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Leader (1850-1860), 28th April 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17

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      State Oetiie Ayest Ixdies.* Tilt'henever...

      The pamphlet before us is written by the son of one of the chief workers in the cause of emancipation . It makes no pretensions to be a history such as we have sketched ; its aim is to show in a few words what the two antagonistic systems have each done for our possessions . What it professes to do is thoroughly done . The result of the evidence , for the fairness of which , on the whole , we can vouch , from an independent examination of most of the dociiments from which it is drawn , is , as might have beeiv foretold , entirel y in favour of liberty . . " Right never comes wrong .

      Those who believe that the crimes of Slavery would have gradually died out , had that " peculiar institution" been permitted to remain under the guidance of a remedial code , should remember that not many years before the fetters were struck from the limbs of the working population of Jamaica and its kindred isles , the proposition that the flogging of women should be discontinued was put to the vote after due discussion in each colony , and in everyone the result was the same . It was resolved , that female slaves should continue to be subject to being stripped and flogged , at- the mercy of any rnffinii who might happen to haVe them under his charge ; k'v horrified indeed , were tbe planters at the unheard-of humanity of Mr . Lewis durin <» bis abode among them , that some of them actually wanted the grand jury at Montego Bay to prosecute linn for overindulgence of his own slaves .

      It is commonly stated in society and in books of reference that in the Dutch colony of Surinam , the slaves are less cruelly treated than in any Other place where the institution continues to exist . This may be so . When all are bad , it . concerns us little to distinguish minute shades of difference . As that , colony is , hpvvever , put forward by some persons as an argument in favour oi Slavery , it is well to draw attention to some particulars which seem to be pretty nearly unknown . Are its admirers aware that the \ var carried on by the Dutch against their escaped slaves , who bad founded villages and cultivated the soil far away in the forest , and \ vJiose onlv ^ crime was escing from bondage , has been characterized by

      ap all the atrocities that usually accompany such wars ? Do they know that the Home Government has frequently interfered to protect the slaves , and that yet torture is still a usual means -of-compelling ; obedience ? The penal register of Surinam for 18 ol inf < f . , that during- that year five hundred slaves , men , women , and children , were flowed by " the legally-appointed officer , at the instance oi their owners . Those who have seen the whips , describe them as black wilh blood , and as tearing the flesh from every part of the boclv . The separation of the child from the mother is now illegal there , but the tie of family is effectually broken by the State not acknowledging negro marriages . A black baby has , according to

      the law of Surinam , no father . Mr Bnxton ' s work treat ' s only of our own islands . Although he is obviouslv well informed on the general history of Slavery , Ins book contains no notice of the above facts , or of the horrible state of the servile population of the Spanish possessions , the perpetual complaints of the owners of the sugar plantations occupies much of his attention . Many of these persons really seem to have brought themselves to believe that the profitable production of sugar and spices requires the greatest possible moral degradation m all those who arc employed in their cultivation and manufacture .

      Probably 110 body of men ever spent loss time and energy in the niaria-emcnt of their estates than the owners of West Indian property In former times they almost universally abode in England , leavliv- to their agents , the entire management of their estates and all thJir concerns . The stale of their slaves was nothing ta them , except , so for as it had to do with the cash account . This cash account was in gradual progress of deterioration Jong before the slaves were made free . The carelessness and incapacity ot many ot tiio a-ontfi or middlemen , and the roguery of others , have been by far the most fruitful causes of decline . That it was not abolition that caused the depreciation df property , is clear from the report <> t tho PiivHumontnry Committee of 1 S 32 , whero it is stated that the distress of tho planters had existed for ton or twelve yours past , It iaounablo of the most positive proof that the decrpnso m production had Leu i-nint ? on for many yonrs bplbro 1 R 34 . the time from winch the discontented planter dates nil liin woes . In the ton years ondin- with l « ' 2 O , tho export of Jamaica wns l , 10 fi , O 72 hogsheads of « Air . while during the next dec-add it foil to 001 , 229 hogsheads ,

      showing n decrease of 201 , 843 hogsheads in ton yours . The WVst Indinn planter of tho old school is fast becomingextinct Tho groat bulk of tho landed property in those inlands bus chan g ed bauds within tho last few years . Most of the sngar grounds nvo iu » w cultivated by resident proprietors , ninny by primitive joint stock e .-unpiiiiioH , composed in port or wholly of nogroos . feomo ot tho black population have already accumulated . BuiTiciont capital , to hold nhmlnlimiH of their own . Freedom and physical wellboinghdvo Lwu iw i-vory where olno , had a Hlrong ionclom-y to tlovnte the

      people Miii . V can now road and write well , tho degrading practice of oonnuiiinauo becomes yearly lew Iruqutml-, innrringo i » already the roenu-nifvMl social arrangement , ami tho conduct and dross of the women show u vrarly uienuiaing . improvement 111 moruhi . Coiitcidqnt with tl . is , " v , u -find tjmt among , the whlto population tho old PToi ' uclujft i » lf ; iiiiMt AfViunn blood U taut disappearing , though under the old kvhUmu it wiw intensely strong , ho much ho that blacks wore not nUcmvrf Jmii-IhI in the sumo-olnmihyurd with tho superior we ; and at rit . . IoIiVh , in Antigua , tlio white man a funeral bell was not permittosl to ba profum-d by'tollingjor tlio ( loath c . l a black -n smaller ono was actually provided lor the uho of that deluded people .

      April 28, I860.] The Leader And Saturday...

      April 28 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 405

      Foreign Correspondence. Rome, 14th April...

      FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE . Rome , 14 th April , 1860 . THE HOLT WEEK , ; rpHE Nil admirctri school are out of favour . In our " earnest - * - working" age , it is the . fashion to treat everything seriously , to find in everything a deep hidden n ^ eaning , in fact , to admire everything . Since the days of Woedswouth arid Peteb Beix , every petty poet and . romantic writer has had his . sneer at the shallowsceptic to whom a cowslip was a cowslip only , and who called a spade a spade .: I feel , therefore , painfully that I am not of my own day when I express my deliberate conviction , that the ceremonies of EColy Week at Rome are—the word must come out sooner or later—an imposture . . This is not the place to enter into . . the-religions aspect of the Catholic question— -nor if it were , should I have any wish to enter the lists of controversy as a champion of either side . I can understand that for some minds tbe ideas of Church unity , of a mystic communion of the faithful , and of ail infallible head of a spiritual body havea strange attraction ; nay , even a real existence . I can understand too , that for such persons all the pomps and pageantry of the Papal services present themselves under an aspect to me unintelligible . Whether these ideas be right or wrong I am not able , nor do I care to argue . The Pontifical ceremonies , however , have not only a spiritual aspect ^ but a material and very inatter-of-facfc one . They are / after all , great '¦ " spectacles , " got up with the aid of music and upholstery and dramatic mechanism . Now , how far in this latter point $ > f ' view the ceremonies are successful or ¦ no t , I think from

      sonie small experience I am pretty well qualified to Judge ; and if I am asked whether , as ceremonies , the services of the Church of Rome are imposing and effective , I answer , most unhesitatingly , no . I know that tins assertion upsets a received article of faith in Protestant England as to the seductive character of the Papal ceremonies . I remember well the time when I too believed that the shrihes of the old faith were the haunts of sense-enthralling grandeur , of wild enchantment and bewitching beauty j when . I too dreamt how amidst crowds of rapt . worshippers , while unearthly music pealed around you and the .. fragrant incense floated heavenwards , your soul became lost to everything , save to a feeling of unreasoning ecstasy . In fact , I believed in the enchantments of Papal pageantry , as firmly as I believed that a Lord -Mayor ' s feast was a repast in which Apicius would have revelled , or that an Opera ball was a scene of Oriental and voluptuous delight . Alas ! I have seen all , and known

      all , and have found all three to be but vanity . Now the question as to the real aspect of the Papal pageants , and the effects produced by . them upon the minds , not of controversialists , but of ordinary spectators , is by no means an unimportant one with reference to the future prospects of Italy and the Papacy . Let me try then , not irreverently or depreciatingly , but as speaking of plain matters of . fact .,- to tell what you really do see and hear at the greatest ¦ and grandest of the Roman ceremonies . Of all the Holy Week services , none have a more European fame , or have been more written or sung about , than the Misereres in the Sistine chapel . Now to be present at these services you have to start . it about one o ' clock , or midday , in full evening costume—dress

      coat and black trousers . Any man who has ever had to walk out in evening attire in the broad daylight will agree with me that the sensation of the general shabbiness and duskiness ot your whole appearance is so strong as to . overcome all other considerations , not to mention your devotional feelings . In this attiro you have to stand for a couple of hours amongst a perspiring and iHtempered crowd , composed of tourists and priests , for the Italians are too wise , to trouble themselves for such an object . During these two mortal hours you arc pushed forward constantly by energetic ladies bent on being placcd , and pushed back by the Swiss guards , who . defend the entrance . The conversation you hear , around you and per / orco Mitwin * . iA is omiiillv unedifviufr , both religiously and intellectually ,

      a sort pf rechaujft of Murray's , handbook , flavoured with diseusnions on last Sunday ' s sermon . When you . are reduced to such a frame of mind and body as is tho natural result of tune so employed the doors of the chapel are opened , and you have literally to light vour way in , amidst a crowd of Indies hustling , scroaninig , and ' fainting . If you arc lucky you got standing' ropin in a sort oi open won , whence , Ifyott are tall , you can - catch a sight ot the Vqvs s tiara in the ditttanee ; or , if you belong to tho softer sex , you get a place behind the screen , where you cannot see , but what ih much bettor , can sit . The atmosphere of the candlo-hyhtcd , crammed ohanel is overpowering , and occupation you have nono , except trying in the din Htf lit to decipher the frescoes , on tlio , roo with , ions »•»

      Your head turned backwards . l < or turoo ' «» " ™ ^"" « « succession of dreary monotonous strains forming porliona ot a eliant , to you unintelligible , broken at intervals by a ]> aH « agc of niton lion , There is no organ or instnunental inn- ¦• . and the absence oi " conin to" voices is poorly coinponsaled ft » r by tlio unnatural a « oonts of 0 Papal HuhKtitUoH " for female voc :, W ... The music j taol nmy ho very Hno-compolont critics do « lare it ih , and I have no doi l >« . U , oy arc rM » t ; but , I Hay unlumitatingly , it ih not inusio that oddroH « cs iiolf 10 popular tastes or produces any fooling savo 1 lmt « J vroar « - ness-on luno-tonthH of ita hanvew . You can ma k clearly tl o ONprcSo of sttlliifiiclion which Htoul * over ovory flico . as candle after c " die of tlio Htac-lc of wnxliglitH bofovo the oltnr » put out iccoBrt v V , at intcrvalH of boiuo twenty minutes . ' , !! tho ceremony c . c rochced to one tenth its length , it . night bo improjs . vQ . Mo lirffo which iroPB on for three houm , and a ohanduhor which takflfii thwmStiuX-h & vo its lltf htH snufrod out , become , an iijtoloroWe nuiBuno . Tho dying cadence of tho Miserere M undoubtedly

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 28, 1860, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_28041860/page/17/