masters' pleasure, viz.: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. In this one respect, these five orders resemble a good deal the slaves in our chartered western colonies. But, of these same fifteen, there are five classes which are altogether voluntary, and which, therefore, in this respect, have not even the shadow of resemblance with any of our western slaves, viz. 7, 12, 13, 14, and 15. Two are in a measure voluntary, viz. 9 and 10; and one is by legal punishment for crimes of their own, viz. 1. And besides, all of them (except the first mentioned five) are redeemable, independently of their masters' pleasure, -Suppose the proportion of each kind to be about equal, and I see no reason to forbid the supposition, except indeed, that through the security abtained from our government, there probably are now very few of the 8th class, viz. of captives taken in war, remaining, and we shall then find that only one-third, strictly speaking, are dependant for their liberty upon their masters' pleasure; and I shall afterwards prove, that even this extent of the evil, is true only in general of the districts, Canara and Malabar. › We shall hereafter see adduced further evidence in proof of the actual condition of the slaves in Malabar, &c. Here we may observe, that the origin of not a single species of East Indian slavery, even as it exists in the heathen codes of the Gentoos, is equal in atrocity to the almost universal ground of West Indian slavery, viz. the exciting of wars, and the kidnapping and transporting of distant nations, from their native land, for the supply of this traffic in blood. Dr. Stuart next speaks of the " immense number" of slaves in India, of their "low price," &c. } Respecting their immense number, I find him adducing no proofs what ever, except general conjectures, such as from Judge Richardson, that “slavery exists throughout the Company's dominions," and from Sir R. K. Dick, that in Sylhet, a division of the district of Dacca, in Bengal, onesixth are slaves. How far these general conjectures may warrant his " immense numbers," we shall better see when the official reports which we have are placed before us, only observing, that his immense numbers apparently imply immensity in proportion to the general population; for in another sense, one hundred would be an immense number-one slave in all worlds would be too many. It But the lowness of the price of a slave in India, seems to supply Dr. Stuart with an argument, that slaves must be there very numerous. seems to me to prove the reverse. Slaves are not cheap any where, properly speaking, because they are numerous, but either, 1st. Because free labour is plenty and cheap, or, 2dly. Because there is no labour at band, from which the master can wring an extravagant profit by working and starving his slaves to death. This last is the reason why slaves are so cheap in the islands called the Bahamas, in the West Indies. The population is not near so dense there as in the sugar islands; but the slaves are almost valueless as slaves, because the Bahamas are incapable of producing slave sugar-that voracious gorger of the negro's blood. There is not sufficient employment in the Bahamas, the soil being poor, as to sugar, and the value of the slaves to the master consisting in his labour, where there is little profitable labour for him, he can be but little worth. This single fact makes negro slavery, in the Bahamas, an essentially different thing, practically, from what it is in the sugar islands, though both are equally a part of the West Indies, and the condition called by the same name. The legalized atrocities of the system are the same in both; but in the Bahamas, the price of a slave is low, because his work is of little value to his master; and his work being of little value to his master, he is allowed good time to work for himself; and being left at liberty to work sufficiently, &c. he lives comparatively well, and increases. Whereas, in Trinidad, another crown colony, there is fertility of soil, and of course slave sugar; and the negro slave, by whom alone it is produced, is destroyed so rapidly, in order to gain for his master the highpriced product of his blood, that his price is kept high, because his labour is gainful to his master, and the gainfulness of his labour, tempts his master to drive him to death. It is not because there are few slaves in Trinidadfor there are many-but because their labour is lucrative. In India, on the other hand, slaves are cheap, not because they are numerous, but because the free labourers are so abundant, and their labour so cheap, that slaves are not worth purchasing for labour. It is passion and lust, not interest, which purchase slaves in India. Throughout our empire there, a free labourer can be got every where for less money than the mere interest of the purchase price of a slave in Jamaica. The delusiveness of Dr. Stuart's argument on this point, throughout seems to be, in mistaking the lowness of the price of slaves in India for a proof of their numbers, and in overlooking altogether the notorious fact of the multitude of free labourers, and the exceeding cheapness of free labour. That free labour is better than forced labour-that it is less laborious to the labourer, and more productive to the master, needs no evidence: it is universally admitted; and it is equally admitted that the hire of a free labourer is generally cheaper every where, than the purchase and keeping of a slave.