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to L.1500. This applies, with little variation, to the most populous provincial towns. In Scotland, the expenses of the funerals of persons of the middle class vary from L.12 to L.25; taking Glasgow by itself, from L.12 to L.50. This scale of expense seems to arise from the funeral arrangements being left in a great measure to those who have a direct interest in maintaining a system of profuse expenditure.

The desire to procure the usual form of interment has induced the labouring classes to subscribe extensively to what are called Burial Clubs. These are generally got up by an undertaker and a publican, at whose house the club is held. The rules require a certain sum to be paid for drink; and in the East London Burial Society, for instance, the office of undertaker is secured in the family for successive generations. The members are little consulted. The publican is generally made the treasurer, and usually, the money is placed by him in the hands of his brewer, by whom four to five per cent. interest is paid for its use as capital. The premiums paid to these clubs are utterly disproportioned to the respective ages of the parties, and are, besides, continually failing. Insurances on the lives of children are frequently made in five or six clubs; and neglect of children, and even infanticide, have been traced in Manchester and Stockport to the temptation of the burial monies. Such is the danger of disturbing natural responsibilities, and allowing interests to be placed in opposition to moral feelings.

be greatly below the charges usually found in undertakers' bills.

On every moral, religious, and physical ground, it would seem, from the report, that a change is desirable, whether as regards the health of the surviving population, the oppressive charges for interments, or the sacred and solemn respect that should be shown to the remains of the dead. Sir Christopher Wren's plan for the rebuilding of London after the great fire included suburban cemeteries; and it was certainly the practice of the early Christians. 'It were,' concludes the report, a reproach to the country, and its institutions and its government, and to its administrative capacity, to suppose that what is satisfactorily done in the German states, may not, now that attention is directed to the subject, be generally done at least as well and satisfactorily in this country; or that the higher classes would not, in whatever depends on their voluntary aid, exhibit as good and practical example of community of feeling in taking a lead in the adoption of all arrangements tending to the common benefit, as that displayed in the states which have achieved the most satisfactory improvement of the practice of interment by well-appointed officers of public health.'

MRS TOPPER'S LAST CHRISTENING. THE evening before his latest born was to receive its name, Mr Thomas Topper was seated in his splendid drawing-room, enjoying his coffee and his own reflections. Every luxury that money could procure surrounded him. He lounged in a fauteuil of the latest patent, on which the inventor seemed to have exhausted contrivances to produce ease for every limb and comfort in every position. His feet rested on a rampant tiger, worked almost as naturally as life, in Berlin wool, on a hair-stuffed cushion. Above him-to use Mrs Topper's invariable expressions when describ

According to estimates which have been made, the total yearly expenses of funerals in London amount to L.626,604, and for the whole of England and Wales L.4,871,493. Large as these sums are, the interment of the dead is not, generally speaking, either solemn or respectful, at least in crowded cities; nor does it appear practicable to amend the present system, whilst the practice of burial in crowded districts is retained. The religious ceremonies are hurried over, and sometimes ten or fifteen different burial parties are in the churchyard at one and the same time. The service inside the church is often omitted altogether where it is not specially paid for. Such are a few of the chief evils that at present existing the furniture of her house-hung a two-hundred in respect to interments, many of which, it is contended, guinea' chandelier; under him was a hundred-andmight be prevented by a system more accordant with twenty guinea Whitney carpet; beside him stood an rational principles, and which was placed under a proper immense Dresden vase, bought at a late duke's sale responsible superintendence. It has been suggested that for five hundred pounds, and universally pronounced to much good might be done, in particular, by an officer be a bargain. The windows and ottomans were adorned whose duty it should be to inspect all houses where a with silk damask, the ceiling with painted angels peepdeath has taken place, and direct any measures which ing out of clouds, the walls with costly pictures and might be considered necessary for purifying it from extensive looking-glasses. Beside an elegant pianomiasma. The chief proposed improvement refers to forte was placed a gilded harp, and the recesses of the burial-grounds, which, it is now concluded, are everywhere on a too limited scale. At present, in the arrange-or-mulu ornaments and expensive bijouterie; in short, room were adorned with buhl-tables, spread over with ments of the cemeteries belonging to joint-stock companies, it is calculated that every acre of ground filled with vaults and private graves will receive no fewer than 11,000 bodies! and the same graves are opened and | re-opened unintermittingly. From well-authenticated | data, the space devoted to the burial of these 11,000 should be 87 acres, supposing the interments renewable in the same places in periods of 10 years. In this way a space about a fourth larger than Hyde Park, which has 350 acres, would suffice for the interment of 50,000 -the annual mortality of London; and about 30 acres for the burials of Edinburgh. In all cases, these burialgrounds ought to be removed from the metropolis, and no houses allowed to be built within certain distances. The total estimate of charges for interments in London, inclusive of compensations for vested rights, the payment for the purchase of new cemeteries, and new establishment charges, is L.251,861, or an annual saving on the present estimated total expense of L.374,743. It is proposed that the charge of the purchase of the land, and the structural arrangements, be spread over thirty years, and the payment of the money be charged, with interest, on the burials of persons of the middle and higher classes, which would still

