Chapter 7.-Marriages of Slaves. THE masters of slaves must not allow the unlawful intercourse of the two sexes, but must encourage matrimony. Neither must he hinder them from marrying with slaves of other masters; in which case, if the estates were distant from one another, so that the new married couple cannot fulfil the object of marriage, the wife shall follow her husband, whose master shall buy her at a fair valuation, set upon her by skilful men, who shall be nominated by the two parties; and in case or disagreement, a third shall be appointed by the justice to fix a price. If the master of the husband does not agree to the purchase, the master of the wife shall have the same faculty. Chapter 8.-Obligations and Punishment of Slaves. As masters of slaves are obliged to maintain them, to educate and to employ them in useful work proportioned to their strength, age and sex, without forsak ing their children and those who are old and sickly; so, on the other hand, there is an obligation on slaves to obey and respect their masters and the stewards, to perform the work which is given them to do, conformable to their strength, and to venerate them as heads of the family. Thus he who will not fulfil any of those obligations must be punished, either by the master of the estate or by his steward, according to the nature of his offence, with prison, chains or lashes, which must not exceed the number of twenty-five, and those must be given them in such a manner as not to cause any contusion or effusion of blood; which punishments cannot be imposed on slaves but by their masters or the stewards. Chapter 9. Of the Imposition of greater Punishments. WHEN slaves commit crimes against their masters, mistress, the children, stewards, or any other person, which require greater punishments than those mentioned in the before-going chapter, the master, his steward, or any one else who was present when the offence was committed, shall secure the delinquent, and inform the justice of it, that in the audience of the slave's master and of the attorney who defends the cause of the former, a law-suit may be commenced against him, and a punishment imposed upon him according to the importance and circumstances of the offence; observing, in every thing, what is ordered by the laws with respect to the causes of other delinquents in general. And if the slave be sentenced to pay one third of the charges of the law-suit, his master shall be responsible for it, besides the corporal punishment, which, according to the importance of the crime, the delinquent shall suffer, after having been approved of by the audience of the district, whether it be death or mutilation of members. Chapter 10.-Defects or Excess of their Masters and their Stewards. THE master, or his steward, who does not fulfil what is ordered in the beforegoing chapters, with respect to the education, aliments, clothes, diversions, habitations, &c. of slaves, or who should forsake their children, and those that are old and sickly, shall be fined fifty dollars for the first time, one hundred for the second, and two hundred for the third; and those fines shall be paid by the master even in the case that the fault had been committed by his steward only, if the latter were not able to pay it, one third of which belongs to the informer, another to the judge, and the other is to be put into the fine chest, which will be treated of afterwards: and in case the before-mentioned fines should not produce the desired effect, and they should commit the same fault again, other greater punishments shall be inflicted upon them, as disobedient to My Royal orders; and as soon as I am informed of their disobedience, I shall take my measures accordingly. When their masters or their stewards are guilty of excess in punishing the slaves, causing them contusion, effusion of blood or mutilation of members, besides paying the before-mentioned fines, they shall be prosecuted as criminals, and have a punishment inflicted upon them according to the crime which they had committed, and the slave shall be confiscated and sold to another master, if he is able to work, putting the amount of him into the fine chest; and if he cannot be sold on account of being unable to work, he shall not be restored to his master, who shall be obliged to allow him a daily sum, which shall be fixed upon by the justice, for his maintenance and clothes during the remainder of his life, paying it every three months in advance. Chapter 11. Of those who injure Slaves. As masters and stewards can only alone chastise slaves with that moderation which is required, no other person, who is not their master, or his steward, shall injure, chastise, wound or kill them, without incurring the punishment enacted by the laws against those who commit the like excesses towards free people; and the master of the slave who has been injured, chastised or killed, shall commence a law-suit against the criminal, and the attorney, as protector of slaves, shall defend his cause. Chapter 12.