requiring relief, has since been increased to 30%. per quarter. To meet this expenditure, which will regularly be called for at certain fixed periods, it is extremely desirable to increase the annual subscriptions, which, independently of donations, amount only at present to about 80%. Small as these funds are, it appears by the Reports that, under the judicious management of those benevolent characters who have undertaken to apply them, they have been the means of affording relief in a great number of cases of extreme distress. It is in vain to tell us that severe penalties are enacted against those who desert their slaves when sick or infirm, when it is well known that these poor friendless wretches have no means of procuring justice, and that if any should attempt to put such laws in force, he would run great risk of being marked as an object of vengeance: the evidence of a slave against a white man goes for nothing, and even free people of colour, mulattos, are held in contempt, as will appear by the following extract from one of the letters: "A respectable European a few days ago was openly insulted in public company, by a man whose family are paupers upon the parish; and this poor empty, contemptible white man thought himself justified in insulting a steady, respectable merchant, merely because he had married a mulatto, though she was a well educated, serious, and sensible' woman. An extract from another letter will show how much a poor slave is at the mercy of a white man: "We still are affording relief as your kind assistance enables us;-poor Jack is no more; to describe his sufferings would be too much for me. Death has gained its object, and the captive is freed; his house (which is yours) I have appropriated to a poor African Negro, disabled by a young white man, who, in a fit of lawless wrath, took up an iron bar and broke his arm: the poor Negro was never healed, but lies a mass of complicated misery, being deserted by his opulent owner, and left to the bounty of Heaven through your means."

In such a deplorable state of society, there is sometimes a danger of increasing the sufferings of these poor people, by attempting to relieve them. A humane person having given some clothing to a miserable child, the next morning a Negro was sent with the clothes, who said that Mrs. did not wish any

one to clothe her Negroes, and that the girl should have a good flogging for accepting them.

The following are a few of the numerous cases which have come under notice in the course of last year.

On inquiry into the case of an aged woman, who was in a very poor condition and almost naked, it appeared that she was

one of those, who a few years back had been appraised for 6d. and allowed to pick for herself; that excepting what she got now and then from her former fellow-servants, towards satisfying the cravings of nature, she receives no other support.

Charlotte Barker, an afflicted woman, who has been bedridden for near twenty years, was allowed Is. 14d. per week. She receives not any support from the estate, but occasionally a little food from her fellow-servants.

"The circumstances of an aged woman, of the name of Mary Cummins, and an African youth named Rolla, may be described in a few words. She is afflicted with scurvy, and has lost her fingers and toes; has an owner, but when she goes to him for relief, he tells her that she is free, and may pick for herself, and very seldom takes any notice of her. The other belonged to and was bought a few years back out of a new cargo; but it appearing that he would be soon unfit for labour, having strong symptoms of the scurvy about him, was told to consider himself as free: he is now a pitiable object; he has only an open shed to sleep in, with covering scarcely sufficient for his body; his head is considerably enlarged, his face filled with lumps, his nose deprived of its natural figure, his hands and feet nearly useless. Both these sufferers are allowed 1s. 14d. each per week from the fund."

John Norton, formerly a useful servant, is now a pitiable object; sickly, and neglected by his owner; sick or well, he is only allowed 2s. 3d. per week by his mistress, and sometimes two or three weeks pass without his receiving one week's allowance: at present he is unable to labour, complains of great oppression on his breath in consequence of a severe beating from some white sailors about two years back, and no attention having been paid to him at the time the injury was received. Betsey Royals has been again taken on at Is. 14d. per week, for which she is very thankful. Two others have received partial relief, and two have departed this life, viz. Sabina Gray, and Benigna Bird: the latter, when she was visited by one of the Committee, was found desiring to depart, and to be with Christ; with tears in her eyes she expressed her thanks for the support she was favoured with in her age and infirmity, by unknown friends of the poor and distressed, and wished them thousand blessings, &c. One of the Committee mentioned an old woman quite blind, viz. Elizabeth Halliday Delaps, that the small pittance allowed her weekly by her manager is not more than sufficient for two days, and that she does not receive any clothing from her owner: we agreed to allow her 1s.'14d. per week. The Committee were also informed

that there was an old woman, Sophia Katy Cisterman, having no family, and unable to labour any longer, and who has been decrepid some years; in her youthful days she was a valuable servant, and worked for her owner many years, but she does not now receive the least support from him; a charitable person in town gives her generally is. 14d. per week (that is, the eighth of a dollar) to assist her. We agreed to allow her from this fund 1s. 14d. per week towards her support.

During the last quarter four persons who were on the list departed this life, who, with almost their latest breath, desired many thanks might be given to those friends who came forward to their relief; it being a great alleviation of their misery, and a comfort to them in their last days. Gatty and Christiana Halliday Delaps were brought forward; and as they appeared to be at present very needy objects, it was wished that they might receive aid from this fund. These blind and aged negroes receive four pints of corn for the week's allowance (which is children's allowance); but this they have received for several weeks without salt fish or even salt to season it with. It is a melancholy fact, that hunger depresses too many both young and old on this property: A valuable servant lately died, who most probably would have been alive now, had he gone a day or two sooner into the sick-house; but he would not, lest he should lose his Sunday morning's allowance of one quart of Indian corn, to serve him till Tuesday noon. The two other cases are Elizabeth Constant and Charles Gillan; the former has a shelter and is clothed, but often experiences hunger, being entirely dependent on the slaves belonging to her owner for a mouthful, can do nothing for herself, being very aged. The other is an old negro, and receives but half allowance; in short he is almost starved; he says very little, but is a silent picture of distress. It was agreed that 1s. 1d. per week should be handed to

- each of them.

