the bond, arises from this-the most favoured of the slaves are compared with the most wretched of the free; the comforts of the one are contrasted with the cares of the other. But by this mode of reasoning, the happiest condition of man may be sunk, in estimation, below the most miserable; for the brightest has its shadows, and the gloomiest its intervals of sunshine.

The white inhabitants of the United States, compared with the roving tenants of southern Africa, must be admitted to stand many degrees higher in the scale of moral and intellectual refinement; yet who would hazard the assertion, that none could be found among us inferior to the brightest and best of the Hottentots?

That every state in which slavery predominates, will be retarded by it in the carcer of improvemement, is a truth too fully established by experience to be longer denied; and yet, strange as it may seem, we find those who are weighed down by its pressure cling to this scourge of nations, as to one of their most indispensable privileges. It is of no inportance to the philanthropist who suffers most by this iron system, the master or the slave. It is enough that it is deleterious to both. But probably very few disinterested observers will admit, that the masters are borne down and impoverished by this system, while the slaves themselves are maintained in possession of all the substantial comforts of life. It is the labour of the slaves, not of the masters, that supplies the substantial comforts of both; and we may rest assured, that unless the system has strangely altered the nature of man, the masters will have their share of the common stock.

Ir is a remark which is too old to surprise by its novelty, but not so antiquated as to be unworthy of remembrance, that those who would effectually promote the reformation of society must begin with the youth. If the morning of life is permitted to pass away unimproved, the habits, of thought and action, formed during that interesting period, must present a very stubborn barrier to advancement in usefulness and virtue during the subsequent stages.

Tacitus, that eminent master of life and manners, attributes the virtues of the ancient Romans to the care that was bestowed upon the youth. To cultivate the infant mind, was then the glory of the female character. Women, of the most illustrious families, superintended the education of their offspring. In all ages and countries, the character of the population must greatly depend upon maternal care. Never, says an able writer, was a great man known to be the son of a silly woman, and seldom, he might have added, of a careless one.

The philanthropic Benezet did not overlook the importance of education, in his efforts to meliorate the condition of the coloured race. The school to which he devoted so many years of his useful life, and to which he appropriated the principal part of his posthumous estate, is a lasting memorial of his solicitude for the welfare of this

28.

*Dialogue concerning Oratory, sect.

neglected class, and of his opinions respecting the means of promoting that welfare.

There is still a portion of the coloured race, who are peculiarly exposed to the evils of neglected education and familiarity with vicious example. Those who lose their parents during the dependent period of infancy, even if left in possession of wealth, and surrounded with family connections fully competent to provide for all their physical wants, are justly considered as objects of commiseration. With us the name of an orphan, like that of a stranger among the Greeks, is at once a passport to sympathy. But how seldom are our warmest sympathies awakened in behalf of those who appear destined to move in a sphere widely different from our own. The coloured child, whom nature or oppression has deprived of its natural protectors, is not unfrequently left to work its way through the world with little of that sympathetic care which we accord to those of our own complexion. But this destitute class has recently engaged the sympathy, and awakened the exertions of a part of our population. A number of unassuming females, chiefly, if not exclusively, members of the religious society of friends, have associated for the purpose of providing a "shelter for coloured orphans," from the merciless blast of moral and physical ills.

This interesting association, during the five years which have elapsed since its formation, has kept the noiseless tenor of its way, amidst difficulty and discouragements, that might have checked a hardier band. Intent on the accomplishment of their benevolent designs, and with slender funds, collected chiefly by their own exerVol. I.-43

tions, these maternal philanthropists have brought into successful operation a system worthy of imitation, and deserving of extensive patronage. The enteprise merits a more specific description.

The plan appears to have originated about the year 1814, with a pious woman,* who is since removed beyond the reach of censure or applause. She at that time communicated her prospect to some others of her sex, and made some efforts towards the promotion of an establishment for the reception of the class of orphans above described; but not finding her philanthropic designs sufficiently encouraged, the prospect was suspended for a time.