* Here then are two things brought into the market together in India, free labour and slave, or forced labour; at least it is forced, if it have any of the atrocity in it which Dr. Stuart asserts. The one is at once more valuable, more cheap, and less troublesome-this is free labour. The other is dearer, less valuable, and more troublesome-this is slave labour. Why should men purchase it? It is of low price, indeed, but still it is higher than free labour: plainly, men in their senses will not purchase it for use or pecuniary profit. They may purchase it for passion or lust; for passion is endlessly varied in its freaks of folly and of sin, and lust will gratify itself at any cost; but for use, common men will clearly prefer that which is cheapest, least troublesome, and most valuable; and the fact which the cheapness of the other demonstrates, is not its abundance, but its worthlessness. When a thing is valuable in itself, its cheapness proves its abundance-this is the case with free labour. But when a thing is worthless in itself, its cheapness is merely an evidence that no adventitious circumstance has given it an unnatural value: that it is worthless as it is; and wherever any artificial thing is of little worth in the market, it will generally be scarce. This is distinctly the case with slave labour in Hindostan. Wheat is valuable in itself: tell me where it is cheap, and I will tell you where it is abundant. But fares have no inherent value: tell me of their cheapness, and you do not prove to me their abundance, but, their worthlessness and scarcity; for where a really worthless thing has no artificial price, it will always be a scarce thing in the market-there will be little or no temptation to bring it there. All that is proved by its dearness, is the * See this luminously established in A. Hodgson's Letter to Say. presence of some atrocious system, which has subverted the right course of nature, and which preserves a convulsive existence by the slaughter of the oppressed. Such is most clearly the slave system of the West Indies. (To be continued.) THE BOOK OF JASHER. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER. SIR-In the disastrous year of the Irish rebellion, in 1798, a considerable number of Clergy of the Church of England were compelled to fly from their homes, and take refuge from persecution or death in different parts of England. Many of these sought an asylum in Wales; and some in Pembrokeshire, the coast immediately opposite Wexford, where treason and murder, and every outrage human nature in its very worst state of depravity, could be guilty of, glared forth profusely. Amongst those who fled to Pembroke, was the Rev. Robert Alexander, D.D. a divine of high character in his profession, and a scholar of the first rank. Whilst, then, in great privacy, and not a little crippled in his resources, he was visited by a Clergyman, whose name I regret exceedingly that I have forgotten; and from a congenial feeling of taste in literature, profession, and general sentiment, no small degree of friendship arose between them. It occurred ono afternoon, in their conversation upon Scriptural subjects, in which they both took great delight, and were well competent to discuss, that the Book of Jasher was mentioned by Dr. Alexander, deploring its loss, and expressing his regrets that no trace (except the incidental allusion to it, Josh. x. 13, and 2 Sam. xviii.) could be had of a book sufficiently important to be alluded to by inspired writers. The Welch Clergyaan then informed him that he was in possession of a rare copy of the work, that he considered it unique, and held it of the highest value; adding, as a very special favour, and one which he had invariably refused, that he would permit Dr. A. to take a copy, but with the strictest injunctions that his permission would rest there, and that its publicity should not, under any circumstance, take place. In the year 1806, having been on a visit in New Ross, where Dr. Alexander resided, I was favoured by his permission to see this curious piece of antiquity, and earnestly requested to be allowed to copy it. This, however, he would by no means grant; but told me that if I chose to copy the preface alone, it was at my service; and that I must do so in his library, lest the temptation to transcribe the whole would be too inviting for me to resist; and that he owed it to his friend, and the promise he had exacted, not even to go so far: yet he was willing to do so merely to oblige me: but even after I had copied the preface, as if some mystery was destined to adhere to the work, the good Doctor wrote to me, requesting I would destroy it. To this I replied to my worthy friend, that he might rest assured no unbecoming use would be made of his indulgence; which sufficiently quieted his anxiety for the time. The Doctor has long since paid the debt of nature; and having seen in the public papers that a Jew in Liverpool was in possession of the Book of Jasher, and that he had announced his intention of bringing it before the public, I feel induced to offer this to the Editor of the Christian Examiner, persuading myself that when the work shall appear, it will not be preceded by the avant propos, now sent for his insertion, if approved of. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, W. H. PRATT, Vicar of Donagh. THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. The following translation of the Book of Jasher,* fell into my hands thirty years ago by mere accident.