The lights that have been kindled up in southern gloom, by Messrs. Jones, Clay and others, and which serve to make darkness visible, are treated by Mr. Seabrook with the most bitter contempt, and from the tone and temper of his remarks, we may infer that they are regarded by the mass of slaveholders, not only as innovations, but as attacks upon their right of property. One or two quotations will be sufficient to make us understood:

"That the slaveholder and his family should officiate as teachers to their own people is so palpably objectionable, if it were practicable, in every light in which the suggestion can be viewed, that I need only observe, when the scene shall be exhibited of the people of South Carolina, tri-daily, according to Mr. Clay, or weekly, as recommended by the committee, "reading and explaining the Bible, and conversing with their servants on the subject of the soul's immortality," the reign of fanaticism and misrule will have commenced."

"I object totally, however, for the general reasons already advanced, and for others that will readily suggest themselves, to the preacher adapting a part of every sermon to their intellectual wants," or, to the giving out one or two lines of a hymn, that they may join in the excrcises." This is a device of the levelers, and too heterodox for the present state of public opinion."

"Another mode of communicating religious information to slaves, upon which Mr. Clay comments, is, what he terms, domestic, to be conducted by the resident planter and his family. This mode must have been suggested to Mr. Clay by a Tappanist. If friendly to the policy and perpetuity of our institutions, it could not have been the fruit of his own reflections.'

These quotations we make with no reference to the feasibility of the various plans of oral religious instruction, but to show the present actual condition of the slaves, in regard to a knowledge of those truths, which are essential to human salvation. We think we have proved that slaveholders, as a mass, are guilty of the wilful murder of the souls on which they have laid their unhallowed hands. That nothing like a serious effort has ever been made, by any considerable body of slaveholders, for the instruction and salvation of the slaves-and that the slaveholders generally are determined it NEVER SHALL BE MADE.

In conclusion, we hardly need remark, that when abolitionists assert that the slaves are defrauded of their wages, driven with the whip, over-worked, under-fed, cruelly and arbitrarily punished, sunk in brutal ignorance, and thrust away from the words of eternal life, they assert only what is admitted by the defenders of slavery themselves. The facts which they detail, as naturally flow from the causes which the slaveholders avow, and in which they glory, as ice collects about the pole, or darkness ensues the absence of the sun.

THE AGRICULTURAL CODE OF ST. DOMINGO.

From the testimony of T. F. BUXTON, Esq. before the Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into the laws and usages of the several West India Colonies, in relation to the slave population. 1832.

An important question here arises,-What were the measures taken after emancipation, to secure tranquillity and order, and to rescue the planters and slaves from ruin? One of the first steps was to draw up a code of rules, to be observed upon the plantations. The rules were printed and made public; they were also ordered to be read aloud to all the negroes, in their own dialect, upon every estate, at short and fixed periods. The preamble to these regulations, while it proclaimed freedom to all, insisted upon the necessity of industry in all, without which every thing would go to ruin.

These rules underwent modification from time to time; but their general object was to prevent oppression on the part of the master, and to secure good order, and to stimulate industry on the part of the laborer :--They took away from the master the use of the whip and of the chain, and of every other instrument of correction, either by himself or his authority; in short, all power of arbitrary punishment, under severe penalties. On the other hand, that a just subordination might be maintained, all laborers offending against the established rules, or not performing their contracts, were to be brought before a magistrate, who should examine the case and decide it according to fixed principles.

On this part of the subject, happily, great aid may be derived from papers already on the table of Parliament, more particularly the report of Mr. Consul-General Mackenzie, (No. 18, of 1829,) and that of Major Moody, (No. 81, of 1826.) In the documents contained in those two reports, unsophisticated by the comments either of the Consul General or of the Commissioner, ample and satisfactory information on this subject will be found.

The earliest Agricultural Code, in point of date, will be found in Mr. Mackenzie's Report, p. 111-117. It was issued by the Commissioner Polverel, on the 28th of February, 1794, and was intended to carry into full and extended effect, the regulations he had previously enjoined in three different ordinances, issued by him on the 27th of August,

and 21st of October, 1793, and on the 7th of February, 1794. Unfortunately, Mr. Mackenzie has not given these previous regulations, and we only know of them by their being referred to in the final ordinance of the 28th of February, as having fixed the relative proportions of produce which the laborers contracting to work for shares were to receive, as well as the laborers by the year or by the day.

As the ordinance of the 28th of February, 1794, is the basis of all the subsequent codes of agriculture which have been adopted in St. Domingo, it is important to understand its nature. It will be found at full length in Mr. Mackenzie's Report; but, considering its bearing on the present inquiry, an abstract of it, which may be easily verified by a reference to the report itself, may be of use.

