visions, I have made a small purchase of both for the Colony-paid two tons of wood, all I could prevail on him to take, and drew on your Treasurer for the balance of 124 dollars, which I trust you will order duly paid.

I have the honour to remain,

Gentlemen, your obedient servant,

J. ASHMUN.

P. S. Please cause to be acknowledged the receipt for the schools, of six boxes of books, of individuals in Boston; for the Library, of 620 volumes, contributed by Dartmouth College.

Do. do. 2 bundles of pamphlets by individuals, of Boston. All of which are received in good order, freight-free, by Messrs. Ropes, Reed & Co's brig Tamworth, Capt. Gridler.

The donation is invaluable, and the school books came at a moment when several departments of instruction were on the point of being given up for want of books.

J. A.

Slave Trade.

We rejoice to perceive that the King of France has published a decree for the effectual suppression of the Slave Trade. This traffic has, of late years, been more extensively prosecuted under the flag of this country, than under that of any other Power.

Decree of the King of France against the Slave Trade. Charles, by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre, to all who shall see these presents, greeting:

We have ordained, and do ordain, that the project of a law of the following tenor, shall be presented to our minister, Secretary of State to the Department of Marine and the Colonies; whom we charge to explain its object, and to support it in discussion.

Only Article. In case of co-operation or participation, by any means whatever, in the traffic known under the name of the negro Slave Trade, the proprietors and supercargoes, the insurers who insure it knowingly; the captain or commander and other officers of the vessel, shall be punished with banishment, and a fine equal to the value of the ship and cargo.

The fine shall be pronounced conjointly against the individuals designated in the preceding paragraph.

The captain and other officers shall be further declared incapable of serving under any title in the King's Navy, or the French merchant service.

Other individuals belonging to the crew, shall be punished with imprisonment of from three months to five years. From these are excepted such of the abovementioned individuals as shall, within fifteen days after the vessel's arrival, declare to the commissary of the marine, or the magistrates in the French ports, or the French consuls in foreign ports, the facts which they shall know.

The vessel shall be seized and confiscated. The penalties, under the present law, are independent of those which shall be pronounced in conformity with the penal code, for other crimes or offences which may have been committed on board the ship.

The law of April 15th, 1818, is abrogated.

Given in our palace of the Thuilleries, December 27, 1826, and our reign the 3d.

By the King.

CHARLES.

The Peer of France, Secretary of State of Marine and the Colonies.

COMPTE DE CHABROL.

Horrors of the Slave Trade.

Such horrid occurrences as the one related below, we would gladly conceal from the public view, if we did not believe that crime is emboldened by secrecy, and that facts like these are calculated to arouse the generous feelings of the People to endeavours for their suppression. The only way to abolish the Slave Trade is, by invading its sources with settlements on the coast of Africa. It is, therefore, with reason, apart from Republican and Christian motives, that Liberia enjoys the support of all philanthropists among us.-Balt. Gaz.

"The Sierra Leone Gazette of the 9th September, on the authority of a correspondent, mentions a most atrocious act of barbarity, on the part of a French slave captain, named Gilbin. This VOL. II.-No. 12.

4

fellow had carried off from the Gallinas, about six weeks before, 250 slaves, whom he intended to introduce surreptitiously into Gaudaloupe. He succeeded in landing the whole, except sixtyfive, when, having observed a French cutter coming towards the vessel, he threw those sixty-five miserable beings overboard, in order to avoid a discovery of the traffic he had been carrying on! The Governor of Gaudaloupe, it is added, gave orders to seize the murderer, when the crime he had perpetrated was discovered by the dead bodies that were drifted ashore; but he had sailed be fore the order could be executed."

Virginia Conference.

At a late meeting of the Virginia conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, a resolution was adopted requesting that every preacher in that conference should make a collection on the fourth of July next, in aid of the American Colonization Society. We hope that all the other ecclesiastical bodies will follow an example so worthy of their imitation.

Extract from the Norfolk Herald.

