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defiance all the laws of rhetoric, and in their similes and metaphorical allusions, mingle heaven and earth, sea and air, in one formless chaos? Are we to pass by without ever reading the inscriptions, written in deathless characters, upon the proud monuments of Grecian, Roman, and British fame ? Are Homer, Virgil, Horace, Shakespeare, to be set aside as obsolete, as having fallen too far behind the age, to be worthy even the perusal of common readers? Or, are the very laws of thought and feeling, and those which have hitherto governed physical nature, convulsed and changed in the whirl of business and progressive spirit of these restless times? Must we yield every association, sacred to the scholar's heart, to be distorted, while it is blended with the common-place details of what the writer, whether he be authorized or unauthorized, may choose to consider every-day life? Are those playgrounds of the memory, where we have lingered so long, and in the shades of which we spent our childhood, to be bereft of every tree and every fountain? Is there to be no longer an echo from the dell, a breeze from the hill, a spring gushing from beneath the rock? Is that pure love, which warmed the tender breast of Miranda and Desdemona, to give place to slipshod, sentimental stories, told in the style of the nursery, beginning in nothing, and ending in nothing?

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life, then Shenstone and Burns were not poets. If these productions, issuing from the lazy retreat of some lily-fingered votary, portray human feeling, and the ebbings and flowings of human life, whether gentle or simple, then "Scots wha hae wi Wallace bled," " wi Wallace bled,""Logan Water," "The Riggs of Barley," and the "Birks of Aberfeldy," are rant and folly, and affectation. For, relating as they do to the same objects in nature and the heart, while differing so totally in their very elements of being, if the one is natural, the other must be factitious. But it may be objected, that every poet is not a Burns. True, indeed; but every poet is, by common consent of mankind, a child, a copyer, a devotee of nature. We complain of the difference, not in degree, but in kind. All these quaint affectations, these stifled emotions and suppressed sentiments, that were called into being for the sole purpose of being strangulated and murdered; such spasms, and theatrical flourishes, to express the simplest thing in nature; such a paralysis of passion, upon the plainest matter of fact topic, about which the mind can be occupied, if we may use the language of Dr. Young upon so trivial a subject:

"Resembles ocean, into tempest wrought, To waft a feather, or to drown a fly."

We hope and believe that the day is not remote, when, amid the convulsions that attend the old order of things in Europe-our own country, placed high above the reach of these desolating tides our own country, which has already given the "lyre of heaven another string," will en fold in her embraces at least one son, who shall strike the poet's harp, or touch the strings of the lute, with the bold hand or gentle skill of a master.

HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL VIEW OF THE WORKING OF EMANCIPATION IN JAMAICA.

THE Island of Jamaica is one of the largest of the Antilles, and much the most important of the British West India possessions. It lies between the 17th and 19th degrees of north latitude, and the 76th and 79th degrees of west longitude. It is estimated to contain 6,400 square miles, and is, therefore, about as large as the state of Massachusetts.

The face of the country is extremely diversified. The island rises gently from the sea in extensive savannas, here and there broken, by spurs from a strong central mountain range, which traverses the island, and rises, as it approaches the east end, to the elevation of 7,800 feet. Many of the slopes of the western, and middle sections, are gentle, and surpassingly beautiful; but the mountain scenery of the eastern, is bold, precipitous, and grand. There are few valleys or table lands, the peaks are detached cones, rising in rapid succession, and separated by deep ravines, through which, during the wet seasons, torrents rush with resistless fury. There is seldom a heavy rain unaccompanied by loss of life, at some of the numerous fords of the island, and often at those which are dry for nine months in the year.

The island is rising rapidly from the ocean, and is evidently of recent date. Marine fossils of existing species may be found high up in the interior, many hundred feet above the level of the sea. Limestone is abundant. Trap rocks, and an extinct volcano, are said to exist in the higher mountain region, though Sir T. De la Bache, an eminent English geologist, after a scientific tour, found no evidences of volcanic origin, and pronounced the formation coralline.

The climate is hot, and, in the

plains, sultry; but at an elevation of a few hundred feet, the thermometer seldom indicates a greater degree of heat than 90°, and the nights are comfortably cool. The atmosphere is moist; the dews very heavy; and the mid-day sun, everywhere powerful. The temperature varies with the elevation, and, in the high mountain region, fire is comfortable in the morning and evening for most of the year. Frost, snow, and ice are unknown, except that imported by Mr. Artice of Boston.

The salubrity of the mountain air is not excelled within the tropics; but the general influence upon European constitutions is debilitating.

Since the days of Cromwell, the island has been a dependency of the British crown, and, though many Spanish names are retained, the English language is universally spoken.

