tons and under were not to carry more than five slaves to three tons of measurement.

every

But in order to escape the British cruisers, all slave ships now are built on the principle of fast sailing. The risk of being captured takes away all inducement, from mere selfish motives, to make the cargo moderate; on the contrary it is an object now for the slaver to make use of small vessels, in order to divide his ventures as much as possible, and to make the cargo as large as possible, for then the escape of one cargo out of three will amply repay him. Accordingly, the negroes now are packed in the slave ships literally (and this is the comparison always used) like herrings in a barrel. They have neither standing room, nor sitting room, nor lying room, and as for change of position during the voyage, the thing is impossible. They are cooped up anyhow, squeezed into crevices, or jammed up against the curved planks. The height between decks is frequently only 18 inches, so that the only possible posture is on the side.

Lastly, it has been proved that, in too many cases, the condition of the negroes at sea is far from being improved when the slaver falls into British hands. In confirmation of this we may refer to the pamphlet published by the Rev. Pascoe Grenfell Hill, entitled "Fifty Days on Board a Slave Vessel, in April and May 1843." The Progresso, a Brazilian slaver, was captured on the 12th of April, on the coast of Madagascar, by the British cruiser Cleopatra, on board of which Mr Hill was chaplain. The slaver was then taken charge of by a British crew, who were to navigate her to the Cape of Good Hope. Mr Hill, at his own request, accompanied her, and his pamphlet is a narrative of what took place during the fifty days which elapsed before their arrival at the Cape. We cannot here quote

the details of the description of the treatment of the negroes given by Mr Hill; but the following account of the horrors of a single night will suffice. Shortly after the Progresso parted company with the Cleopatra, a squall arose, and the negroes, who were breathing fresh air on the deck, and rolling themselves about for glee, and kissing the hands and the clothes of their deliverers, were all sent below.

"The night," says Mr Hill, "being intensely hot, 400 wretched beings thus crammed into a hold twelve yards in length, seven in breadth, and only three and a half feet in height, speedily began to make an effort to re-issue to the open air. Being thrust back, and striving the more to get out, the after-hatch was forced down on them. Over the other hatchway, in the fore-part of the vessel, a wooden grating was fastened. To this, the sole inlet for the air, the suffocating heat of the hold made them press; and thus great part of the space below was rendered useless. They crowded to the grating, and clinging to it for air, completely barred its entrance. They strove to force their way through apertures in length fourteen inches, and barely six inches in breadth, and in some instances succeeded. The cries, the heat, I may say without exaggeration, the smoke of their torment,' which ascended, can be compared to nothing earthly. One of the Spaniards gave warning that the consequence would be many deaths.' Next day the prediction of the Spaniard was fearfully verified, as fifty-four crushed and mangled corpses were lifted up from the slave deck, brought to the gangway, and thrown overboard. Some were emaciated from disease, many bruised and bloody, and some were found strangled, their hands still grasping each other's throats, in the hopes of procuring room to breathe, and their tongues protruding from their mouths. The bowels of one were crushed out. They had been trampled to death for the most part, the weaker under the feet of the stronger, in the madness and torment of suffocation from crowd and heat. Some, still quivering, were laid on the deck to die; salt water thrown on them to revive them, and a little fresh water poured into their mouths. Antonio reminded me of his last night's warning. He actively employed himself, with his comrade Sebastian, in attendance on the wretched living beings now released from their confinement below; distributing to them their morning meal of farinha, and their allowance of water, rather more than half a pint to each, which they grasped with inconceivable eagerness, some bending their knees to the deck, to avoid the risk

of losing any of the liquid by unsteady footing; their throats doubtless parched to the utmost with crying and yelling through the night.

When the Progresso parted company with the Cleopatra, there were 397 negroes on board, of whom only 222 were landed at the Cape, no fewer than 175 having died. The crew escaped, there being no court empowered to try them at the Cape. Abundantly does the narrative of Mr Hill justify the bold sentence with which he concludes

"While we boast the name of Wilberforce, and the genius and eloquence which enabled him to arouse so general a zeal against the slave trade; that trade, so far from being annihilated, is still carried on under circumstances of greater atrocity than were known in his time, and the blood of the poor victims calls more loudly on us as the actual, though unintentional aggravators of their miseries."

They often found the poor negroes impressed with the strongest terror at their deliverers. The slave dealers persuaded them that the English were cannibals, who only took them to eat them. When undeceived, their joy and gratitude were proportionately great.

CHAPTER VI.

Misrepresentations and delusions practised upon the people of Great Britain in regard to slavery—Testimony of Captain Alexander-of Vincent Paradise- Of a Norwich Artizan—Of M. De Lamartine-Of Caldcleugh Of Gardner—Of the Rev. Dr Walsh-Of the Quarterly Review -Disquisition on the "Licitness of the Slave trade," by the Rev. R.' Harris of Liverpool.

Though I certainly have no desire to hold myself up as an advocate for slavery, yet I must confess that a great deal of delusion and misrepresentation has been practised upon the people of this country, and particularly upon the female part of it, by certain individuals, who, possessed of great natural eloquence, have been in the habit of going through the country haranguing the people, and raising a sort of hue and cry against this unfortunate though ancient practice. I have attended meetings in Edinburgh, and have seen a thousand ladies bathed in tears, at some of the scenes of cruelty represented to their view. And really, I could not wonder at it, as these tales of woe were got up and painted in such glowing colours as quite to get the better of their weak nerves. What I object to, however, is their selecting with great care some solitary instances of cruelty practised by a few tyrannical masters or overseers, (and among so many we must expect to find some who are a disgrace to human nature,) and impressing the public with the notion that such is the universal treatment to which the whole of that unfortunate race are

subjected. They lead us to infer that the exception is the rule itself.

Now I have no interest whatever in the matter but the cause of truth, and

Before thy sacred altar, heavenly Truth,

I kneel in manhood as I knelt in youth;
Thus let me kneel till this dull form decay,
And life's last shade be brighten'd by thy ray;
Then shall my soul, now lost in clouds below,

Soar without bound, without consuming glow.

In the sacred cause of truth, therefore, I proclaim to the world that a more disreputable attempt to impose on the credulity of mankind than this was perhaps never made. I have now been in slave countries myself, I have read and heard all that can possibly be said on the subject; and have been personally acquainted with some remarkably humane men who were slave owners, and I confidently assert that slaves in general, whatever may have been the case formerly, are now treated with a considerable degree of care and humanity. No doubt they are occasionally half-starved, and treated with great cruelty and barbarity, but these are the exceptions and not the rule itself. Slavery in any shape is bad enough, without polluting the fountain head of truth to make it appear worse.

Captain Alexander in his travels in North and South America, says," One would have imagined, from the incessant outcry in England about ameliorating the condition. of the black population in the colonies, that the negroes are in a very deplorable condition, emaciated, borne down with hard labour, badly fed, badly clothed, and sounds of suffering, and of the driver's whip every where heard. No such thing. The men were well clothed and well fed, the negresses were decently clad in printed gowns, and there were no sounds but those of merriment."