lieve is better than the slave could procure with fair wages, is thus spoken of:

"The subsistence of the slaves consists from March until August of corn, ground into grists or meal, which made into what is called hominy, or baked into corn bread, furnishes a most substantial and wholesome food. The other six months they are fed upon the sweet potatoe, which is boiled, baked, or roasted, as their taste or fancy may direct. These articles are distri. buted in weekly allowances, and in sufficient quantity, together with a proper allowance of salt. The skim milk or clabber of the dairy is divided daily. It would be very desirable if regular rations of bacon or some other animal food could be furnished them; but as this cannot always be practicable, it is difficult to make it a matter of permanent regulation. Meat, therefore, when given, is only by way of indulgence or favor."

To atone for this economical regimen, which we suppose Mr. Turnbull himself would hardly say was ordered with a more tender regard for the stomach of the slave than for the pocket of the planter, we are told that the slaves thus fare better than the Scotch on their oatmeal, or, than the Irish on their potatoes; and above all, that those who live on the creeks and rivers may catch as many fish, oysters, and crabs as they please! The clothing of the slaves is regulated with the same admirable simplicity. It "consists of a winter and a summer suit; the former, a jacket, waistcoat, and overalls of Welsh plains, and the latter of Osnaburg or homespun, or other substitutes. They have shoes, hats, and handkerchiefs, and other little articles, such as tobacco, pipes, and rum, &c. Their dwellings consist of good clay cabins with clay chimneys," &c.

We are also informed that on most plantations there are hospitals for the sick. And what is worthy of remark, these hospitals have another important use. "When the patient is really sick every comfort and attention may be dispensed by such an institution; whilst to such as enter it only to skulk from labor (which is peculiar to some negroes,) it becomes a penitentiary."

Mr. Turnbull mentions the patches of ground that are allotted to each slave, and infers from their cheerfulness and mirth, that they are better off than the poor of most countries. But notwithstanding their merriment, he thinks them less contented than they were thirty or forty years ago, owing to the relaxation of discipline which has been "almost carried too far."

This sad deterioration of discipline, upon which the defender of slavery here unfortunately stumbles, brings him at once to a most important revelation. He boldly announces, that "THE ONLY PRINCIPLE UPON WHICH ANY AUTHORITY OVER THEM [THE SLAVES] CAN BE MAINTAINED IS FEAR; and he who denies this has little knowledge of them." It must not be forgotten that Mr. Turnbull is a practical man, who speaks of that which he knows. If there had been in his neighborhood or within his acquaintance any case in which authority was maintained, otherwise than by an appeal to the basest passion, it could not have escaped his mention. But he knows of no other mode of governing slaves than by appealing to their fear. He says, expressly, "the regulations that would be applicable to whites, entirely fail when applied to the government of slaves." The master rules by an undisguised REIGN OF TERROR. Are we to be told, after such an admission from one of the largest and most benevolent slaveholders of South Carolina, that the actual infliction of the whip or the stocks is unfrequent. Is it to be supposed that in a gang of one hundred slaves-old and young-none will neglect their tasks, or take liberties with the property of their master? It would be a miracle for such a number of people to obey, to the utmost, the will of the master for a single day. Some transgression must take place. Nothing short of an absolute certainty of terrible punishment could prevent it. But such a certainty could not exist. And if any transgression, however small, comes to the knowledge of the master or his agent, it must be punished, otherwise the grand motive, fear, is impaired. We have the testimony of a perfectly competent witness that a plantation can be cultivated with slaves, by no other motive than fear, and we know that this motive cannot be kept in existence except by punishments, which must be either very frequent or very severe. Let any man estimate the amount of collateral motives, which, together with his wages, impel the free laborer to industry-his character and happiness in this life and the next-and then say what frequency or weight of punishment it must take to produce fear enough to replace all these. It will not do to say the slave is attached to his master, and labors with a desire to please him. It will not do to say that he is filled with a sort of patriotism or loyalty,

which makes his master's wealth and prosperity his own. All this is flatly contradicted by the witness on the stand, who distinctly asserts, that "the only principle upon which any authority over them can be maintained is FEAR; and he who denies this has little knowledge of them." He who can deny, in the light of this testimony, the common and severe use of corporal punishment to secure the labor of slaves, or, in other words, that they are driven with the lash, can assert an effect and deny the cause. He affirms that the slaves are governed by the fear of what is never inflicted.

We put it to the common sense of the reader whether the admission of this writer must not neutralize all his eulogies.

The next witness we shall produce is Rev. THOMAS S. CLAY, of Georgia. In his "Detail of a plan for the moral improvement of negroes on plantations, read before the Georgia Presbytery; printed at the request of the Presbytery, 1833," we find much valuable information. The more valuable in as much as it is not his design to speak of the condition of the slaves, and he alludes to it only incidentally, as a matter of perfect notoriety to the presbytery. His business is to propose a remedy, but from the nature of this remedy we most clearly learn some things in regard to the disease. In relation to the supply of FOOD furnished by the master, Mr Clay says:

"From various causes, this is often not adequate to the support of a laboring man. The quantity allowed by custom, is a peck of corn per week, and if it be sound flint corn, this is sufficient to sustain health and strength under moderate labor. But there is often a defect here, the quantity is then insufficient; and who should be astonished, if the negro takes from the field or corn house, the supply necessary for his craving appetite, and then justifies his act, and denies that it is stealing? It is a common statement made by intelligent negroes, that without the aid of their own gardens, poultryhouse, and cornfields, their allowance would not hold out. Should the quality of corn be poor, let them have their food by weight, giving not less than 14 pounds per week of corn. The allowance should on no occasion be given on the Sabbath; besides being a violation of God's law it interferes with attendance at church. It should be given on stated days; the same day every week. Time should be allowed the negroes for receiving their provisions, neither should they be delayed after a hard day's work until late at night."

