THE IMPERIAL MAGAZINE. APRIL, 1834. TOPOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ABBEVILLE, IN FRANCE. (With an Engraving.) THE two French provinces of Normandy and Brittany, but more especially Normandy, have long received every kind of illustration from the learning and industry of the antiquary, aided by the skill of the engraver. Almost every village and hamlet has been visited in turn by the Cotmans, Turners, and Dibdins, who have made the English reader acquainted with almost every remaining relic of the olden time. It is matter of regret that little in this way has yet been done for the ancient province of Picardy. Yet to Englishmen it possesses much interest: there is scarcely a town, or spot of ground, which has not been the scene of some interesting historical event. Yet, notwithstanding the number of our travellers who daily pass through the province, on their route from Calais to Paris, few are found willing to loiter even for the shortest period on the road. It is true, that Picardy possesses but few such splendid ecclesiastical edifices as are to be found in Normandy; and would probably require even more than the bibliographical sagacity of a Dr. Dibdin, to discover, amongst the best of its libraries, any thing in the shape of an editio princeps; and from the general want of bold landscape, there is not much to attract the picturesque traveller but surely, with something akin to the feelings with which most of our continental tourists visit the plains of Waterloo, they might turn aside to view the village of Crecy, celebrated for the victory of Edward III. and his renowned son the Black Prince, in 1346; or, to the small town of Ardres, where the meeting between Henry VIII. and Francis I. took place, and, from the magnificence there displayed, derived its name of the Champ du Drap d'Or; or the little town of St. Valery, situated at the mouth of the Somme, from whence William of Normandy sailed to the conquest of England. Agincourt is also but a short distance out of the province. Various Roman antiquities have at different times been discovered here-there are also circles, and other monuments of the kind which we call Druidical. : It is In the modern division of France into departments, Picardy forms part of the two departments of the Pas de Calais, and the Somme. a most fruitful province, producing corn and hemp, with much pasturage, but totally destitute of the vine, and with but little woodland. Its chief city is Amiens, an episcopal see, whose cathedral is a fine specimen of Gothic architecture; and the other principal towns are Abbeville,-Boulogne-Calais, Ham (in whose castle are immured the ministers of Charles X.) Montreuil-Peronne-Montdidier, &c. 2D. SERIES, NO. 40.-VOL. IV. The general aspect of the country, from Calais to Paris, is its openness, and the scarcity of towns, villages, and inhabitants: single cottages are rarely seen. Abbeville is situated on the river Somme, which divides itself here, at about four leagues from its mouth, into various branches, passing through and around the town. It derives its name from Abbavilla, or Abbatisvilla, being the country residence of the Abbots of Centula, or St. Riquier, at about two leagues distance; a castle was afterwards built upon the site, and a priory dependent on the abbey; but Hugues Capet being desirous of fortifying it, took it from the community of St. Riquier, of whom he had been the secular abbot, and gave it to his son-in-law, Hugues; whose son, Enguerrand, after killing in battle the Count of Boulogne, married his widow, and assumed the title of Count of Ponthieu, which remained to his descendants. From this period the town continued to increase in importance. Its principal churches are St. Wulfran, St. George, and St. Paul, only two of which were spared by the frenzy of the revolution. In 1205, the relics of St. Wulfran, Bishop of Sens, were removed hither, the abbey of St. Vandrille in Normandy. Abbeville is in the diocese of Amiens. Its houses are generally built of brick, many of them of wood; but there are several fine old buildings, especially the fine gothic church of St. Wulfran, its western front is decorated with colossal statues, and its gothic towers are striking features any view of the city. in The tide rises here six feet: vessels at 150 tons burden can reach the town; from which commercial advantage, it derives much of its importance. Its population, according to Sanson, amounted, in 1636, to as many as from 35 to 40,000 inhabitants: it now, however, contains not more than 20,000. But a few years before the bursting forth of the revolution, this city was the scene of one of those deeds of bigotry and fanaticism, which were so fearfully visited upon the clergy in after years, and which brought down the odium of the French nation on the whole body of the priesthood. The Chevalier La Barre, whose age was under twenty, in company with other young men, as imprudent as himself, returning to their homes late at night, offered some indignity to an old wooden image of the Virgin, which stood on the bridge. He was said to have wounded it on the shoulder, when in a state of intoxication. Although the wound in the image was slight, the Virgin was supposed to be mortally offended; many prayers and processions were made to expiate the offence, but nothing, it was supposed, could avert the