I have seen, with great pleasure, that the Legislature of Kentucky have passed a resolution recommending the object of the American Colonization Society to the patronage of Congress. And nothing, I think, could be more truly honorable to her councils than this proceeding, especially as it shows a triumph of reason over certain prejudices which have heretofore prevailed, I suppose, in that state, as well as in our own. I say prejudices; for really I have always thought that we have no reason whatever to imagine for a moment that there was or could be any thing like a disposition, on the part of our General Government, or of our Northern members more particularly, to meddle with the subject of slavery as it exists in our Southern States, established by our laws, and under the sanction of the Constitution itself. Nor

have I ever been able to see, for my part, why the patronage of Congress to a benevolent and patriotic Society which, without interfering, in the smallest degree, with that delicate interest, only aims to remove what we all consider as a great evil-our free people of colour-(and which evil does interfere with that interest,) should excite the jealousy or spleen of our most watchful and determined advocates of state rights. Surely if our friends of the North are willing, in a fair and liberal spirit, to unite with us of the South in appropriating a part of the common revenue to this truly catholic object, but by which we are to be particularly benefitted, it is not for us to refuse the aid-unless indeed it were very clear that Congress have no right to legislate upon the subject. But the right and indeed the duty of Congress to afford the Society that reasonable aid which it asks, is probably very fairly within the true scope and spirit of that clause of the constitution which gives them power "to lay and collect taxes, duties and imposts; to provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States."—And it is at least very certain, that nothing could tend more directly to promote some of the great purposes for which that instrument was framed, as stated in its preamble-for instance-"To form a more perfect union, ensure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves, and our posterity," in all their fullest extent, than the very scheme which the Society is now pursuing with so much success.

I am not at all anxious however, I confess, to press this point upon any of our conscientious literals, (especially as I am by no means an ultra myself,) because I have always thought that it was much more clearly and distinctly the right and duty of the state governments, (especially, of course, of our Southern ones,) to promote this great object by liberal appropriations from their treasuries; and I am more particularly desirous to see our own Commonwealth coming out in the cause, in a manner worthy of herself. And here too, by the way, if I thought it necessary, I could point her to the recent and honorable example of another sister state, on the other side of us, I mean Maryland, whose Legislature has lately granted the annual sum of a thousand dollars to aid the funds of the Society. But it cannot be necessary, I am sure, to stimulate her wisdom or her virtue by referring her

to any foreign example whatever. Let her only look back for a bright leaf in her own statute book, and read again her ever memorable resolution upon the subject of colonizing our free people of colour in Africa, or elsewhere beyond the limits of the United States, from which this Society in fact emanated, and she will see at once that path of policy which she was the first to show to others, and which her duty and her honor now alike command her to pursue.

I do not know however, whether it may not be too late to bring this subject before our General Assembly during its present session, which is or ought to be hastening to its close; and especially if the houses should not be ready to act upon it with that perfect unanimity which it is so very desirable to obtain. Let it lie over then, I would say, to the next session, and let the members who may not be already distinctly satisfied, take some pains, in the mean time, to examine the claim of this colonizing scheme to their favor. Let them examine it with that patience and candor which are so obviously due to ourselves, in considering a project in whose success we have so deep an interest-and separating it entirely from all its imaginary connections with questions of party politics with which it has really nothing to do—and I am persuaded that the result will be their hearty support of the plan.

I will just add here, that whenever our Commonwealth does come out to act again upon this subject, I hope that it will not be to make a direct grant to the Society itself; but rather to aid its object, or more properly speaking, to execute the long established policy of her own laws, by an act to encourage the emigration of our free people of colour to the Society's settlement in Liberia, by certain bounties, and other provisions, which I may take occasion to suggest hereafter. In the mean time, I will just observe that this adoption of the scheme by our General Assembly, would have the immediate effect of making its execution entirely safe, as well as absolutely sure; and so most happily, quiet forever all those very unnecessary fears which any persons may have thought themselves authorized to feel about the views and wishes of its friends.

SHARP.