of martial law-the rescuing the measure now in operation from the imputation of a failure, that will be hurtful to the cause of negro emancipation over the world-would be cheaply purchased.

As to the people of this country, separated from slavery, I can speak of them generally in no other terms than those which are inspired by kind and friendly feelings. To find them a kind-hearted, hospitable, and honourable class of men, it is only necessary to separate the interests of slavery from the ordinary sentiments of the proprietors, and to discriminate between the planter in the presence of his negroes, when every intimation has its epithet, and every trivial remonstrance its invective, and the private gentleman in society, where the rancour of colonial politics does not happen to interfere with the frankness and urbanity of his manners, and the fervid influence of the clime has suspended its dominion for the time over his temper, and its tyranny over the tone of his opinions. In a word, I freely confess, leaving the conduct that is influenced by slavery aside, I have not met in any country more estimable men than I have been acquainted with in Jamaica.

I am, my dear Sir, yours, very truly,

R. R. M.

APPENDIX.

THE circumstances which led to my resignation of the office of Special Magistrate were of a nature that I considered surrounded with too many difficulties, to enable me to discharge my duties with honesty to the intentions of the measure under which I acted. These circumstances I have unwillingly referred to; and in my anxiety to avoid all personal allusions, it is very possible I may have done injustice to the cause I profess to have at heart, by understanding the difficulties that I have met with, and indeed those of every gentleman who has been similarly circumstanced, with regard to his duties and the opposition given to an honest and impartial discharge of them.

The three points on which I made a stand for the rights and newly established privileges of the apprentices, were these:

First-In cases of valuation of the unexpired term of apprenticeship, an award conformable to the intrinsic value of the services appraised, and not the ideal value estimated by the injuries inflicted on slavery by any legislative enactment.

Secondly-In all cases of disputed title to the services of the negro, wherein there was reason to believe the apprentice had been illegally held in slavery, the duty of the Special Magistrate to satisfy himself that he did not exercise his jurisdiction over freemen, as the new law limited his jurisdiction to apprentices who had been slaves.

Thirdly-In all misdemeanours, wherein resistance was apprehended on refusal of the negro to accompany his owner to a Magistrate, bearing in mind that on all estates there are constables, negroes belonging to the property, specially appointed by the stipendiary Magistrates, to apprehend and bring before him refractory Apprentices, while in Kingston-there is a resident Special Justice and police attached to his court, for all necessary purposes of apprehension;-the obvious intention of the Abolition Act to prevent all collision leading to violence between master and owner, and the right of the negro to all the judicial forms compatible with his present state of restricted freedom; to afford him protection from violence on the pretext of bringing him to justice; authorizing the employment of warrants for his apprehension, instead of the arbitrary process, on every trivial disagreement, of dragging the Apprentice, with open violence, before the Magistrate.

The Corporation entertained very different notions of the remedial character of the new law. Its members not unfrequently favoured me with their exposition of it. One of them went so far as to trample on the authority of my office, and one of his partisans to assault me in the public streets.-I found the protection of the negro incompatible with my own: the power of the Corporation was paramount in Kingston to that of the Executive, as, in the imbecility of its arrogance, it dreamt that its privileges were tantamount to those of the British Parliament. From the gentlemen of the legal profession, especially from the solicitors of Kingston, I invariably received the most prompt attention to any application I had to make for the assistance of their counsel, in cases of legal difficulty; and when I state that these services were rendered gratuitously, impartially, and at all times most willingly, I need hardly say, that the members of the legal profession there are men of liberality—I might add, even where liberality is prejudicial to their interests.

After a twelvemonth's struggle with the difficulties of my situ ation, I resigned my appointment, and in November, 1824, proceeded to America.

The approbation of my superiors was the only advantage I

derived from my arduous employment. I had the satisfaction of receiving the following testimonials from them,-the last from the Earl of Mulgrave, since my arrival in England; and as the statements I have made are of a nature that render every corroboration of them desirable, I have reluctantly given publicity to documents that, under other circumstances, I might have considered only personal to myself.

From His Excellency the Marquis of Sligo.

The King's House, Nov. 11th, 1834.

My dear Sir:-It is with much regret, that I have learned from you your unalterable determination to leave Jamaica, and give up your office of Special Justice. I can assure you that I shall deeply feel the loss of your services in this island, and shall be ready on all occasions to bear testimony to the able and honest manner, in which you have, to your own detriment, conducted yourself since the administration of the affairs of this island has devolved on me. I feel fully your services, and grieve that they have been attended with so much inconvenience to yourself personally.

My dear Sir, very truly yours,

TO DR. MADDEN, &c. &c.

SLIGO.

From the Hon. Sir Joshua Rowe, Chief Justice. Kingston, Nov. 14th, 1834.

My dear Sir:-I am very sorry to find you are determined to leave Jamaica, as I am sure the island will experience a great loss, by being deprived of your zeal and assiduity. Of your anxiety to discharge honestly and justly the difficult and responsible duties of a Special Magistrate, I can speak with confidence; and I hope you may be successful in obtaining some consular appointment, as you possess talents and acquirements which might be employed in that capacity beneficially to the public service, and honourably to yourself.

