Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter, March 1829

1. DR. BURGESS, THE PRESENT BISHOP OF SALISBURY, ON COLONIAL SLAVERY.
2. APPEAL TO THE BENCH OF BISHOPS ON COLONIAL SLAVERY, BY GRANVILLE SHARPE.
3. FRESH ATROCITIES IN BERBICE.
4. RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.
1. Colonial policy at the present crisis.
2. Conduct pursued towards missionaries.
5. CAPE OF GOOD HOPE—SOCIETY FOR REDEEMING SLAVES.
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In our last Number we adduced the testimony of many distinguished prelates of the Church of England against the evils of Slavery. There remains one living Prelate whom it would be unpardonable for us to omit; we mean the present Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Burgess. In the year 1789, this learned and excellent person published a pamphlet, which we fear has been long out of print, and is only now to be found in such libraries as that of the British Museum, entitled, “Considerations on the abolition of Slavery , and the Slave Trade, upon grounds of natural, religious, and political duty.” A Liverpool Clergyman of the name of Harris, had published a pamphlet in defence of slavery, which he represented as a dispensation of Providence,—a state of society recognised by the Gospel;—in which the reciprocal duties of masters and slaves are founded on the principle of both being servants of Christ, and are enforced by the Divine rules of Christian charity. The following are some of the indignant observations of the good Bishop, on witnessing such a prostitution of the sacred truths and obligations of religion:—
“Reciprocal duties!” he exclaims, “Reciprocal duties!—To have an adequate sense of the propriety of these terms, we must forget the humane provisions of the Hebrew law, as well as the liberal indulgence of Roman slavery, and think only of West India slavery! of unlimited , uncompensated , brutal slavery, and then judge what reciprocity there can be between absolute authority and absolute subjection; and how the Divine rule of Christian charity can be said to enforce the reciprocal duties of the West India slave and his master. Reciprocity is inconsistent with every degree of real slavery.” “Slavery cannot be called one of the species of civil subordination. A slave is a non-entity in civil society.” “Law and slavery are contradictory terms.”