system of pawning. The head of a family | be paid to purchase rum for the judges, 11. for may pawn his relations to raise money; and the gratification of the followers, ten shillings to though they may have an option on some the man who took the trouble to weigh out these occasions, the point of honor prevents its different sums, and five shillings to the courtbeing enforced. Till the debt is repaid with criers. Thus Quansah had to pay 121. 15s. to fifty per cent. interest, the pawned are prac-bers of which during the trial carried on a pleasbring his case before this august court; the memtically slaves, and so are the children unless ant carouse of rum and palm wine. they are redeemed; while the pawnee seems to possess a summary sort of foreclosing power, by which he may sell them all. This state of things renders our direct interference on the subject of slavery a ticklish affair, especially as we have no political rights in the country either by conquest or cession; in fact, we are truly no more than tenants of the factories we occupy. The Colonial Office could not be made to understand this; and at a more fanatical period, or perhaps when the anti-slavery party were supposed to be more powerful than they now are, it directed pro-mained unsupported by a single iota of evidence. ceedings that would have inevitably ended in war, had they been carried out by the authorities at Cape Coast Castle. Even now the office persists in "ignoring" the subject. The Negro mind is litigious and casuistical. Few persons are found without a knowledge of the laws, or the power of conducting a case; for a man's fortune or freedom may depend upon his skill. Mr. Cruickshank gives a very bad account of their law and practice. Abstractedly such may be the fact; but it does not strike us that Negro jurisprudence is much worse than law in other places. The case of Quansah versus Oboo, which our author adduces as an instance of African judicial iniquity, is not without parallel at home in its main features. The plaintiff, Quansah, was jealous of his cousin and family head, Oboo, though on no better grounds than some superstitious notions. He proceeded against the suspected; but in lieu of going before his proper chief, Ottoo, he carried his case before the Pynins, or assembly of headmen - the Collective Wisdom. The decision of the Pynins conveys to the mind of the Fantee a species of abstract necessity, an irresponsible kind of fatality, which admits neither of resistance nor redress. When the day arrived for the hearing of Quansah's charge, a large space was cleanly swept in the market-place for the accommodation of the assembly for this a charge of ten shillings was made and paid. When the Pyning had taken their seats, surrounded by their followers, who squatted upon the ground, a consultation took place as to the amount which they ought to charge for the occupation of their valuable time; and, after duly considering the plaintiff's means, with the view of extracting from him as much as they could, they valued their intended services at 67. 15s.; which he was in like manner called upon to pay. Another charge of 21. 5s. was made in the name of tribute to the chief, and as an acknowledgment of gratitude for his presence upon the occasion; 17. 10s. was then ordered to and his wife should take the oath of purgation, As Quansah, however, insisted that both Oboo the Pynins were not allowed to declare their innocence until this ceremony was concluded. But even this oath did not satisfy Quansah; he represented that the Fetish by which they had sworn was not sufficiently powerful to reveal their guilt, and that he would not be satisfied until they had made a journey to the Braffoo Fetish at Mankassim, and taken the oath of purgation before the priests there. This being considered the principal Fetish of the country, an appeal of this kind is not made without considerable expense; Oboo's innocence without the confirmation of the but the Pynins declared themselves satisfied of Braffoo Fetish, whom they made it optional for him and the woman to consult or not as they thought fit. This finding made Quansah liable for the payment of Oboo's expenses; but there was little compensation to be found in this, for to raise the funds to enable him to begin this prosecution, Quansah had pawned his services to one of the head men who assisted at this mockery of justice; and, unless by any extraordinary good fortune he was enabled to repay the loan, he would very probably pass the remainder of his life in servitude. But the evil consequences of this iniquitous transaction did not stop short here. Oboo and his family were simple tillers of the ground, whose entire riches consist for the most part in their periodical crops of corn, yams, plantain, and cassada, which barely suffice to support the family, and to supply them with funds to purchase a few articles of clothing and a little rum for the performance of their annual customs; upon any sudden demand for money, they have no other resource than that of selling or pawning themselves and their relations. On the occasion which we have been describing, Oboo was obliged to pledge two of his nephews to obtain the 127. 