553 
[jan. Ij 
Corruptions of the Lazi\ 
presslon, trust to a broken -reed, of which all 
who lean on it should be made aware. Be¬ 
sides, with the present race ot managers, the 
point of honour unfortunately opposes a bar 
to improvement; they who have so long 
said and sworn that they could not keep.up 
the numbers of their negroes but by impor¬ 
tations from Africa, will be slowly persuaded, 
or unwilling to prove, that they have hitherto 
been in the wrong, and their opponents in the 
right. Neither must it be omitted that the 
jobbing-system, the interest which overseers 
and agents tdo generally have in those gangs 
which are hired by the plantations to supply 
their own deficiency, operates (perhaps in¬ 
sensibly) to prevent the employment of the 
plough, and the natural increase of plantation- 
negroes. In conjunction with this circum¬ 
stance, the common practice of remunerating 
the agent by a per-centage, makes it his in¬ 
terest to consider the amount of the present 
crop more than the general and permanent 
profit of the plantation j to strain every nerve 
in the production of sugar and rum, without 
regard to the contingent expence, or ultimjate 
less sustained by the proprietor. In a word, 
the present composition of the colonial assem¬ 
blies, and colonial society in general, is ad¬ 
verse to melioration ; calling loudly' for the 
corrective interference, individual and col¬ 
lective, of their constituents in the mother- 
country.” 
The Assembly of Jamaica has been 
severely censured, even by some of the 
most intelligent jourimiists of this coun¬ 
try, for having passed a Bill to prevent 
the pernicious interference of the me- 
thodist missionaries. But they would 
commend the measure, were thev aware 
of tlie mischief created by these men 
among the poor unhappy negroes; adding 
to the misery of their present condition, 
the overwhelming terrors of eternal dam¬ 
nation 5 and driving many to despair and 
madness! While tliey were yet per¬ 
mitted to spread “ contagious blast- 
men ts” over the plantations, the negroes 
li.^cked in numbers to their midnight 
meetings, many of them trudging twenty 
or thirty miles between sunset and sun¬ 
rise; but no longer industrious, either for 
th.em^elves or their masters; and such 
power did the preachers acquire over 
their simple minds, unfortified by reason, 
that ail whom their damning denuncia¬ 
tions did not utterly deprive of their 
senses, were stripped of their little 
savings, their chief dependance in sick¬ 
ness and in age, and pillaged even of 
their last fowl, to contribute to the holy 
work! 
Toleration is a blessing, inasmuch as 
it tends to exalt the character, and in¬ 
crease the happiuess; of man; and dark 
and narrow must be the mind, that 
dreads or opposes its diffusion! But 
surely it is omission, (and most sinful 
omission) not toleration, to permit pes¬ 
tilence and famine. Surely it is neither 
wise nor just to permit folly and knavery 
to practise upon feeble ignorance, and 
erect for themselves a throne, by means 
of human degradation, on the ruin of 
human happiness. IVIethodism (at least 
in Jamaica) must be considered as a 
dangerous, destructive, and most con¬ 
tagious, disease, easy of prevention, but 
difficult of cure: and, until rational in¬ 
struction (including r.ational religion) 
shall have diminished the predispositioa 
of the negroes to fanatical frenzy, not 
only humanity to the individual, but the 
safety of the community, demands it of 
the colonial government; and it is their 
bounden duty, to prevent the invasion of 
the methodist missionaries. 
Were Mr. Lancaster's system of edu¬ 
cation introduced among the plantations, 
and were the superintendents of the 
slaves (as they have the best opportuni¬ 
ties) qualified to extend their views of 
right and wrong, and illustrate, by their 
owm example, the moral truths they 
might inculcate, without doubt a great 
and beneficial change would erelong be 
effected in their manners, conduct, and 
condition. Alex. Robson. 
Po?'to^BeUo, ntar LJinburghf 
Sept. 1811. 
To the Editor of the Monthly "Magazine. 
SITx, 
T is not enough that the public be 
emphatically placed on its guard 
against the imprudence and folly of refer ~ 
ring Disputes to the arbitration of'beards 
less or briefless Barristers ;—the practice 
of the law, with some exceptions, forms 
a kind of Augean stable, the cleansing 
of which demands the persevering and 
energetic labours, for one or two ses¬ 
sions, of a Committee of the House 
of Commons. 
The adjudged cases, the precedents, 
the principles, and the rules of practice, 
which govern our courts of law, have now 
been accumulating for ages, under every 
variety of feeling, character, preju¬ 
dice, and principle of the judges, who 
at successive periods have established 
those dogmas. Hence, among our legal 
authorities, every species of contradic¬ 
tion exists on particular points; and it 
is an indisputable fact, that, upon very 
numerous questions, involving the pro¬ 
perty and happiness of families, the 
^ opinions 
