probability of their increase. It
was universally allowed, that the Code Noir had been utterly neglected in
the French islands, though there was an officer appointed by the crown to
see it enforced. The provisions of the Directorio had been but of little
more avail in the Portuguese settlements, or the institution of a Protector
of the Indians, in those of the Spaniards. But what degree of protection
the slaves would enjoy might be inferred from the admission of a gentleman,
by whom this very plan of regulation had been recommended, and who was
himself no ordinary person, but a man of discernment and legal resources.
He had proposed a limitation of the number of lashes to be given by the
master or overseer for one offence. But, after all, he candidly confessed,
that his proposal was not likely to be useful, while the evidence of slaves
continued inadmissible against their masters. But he could even bring
testimony to the inefficacy of such regulations. A wretch in Barbadoes had
chained a Negro girl to the floor, and flogged her till she was nearly
expiring. Captain Cook and Major Fitch, hearing her cries, broke open the
door and found her. The wretch retreated from their resentment, but cried
out exultingly, "that he had only given her thirty-nine lashes (the number
limited by law) at any one time; and that he had only inflicted this number
three times since the beginning of the night," adding, "that he would
prosecute them for breaking open his door; and that he would flog her to
death for all any one, if he pleased; and that he would give her the fourth
thirty-nine before morning."

But this plan of regulation was not only inefficacious, but unsafe. He
entered his protest against the fatal consequences, which might result from
it. The Negros were creatures like ourselves; but they were uninformed, and
their moral character was debased. Hence they were unfit for civil rights.
To use these properly they must be gradually restored to that level, from
which they had been so unjustly degraded. To allow them an appeal to the
laws, would be to awaken in them a sense of the dignity of their nature.
The first return of life, after a swoon, was commonly a convulsion,
dangerous at once to the party himself and to all around him. You should
first prepare them for the situation, and not bring the situation to them.
To be under the protection of the law was in fact to be a freeman; and to
unite slavery and freedom in one condition w