15s., which was shared among the head men and their myrmidons. Thus we have seen, in this brief history, with what a fatal facility the corrupt nature of the native tribunals becomes instrumental in gratifying the passions of vindic tive men. Albemarle Street, May 19, 1824. The instance here cited is far from | stroyed, Mr. Moore was not legally liable to being a solitary one, either in its criminality or repay the two thousand guineas to Mr. Murin the injuriousness of its consequences, and it ray: has been selected as of late occurrence, and as having come under the official notice of the writer; who had the pleasure of being able to restore to freedom the nephews of Oboo, by means of a process of disgorging to which he compelled Oboo and his head men to submit. Twelve pounds fifteen shillings is undoubtedly a large sum for the Gold Coast; but if the costs of each litigant in our courts on a somewhat similar occasion were reduced to African value, they doubtless would amount to as much at least. The plaintiff failing in his suit, and not being worth the cost, of the defendant, sometimes occurs in happy England, where men are also occasionally ruined by law or its charges. The decision was sound enough; and from all the cost, anxiety, and wearing suspense of the law's delay the litigants were freed. The job was settled out of hand and finally. Had Mr. Quansah been a British litigant, he probably might have been able to carry his case before a British court which should be analogous" to the Bruffoo Fetish at Mankassim." From the Athenæum. Dear Sir-Ou my return home last night, I found your letter, dated the 27th, calling on me for a specific answer whether I acknowledged the accuracy of the statement of Mr. Moore, commuuicated in it. However unpleasant it is to me, your requisition of a specific answer obliges me to say that I cannot by any means admit the accuracy of that statement; and in order to explain to you how Mr. Moore's misapprehension may have arisen, and the ground upon which my assertion rests, I feel it necessary to trouble you with a statement of all the circumstances of the case, which will enable you to judge for yourself. Lord Byron having made Mr. Moore a present of his Memoirs, Mr. Moore offered them for sale to Messrs. Longman & Co., who however declined similar offer, which I accepted; and in Novemto purchase them; Mr. Moore then made me a ber, 1821, a joint assignment of the Memoirs was made to me by Lord Byron and Mr. Moore, with all legal technicalities, in consideration of a sum of 2,000 guineas, which, on the execution of the agreement by Mr. Moore, I paid to him; Mr. Moore also covenanted, in consideration of the said sum, to act as editor of the Memoirs, and to supply an account of the subsequent events of Lord Byron's life, &c. Some months after the execution of this assignment, Mr. Moore requested me, as a great personal favor to himself and to Lord Byron, to enter into a second agreement, by which I should resign the absolute property and Lord Byron, or any of their friends, a power which I had in the Memoirs, and give Mr. Moore of redemption during the life of Lord Byron. As the reason pressed upon me for this change was, that their friends thought that there were some things in the Memoirs that might be injurious to both, I did not hesitate to make this alteration at Mr. Moore's request; and, accordingly, on the 6th day of May, 1822, a second deed was executed, stating that, "Whereas, Lord Byron and Mr. Moore are now inclined to wish the said work not to be published, it is agreed that, if either of them shall, during the life of the said Lord Byron, repay the 2,000 guineas to Mr. Murray, if the latter shall re-deliver the Memoirs; but that LORD BYRON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. WE expressed, our readers will remember, last week, a doubt as to whether the property in the manuscript of the Byron Memoirs was legally in Mr. Moore at the time of Lord Byron's death though we argued the question of Mr. Moore's conduct in the matter on the ground of the right over the document assumed by himself. We have now had communicated to us the following letter from the late Mr. Murray, of Albemarle street, to Mr. Robert Wilmot Horton, the friend of Lord Byron's family; written, it will be seen, shortly after Byron's death, in answer to a statement made by Mr. Moore relative to the sale and destruction of the Autobiography. A limited number of copies of the letter have been printed the sum be not repaid, during the lifetime of by the present Mr. Murray for distribution Lord Byron, Mr. Murray shall be at full liberty among his father's friends—not so much, it to print and publish the said Memoirs within is understood, in needless vindication of his three months* after the death of the said Lord futher's conduct on this occasion, as in reply Byron." I need hardly call your particular atto certain passages in Moore's journal which tention to the words, carefully inserted twice Lord John Russell, after cancelling the prin- over in this agreement, which limited its existcipal entry, has, nevertheless, allowed to ence to the lifetime of Lord Byron; the reason stand and contradict his own summary of of such limitation was obvious and natural, Moore's conduct in this unfortunate affair.namely, that although I consented to restore the The letter, our readers will observe, confirms work while Lord Byron should be alive, to dithe statement which we made, that the MS. had been offered by Mr. Moore for sale to the Messrs. Longman, and refused by them, before it was offered to Mr. Murray; and states, among other points of moment, a new and important fact that when the MS. was de To this passage the present Mr. Murray has -The words "within Three added this note:Mr. Moore's request—and they appear in pencil, Months," were substituted for "immediately," at in his own handwriting, upon the original draft of the Deed, which is still in existence. rect the ulterior disposal of it, I should by no means consent to place it after his death at the disposal of any other person. doubt that, under all the circumstances, the public curiosity about