vengeance of Heaven, but the death of the Chevalier La Barre. A criminal process was carried on, and a sentence obtained against him. He was condemned to have his right hand amputated, his tongue torn from its roots, and then to be beheaded: the more barbarous parts of his sentence were remitted, in consideration of his family; but the remaining part, to the eternal disgrace of those professing the christian religion, was enforced, and the unhappy youth was beheaded. Another of the delinquents, who was of noble family, was so fortunate as to escape, and join the army of Frederic of Prussia. He was, however, outlawed, and his estates confiscated. This young man happened to be interested in the friendship of Voltaire, who had considerable influence with Frederic: and his case formed the subject of many of those entertaining letters which passed between the soldier and the philosopher. The result of the interference of the latter was the pardon, and subsequent restoration and promotion, of the delinquent. UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION. Ir is certainly not a little to the credit of this country, that all those great measures, which have already been adopted for the extinction of the Slave-trade, for the amelioration of the condition of slaves, and finally for their emancipation, have emanated from British justice and humanity. This is the more satisfactory when we consider that the maintenance of slavery, enormous as is the guilt which it involves, does not shew so monstrous an instance of inconsistency and insensibility in us as in the Americans. Slavery exists at a distance from the observation of the English government. Its atrocities do not strike our notice, or offend our sensibilities, and even the recital of them does not affect us so powerfully as it might, because we feel it necessary, in some instance, to allow for exaggeration, owing to excited feeling and party spirit. The antiquity of the system, and its having long received the sanction of our legislature, naturally occasions some degree of tardiness in bringing it to the test of a strict and impartial examination. None of these mitigating circumstances can be pleaded, to palliate the guilt and inconsistency of American slavery. Its horrors are exhibited within their borders, and before their eyes. Their legislature cannot surely plead partial information or conflicting evidence. Their institutions have been formed by and for themselves, and none of them have been imposed by the 'wisdom of their ancestors,' or received in a consolidated and inseparable mass of mingled good and evil. Above all, their enthusiasm for political and civil liberty; and their loud professions upon this point, have arrested the notice, and raised the expectations, of all other states. The first and great article of their constitution affirms, in the most comprehensive terms, the doctrine of universal equality. And yet, in the face of all this, slavery obtains in America, not only to a greater extent, but also in a more revolting form, than even in our own colonies. It is but recently that the British public have been brought acquainted with the true character of American slavery. In some recent publications, however, the horrible details of the system have been made known, and more particularly in Stuart's 'Three Years in North America,' a work of acknowledged accuracy and high respect ability. It appears that slavery in the United States is confined to the districts below thirty-six degrees of north latitude; but the number of slaves below this limit, exceeds two millions. In some places, (as South Carolina for example,) education is prohibited by law, and a free person of colour cannot enter the territory. Slaveevidence is wholly inadmissible, except against each other. Trial by jury, even in capital cases, is denied: and, as the necessary consequence of such a system, the most barbarous usage is the rule, and kindness the rare exception. Cruelty, starvation, separation of families, and all the crimes in that black catalogue of oppression, with which we are at length familiar, prevail, with this peculiar and monstrous aggravation, that the slave cannot be made free! Such is the well-founded jealousy entertained of the very first step towards emancipation, that even the reluctant and conscientious slave-possessor, is restrained by law from divesting himself of his iniquitous property. The condition of the free people of colour in America, whose number exceeds 300,000, is only in a slight degree advanced. Their acquired privileges are but scanty and unsubstantial; their degradation is intolerable; their gradual banishment from the States is generally considered a maxim of national policy. