pidly declined. It has generally been observed, that wherever Europeans have colonized, the less civilized natives have always dwindled away, and at length totally disappeared. Various causes have contributed to the depopulation of the Hottentots, The impolitic custom of hording together in families, and of not marrying out of their own kraals, has no doubt tended to enervate this race of men, and reduced them to their present degenerated con. dition, which is that of a languid, listless, phlegmatic people, in whom the prolific powers of nature seem to be almost exhausted. To this may be added their extreme poverty, scantiness of food, and continual dejection of mind, arising from the cruel treatment they receive from an inhuman and unfeeling peasantry, who having discovered them. selves to be removed to too great a distance from the seat of their former government to be awed by its authority, have exercised, in the most wanton and barbarous manner, an absolute power over these poor wretches, reduced to the necessity of depending upon them for a morsel of bread. There is scarcely an instance of cruelty said to have been committed against the slaves in the West India islands, that could not find a parallel from the Dutch farmers of the remote parts of the colony towards the Hottentos in their service. Beating and cutting them with thongs of the hide of the sea-cow, or rhinoceros, is a gentle punishment, though these sort of whips, which they call shambos, are most horrid instruments, tough, pliant, and heavy almost as lead. Firing small shot into the legs and thighs of a Hottentot, is a punishment not unknown to some of the monsters who inhabit the neighbourhood of Camtoos river. Instant death is not unfrequently the consequence of punishing these poor wretches in a moment of rage. This is of little consequence to the farmer; for though

they are to all intents and purposes his slaves, yet they are not transferable property. It is this circumstance which, in his mind, makes their lives less valuable, and their treatment more inhuman.

In offences of too small moment to stir up the phlegm of a Dutch peasant, the coolness and tranquillity displayed at the punishment of his slave, or Hottentot, is highly ridiculous, and at the same time indicative of a savage disposition to unfeeling cruelty lurking in his heart. He flogs them, not by any given number of lashes, but by time; and as they have no clocks, nor substitutes for them, capable of marking the smaller divisions of time, he has invented an excuse for the indulgence of one of his most favourite sensualities, by flogging them till he has smoked as many pipes of tobacco as he may judge the magnitude of the crime to deserve. The government of Malacca, according to the manuscript journal of an intelligent officer in the expedition against that settlement, has adopted the same custom of flogging by pipes; and the fiscal, or chief magistrate, or some of his deputies, are the smokers on such occasions.

By a resolution of the old government, as unjust as it was inhuman, a peasant was allowed to claim, as his property, till the age of five-and-twenty, all the children of the Hottentots in his service to whom he had given in their infancy a morsel of meat. At the expiration of this period, the odds are ten to one that the slave is not emancipated. A Hottentot knows nothing of his age; "he takes no note of time. And though the spirit that dictated this humane law expanded its beneficence in favour of the Hottentot, by directing the farmer to register the birth of such children as he may intend to make his slaves, yet it seldom happens, removed as many of them are to the distance of ten or twelve days journey from the Drosdy, that the

Hottentot has an opportunity of inquiring when his servitude will expire; and indeed it is a chance if he thinks upon or even knows the existence of such a resource. Should he be fortunate enough to escape at the end of the period, the best part of his life has been spent in a profitless servitude, and he is turned adrift in the decline of life (for a Hottentot begins to grow old at thirty), without any earthly thing he can call his own, except the sheep's skin upon his back.

The condition of those who engage themselves from year to year is little better than that of the others. If they have already families, they erect for them little straw huts near the farm-house. Their children are encouraged to run about the house of the peasant, where they receive their morsel of food. This is deemed sufficient to establish their claim to the young Hottentots; and should their parents, at the end of the term for which they engaged, express a desire to quit the service, the farmer will suffer them to go, perhaps turn them away, and detain their children.

Those who are unmarried and free are somewhat better in their situation than the others, though not much. The pitiful wages they agree for are stopped upon every frivolous occasion. If an ox or a sheep be missing, the Hottentot must replace them; nor would he be suffered to quit his service till he has earned the value of them. ox, or a couple of cows, or a dozen sheep, worth forty or fifty shillings, are the usual wages of a whole year; and it frequently happens that a bill for tobacco or brandy is brought against them to the full amount.

An

JUBILEE

TO THE MEMORY OF

SHAKESPEARE;

FROM

MURPHY's LIFE OF GARRICK.

(Continued from page 162, vol. 12. )

IN our first extract from this interesting work, we

left our dramatic hero performing with considerable applause at the theatre in Goodman'sFields; and, passing over many circumstances in the course of his theatrical career, we trace him to that period when he devoted his hours to the completion of a design which he had long meditated, and had much at heart. "This was," says his biographer, "to give a grand jubilee to the memory of Shakespeare, at Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth-place of our great poet. At that town all hands were set to work. A boarded rotunda, in imitation of Ranelagh, was erected on the banks of the river, and many other decorations were displayed in various parts of the town. On the 5th and 6th September, a numerous concourse assembled from all parts of the country, and also from London. On the 7th, public worship was celebrated with great magnificence. As soon as the religious ceremony was over, the strangers went in crowds to read Shakespeare's epitaph over the door of the charnel at the east end of the church. At three, on the same day, the company met in the rotunda, where a handsome dinner was provided. A little after five, the musical performers ascended

the orchestra, and the songs, composed by Garrick, were sung with great applause. Garrick closed the whole with his ode, upon dedicating a building, and erecting a statue to Shakespeare, in his native city.

When the company began to rise, Foote, who sat next to this writer, said, "Murphy, let us take a turn on the banks of the Avon, to try if we can catch some inspiration.' We accordingly sallied forth. Foote was no sooner seen on the margin of the river, than a crowd assembled round him. He cracked his jokes, and peals of laughter resounded all over the lawn. On a sudden, a tall man, prodigiously corpulent and unweildy, broke through the circle, richly dressed in gold-laced cloaths, in order to have conversation with a famous wit. Foote paid him several compliments, and then asked him, "Has the county of Warwick the honour of giving birth to you, sir, as well as to Shakespeare?”

No," said the uncouth gentleman; “I come out of Essex."-"Where, Sir?"" I come out of Essex:' "Out of Essex !" said Foote ;-and who drove you?”—A loud laugh broke out at once, and the Essex traveller rushed away, with a look that spoke his resolution never to have any more intercourse with a man of wit.

On the 8th September there was a splendid ball in the rotunda, and for the following day was announced a grand procession through the town, in which the principal characters in Shakespeare's plays were to be exhibited. It happened, however, that a violent tempest of wind and rain made it impossible to put that part of the scheme into execution. The jubilee ended abruptly, and the company left the place with precipitation.

September 1769, to June 1770. The Stratford Jubilee was in October transferred to Drury-Lane.