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«• It was an easy matter for statesmen at the head of Government in England to pass , for their political and commercial ends , an Act for favouring a distant people who never came across their feelings either to annoy or perplex : but how comes it they hare never directed their appointed governors to open the colonial offices and departments to the deserving and the capable among the coloured race ? How comes it they have never given encouragement ti jplace them on an equal footing with the white ? Have they never once thought of doiag this ? It is realty poor justice , —a mere mockery of a great deed , more boastful than xmL i ^ -sBttt it is different withthe American statesmen . They are surrounded with coloured people in every relation of life , and they have to wrest from the very growth of their minds ajDrejudice jof no common force ,-before they can , give that heartfelt , earnest labour to emanci ] &Ltion which can alone obtain , success . None can tell bat those who have lived in slave countries what a hold it takes of the mind , and how far and wide its influence spreads , throughout all the feelings and actions of life , till it forms part and parcel of one ' s very nature , like ; the creed we have learnt from our mothers ; and often , when boasting of having . risen
superior to it , we find ourselves suddenly as much under its swaj as ever . "This happened to myself . I had been already a few years in England , still full of my subject , —talking of it by day , dreaming of it by night , —when I went with some friends to a party . I had not been long seated when I saw entering the room a young man of colour . It was the first tine in my life that 1 had seen a person of colour enter a room on equal terms as myself ; and my surprise and discomfort were by no means diminished when the daughter of our hostess introduced him to me as partner for the next quadrille . If the footman had presented himself for that purpose I could not have been more startled , and had I met this gentleman of colour at Court it could not have saved him from the feeling of aversion and contempt with which I instinctively regarded him . This , no doubt , was very absurd , as the hue of his . complexion Was the only circumstance against him ; but it illustrates the force of a prejudice which interferes with the social welfare of a whole race . " , ¦
If Mrs . Wilkins will refrain from fictioij in her future books on Slavery and tell what she has seen and heard , felt and understood , without any adornments , she will produce a useful and readable book .
" ^ The scene Slave Son Island Trinidad ; one the most beautiful and fertile of the English West Indies . The story begins with , a short history of the island , which would have been the better for a few dates . From this account the reaider learns the superior condition of a ^ ltite inhabitants ( including the slaves and the free-coloured population ) under the Spanish rule ; and , if he have a tolerable faculty of prevision , he wi % believe that a future is opening for Trinidad , under British governance , ti ^ iWilly 8 urpa s 8 the pro sperity of that Spanish , golden age . The rich tropical s <» nerr--the warm sun—the balmy air—the glorious vegetation , and
the ^ ashing starlight—are seen and felt throughout the book . It is humanity that is faint and unlifelike ; from " the Slave Son" himself down to the beej $ Bil Qbiah priest , Fauty . The only exceptions we stiould make to this c ^ n ^ iouQ | ktion ate jLaurine , the mulatto girl , and Quaco , the youiug . n&gco ll ^^ ta ^ cm majf lie true to planter-humanity , hut it is jlaf&feAt ^ to ^ believe th ^ t anjrone born ; and educated in the , 1 iiiili j , ijr . inj ) iwrfli iniiii . and endowed , as be is / said to be endowed / witti ;^ could behave as he does m'A ^^ cene wher ^ ^^ ibg ^^ l ^ amoa is flogged with his daughter Talrnaa f t hi 11 mi Ml jjJMipi ^ ijT "^ tfTnl p ifi t Tii ilitin i tr than anything of the kind on degree ' s
^ iSfK ^ m ^ x ^ le'Tdm- ^ Cmtnj ' axid a great deal more improbable , since Legree is ^ t represented as a respectable member of society , and Mr . Cardon is . He knows very well how to carry the war against the English Abolitionists iiit <> their own camp ; and as wise people may always learn wholesome truths from their enemies , we will set down one of his attacks here , especially as it is one of the best pieces of invective in . the book . Mr . Cardon , the gentlemanly planter , is conversing with Mr . Dorset , the model good Englishman of ihe / book , who plays the part of a confidant in classical French tragedy , and never interferes with the action : —
: * M Prejudice of caste ?~—parhleu ! they have none , —oh no ! And pray what is that stand " l ^ Waerye which keeps so effectual a barrier between the moneyed man and the pau pe r , —the noble and the trader , — -the master and the servant ? . Why you know right well that you Afrbtud rather die than shake hands before company with the footman who waits at your table , though he may hare saved your life in the morning . ' ' *¦ Sir ! Mr . Cardon !' " Bah ! I am not speaking personally , I till you ; I only say you , because I have no one else to say it to ; you stand for the English nation , and you must listen to me . How do you treat your servants ? Why , as if they had been created merely for your convenience and pleasure . You give them wages , scarcely adequate to provide them with the decent clothing you require them to appear in . You take the health and strength of their youth ; and how