any stranger who entered the apartment, without knowing to whom it really belonged, would have imagined himself in the palace of some Eastern prince, and one possessing a taste for household furniture by no means

severe.

'Angelina Helena Pettifer Antoinetta Topper!' reflected the father, as he sipped the best coffee that Mocha could produce out of the most costly Sèvres cups that money could buy. Rather a long, and certainly an out-of-the-way string of names! That, however, is no business of mine. Mrs Topper manages all these little matters, and has a superstition about the names of our children. Besides, after letting her have her own way concerning the other ten, it would be rather late in the day for me to interfere in the christening of the eleventh. There will, however, be no harm in my acquainting her with my notions on the

matter.'

The husband had just come to this conclusion, when Mrs Topper entered the apartment, remarking that, thanks to her energetic exertions, all the arrangements

for the grand christening festival of the morrow were complete. Mr Topper was delighted to hear it, and ventured to introduce the subject he had just been discussing in his own mind. The lady entirely dissented from her lord's opinion, declaring there was 'everything in a name,' and referring to the past carcer of their other children in proof of the theory. Reflect,' she began, in the first place, on the situation of our eldest son. Was there ever anything more uncouth than Samuel-except, indeed, his name? His manners keep him down to one level, which is that of a tradesman in a country town. Mary the same: she has not a notion above her station as the wife of a custom-house

clerk. Augusta Amelia is, to be sure, a shade better in that respect; though she, poor thing, is always in trouble, from a tendency in her husband to live a little beyond his income. Look, on the other hand, at the superiority, both in manners and prospects, of our younger children, whose names are more aristocratic. Reginald Albert is certain to make his way at the bar; and Alicia Cecilia will in all probability become a countess.'

'Truc,' answered Topper drily, but a French one.' Then just consider the connexions which Pelham Augustus Poltimore is forming at Oxford. By the way, I hope you sent the poor boy the hundred pounds he wrote for yesterday?'

Mr Topper uttered an affirmative groan.

He will, I feel convinced, become a member of parliament. And now you see how completely my superstitions, as you call them, about names have been borne out. So baby, bless her, shall not, I am determined, labour under the same disadvantage as her elder brothers and sisters. Besides, Angelina Helena Pettifer Antoinetta is not so very extravagant after all.'

'O no,' replied the complying husband, to get rid of the discussion, not at all, my dear. It is of no consequence; only I thought I would just mention it.'

The day after this conversation, the neighbourhood of Tavistock Square resounded with the roll of carriages; for Mrs Topper owned to none but carriage acquaintances, except when disagreeably pressed on the subject of her early friends. The sponsors of the child were the Marquis and Marchioness of Pettifer, and the right honourable the Lady Antoinetta Appleby; the dinner which followed the ceremony was graced by the presence of several baronets and knights; and the few commoners present were either very rich or very distingué. The entire fête, therefore, was prepared on the most splendid and costly scale. The servants appeared in new liveries, consisting of pink and white, with goldlace aigulettes; the guests were served upon silver; and the whole entertainment was contracted for by the celebrated Gunter, without any limit whatever as to the

expense.