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the internal slavetrade is carried on with all its most disgusting and loathsome incidents-husbands and wives, mothers and children, are publicly exposed to auction, and handled and examined like cattle, and then separated for ever with as little compunction as sheep or oxen in our markets. Charleston, says Mr. Stuart, has long been celebrated for the severity of its laws against the blacks, and the mildness of its punishments towards the whites for maltreating them. Until lately, there were about seventy-one crimes for which slaves were capitally punished, and for which the highest punishment for whites was imprisonment in the penitentiary. The publication of these facts has at length excited the attention of some portion of the Christian public in this country. They are resting from their protracted labours for the extirpation of slavery in our own colonies. They have achieved a triumph, in many respects most satisfactory and glorious. And now they are giving a still further proof of the genuineness of their benevolence, by extending it to the miseries of other nations. A Society is now about to commence its operations, which contemplates no less glorious an object than UNI VERSAL EMANCIPATION. It is exceedingly desirable that the public should be aware of the nature and extent of that evil against which this Society proposes direct its energies: we, therefore, think that the following statements, contained in a published Letter from the pen of the Rev. Thomas Roberts, of Bristol, are sufficiently important to deserve a place here : "The following account of the importation of Slaves into Rio Janeiro at these succeeding periods is correct :-In the year 1820, 15,020 slaves-1821, 24,134-1822, 27,963-1823, 27,349-1824, 29,503,1825, 26,254-1826, 33,999-1827, 29,789-1828, 43,555,-and from Jan. 1st, 1829, to March 25th of the same year, a period of only three months, 13,459 slaves were imported, making, in the short period of nine years and a quarter, the tremendous number of 264,025, and consequently in the last year and quarter of the above periods, upward of fifty-seven thousand. "This dreadful traffic is not in the least diminished at the present time. Very recently his Majesty's cruiser, the Nimble, captured three large schooners, each containing upwards of 300 negroes, and afterwards totally destroyed two others of a similar description, whose cargoes had just been previously landed. The slave dealers at Cuba have offered a large reward to any one who will assassinate the commander of the Nimble, and they are fitting out vessels, some of them mounting 20 guns each, to resist the cruisers employed to destroy the slave trade. His Majesty's Ship Isis has just captured a large vessel, with a cargo of 700 slaves, bound to the Mauritius. The failure of the late commercial expedition from Liverpool to Africa has arisen in a considerable degree from the zeal with which the slave trade is carried on by the nations of the interior with European dealers. Its profits are so great as to render the inhabitants of Africa indifferent to the productions of their own soil as articles of commerce. The nations in the interior are constantly at war with each other for the sake of obtaining captives for the slave trade, and so totally does this engross their attention, that the gentlemen, recently forming the commercial expedition to Africa, affirm that it was impossible to draw the attention of the natives to any kind of trade but to that in human beings. "The slave trade is deemed illegal in North America; it is nevertheless carried on to an immense extent in the Southern States. The law is evaded by vessels of small size skulking up creeks to land their cargoes in the interior, and then, driving their victims to a great distance from the landing-place, and professing that they are not newly imported, but merely sent from one distant State to be sold in another. "The inhumanity and horror connected with this dreadful traffic surpass description. It is carried on in vessels unregulated either by size or burthen, and in which such scenes are constantly produced, that, if described, many persons would hesitate to believe the statement. The shrieks, the lamentations, the groans, the blows, the stripes, the diseases, the suffocations, and the wholesale murders perpetrated in these slave-ships are not generally known, or I am inclined to hope that European governments might be induced to roll away this reproach from the nations over which they preside. "This barbarous trade has been the means of placing at this time not less than five millions of human beings in the most abject, wretched, and cruel bondage. There are not less than two millions of slaves in the Southern States of America; an equal number exists in the Brazils; and, although I am unable to state the exact census in the islands and territories of foreign European Sovereigns, yet, as the large island of Cuba, together with Martinique, Guadaloupe, Curacoa, St. Eustathius, St. Bartholomew, St. Croix, St. Thomas, Porto Rico, and the district called Surinam, on the continent of South America, are all cultivated by slaves, there cannot be less in these places than another million, and to which slave-ships are constantly conveying and adding their cargoes. It "The existence of the Foreign Slave Trade with its effects inflicts deep injury at this time on our own colonial possessions, but will unquestionably be still more commercially destructive when slavery in the British dominions is actually abolished. will then be impossible for our colonists to compete with either the Brazilian planter, or with him of the Southern States of America, whose whole cultivation is the result of extensive and still increasing slavery. The effect of this system has been to increase the importation of foreign sugars by 370,548 cwt., the amount of which in the year 1828 was only 136,999 cwt., whilst in 1831, it increased 507,547 cwt. If this inhuman traffic is