index and middle finger of the right band are straddled over the left index finger, representing the rider and the horse; these are then jolted forward to represent the trotting motion of the horse." qua Be quiet, or be not alarmed, or have patience. The palm of the hand is held towards the person.' 106Fish. Hold the upper edge of the hand horizontally, and agi tate it in the manner of a fan, but more rapidly, in imitation of the motion of the tail of the fish.' 90 Fool. The finger is pointed to the forehead, and the hand is then held vertically above the head, and rotated on the wrist two or three times.'nd « ‹ Snake.—The fore-finger is extended horizontally and passed along forward in a serpentine line. This is also used to indicate the Snake nation of Indians - vej Editor of the Christian Observer. pujshireh prito rotacia (T » To the last Number of your work, page 502, a circumstance is by mistake attributed to the late Lord Byron which does not belong to him and whieh, therefore, no lover of truth would desire to add to the already too awful list of delinquen-* cies which cannot be detached from the name of that unhappy man. Some relater of the anecdote has (in all probability unconsciously) transferred to Lord Byron that which referred to a friend and associate of his; who was greatly indeed his inferior in genius and intellectual qualities, but, it is to be feared, of congenial opinions and moral dispositions. 1 In July 1816, an English party visited the mountains and glaciers around the mighty Mont Blanc. In several of the albums or registers ať the hotels, they had the pain of reading the autograph of Percy Bysshe Shelley, with the uniform appendix of impious sentiments expressed in studious boldness of phrase, sometimes in dogmatical brevity, and sometimes with declamatory affectation. Some of these, so far as I can recollect, were in French, and others in English. In one of the books, and I think it was that in the Hôtel d'Angleterre at Chamouni, Mr. Shelley had annexed to his name, και άθεος. The Indian sign for a squaw is natural, but would not answer for adnμokparikos, pixavopw#oratos," universal sign for a woman it is, however, applicable to the general habits of the natives west of the Mississippi. « Square. The hands are passed from the top down each side of the head, indicating the parting of the hair on the top, and its flowing down each sidejoitti gullarni qa In the two excellent volumes of travels, entitled, Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains,' compiled by Dr. Edwin James, one of the party, is found as collection of $50 or more words defined ɔby signs, as used by the Indianstis. 183b Immediately under this horrid Though I have no memorandumTM of these inscriptions, and am writing! from recollection, I have the im pression on my memory so strongly fixed as to be persuaded that there is no material error. It can scarcely be necessary to say, that the allu¶® sion in the reply is to Psalm kive The fool hath said in his heart! there is no God." gidin is Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. OBSERVING that many clergyman never wear their university hoods, I think it may not be improper to direct their attention to the 58th canon; which ordains, that " every minister saying the public prayers, or ministering the sacraments, or other rites of the church, shall wear a decent and comely surplice with sleeves, to be provided at the charge of the parish. Furthermore, such ministers as are graduates shall wear upon their surplices, at such times, such hoods as by the orders of the universities are agreeable to their degrees." And in the 17th canon it is enjoined, that "such as are graduates shall agreeably wear with their surplices such hoods as do severally appertain unto their degrees." It appears to me that every graduated clergyman who does not wear his hood, may with equal consistency lay aside his surplice, as the canon makes no distinction in favour of the one above the other. most negligent observer of esta It will not surely be urged by the blished forms or formularies, that an exact conformity to the letter of the law can in the present case be attended with any inconvenience. I hope therefore that those graduated clergymen who have hitherto shewn so little inclination to display the badges of their relationship to their "alma mater," will in future appear in their proper habiliments. It can only be negligence that prevents it; for no clergyman surely in scruple of the old Nonconformists. the present age is actuated by the "Non hic placet mihi ornatus." T. N. P. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 1. The House of Bondage, a Dissertation upon the Nature of Service or Slavery under the Levitical Law among the Hebrews in the Earliest Ages, and in the Gentile World, until the Coming of Christ; the Import of the Words expressive of Service or Slavery in the Holy Scriptures, with Reflections on the Change which Christianity has made, and continues to make, in the Condition of that Class of People who are Servants. By the Rev. B. BAILEY, A. M. Curate of Burton-upon-Trent, and Domestic Chaplain to the Right Hon. Lord Torphichen. London: Rivingtons. 