Topper must be very rich,' said one of the guests to another in a corner of the crowded drawing-room, when the company had retired from table.

'Perhaps he is,' was the reply; but there is no knowing. These stock-exchange men are one day rolling in wealth, and the next would, if their affairs could be suddenly wound up, be found hardly able to pay twenty shillings in the pound.'

But I should think Topper's fortune stood on a firm basis, or he would not be able to draw around him such high connexions.'

There again you draw a false conclusion. The noblemen you meet here are notoriously needy, and Topper is useful to them; indeed they are mutually useful to each other:-Topper lends them money, and they in return lend him their patronage and countenance.'

The first speaker, a young man and a baronet, blushed. His companion noticed this, but, being a man of the world, was not embarrassed. Sir John Neville soon recovered himself, and said, smiling, You seem to be deeply versed in these matters?'

'I ought to be,' returned the elder guest, having spent all my life in the city. My name is Rigby.” Sir John bowed, and professed himself happy to make Mr Rigby's acquaintance; for he guessed rightly that the stranger was at the head of one of the greatest mercantile houses in London. Here their conversation was interrupted by one of the Italian singers who had been engaged to amuse the company; but when the music had ceased, it was resumed.

child,' Neville remarked. 'They have given rather a long set of names to the

'Yes, and very amusing Mrs Topper is on that point,' returned Rigby. The names of her children rise in number and classical refinement as her husband's fortunes flourished. When they married, he was clerk to a stock-broker, and the first boy was plain "Samuel.” The second son was born when Topper got into business on his own account, and is "Reginald Albert." By a lucky speculation, my friend afterwards amassed a little money, took a house at Peckham, kept a phaeton, and christened his next child "Augusta Amelia." Fortune continued to smile, and by the time the youngest son came into the world, a carriage and pair were set up; so the aristocratic names of Pelham Agustus Poltimore were given to the boy. Having now reached the summit of affluence, Mrs Topper thinks it necessary Helena Pettifer Antoinetta.' to mark the event by christening the baby Angelina

'A climax indeed,' returned Neville; but I think I hear my cab announced; can I offer you a seat in it ?' Rigby replied in the affirmative, and the new friends went away together. The rest of the company gradually departed, and the host and hostess were soon left alone, surrounded by the wrecks of the grandest feast that had been given in Tavistock Square since that modern neighbourhood rose into existence.

At breakfast the next morning Mr Topper handed his wife one of the several letters which had come by post. It is from Sam,' he remarked, without any regard to his lady's aristocratic notions about names.

'So I perceive,' was the reply; there is no mistaking his epistles; they are without envelopes, and always sealed with a wafer-stamp.' But Mrs Topper's dissatisfaction was not to stop here. She did not like the wording of the letter; it was so ungenteel and

business-like.

you perceive? he advises the remittance of five hun'Why, it is a business letter,' said Topper. Don't dred pounds sent for me to fund for him, having done a good transaction in tallow.'

'Faugh' ejaculated the lady; 'I thought tallow was done away with. There has been none in this house for these five years. But what is here?' she continued, reddening with anger; 'Little Sam begs love to his grandmother!' On perceiving this terrible postscript, in would have doubtless fainted, had she not possessed an which she was so unpolitely designated, Mrs Topper extremely robust constitution. Her husband did not share in her disgust. Far from it; for he cared very little about his eldest son's gentility, so as he made money.

There were two other letters, however, which displeased him. The second was from his daughter Augusta Amelia, declaring that her husband was in danger of losing his situation, unless her dear papa could advance them two hundred pounds; the third was from Reginald Albert, the barrister, threatening to take the benefit of the insolvent act, and disgrace the whole family, unless the governor' could assist him with enough to compromise with his creditors.