The ordinance is entitled "Regulations of Police, respecting Cultivation and Cultivators," and is said to be issued by "Etienne Polverel, Civil Commissary of the Republic, delegated to the French islands, for the purpose of re-establishing the public order and tranquillity." It is prefaced by the following observations.

"The enfranchisement of the Africans has produced in St. Domingo a mode of cultivation unknown in France, and of which, even in the Colonies, they have not hitherto suspected the possibility. Agriculture, in France, furnishes only raw products. Each of its establishments requires few hands and few implements of tillage, and has nothing in common with manufactories designed to increase the value of the raw material.

"In the colonies, moreover, they have hitherto only known cultivation by slaves. A whip set in motion by the will of the master, has impelled the movements of the whole establishment. The establishments are both agricultural and manufacturing. They not only produce the raw materials, but they give to them form and value. One family, therefore, does not suffice, as in France, to form an establishment.

"Each establishment contains a numerous population, sometimes exceeding that of small towns and villages in Europe; and it is on free hands, and voluntary labor, that these important establishments will henceforward have to depend for their existence and activity.

"Since the abolition of fiefs and tithes, few rural laws

are needed in France; she has probably at present all that are necessary; and in the colonies, while there were only masters and slaves, none were required.

"But to give a uniform direction to large bodies, who require to be guided, but whom no power has a right to compel; to induce them to concur freely to the same end; to maintain peace and order among them; to prevent the abuse of liberty, and to protect effectually the rights of property and the productions of industry; powerfully to excite that industry, and to make the general prosperity the result of the greatest gain of each individual;-to effect all this there must be rural laws; appropriate to the local circumstances; to the nature of the climate and its productions; to the mode of culture which these require, and, to the civil and political condition, and to the manners and character of the cultivators.

"May the ready concurrence of the cultivators render unnecessary the greater part of the rules of this ordinance, that there may no longer exist in the colonies but two classes of cultiva ors-proprietors of the soil, and cultivators sharing with them in the products of cultivation! This seems the only means of insuring large incomes to the proprietors, and freedom and comfort to the laborers; of preserving the public peace and order, and of maintaining liberty and equality forever.

"The cultivator who does not share in the fruit of his labor, is always looking for the largest wages and the least work; while the sole interest of the laborer who shares the produce is to increase that produce, and consequently to augment his own receipts and the proprietor's income; and as to the cultivator on these terms, he need not be disturbed respecting the future; the products of the soil must first provide the means of his subsistence and clothing, even when he shall be unfitted for labor by age or infirmity.

"The cultivator, therefore, who shares in the produce, is absolutely independent of the proprietor; he is his equal, in all the force of that term.

"Of all the methods of proceeding which can be adopted for the cultivation of the colonies, the association of the cultivators with the proprietors, on the principle of sharing in the products of the soil, is that which unites the greatest advantages both for the one and the other. It makes a re

turn to the former slavery forever impossible; it establishes an equality to the greatest extent which is attainable among a civilized people; and it gives to all classes an equal interest in respecting and protecting property, and in multiplying the products of the soil."

The regulations which follow are divided into six heads: "1. Condition of the people; 2. Of cultivators generally; 3. Of cultivators sharing in the produce (cultivateurs portionaires); 4. Of cultivators for daily hire; 5. Of cultivators by the month, or for a longer period; and, 6. General regulations." The following is a brief abstract of them.

I. There are not, and will not henceforward be, in St. Domingo, any more than in France, any but free persons. Every individual may contract with another for his time and labor, but he can neither sell himself, nor be sold. The property in his person is inalienable. The French republic admits not of slavery. The rights of men are equality, liberty, safety, property. In the present ordinance, man is considered only in his agricultural relations. He is either a proprietor of the soil, or a cultivator of that which belongs to another. Here I only distinguish these two classes, the present ordinance being for them alone. But, neither from this, nor from any other distinction, can any inequality arise among men in respect to civil and political rights; they are all equal in the eyes of the law, as they are by nature. But, besides the general laws which unite and protect all citizens, there exist peculiar relations between the proprietors of the soil, and the cultivators of it; and it is to these relations alone that the following rules apply.

II. The cultivators of another person's estate are divided into three classes;-those who share in the produce, those who are hired by the year or the month, and those who are hired by the day.

III. In respect of cultivators for shares of the produce, the ordinary day's labor is limited to about nine hours, viz:from sunrise to half past eight; from half past nine to twelve; and from two till sunset; and in crop time it shall be extended to eight o'clock in the evening. The manager (econome-gerant) of each plantation shall keep an exact account of the days, and hours of the day, in which the laborers or any part of them shall have been absent from their work, and shall specify the names of the defaulters, and the