-List of Slaves. THE master of slaves shall be obliged every year to deliver in to the justice of the town or village, in the district of which their estates are situated, a list signed and sworn to by them, of all the slaves which they have, with distinction of sexes and ages, in order that the notary of the town-house may take account of them in a separate book which is to be kept for this purpose, at the said town-house, together with the list presented by the master, who, whenever any of his slaves die or absent themselves from his estate, must inform the justice of it, within the term of three days, that by order of the attorney-general it may be noted in the book, in order to avoid all suspicion of having been killed; and if the master does not fulfil this, he shall be obliged fully to prove either the absence of the slave or his natural death, for on the contrary, a law-suit will be commenced against him. Chapter 13.-Method of investigating the Excesses of Masters or Stewards. THE distance of some estates from the towns; the inconvenience which would result from permitting slaves to go out without an order from their master, under the pretext of complaining; and the just regulations of the law, which orders that no fugitive slave shall be assisted, protected or concealed; require that means be facilitated which are proportioned to all those circumstances, in order that it may be known how they are treated by their masters; and one of those is, that the priests who go to the estates to explain to them the christian doctrine and to say mass, do obtain information from the said slaves how they are treated by their masters and the stewards, and if every thing be observed which is ordered in the beforegoing chapters, in order that they may give a secret and reserved notice of it to the attorney-general, and that he may cause it to be investigated, whether the masters or their stewards are wanting in the whole or in part to their respective obligations; and the said priests, who, by reason of their ministry, do give the said secret notice, shall not be answerable for any thing, even if supposing that the complaints of the slaves were not just; for this notice is only given to the attorney-general that he may demand from the justice to nominate an individual of the town-house, or another person of approved conduct, who is to investigate the business, and to form the first proceeding, which he is to deliver in to the justice, who shall pursue the proceedings and determine the cause according to the law, giving information of it to the audience of the district, and admitting of appeals in all such cases as they are authorized by the laws. Besides those means, it will be necessary that people of good characters and conduct be appointed by the justices and magistrates to visit the estates three times a year, and to make enquiry whether every thing be observed which is ordered in the foregoing chapters, informing the said justices of it, who must apply the remedy; and it is likewise declared to be a popular action, that of informing against a master or his steward for not having fulfilled one or the whole of the said chapters, as the name of the informer shall not be made known, and he shall have the part of the fine which he is entitled to, without being responsible in any other case than in that where it is proved that the information is false. And lastly, it is likewise declared, that the justices and attorney-general, as protectors of slaves, will be made answerable for any neglect of theirs in not having made use of the necessary means to have My Royal resolutions put into execution. Chapter 14.-Chest of Fines. In the towns and villages where the before-mentioned regulations are to be formed, and where the courts of justice are, a chest with three keys shall be made and kept in the town-house, one of which keys shall be delivered to the justice of the peace, another to the governor, and the third to the attorney-general, in order to keep in the said chest the produce of the fines which are to be laid on those who do not fulfil My Royal orders; and the said produce shall be employed in the necessary means of making them to be observed, neither can there be a single maravedis taken out of it for any other purpose, without an order signed by the three who keep the keys, expressing its destination, and they shall remain responsible, and under the obligation of restoring what has been spent or employed to other purposes, for fear, that for those reasons, or for others, their accounts, which must be remitted every year to the intendant of the province, together with the attestation of the produce of fines, may not be approved of by bim. In order that all the Rules prescribed in the before-going Chapters may be fulfilled, I annul every law, royal order and custom, which are opposed to them; and I command My Supreme Council of the Indies, Viceroys, Presidents, Audiences, Governors, Intendants, Justices, Ministers, &c. that they fulfil and cause to be executed, whatever is decreed in this My Royal order; for this is My will. Published at Aranjuez, Report upon the charitable and benevolent Institutions in the United States of America. Read at a Public Sitting of the Academy of Marseils, August 28, 1808, by Dr. Louis Valentine. IN the two preceding fragments, I have sketched the state and progress of the natural and physical sciences in the United States of America. I shall now have the honour to address you on the subject of the prisons and hospitals, and the state of the poor of that country, and the hospitality which characterizes its inhabitants. BEGGARS.