1824. pp. 74. 2s. 9 nited range compels us to pass over many of these works, and to take a single pamphlet on each side as a specimen of the controversy oa Whatever on the subject but as the the present disqussion within Yery advocates for slavery are forever pressing the point, as an excellent argumentum ad hominem to the saints,with just about as much reason as they might bring forward the extermination of the Canaanites to sanction the French massacres in St. Domingo); and as some une reflecting persons may possibly be swayed by this absurd argument; of others may affect to bebsd, in order to gloss over their own indif ference or hostility to the cause of emancipation; we think it right to devotes a few pages to the subject. Thela adroitly theological bearing which the question is made to as vane seems indeed almost to force its upon our notice as Christian Observers. 13gong rod a *t9》 91The first pamphlet before us, we grieve to say, is from the pen of a British clergymana defender of West-India slavery. But our readers shall judge of his publication for themselves; and this they will be fully able to do from the notice which we are about to give of it. Our notice will be more particular than the pamphlet itself deserves, for the answers which we shall P The other source to which we have alluded, as supplying us with. aid on this occasion, is a work published in 1769, entitled, Causi derations on the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, upon Grounds of natural, religious, and political Duty. Our attention was directed to this publication, in consequénée of its having been recently acknow fedged by the venerable Bishop of St. David's, in a list which his lordship has lately published of his works, amounting to nearly one hundred in number. After some research, we have obtained the sight of a copy of this treatise, which, though published five-andthirty years ago, is so powerfully applicable to the existing circum 'stances of the slavery question, that we think we shall serve the cause of truth and humanity, by conveying to our readers an outline of its valuable contents. The arguments of Mr. Bailey are answered in it by the most triumphant anticipation, sake of the a from the other and often with so remarkable a coappend to it," partly incidence of language, in quoting the objections of the advocates of slavery, that we should suspect that Mr. Bailey had borrowed his argu pamphlet under review, and partly from another and most interesting sources Our town opinions are too -well known to render it necessary that they should be very largely ex-ments from the forgotten and obsopressed on the present occasion; lete work, by a Mr. Harris, to which sand we are not reluctant to avail the Bishop's treatise is an answer. ourselves of the armour of our col- We will present our readers, in leagues in this warfare to serve and passing, with a single illustration engthen the common cause. It of this coincidence. The rela-ibut justice, however, to other tive duties," says Mr. Bailey, "of authors to add that the theological master and servant (meaning slave) -part of the question has been touch-are founded upon this religious prinedapons with convincing effect in sciple, namely, the principle of various other recent publications: being "servants of Christ. Mr. among which we may mention a Harris also had, it seems, talked Isermons by the Revs J. K. Hall; very gravely, like Mr. Bailey, of -anothertoby otheq Rev. R. Watson, iffthe relative duties of master and reviewed in our last Numbers; and slave." But what says the Bishop othes Observations of Ra Lindo, of St David's of these reciprocal aMu Di setting forth that to hold duties? Reciprocal duties" he ashuptihciples of slaverysisuto téhy exclaims, with indignation ReChrist." But our wish to confine ciprocal duties! www. To have an adeCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 274. 4 M quate sense of the propriety of these terms, we must forget the humane provisions of the Hebrew law, as well as the liberal indulgence of Roman slavery, and think only of WEST-INDIA SLAVERY! of unlimited, uncompensated, brutal slavery, and then judge what reciprocity there can be between absolute authority and absolute subjection; and how the Divine rule of Christian charity can be said to enforce the reciprocal duties of the WestIndia slave and his master. Reciprocity is inconsistent with every degree of real slavery." "Slavery cannot be called one of the species of civil subordination. A slave is a non-entity in civil society." "Law and slavery are contradictory terms.". But let us begin with the beginning. Mr. Bailey gives us a motto from Juvenal, which we might perhaps freely translate, "There are few men who, like Mr. Bailey, have the sagacity to discover the luxuries of slavery:" Omnibus in terris——— pauci dignoscere possunt Vera bona, atque illis multum diversa, remotâ. Erroris nebulâ, The Bishop too has some