do you reward them in their old age ? Do you pension them and support them , as vre do our old negroes ? No ! you leave them to rot . What feeds the abominations of the English streets ' at ffight . Servants out of place , sempstresses , and others who hare no future before them . Who prey upon them ? Why , I tell you ( he most licentious estate of the most licentious planter never presented one-hundredtb of the nightly horrors of your Babylon . Oh nol there is no slave-hunting , nor slave-dealing , nor slave-buying , nor slave-murdering in dear moral England ! and that among not these half brute baboons , but just among God ' s loveliest creatures—women , sent among us to lead us to heaven . Pray where are your saints , your excessively virtuous saints , that they suffer these things to be ?' "Mr . Dorset laid his hand upon his arm to stop him , but it would not do , the planter ' s ire
was up . 44 * Moral England I' continued he , pardienne I Yes , the saints I they sent a ranting set of Methodist preachers down here : I kicked them off the estate , every one of them , —the murder-preaching set I ' «« * OK ! oh !' " * You may say " oh 1 " but it is so . The boasted Christian spirit of the Protestant form I that is laughable too . In our Church , at loast once a week the master and the slave kneel on a perfect equality before oar God . Our priests are bound to ignore any difference between them , and they do so . How Is it with the Protestants—eh ? 1 will take a bishop £ <> ing to the ' cathedral of his diocese on a holy sabbath . Will lie imitate the humility of his divine faster only just a little ? Will he go on foot only for this one day ? Not he I on wheels ho will 'drive , surrounded by the pomps and vaniiiea of the very devil . And his wife and daughters , will they lay aside their silks an < l satins just for a few hours this one day , and join the poor in humility of g ; arb and humility of prayer ? No ! behold them surrounded frith rails , noli me tangsre fastiifri , to keep them from contact with those loathsome
bestialities , the poor . And the sermon , mtnd you , all- the while runs on humility ! yes , in fine , hard , grand words , which the poor are never taught to understand ; but they understand the meaning of the pomp and the carriage , the eillc and the satin , the mils and the stand-off looks , and they understand that humility is a Christian virtue intended only for the poor , to teach them meekly to bend their necks for the rich to set their foot upon them . Let mo tell you that were I ever so much inclined to the reformed religion , I should be ashamed to bring my negroes to attend in your churches . Such devotion to pomps and vanities ! such lack ot devotion to Godt Pah 1 disgusting humbug I—a word invented by the English for the English , and befitting them oToue : you can't translate it into French nor German , do , nor Italian nor Spanish , nor any other tongue . Cursed be the day I put faith in their proclamations and promises , and was fool enough to s « ttlu in any colony belonging to them . At all events , we planters are no humbugs . Fate has placed the whip in our hands , —a whip we call it , fearlessly and openly , and us a whip we use it . The moneyed men of England liuvo a whip too , ana use it too ; but they snealc aind snuffle , and put on a sanctified face and tell their victims that the blows they give arc no ninny bleated proofa of freedom . ' " After such a thrashing as that from a West Indian Slave-holder , the most contented Conservative among uh must feel sore and indignant ; and the roost candid must adtnit we have deserved it ,
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THE TWO RICHARDS : KEAN AND BROOKE . If passion is the essence of tragedy , I ought to have gained experience enough from tliis week to last me a lifetime . In saying this I make one little supposition , viz ., that tragic passion and a tragedian in a passion , are one and the same thing . Cast une tres forte supposition ; mats enfinl For , indeed , this week I have sat out the robustious play of Richard III ., and listened to the robustious acting of Charles Kean and G . V . Brooke , who ( having apparently made the little supposition just named ) , presented pictures of men in a passion unrivalled oil the stage . They both new into a passion , and that of the most furious and stentorian kind , " upon the slightest provocation , * indeed without provocation at all . They roared and
stamped , and stampe d and roared , spluttering and perspiring with an energy " worthy of a better cause . " Why they were so furious in their flinging out of certain words and lines , or so melancholy in their drawling of others , I have not the remotest idea . Why Charles Kean should roll his rs with so terrrrrible an emphasis , and Brooke drop down to his voix de venire , or preternatural growl , with words having in themselves no growling significancethese things belong to the subtleties of dramatic art , which I have not yet mastered , and therefore will not appreciate . But as both are actors of
Shakspeare ( not to be confounded with Shakspearian actors ) , they may remember what Hamlet says : O , it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious perriwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters , to very rags , to split the ears of the groundlings . I would have such fellows whipped for o ' erdoing Termagant ; it out-herods Herod . O , there be players that I have seen play —and heard others praise , and that highly—who have so strutted , and bellowed , that t have thought some of nature ' s" journeymen had made men , and not made them well , they imitated humanity so abominably . " As to the humanity imitated by the two Richards , I seriously declare that the original never met my eyes—except at Bartholomew Fair .
