528 The Cohuids, QNor. 



of being losers would be gainers." Now what the Caliban of the West- 

 minster Review chooses to say goes^ we know, for just nothing; but 

 the anti-slavery body pledge themselves to the truth of this ; that is, 

 they have the effrontery to say, that the total loss of colonies which pay 

 the expences of their internal government, ci\n\ and military, with the 

 exception of a very small sum that is contributed by this country, and 

 which, besides, return annually to Great Britain, in imports and exports, 

 more than fifteen millions sterling, would be a gain to the people. The 

 arithmetical calculations of these good people are marvellous ! This is 

 a point which admits of no dispute ; assertion on the one hand or the 

 other would be equally idle ; the Parliamentarjr Returns prove the facts, 

 and upon those facts we are content to rely. We must, however, 

 whisper in the ear (not of the " drunken monster," who, liis task being 

 done, is probably trying to sleep off his debauch), but of the anti- 

 colonists, that there are other ways of losing colonies besides their 

 sinking in the sea. Dead men, it is true, tell no tales ; but there have 

 been instances of colonies, the loss of which was attended with a bitter 

 cost of blood, and of remorse which can never die. 



It is of course, that such a writer as the one we are noAV speaking of, 

 would repeat the hackneyed assertion, that a monopoly is granted to the 

 West Indies, in the trade of sugar ; and that the advantages whicli are 

 given to the colonial trade, act practically as a tax upon the English 

 people for the support of slavery. This is nothing more or less than 

 an impudent falsehood ; — the advantages which the colonists enjoy, 

 they would not ask for, they would not even accept, but that the man- 

 ner in which this country has chosen to deal with them and their 

 property, has created a system, of which the di*awback upon exports is 

 necessarily a part, and they take, even in that shape, nothing from this 

 country but a part, a very small part, of that which they have before 

 communicated to it. 



So far from the people of this country paying for the support of slavery, 

 the truth is that slavery pays for their support. We do not say, that if 

 it could be shown to be unjust, it ought, for that reason, to be conti- 

 nued, — but we do say that it began here, and not in the colonies, — that 

 it is by the laws, and under the sanction of this country, that such 

 slavery as exists has been established ; and that this country's revenue 

 is increased by it, to an extent not to be considered as wholly insignifi- 

 cant by any but the anti-colonists and their tools. 



All this, however, wretched trash as it is, could excite no other 

 feeling than contempt ; but there is another part of the article which 

 places the real meaning of the writer in a much more distinct light, and 

 which shows the motives which actuate the Anti-Slavery Society, or at 

 least that part of the society who have the management, and who 

 venture to give the money, and pledge the names of their constituents 

 to a proposition which, if acted upon, (and God knows how soon, by 

 such means, it may be acted upon !) would deluge the colonies with 

 blood. 



" It is as clear," quoth Caliban, " as the day, that their (the colonists') 

 system altogether, is one which every Englishman, in his own person, 

 knows it would be honour and glory to demolish by the bayonet. 

 Every Englishman knows that the right of resistance to personal slavery, 

 is as clear and distinct a right as that of resistance to the wild beasts of 

 the forest. If this is not law there is no law, — it is time for every man 



