many thousands of the innocent negroes of Guadaloupe and St. Domingo. "His new method with Toussaint could not fail of final success. The strength however of the sufferer's constitution, added to his patience and religious tranquillity, made the murder a very tedious work. His death was not announced in the French papers till the 27th of April last; so that he held out under all the sufferings of the last winter; and it is doubted whether the Consul was not obliged to have recourse at last to poison or some other violent means. Some people entertain a notion that this great man is still living. If he be, Providence has wonderfully preserved him, and probably for some gorious end; but as the account of his death, shameful as it was to the Consul, was permitted to be published in France, and has not been contradicted there, I fear it is too true that this foul murder is finished; and has added an unsurpassable pitch of guilt and infamy to the other crimes of his oppressor. "Here, then, we must drop the curtain on the great, the good, the pious, and the generous Toussaint, leaving him to reep the fruits of his virtues in that happier world, Where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest'." (p. 13-16. Part III.) The following extract, with which we shall close our review, contains some facts which ought to be universally known. They afford a most satisfactory refutation of those arguments by which West Indians endeavour to repel the charge made on their colonial system, as unfriendly to human life and happiness; and they prove, in opposition to the hardy affirmations of the advocates of that system, that the negroes may be made to labour without the compelling power of the cart whip, if not in a degree to satisfy the cupidity of needy and unprincipled adventurers, yet sufficiently for their own comfortable subsistence, and for the maintenance of an extensive cultivation and a beneficial commerce. "Toussaint being relieved from the pressure of the war with England, in consequence of the treaty with General Maitland already mentioned, set to work with new vigour in his plans for the public good. "The restoring the public worship of God, and spreading the knowledge of religious truth as far as he himself was blessed with it, were the objects nearest his heart. Next to these, which he knew to be the corner stones of public happiness, he was unwearied in his attempts to reform abuses; especially to set the idle to work, and by these and other means to improve the culture of the soil, and encourage that foreign commerce, which is so necessary to a West India island. "It is truly wonderful to think how much toil he must have gone through, even in the little we know of his public labours; for he had still from the perverseness of Rigaud's party a new insurrection to quell, and had to obtain possession of the Spanish part of that large island lately ceded to France, which the Spanish governor, upon various pretences, and perhaps by the secret request of the French government," long withheld. But at length the genius and activity of our hero triumphed over all obstacles, and before peace was concluded between this country and France, every part of St. Domingo was in quiet submission to his authority, and rapidly improving in wealth and happiness under his wise adininistration. "So rapid was the progress of agriculture, that it was a fact, though not believed at the time in England, that the island already produced, or promised to yield in the next crop, one third part at least of as large returns of sugar and coffee as it had ever given in its most prosperous days. This, considering all the ravages of a ten years war and the great scarcity of all necessary supplies from abroad, is very surprising, yet has since clearly appeared to be true. "But what was of far more consequence, this great and growing produce was obtained without the miseries, the weakness, or dangers of West India slavery. Men were obliged to work, but it was in a moderate manner, for fair wages; and they were for the most part at liberty to chuse their own place. The plantation negroes were therefore in general contented, healthful, and happy. from the new state of things, a blessing "A still more happy effect had arisen of the greatest importance to France, if she had not been mad enough to take the wicked measures, of which I shall soon have to speak, and not to France only, but to Africa, and to human nature. The effect I speak of was a large increase in the rising generation of negroes, instead of that dreadful fulling off which is always found in a colony of slaves. What, "My readers may be surprised at this fact, especially if they have ever met with any of those false and idle accounts which have been published, to persuade us that the loss of life among the island negroes does not arise from oppression. it may be said, can the young and infant negroes of St. Domingo have increased by natural means since the revolution, in spite of perpetual war, foreign and civil, of frequent massacres, and of all the wants and miseries which, during twelve years, have fallen upon that hapless and devoted island? How can this be, when in Jamaica, and other West India islands, in the midst of peace and plenty, the same race of people are always