assistance which we may fairly expect from the Legislature in this respect, when the subject is brought under its consideration in all its important bearings; with the example of France and the United States before them, I cannot doubt that Government will introduce such measures as a liberal and enlightened policy will dictate. But individuals have it in their power to contribute largely to the encouragement of African produce, by a preference that will cost them little. Let them recollect that for centuries we were mainly instrumental in checking cultivation in Africa : we ransacked the whole continent in order to procure labourers for the West Indies. Is it, then, too much to ask, now when we are endeavouring to raise her from the gulf of wretchedness into which we have contributed to plunge her, that while she is struggling with enormous difficulties, we should force her industry and excite her to unfold her capabilities by anxiously encouraging the consumption of her produce?

CHAPTER VI.

ELEVATION OF NATIVE MIND.

"Wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence; but the excellency of knowledge is, that Wisdom giveth Life to them that have it."-Ecclesiastes, vii. 12. "That peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among them for all generations."-Liturgy.

I NOW come to the point which I deliberately consider to be beyond all others momentous in the question before us. I lay great stress upon African commerce, more upon the cultivation of soil, but most of all upon the elevation of the native mind.

This is a wide subject; it embraces the consideration of some difficult questions. They resolve themselves into these: 1st. Are the Africans able and willing to learn? 2d. What, and how shall we teach them?

It is true that the inhabitants of Africa are in the very depths of ignorance and superstition; but, still, there are amongst them redeeming symptoms, however slight, sufficient to prove that the fault is not in their nature, but in their condition; and to teach us, that when we shall have put down that prodigious evil which forbids all hope of their improvement, it is abundantly possible that the millions of Africa may assume

their place among civilized and Christian nations; and that a region, whose rank luxuriance now poisons the atmosphere, may be brought under subjection to the plough, may yield a wealthy harvest to its occupants, and open a new world, as exciting to our skill, capital, and enterprise, as was America on its first discovery. In these views it is a satisfaction to me that I can lean upon an authority so stable as that of Mr. Pitt. Mr. Wilberforce, writing to Mr. Stephen in 1817, says: "Reflection renders me more and more confident that we shall, or, at least, that they who live a few years will, see the beginnings of great reforms in the West Indies, as well as opening prospects of civilization in Africa. In the latter instance I must say, even to you, that Pitt's death has been an irreparable loss to us. He had truly grand views on the topic of our moral and humane debt to Africa."* And there is a speech on record, of which Mr. Sheridan said at the time, " If Mr. Pitt were always thus to speak, the opposition could not survive a fortnight;" and of which Mr. Fox said 15 years afterwards, that it was "the most powerful eloquence that ever adorned those walls; a speech not of vague and showy ornament, but of solid and irresistible argument;" in that speech Mr. Pitt said, "Some of us may live to see a reverse of that picture, from which we now turn our eyes with shame and regret; we may live to behold the natives of Africa engaged in the calm occupations of industry, and in the pursuit of a just and legitimate commerce; we may behold the beams * Wilberforce's Life, vol. iv. p. 306.

of science and philosophy breaking in upon their land, which, at some happier period, in still later times, may blaze with full lustre, and, joining their influence to that of PURE RELIGION, may illuminate and invigorate the most distant extremities of that immense continent."

In the first part of this work I have given a description of the deadly superstition which prevails in Africa, and of the effect it produces. The reader is requested to carry a sense of this most miserable state of things along with him, while we are considering what can be done towards the moral, intellectual, and religious improvement of the people.

Preliminary to this, I beg to call attention to certain indications,-faint, no doubt,-but, considering the difficulties and impediments to improvement in Africa, encouraging indications,—of a capability for better things;

And also, to show that there are facilities for giving instruction to the inhabitants, which hold out the hope that our labours, if we shall be induced to make them, will not be in vain.

Hence an argument for a mighty effort towards the moral and intellectual improvement of Africa, may be successfully derived.

Before I proceed to these indications of capability, I must premise that a just judgment cannot be formed of the Africans without reference to the circumstances in which they are placed. Things which would be no proof at all of intelligence in an European, who had

been taught the truths of religion, and been under the influence of a certain measure of refinement and civilization, denote positive intellect in an African savage from his birth, imbibing the grossest superstition, and bereaved of motives to action by his insecurity.

What Allowance then should be made in favour of the Negro?

When we find that at this period of the world there are nations not very remote from the centre of civilization, who have as yet learned the use of no agricultural implement but the hoe, and who, eager for wealth, have not energy enough to till their land, or work their mines, or in any way to avail themselves of the prodigal bounty of nature, we are apt to rush to the obvious but fallacious conclusion, that they are not men in the ordinary sense of the term, but beings of a stunted intellect, and of a degraded order. This false conception has been the cause of infinite suffering to the negro race. During the whole controversy on the subject of slavery, it was the great defence and apology of the planters; it constituted their whole case. They triumphantly pointed at the idleness of the negro, and extracted from it a justification of the necessary severity with which he was treated. The error has not as yet been dissipated; many benevolent persons, judging of the African under his present aspect, despair of his improvement.