This beautiful island, thus briefly introduced to the reader, is the theater of one of the most interesting experiments ever made in behalf of humanity. Its population is some. what less than half a million of souls, of which, till the year 1834, ninetenths were African slaves. The sta ples cultivated by them, were sugar, rum, coffee, ginger, and pimento.

Missionary operations were commenced at an early day among the slaves of Jamaica. In 1754, the Moravians established themselves in the parish of St. Elizabeth's; and in 1789, Dr. Coke, the coadjutor of the venerable Wesley, organized a Methodist mission in the city of Kingston. The missionaries, however, were hated as dissenters, and jealously watched, lest they should manifest sympathy for the negroes. With the greatest difficulty they maintained their position, and so little progress had the missions made, that, in 1816, they had little more

than a nominal existence. Among the earliest religious teachers, was an obscure negro from the state of Georgia, probably a refugee slave during the war of the American Revolution, who, in the latter part of the last century, found his way to the island, and began to preach in the city of Kingston. The early operations of this man, George Lisle, are involved in great obscurity; it is certain, however, that by his zeal and address he gained ready access to the slaves, despite the efforts of the planters; for, on the revival of missions in 1816, the sect he had established, known as the "Black Baptists," was found in all parts of the island, and its cardinal principle, immersion, universally regarded as the seal of inevitable salvation. To obviate the evil of his exclusion from the estates, he selected the most intelligent slaves he could find, and gave them messages to their fellows upon the estates. These messengers gathered the people together, often secretly, and by night, and delivered to them the word they had received. In process of time, the messengers became an established order in the church, and were termed "leaders." To a large extent they were the only medium through which the preacher could communicate with the people, and the power they exercised, at first sub-pastoral, soon became an iron despotism over the bodies and souls of their classes. For the most part, they were the drivers, the boat swains, and other prominent slaves on the estate; always ignorant, and often grossly licentious, brutal men.

Mr. Lisle gave to each person connected with him, a monthly ticket, or small pasteboard card, certifying the nature of the connection, whether as a communicating member, or merely an "inquirer," by which was meant a regular attendant.

These tickets, perhaps an innocent device at first, became engines

of tremendous power in the hands of the leaders; for, under their tuition, the people came to regard them as passports to heaven, to be ob tained at any price, whether of money, virtue, or honesty. It can not be wondered at, that, with such teachers, and such machinery, Christianity assumed the degraded form of a licentious superstition, nearer akin to African heathenism, than to pure and undefiled religion.

In 1817, a new era dawned upon Jamaica. The wars that had desolated Europe had happily termina ted.

The slave laws had been modified, and a favorable reaction in the religious aspect of the island followed. An active sympathy was awakened among the English dissenters, in behalf of the colonial slaves. Existing missions were strengthened, and the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Independent bodies, successively organized strong missionary operations among them. The missionaries were protected in their persons and labors, by the government; and, notwithstanding the contempt and obloquy heaped upon them by the planters, they prosecuted their objects with ra pidly increasing interest, and influence, among the people. The Baptist missionaries occupied the most prominent position. They had, on their arrival, entered at once into the labors of Mr. Lisle, and they nearly absorbed his followers in their extensive arrangements for covering the ground. They objected to the leader and ticket" system he had organized, and would have suppressed it, had they hoped for success in the effort; but it was feared that the attempt would destroy their influence, and disband their churches, they therefore adopted it. It has, no doubt, been very much modified in their hands, yet it is still regarded by the missionaries of all the other bodies as a most ma. lignant element in the religious constitution of the island; as demorali

zing as it is powerful. It has been the bane of some of the large Baptist churches, and it may yet prove the ruin of all.

In the fall of 1831, there were forty-four dissenting ministers in the island. Cheering success had attended their labors. Many churches had been gathered; some schools established; temporary erections had given place to substantial chapels and residences; the various sta tions were" lengthening their cords and strengthening their stakes," and religious influences and impressions began to permeate the mass; when, sudden as the lightning's flash, every effort was palsied; churches were scattered; buildings destroyed, and the labors of years apparently annihilated.

