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right to demand a trial . I do not burn for the figlit ; I would rather decline it ; but , be it remembered , I fear it uot . It is for Alpha and his friends to decide whether the contest shall take place , and when , and where , and how . JOHN BROWN .
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Slavery in the Mauritius . To the Editor . Sir , I hope you will spare room in the next number of the Monthly Repository for a short account of the state of things
in the Mauritius ; that colony on which the representatives of the British nation bave lately bestowed such substantial proofs of approbation , by selecting it as the only spot in our eastern empire in which the proprietors should be allowed the same advantages as those enjoyed by the West-India planters .
Pray , Sir , inform those amongst your readers who hare not attended to the sjibject , that in this favoured colony the slaves are driven by the whip to labour from sixteen to nineteen hours daily , even out of crop time ; that the food on which they support this toil is about equal in quantity , but far inferior in nutritious quality , to three of our muffins
( this is not the allowance for one meal , but for the four and twenty hours ; the deficiency the poor creatures endeavour to supply by drinking large quantities of water , and by eating offal and carrion , when they are so fortunate as to find any ) ; that they have scarcely any clothing , and no bedding , not even a rug , blaukct , or maf , but that they generally lie down to sleep on the bare ground in a miserable hut perviou 3 to the weather ;
that the ordinary punishment inflicted at the will of the master or manager , is about a hundred lashes with a heavy whip or a split rattan , either of which instruments will make incisions into the flesh and lacerate it at every blow ; the punishment of a collar and chain is often superadded , even young girls being made to we , ar , for many days together , irons weighing seventy-six pounds English , which is about five times the weight of the heaviest chains with which felons are
double-ironed in England . The result of this treatment may be given in a few words . The annual mortality on the estate of Bel Ombre , as it appeared in the returns of 1819 and 1825 , was one in six and a quarter , while jit was only one in thirty-seven or thirtyeight , amongst the whole free black and coloured population of the bland , as it
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appears from the returns of the period from 1816 to 1821 inclusive . As the estate of Bel Ombre was represented by Sir Robert Farquhar ( the late governor of the island ) as a pattern of good management , and one of the best regulated estates in the colony , it is to be feared that the rate of mortality is not lesson many of the other plantations . In the
district of Port Louis , however , it does appear to have been considerably less , though still frightfully great . By the returns of the years from 1815 to 1820 inclusive , the mortality amongst the slave population of this district was nearly at the rate of one death yearly in every ten or eleven persons , while , during nearly the same period , the annual mortality amongst the whole free black and coloured population of the island was ( as
above stated ) only one in thirty-seven or thirty-eight . That is to say , there were every year almost four times as many deaths amongst the slaves of Port Louis as there ought to have been , and there were six times as many deaths amongst the slaves at Bel Ombre as there ought to nave been . Or the horrible fact may be thus stated : of all the slaves that die iii Port Louis nearly three out of four are murdered ; and of all the slaves that die at Bel Ombre five out of six are
murdered . Will the nation continue to sanction this havoc of human life ? Will it continue to reward the murderers ? H . H .
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Fire at Sheerness , and Humanity of the Hollanders . To the Editor . Sir , You will oblige a constant reader by the insertion of the following extracts : ** Humanity of the Hollanders . — Extract of a letter . —A most remarkable instance of humanity and benevolence of the Hollanders was evinced towards an Englishman of the name of William Punnetty a native of Folkstone , in the county of Kent , landlord of the late Coburg tavern , in the Wiue Street , city of Rotterdam , who , with his wife and six children , was burnt out on the morning of the 26 th of March , 1829—the fire oiiginatitig from a warehouse under the tavern . There was not even time to }< ave
any of their clothes . Most liberal subscriptions were set on foot , and the greatest acts of kindness and feeling shewn to the wife and their helpless children by the ladies of the city , by sending clothes and money to their assistance .
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348 Miscellaneous Correspondence .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1829, page 348, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2572/page/52/
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