TO DR. MADden.

Believe me, very truly yours,
J. RowE, C. J.

From his Honour the Attorney-General.

Spanish Town, Nov. 14th, 1834. My dear Madden :-Permit me to express to you how sincerely I regret your departure, the more particularly as I view it as a loss and injury to this island at the present moment. Yet I cannot feel at all surprised at your quitting Jamaica, for, since the commencement of the discharge of your duties, you have been subjected to a system of insult and annoyance the most harassing.

Under these vexations, however, you have done your duty so as to merit the sincere approbation of your Governor; and I will say for myself, that it never has been my lot to see difficult duties performed more efficiently, more honourably, or with more intelligence.

I cannot refrain from expressing to you how sincerely your leaving this island has caused unmixed regret to

To DR. MADDEN.

Your faithful friend,
DOWELL O'REILLY.

From his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Vice-Regal Lodge, Dublin, 6th June, 1835.

My dear Sir:-Understanding that it would be agreeable to you to receive some testimonial from me, with regard to your conduct in Jamaica while I administered the government in that island, I have great pleasure in stating, that although, as the Act for the Abolition of Slavery had not come into operation before my departure for England, you had not, up to that time, had an opportunity of entering upon your duties as a Special Magistrate, yet I felt so satisfied of your qualifications for that office, and of your anxious desire to discharge its important functions with strict impartiality, that, in fixing upon the different stations for the several Special Magistrates, I took care to appoint you to a district which I considered to be a very important one, and likely to afford an extensive field for the exercise of magisterial duties. I am happy to learn that the opinion I had formed of you was not disappointed, and that you are in possession of testimonials of the most favourable character from the principal authorities of the island, as to the manner in which those duties were performed.

Believe me to be, my dear Sir, very faithfully yours,
MULGRAVE.

A MADHOUSE CORRESPONDENT. A very few days before my departure from Jamaica, I received a letter from an inmate of the Kingston Madhouse, complaining of being immured in that receptacle of the insane for certain political peccadilloes of a poetical kind, which had given offence to a high and mighty personage in Kingston; and the result of it was incarceration (in a madhouse) without judge or jury. On inquiry into the man's history, I found he had formerly been a planter of St. Anne's; subsequently had become a school-master, and latterly a song-writer. In the latter capacity, his zeal in the cause of negro emancipation made him a marked man; his ballads were adapted to negro tunes, and became very popular with the blacks; one of these songs, called "Bonnie Lady Mulgrave," was in the mouth for many weeks of every negro in Kingston.

These songs were written with a great deal of eccentric talent, but there was no trace of insanity to be found either in his poetical or prose productions. This poor fellow wrote under the signature of the "Fairy of the Hill." There is difficulty in Jamaica in prosecuting a man for libel or seditious writings-Lecesme and Lescoffery to wit; therefore, the summary proceeding was adopted of banishing these men of colour from the island at a moment's notice. It would have been equally difficult to have opposed the law to the political opinions of the Fairy of the Hill —it was a more simple and summary proceeding, to place him in a madhouse, and there I found him. The man assuredly, when I saw him, was no more insane than I was. I sent for the two principal keepers and the matron of the hospital: I asked their opinion of the man's sanity; they all declared that he was perfectly sane. I asked for the certificate of the doctors on which he had been admitted: I was told they had seen no such documents, that he had been committed to the madhouse by the order of "The Would-be-King" of Kingston, as the poor Fairy of the Hill, interrupting the matron, denominated the gentleman who had caused him to be shut up. In his letter to me, he stated the particulars of his arrest, and the reasons for it; that he had written against the apprenticeship system, and predicted its failure: if all the men in England, who committed the same offence, were consigned to Bedlam, a vast number of very intelligent men would be in lunatic asylums. This poor man concludes his letter by assuring me of his sanity of mind; and, by way of proving it, he encloses me a copy of a song of his-a recent composition. Now this, certainly, might be an equivocal proof of soundness of mind, before "a jury of physicians furiously disposed" against the insana studia of rhyme, as old Burton speaks of similar inquisitors. But though he will have it that all poets are mad, and that he who inflicts his verses on his friends is madder than his fellows, he by no means recommends that all mad men should be immured, feeling, perhaps, that there would be too many domiciles to turn into Bedlams. I was not satisfied, however, with this doubtful evidence: I observed the man closely, and examined attentively a paper which he requested me to lay before Lord Mulgrave, on the substitution of a new system of remunerative labour instead of the apprenticeship-a paper full of valuable suggestions and most useful information: this document is now in the hands of a Member of Parliament. I have no hesitation in saying, the man, however strenuous he might be in the support of his political opinions, was of sound mind, though he might not be, on all occasions, of sober judgment. I lost no time in placing the particulars of his case before the Attorney-General, but my departure prevented me from hearing the result. I made up my mind to write no poetry while I was in Jamaica: from the