“Sierra Leone colony was established for the godlike purpose of abolishing the slave-trade; to enlighten the Africans; to render [[171]]them virtuous, rational, free, and happy; and yet these powerful advocates and patrons of the rights of man, could wantonly destroy, in its healthful infancy, a settlement in which those rights were peculiarly studied and held sacred. ‘By their fruits ye shall know them.’
“But it will yet, like the phoenix, arise from its ashes. It was formed to promote the cause of justice, mercy, and religion; a cause which possesses, in itself, the principle of re-animation—an ever-renewing means of rallying its resources, overborne, for a time, by a base treachery and unmanly violence.
“My faithful Samboe, and no less faithful Frank, have been like ministering angels to the distressed, in this season of calamity. ‘My poor country,’ said Samboe, ‘and my generous friends, what a sad reverse is here! But though grieved,’ he added, ‘I am not in despair; for has not the Almighty said, (He in whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning,) ‘I will never leave nor forsake those who trust in me. Commit thy way unto the Lord, and he shall bring it to [[172]]pass.’ I cannot conclude my letter better, than by assuring my dear ——, that such is the trust and confidence we all repose in the Being, who out of evil still educes good.”
Now, to resume and conclude our narrative, we have but to say we may speak of these difficulties in the past tense; they no longer, praised be the great Disposer of Events, they no longer are experienced at Sierra Leone; but have vanished, gradually, before the enlightened policy of the superintendants, and the mild influence of Christian doctrine. The enjoyments of the present life, the bright hopes of a future state, are now communicated to thousands of our fellow-creatures, formerly in a state of mental and moral darkness, and obnoxious to the most frightful miseries, victims of the basest passions, subjects of the most alarming fears.
Justice, mercy, and courageous perseverance, are now reaping their high temporal reward; and the blessing of the Almighty upon patient continuance in well-doing, enables England to boast that she has overcome [[173]]the most inveterate prejudices, the most firmly-established interests, built upon the basest passions; and this by the simple power of experiment, and the eloquence of truth.
Sierra Leone, where this experiment has been made, now presents itself as a medium of civilization for Africa. “And in this point of view, (it has been most justly observed,) is worth all the treasure that has been expended upon it; for the slave-trade, which was the great obstacle to this civilization, being now happily abolished by the universal voice of England, there is now a populous metropolis, from which may issue the seeds of reformation to this injured continent, and which, when sown, may now, watered by the genial dews of heaven, be expected to grow into fruit, without check or blight. New schools may be transplanted from thence into the interior; teachers and travellers be sent from thence in various directions; the natives resort in safety to it from distant parts, mark the improvements, witness the comforts, taste the enjoyments, [[174]]and feel the protection of it. Hence will mistrust give way to confidence, emulation will be raised, imitation be encouraged, a desire of instruction be excited, and the predatory ignorant savage be gradually moulded into the useful citizen and the rational man.
Let then each English heart rejoice, that the moral stain, so long apparent on our statutes, so long exhibited in our national character, is now erased from the one, and expunged from the other; that the impious doctrine so long contended for, that the law of force was justifiable under certain circumstances, is now banished from the deliberations of our senate; and man, whatever his country, whatever his colour, is restored to his moral rights. Let us rejoice that we have not only been the advocates of the oppressed—have triumphed by perseverance and constancy over the oppressor; but that England has become the favoured and glorious instrument of a God of mercy, to make his light to shine upon those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death. May every nation, feeling the blessing of that light, [[175]]which is upheld by that mercy, follow the example of our favoured isle! May the rich stream of mercy flow, and diffuse throughout far-distant lands its fertilizing influences! May the spirit of a Wilberforce and a Clarkson, inspire the breasts of the powerful; and may the gratitude and the intelligence of Samboe, glow in the heart, and animate the conduct of every African!
[1] See Discourse of the Bishop of London, before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, October 1817. [↑]