'Mrs Topper,' said the indignant father in the sarcastic tones of subdued rage, 'I am becoming a convert

to your theory concerning names. There is a fate at- she found in him a future son-in-law. The count's tached to them. When we were pooragitation increased when inquiring after the health of The lady here intreated her spouse to drop that sub- Alicia Cecilia; but when, glancing from her, he menject. But he was inexorable. tioned his own family, described their immense estates in the south of France, their ancient lineage and accumulated wealth, his emotion was painfully apparent. Of course the subject of Alicia Cecilia's fortune and its probable amount was the farthest from his thoughts, and Mrs Topper deemed it necessary to remind him that she was not without one-to be sure, she was ashamed to mention its amount. The count, however, intreated her to have no reserves; the dowry was named ; and before dinner-time the Count de Trompeur became the aflianced lover of Alicia Cecilia Topper!

When we were poor, we were content to give our children plain pronounceable names, and to educate them in a manner becoming our station. Consequently, their notions never soared beyond those proper to the children of parents in humble circumstances, one of whom was a stock-broker's clerk, and the other the daughter of a Middle Temple laundress.'

Really, Mr Topper, if you go on in this way, I must leave the room.'

I repeat it, Mrs Topper, as a means of wholesome humiliation-a laundress's daughter! I do not mean it offensively; but if you had a coronet on your brow, you could not alter that fact.'

Mrs Topper began to sob.

'Well, you see how Sam is going on, steadily and successfully making money. Then there is Mary, she is saving out of her husband's small salary. But reverse the picture. Regard the goings on of your aristocratically named children, who have been bred up as fine ladies and gentlemen. Augusta Amelia ruining her husband by extravagance, Reginald Albert threatening us with insolvency, Alicia Cecilia spending enough in dress and gadding to keep a couple of families.'

'Well, sir, you must admit that the money is well laid out. Has it not helped to attract the attentions of the Count de Trompeur? Will it not, if she play her cards properly, make her a countess ?'

That is as it may be. But tell me of what return is likely to be made for all the capital sunk in Pelham Augustus Poltimore's education? There is no end to the fifties and hundreds he has had since he went to Oxford.'

As the conversation turned on her favourite children, so did Mrs Topper's rancour soften and her brow brighten; and, the law of household storms being exactly the same as that of elemental ones-being invariably succeeded by calms--harmony was soon restored. The truth is, Mr Topper-good easy man-seldom gave way to these little outbursts: he had weightier affairs to trouble him than domestic cares, and these he left to his wife. It was her department: he handed them over to her just as, in business, he intrusted the management of one sort of stock to his foreign clerk,' another to a long annuity clerk,' a third to his consol clerk; and having perfect confidence in his wife and his clerks, he never interfered with the routine duties of the one or the other, unless his attention was called to them by something going wrong. Even on such occasions Topper's anger was of short duration, and easily mollified. In fact, Mrs Topper could always conquer it whenever she strove to keep her own temper whole; for a smile, with a few little endearing pleasantries, was sure to restore her husband's equanimity. So well did she eventually succeed, that she had the happiness of finding checks left on the breakfast table for the necessities of her distressed children. Singularly enough, they coincided in amount with the sum the eldest son had sent up to invest in the funds. After this act of liberality, Topper departed for the city earlier than usual; as at that time there were great doings in the money market.

At home Mrs Topper had her great doings also. The count was expected to propose for Alicia Cecilia every day; and he had positively promised to call that morning, when the awful moment would likely arrive. True to his word, his knock was heard about two o'clock. The young lady, in a state of fluttering agitation, disappeared to her own room, leaving the visitor to be received by her mother.

The Count de Trompeur was the perfection of high breeding at least according to Mrs Topper's ideasthough on this occasion he shook hands with her in a manner far from fashionable, for he threw a little emotion into his grasp, and the lady felt certain that

It took the delighted mother the whole morning to write to her friends, announcing the happy event; but in accordance with her views, Samuel and Mary were kept in ignorance of the fact, though not a single other friend above a certain rank but were advised of it, down even to Emeline Marianna de Montmorency Topper, her youngest daughter but one, who was at a boardingschool in Paris.

