62 Mismanagement of the Colonies Jamaica, fyc. [JAN. 



dealing in slaves, it is specially provided, that if any person or persons 

 shall be found travelling about from place to place, exposing or offering 

 for sale any negro, mulatto, or other slave or slaves, such slaves shall be 

 taken from him, and sold ; one-half of the price to go to the seizer, the 

 other to the poor of the parish. " Obeah or Myal men or women, pre- 

 tending to have communication with the devil and other evil spirits, and 

 shall use such pretence in order to excite rebellion or other evil purposes, 

 shall be severely punished." " And whereas it has been found that the 

 practice of ignorant, superstitious, or designing slaves, of attempting to 

 instruct others, has been attended with the most pernicious consequences, 

 and even with the loss of life," slaves so teaching, without permission 

 from their masters and the quarter sessions, are to be punished. 



We now come to the clauses which strike more particularly at the in- 

 fluence arid extensive emoluments of the sectarian preachers ; and we 

 entreat the particular attention of our readers to these clauses, and to the 

 reasons assigned as rendering their enactment necessary ; because, it is 

 owing to them that this humane and liberal bill has been disallowed, and 

 that the present outcry has been raised against the colonists by the dis- 

 appointed sectaries. " And whereas the assembling of slaves and other 

 persons after dark, at places of meeting for religious purposes, has been 

 found extremely dangerous, and great facilities are thereby given to the 

 formation of plots and conspiracies, and the health of the slaves and other 

 persons has been injured in travelling at late hours in the night ; from 

 and after the commencement of this act, all such meetings between sun- 

 set and sunrise be held and deemed unlawful; and any minister, or 

 other person professing to be a teacher of religion, MINISTERS OF THE 

 ESTABLISHED CHURCH EXCEPTED, who shall, contrary to this act, keep 

 open any place of meeting between sunset and sunrise for the purpose 

 aforesaid, or permit or suffer any such nightly assembly of slaves therein, 

 or be present thereat," shall forfeit twenty or not exceeding fifty pounds 

 for each offence, one-half to the poor, the other to the informer. 



It thus appears that no impediment whatever is thrown in the way 

 of the established clergy, on whose discretion the proprietors in Jamaica 

 place implicit reliance. 



The next clause enacts, that from and after the commencement of the 

 act, it shall not be lawful/or any person whatsoever to demand or receive 

 any money or other chattel whatsoever, from any slave or slaves within 

 this island, for affording such slave or slaves religious instruction, by way 

 of offering contributions, or under any pretence whatsoever, under a 

 penalty of twenty pounds, to be applied as above mentioned. It is by 

 this clause that the methodists and others find themselves cut off from 

 these comparatively enormous emoluments derived from the poor igno- 

 rant slaves in exchange for tenpenny tickets, and under various pre- 

 tences ; and the proprietors justly complain that such contributions were 

 carried to such an improper extent as to have become the cause of great 

 poverty and discontent in the slave ; that his improvement was thereby 

 retarded, his health injured, and his master's work neglected. Not con- 

 tent with these emoluments the missionaries are said to have, in too 

 many instances, improperly interfered between master and servant, and, 

 independently of the calumnious misrepresentations sent home to this 

 country, began to assume a tone and authority not warranted by their 

 holy calling, nor compatible with the peace and safety of the planters. 



When we look at the state of affairs at Otaheite, and other islands in 

 the Pacific,* where these men have had their own way, we cannot doubt 



* Kotzebuc's Voyage in the Years 1823, 4, 5, and 6. 