these Memoirs would have given me a very considerable profit beyond the I must now observe, that I had never been large sum I originally paid for them; but you able to obtain possession of the original assign-yourself are, I think, able to do me the justice ment which was my sole lien on this property; of bearing witness that I looked at the case with although I had made repeated applications to Mr. no such feelings, and that my regard for Lord Moore to put me in the possession of the deed, Byron's memory, and my respect for his surwhich was stated to be in the hands of Lord By-viving family, made me more anxious that the ron's banker. Feeling, I confess, in some degree alarmed at the withholding the deed, and dissatisfied at Mr. Moore's inattention to my interests in this particular, I wrote urgently to him in March, 1823, to procure me the deed, and at the same time expressed my wish that the second agreement should either be cancelled or at once executed. Finding this application unavailing, and becoming by the greater lapse of time still more doubtful as to what the intentions of the parties might be, I, in March, 1824, repeated my demand to Mr. Moore in a more peremptory manner, and was in consequence at length put into possession of the original deed. But not being at all satisfied with the course that had been pursued towards me, I repeated to Mr. Moore my uneasiness at the terms on which I stood under the second agree ment, and renewed my request to him that he would either cancel it, or execute its provisions by the immediate redemption of the work, in order that I might exactly know what my rights in the property were. He requested time to consider of this proposition. In a day or two he called and told me that he would adopt the latter alternative, namely, the redemption of the Memoirs, as he had found persons who were ready to advance the money on his insuring his life, and he promised to conclude the business on the first day of his return to town, by paying the money and giving up the agreement. Mr. Moore did return to town, but did not, that I have heard of, take any proceedings for insuring his life; he positively neither wrote, nor called upon me, as he had promised to do (though he was generally accustomed to make mine one of his first houses of call), nor did he take any other step, that I am aware of, to show that he had any recollection of the conversation which had passed between us previous to his leaving town, until the death of Lord Byron had, ipso facto, cancelled the agreement in question, and completely restored my absolute rights over the property of the Memoirs. You will therefore perceive that there was no verbal agreement in existence between Mr. Moore and me, at the time I made a verbal agreement with you to deliver the Memoirs to be destroyed. Mr. Moore might undoubtedly, during Lord Byron's life, have obtained possession of the Memoirs, if he had pleased to do so; he, however, neglected or delayed to give effect to our verbal agreement, which, as well as the written instrument to which it related, were cancelled by the death of Lord Byron, and there was no reason whatsoever why I was not at that instant perfectly at liberty to dispose of the MS. as I thought proper. Had I considered only my own interest as a tradesman, I would have announced the work for immediate publication, and I cannot Memoirs should be immediately destroyed, since it was surmised that the publication might be injurious to the former and painful to the latter. As I myself scrupulously refrained from looking into the Memoirs, I cannot from my own knowledge say whether such an opinion of the contents was correct or not; it was enough for me that the friends of Lord and Lady Byron united in wishing for their destruction. Why Mr. Moore should have wished to preserve them, I did not nor will inquire; but having satisfied myself that he had no right whatever in them, I was happy in having an opportunity of making, by a pecuniary sacrifice on my part, some return for the honor, and, I must add, the profit, which I had derived from Lord Byron's patronage and friendship. You will also be able to bear witness that, although I could not presume to impose an obligation on the friends of Lord Byron or Mr. Moore, by refusing to receive the repayment of the 2,000 guineas advanced by me, yet that I had determined on the destruction of the Memoirs, without any previous agreement for such repayment, and you know the Memoirs were actually destroyed without any stipulation on my part, but even with a declaration that I had destroyed my own private property, and I therefore had no claim upon any party for remuneration. I remain, Dear Sir, your faithful servant, (Signed) JOHN MURRAY. To Robert Wilmot Horton, Esq. THE LAST MOMENTS OF ROB ROY. - His deathbed was in character with his life; when confined to bed, a person with whom he was at enmity proposed to visit him. "Raise me up," said Rob Roy to his attendants, "dress me in my best clothes, tie on my arms, place me in my chair. It shall never be said that Rob Roy Macgregor was seen defenceless and unarmed by an enemy." His wishes were executed; and he received his guest with haughty courtesy. When he had departed, the dying chief exclaimed: "It is all over now- put me to bed- - call in the piper; let him play Ha til mi tulidh' [we return no more] as long as I breathe." He was obeyed-he died, it is said, before the dirge was finished. His tempestuous life was closed at the farm of Inverlochlarigbeg (the scene, afterwards, of his son's frightful crimes), in the Braes of Balquhidder. He died in 1735, and his remains repose in the parish churchyard, beneath