[ 418 ] [OCT. 



SIR GEORGE MURRAY AND THE SECTARIANS FATE OF THE 



COLONIES.* 



WE have repeatedly endeavoured to point out the dangerous conse- 

 quences of giving way to the dishonest plans and impracticable schemes 

 of that party which is commonly denominated the " Saints ;" and the 

 fatal errors which have already been committed by following the advice 

 of irresponsible persons, who are pursuing, at the expense of the nation, 

 wild and visionary measures under the garb of " philanthropy." 



We need only allude to our exposure of their measures at Sierra 

 Leone,t and the disgraceful conduct of their agents at Freetown and 

 elsewhere. We think it can easily be dempnstrated^ that hitherto the 

 only fruits of their interference, have been the waste of some millions of 

 the public money, and the loss of many valuable lives on the African 

 coast, without one of the objects contemplated having been attained, or 

 any one thing having been done for the cause of true humanity. A few 

 individuals have, indeed, enriched themselves at the expense of the 

 nation ; and, through the weakness and gullibility of persons in autho- 

 rity, their party, although inimical to the established church, and to 

 the general prosperity of the country (which is mainly dependent upon 

 the colonies), have been able to support and advance their political 

 interests in direct opposition to the government, and on anti-colonial 

 principles. Such have, hitherto, been the consequences of adopting the 

 schemes of this party. To affirm that they have, in the slightest 

 degree, advanced the interests of humanity would, we apprehend, be a 

 gross dereliction of the truth. We would ask has Africa benefited by 

 their plans ? Is not the slave-trade generally, which they professed to 

 annihilate, still persisted in by foreigners, with undiminished vigour 

 and extended cruelty? Have not all the measures adopted by the 

 suggestion of the " Saints," and carried on at an enormous waste of 

 men, and some eight or nine millions of the public money, utterly failed ? 

 Have not their schemes for the civilization of Africa and Africans 

 proved completely abortive? Are not the unfortunate beings, seized 

 from the foreign slave-ships and prematurely liberated, still in a con- 

 dition far inferior, in every respect, to the meanest of our colonial culti- 

 vators ? And is there the slightest chance of the improvement of these 

 freed negroes under the civilization system of the pseudo-philanthropists ? 

 Still, these people, disappointed in all their other measures, persist in 

 their designs for the utter subversion of our colonial establishments in 

 the West Indies ; and instead of suggesting sound and equitable prac- 

 tical measures, calculated to benefit either the slave or the planter, they 

 adhere to abstract principles, and pursue their nefarious designs by 

 propagating calumnies against the colonists, and by giving currency to 

 the most artful misrepresentations and disingenuous statements to their 

 prejudice ! 



In the debates during the last session of parliament, ministers, instead 

 of firmly and decisively maintaining the rights of property, and afford- 

 ing that protection to the colonies which their great importance demands, 

 left the colonists open to the assaults of their bitter enemies ; and with- 

 out fairly meeting the mis-statements propagated, seemed to encourage 



* Parliamentary Documents. Fate of the Colonies : a Letter to the Proprietors and 

 Planters of the West Indies resident in the colonies, by R. Alexander, Esq. 

 f Monthly Mag. for March last, &c. 