In the year 1830, the free colored population had, after a violent strug gle, wrung from an unwilling legis lature, the concession of equal rights. Soon after, a report was extensively circulated among the slaves that the king had set them free; but that the planters, like the Egyptian Pharaoh, had refused to let them go. They resolved to strike for liberty. An insurrection was organized, and so wisely and secretly conducted, that it was not even suspected, till the fatal night on which the torch was applied, and the whole northwest district of the island was illumined by blazing cane-fields, and sugarworks. Martial law was proclaimed, and the miserable negroes were butchered by hundreds. Few whites were slain, but upwards of six millions of dollars' worth of property was destroyed by the insurgents. In the frenzy of the moment, the missionaries were denounced as the authors of the rebellion. Vengeance demanded its sacrifice; and, in turn, the planters became incendiaries. They madly fired the chapels and dwellings of the missionaries, and thus added to the destruction more than two hundred thousand dollars worth of mission property. On the

resumption of power by the civil authorities, they immediately instituted an investigation into the causes of the rebellion, which, however unsatisfactory, fully exonerated the missionaries and their churches, from any participation in it. It is worthy of remark, however, that it broke out in a district extensively influenced by missionary agencies, and in the very midst of mission churches.

On

Both parties appealed to the mother country. The issue was fairly made up, that dissenting missions to the slaves must be abandoned, or slavery must cease, and a verdict was demanded of the British public. The demonstration of their essential antagonism was complete, and the appeal moved the whole empire. On the part of the planting interests there was a tremendous array of wealth, talent, and influence; but the moral sense of the nation was aroused, and truth triumphed. the 22d September, 1833, the Imperial Parliament passed the Emancipation Act, by which all the negro slaves in the British colonies, came into an apprenticeship state on the 1st August, 1834, to continue, in the case of the domestic slaves, till 1st August, 1838, and of the field slaves, till 1st August, 1840, at which periods they severally became absolutely free. The bill granted the option of immediate emancipation to those colonies whose legislatures should elect it, but all chose the apprenticeship, except the small Islands of Antigua and Bermuda, which, as subsequent events have clearly shown, wisely preferred the alternative.

It also granted an indemnity of twenty millions sterling to the planters; not, as has sometimes been represented, as the purchase price of the slaves, but to reimburse them for any losses they should sustain by the operation of the act. The intermediate system worked badly. It was the source of endless heartburnings and bitterness, and more

than once called forth stringent and stinging despatches and regulations from the Colonial Office. The negro hoped for freedom. The new system mocked him with the name, while it wrung from him ten hours of unrequited toil, daily. The planters wanted unpaid labor, and it mocked them with the promise, while it wrenched from their grasp the slave whip, by which alone they could coerce it. This unnatural state fretted every one sore; and as the experiment of freeing them in classes was regarded as hazardous, if not dangerous, it was resolved by all parties, to relinquish to the field slaves two years of their servitude, and let all go out free on 1st August, 1838.

The advent of unconditional freedom was anticipated by the different classes, with the intensest emotions of fear, hope and joy. It was ushered in by voices of devout thanksgiving and praise, and was marked by all the order of a solemn festival. Not a voice was raised in riot; not an arm nerved by revenge. It was a sacred sabbatical jubilee.

A revolution such as that which has passed upon Jamaica must develope its tendencies and influences in the generations which follow, rather than in those which witness it. The degrading superstitions, habits, and usages of the slaves, may be modified in the present generation, but they can be eradicated only by the continuous efforts of successive ages; yet ten years have elapsed since the advent of unrestricted freedom, and we may reasonably enquire after the results that have thus far been attained.

Under the old system, the whole slave population were held to labor for the supply of the British market. They were producers only. Hence, the tabular returns from the customs, indicated the amount of labor performed, and measured the pros

perity of the island. Unhappily the new system has been judged by the same tests. The successful or adverse working of the emancipation, is made identical with the increase or diminution of the number of hogsheads of sugar, puncheons of rum, and bags of coffee, ginger, and pi mento, shipped to England. And still more unhappily, it has been complicated with other influences adverse to the prosperity of the island, and the disastrous results of all, have been laid to the account of emancipation. The staple exports have greatly decreased. Property has ruinously depreciated; and of course the agricultural and financial interests of the island have been extremely embarrassed; there have been many failures, and much distress: all this is unquestionably true, —and because it has in the order of time occurred subsequently to the emancipation, it is presumed that it has wrought all this ruin, and that the emancipated classes are idle and lazy, refusing to work, and utterly unworthy the blessings conferred upon them.

The sugar cultivation is the great interest of the island. The sugar estates, (merely called "estates" in contradistinction to coffee properties called "properties,") are very large, and have heretofore been very valuable. They lie along the savannas, and vallies and gentle hill sides of the island. Near the center, are the "works," embracing the "great house," the proprietor's residence--the "basha's (overseer's) house," the " boiling house," "curing house," "mill" (for expressing the cane juice), “trash house," and distillery. The drainings from the curing house, the dregs from the boiling house, and the sweets from immature, injured, or rat eaten canes, with an indefinite amount of filth, tobacco juice, dead mice, rats, &c., are turned into the "rum well," and are manufactured into the "rum crop," at the distillery.

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