+I was travelling in the north of England to see the country, and coming into a little town where I intended to lodge that night, my landlord informed me that the goods and books of an old gentlewoman lately deceased, the daughter of a Clergyman, who was upwards of one hundred years of age, were to be sold by auction that evening. I went to the sale, where the auctioneer, in haste to make an end, put up all the pamphlets, manuscripts, and sermons in four bundles, which I purchased. Among these papers I fouud the following translation of the Book of Jasher, which appeared to be a work of great sincerity, plainness, and truth; and which, if admitted, ought to be placed before Joshua. THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. I, Alcuin of Britain, was minded to travel into the Holy Land, and into the Province of Persia, in search of holy things, and to see the borders of the east; and I took unto me two companions, who learned with me in the University of Oxford, all those languages which the people of the east speak; namely, Thomas of Malmsbury, and John of Huntingdon; and though we went as pilgrims, yet we took with us silver, and gold, and riches; and when we came to Bristol, we went into a ship bound to Rome, where we tarried six months, and learned more perfectly the old Persic language. Here the Pope blessed us, and said, "Be of good resolution, for the work you have undertaken is of the Lord." From Rome we went to Naples, and tarried there three days; and from thence to Salerno, and from thence to Palermo. We went through Sicily, and took Melita on our way, where we abode six days. Hence we sailed for the Morea, visited Athens, Thessalonica, Constantinople, Philadelphia, Pergamus, Smyrna, Ephesus, Antioch, Collosse, Capadocia, Alexandria, Damascus, Samaria, Bethel, and Jerusalem. There we staid six weeks; and the Patriarch John received us kindly and after having visited every part of the Holy Land, particularly Bethlehem, Hebron, Mount Sinai, and the like, we crossed an arm of the Persic Gulph at Bassora, and went in a boat to Bagdad, and from thence by land to Ardevil, and so to Casbin. Here we learned from an ascetic, that at the furthermost part of Persia, in the city of Gazna, was a manuscript, wrote in Hebrew, of the Book of Jasher. He stimulated us to this undertaking, that the Book of Jasher was twice mentioned in the Holy Bible, and twice appealed to as a book of testimony; and that it was extant before the writings which are now styled the Book of Moses. I immediately undertook the journey, going by the way of Calmet seems to know nothing of the Book of Jasher. See his article " BIBLE.” He conjectures that it is identical with "the Book of the Wars of the Lord." It is strange that there should have been such doubts concerning this book for so many centuries. It is to be hoped that at length the matter will be cleared up. P. Whether from the hurry of my transcribing, or from its not being stated in the M.S. I am unable to fix this date; it must be nearly a century, I conjecture, from this period. was this the Welch Clergyman? P. Ispahan, where we tarried three weeks; at length we arrived at Gazna. Here we laid aside the pilgrim's dress, and hired an house, where we dwelt during our stay in this city, which was about three years. I soon became acquainted with the keeper of the library, which belongs to the community of the city, and inquired of him concerning the Book of Jasher, which the recluse at Casbin had told us of. He said he had read of such a manuscript in the catalogue of the library, but had never seen it, though he had been Custos for forty-five years; but that it was locked up in a chest, and kept amongst the pieces of autiquity in a separate part of the library. As I lived nigh the Custos, so I soon became familiar in his family; wherefore I one day took the opportunity to tell him, that I was much obliged to him for the civilities he had shown me, and particularly for the free access he had given me to the library at the same time I made him a present of a wedge of gold, in value fifty pounds, which he readily accepted. The next time I went to the library, I begged the favour I might see the Book of Jasher. He conducted me into a long room, where he showed me the chest it was in. He now informed me that the key was in the hand of the city treasurer, and that upon proper application I might see the volume. The Custos introduced me to the Treasurer, and related to him the substance of my request. He smiled, and said, he was not then at leisure, but he would consider it. The next morning, I sent John of Huntingdon to the Treasurer, with a wedge of gold of the value of one hundred pounds, by way of present. By John he sent me word that he would meet me at the library, about the ninth hour. The time being come the Treasurer, the Custos, and I, met at the library; when the Treasurer having unlocked the chest, shewed me the book, which he called the Volume of Jasher and then he locked the chest, and gave the key to the Custos, telling him that I was permitted to read in the volume as often as I would, in the presence of the Custos, and in the library. : The Book of Jasher is a great scroll, in width two feet three inches, and in length about nine feet: it is written in large characters, and exceeding beautiful: the paper upon which it is wrote, is for thickness the eighth of an inch; to the touch it seemed as soft as velvet, and to the eye as white as snow. The arc is of mosaic work, finely and curiously wrought; but time and accidents have very much defaced the ornaments of it. After this, I had free access to the Book of Jasher. The first thing which commanded my attention was a little scroll entitled, "The Story of the Volume of Jasher," which informed me, "This book is twice mentioned in Holy Scripture, viz. in Joshua x. 13, and in 2d Samuel i. 18; in both which places it is appealed to as a work of credit and reputation, and as such was at that time in great esteem." "THE STORY OF THE VOLUME OF JASHER. "Jasher was born in Goshen in the land of Egypt; he was the son of Caleb, who was general of the Hebrews, whilst Moses was with Jethro in Midian. On the embassy of Pharoah, Jasher was appointed Vizier to Moses and Aaron, to bear the rod before them. As he always accompanied Moses, Jasher must have had the greatest opportunities of knowing the facts he has recorded: from his great attachment to truth and righteousness, he has received his name "He was called in Israel the upright man. The arc was made in his life VOL. XI. 2 B |