It happened that her husband was no less busy in the city. It was a time when a monetary crisis impended; and all Topper's acuteness was brought into play to prevent the chance of very heavy losses, not only to his clients, but to himself. In one stock so rapid a fall had taken place, that he was some thousands poorer at four o'clock than when he rose in the morning. This, however, did not shake either his nerves or his credit, and on returning home, he dined with his usual appetite; but he heard the news of the count's proposal with much more indifference than was quite pleasing to his wife.

We must now pass over the space of six months, during which some remarkable events happened. Soon after Alicia Cecilia married, and became a countess, a woful change of affairs took place in Tavistock Square. By a great convulsion in money affairs, Mr Topper, from being one of the richest men in the city, was reduced to bankruptcy. All the splendid finery which his wife had taken so much pains, and spent so much money to collect, was sold to pay creditors, and both were obliged to seek a temporary asylum with their daughter Mary and her husband, the humble custom-house clerk; for, except Samuel, who lived at a distance, not one of their other children had a home of their own to shelter them. Their misfortunes ended not here; for the youngest child was, in the depth of their distress, taken ill; and the god-daughter of a marquis, whose christening had been celebrated with so much splendour, breathed its last in a small house in a back street of Camberwell. In the end, Mr and Mrs Topper became dependent, for the rest of their lives, on their elder children for support.

What, it will be asked, had become of their countessdaughter, of the barrister and collegian? Alas! the former, it was found, when too late, had been sacrificed to a worthless adventurer, who was discarded by his family on account of dissipation. The younger sons having acquired habits of expense, which unfitted them for a time for profitable employment, had to pass through a galling ordeal of privation and contumely, before they could earn sufficient for their own support. When, however, they had been sufficiently tried in the fire of adversity to become useful members of society, it was perceived that the former aristocratic connexions of their parents had not entirely deserted them, for the Marquis of Pettifer procured a colonial solicitor-generalship for Reginald Albert, and the names of Pelham Augustus Poltimore Topper graced the red book as a subordinate clerk in the treasury, through the interest of Sir John Neville.

It was many years before the shock of accumulated misfortunes passed away; but once withstood, Mr and Mrs Topper felt themselves more happy than when amidst the excitement and pretension of their highest prosperity. Mrs Topper had completely conquered her

prejudice for fine names. And during a visit to Samuel, the kindest of her sons, she consented to become sponsor to one of his children, and give to her grandchild the plain name of Jane.'

SCENES ON BOARD A CAPTURED SLAVER. THE pamphlet of the Rev. Pascoe Grenfell Hill, Fifty Days on Board a Slave-Vessel in the Mozambique Channel, in April and May 1843,"* is a production not more remarkable for its naked exposure of the present state of the African slave trade, than for its candid revelation of very dire transactions taking place under the British flag. We shall attempt a brief review of the contents.

Her Majesty's ship Cleopatra, of twenty-six guns, commanded by Captain C. Wyvill, sailed from Spithead in July 1842, under orders to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope station, and to convey Governor Gomm to Mauritius. The vessel having reached Rio Janeiro, the Rev. P. G. Hill was there transferred from the Malabar to the Cleopatra, to act as chaplain during the voyage. After a stay of a week at Rio, where an opportunity was afforded of seeing and describing the condition of the Brazilian slave population, the Cleopatra sailed on her cruise, and reached the Cape of Good Hope on the 9th of October. From this point the vessel got round the Cape to the eastern coast of Africa, and having touched at Mauritius, arrived, in January 1843, at Madagascar. The stretch of ocean between this large island and the African continent, called the Mozambique Channel, appears to have been the appointed cruising ground of the Cleopatra, in order to watch and check any attempt on the part of slave vessels to carry away negroes from the African coast. The centre of this odious traffic being about the mouth of the Quilimane river, which is exactly opposite Madagascar, here the Cleopatra kept a sharp look-out for her prey. The reverend author describes various nautical manoeuvres and sailings to and fro in this arduous enterprise, all proving abortive; till at length, on the 12th of April, a brigantine of suspicious appearance being observed from the mast-head, a chase was the consequence. After the firing of a few shots, the brigantine, no match for her powerful antagonist, yielded to her fate. A cutter was hoisted out from the Cleopatra, with an officer, to take possession, and the green and yellow flag of Brazil was displaced by the British ensign. The capture being thus effected, Captain Wyvill, the writer of the narrative, and the surgeon, went on board the prize, to see the state of affairs. Here we may let the chaplain tell his own story.

