S$ 10-18. These clauses regulate the apprehension and imprisonment of run-away slaves till claimed by their owners. If not claimed in three months, the provost-marshal is empowered to sell them: the proceeds, after paying their expenses, to be paid into the treasury. Until sold, the runaways are to be kept at work in the chain gang. Persons claiming to be free are to be advertised as such for three months; and if at the end of that time their freedom is not proved, the Governor and Council are empowered to hear and to determine the matter, and either to sell them as slaves or send them off the island. For persons committed as runaways, but claiming to be free, the provost-marshal may take bail in 1007.-The keepers of the cage, or of prisons, misconducting themselves, or being guilty of any crime, misdemeanor, or offence, in their office, shall be punished with imprisonment, not exceeding one month, and fine, not exceeding five pounds *.

§ 18. Slaves confined in the cage, or in gaol, shall be employed in gangs, on the streets and highways, or public works in and around Bridgetown, secured by fetters †, under the superintendance of a proper person, who shall be answerable for their safety.

the fine for such an offence? It is equal to thirteen shillings and four-pence sterling! Now, if this fine is intended to operate as a punishment, we may assume it to be at least double the value of that "decent clothing, according to the custom of the island,” which an owner is expected to give. If we are wrong in this assumption, and the " decent clothing" of a Negro would cost more than thirteen shillings and four-pence sterling in the year, then the owner will gain, even if he pay the fine;-of course he will gain still more by merely running the risk of being made to pay it, by means of a conviction consequent on the complaint of his slaves.

* This law, bad as it is, is an improvement of the old law. It empowers the Governor and Council to examine his claim, before a man claiming to be free shall be sold as a slave. But even if he should not be proved to be a slave, he must still be banished; and in the mean time he must work in the chain gang.-It seems to evince a most extraordinary confidence in the keepers of cages and prisons, or a great tenderness for their crimes, to Jimit their punishment to 57. fine and one month's imprisonment, for any malversation in their office, even for starving or mutilating one of their prisoners, or whipping one of the chain-gang to death.

+ No exception is made of persons claiming to be free.

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§ 19. Inquests of coroners on the bodies of slaves, are to be transmitted, with all the evidence, to the Governor, and to be recorded in the Crown Office.

§ 20. Any justice of the peace may call out a guard of twenty men, armed, to apprehend run-away slaves; and if any such slaves are killed, in consequence of their resisting the authority of this guard, the guard shall not be punished for the same, either criminally or otherwise.

§ 21. Any owner, &c. permitting a slave to go at large for the purpose of supporting himself, or paying hire for himself, or following any trade or business, for his own advantage or that of his owner or any other person, shall forfeit 51.; the onus probandi resting on the party complained of. This most cruel and oppressive enactment is not to extend to a slave regularly settled in any house, and carrying on trade for the benefit of his owner, if licensed half-yearly.

§ 23. Any person may apprehend any slave having in his possession "any sugar-canes, sugar, rum, cotton, ginger, aloes, plate, wrought or cast iron, lead, copper, pewter, brass, tin, or other article or thing, of what nature or kind soever, without a note descriptive of the same; who, on conviction before any justice of the peace, shall be whipped, at his discretion, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes. And if any slave shall plant cotton, ginger, or aloes *, it can only be reaped under the inspection of some White person, and sold or disposed of by the same.

§§ 25, 26. Any White, free person, or slave, buying of a slave stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, shall be punished as the actual stealer would be. And if stolen goods are found in the possession of any White or free person, or slave, although it cannot be proved that it was with the knowledge of their being stolen, yet such person, if a White or free person, shall be proceeded against as receivers of stolen goods are proceeded against in England, and shall be taken and deemed and punished as accessary to the felony

Cotton, ginger, and aloes are the only articles, it would appear, except provisions, which slaves are allowed to plant. This is the way in which Negro industry is encouraged in Barbadoes. See also § 21.

after the fact; and if a slave, shall, on conviction before any justice of the peace, be whipped, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes*.

§ 27. “Any slaves guilty of quarrelling or fighting with one another; or of insolent language or gestures to or of any White person; or of swearing, or uttering any obscene speeches ; or of drunkenness; or making, selling, throwing, or firing squibs, serpents, or other fire-works; or of cock-fighting or gaming; or of riding on a faster gait than a walk, or of driving upon a faster gait than a gentle trot, on any road, street, or lane of the island; or of cruelly whipping, beating, or ill-using any horse, mule, ass, or other cattle; or of negligently driving any waggon, cart, carriage, &c.; or of ANY disorderly conduct or misbehaviour; shall, on conviction before any justice of the peace, be whipped, at his discretion, not exceeding thirty-nine stripes; but the punishment of pregnant women shall be commuted to imprisonment +."

§§ 28, 29, 30. Any person screening a slave, guilty of any of the above offences, from punishment, shall forfeit not less than 57. nor more than 25l. A like punishment, with the addition of a month's imprisonment in the common gaol, is assigned to all who permit gaming to be carried on by slaves on their plantations; the penalty being doubled on each succeeding offence. Constables, under a penalty of 5l. and imprisonment for fourteen days, are not to permit slaves to

* The gross injustice of these enactments is so obvious as to need no comment.

