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committee forbear, at present, to animadvert further on the injustice and impolicy of that part of the act which relates to the abolition of the slave trade. The British Parliament bas so enacted it! But the act contains clauses, foreign to the avowed purposes of the law, which are calculated to establish measures of internal regulation, subversive of the local rights and legislative authority of this island, * repugnant, to its colonial laws long existing, and founded. upon wise policy, and most humane considerations. And that the Act of this Island of the 15 Geo. III. cap. 18, for regulating the manumission of negroes, is directly counteracted by the operation of the clause alluded to-That the act blends two distinct objects the one having an external operation upon' our commerce and trade, which was the object first professed by the partisans of the measure; the other, from the various alterations which the act has undergone, and in which the original principles were departed from, having an internal and unjust operation, by interfering with, and being subversive of, laws which are to regulate the internal government of the colony; the enacting of which has long and uniformly been asserted by this island, and recognized by the pa

That, as the original settlers of this island were free British subjects, many of whom assisted in the conquest of it from Spain, it is manifest that they brought with them all the rights and privileges of Britons: that the native spirit of freedom, which distinguishes British subjects, is also the characteristic of his Majesty's loyal inhabitants of Jamaica; and that every attempt to abridge, or interfere with, the colonial rights of this island, have been constantly resisted. The arbitrary measures, in the reign of Charles II. to impose the Irish form of legislation upon this country; the many subsequent endeavours to substitute the King's instructions for laws of this island; to raise money without the concurrence of the people's representatives; have ever been resisted, and, we trust, will never be submitted to by this colony.-That persons in this island, charged with offences against the abolition act, are not, as in Great Britain, liable to be tried only in Courts of Record, but these offences are made also cognizable in the Court of Vice Admiralty, although committed in the interior of the country, which enactment is an absolute disfranchisement of the colonist, by depriving him of his birth-right, the trial by jury. That, in regard to the resources of the island, it appears that, from the last great

efforts which have been made by the African merchant and factors in England, the importation of slaves in the current year has been so considerable, as to have produced, of the negro duties, a surplus of near £32,000 after deducting the estimate for the year, and that it is probable, that the duties which will arise from the negroes recently imported, and those which are expected to arrive before the day limited for the termination of the trade, will amount to a further sum of £20,000 making about £50,000 appropriable to the expence of the establishment of the island, or towards redeeming the island papers, which are outstanding, and which amount to £260,000, a considerable part bearing interest at eight per cent.; but, immediately after the first day of March next, that resource will be intirely cut off. That another productive branch of the island revenue, the land tax, introduced to meet the heavy debt occasioned by the Maroon war, and other martial laws, cannot be relied upon to come in aid of our exigencies to the usual extent, since the uncultivated lands are now rendered of no value to the proprietors; the stamp duties will also, necessarily, be diminished; and the operation of the deficiency law will be unavailing, with respect to the objects elther of policy or revenue, since the temptation which induced settlers to come to, or to continue in, the island, will no longer exist, the natural consequence of which will be, that the white militia must inevitably be considerably diminished That, in pursuing the inquiry into the causes which have occasioned the reduction of the value of the staple commodities of this island in the British markets, the commit.ee find that much light has been thrown on the subject by recent publications, which have been widely circulated, and by the report of a committee of the Imperial Parliament, made the last session, after very full inquiry.---—As these publications, and that report, are accompa nied by, and grounded on, official documents, and the most respectable evidence, the committee consider it unnecessary to enter on an investigation of facts, now not controverted, and think they are justified in reporting that the following appear the principal causes which have produced the extreme depreciation of our principal staple, sugar: 1st, The departure from what has been usually called the rule of the war of 1756, but which, in fact, was established long before that period, and decided, "that a neutral had no right to deliver a belligerent from the pressure of hos enemies' hostilities, by trading with his co

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SUMMARY OF POLITICS. PEACE. Rumours of Peace having been afloat for some days, and there being a talk, amongst the out faction, of promoting Petitions for Peace, I shall offer to the reader what presents itself to my mind upon the subject. Whether it be true, or false, that the late intercourse with France and Holland, through the means of the Austrian Embassador and his messengers, relate to proposals for negotiation; whether it be actually the case, that the mediation of Austria has been offered to England, and refused by her ministers, upon the ground of Austria herself not being independent; whether those ministers have declared, that they will negotiate only with France, directly, and, anticipating the demands of Napoleon, have expressed the laudable determination of never suffering, England's ancient rights upon the seas to become matter of discussion in the arrangement of any treaty, to which England shall be one of the parties: whether any part, or all, or none, of this be true, I do not pretend to know ; nor would knowledge, in that respect, be of any use towards enabling me to form any judgment upon the question of peace, seeing that uothing that can be said, or contemplated, by the negotiating parties, can alter the real state of things, as it notoriously exists. This state of things is described in very few words: Napoleon has conquered the continent of Europe. The three states, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, who retain their former names and sovereigns, and who are not actually governed by his generals and his troops, are, nevertheless, not independent; but are, and must be, compelled to do whatsoever it may please him to command them to do, and, of course, to injore, as far as they have the power of injuring, this country; while all the maritime states,

