THE WEST INDIA QUESTION. 373 



the maintenance of fleets and armies for our colonial dominions will 

 no longer continue to press to the ground the people of the parent 

 state. 



It is most devoutly to be wished that the proposed measures may 

 be final and complete. Half measures of emancipation, mere ame- 

 liorating acts of parliament, will now produce no other than disas- 

 trous results ; for it is not in the nature of mankind to be contented 

 with a portion only of natural liberty ; the removal of one link of 

 the chain of slavery but renders its wearer more impatient to burst 

 asunder the remainder. All regulations other than the full emancipa- 

 tion of the slaves, will tend but to aggravate the difficulties and dan- 

 gers of colonial government ; and, without a cessation of all compul- 

 sory dependence upon another, and the legal power to accumulate 

 wealth, there can be no true defence from injury no comfort, con- 

 tentment, or real liberty for the negro population. Protectors may 

 be appointed by the government, but small will still be the real 

 amount of protection afforded to the slave ; and, without the pos- 

 session of property, and the power to purchase justice for himself, 

 small indeed will be his portion of redress. " White men all pull 

 together," said an aged negro to a friend of the writer, in the island 

 of Antigua ; " I see the new governor arrive from England ; I hear 

 him swear on the Bible for do justice; he have five thousand a-year 

 for do justice ; three thousand Antigua and two thousand Montserrat. 

 'Well, I have very bad master no salt, no meat, no shoes ; I go to 

 the new governor, he give me a letter for lawyer ; lawyer say, ' Your 

 master very bad man indeed : I see you right, call again.' I call 

 again. ' Ah ! I busy now, call again.' Well, I call again. ' Oh ! I no 

 be bodered no more about you/ Ah ! white men all pull together." 

 Assuredly, this is a fair picture of the delusive operation of all our 

 enactments for the amelioration of the condition of the slaves ; and 

 it is in vain to suppose that either magistrates, juries, or judges, will 

 act up to the spirit of laws, which wrench from themselves the plea- 

 sures of arbitrary power. 



That the various enactments in favour of the slave are a mere use- 

 less encumbrance to the statute-book that justice is unattainable to 

 the miserable negro and that a wanton disregard of the blood of 

 these unfortunate people, still prevails in all countries where slavery 

 exists, will be found by the following details of a trial, of which the 

 writer of these remarks was a spectator, within a very recent period, 

 at the city of Charleston, in the United States : This was an action 

 brought by John Ladson, in the district court, against Archibald 

 Lord, a planter, to recover the value of his negro-man Solomon, shot 

 and destroyed by the defendant, under the following circumstances : 

 Solomon had been a superior, well-educated, and valuable negro, 

 who had been hired out by his master, as a clerk in a store, and hav- 

 ing, upon a certain day, gone into the country, towards the plantation 

 of the plaintiff, had been accosted near a tavern on the road-side, by 

 the defendant, who demanded his pass, and ordered him to remain. 

 Solomon delivered up his pass, but resisted detention, and proceeded 

 on his way. Upon this the defendant proceeded to the tavern, 

 mounted his horse, and, with a loaded rifle, went in pursuit of the 

 negro who had now retreated to the woods. Lord, who speedily 