The solicitude for the objects of her meditated bounty, does not appear to have been relinquished. About the year 1820, she was conversing with a female friend respecting the probable issue of a disease which appeared to have fixed upon her frame, and which soon afterwards consigned her to the house appointed for all living, when this subject was brought into view. The friend expressing a belief, that in case her own life was spared, the work would be attempted, the former immediately made a small appropriation to be applied in aid of the institution, in case it should be formed within a limited time after her decease.

In the first month of 1822, a more effectual effort was made, to form an establishment for the purpose originally contemplated. About twentyt female friends, having convened to deliberate on the subject, agreed to attempt an establishment, on a scale

*The late Ann Yarnall.

†That number has been increased at several times since the first meeting, and the association consists at present of about thirty-five members.

adapted to the smallness of the number likely to be at first entrusted to their care. Measures were adopted in that and the succeeding month, for the regular organization of the company; for the collection of funds to meet the necessary disbursements; for obtaining || suitable persons to take the immediate charge of the orphans; and for bringing within the reach of their bounty, such children as were the proper objects of it.

The design was to accept of coloured orphans, between eighteen months and eight years of age; to provide for their education and support during their continuance in the shelter; and at proper ages, to bind them out, with suitable masters and mistresses, where they might receive the needful preparation to provide for themselves. It was soon discovered that children, of the description to be provided for, were sometimes withheld from partaking of their bounty, by the fears and jealousies of connections. Those who were very ill qualified to provide for the moral or physical wants of their orphan relatives, were not always willing to entrust their helpless charge to strangers, whose motives of action they were unable to appreciate. From this cause, combined perhaps with some others, the association were left to begin their operations with a solitary incumbent.

A coloured man and his wife, of respectable character, were engaged to take charge, under the direction of a committee of the association, of the orphans who might be admitted into the shelter. The house in which they resided was fitted up for the purpose, and furnished with the needful accommodations. The first orphan was admitted into the shelter, on the 7th of

3d month, 1822. But this incipient institution was soon deprived of the services of the matron whom they had engaged. Humble as was her station in life, and short the period assigned to her services in this concern, her sudden decease made a very sensible impression on the minds of her employers. In their notice of the event, they have given a very short but expressive testimony to the worth of Rosanna Jackson.

In the fourth month a constitution was adopted, the preamble to which is given, as illustrative of the feelings by which the promoters of this institution were actuated.

“If any apology be necessary for introducing to the notice of the humane this obscure class of dependents upon public bounty, we trust that apology may be founded upon a sense of justice due to a people who have endured the oppressive burden of slavery for many generations, sustaining, in the estimate of public opinion, the odium of a characteristic deficiency of mental capacity, and practical default of moral principle: the unhappy result of the combined influence of long continued ignorance, poverty, neglect, and evil example.

"The ruling motive of the association is to provide a place of refuge for such of the offspring of this people, who, being orphans, have a double claim upon charitable munificence; a claim which must be allowed in itself to be equally valid from whatever cause they are deprived of parental protection; whether their natural guardians have been removed by the inevitable stroke of death, or in the more deplorable event which sometimes occurs, that the bonds of affection are violated, and parents severed from their children by

the relentless hand of avarice and cruelty."

In the tenth month, the association, having a prospect of several additional incumbents, removed their furniture to a house in Noble street, which they rented for the purpose, at ninety dollars a year; and settled a family there, ready for the reception of such coloured orphans as might be entrusted to their direction and care. Written rules were provided for the government of the family, in which strict attention was enjoined to the physical comfort of the children; and care to establish regular moral habits.

The proceedings of this association, in the organization and subsequent management of this interesting institution, evince a degree of devotion to the cause in which they were engaged, and of judgment to conduct the concern with propriety, highly deserving of the confidence and support of the wealthy and humane.

In the eighth month, 1824, a new location of the shelter was effected. The family was removed to No. 166, Cherry street, where it still continues.

