160 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



If the confined limits of the present work had 

 admitted, I might have prosecuted these illustra 

 tions to a much greater extent. I might have 

 traced the operations of malevolence in the practice 

 of that most shocking and abominable traffic, the 

 Slave Trade the eiernal disgrace of individuals 

 and of nations calling themselves civilized. This 

 is an abomination which has been encouraged 

 by almost every nation in Europe, and even by 

 the enlightened states of America. And al 

 though Great Britain has formally prohibited, by 

 a law, the importation of slaves from Africa ; 

 yet, in all her West Indian colonies, slavery in 

 its most cruel and degrading forms still exists ; 

 and every proposition, and every plan for resto 

 ring the negroes to their natural liberty, and to 

 the rank which they hold in the scale of exist 

 ence, is pertinaciously resisted by gentlemen 

 planters, who would spurn at the idea of being 

 considered as either infidels or barbarians. They 

 even attempt to deprive these degraded beings 

 of the chance of obtaining a happier existence in 

 a future world, by endeavouring to withhold 

 from them the means of instruction, and by 

 persecuting their instructors. &quot; In Demerara 

 alone there are 76,000 immortal souls linked to 

 sable bodies, while there are but 3,500 whites ; 

 and yet, for the sake of these three thousand 

 whites, the seventy-six thousand, with all their 

 descendants, are to be kept in ignorance of the 

 way of salvation, for no other purpose than to 

 procure a precarious fortune for a very few indi 

 viduals out of their sweat and blood.&quot; Is such 

 conduct Consistent with the spirit of benevolence, 

 or even with the common feelings of humanity? 



heading, strangling, crucifixion, drowning, burning, 

 roasting, hanging by the neck, the arm, or the leg ; 

 starving, sawing, exposing to wild beasts, rending 

 asunder by horses drawing opposite ways , shoot 

 ing, burying alive, blowing from the mouth of a can 

 non, compulsory deprivation of sleep, rolling on a 

 barrel stuck with nails, cutting to pieces, hanging 

 by the ribs, poisoning, pressing slowly to death by 

 a weight laid on the breast ; castins headlong from 

 a rock, tearing out the bowels, pulling to pieces with 

 red hot pincers, stretching on the rack, breaking on 

 the wheel, impaling, flaying alive, cutting out the 

 heart, &c. &c. &c. Punishments short of death 

 have been such as the following. Fine, pillory, im- 



Crisonment , compulsory labour at the mines, gal- 

 jys, highways, or correction-house ; whipping, 

 bastinading; mutilation by cutting away the ears, 

 the nose, the tongue, the breasts of women, the foot, 

 the h-ind ; squeezing the marrow from the bones 

 with screws or wedges, castration, putting out the 

 eyes ; banishment, running the gauntlet, drumming, 

 shaving off the hair, burning on the hand or fore 

 head ; and many others of a similar nature. Could 

 the ingenuity of the inhabitants of Top/ift have in 

 vented punishments more cruel and revolting? Has 

 any one of these modes of punishment a tendency 

 to reform the criminal, and promote his happiness? 

 On the contrary, have they not all a direcLtendency 

 to irritate, to harden, and to excite feelings of re 

 venge ? Nothing shows the malevolent dispositions 

 of a great portion of the human race, in so striking 

 .alight, as the punishments they have inflicted on 

 one^ another ; for these are characteristic, not of 

 insulated individuals only, but of nations, in their 

 collective capacity. 



I might have traced the same malignant prin 

 ciple, in the practice of a set of men denominat 

 ed wreckers, who, by setting up false lights, allure 

 mariners to destruction, that they may enrich 

 themselves by plundering the wrecks in the 

 warlike dispositions of all the governments of 

 Europe, and the enormous sums which have 

 been expended in the work of devastation, and 

 of human destruction, while they have refused 

 to give the least direct encouragement to philan 

 thropic institutions, and to the improvement of 

 the community in knowledge and virtue and in 

 that spirit of tyranny, and thirst for despotic 

 power, which have led them to crush the rising 

 intelligence of the people, and to lend a deaf ear 

 to their most reasonable demands. For, there 

 is no government on this side of the Atlantic, so 

 far as I know, that has ever yet formed an in 

 stitution for promoting the objects of general 

 benevolence, for counteracting the baleful effects 

 of depravity and ignorance, and for enlightening 

 the minds of the people in useful knowledge ; or 

 which has even contributed a single mite to en 

 courage such institutions after they were set on 

 foot by the people themselves. Knowledge is 

 simply permitted to be diffused ; it is never di 

 rectly encouraged ; its progress is frequently 

 obstructed ; and, in some instances, it is posi 

 tively interdicted, as appears from the following 

 barbarous edict, published in the year 1825. 

 &quot; A royal Sardinian edict directs, that hence 

 forth no person shall learn to read or write who 

 cannot prove the possession of property above 

 the value of 1500 livres, (or about 60/. sterling.) 

 The qualification for a student is the possession 

 of an income to the same amount.&quot;* Such is 

 the firm determination of many of the kings and 

 princes of Europe to hold their subjects in aoject 

 slavery and ignorance ; and such is the despe 

 rate tendency of proud ambition, that they will 

 rather suffer their thrones to shake and totter be 

 neath them, than give encouragement to liberal 

 opinions, and to the general diffusion of know 

 ledge. But, instead of illustrating such topics 

 in minute detail, I shall conclude this section by 

 presenting a few miscellaneous facts, tending to 

 corroborate several of the preceding statements, 

 and to illustrate the moral state of the civilized 

 world. 



The following statement, extracted from 

 &quot;Neale s Travels through Germany, Poland, 

 Moldavia, and Turkey,&quot; exhibits a faint picture 

 of the state of morals in Poland. &quot; If ever 

 there was a country,&quot; says Mr. Neale, &quot; where 

 might constitutes right, that country was Po- 

 land, prior to its partition.&quot; The most dreadful 

 oppression, the most execrable tyranny, the most 

 wanton cruelties were daily exercised by the no 

 bles upon the unfortunate peasants. Let us 

 quote a few facts ; they will speak volumes. A 



Hamburgh Paper, August, 1825 