declining in numbers, so that population can only be kept up by the slave trade?' "I leave the defenders of slavery and the slave trade to a swer the question. I I will only offer for their help the opinion of a person whose judgment and impartiality they will readily admit. It is no other than Monsieur Malouet, formerly minister of the French colonies and marine, an old West India planter, a defender of the slave trade, and the champion of Buonaparte, in his late measures against Toussaint. M. Malouet published a book last year at Paris, in which he attempts to justify the Consul for re-enslaving the negroes in the West Indies, yet thus he writes of the state of negro population in St. Domingo: « ALL ACCOUNTS ANNOUNCE A MUCH GREATER NUMBER OF INFANTS, AND AMONG LESS MORTALITY THE LITTLE P. 52, REVIEW OF REVIEWS, &c. &c. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. ligion, have at length resolved to vio SIR, late every principle of truth and jus tice, and common decency, in decrying those.authors whose adherrence to the genuine doctrines of the esta blished Church, exposes their shameful deviations from her. I am, SIR, J. O. To the Editor of the British Critic. SIR, As you have frequently undertaken the highly useful task of exposing the dishonesty of reviewers, you would not, perhaps, refuse the following letter a place in your publication. It was sent to the Editor of the British Critic, on the appearance of the first York, Sept. 5. 1803. part of his critique on the "True Churchmen ascertained," in June last; but neither obtained the justice it demanded of being inserted in that review, nor drew forth any other satisfactory explanation on the subject of its complaints. Your intelligent readers will, probably, be of opinion, that this critic has supplied strong evidence of the unusual correctness of the work in question on the subject of quotation, when, in order to criminate it on this head, he has found it necessary first to garble and misquote the very passages attacked; first to corrupt it, and then generously to hold up its corruption to reprobation! They will perceive a strange inconsistency between the language of the prospectus to this review, and the doctrines now inculcated by its writers: and, on the whole, they will see too much reason to fear, that these gentlemen, like certain other professed guardians of our literature and re IN your attempt to convict me of the crime of unfair quotation, you have proved against yourself the truth of your own maxim; that a man "may sometimes be grossly guilty of the same offence of which he accuses another, and in the very page that conveys the charge." (Brit. Critic, Vol. VII. p. 143). You have printed the very title of my publication incorrectly, and exhibited the error at the head of your pages. My meaning is also obscured by your substitu tion of whole for wholly, p. 484; received for reviewed, p. 485; this for their, p. 491; and by the omission of my inverted commas, in the quotation from Dr. Paley. But these, I suppose, are mere errors of the press. In p. 490, you represent me as acknowledging, in a note at p. 10, that, in a few instances, I do "not quote fairly!" But whoever fairly examines that page of my book, will be convinced, that the very contrary is the fact; and that I profess, at least, to have been peculiarly correct in quotation.-To give an instance of this unfairness, speaking of me, you say, "In page 18, of his work, he quotes us, as affirming, in the 610th page of our 14th volume, that the Thirty-nine Articles are to be considered as a mere form of admission into the Church'." Put the reader who shall take the trouble to 66 turn to this part of the book will find, that I only refer to you as my authority for saying, that by some ministers" the Articles are thus considered; a reference for which your language affords me the fullest warrant. I am here speaking generally, and proceed to individuals in the following paragraphs. My reference to you stands thus: "See British Critic for Dec. 1799, p. 610." But, as the note to the next passage you mention may shew, when I quote you as affirming any thing as your own sentiment, only specify the place where you affirm it; as thus, Feb. 1796. p. 146." The surprise I afterwards express at your approbation of Dr. Paley's notions on subscription to the Articles, is also a plain intimation that I do not quote this passage as expressive of your sentiments on the subject. respect to unconditional election; and having quoted the beginning of an argument in this page, you make me reason absurdly, by omitting what immediately follows, and patching to it a few lines, beginning with the middle of a sentence, from p. 107. Yet your readers have not the smallest intimation but that you have quoted the paragraph precisely in the order as it stands, and for the purpose intended by it, in my book; except that at the foot of your quotation they see pp. 102, 107. (p. 488). In the same paragraph, you astonish your readers, partly by the information, chiefly in italics, that on examining the page I refer to, they "will find in it not one word of the Articles!" But will they not be rather surprised again, that you should have made this remark, when they are further informed, that on lifting their eyes to the very first line of the succeeding page they will behold the whole " Thirty-nine Articles;" that the sentence in which they are contained really begins in the page referred to; and that without the perusal of a part of this page, the passage quoted cannot, as it stands in the British Critic, be fully understood?