enactment which the colonial governments could not resist. There seemed, however, on the part of government, a wish to exercise the utmost lenience towards the colonial governments, to make the very most of what little they had done in compliance with the order in council sent them, and still to rely on their honour and wait their time for further improvements; but the public were not so easily satisfied, and their sentiments were expressed in numerously attended meetings, in various parts of the country, and numerously signed petitions to parliament. As a specimen, the number of petitions, in one session, amounted to six hundred and forty-four; that from London contained seventy-two thousand signatures; that from Manchester, forty-one thousand; from Glasgow, thirty-eight thousand; from Edinburgh, seventeen thousand; from the county of Norfolk, thirty-eight thousand, and from other places in like proportion. Very interesting discussions on the subject frequently took place in both houses of parliament, especially in the house of commons, on the motion of Mr. Denman, respecting the trials of some slaves in Jamaica, charged with conspiracy and rebellion, on which eight persons were condemned and executed. Every one of the slaves declared his innocency to the last; even when on the scaffold, pardon was offered to any two who would confess a rebellious design, and, on the whole, it appeared to be a mere "got up" concern, and that the poor creatures were tried under the most disadvantageous circumstances, convicted on very slight and insufficient evidence, and the execution wantonly hastened, merely that it might strike terror into other negroes, who,
