298 Sierra Leone, and [MARCH, 



" maintained in idleness by the government/' compelled to labour by 

 fear of the whip or to enter the army or navy ; for to say that they do 

 either voluntarily, would be a perversion of the term. " Some mild 

 coercive power seems necessary, but this power should not be, as in 

 some instances it appears inexcusably to have been, left in the hands of 

 persons likely to abuse it"* and that it has been most shamefully 

 abused, there is abundance of evidence. 



" The results of more than eighteen years' experience, as exemplified in 

 the condition of those liberated Africans located in Sierra Leone, seem 

 to justify the inference, that either the mode pursued, with the view of 

 improving their condition by agricultural pursuits> has not been judi- 

 cious, or that their character and habits are unfavourable to that kind 

 of improvement, or, perhaps, that both these causes have operated to a 

 certain extent. However this may be, THE RESULTS ARE IN THEM- 

 SELVES INCONTROVERTIBLE, AND LEAVE LITTLE ROOM TO HOPE, 

 THAT WITHOUT THE ADOPTION OF MORE EFFECTUAL MEASURES, the 



adult class of Negroes will be induced to improve their present condition, 

 which probably appears to them, when compared with the past, a state of 

 considerable enjoyment"^ 



" Were the class of persons here alluded to available for the purpose,, 

 there is great reason to believe that a mild and well-regulated system of 

 coerced labour for a limited period, and exclusive, with a view to the advan- 

 tage of the Negroes, would be found the most effectual mode of attaining 

 the end proposed ; and it may be hoped, that its importance would 

 remove objections to the manner of arriving at it."J 



" The punishment for minor crimes is hard labour and chains." " It 

 is by no means uncommon at Freetown to see thirty or forty culprits 

 chained in pairs" (the chains round the middle) (< and employed in a 

 desultory kind of labour t" 



In general when these wretched creatures, " the bad subjects of bar- 

 barous states," are landed nothing in the human shape can exceed 

 their gross ignorance ; and, under all the circumstances stated, is it pos- 

 sible to expect that the slightest progress in civilization can be made 

 under the Sierra Leone system, or by the irregular discipline to 

 which they are there subjected ? 



It is difficult to state precisely, and under distinct heads, the different 

 sums of money which have been taken from the people of this country, 

 and uselessly spent in the maintenance of this worthless place. The 

 pay-lists, vouchers, &c. are " so vague as not to justify even a loose 

 estimate of the expense incurred in each particular one." (Here this, ye 

 guardians of the public purse !) But estimating it by papers before the 

 Finance Committee, not yet published, it appears, from 1807 to 1829, 

 to be about 3,060,500 ! sterling!* And this, owing to various con- 



* Commissioners' Report, p. 55 idem 51. 



j- Parliamentary Papers, p. 55. 



$ Ibid, p. 55. 



Viz. Payments to the Sierra Leone Company 117,100 



Army, ordnance, &c 1,040,659 



Civil establishment, and public buildings 507,540 



Captured Africans, and other charges 573,152 



Same expences 1825 to 1829 822,100 



,3,060,531 



