The Bishop vindicates them; remarking, that if no British subject is “exempt from the duty of doing every thing in his power towards preventing the continuance of so great a political as well as moral evil, more especially are not those subjects whose business it is to teach what it is every man’s concern to know; the interpreters of God’s word, which is so flagrantly violated by West Indian slavery and its consequences.” “Instead of wishing to restrain the exertions of any order of men or individuals, in this cause of human nature, let us rather of all ranks, professions and persuasions unite—in the name of the common Father of mankind—in the name of Him who died to save us all—in the name of Faith, of Charity, and of Liberty, to implore those who have the power, to extirpate a system of cruelty and oppression which has been so long suffered to exist, to the dishonour of human nature, the discredit of a Christian nation, of a generous and enlightened people, and the disgrace of a free constitution!”
“Whether,” observes the good Bishop, “all the cruelties imputed to the slave trade, and to Slavery, can or cannot be substantiated; whether the cruelties complained of can be mitigated or not; the very existence of slavery, as long as it is permitted, must be a heavy reproach to this country, and a discredit to the age which can tolerate it.” “Whatever a Machiavellian in politics or commerce” may urge to the contrary, “slavery ought to be abolished, because inconsistent with the will of God.” It is not a question, he contends, to be argued merely by statesmen and publicists, but the “natural and scriptural illegality” of slavery may be judged of “on grounds infinitely superior to all commercial considerations (as much superior as the soul is to the body, as the interests of eternity are to the concerns of a day,) by every one that can feel for his fellow creatures, and can be determined by every one that can read the Scriptures.” And, adds his lordship, whatever opposition may be made by interested persons for a time, “we cannot doubt that the great principles of political justice which form the basis of our constitution, and which ought to come home to the breast of every British subject, will have their full weight in the deliberations of those august assemblies which are to decide on a cause that involves the purity of our holy religion, and the credit and consistency of our national character.”
Forty years of most opprobrious supineness and indifference have passed over our heads since the pious Bishop made this manly and forcible appeal to the national conscience. We trust, that now, in the evening of his days, he may have an opportunity of sealing, by an effective vote, the final extinction of the evil which, in earlier life, he so powerfully exposed.
2. Appeal to the Bench of Bishops on Colonial Slavery, by Granville Sharpe.
The character of Granville Sharpe is too well known to require any prefatory observations. A reference to his authority may form no unappropriate supplement to the extracts we have given from the pamphlet of the Bishop of Salisbury, who was the friend and the fellow labourer of that great philanthropist. In the year 1788, Granville Sharpe published a work entitled, “The Law of Retribution, or a Serious Warning to Great Britain and her Colonies, founded on unquestionable examples of God’s temporal vengeance against tyrants, slave-holders, and oppressors.” He commences his warning with the following passage of Scripture:—
“The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully, and I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.” Ezekiel xxii. 29-31.
Towards the conclusion of the work, after applying and repeating this text, he thus addresses the Right Reverend the Bench of Bishops:
“And have not the inhabitants of Great Britain and her Colonies, just reason to expect a similar vengeance for the like oppressions? Do they flatter themselves that the same God will permit them to go on without recompensing their ‘own way’ upon their heads? Slavery for Slavery? Or have they forgot, that the God of Israel, who thus reproved his peculiar people for holding their brethren in bondage, is the same ‘Lord God’ with whom we have to do? And that he is unchangeable? How would our rulers and chief men bear a repetition of this unchangeable word in the presence of God, when the Books are opened for judgment:—‘I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none!’ May I not say, that even ‘backsliding Israel’ shall ‘rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it?’ As ‘the backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah,’ (Jer. iii. 11.) so she hath surely ‘justified herself more than’ Britain! for when the measure of her iniquity seemed to be filled by that notorious act of oppression in the reign of Pekah before mentioned, there were yet found in her four worthy advocates ‘to stand in the gap before God for the Land;’ even four ‘chiefs’ (or Nobles) ‘of the children of Ephraim,’ who boldly protested against the horrid crime of domestic slavery. But Great Britain, though staggering under a much heavier load of the same kind of guilt has not proºduced, out of her numerous Peerage, one single chief to stand up ‘for the land,’ and remove her burden! Mark this ye Right Reverend Fathers of our Church, who sit with the Princes of the Realm to consult the welfare of the state! Think not that I am inclined through any misguided prejudice to charge your order, in particular, with the omission. The crying sin has hitherto been far distant from your sight, and perhaps was never fully represented to you, or like faithful watchmen of Israel, you would long ago have warned our nation of the danger: but I now call upon you, in the name of God, for assistance! Ye know the Scriptures, and therefore to you, my Lords, in particular I appeal! If I have misrepresented the word of God, on which my opposition to slavery is founded, point out my errors, and I submit: but if, on the other hand, you should perceive that the texts here quoted are really applicable to the question before us, that my conclusions from thence are fairly drawn, and that the examples of God’s vengeance against tyrants and slave-holders ought strictly to warn us against similar oppressions and similar vengeance, you will not then, I trust, be backward in this cause of God and Man. Stand up (let me entreat you) ‘for the land; make up the hedge,’ to save your country; perhaps it is not yet too late! Enter a solemn protest, my Lords, against those who ‘have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.’ Ye know that the testimonies I have quoted are of God! Warn, therefore, the nobles and Senators of these Kingdoms, that they incur not a double load of guilt; as the burden, not only of the much injured African strangers, but also of our country’s ruin, must rest on the heads of those who withhold their testimony against the crying sin of tolerated slavery! For ‘I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.’” Ps. cxl. 12.
3. Fresh Atrocities in Berbice.
Berbice has been one of the colonies which has boasted the most of its humanity, but which, to say the least, has been not less distinguished for its cruelties than the other colonies. Its Memorial to the Privy Council, in 1827, was loud in professions of tenderness for the feelings of the slaves, notwithstanding the recency of those reports of its Fiscal which filled this country with horror. (See Reporters, Nos. 5 and 16.) Later reports from this colony continue, as may be seen in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 43, to be marked by the same disgusting characters of brutal ferocity and of callous indifference to negro comfort as the former. And an occurrence, which has taken place there so recently as November last, will plainly shew how little amendment in the state of the slaves in that colony has been derived from the Order in Council.