allowed to proceed, our shipping interest must likewise be seriously injured. The extending resources of the Brazils, and its increasing commerce by the means of slavery, will soon induce the inhabitants of that fertile territory to become the carriers as well as the cultivators of their own produce. "The importance of protecting our own colonies when cultivated by free labour, from the injurious effects of the detestable slave trade, is apparent, when we remember the immense revenue they are capable of returning to this country. "The year 1829 was a most disadvan. tageous season to the West-India colonists, and consequently the duties paid from their produce were less than in other years, nevertheless the sum received by our Government amounted to £7,878,316 sterling. This sum does not include that which was derived from the Mauritius, nor those paid on the lesser articles of produce imported from the West Indies; so that even the above sum must be very much below the total amount of revenue on all produce imported into this country and Ireland from the whole of our Colonies. The revenue derived from the Assessed Taxes in 1829, amounted to £5,000,000, a sum inferior by nearly £3,000,000, to that which was paid as duties on British colonial produce. The whole revenue of Great Britain in the year ending Jan. 5, 1830, amounted to £50,786,882, sterling ; it is, therefore, evident, that the duties paid on our colonial produce for the same year were nearly equal to a sixth part of the whole revenue of the United Kingdom. Such is the importance of our colonies to the crown of Great Britain, and which imperiously demand protection from that abominable foreign slave trade which our laws so properly prohibit to be carried on from our own ports. "Slavery in the Brazils presents a most direful spectacle. The negroes are employed in the mines as well as in the cultivation of the lands. The greatness of their number, and that rapidly increasing by constant and large importations from Africa, renders the life of a slave of little consideration to his owner, so that not even the principle of self-interest protects these miserable beings. Hence they are to be seen in every direction deformed by labour -wounded and, maimed by blows-lacerated with stripes even to ulceration-diseased and emaciated with hunger-and not unfrequently expiring by the sides of the roads. "It is indeed lamentable to reflect that such a system exists in the world; but indescribably disgraceful is it, that this traffic is carried on in no small degree by British capital, influence, and representation. There are English agents at Rio, who are constantly receiving goods from this country, which are re-shipped from thence to Africa, and there bartered for slaves, who are conveyed back to the Brazils. The same may be stated respecting the South ern States of America,—British subjects are not only carrying on the slave trade with these ports, but some have recently purchased estates there, and which are altogether worked by slave-labour recruited by the slave trade. "For upwards of thirty years I have contributed my feeble aid to the overthrow of slavery in all its forms, as it has and does still exist in our own colonies. The prospect of the speedy and entire removal of this degraded state of society from the British dominions is a source of high satisfaction to every benevolent mind. But if our efforts are not to be continued for the total extirpation of it from the world, it is evident that we have failed, although by the expenditure of twenty millions of money, to afford either efficient or extensive relief to suffering humanity. We have only put an end to slavery in the English colonies, in which (comparatively speaking) it has existed in its milder forms, and by such an arrangement we have constituted the Brazils, the Southern States of America, and other foreign ports, its exclusive marts, and where it now prevails to a degree, and exists in a form, more terrific than it ever has appeared in the English colonies. "I am aware that great obstacles may present themselves, to discourage our attempts to destroy the foreign slave trade, and the disgusting state of society produced as its entire result. It may be thought improper to interfere with the regulations of foreign powers, or the employment of British capital under such protection, but it should be remembered that this shameful traffic is maintained entirely by the direct violation of a treaty, formed in 1825, between France, Spain, Portugal, the Brazils, and England, and by which it was stipulated that the slave trade was to be for ever abolished in four years from the above period. Instead of this being fulfilled, the Slave Trade has proceeded with the utmost vigour, and to the greatest extent; and it is by the neglect of this treaty that our own fellow-subjects have been tempted to embark in this infamous traffic under foreign influence, which they dared not to have attempted at home. Surely the fulfilment of this treaty can be urged with great force, and probably with final success. "It is likewise in the power of the British Parliament to pass an Act, prohibiting all produce, the fruit of slave-labour, from entering British ports. Such an Act would certainly go very far toward the removal of foreign slavery, as well as to afford full and efficient protection to our own colo |