But let mo be methodical , and touch upon details . On Monday Charles Kean produeed Richard III . for the first time during liis management of the Princess ' s , mid he produeed it with that care , study , and effective disposition of material which characterises his management . The scenery "waa admirable 5 the grouping spirited and picturesque ; the dresses archseologically elaborate and theatrically splendid . Not a word , but of commendation shall bo uttered respecting the whole mine en scene . He does understand hifl business as a manager , ami success rewards him . But as an actor ? His performance of Richard 111 ., some seventeen years ago , stands out as one of the moat hilarious of my dramatic remembrances , lie seemed to me then the very worst actor , out of a Lain , playing great parts ; and so it seemed to cultivated people , though tlio gods and groundlings delighted in him , lie held the same BorL of position , with less clium to it , that Brooke
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0 M 8 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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BOOKS ON OUB TABLE . The Laws of War , affecting Commerce and Skipping . By H . Byerby Thomson , Esq ., B . A . South , Elder , and Co . This is a very useful compendium of the texts or the substance of tho principal tefctsin the judgments of Lord Stow ell and tHe standard writers on international law , including Kant Wheaton , Grotius . and Vattel , besides writers on special subjects , such as Arnold on Maritime Assurances , Story on Partnership , Dodson ' s Admiralty Reports , &c The whole presents a review of the effect of war on the interests of shipping and commerce ; au effec t which is much more extensive than people generally remember it to be . In f&ct , every species of interest , including partnership where there is a foreign partner , contracts , even those commenced before the war , and assurances , wiiich are rendered absolutely void for enemy ' s property , &c , is greatly affected . The whale is comprised within the space of 50 octavo pages , very clearly stated and printed . This slender volnma ought to be in the possession of every person who has any interest , direct or indirect , in commerce and shipping .
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The Works of Oliver Goldsmith . Edited by Pet « r Cunningham , T . S . A . Vol . II . John Hurray Minutes on the Resignation of the late General « S » r Charles Napier of the Command of the Army in India . By F . M . tho Duke of Wellington , the Marquis of Dalhousie , and General Sir Charles Napier , &c . John Murray . The Educational Expositor . Vol . I . Longman . and Ce . A Tear toith the Turks ; or Sketches of Travel in the European and Asiattc Dominions of the Sultan . By W . W . Smyth , M . A . . J . W . Parker and Son . The French Revolution . A Poem . By Joseph IXouier . J . BoswarHu The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire . By Edward Gibbon . 40 ihn * s British Classics . )—Dante , translated into English Verse . Bt J . < L . 4 K £$ ft . ' { Bohn't Illustrated library . )—Geological Excursions- round the Ism-if ^ Wight . By < J . A . Mantell , Esq . { Bohn ' s Scientific Library . )—The Caxtjfm of Maddaloni : Map le * under Sparnsh Dominion * ( . Bohn ' s StandardJUitmry . ) H . G . Bolui . Algeria : the Topography and History , JPjtfdHaml . 'XIocial , and Natural , of French AJrieo By John IteyneU Morell . ~ Nathaniel Cooke Quinquenergia ; or J ? x * g > m * im $ or a-2 Jeio Practical Theology . By H . S . Sutton . >¦ 'John Chapman . Day . ayA £ Ba * trtSongs . By W . Allingham . G . Boutted ^ euul Co . JBoifMSscence * of a Retired Physician * G . Boutledge and Co JRm Money-Lender . By Mrs . Gore . ( The Railway Library . ) G . Boutledge and Co . Eginton ' s Literary Railway Miscewtny . . E . Esinton . Such is Life . A Poem . By R . Hausuaann . D . N " utt . Agnes Valmar . A Novel . 3 vols . - Chapman and Ball . A Visit to Belgrade . Translated by James "Whittle , - Chapman and U « U Prise Essay on the Lotas for the Protection of Women . By 3 . E . Davis . . . Longman and Co , Turkey ; or , a History of the Origin , Progress , and Decline of the Ottoman Empire . By George Fowler . T . H-Rees Rhymes . By George Thomas May . R . Hardwicke . ZurUna , a Tale ot Corsica . By H . Pottinger . G . BelL Critical and Historical Essays contributed to the Edinburgh Review by Right . Hon . T . B . ilacaulay , Sl . P . Parti . JJongmah and Co . Adventures in the Wilds of North America . By C . Latfman . Longman and Co . The Pentateuch ; or Mve Books of Moses . By the Rev . Thomas Wilson , If . A . John Chapman . The Nature , Symptoms , and Treatment of Consumption . By Richard Bogue Cottou , H . D . J . Churchill . Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin . By Ciiarles Edmonds . 6 . Willis .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1854, page 188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2027/page/20/
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