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from the Baltic to the Hellesport, are under his absolute and immediate con roul; England alone, (for the fate of Sweden is hardly known) of all Europe, remaining truly independent of his power.Such is the state of things; and, in order to form a judgment as to what ought to be our terms of peace, if now made, we must first consider, what are the probable views of Napoleon respecting us. He has conquered all Europe, England excepted; and, it is in the nature of ambition, never to rest, until it can go no further. The nearer, too, that it approaches its utmost limits, the more eager it becomes. Thus have we constantly seen it, in the case before us. Long ago was Napoleon so firmly seated, his power so decidedly greater than that of any other prince in Europe, that, if security and superiority would have satisfied him, perfectly satisfied he must have been. But, we have seen, that his eagerness for conquest has increased with his success; and we now see him grasping, in every direction, to add to that power, which seems almost incapable of receiving an addition. Upon what ground, then, can any man pretend to hope, that he does not wish to conquer England; an that he has not resolved upon the conquest? England, without the conquest of whom many of his other conquests are in secure ; England, whose example, if left inderendent, might and wond, be so troublesome to him; England, of whom, for so many reasons, he bears a deadly hatred; England, who has, in all times, been the rival of France; England, between whom and France, it is now, in the presence of all nations, a contest, which shall hereafter be looked upon as the first nation in the world? Upon what ground, then, I ask, is it, that any one can pretend to hope, that he does not seriously meditate the conquest of Eng.

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land; and that, while he lives, there is any thing but an exertion of our power that will give us a chance of escaping the fate of Holland and Portugal ?If there be no ground for hoping, that this is not the case, the advice of the Morning Chronicle, to wit, that we should bring down our minds to the new state of things in the world; and that we should no longer be unhappy, because we cannot be so great as formerly; this advice is perfectly useless; for, there is no sort of submission, no degree of humiliation or disgrace, short of absolute slavery, that would satisfy Napoleon, who has left us but this simple alternative, to be the greatest nation or no nation at all.- -With this alternative before us it is that we must make peace with him, if we make any peace at all; for, whether in peace or in war, he will speedily pursue his object; and, if it be true, that he now speaks of peace, with an intention of making a treaty, it is only because he thinks that a treaty, such as he hopes to make with us, would answer his purpose, at this time, better than an uninterrupted continuation of the war.-Therefore, in making a peace with him, we should resolve not to suffer him to profit from such peace to our annoyance. He has the land, and we have the sea. If he would restore Holland, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, and Naples to a real independence, then we might agree to relax in the exercise of our maritime power; but, if he be inflexible as to the preserving of his controul over the states upon the coast of the continent, we should be inflexible in our resolution so to exercise our power, in peace, as to prevent the resources of those states from being turned against us at the renewal of a war. -I do not pretend to lay down what ought to be the precise conditions of a treaty with him; but, it appears to me, that, as long as he holds control over the states above mentioned, we never should suffer any ship of war of those states to sail upon the sea; and further, that we should make it ground of war, if, in any of those states, ships of war were known to be erecting. I know I shall be told, that, to insist upon terms like these would be to say, that we will not have peace; but, my answer is, that terms like these we must have, or we have only this choice left, go to war again in a year or be conquered; and, go to war, too, in a much worse relative situation then we now are. -The late orders of council, though breathing a low huckster-like language, have, as I predicted they would, produced terrible alarm and distress in many of the countries under the dominion, or controul, of Frane. If this system be perse

vered in for a year or two, it will become settled; it will effect a revolution in men's minds with regard to that maritime domi nion, which we shall be perceived to possess in reality as well as in name. It, therefore, behoves Napoleon to stifle this system in its birth; not to let it have a fair trial; to get rid of it, for a while at least, by a peace. Against this device our ministers ought to be upon their guard.—The“ Petitions for Peace," of which the Morning Chronicle talks so much, will, I suppose, bear a pretty faithful resemblance, in their origin, to those petitions so well described by Lord Clarendon, in the passage taken for my motto tothis sheet: and, then, all that the ministers will have to do, is, to send out their scouts to obtain addresses, breathing sentiments exactly the reverse of those expressed in the petitions. But, I am quite at a loss to foresee what the petitioners can possibly say at this time, upon the subject To beseech the king to make peace upon safe and honourable terms is evidently useless,, because he expresses his anxious wish to do that, and because, moreover, that will leave him to judge' of what terms are safe and honourable. To bescech him to make peate upon any teams that Napoleon chooses to dictate, they will hardly venture; and, therefore, I cannot see what they can say that will have any sense or meaning in it. If, indeed, a negociation were begun, and it was understood, for instance, that we con tended for the possession of the Cape of Good Hope, or the re-possession of Hanover by the Elector, and that all other matters were arranged; then, to petition the king to give up the point, in order that peace might be restored, would have some sense in it; but there can be no sense in a vague application to him to restore the blessings of peace," without knowing, or pretending to know, any thing of the obstacles which stand in the way of accomplishing that object, which, beforehand, he assures them, he has most anxiously at heart. Indeed, it is, I think, evident enough, that under the present cir cunistances, to send up petitions for peace," as they are called, must be considered as a mere party device; a mére attempt of the outs to annoy the is, and to lessen their own personal disgrace by dividing it with a portion of the people, not many of whom, however, will, I should think, be willing to become their tools.The Morning Chronicle, which is the herald of the Whig politics, has requested the public to mark well, and to bear in mind, that Mr. Canning has said, in his answer to the Russian declaration, that "the last negociation was

