming the Africans to European society, that we shall place them, as a people, in the space they ought to occupy in the great family of man.

Egypt, the once far-famed mother of knowledge and science, cannot bestow this benefit, but she can greatly aid in its realisation; every year a great number of young negroes arrive there from the interior; already Mohammed Ali has begun to draw them from slavery. Instead of leaving them to be disposed of in the market-place of Cairo, to be purchased for the service of harems, he puts arms into their hands, and makes them soldiers. It remains for Europe to try to make them an intellectual race, and the task may be accomplished. It is the plan of M. Drovetti, to send yearly from Egypt a portion of these young Africans; that, in the schools of France, they may learn to acquire the light and information of civilized Europe. Their unformed minds, manifesting some marks of intellectual character, will soon evince the intelligence of that living spark within, which, whether stifled or called forth, is the divine breath