1829.]} | Our Colonies, 495 
These are facts so carefully kept out of sight by the déclamatory ene- 
mies of the West-India proprietors, that they are probably seen for the 
first time by some of those persons who have, nevertheless, formed an 
opinion on the subject of slavery and the expediency of its abolition ; 
and yet every one of these facts is not only so true, but so capable of 
instant and indisputable proof, that the colonists would be content to 
stake their interests upon their being able to establish every one of them. 
If some of those good-natured, dreaming people, who take for granted 
all that they have been told on the other side, ask why we have left out 
of the picture, the tortures to which slaves are put at the mere caprice 
of their masters, the dismemberments, the chainings, the wanton flog- 
gings, the separate selling of slaves who are united in families, the cruel 
severing of nature’s sweetest and holiest ties—the answer is, that if such 
atrocities ever existed, they have for many years past ceased to disgrace 
_the colonies. That to assert they now exist, in any degree, is a foul, 
gross, malignant calumny,—the falsehood of which is notorious to every 
one who has taken the trouble to read and examine the evidence on the 
subject ; and more notorious to none than to the crafty forgers of these 
monstrous lies. 
Relying upon the public appetite for whatever partakes of the mar- 
vellous—upon the proneness of uncharitable natures to believe impu- 
tations of evil rather than to receive proofs of good deeds—and, more 
than all, upon the supineness and apathy of the West India proprietors, 
their enemies have exerted themselves indefatigably, and, to a certain 
extent, successfully, to create a public prejudice against the colonists, 
and to engage the co-operation of the Government to their ruin. These 
enemies are very numerous, and consist of persons of various opinions, 
pursuing various interests. 
One class consists of those pious enthusiasts, who are so very humane, — 
whohave such a superabundance of charity, that they cannot sleep for think- 
ing that there are in the West India colonies a set of persons who are not 
so white, nor so free, nor so poor, nor so hard worked, nor so miserable, 
in fifty other respects,—as the agricultural labourers of England. -With 
_ these people it is extremely hard to deal—because it is impossible to tell 
_ which of them is sincere—as doubtless many of them are—and which 
crafty and dishonest, as some of them must be. God forbid that one 
word of disparagement should be uttered against such as are actuated by 
truly religious feelings. The colonists have no quarrel with them, al- 
_ though they have received deep wrongs at their hands, the greatest of 
which is, that they have lent a fait colour to the foul cause of their 
corrupt enemies. The test of their honest intentions is this—will they 
listen as attentively to the vindication of the colonists, as they have 
"listened to the accusations of their foes? Will they receive the evidence 
honest men, opposed to the false and wild assertions of nameless 
erers? Will they be as prompt in repairing wrong, as they have 
eager in inflicting it? If they will, their sincerity cannot be 
d—if they will not, their piety is a pretence. 
his class of persons have earned for themselves the appellation of 
“ Saints,” which, for distinction’s sake, they may as well keep. Fore- 
most in their ranks is the gentle ““ Master Stephen,” the old, indefatigable, 
Virulent enemy of the colonies. Then those two yards—full measure— 
# lean philanthropy which compose the body corporate of that most 
benevolent brewer of porter, Fowell Buxton, Esq. Then, the African 
