The Editor to his Young Readers. MY BELOVED YOUNG FRIENDS, Permitted, by Divine favour, to complete another Volume of this Publication, I have now to inform you of a new arrangement with regard to its appearance. Many of you are no doubt aware that beside this magazine, I am the Editor of two other, the CHILDREN'S MAGAZINE at One Penny, and the LITTLE CHILD'S at One Halfpenny; and this has sometimes led to mistakes in giving orders for them. The repeal of the Paper Tax during the present year has led me to consider the propriety of making some alteration; and after much anxious thought, I have concluded on enlarging the "CHILDREN'S" and the LITTLE CHILD'S, and of publishing the BAPTIST YOUTH's in connection with the BAPTIST REPORTER. This number completes the Thirty-seventh Volume of this Magazine for the young; and at the same time the Thirty-fifth Volume of the Reporter is also completed. The Reporter contains every month a large amount of baptist intelligence, with numerous reports of public baptisms. It will now be enlarged by the addition of the Baptist Youth's. Its title, in future will therefore be, the BAPTIST REPORTER AND YOUTH'S MAGAZINE. In making this new arrangement we hope we shall not part company, but that our acquaintance will be renewed and enlarged either by means of the Reporter or the Children's Magazine. The elder of our young readers will, we believe, give a decided preference to the Reporter because of the impartial information it furnishes of the proceedings of the baptists-both General and Particular at home and abroad; and the younger part of them will find that the Children's Magazine, for variety, pictorial illus trations, and cheapness, is not surpassed by any similar publication. We assure you that, as heretofore for so many years, our best efforts and our ripest experience shall be devoted to your service. New Race of Men in South America 154 The Ever-sounding Sea The Tiger and the Bantam Pullet.. 154"Again they said, Alleluia" .. 145 Over the River THE SLAVERY OF GREECE, ROME, AND AMERICA. SLAVERY is the curse of humanity, the blight of civilization, and, as John Wesley said, "the sum of all villanies." In the United States of America, there are, it is computed, at this time, FoUR MILLIONS OF SLAVES. There, in the Southern States, it has reached the climax of human wickedness, for its enormities are sanctioned by law. England had once 800,000 slaves in the West Indies; but when the baptist missionaries went, and saw their sorrows, they joined with others in exposing the horrid system, and the noble-minded WILLIAM KNIBB rested not until England had paid twenty millions of money for their emancipation. England has now no slaves. Right-minded people in the United States are now trying to follow England's example. They have just elected an Anti-slavery President. From an American baptist newspaper we give the extracts which follow; on perusing which our young friends will see how slavery has cursed the world, and learn to hold it in utter detestation. "The population of that part of ancient GREECE called Attica, was reckoned at 500,000. Of that about 365,000 were slaves, including women and children, thus making the proportion of the slave to the free population nearly as four to one. These slaves were not generally negroes, or blacks, but where as white as the Athenians themselves. Multitudes of them were Greeks, and these not unfrequently of the more cultivated class. Slaves were procured in several ways. Some, being poor, and perhaps deeply in debt, went into voluntary servitude as a means of subsistence. Others, especially persons of a high birth, were stolen and sold to the traders at a very high price. Plato and Diogenes were thus at one time sold as slaves. Offenders against the laws were often sentenced to slavery. Bion, the philosopher, with all his family, was sold into bondage for a violation of some custom-house regulations. But, more than all, slaves were obtained by the chances of war, which was often waged for the express purpose of obtaining captives, both male and female. Thus Homer says, in the Iliad: These are the evils that follow the capture of a town; the men are killed, the city is burned to the ground, the women and children of all ranks are carried off for slaves.' The treatment of slaves in Greece was extremely cruel. They were beaten with rods and scourges for the most trivial offences; it was even customary to flog them once a year, for no offence, just to remind them of their degradation. They were branded with a hot iron, usually in the forehead, so deep as to leave a distinct impression of certain letters. For offensive words they often had their tongues cut out. For theft or desertion they were racked on the wheel, and frequently tortured to death. They were made to serve in wars, and sometimes they were faithful, but their vast number made them dangerous to the State. They frequently made insurrection, overwhelmed their oppressors, and for long periods maintained the ascendency. Vast numbers of slaves were employed in the mines, and those who perished in those dismal recesses might be reckoned by millions. ROMAN slavery presented, if possible, even darker features. At the time of Christ, and for a century or two after, Italy contained a population of about 28,000,000. Of these more than 20,000,000 were slaves, making about three slaves to one free man. They were obtained, as in Greece, by war, by commerce, by the operation of law against criminals, and by birth, it being a Roman law that the children of a slave mother should be slaves. After the conquest of Samnium, 36,000 persons were sold. Emilius Paulus sold into slavery at one time 150,000 people, called Epirotes, and 50,000 captives were at another time sent home from Carthage. During the Syrian, Macedonian, Grecian, and Spanish wars, a prodigious number of captives were sent to Rome and reduced to slavery. Besides all this, a slave trade was regularly carried on in the EastThrace and Sarmatia being the Guinea coast of the Romans. Strabo tells us that at Delos, the great mart of this trade, 10,000 slaves were sold in open market in one day. Cæsar, in his Gallic wars, is estimated to have taken more than 400,000 prisoners, who were held in servitude. In a country where slaves were reckoned by millions, individuals would of course own a large number. From one to five hundred was a common number, and some persons had 2000, and even 3000 slaves. The condition of slaves under Roman law was one of awful cruelty and suffering. The lash and rod were in constant use, and on the most trivial occasions. If a slave spoke or coughed at a forbidden time, he was flogged by a very severe master. The toilet of a lady of fashion was a terrible ordeal for a slave. A stray curl was an unpardonable offence, and the slave's back was gored for the faults of the mirror. Thongs loaded with lead, and chains with weights of bronze or tin at the end, were common instruments of correction, as were also vine sprouts, lyre strings and forceps. Cruel masters often hired torturers by profession, and kept them in their establishments, and many horrible torments were inflicted by them, such as dislocation upon the wheel, and the destruction of noses, ears, eyes, and teeth. Crucifixion was frequently made the fate of a slave for trifling misconduct, or from mere caprice, and thousands were thrown from the Capitoline rock. Cato, the censor, used to seize a thong after supper, and flog such as he thought had not attended properly, or had dressed any dish ill. The life of a slave was entirely in the power of his master, and the murder of slaves, by torture or otherwise, was not punished by the laws till about the time of Constantine. It was a question put for disputation, whether, to lighten a ship in a storm, one should throw over |