1830.] The Slave Trade. SOI 



we would venture to say, that three British cruizers, in a very short 

 time, would put an end to the whole traffic, save Great Britain two or 

 three hundred thousands a year, and enable us to do something effectual 

 towards the civilization of Africa; but if our government connot induce 

 France and Spain to aid us sincerely and truly in putting an end to this 

 traffic; and if Russia and other nations continue to hold out premiums 

 for its continuance by preferring, through their fiscal regulations, Spanish 

 sugars at a higher rate than British, of the same quality, what is to be 

 done ? Is Great Britain to go to war with Europe and America ? or, 

 shall we quarrel with the potentates of Africa for murdering our travel- 

 lers, or on some other pretence, declare the whole slave coast in a state 

 of riged blockade ? 



It is evident, however, that hitherto the only results of the councils of 

 the " philanthropists," has been to embarrass the country, put money in 

 their own pockets, entail greater misery upon Africa, and advance the 

 prosperity of Foreign Colonies upon the declination of our own. A very 

 great part of the present internal distress is undoubtedly owing to exter- 

 nal mismanagement ; and we hope both houses of parliament will now 

 insist upon the full discussion and final settlement of a question, which 

 has, for many years, wasted our strength and resources, and rendered us 

 the laughing stock of the politicians of Europe, without in the slightest 

 degree benefiting Africa, or the cause of humanity. 



GEORGE COLMAN S RANDOM RECORDS. 



THE proverbial dilatoriness of this man of pleasantry, has kept the 

 public waiting his leisure for some years, and his facetious indolence 

 has at length indulged us only with a fragment of his career. We shall 

 write no review of his performance. It is only justice to let every man 

 tell his own story, and we shall let the deputy licenser do this justice 

 to himself. His story is a perpetual ramble through the most extrava- 

 gant recollections ; but jumbled in general with the easy gaiety that 

 entitles its narrator at sixty-eight to subscribe himself " The younger" 

 or any more jovial and juvenile appellative that he may please. 



The first question which George discusses is, why he should write at 

 all. " When in the scale of man's waning temperature, his quicksilver 

 has fallen to the degree of pruna that is, when he has ceased to flame, 

 is only a live coal which, according to Wadstroem in his Metamor- 

 phosis Humana, is at the age of fifty-six he has then become, (and he 

 should be ashamed of himself, if he have not become so sooner) what is 

 vulgarly a staid person, which by the by is a misnomer ; for at this 

 period, he cannot be expected to stay so long as when he was forty." 

 The treatment, then, recommended by this physician, is " after he has 

 been whipping his talent, spurring it, and using it worse than a post- 

 horse, not to turn it out to grass, but to get upon it deliberately and 

 daily, and amble it about for a morning's airing and gentle recreation." 

 This sensible system urges its prescriber to give the world his expe- 

 rience. ff It accounts for the propensity in old writers to scribble, pour 

 s'amuser, and therefore has become the fashion for dramatists; who, 

 when they are grown grey, find that narrating anecdotes is much easier 

 work then inventing playsto turn autobiographers. Detraction, per- 



