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the experiment had been tried repeatedly , during a period of twenty-six years , as ivell before as after the abolition of the Slave-trade ; and had uniformly and t 6 tally failed . The Crown , the Parliament , and that far more influential body , the West-India Committee of this
country , with Mr . Ellis at the head of it , had all recommended , supplicated , and even menaced , hi vain . Not a single Assembly had deigned to relax one cord of their rigorous bondage ; or to adopt a single measure that had been proposed
to them for the temporal or spiritual benefit of the Slaves , except in a way manifestly evasive , and plainly intended , as well as proved by experience , to be useless ; while some of those inexorable bodies had even met the solicitations of
their Sovereign , and the resolutions of the supreme legislature , with express rejection and contempt . Recommendation to the Assemblies !! I to the authors of every wrong to be redressed ! of every oppression to be mitigated ! to Slavemasters , tfhe representatives of
Slavemasters , hardened by familiarity with the odious system in which they have been long personally engaged , and surrounded with crowds of indigent and vulgar Whites , to whom slavery yields
a sordid subsistence , and the degradation of the Blacks is privilege and respect ! You might as well recommend toleration to Spanish Inquisitors , or Grecian liberty to the Turkish Divan . " England Enslaved , p . 5 .
In Jamaica , as we learn from the speech of the Governor , just brought over , not a single step has been taken in compliance with the instructions of Government : and the same remark
may be made with regard to all the other colonial legislatures , without an exception . ( Report , p . 6 . ) ^ The Assemblies defy the Government and the people of England , and without some further interference the cause of the
Negroes is hopeless . The only spot in which the measures of ministers are attempted to be carried into effect is Trinidad , which , happily for this end ^ has no legislative
assembly . Here , too , all is done b y compulsion , and by unwilling agents , who are actuated , it is to be feared , more by the spirit of the other islands than by that of the authorities at home .
Since the last discussion in Parliament , many new facts have come , to light with respect to the state of the negroes . The proceedings of the FiscstFof Berbice , for instance , havfe been
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published , and a truly notable illustration they are of the privileges which the planters sometimes boast that they have conceded to the slaves . One of these is , that such as are aggrieved may complain to a magistrate : but
mark the humanity of the law ! If the magistrate , himself a planter and slave-holder , shall judge the complaint unfounded , he is empowered at his discretion to punish the complainant , by sending him to the whip . Report , p > 10 .
We refer the reader for a full understanding of this melancholy subject to the pamphlets before us , and especially to Mr . Stephen ' s "Address , " which is one of the ablest and most effective expositions of a political subject which ever came before the
publie . It is admirable as a specimen of composition ; more admirable as an effusion of humanity and Christian benevolence . The Master in Chancery feels that in his argument he stands upon high ground ; and from the eminence to which he is raised by the growing strength of the cause , by the support
of government and the co-operation of the people , he hurls down weapon after weapon , of reason and of irony , drawn from political expediency and from Christian duty , which the supporters of unqualified slavery will find it impossible to repel or even to parry . As far as reasoning extends , the day
won . Mr . Stephen calls upon all classes of his countrymen to come forward and strengthen the hands of Government in this righteous cause , b y their declarations and petitions . What pious man can resist the following appeal ? .
" Servants of God , of every description , my last and surest appeal is made to you . Of whatever faith you are , Churchmen , Dissenters , Catholics , Theists of every kind ; if you believe that there is a God , the common Parent of the human race , who delights in justice and mercy , behold
a cause that demands your strenuous support . The Slave-masters would craftily divide you . They would avail themselves of your theological differences ; and especially would persuade you , if they could , that those who earnestly maintain this cause of God and man , are all fanatics and enthusiasts . But what creed will be
found to countenance a system like theirs , when its true nature is developed ? Even the Mahometan faith proscribes it , though
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116 Review . ^ Thkrd Report of the Slavery-Abolition Society .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 116, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/52/
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