Irvine MQuire being afflicted with sore eyes, and nearly blind thereby, can neither sew nor wash, but gladly will do any rough work to get a mouthful, and stands in need of support. In this situation she is required to feed and clothe herself, and bring her master 3s.each week: this he lets run on for several weeks, and then sends an order to the constable of the district to demand payment, or carry her instantly to the gaol or lock-up house. And at the last Committee it appeared, that having again been seven weeks in arrears with her master, and having nothing wherewith to pay, she was taken by the constable and placed in the lock-up house having been there seven days, a neighbour came forward with the necessary sum, the poor woman having promised soon to

pay her, by borrowing from others; and that one dollar had been advanced towards paying the debt of two dollars and four bits, to the very great joy of this distressed woman. It was the wish of the member of this Committee, who advanced the above dollar, to relieve the woman through this fund, without her master's reaping the benefit thereof; but this at present we fear is impracticable,

To detail the particulars of other cases which have come before the Committee this year, and have received partial relief, would be to recapitulate similar cases of woe; and although the Committee doubt not but that the proprietors of many of the estates in the West Indies are humane and benevolent persons; yet the system of slavery is such, that it has a natural tendency to blunt the feelings, and harden the hearts of the community wherein it is suffered to exist; and as unhappily in most communities, depraved and vicious characters are to be found, these in a land of slaves have a full opportunity for indulging their brutal passions, while in a great majority of cases it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to interpose with effect between the oppressor and oppressed. It is, however, the duty of every friend to his country and his species to expose from time to time the enormities which are practised in these doleful regions. The cries of the oppressed in our colonies are incessantly ascending before the throne of Divine Justice; and although Great Britain has done much in the cause of humanity, and exhibited a glorious example to the nations of the earth, in the Abolition of the Slave Trade; yet, while slavery is permitted, the language of the prophet to a people formerly may be applied even to us: "In thy skirts is found the blood of the poor innocents. I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these."

It may be proper to observe, that the currency in Antigua is only about half the value of the English currency.

Subscriptions are received by HOARE, BARNET, & Co, bankers, Lombard-street; FRY and SONS, Mildred's-court, Poultry; RICHARDSON, OVEREND, and Co., Lombard-street; WILLIAM ALLEN, Plough-court, Lombard-street; and THOMAS CHRISTY, No. 35, Gracechurch-street.

N. B. An account of the cases, and the manner in which the money has been appropriated, lies at THOMAS CHRISTY's, Gracechurch-street, for the inspection of the Subscribers.

TH

Colony of Sierra Leone.

HE friends of Africa had long anxiously looked to the colony of Sierra Leone as a point whence the light of civilisation might beam through the continent of Africa. But although the enter

prise was planned and conducted by persons eminently distinguished for their philanthropy and honourable character, and although vast sums of private and of public money have been expended, it must be confessed that the results are by no means such as were hoped for. While we say this, however, we are deeply convinced of the purity of intention by which the Directors of the Sierra Leone Company were actuated, and are aware that, beside that great bar to every effort of the kind-the Slave Trade-they had also other very serious difficulties to encounter. How far some of the latter may have arisen for want of a sufficient knowledge of human nature in the agents sent out, it is not our business now to determine; it is of far more importance to consider the present circumstances of the colony, and how it may be made to answer the just expectations which have been formed of it.

Free Town, the capital of the colony, is most advantageously situated for the purposes of commerce. The land about it is mountainous, but the valleys are fertile, though they are so encumbered with large stones that in many places it is impossible to use the plough. The settlers consist principally of the Nova Scotians brought from Halifax by John Clarkson, as noticed in a former number of THE PHILANTHROPIST, and Maroons from Jamaica: most of them are extremely poor: they subsist by fishing, by the exercise of handicraft trades, and many of them are employed by the agents of merchants residing in this country to carry on a sort of barter trade with the natives. The white agent or merchant trusts such of the settlers whom he esteems honest, with a quantity of goods imported from Europe; these he charges to the account of the settlers, who trade with these goods up the rivers for camwood, ivory, rice, gold-dust, &c., which on their return they bring to the agent or merchant, who credits their account with the articles at a price which he says he can afford, and the balance, if any, is paid to the settlers.

The climate is favourable to the growth of cotton, coffee, indigo, tobacco, rice, Indian corn, &c.; and yet the settlers have hitherto made little or no progress in raising exportable produce; they merely plant cassada, yams, &c. in their gardens, or little spots of ground, for their own supply; and, except what they procure in this way and by fishing, they are principally dependent upon the natives for other provisions. The fact is, that they have not the capital necessary to enter upon cultivation with spirit, and have besides been extremely discouraged by the uncertainty of the titles to their lands; and on the last occasion of renewal they have been required to pay a sum of money more than equal, in some instances, to the value of the land. The frequent doubts on the validity of their grants naturally suggested the idea of in