-In your quotation from my 93d page, which you give as a correct statement of the passage, you omit the words, "from what has been advanced in this section," (p. 484).-My language in p. 102, on a perfectly different subject, the necessity of practical chrisLianity, you represent me as using in In both the quotations which you have contrasted with their originals in opposite columns, where, if any where, strict accuracy was indispensable, you have SUPPRESSED MY DOTTED LINE, which informs the reader that something is omitted, and have by this circumstance represented me as giving for my author's entire and unbroken language, what is marked as not such. And thus by your own infidelity you have furnished your most plausible argument in support of mine. (p. 491, 492).-In regard to the purport of these quotations, I cannot perceive the smallest incorrectness. The words of the archbishop, which you supply, furnish some apology for the conduct under consideration, but it is only in support of the FACT that such a mode of preaching in some degree obtained, for which he is quoted by me. The grounds and reasons of the practice did not at all enter into my argument. Had accounting for it been my object, I might have done it in a similar manner. before me, whoever shall carefully And on the point peruse the charge referred to, will find that this venerable prelate's evidence is so far from being either perverted or overstrained in my quotation, that it is abundantly more forcible and decisive when the whole of his observations are considered together. In what respects yourself, your charge against me is serious indeed. Mr. Overton," you say, "by garbling his quotation from the British Critic, has completely and wilfully misrepresented our meaning: he has kept out of view the only point relating to subscription, on which we ever expressed our agreement with the Archdeacon of Carlisle; and has exhibited us as praising a laxity of principles which we have uniformly condemned." (p. 492). The se creted passage, then, shall again be presented to your readers. It may, however, first be proper to inform them, that you have not even quoted yourself fairly. You have suppressed the words, his misrepresentation of Mr. Paley's meaning.' You have placed the paragraph in a different light by the introduction of capital and italic letters, when the whole of the original, except the Latin, is in small Roman characters. Yet in the comparison you undertook to make, the smallest alterations were improper. The passage, then, which I have not quoted, you know, is this: "We are still inclined to think with him, (Mr. Paley) with regard to that act, that the rule of subscribing should be that of the animus imponentis; and that the principal enquiry should be, while paying that necessary respect to the laws of our country, quis imposuit et quo animo ?” Now, the ONLY POINT relating, &c." being contained in this passage, your agreement with him must be wholly confined to what Dr. Paley has said of the animus imponentis being the rule of subscribing any test of faith.-But would the most intelligent of your readers suppose, from the whole of your language on the subject taken together, as it stands in your 14th volume, that you intended only to express this partial approbation of Dr. Paley? Have you given them the most distant intimation, that you only agreed with the Archdeacon on this SINGLE POINT, and that you condemned the laxity of his principles in every other respect? How different is the idea really conveyed in your language; when, in opposition to a writer who had expressed a general disapprobation of the Doctor's notions of subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles, you say; "We avow our satisfaction in the liberal ("not flimsy and unprincipled") arguments, adduced by the Archdeacon in his explanatory observations on the duty of subscribers to that test of faith. We are still, &c."-Recollect too, Sir, that, in a preceding page, you have thus expressed yourself: "The subject of subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles is next discussed; and Archdeacon Paley, for his liberal and rational sentiments on that head, falls under the lash of our political theologue." (p. 142).-And do you not here, Sir, apply the epithets LIBERAL and RATIONAL to Doctor Paley's sentiments on THE SUBJECT OF SUBSCRIPTION TO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES, without the smallest reserve or qualification? And is it, after you have done this, "completely and wilfully to misrepresent you," to say, all that I have said; that you have "avowed satisfaction in," and given a high commendation of, Doctor Paley's notions" of subscription to the Articles? If one honest and intelligent reader will join you in supporting such a charge, I will really plead guilty to it. Even then, however, I shall contend, that in an attempt to criminate me on the subject of quotation, you should have quoted me precisely as I have written. This, it has appeared, you have not done, either in the pas sage which respects yourself, or in any one of the passages which are given as quotations from me, and on which you animadvert.