a stone upon which some admirer of this extraordinary man has carved a sword. His funeral is said to have been attended by all ranks of people, and a deep regret was expressed for one whose character had much to recommend it to the regard of Highlanders. - Memoirs of the Jacobites. From the N. Y. Journal of Commerce. ROBERT OWEN having done us the honor to send us a copy of his Manifesto to All Nations, touching the new light which has beamed upon his understanding through the medium of spiritual rappings, we lose no time in laying it before our readers, together with his "Narrative" of the ways and means by which he became converted to the new delusion. In this Narrative he states that he has had numerous interviews with the spirits; that all his questions relating to the past and present have been answered by them promptly and truly except one (the result of his own error), and that he has received "very rational replies as to the future." One of the questions which he states to have been answered promptly and truly, is as follows: Q. Have I (Owen) been assisted in my writings for the public by any particular spirit? Ans. "Yes." Q. What spirit? Ans. "God." This last answer, Owen tells us, was made in such a manner as to create "a peculiarly awful impression on those present." We should think so. For a veteran infidel, who through a long life has been diffusing his pernicious doctrines far and wide, to be told that he has been specially assisted in these writings by God, or the Spirit of God, is indeed awful - horrible — blasphemous. And this answer he supposes to have been given by the spirit of Benjamin Franklin! Much more likely by the Spirit of Darkness. But we will let the old gentleman (Owen) tell his own story in his own way. Until the commencement of this investigation, a few weeks since, I believed that all things are eternal, but that there is a constant change in combinations and their results, and that there was no personal or conscious existence after death. By investigating the history of these manifestations in America, and subsequently, as will be narrated, through the proceedings of an American medium, by whose peculiar organization manifestations are obtained, I have been compelled, contrary to my previous strong convictions, to believe in a future conscious state of life, existing in a refined material, or what is called a spiritual state. And that, from the natural progress of creation, these departed spirits have attained the power to communicate their feelings and knowledge to us living upon the earth, by various means. * From the communications which have been made to me, through the aid of this American medium, from Jefferson, Franklin, Grace Fletcher, and the father of our present sovereign, I am informed that these new manifestations, or revelations, from the spiritual, or, more truly, the refined material world, are made for the purpose miserable state of human existence, for a true, of changing the present false, disunited, and united, and happy state, to arise from a new universal education, or formation of character, from birth, to be based on truth, and conducted in accordance with the established laws of human nature. A change which, with the concurrence of the existing authorities in Europe and America, MANIFESTO OF ROBERT OWEN TO ALL GOVERN-disregarding all old prejudices, may be now MENTS AND PEOPLES. Peace, Charity, Love, Union, and Progress, to all the Inhabitants of the Earth. easily effected, to the lasting benefit of all upon earth. To delay the public announcement of these allimportant truths, now that they are known to A great moral revolution is about to be effected me, would be to delay unnecessarily the change for the human race, and by an apparent miracle. from ignorance to knowledge, from poverty to Strange and incredible as it will at first appear, wealth, from disunion to union, from falsehood communications, most important and gratify- to truth, from deception to honesty, from evil to ing, have been made in great numbers in Amer-good, and from general misery to universal hapica, and to many in this country, through mani-piness. festations, by invisible but audible powers, purporting to be from departed spirits, and to me especially from President Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, His Royal Highness the late Duke of Kent, Grace Fletcher, my first and most enlightened disciple, and many members of my own family, Welsh and Scotch. No one who knows me will attribute superstition to me, or want of moral courage to investigate truth, and to follow it wherever it may lead. The means to effect this change in all countries are known. The means by which the evils enumerated are created have become obvious. The means by which the good may be secured The medium referred to is Mrs. Hayden, resid ing at No. 22 Queen Anne street, Cavendish Square. All who have had opportunities of becoming well acquainted with Mrs. Hayden will testify to her I have honestly and fearlessly applied my best simplicity of mind, to the kindness and benevofaculties to examine the religions, laws, govern-lence of her disposition, and to the truthfulness ments, institutions, and classifications, of all of her professional statements, as well as to nations and peoples, and I have found them to her extreme sensitiveness when her veracity is be based on a fundamental principle of error, I doubted. can be now peacefully and with wise foresight introduced and gradually extended over the world. The obstacles to be removed, to prepare the way for these changes, are the errors of all religions, and the uncharitable feelings which each necessarily creates against