that, from the moment the first ball was fired, they had been actively employed in thus freeing themselves, in which our men were not slow in lending their assistance. I counted but thirty shackled together in pairs; but many more pairs of shackles were found below. We were not left an instant in doubt as to the light in which they viewed us. They crawled in crowds, and rubbed caressingly our feet and clothes with their hands, even rolling themselves, as far as room allowed, on the deck before us. And when they saw the crew of the vessel rather unceremoniously sent over the side into the boat which was to take them prisoners to the frigate, they sent up a long universal shout of triumph and delight.'

The vessel proved to be the Progresso, bound for Rio Janeiro. It had taken its cargo on board only the evening before, and was under the charge of a crew, seventeen in number, Spaniards, Portuguese, and Brazilians. The size of the vessel was about 140 tons, length of the slave-deck 37 feet, its mean breadth 214 feet, and its height 34 feet. The captain was not forthcoming, and it was alleged he was drowned, though this was ultimately discovered to be false. A muster being made of the hapless beings on board, they were found to amount to 189 men, mostly under twenty years of age, 45 women, and 213 boys-total 447. To relieve the vessel, Captain Wyvill took fifty on board the Cleopatra, leaving 397 in the Progresso, which was immediately sent off to the Cape of Good Hope under the charge of a lieutenant, a master's assistant, a quartermaster, a boatswain's mate, and nine seamen. Four Spaniards and a Portuguese, including the cook, were permitted to remain in the prize. Mr Hill having expressed a wish to act as chaplain on board the captured slaver, his offer was accepted, and he sailed with the party on the voyage to the Cape. More than fifty of the negroes would have been put on board the Cleopatra, so as to relieve the pressure in the Progresso, but the surgeon thought that small-pox prevailed among the slaves, and a limited number only was taken from the vessel. This opinion proved erroneous; the eruption was afterwards found to be a species of itch. All went well with the overloaded Progresso for a few hours, while good weather lasted. Shortly after midnight a sudden squall sprung up, and great was the confusion on deck, covered as it was by groups of naked negroes, who remained above for the sake of fresh air. Strangely enough, the possibility of some such change of weather does not seem to have been provided against. All was tumult on board; the sailors had a difficulty in finding and handling the ropes; and an order was given to send the whole of the negroes below, which was immediately obeyed. The writer proceeds to relate what ensued. It was a strange scene which presented itself to us The night, he says, 'being intensely hot, 400 wretched when we mounted her side. The deck was crowded beings thus crammed into a hold 12 yards in length, to the utmost with naked negroes, to the number, as 7 in breadth, and only 34 feet in height, speedily began stated in her papers, of 450, in almost riotous confusion, to make an effort to re-issue to the open air. Being having revolted, before our arrival, against their late thrust back, and striving the more to get out, the aftermasters, who, on their part, also showed strong excite- hatch was forced down on them. Over the other hatchment, from feelings, it may be supposed, of no pleasant way, in the fore part of the vessel, a wooden grating nature. The negroes, a meagre, famished-looking throng, was fastened. To this, the sole inlet for the air, the having broken through all control, had seized every-suffocating heat of the hold, and, perhaps, panic from thing to which they had a fancy in the vessel; some the strangeness of their situation, made them press; with hands full of "farinha," the powdered root of the and thus great part of the space below was rendered mandroe or cassava; others with large pieces of pork useless. They crowded to the grating, and, clinging to and beef, having broken open the casks; and some had it for air, completely barred its entrance. They strove taken fowls from the coops, which they devoured raw. to force their way through apertures in length 14 Many were busily dipping rags, fastened to bits of inches, and barely 6 inches in breadth, and, in some string, into the water-casks; and, unhappily, there were instances, succeeded. The cries, the heat-I may say, some who, by a like method, got at the contents of a without exaggeration, "the smoke of their torment"cask of aquardiente, fiery Brazilian rum, of which they which ascended, can be compared to nothing earthly. drank to excess. The addition of our boats' crews to One of the Spaniards gave warning that the consethis crowd left hardly room to move on the deck. The quence would be "many deaths." This warning, howshrill hubbub of noises, which I cannot attempt to de- ever, does not appear to have been regarded, nor does scribe, expressive, however, of the wildest joy, thrilled the writer say that he made any effort to interfere. on the ear, mingled with the clank of the iron, as they were knocking off their fetters on every side. It seemed

