ment will perhaps be the most useful passage to detach':

"But the reader of the foregoing pages is intreated to consider, whether the advocates of the abolition lie under any necessity of proving that the traffic is beneficial to no one class of the community, in order to make out their case against its continuance. If they have proved its radical iniquity in the amplest sense of the word-if they have shewn that those actually engaged in it might find various innocent methods of employing their capital, with much more safety to themselves, and far greater benefit to the country if they have demonstrated that the trade is not in the smallest degree necessary for maintaining the West Indian colonies in their present state of splendid opulence, and, of consequence, that no injury can result from its abolition to the wealth already acquired by the planters: is it not a most extravagant demand to require that they should admit the propriety of supporting such a commerce, merely because some men have built upon the hopes of its continuance, their expecta tions of acquiring or increasing their fortunes? Surely it is sbundantly sufficient to have proved that the termination of by far the most criminal traffic which men ever carried on, will be attended with no injury to interests already in existence, although it should be admitted that the prospects of a few individuals may be disappointed by the change.

But we are told that those persons will be injured who have purchased plantations, with the view of extending their cultivation. They, however (as Mr. Brougham reinarks®), "are only subjected to the want of what they might otherwise have gained, or at the utmost to a trifling inconvenience. They still posssss an equivalent for their purchasemoney. If they are not satisfied with the slow accumulation by means of natural increase, they may sell again, and remove their stock to another channel. They cannot now fulfil their expectations of acquiring a rapid fortune by clearing the land," because the price of negroes will rise, or rather, for some years, there will be no possibility of purchasing slaves. But this is no real or absolute loss which can justify their demands of an equivalent. Suppose that the British cabinet were disposed to annul the Methuen treaty; would it be necessary first to consalt all those merchants who, on the faith of it, had removed to Portugal, or settled a correspondence with that country, or vested their stock in French wines, or bought woollens to supply the market of Lisbon? Or, suppose that the East Indian monopoly were abolished, would the holders of India stock have a claim for indemnification; or would the capitalists, who had laid out their money in shares of East India vessels, or in loins to captains and traders, have a right to

ANN. REV. VOL. III.

demand compensation? But these cases are much more favourable to such claims than that a number of capitalists have vested their the one which we are considering. Suppose stock in the three per cents. at the end of a long war, from the full confidence that the value of the funded property will in a few months rise twenty or thirty per cent.; if the national honour is insulted, must all those ble disappointment, before a war can be prostockholders be indemnified for their probaclaimed? And can any stain be so deep on the honour and the character of the country, as supporting of a traffic founded in treachery and blood? Can any measure attended with partial loss or disappointment, be in its essence more just and necessary than the immediate wiping out of so foula pollution? Can any po licy be more contemptible than that which for fear of disappointing those men who had arranged their plans with the hopes of fattening upon the plunder of the public character and virtue?"

would refuse its sanction to such a measure,

in the mother country, always finds new The stock which is gradually accumulated channels of employment, although the poplation increases much more slowly than the slave population of the colonies will increase, after the new importations are stopped. How nial proprietors fail to obtain employment, then should the augmented wealth of colowhen the field both of the colonies and the all the foreign trade of Europe, are open to mother country-the colonial commerce, and

it ?"

A considerable white slave-trade was carried on, along both coasts of the British channel, under the Roman em perors. In the Anglia Sacra (vol. ii. p. 258), in the life of St. Wulstan, curious particulars are given of the collection and purchase of handsome girls and boys. Chieftains sold their captives, lords their vassals, and the free gambled away their liberty. This trade extended into the Baltic, and continued, as Fischer in his History of Commerce (chap. vii.) has shown, not only after the establishment of christianity by Constantine, but after the subversion of the Roman emin Charlemagne's time, and bought pire. The Venetians and Genoese came the Turks and Saracens. Saxon slaves, whom they sold among

for the abolition of the white slave-trade. At Venice the first attempt was made The following notice occurs in Chronico Rerum Italiæ, Dandul. ad. a. 878. page 186. Quo tempore mercatores Veneti lucri cupidi a piratis et latrunculis maneipia comparabant, et transfretantes de

Precedeney

Names of the Companies.

Long bow-string-makers

75 Fan-makers

76 Tobacco-pipe-makers

77,Carmen

78 l'ackle-porters

79 Ticket-porters

Date of

Charter.

by pres.

1709

6081

GOG

80 Watermen & lightermen +1700!

Livery Fines.

The daration of apprenticeships in this country is excessive: five years ought to

THE three preceding volumes of these Reports were examined by us (vol. i. p. 419) in a manner which must have been impressive; for it drew on the reviewer much private correspondence. The peculiar principle advanced was this: that the moral virtues of the poor follow in the regular proportion of their habi. tual earnings. Consequently, to enrich the poor is the first duty; and to let them, as much as possible, cater for themselves, the next.

