with whom they will never maintain any pacific relations.

Of such extravagant speculations the first remarkable character is, that they are at war with all the evidence which experience has hitherto afforded. A single case has arisen, and that in our own days, of a negro state in the Antilles; for St. Domingo, though nominally connected with France, was undeniably through the whole of the last war self-dependant, self-governed, and self-defended and what was the result? In spite of foreign and civil war, of a most unprecedented revolution, and of intestine temporary causes of disorder the most adverse possible to good government, order was restored, was preserved, and was fixed, until subverted by the mad invasion of France, upon a stable and regular basis. As to commerce and agriculture, let the imports of the neutral powers of Europe and the confessions of the French invaders attest, whether these were wholly abandoned; and whether, on the contrary, their extent was not as great as under such extreme pressure of foreign and civil war could have been expected from the most civilized people on earth. Whether pacific relations were maintained in this case by negroes with Europeans, we have witnesses nearer home to declare: not only the Spaniards of Cuba, but the English government might be invoked to refute our author's speculations on this head, and challenged to point out in what instance the faith of the negro government of St. Domingo was ever infringed. But above all, the notion that Africans cannot remain united under one head, was practically refuted by Toussaint. So entire, so durable an ascendancy of one man in a new society, and so firm an adhesion of all the parts of a new society in one unbroken body, are perhaps unexampled in history. The union lasted as long as the period allowed by European despotism for the experiment, and the rudest shocks of war, as well as the most insidious sapping of foundations, were necessary at last to break for a while the tenacious fabric.

Of this volume of recent experience, Mr. Brougham has prudently forborne to open a single page. He has given no answer to this adverse testimony of notorious facts, except

an attempt to elude its force by ascribing the whole that was right in St. Domingo to the personal character of Toussaint. (See p. 143, Vol. II.)

We admit, that singular talents and singular virtues too belonged to that extraordinary man; but if we must further admit to Mr. Brougham, that in these he was distinguishable from other Africans, we fear the distinction must go much farther, and that his own favoured race, though “white and civilized," will be found to produce few such characters as Toussaint. What then! Are Europeans also unfit to be members of an independent community? Besides, Mr. Brougham's logic is surely here a little ricketty, for he has undertaken to maintain the incapacity of negroes, in general, or at least of the Negroes now in the West Indies, not merely to be kings or heroes, but to be members of a civilized and independent society; and if under a wise leader they are not incapable of the latter, there is an end of his hypothesis. He must change his ground, and maintain, that though they found among half a million of their race a leader of the first order of heroes, and that too the moment they had occasion for such a character, it is impossible they should ever find another such chief, or even such an inferior one as is fit to govern.

Instead of the satisfactory evidence of experience, Mr. Brougham offers in support of his harsh hypothesis general and erroneous views of the negro character. He adverts, indeed, to the state of society in Africa, but his ideas of that subject are grossly erroneous in many parts, and whatever sound foundation of fact they have, applies only to the wretched districts which are the immediate shambles or ordinary thoroughfares of the Slave Trade. In the interior of Africa social institutions are found hardly less fatal to great part of our author's theory than the case of St. Domingo; and yet what fair analogy is to be traced between the civilizing causes to be found in the interior of Africa, and those which acted under Toussaint, and must ever act in a once cultivated West Indian island? The very vices which our author imputes to this injured race would suffice, in the latter situation, to maintain at least some portion of agricul ture and commerce. To renounce

wholly the civil arts they have learned would be to renounce the luxuries of which they have known the taste, and were these to be given up, indolence itself would plead for raising and exporting coffee and cotton in preference to planting provisions, as the easier and known means of procuring by barter for imported articles all the necessaries of life. But where commerce and agriculture obtain in any degree, their tendency is rapidly to increase, at least where the means of increase are so ample, and excitement, by the demand of foreign exporters, is, as it would be in the ports of St. Domingo, incessant.

We expose, therefore, to Mr. Brougham's speculations, arguments a priori at least as plausible as his own; but we rely on that clearer answer, the practical solution of this interesting problem, during four years in which the negroes of St. Domingo were in reality an independent people.

Our author discusses some other topics, of which late events have diminished the interest and importance; and though his opinions are sometimes highly erroneous, they are always supported with great ability, and much power of original conception. His diligence in research is also every where conspicuous, and though his errors in point of fact are neither few nor trivial, yet considering how difficult it is to find sources of colonial information unpolluted by prejudice and even by intentional falsehood, Mr. B. is intitled to great praise for collecting so much important truth, with no larger commixture of error.

His mistakes are chiefly to be found in those parts of his work which were evidently composed with haste, in order to catch in their flight the temporary colonial questions which arose out of the war of St. Domingo; and the warmth of political controversy may here have combined with haste to induce a credulous adoption of facts which were friendly to a leading opi

nion.

