240 
Proceedings of Public Societies. 
[Oct. 1, 
thousands of different forms and co¬ 
lours. The Negroes are in possession of 
these countries—a race.of men essen¬ 
tially distinct from all others. Though 
neighbours to the Moors, nothing can 
be more opposite than their manners, 
character, habits, inclinations, and 
physical conformation. Addicted to a 
kind of carelessness which nothing can 
equal—light and fickle, the Negro is a 
stranger to the cares of ambition, and 
to the chagrin of privations ; his wants 
are few and easy to be gratified, from 
the beauty of the climate and fertility 
of the soil, without undertaking long 
journies, or sustaining painful labours. 
At his feet the indigo and the cotton- 
tree grow without culture. Half an 
ell of cloth is his whole wardrobe. 
Some feet of timber, ill cut, some reeds, 
straw, and leaves, suffice to rear him 
an habitation. A trunk of the ceyba 
hollowed serves for his pirogue or 
canoe. Twenty days labour in a year 
will effectually cultivate the fields that 
yield his most essential sustenance. At 
the age of eighteen, he selects a female 
companion, and though under a burning 
sky, desire, in him, is not a raging, 
devouring passion. Tranquil in the bo¬ 
som of his family, forgettiug the past, 
content with the present, thoughtless 
for the future—his life passes away in 
a voluptuous freedom from care—and 
this is liis summum bonurn . In the cool¬ 
ness of the night, and by the light of 
the moon, he will deviate into expres¬ 
sions of joy, by cadenced movements to 
the sound of instruments. To a people 
so satisfied, every thing becomes a sub¬ 
ject of fetes and divertisements—cere¬ 
monies, receptions, births, marriages, 
duties rendered to the gods, even fune¬ 
rals, these all terminate in songs and 
dances. 
The Negroes have prodigiously mul¬ 
tiplied, and branched out into nume¬ 
rous nations; some have turned Ma 
hometans, and these are the most civil¬ 
ized, but they disfigure their religion ; 
others retain their gross and inveterate 
superstitions. The example, however, 
of a milder religion, has entirely abo¬ 
lished, in Senegambia and in Soudan, 
those sanguinary habits and ferocious 
prejudices which excite so much hor¬ 
ror in voyagers that penetrate into the 
interior of Guinea and Congo. 
On the banks of the great rivers and 
lakes that water Senegambia and the 
Soudan—also in vallies formed by the 
lofty chains of mountains that cross 
these regions, or in the vast forests that 
cover them, the Negro nations have 
erected a considerable number of towns, 
villages, and even considerable cities. 
Of all these, Timhooetoo is at present 
the most spoken of; and though from 
various credible reports, it is not the 
largest and most populous in the Sou¬ 
dan, the most moderate computations 
allow it 100,000 inhabitants. Moham¬ 
med, the son of Foul, in an itinerary 
which I have analysed, speaking of 
Timbooctoo, has the following sen¬ 
tence : “ Itisthe greatest city that God 
has created, where all strangers find an 
abundance for all their wants; a city 
filled with merchants and traders.” 
On the coasts of this rich and popu¬ 
lous portion of the globe, France has 
long established a colony, not so re¬ 
markable for its numbers as for the 
wisdom and moderation with which it 
has been governed. The French have 
hereby acquired the facilities of ad¬ 
vancing further into the interior than 
any other European nation. They are 
much in favour with the Negroes and 
Moors of Senegambia, who have a re¬ 
gular commercial correspondence with 
the Soudan. The French, sooner than 
any others, might penetrate even to 
Timbooctoo. 
PROCEEDINGS OF PUBLIC SOCIETIES. 
HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
Report of the Select Committee ap¬ 
pointed to consider the several re¬ 
turns made to the Orders of this 
House in 1819,1820,1821, relative to 
the sums assessed, levied, and ex¬ 
pended, on account of the Poor in 
England and Wales, and to report an 
Abstract of the same, together with 
their observations thereon. 
HE returns referred to your com¬ 
mittee contain a statement of the 
total sum raised by assessment in each 
parish and township in England and 
Wales, in the five years ending on the 
25th of March, 1816,1818, 1819, and 
1820. 
The mode of obtaining by orders of 
the House of Commons, addressed to 
the parish officers, information as to 
the amount of the assessments and ex¬ 
penditure on account of (he poor, was 
suggested by the Committee appointed 
to consider of the Poor Laws, in the 
year 1818; and your committee has 
the satisfaction of informing the house 
that 