Who is so dull as not to receive information as to the actual condition of the slaves from this grave and solemn instruction? Remember that it falls from the pen of a practical slaveholder, who is advocating a certain system of oral religious instruction, but is most cautious to avoid all that

looks like abolition. Could he hope his cause to prosper if he slandered his neighbors? Is it not a fundamental part of his policy to smooth over the evils of slavery?

In regard to CLOTHING he says:

"The winter clothes should be given in November, and those for summer in April or May. This is often neglected, and consequently the improvident, (of whom the number is very great) suffer much; and however well a negro may endure the cold when at work, or sitting by his fire side, the want of warm clothing would be a good reason for not attending church."

In regard to the DWELLINGS he says: "Too many individuals are crowded into one house and the proper separation of apartments cannot be observed." He recommends "such an arrangement, by means of partitions, as to furnish separate apartments for the larger boys and girls." Truly such arrangements are quite important to the decencies of civilized life, quite important to the purity of christian morals, but will they ever be regarded as of much importance to the well being of human cattle? Can the masters afford these expensive arrangements, the consequence of which will be to ruin their property by converting it into refined, self-respecting men and women?

In regard to the treatment of the sick, says Mr. Clay, "As in a sparse population the residence of the physician must be remote from many of the settlements, it is advisable that every plantation should be supplied with the medicines in ordinary use. This is too frequently neglected, many plantations are even destitute of salts, the cheapest and simplest of all medicines."

In regard to the "regulation of work," Mr. Clay says: "Great judgment and experience are necessary, to guard against the evil of overtasking on the one hand, and requiring too little labor on the other. When negroes are overworked, their seasons of relaxation are often marked by extreme licentiousness, drunkenness and debauchery; the mind swings from violent pressure into boundless indulgence." Are we to infer from this that slaves are seldom overworked? How could a man draw such a picture of the effects of overworking if the original had not been often before him?

[The printer admonishes us that these remarks must be suspended for the present. On a future occasion the subject will be resumed.]

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

THE BRITISH WEST INDIES. In Antigua 30,000 slaves were made unconditionally free on the first of August, 1834. On the fourth of August, 1835, the Weekly Register, of that island, a press not predisposed to approve the change, speaks thus-"In the course of the lapsed year of freedom, there has been an unquestionable improvement in the habits of the people. The wandering spirit has evaporated: they have discovered that there has been much less leisure or spare time in domestic service than in agriculture-less certainty in desultory employments such as fishing, portering and boating, &c., and the comforts of 'home,' begin to be duly appreciated. The employing and superintending class, too, have gradually acquired the art of governing those as freemen, whom they once commanded as bondsmen, and the practice of task-work which is becoming almost universal has given the threefold advantage of stimulus to exertion, despatch of important work, and leisure to the laborer for domestic and other employment. This now extends, we understand, even to weeding; and with the increasing use of the plough and other machinery, which save a great deal of the severer tillage so distasteful in the culture of the sugar cane, we may hope for a prospering colony."

In Jamaica, where the apprenticeship system was introduced, there was a manifest determination on the part of the planters that it should not succeed. They commenced by deceiving, worrying and abusing the apprentices. They not only predicted insurrection, but by a most illegal use of their old authority did all in their power to excite it. The apprentices, however, as soon as they had learned what were their legal rights, were careful "to go by the law." They were so provokingly quiet, patient, peaceful and industrious in the hours of legal labor, that they seem at last to have gained a complete victory over their oppressors.

The planters predicted that the apprentices would not work for wages in their own time, and, as the time legally allowed to the master was insufficient, that the crop could not be gathered. A committee of the Jamaica House of Assembly went through a mock examination of evidence on the subject, and on the 13th of November, 1834, reported the plan a complete failure. They state, "that the new system is not succeeding; that forty and a half hours of labor in the week are inadequate to enable the cultivation of the country to be continued; that the negroes are performing no fair proportion of work, even during that limited number of hours, and that during their own time very few of them will work for such rate of wages as sugar cultivation can afford to pay; that idleness and contempt of authority are daily becoming more apparent and alarming; that the pimento crop the only article which has come to maturity since the first of August, has been to a great extent lost to the proprietors, from the impossibility of getting it gathered in; that the coffee crop now commencing is likely to share a similar fate, and that the prospect to the proprietors of sugar estates is still more desperate, in the certainty that their canes must rot upon the ground, from the absolute impossibility of manufacturing the juice into sugar during the limited number of hours which the factories can be kept in operation."

This report was designed to defeat the abolition act, by driving the British government to restore the old authority, under the name of a local magistracy, whose