We have now to examine a fourth volume of the communications from this Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor: it is less interesting than the former parts, probably because the subject is so much exhausted. We object decidedly to the introductory letter. In all associations of beneficence, partyspirit should be silent. Sects and factions should unite for the purpose of doing good, and suspend their strife before the altar of charity. The cornucopia of benevolence showers its blessings on all alike; and shall it not be jointly shaken by hands at other times opposed? But here we find, in the name and under the sanction of a considerable associa tion, the most unmerited incense burnt (p. 39) to Mr. Pitt and Mr. Addington: to Mr. Pitt, under whose administration, and party by whose taxes on objects of popular consumption, that immense in crease of poor rate was rendered necessary, which demonstrates the equally gigantic strides of misery; and to Mr. Addington, under whose administration was enacted the recent corn-bill, a law which in six months has domesticated more

suffering throughout all the cottages of Great Britain, than the industry even of British humanity can atone in six years. Let these men have their appropriate praise, the one for his stately eloquence and financial exertion, the other for his pacificatory spirit; but let them not find Hatterers here; lest it be suspected that the eleemosynary virtues are sometimes inculcated as a hint, and practised as an example, to ministers.

The introductory letter dwells on other points which the writer thinks of pressing importance, and principally on the abuse of the Sabbath. The prevailing method of spending the Sunday in this country is certainly very objectionable.

Like a truly industrious nation, we endeavour to make rest from labour more irksome than toil itself: and by the gloomy denunciations of a mystical superstition, to convert leisure into misery. The progress of ascetic fanaticism is deplorable: reason and cheerfulness sicken at its presence: the tongue whines an unintelligible jargon: the imagination is haunted by starting fiends and fires of hell: and these puritanic sectaries, as a remedy for the pains of mind, which their indiscreet teachers wander to inflict, are seen to seek in dram drinking a refuge from the devil. only their private, their public morality is debauched: whole bodies of volunteers have been persuaded to withdraw from Sunday drills, as if a special interposition of Providence would resist sabbatical invasion. We thank Mr. Bernard for drawing the public attention to the widely prevalent abuse of a day, which is so

Not

much consecrated to fashioning the cha. racter of the poor.

The observations on the Rothsay cotton-mills may deserve notice.

"Such is the account with which I have been favoured by Messrs. Bannatine and Buchanan of Glasgow. It might be an object worthy the attention of the humane, to enquire whether some mode of spinning the higher numbers of the mule-yarn could not be devised, in a lower temperature, and in a freer circulation of air, than is commonly practised and whether it might not be practicable for weavers also to work to advantage in more airy shops. Were all the cotton mills in the kingdom to adhere to a reasonable length of working hours, and to have the children properly educated, such measures, we should think, would conduce much to the health and morals of the people, without being injurious to the manufacturer, or prejudicial to his fair profits: the benefits of the limitation of work to limited hours during the day,of a proper respite during meal times-and of attention to cleanliness and morals,-being more than compensated by the superior health, energy, and conduct, of the persons employed.

"There does unquestionably exist" (to use Mr. Bannatine's words) "a very onerous duty upon the proprietors of great works, that the proportion of population, necessarily thrown under their charge at a very early peflod of life, shall not be disqualified for the subsequent and more important part, they will have to perform in society."-The plan of giving lessons during the working hours of the day, instead of confining the children in the evening, is borrowed from Mr. Birk beck, of Settle, in Yorkshire. It is indeed an important improvement. The children taken thus, singly, for eight or ten minutes in rotation, are much better taught; and their instruction comes to them under the appearance from labour; and is therefore more willingly received. Mr. Bannatine, the owner of the mill, is confident that the quantity of work is not, upon the whole, diminished by this mode of teaching; and he thinks that the trifling expense it occasions,

is abundantly made up to him by its influ ence on the morals and conduct of his people. For the idea of inclosing the common cards in a frame, so as to prevent the flying of the card-dust, which is deemed injurious to the lungs, the public is indebted to Mr. Buchanan, one of the gentlemen who has supplied me with information about the Rothsay mills.

"A small annual contribution is made by the workmen towards forming a commo library; which has had a beneficial effect on the manners of all the persons employed, by supplying amusement for their leisure hours. Some of the inhabitants of Rothsay have joined them, and they have now a wellselected library of above six hundred volumes. The marquis of Bute approves of it, and has been a contributor to the collection."

There is novelty and merit in the in stitution of a charitable bank at Totten ham for the savings of the poor.

"For the purpose of providing a safe and convenient place of deposit for the saving of labourers, servants, and other poor per sons, a charitable establishment has bee lately formed at Tottenham, in the county of Middlesex. It is guaranteed by six true tees, who are gentlemen of fortune and re sponsibility, most of them possessing consi derable landed property. This renders it as safe and certain as institutions of this kind can be, and insures it from that flas tuation of value, to which the public fund are liable. The books are kept by a lady, and never opened but on the first Monday in every month, either for receipts or pay ments. Any sum is received above shilling; and five per cent is given every twenty shillings that lies twelve lendar months; every person so depositing money being at liberty to recal it, any ca the books are opened but no business in transacted at any other time.

"The money collected, is divided equally between six trustrees. For every additional hundred pounds, a new trustee is to be chosen; so that a trustee can only holi proportion of 1001. None but the labouring classes are admitted to this benefit; and that is no restriction as to place of residence.

heath of the children."