mottos, with which we shall indulge Mr. Bailey in return for the one just transcribed. Mr. Bailey is an advocate for expediency: he dreads "peril to the colonies," and so forth. Now the Bishop has in his title-page two mottos on expediency, which, though taken from a heathen (Cicero de Officiis), would well become the pages of a Christian divine: " Utilitatis specie in republicâ sæpissime peccatur. Nihil quod crudele utile est ;" and, again, "Si enim cogitans est istud quidem honestum verum hoc expedit, res a naturâ copulatas audebit errore divellere; qui fons est fraudium, male ficiorum, scelerum omnium." any apologist of slavery doubt the honesty of our quotations, he may refer to a copy of the Bishop's treatise which is happily preserved in If the British Museum. The volume of tracts which contains it is lettered, " Political Tracts from 1780 to 1799." But we have not done with the Bishop's mottos; for he has still a third, which we recommend for. adoption both to the friends and to the despisers or calumniators of the poor slaves. The former might aptly prefix it as the heading of all their benevolent anti-slavery transactions. "Servi sunt? imo homines. Servi? imo contubernales. Servi sunt? imo humiles amici. Servi sunt? imo conservi, si cogitaveris tantundem in utrosque licere fortunæ." (Seneca. Epist. 47.) This is truly scriptural and Christian doctrine, though in the mouth of a heathen philosopher." The Bishop's treatise appears deserving of being recalled to notice at the present moment, were it for no other reason, yet for this, that it clearly proves what was the opinion, and what were the feelings, of wise and honest and well-judging men from the commencement of the slave-trade contest. We admit, indeed, that some of the Abolitionists might, in a judgment of charity, have hoped for too much from the spontaneous exertions of the slaveholders: they judged also, that, provided a total stop could be put to the trade, illicit as well as legal, the master must, for his own interest, ameliorate the condition of his slaves; and these concessions have since been made use of against the Abolitionists, as if, provided they could gain the abolition, they had pledged themselves to pursue their object no further. Even had they done so, we do not think that the present generation would be bound to stop in the course of humanity, because their predecessors had hoped that the goal was already attained. But the Bishop of St. David's treatise is one among many proofs that the Abolitionists from the first contemplated the amelioration and ultimate extinction of slavery itself, to which they naturally ex pected that the suppression of the "All the laws hitherto made have produced little or no benefit to the slaves. But there are many reasons why it is very improbable that such provisions should produce any effec tual benefit. The power which is exercised over the slaves, and the severe coercion necessary to keep an immense superiority of numbers in absolute obedience to a few, and restrain them from insurrection. are incompatible with justice or humanity, and are obnoxious to abuses which no legal regulations can counteract. The power which a West-Indian master has over his slaves, it is impossible for the generality of masters or managers not to abuse. It is too great to be intrusted in the hands of men subject to human passions and infirmities. The best principles and most generous natures are perverted by the influence of passion and habit *." If these arguments of The poet Cowper seems to have entertained much the same opinion as the Bishop of St. David's; for in one of his lately published Letters, dated April 1788, we find him saying: "Laws will, I suppose, be enacted for the more humane treatment of the Negroes; but who shall see to the execution of them? The planters will not, and the Negroes cannot. In fact, we know, that laws of this tendency of have not been wanting, enacted even amongst themselves; but there has been always a want of prosecutors, or righteous judges, deficiencies which will not be very easily supplied. The newspapers have lately told us, that these merciful masters have, on this occasion, been oeeupied in passing ordinances, by which the lives and limbs of their slaves are to be secured from wanton cruelty hereafter. But who does not immediately detect the artifice, or can give them a moment's credit for any thing more than a design, by this show of lenity, to avert the storm which they think hangs over them. On the whole, I fear there is reason to wish, for the honour of England, that the nuisance The Bishop proceeds to shew why, in his opinion, mere laws, enjoining the planters to improve the condition of their slaves, can produce no effectual benefit while the slaves remain in their servile state. had never been troubled; lest we eventually make ourselves justly chargeable, with the whole offence by not removing. it. The enormity cannot be palliated: we can no longer plead that we were not aware of it, or that our attention was otherwise engaged; and shall be inex |