The Freed-man

difficult to distinguish between slavery and service, or to see that idleness is disgraceful, and labour honourable. Starvation may compel a man to work, but will not make him ashamed of doing nothing. The better the physical, moral, intellectual, and religious wants of the negro are cared for, the more industrious will he become. When he is not so it is owing to the debasing influence of slavery. Nor is the black man as a matter of fact more indisposed to work than the whites around him. The blight of slavery falls on the whole community, and if it is not,-which it certainly is not-its worst evil, it is perhaps its most lasting evil, that even after a generation has passed away it is found to have dignified sloth and degraded industry.

The Freed-men's Aid Societies of America-the New York, the Western, the American Missionary Society, all working in harmony with that admirable institution the Freed-men's Bureau, of which General Howard is the chief, are labouring diligently to help the negroes to help themselves, and it is through these bodies that your Committee transmit what is entrusted to them. The accounts which are sent over to this country, of the schools, the allotments, and various other agencies for assisting the negroes to make good use of their freedom, are highly interesting, and from time to time appear in the pages of the "Freed-man.”

American gentlemen have arrived in the course of the year as deputations from these societies. Levi Coffin, whose labours, in the days of slavery, in rescuing slaves earned for him the honourable title of "the underground railway," or of its director; the Rev. Sella Martin, himself once a slave, and now the Minister of a Presbyterian Church in New York; the Hon. C. C. Leigh, a member of the Legislature, and others, have been received by your Society, and under their auspices been enabled to collect funds in various parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland. The interest in this matter is rising, and your Committee fully believe that they have only reaped the first ears of an abundant harvest.

The late events in Jamaica give a most unexpected and most painful proof of the necessity for this work.

We are not a political association, but your Committee cannot divest themselves of those feelings which fill men's breasts; and it would be impossible for them, if they wished it, to disguise the burning indignation with which they regard the facts already proved. That a member of the legislature should be carried away from a city in profound peace into a district under martial law, tried without a jury by three subaltern officers, and hung;-that women should be flogged by order of courts martial, or without any such formality;-that savages should be employed under the authority of a colonial government to hunt down her Majesty's subjects;-and a real massacre, in the name of law, be perpetrated in October to prevent an imaginary insurrection in December; all this is so monstrous a violation of every right of an Englishman, that we do not wait to know whether the victims are to be counted by hundreds or by

thousands, or whether the language used by the opposition in the Jamaica Assembly was evenly balanced and guardedly discreet, or what were the reports which threw the government into a panic; to denounce a series of acts, which no violence of words could justify, and precautionary bloodshed which no reports and no information could excuse.

For reasons such as these, your Committee formed a part of the deputation to Mr. Cardwell, organized by the Anti-Slavery Society, which urged upon her Majesty's government the necessity for taking immediate steps to wipe off the reproach which had fallen on the English name.

These events in Jamaica show plainly the existence of some chronic evil in the condition of that island. Almost alone among our colonies it has been sinking in prosperity instead of rising. Most of the other West Indian Islands are flourishing, whereas Jamaica contains a population which could be addressed with truth as "naked" and "starving." We believe that it will be found that in Jamaica most inadequate pains had been taken to train the negro population, to educate them, or to provide them with employment. The planters have preferred importing Chinese labourers, and leaving the negroes to squat or starve. A prejudice against their former slaves, and a resolution to bring down the price of labour, even by the expensive process of immigration, and eo to reduce the independence of the labourer, has made that island what it is. The same spirit animates too many in the Southern States of America, and it is of essential importance to prevent it from resulting in the same disasters. Hence the events in Jamaica call loudly for help to the Freed-men in America. But with this conviction another has equally forced itself on your Committee. It seems to them a kind of inconsistency to help the Freed-men in a foreign country and leave the Freed-men in our English colony "starving" and "naked," exposed to the temptation to riot, which always besets a population under such circumstances, and to the unfriendly scrutiny of those who grudge them their Freedom. They therefore ask you so to enlarge the basis of the Society as to enable them to do for Freed-men in our own colonies, or else where, what we are doing for Freed-men in the United States. They have not arrived at this result without long and anxious deliberation, and now submit the question for your decision. The Anti-Slavery Society and the Jamaica Committee watch over the political and civil status of the Freed-men in our colonies. But there is every reason to believe that, in Jamaica at all events, other aid is needed, which your Committee are unwilling to refuse. They greatly doubt the wisdom of leaving it as work for some new organisation. It would not, as it seems to them, be desirable and scarcely becoming for two Societies to be seeking public support, the one for American Freed-men, the other for our own, though the same organization would be equally suitable for both. When the FREED-MEN'S AID SOCIETY was founded the condition of Jamaica was not suspected by those engaged in that work, or they would not have failed to include it in their plan. The members of the Society must now decide whether for

the future the Freed-men of our own colonies are to be excluded from the benefit of their aid. There is a difference of opinion among the friends of the American Freed-men on this subject. It is useless to disguise the fact that whichever decision is arrived at by the FREED-MEN'S AID SOCIETY it will alienate some. Your Committee have expressed their opinion, and trust that this General Meeting will be guided to a right judgment.

Your Committee have received through their Bankers the sum of £5,831 5s. 8d., and have sent contributions in money to the New York National Freed-men's Relief Association, to the amount of £675; to the Western Freed-men's Aid Commission, £3,250; to the American Missionary Society, £250; the New England Freed-men's Aid Society, Boston, £100. They have also made grants to sewing circles, amounting to £45; expended upon Public Meetings last year, £98 18s. 7d.; Printing, Advertising, Publishing, and Editing, £293 7s.; Postage, Travelling Expenses, Deputations, and other Incidentals, £280 5s. 8d.; Balance in Bank, £520 5s. 2d.; nearly the whole of which has been voted to various Societies in the United States, leaving only a nominal available balance. They have also sent to the United States, 2,800 blankets, 266 packages and barrels of clothing, implements, etc., estimated at a value of £2000.

The whole of these goods were warehoused, packed, and forwarded, free of charge, by Johnson, Johnson, & Co., and shipped to America, freight free, by Messrs. Guion & Co., Inman & Co., C. Grimshaw & Co., W. R. Arnott, Esq., The Cunard & National Steam Packet Company from Liverpool, Rathbone Brothers, & Co., and others; to these gentlemen your Committee are under the deepest obligation, and tender their sincere thanks.

The following also has been reported to your Committee:

Remitted by Mr. Levi Coffin, direct to Cincinnati, £1,950; Shoes and Clothes purchased by Mr. Coffin, £203; Remitted direct by Hon. C. C. Leigh, to New York through Baring, Brothers, £1,793 2s. 7d.

In addition to the above your Committee have been in friendly co-operation with various Societies and auxiliaries in the United Kingdom and Ireland, who have remitted the amounts collected by them directly to the United States of America.

Finally, your Committee urgently recommend this meeting to endorse and adopt their well matured decision as expressed in the following resolutions :

"Resolved-1st, That the name of the Society shall be 'The British
and Foreign Freed-men's Aid Society.' 2nd, That its object shall
be to relieve the necessities and ameliorate the condition of the
Freed coloured people in the British colonies, America, and
throughout the world.