* London: Jolin Murray. 1844.

Next day the prediction of the Spaniard was fearfully verified. Fifty-four crushed and mangled corpses lifted up from the slave deck have been brought to the gangway and thrown overboard. Some were ema

capean"-" the little ones do not steal." This morning the culprits were "seized up" with small cords to the fore-rigging, and received from fifteen to twenty lashes each from a rope's end; a Spaniard, an Englishman, and a strong negro, relieving each other at the task.'

ciated from disease, many bruised and bloody. Antonio tells me that some were found strangled, their hands still grasping each other's throats, and tongues protruding from their mouths. The bowels of one were crushed out. They had been trampled to death for the most part, the weaker under the feet of the stronger, in If designed as an example, the lashing failed in its the madness and torment of suffocation from crowd and effect. Some days later, more water-stealing was disheat. It was a horrid sight, as they passed one by one covered, and summary punishment was inflicted on -the stiff distorted limbs smeared with blood and filth-eight. They received by moonlight about eighteen to be cast into the sea. Some, still quivering, were laid lashes each, and were coupled in shackles previously to on the deck to die; salt water thrown on them to re- being sent back into the hold. Thus, as in many other vive them, and a little fresh water poured into their fine beginnings, the end but ill corresponds with the mouths. Antonio reminded me of his last night's "early promise." The sound of knocking off their warning, "Ya se lo dixè anoche." He actively employed irons, which thrilled so musically on the ear when we himself, with his comrade Sebastian, in attendance on boarded the prize, terminates in the clank of riveting the wretched living beings now released from their con- them on again, with the accompaniment of flogging. finement below; distributing to them their morning The result of their offence is certainly highly provokmeal of farinha, and their allowance of water, rather ing, when, as is sometimes the case, instead of pure more than half a pint to each, which they grasped with water, we draw up from the casks their putrid rags: inconceivable eagerness, some bending their knees to on the other hand, none can tell, save he who has tried, the deck, to avoid the risk of losing any of the liquid the pangs of thirst which may excite them in that by unsteady footing; their throats, doubtless, parched heated hold, many of them fevered by mortal disease.' to the utmost with crying and yelling through the night.' The chaplain does not tell us that any means were Being thus somewhat refreshed, the negroes, reduced to taken to prevent these thefts. Flogging, to all appear343 in number, went below of their own accord, the ance, was the only cure. hatchways being left open to allow them air. But a short time, however, had elapsed when they began tumultuously to re-ascend, while persons above, afraid of their crowding the deck too much, repelled them, and they were trampled back, screaming and writhing, in a confused mass. The hatch was about to be forced down on them, and, had not the lieutenant in charge left positive orders to the contrary, the catastrophe of last night would have been re-enacted.' The negroes were now disposed in the most convenient places on the deck, out of the way of the ropes, and covered with long rugs provided for the purpose. This attention was rewarded by only one being found dead next morning; but several were in a dying state, from the effects of injuries suffered on the first and awful night.