-You have, in two instances, suppressed my dotted line, and have thus given the greatest plausibility to your accusation; you have exhibited me as applying to one subject, language which I unequivocally use on another subject; you have patched up a complete paragraph from two distant pages; you have excited an unjust surprise re specting the Articles not being mentioned at the page I referred to; you have represented me as giving for your sentiments, what I only give on your authority as the sentiments of some others; you have perverted my acknowledgment in regard to my li berties in quotation; and all this, in the course of five pages of your Re view. How justly then, Sir, may I adopt your own strain of animadversion. Surely the critic, who quotes in this manner," when incorrect quotation is the immediate subject of his remark, "is entitled to no credit for fairness," on any other occasion. I am unwil ling, however, to retort your more harsh epithet. Coinciding with you in principle very generally, (see Preface to my Apol. and the Prospectus to the Brit. Crit.) having always entertained and expressed great respect for your work, (see Apol. p. 15, 316, 398, &c.) and having on a former occasion been flattered by your warm commendation, (see Brit. Crit. Vol. XV. p. 322. art. 32.) it would give me great pain to inform the public, that you have now "wilfully misrepresented me." This shall be my last resource. I will first suppose, that a writer with uncommon want of accuracy has been employed on the article. I will first give you an opportunity of accounting for the causes of my complaint yourself. I must, however, demand justice from you. You must, in your next number, either insert this letter, or adopt some other method of explaining the subject, which will undeceive your readers respecting me, and which would be satisfactory to yourself in my circumstances. I promise you, that if, even with the aid of Mr. Daubeny's late volume, you can fairly point out any such palpable misquotations and misrepresentations from my four hundred pages, as those of which I complain, they shall be publicly acknow ledged to be such, and your services Your faithful fellow-labourer, York, June 20th, 1803. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE, &c. &e. GREAT BRITAIN. THE patriotic tracts, placards, and songs, have been as numerous this month as the last. When we consider, indeed, the well-informed state of the public mind with regard to the causes of the war, and the character and views of the enemy, and the feeling of just indignation and determined courage to which it has been wrought, we think it not unseasonable to hint that these effusions should be kept within due bounds. We are fully of opinion, that any other than those which bring forward matter decisively new, or which place, what may be already known, in a light strikingly original and impressive, will tend rather to diminish than to increase the public feeling. We have ourselves seen UPWARDS OF TWO HUNDRED DISTINCT PUBLICATIONS, and these, with many which we have not seen, have been issued in about two months! Among those which have been recently published, we recommend more particularly the following: An Address la True Christians on the Signs and Duties of the Tim's. Price 1d. or 10d. per dozen, or 6s. per hundred. We strongly recommend this address for general circulation. Some clauses are added, which may be interwoven in daily prayer during the continuance of the war, and which are in part taken from the prayer published in our number for July. Family Prayers adapted to the present State of Public Affairs; extracted from the CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 21. Christian Observer for July and August 1805. Price one halfpenny or 3d. per dozen. An Address to Christians of all denominations on the Alarm of Invasion. Written by the late Rev. G. WHITFIELD, in 1756; with notes and observations relative to the present awful crisis. An Address to the Inhabitants of Britain; founded on the Advice of Nehemiah to the Jews. ch. iv. 14. 12mo. Price 3d. or 2s. 6d. per doz. we Invasion defeated. By the author of the State of Things for 1803, in a Dialogue between the Old Year and the New Year; 12mo. Price 3d. or 2s. 6d. per dozen. The danger of Invasion the writer states to be certain, great, and near; the means of defeating it must therefore be great, prompt, and united; and the motives of exertion are, the love of our country, the value of that country, and the consideration that have in it but a life - inheritance. "We received it," he says, "from our ancestors on those implied terms, that we should transmit it to our descendants; and if we suffer it to be taken from us without a struggle, we shall deserve the curses of both. The infant that hangs upon the breast, the child unborn; in a word, all the generations that are yet to fill up the remainder of time, have a claim upon that precious inheritance, which you hold for your own use and in trust for them. Ani inated by this consideration, return the menaces of your ambitious enemy, with 4 C |