the members of all other religions. And the error of all existing governments, respecting the fundamental principle which can alone cultivate and stimulate the natural faculties of man, to unity, charity, truth, love or real goodness, among the human race, from the birth to the death of each. These obstacles are to be now removed, not by violence, or abusive language, or in an unkind spirit; but with patience, forbearance, perseverance, and love for mankind, regardless of color, clime, country, class, sect, or party, or difference of race or condition. All are to be made happy, or none can be made to be substantially and permanently so. The means by which to effect this, the greatest of all changes in human existence, are, like all the operations of nature to attain general important results, simple in principle and easy in practice. All that is requisite is, to supersede, without violence, the false fundamental principle on which alone human affairs have been until now constructed and governed, and the characters of all have been cultivated and formed from birth. And in practice, to abandon the evil course of creating inferior and injurious conditions, now universal throughout all countries, necessarily making those within them inferior and injurious to themselves and others. And, instead of these evil proceedings, to commence the practice of creating good and superior conditions only, in which from birth to place all of the human race. And then, from necessity, all will become good and superior, and gradually, by this new education, very good and very superior. Were it not for these new and most extraordinary manifestations, there would arise a conflict between the evil spirits of democracy and aristocracy, which would deluge the world with blood, and would create universal violence and slaughter among all nations. But these manifestations appear to be made at this period, to prepare the world for universal peace, and to infuse into all the spirit of charity, forbearance and love. THE NARRATIVE. Many would-be-philosophers, and some who forget their own difficulties in their first attempts to introduce a knowledge of electricity, magnetism, mesmerism, and clairvoyance, as well as those of others in introducing any new great improvements-who do not know what has been attained and proved in other countries, and who have not calmly and perseveringly investigated the facts long since ascertained as undeniable. will hastily decide that these new manifestations, although apparently mere extensions of animal magnetism, are cunningly devised deceptions. Against any such crude and premature conclusions I strongly protest, knowing how long these same objectors have opposed the introduction of the system which I have for half a century advocated. a system based solely on self-evident facts, and built up on self-evident deductions from those facts a system having in view solely the permanent good of all from birth to death a system, and the only system, calcu|lated to compel all from their birth to become gradually as good, wise and happy, as their organization, given to them by the Great Creating Power of the universe, or God, will admit. I protest against the conclusions of these would-be-thought wise philosophers, because I have patiently, with first impressions strongly against the truthfulness of these manifestations, investigated their history and the proceedings connected with them in the United States - have read the most authenticated works for and against them, with much desire to disbelieve those in their favor-and, although against strong evidence, I long continued to doubt, and thought the whole a delusion (but in many cases I was obliged to admit it must be an honest delusion), I have been compelled to come to a very different conclusion. While in doubt upon this subject I heard of the media in this country, and was casually introduced to Mrs. Hayden, an American medium, without having any intention to ask a question respecting the spirits; my object being to purchase a book which Mrs. Hayden had for sale, written by a valued and most truthful friend of mine in America-Adin Ballou, who has written a plain, practical, common-sense history of this new revelation to the human race. While conversing with Mrs. Hayden, and while we were both standing before the fire, and These new and extraordinary manifestations talking of our mutual friends, suddenly raps have not changed my confidence in the truth of were heard on a table at some distance from us, the principles which I have so long advocated, no one being near to it. I was surprised, and nor my assurance of the benefits to be derived as the raps continued and appeared to indicate from their universal application to practice. On a strong desire to attract attention, I asked the contrary, the certainty of the immense per-what was the meaning of the sounds. Mrs. manent advantages to be insured by the adoption Hayden said they were spirits anxious to comof this system by the human race, has been confirmed to me by the spirits of Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, the Duke of Kent, and Grace Fletcher. Those who are wise, and who are not opposed to the universal happiness of mankind, will mark, learn, and inwardly digest these things. ROBERT OWEN. London, March 30th, 1853. municate with some one, and she would inquire who they were. They replied to her, by the alphabet, that they were friends of mine who were desirous to communicate with me. Mrs. Hayden then gave me the alphabet and pencil, and I found, according to their own statements, that the spirits were those of my Mother and Father. I tested their truth by various ques |