From the account of receipts and expenditures, which are exhibited in the annual statement of the treasurer's account, it is easily inferred that the funds have been well economised; yet the unavoidable disbursements still press hard upon the means of supply. The attention of the public has been more than once called to the subject, by notices in the periodicals of the day. A few legacies have fallen to the association, but the funds are principally composed of donations, and annual subscriptions.

In the spring of 1825, a donation of one hundred dollars was made to the association, by a society of coloured

women,

who had united for the purpose of affording assistance to the sick of their own colour; and at one time contemplated an extension of their plan, so as to include the objects embraced by our female friends. Their donation was vested in a city water loan, on which interest is receivable at six per cent. This is designed as the beginning of a fund for the purchase of a permanent location for the shelter.

It is very desirable that an enterprise of so noble a character, so well calculated, not only to promote the improvement of an oppressed and degraded race, but to diminish the future expenses of government, should be placed beyond the reach of pecuniary embarrassment. The very class whom these benevolent females are endeavouring to mould into useful members of society, are the children, with whom, if they continue to be neglected, we may reasonably expect, at a future day, our jails and penitentiaries to be crowded. If society can be secured, by the education of our youth, from the depredations of lawless and untutored manhood, certainly policy, no less than humanity, dictates the course to be pursued. If any of those who are entrusted with an abundance of wealth should feel disposed, in making their final arrangements, to remember the shelter, their posthumous liberality may probably be a blessing for ages to come, and can scarcely, within the reach of possibility, be productive of harm.

REVIEW OF BARCLAY.

(Continued from page 248.)

In a preceding number I gave an analysis of the new slave law of the Bahamas, as a specimen of the kind of feeling which animates the West Indian

legislatures, in regard to the melioration of their servile codes. As negro slavery, whether located on a British island or in the bosom of a republic, has certain invariable lineaments, the portrait may probably not be totally destitute of interest to the readers of this journal. We find, indeed, in the legislative enactments thus far examined, little appearance of those benevolent feelings towards the slaves, which the statements of our author would lead us to expect. The same subject will now be further pursued.

In the island of Barbadoes, the reformation of the slave laws was brought before the legislative assembly, in consequence of the recommendations of the mother country; but the spirit which was manifested in the opening of the question, sufficiently evinced the aversion of that body to the adoption of any real improvements in the legal condition of the slaves. The mover of the question seems to have been too indignant towards the authors of the measures at home, which had driven the colonial assemblies to the discussion of this unpopular subject, to confine himself to the merits of the question, or the proper means of attaining the object in view. He pronounced a most violent philippic against the abolitionists, denouncing them and their motives in terms quite too harsh and repulsive for parliamentary usage. The attempt of the mother country to procure, even by the instrumentality of the colonial legislatures themselves, a legal recognition of the rights which we might suppose, from our author's representations, were generally admitted in practice, appears to have been thought sufficient to rouse at once all the indignation of the Barbadian proprietors.

Two sessions were permitted to pass away, without effecting any thing in this momentous business. For when the assembly produced to the council their meliorating law, it appeared so defective in its provisions for the protection of the slaves, that they refused their sanction; probably supposing such an exhibition of improved legislation, more likely to produce an unfavourable impression in the mother country, than the delay resulting from discordant opinions and protracted discussion.

The points at issue were the following; and they certainly furnish a curious specimen of legislative humanity. Whether persons not proved to be slaves, shall or shall not enjoy the privileges of freemen; whether the punishment to be inflicted by the master on the slave should be subject to limitation, or left discretional; whether the mere attempt, on the part of a slave, to strike a white person, should be held a justification, if that white person should kill the slave in return; whether a slave making unfounded complaints against his master, shall be punished with greater or with less severity; whether the instrument for compelling the labour of slaves should be a whip or a cat-o'-nine tails; whether any free white, free coloured, or free black persons, who shall be guilty of intermarrying with slaves, should be subjected to the ignominy of having the evidence of slaves generally admitted against them; whether Sunday markets shall be abolished; whether the heavy fine of £50 on each act of manumission shall be continued.*

*Second report of the committee for the gradual abolition of slavery. London, 1825. Page 8-11.