+ There is something irresistibly but most appallingly ludicrous in this specimen of colonial legislation. What should we say to an Act which should condemn all men, women, and children (preguant women scarcely excepted), at the discretion of any of his Majesty's justices of the peace, to thirty-nine lashes of the cart-whip, or the cat-o'-nine tails, on the bare breech, if they quarrelled, or used any insolent language or gesture, or swore, or spoke obscenely, or were drunk, or fought cocks, or gamed, or rode faster than a walk, or drove faster than a gentle trot, or were guilty of any disorderly conduct or misbehaviour? How admirably would the effect of Mr. Martin's Act be aided, if the Barbadoes law were transferred to England, and thirty-nine lashes could be inflicted on every one who should whip, beat, or ill-use any horse, mare, gelding, mule, ass, or other cattle! The tender feeling of the Barbadians for the brute creation goes far beyond even his.

game, or to assemble at huxters' shops, or dram shops, or any unlawful meetings *.

$$ 32-40. Slaves wilfully striking or assaulting any White person, shall suffer, for the first offence, not more than six months' imprisoument and thirty-nine lashes; for the second, transportation for life, or imprisonment and hard labour, at the discretion of the court. Slaves who shall strike, or offer or dare to strike, or use any violence towards their master or mistress, shall, for the first offence, suffer death without benefit of clergy, transportation, or such other punishment as the court may think fit to inflict; and for the second, death without benefit of clergy. Slaves guilty of treason or rebellion, or preparing arms or offensive weapons; or holding any council for the purposes of rebellion; or committing any murder, rape, forgery, felony, or robbery; or wilfully setting fire to any house, out-house, canes, cane-trash, canetops, cane-stalks, pea-trees, cotton, wood, or piles of lumber; or breaking into any house, by night or day, and stealing thence above the value of forty shillings; or compassing and imagining the death of any person or persons whomsoever, and declaring the same by some overt act; or stealing any live stock, or feathered stock, above forty shillings' value; shall, for every such offence, suffer death without benefit of clergy. Slaves committing any crime not here specified, which, if committed by a White or free person, would be deemed felony by the laws of Great Britain; or wantonly and wilfully killing, by poison or in any other manner, any cattle, horse, mare, mule, ass, sheep, or hog; or who shall pretend to supernatural powers, or shall use obeah for malicious purposes; or shall prepare poison, or cause it to be taken; shall suffer death without benefit of clergy, or such other punish

* These clauses, and that immediately preceding, evince a most extraordinary solicitude for the morals of the slaves on the part of the Barbadian legislators; and the surprize we cannot but feel at witnessing their intense ́and vehement indignation against every thing which borders on indecorum in the untutored slave, will not be lessened, if we should have derived our estimate of their own moral conduct from the account given of it by their Agent and Advocate, Mr. Jordan, in his pamphlet against the Registry Bill in 1816.

ment as the court shall think proper. Slaves stealing, or attempting to steal, under the value of forty shillings, any canetrash, cane-tops, cane-stalks, pea-trees, cotton, wood, fruit, goods or chattels, or any ground provisions, shall suffer corporal punishment, imprisonment, and bard labour, at the discretion of any one justice; but if the slave was urged to the crime by his owner not giving him sufficient food, the punishment shall be proportionably lessened, and the master be subject to a fine of 501.; or, if he cannot afford to feed his slave, the slave shall be taken possession of by the treasurer, and let to hire for the benefit of the owner. Slaves sen tenced to death or transportation, shall be valued, and the value, not exceeding 1007., paid to the owner*.

§ 41. The practice of divination, or fortune-telling, shall be punished in a slave by whipping, imprisonment, and working in the chain gang, at the discretion of any one justice; in a White, or free person, by a fine of 10%+

§§ 42-43. Any person wilfully or maliciously killing or murdering, or causing to be killed or murdered, any slave, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall suffer death without benefit of clergy. But "if any person shall unfortunately kill by accident the slave of another, he shall only be liable to an action at law for the value of the slave:" or if any slave shall be killed while committing, or attempting to commit, any robbery, theft, burglary, or arson, or in the attempt to maim or injure any White person, the person killing any such slave shall not be punished for the same, either criminally or otherwise.

§ 44." Whereas it is highly expedient to restrain owners and others, having the government and direction of slaves,

*The obstinate maintenance of these Draconian laws by the Assembly, in despite of the remonstrances of the Council, sufficiently indicates the popular feeling of Barbadoes. The lust of multiplying capital crimes and felonies, seems to have suffered no abatement among them.

+ How forcibly, in this and a variety of similar instances, does Lord Bathurst's remark, quoted above, apply! (see notes page 11).

The Barbadians have fought a stout battle for the privilege of extin guishing Negro life since Lord Seaforth first proposed to make the murder of a slave felony, instead of being liable only to a fine of 15l.: even now, to extort protection to Negro life seems like wringing from them drops of blood.