We must particularly caution our readers not to rely upon his historical statements, as to the nature and event of insurrections in the foreign colonies. Mr. B. for instance gives the following account of the insurrection in Berbice, in 1763:-"Sometimes the negroes have been completely successful, as in the year 1763, when the CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 23.

colony of Berbice was wholly in their possession, until weary of a state of unbridled licentiousness, unnatural even to the most savage tribes, and satiated with the possession of an independence foreign to their habits, they submitted voluntarily to their old masters, and quietly returned to their former labours.' 1 Vol. p. 511.

He cites no authority for this most incredible representation, and from whatever source it was derived, we venture to affirm it is essentially and grossly erroneous. The following is the account given of the same event by Capt. Stedman, a writer of undoubted information on the subject, and we believe of the first authority among the historians of the Dutch colonies. "Not only a regiment of marines, commanded by colonel de Salse, which now belongs to general Douglass, was sent over from Holland to that settlement, but troops also from the neighbouring colonies were dispatched, in order to subdue the revolt. In this design they soon succeeded, since the woods in that part being of small extent are easily penetrated, which prevents the rebels from forming settlements; and since from the same cause they will not serve to conceal them from their pursuers. The consequence was, that after numbers had been shot dead, and others taken prisoners, the rest were forced to surrender at discretion and implore for mercy, or they must have been starved to death for want of subsistence." Stedman's Hist. of the wars in Surinam. 1 Vol. p. 71.

Let it be observed, that Capt. Stedman had in this statement no hypothesis to support; but Mr. B. is reasoning to prove that the negroes of St. Domingo might be brought to submit again to their former slavery.

On the whole we regard Mr. B. as a writer of great talents, and one who is well able to extend the bounds of political science in a way beneficial to mankind. We regret, therefore, that he seems to have drank deep of a poisonous prejudice which too much characterises the practical as well as speculative politics of the age; and we hope that his vigorous understanding will deliver him from the fatal influence, and teach him to search for national utility, where alone any genuine and lasting good, private or public, can be found; in the paths of moral rectitude.

4T

In point of composition, this work is neither liable to material censure nor entitled to distinguishing praise. The author shews himself, in many places, capable of a more elegant and accurate style than he has in general used; but he might reasonably think, that his topics were such as would interest without ornament; and some of them had a temporary importance, which forbade him to lose time in the choice of happy expressions, or pleasing and tasteful arrangement. His style is, in general, that of a man mainly intent upon his subject, in haste to communicate his thoughts, and less anxious to please than to persuade.

To hurry on at the expence of method and perspicuity is, however, always a false economy of time; and into this error our author's haste has

sometimes betrayed him. He is especially deficient in clearness of expres sion, in a place where perspicuity is of the greatest importance, in an introductory chapter, of which the sole purpose is to describe his plan and general method. So far is this from being a good and clear analysis of the work, that, for the ingenious author's sake, we must caution the reader not to be discouraged at the outset of his tour by the apparent perplexities of the map. He will find the country by no means so difficult as the draughtsman's confused outline seems to threaten; and notwithstanding the much which we have been compelled freely to condemn by the way, there will be found much more of useful information, original conception, and forcible remark, to reward perseverance in the journey.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I GIVE you entire credit for having conscientiously endeavoured to perform your original promise, of abstaining from any decision on the points at issue between orthodox Calvinists and orthodox Non-calvinists. The consequences of your impartiality have been such as were to be expected. Warm Calvinists decry you as an Arminian. Their equally warm opponents brand you as a Calvinist. But what is the prevailing opinion among moderate men, who really mean to judge exclusively according to the evidence which they conceive to be furnished by your work? I speak not on very slender experience, nor with reference to the sentiments of unimportant characters, when I express my conviction, that, on the whole, that prevailing opinion assuredly pronounces your publication calvinistic. Are you surprised at this assertion? Bear with me, then, while I point out some circumstances which may lessen your surprise. In pointing them out, let me not be regarded as implying either praise or blame, but simply as delivering a statement of facts.

First, then, your first review, in your first number, was a detailed examination of the work of Mr. Over

ton; who, whether with reason or without, is generally considered as the champion of Calvinism and Calvinists in the establishment. That examination was prolonged through several succeeding numbers, at far greater length than you have assigned to other articles reviewed; and, with the exception of the last number, to which I shall speedily advert, in a style which betokened universal approbation. Secondly, The only two individuals, with whom you have become engaged in open controversy, are Dr. Kipling and Mr. Daubeny, divines distinguished as antagonists of Calvinism. Thirdly, The Anti-jacobin Review, another object of your warfare, and your avowed enemy, conspicuous for opposition to the te nets of Calvin. Fourthly, It has hap pened to you frequently to take a remarkably active part in defending Calvinism and Calvinists against real or supposed misrepresentations. Fifthly, When your correspondents have been led to intimate their own sentiments on the controverted points, concerning which, in your official capacity, you profess neutrality, those sentiments have, in most instances, been calvinistic. For those sentiments you are not responsible; nor ought a calvinistic writer, when he favours you with a communication, to