readers, it will probably be sought for. The writer is not wholly free from the vice which we are accustomed to call French declamation, but which is no more than the abuse of a style, that in a better state, attracts us by the charms of eloquence, and by appeals to the imagination. His geographical, historical, and political summary of the European settlements will be received as an object of permanent utility, even by those who may be less induced, by their usual subjects of contemplation, to weigh the value of his po litical inquiries. On our part, he cannot but have our thanks for the strong and just light in which he has placed the connection of Europe with the Colonies, which ever way we may be disposed to turn the force of the argument which he founds on that connection. In truth, M. de P., after convincing us of the value of the Colonies, can hardly expect, we think, to persuade us very easily to agree to part with them. We are not liberal enough to make a present to Europe of those advantages which it is practicable to reserve exclusively to Great Britain. We do not understand the claims of Europe in general to the participation; and we are sure that Great Britain has need of all her resources, to enable her to stand the competition with the rest of the countries of the world. When M. de P. tells us, that " riches are at present the basis of power, and that Colonies, being undoubtedly the most abundant source of modern riches, are consequently the basis of power also*,” —our conclusion is, that Colonies ought not to be easily abandoned by Great Britain. M. de P. is strong when he contends that independent Colonies have their value, as well as Colonies that are dependent; he is probably equally strong when he asserts that all Colonies which are able to maintain their political independence have a right to enjoy it; but we neither think, with him, that all the existing Colonies are in a condition to maintain their independence, nor that mother countries do not, in general, derive superior advantages from those that are dependent. Our doctrine is simple, and easily told-Let us have Colonies; dependent Colonies while we can; but let us have Colonies. M. de P. is seeking to raise a new engine against the ascendancy of Great Britain, somewhat on the scale and of the character of the armed neutrality. In this cause he aims to embattle Europe, and to have the Colonies *Chap. xiii. for allies. England, we may readily believe, will consent to no CoJonial Congress. M. de P. is said to be at present employed upon a work upon Brazil and South America, designed as a sequel to the "Colonies." THE libel on the Aides de-Camps of Sir James Leith, and, in them, on the whole West India public, which the African Institution, in prosecution of its malignant industry, thought fit to print in its Tenth Report, has been sullenly withdrawn, every expression, on the occasion, being avoided, by which a decent sense of the outrage committed could have been marked. The following are the terms of the reluctant admission :— "At a Board of Directors of the African Institution, held on Tuesday, the 11th day of February, 1817, it was resolved,— "That this Institution having received a further communication from the West Indies since the publication of their Resolutions of the 12th and 29th day of October last, take the earliest opportunity of declaring their conviction, that the information relating to the Aid-de-Camp of Sir James Leith in the Island of Antigua, which they had received from the West Indies, and inserted in their Tenth Report, is totally unfounded. "N. B. The sheet of the Tenth Report, containing the statement relative to the Island of Antigua, was long ago cancelled, and another sheet, omitting that paragraph, inserted in its stead, in all the copies of the Reremaining in the possession of the Institution." The publisher of the libel has since been brought to trial, and convicted. He will receive the judgment of the court in the ensu ing term, after which a full report of the trial will be given in the Colonial Journal. At the annual meeting of the African Institution, on the twentysixth instant, Mr. Stephen delivered a speech, in which, on the subject of the Registry Bill, there was manifest, perhaps, some little loss of temper, and rather a warm feeling of disappointment. With these exceptions, the systematic hostility with which the West Indies have long been treated by certain active individuals, and latterly by the African Institution-an establishment which, however inconsistently with its professed design, is converted into a great political and mercantile engine against the existing Sugar and Coffee Colonies of the empire-that systematic hostility is, for the moment, in a small degree, smothered and silent-bowed under the weight of events-and doubtlessly, under that of the rebuke of His Majesty's Government, which has not hesitated to charge the promoters of it with an "uncharitable vehemence," and to intimate, tolerably strongly, that they are persons "not willing to be convinced" of the falsehood of the charges they advance*. On the 19th of December last, the General Assembly of Jamaica was prorogued to the 21st of January, His Grace the Governor's assent being first given to sixteen bills, the three following inclusive: 1. "An Act in furtherance of the Abolition Laws within this Island;" 2. "An Act for providing Curates for the several Parishes of this Island, and for promoting Religious Instruction among the Slaves:" and, 3." An Act for the Subsistence, Clothing, and the better Regulation and Government of the Slaves; for enlarging the Powers of the Council of Protection; for preventing the improper Transfer of Slaves, and for other purposes." A bill, entitled, " An Act for a more particular Return of Slaves in this Island, and the Enrolment thereof", had received His Grace's assent at an earlier period of the session. The General Assembly of Barbados has also passed an act, intended, like the last mentioned, to effect the purpose of a registration of slaves consistently with the rights of the proprietors. From a comparison of the subjoined Summaries of Givings-in, in Jamaica, there appears a decrease, between the years 1815 and 18.6 of 804 Slaves, 5,150 stock, and 6,487 acres of cultivated land. * Message from the Governor of Jamaica, October 31st, 1816. VOL. III.-No. V. T *As taken from the Poll-Tax Roll. + The inhabitants of this city not being compelled to give in, it is generally supposed taxes are not paid for more than one half of the Slaves it contains, which may, therefore, be estimated at 13,000.-Aikman's Jamaica Almanac. 1816. In consequence of the great proportion of Slaves that are neglected to be given in [for this parish,] it is generally believed, that when the returns shall be made under the new Slave Population Act, the amount will far exceed double the present number. Aikman's Jamaica Almanac. 1817. Middlesex Surry Cornwall 113,508 86,332 953,357 | 112,294 87,997 938,851 182,000 31,810 461,170 80,754 38,144 449,087 Total 866,726 | 117,273 $7,015 886,828 311,125* 218,306 2,281,253 310,321 213,156 2,274,766 The decrease in the number of Slaves appears, from official dócuments, to be common to all the West India Islands, Barbados alone excepted; but we must beware of drawing improper conclusions from that fact. The great disproportion between the number of males and females sold as slaves in Africa, and consequently of those imported into the Colonies, (the superiority being on the side of the males,) is one of the circumstances which forbids the expectation that the Slave-births should stand a competition with the deaths, for many years to come. When, in the progress of mortality, the existing generation of African natives shall have passed away, and when their place shall be wholly supplied by Creoles, or Slaves born in the Colonies, (where the usual proportion between the sexes is to be looked for,) it will then, and then only, be reasonable to insist on the due natural increase, and consequent proportion of births to deaths. The question, indeed, whether, by any possibility, under the Abolition of the Slave trade, the Slave population can be maintained, to an extent commensurate with the support of the Colonial agriculture, is one which has been always agitated, and which is not yet solved. Mr. Edwards anticipated, that in the event of the Abolition, the whole of the Slaves would disappear in thirty years. To the writer of this article, it seems This total varies considerably from that given in the Colonial Journal, vol. 1, p. 340; a disagreement which is not explained, |