The Progresso had been provided with stores sufficient to victual the negroes for two months. There were six hundred bags of small beans, bags of rice and farinha, and below the slave-deck were stowed twenty-two huge casks of water, containing each five or six hogsheads. The cabin stores were also profuse; ale, porter, wines, macaroni, tapioca, pickles, cigars, raisins, almonds, &c.; and the coops on deck contained ducks, fowls, and pigs. There was thus no want of food or water, but the latter article seems to have been dispensed with ultra economy. The quantity allowed to each was a pint per diem, but this was far from quenching the thirst which perpetually raged amongst them. Driven to desperation, they eagerly,' says our author, 'catch the drippings from the sails after a shower, apply their lips to the wet masts, and crawl to the coops to share the supply placed there for the fowls. I have remarked some of the sick licking the deck, when washed with salt water.' To aggravate their distress, the water casks in the hold beneath their den were almost within reach. To lift the planks of their flooring, and furtively get at these repositories during the night, was a crime of which they were found to be guilty. One night the chaplain hears a noise, and obtaining a lantern, 'I descended on the slave-deck,' says he, with a Spaniard and an English sailor, who caught seven of the ringleaders in the act of drawing water from the casks beneath. The long loose planks which compose this deck have daily to be removed to get at the water and provisions; but the nightly depredators, in raising them, must at the same time displace a mass of living beings piled on the top, regardless, no doubt, of any injury they may thus cause to them. The mischief resulting from their delinquency is not the loss of the water abstracted, but the corruption of that which remains, by the foul rags which they dip into the casks to obtain it. The boys were anxious to exculpate themselves from sharing in the theft with the men, crying in their language, "Ouishi ouishi no

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The deaths continued frequent from over-crowding, disease, and other causes, and the bodies, as we learn, were tossed overboard without winding-sheet or ceremony. This, which excites no remark from the writer, surely was not seemly. If the negroes were not Christians, they were at any rate human beings. One of the bodies would not sink. When thrown overboard, it being a dead calm, the body floated for upwards of half an hour, the face above water, close to the vessel, and sometimes striking against the side; while we were in apprehension every moment that a shark might approach and seize on it.' When a sailor died, his body was committed to the deep with the usual solemnities, and loaded to carry it out of sight.

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During the progress of the voyage southwards, the weather became cold, and this was a change of evils. May 1.-The naked negroes begin already to shiver, and their teeth to chatter. This is a new infliction added to the former calamities to which this unhappy race is doomed. ** May 3.-We feel the cold severely. Seven negroes were found dead this morningamong them a girl.' Deaths also continue from the lurching of the vessel during squally weather: through the gloom of the night, the shrieks rise above the noise of the wind and waves, and are, of all horrors in this unhappy vessel, the saddest.' When the morning comes, the same dismal oft-repeated tale-three bodies, a man and two boys, lifted on deck from the hold. The man was one who had been savagely beaten by two of his fellows in misery three or four days ago. That the greater number of those who die have their deaths hastened by others overlying or otherwise injuring them below, is obvious from the fact, that they are found dead in the morning; very rarely, at least, during the day-time. It not unfrequently happens that they are crushed between the loose planks of the slave-deck, affording space for their limbs to slip down beyond their strength to extricate.' Surely something might have been done to fasten these shifting planks!

Our author speaks of the little respect for each other among these negroes, yet he somewhat contradictorily praises their courtesy and love of fair dealing. May 18.-There is a natural good-breeding frequently to be remarked among the negroes, which one might little expect. They sometimes come aft on seeing us first appear on deck in the morning, and bend the knee by way of salutation. Their manner of returning thanks for any little present of food or water, is by a stamp on the deck, and a scrape of the foot backwards; and they seldom fail, however weak, to make this acknowledgment, though it cost them an effort to rise for the purpose. The women make a courtesy, bowing their knees forwards so as nearly to touch the ground. In the par

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