broken off upon points, in which England was not immediately interested." Well, and what then? It might be shameful enough to break off the negociation upon such points; but, to whom does the shame belong? To the ministry then in power certainly; and that ministry was composed of those who are now out of power. But, do we not remember, that that ministry, by the hand of Mr. Fox, declared, that they never would make peace, without obtaining the restoration of Hanover, which, according to Lord Grenville's expression," ought to be as dear to us as Hampshire?" And yet, they have now the assurance, to endeavour to raise a clamour for peace, and to excite a prejudice against their rivals, as being resolved to withhold that blessing from the country, without any regard to the terms, upon which it might be obtained.In this clamour, however, some of the party will hardly join; and, I think, that I here perceive, the approach, not of the fall, but of the complete annihilation, of Whiggism, which has existed for about one hundred and forty years, to the infinite injury of England.

AMERICAN STATES (continued from page 54.) The following is given, in the American papers, of the 9th of December, as the supposed substance of Mr. Canning's note to Mr. Munroe, respecting the affair of the Chesapeake." Mr. Canning's answer Mr. Monroe is said to state; that the Bri"tish Government has always claimed and exercised the right to take British seamen "wherever found; that according to mo"dern usages of civilized nations, national "vessels were not liable to search; that Great

Britain will conform to this usage; that for "the affair of the Chesapeake reparation "will be made, and a minister sent to the "United States for that purpose. No hint " is given as to the nature or extent of the "reparation. On the contrary, it is ex"pressly stated, that the claim of the Ame"rican Government to reparation is lessen"ed by the refusal to deliver up their men, " and by the President's Proclamation, both "of which are considered as acts of hos"tility on our part. That the minister sent "to the United States would be expressly. "instructed not to blend with the affair of "the Chesapeake either the impressment of seamen, or any other subject of dif "ference between the two countries. "letter is in a style more haughty than "conciliatory, and calculated rather to in"crease than lessen the sentiment of in"dignation so generally excited by the un"principled conduct of Great Britain to"wards neutrals generally, and particularly

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"towards the United States."There is no saying how far this may be correct; but, I think, it is very likely to be tolerably so and, if that be the case, the Note has not much in it that is objectionable. "Great "Britain" has not always claimed and exercised the right in question; "Great Bri"tain" has never exercised it; but England has both claimed and exercised it; and, why she should not do it now, I can see no reason, except it be found in her union with Scotland, and in her having foolishly adopted a nickname, when under the rule of the Whigs of former times. Who would not laugh at the French, if they were to call their country "Great Gaul ?" We have now got a name making, toge ther with that of the king, a long lawyerlike piece of tautology, that is perfectly ridiculous.--That the Americans should call Mr. Canning's style Mr. Canning's style "haughty," is not at all surprizing; for, they would be satisfied with nothing short of licking their feet; that is to say, unless they found us seriously bent upon resenting their insolence and injustice.--The receipt of newspapers from Halifax, Nova Scotia, have enabled me to furnish the people of England with some specimens of the "mild, unoffending, and

peaceful" conduct of the Americans; and, I should hope, that these specimens would have a powerful tendency towards producing a right way of thinking, wit respect to the disposition of the Americans, in every Englishman; the editor of the Morning Chronicle solely excepted. In the month of September last, a mutiny took place on board the English frigate, the JASON, Capt. Cochrane, then being in the harbour of New York. The principal mutineers were tried, at Halifax, on the 27th of that month, and two of them were ex→ ecuted, according to their sentence. I will first give an account of what theu took place, as published in the Halifax paper of the 13th of October." Yesterday morning at 8 o'clock, William Caton and Mounsey Tinning, two of the unfor tunate men, who were sentenced to death

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on the 27th ult. for Mutiny on board of "His Majesty's frigate Jason, were execut"ed at the fore-yard arm of that ship.

Campbell, Bone, Brown and Denen, "alias Matthews, then also sentenced to "death, were respited after they had as"cended the platform.-As a justification "of their conduct, these men had agreed "together to persist in a charge of cruelty "against their officers, under the idea that "such a conduct, would excite so compassionate an interest in their favor, as would