-Paupers are unknown in North America and almost in every maritime province of the new world. From the establishment of their first colonies in the year 1620, to 1630, the Americans studied the means to prevent mendicity and to stifle this evil in its birth. In proportion as the popu lation increased and the unfortunate emigrants resorted there, it was necessary to find resources, for those who could not ob tain immediate employment, or who were incapable, through age or infirmities, of maintaining themselves by labour. It is not surprizing that beggary should be still less known in the more southern provinces (except in some Spanish possessions in the interior,) and not at all in the Antilles; that affluence which the Europeans who settled there soon diffused, and which has been continually increasing, the facility with which employment of every kind may be obtained, the nature of the climate, which, in nany parts renders the clothing there unnecessary which is indispensable in the North; and in short, that hospitality which characterizes the colonists, are all powerful preventatives against this evil. It is, however, much more difficult to be avoided by the Anglo-Americans, especially in the five States of the North, which are called New England. The severity of the cli mate, the inferiority of the soil, the dearth of resources, and the frequent incursions made by the Indians to recover and keep possession of their native land, cannot fail to create poverty and its attendant evils, as they exist in Europe. The spirit of toleration and philanthropy which has pervaded every religious sect of the American States, since they established their independence; the strict attention paid to the morals of youth, as well as to their agricultural and commercial education; the facility with which the labouring class finds employment, either in tilling the lands in the West, or in erecting buildings; the extreme moderation of the land-tax, and the equal partition of their other taxes, act as general preservatives against mendicity. They cannot, however, always prevent indigence: philanthropic associations and charitable institutions have therefore been formed free of expense to the federal government, for the relief of the widow, the orphan, the sick, the infirm stranger, and those who have suffered shipwreck or lost their property by fire. These benevolent societies are become sufficiently numerous to provide for every want. Every sect, also, furnishes a quota towards the relief of its poor. All large towns, and populous places, have an institution called, alms-house or poor-house, where different work-shops are established. The lightest and easiest employments of the poor, consist in cleaning horse-hair, carding cotton, untwisting old cables, and preparing hemp for the navy. The sick are lodged in a separate apartment. In consequence of these VOL. I. 21 regulations, you do not meet with a single pauper in this part of America: the eye is not disgusted, as in Europe, by the sight of wretched objects, covered with rags, who at every step implore the compassion of the passenger; or by vagabonds, who, under the mask of poverty, audaciously introduce themselves into houses, to abuse the confidence and charity of the benevolent. The peasant and the inhabitant of the city are clothed alike: the dress of all classes is simple, and always neat. Thus the descendants of the English, have in a short space of time, and with fewer resources, done, what their mother country has never been able to effect. They have gone still farther, as we shall find when we speak of the regulations of their prisons. We are not ignorant that there exist numerous beggars in the united kingdoms of Great Britain, yet in addition to the frequent benefactions of individuals, and numerous charitable associations, government has instituted a tax for the poor. The suppression of paupers has long been wished for in France, and to obtain this end not only academies, but seve ral individuals have proposed methods, and presented plans, which appeared to be more or less efficacious. This great object may be effected whenever we please: what citizen would not willingly contribute his aid by paying a small annual sum? Under a vigorous administration like ours, we may hope that the vigilance and active zeal of those intelligent magistrates who govern the various departments, will ere long put an end to this pest, so destructive to society. Some partial attempts have already answered the public wish, and produced salutary effects. Have we not seen Thompson the American, now Count Rumford, contrary to all expectations, banish in twenty-four hours mendicity from Bavaria, and establish in its place useful manufactures. PRISONS. Those acts which do most honour to some of the federal states in America, are, the reform of the penal code; converting prisons into houses of industry; and making culprits useful mechanics, who after having fulfilled the conditions imposed on them, are again admitted into the bosom of society. The state of Pennsylvania first set the example: it was followed by that of New York, and latterly by the states of Virginia and Massachuset. The prison at Philadelphia has been established seventeen years; that of New York, twelve; and experience has crowned both with the greatest success. The Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt, and Mr. Turnbull, who visited the prison at Philadelphia in the years 1795 |