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>YikLH«¥lM]IYIEI&S2irY« • iLiiiais^isy •

AFRICA IN THE WEST

ITS STATE; PROSPECTS; AND
EDUCATIONAL NEEDS:

i, WITH REFERENCE TO
BISHOP BEEKELEY'S BEEMUDA COLLEGE.

REV. W. C. DOWDING, M.A,
OI4 EXETER COLLEGE, OXEORD.

M e'Aaiea elpi iyih Kal KaA*4/. Cant. i. 5.

OXFORD Ain) LONDON,
JOHN HENRY PARKER.
MDCCCLII.

OXFORD i
PRINTED BY I. SHRIHPTON.

AFRICA IN THE WEST.
There are but few persons of education who are
not familiar with the name of Berkeley. They have
not tested (it may be) the virtues of "Tar Water,"
but they have admired the acuteness of its learned
advocate ; and though they still have faith in an
external world, and believe themselves something
better than a bundle of ideas, they know enough
of the times when the good Bishop lived, to rejoice
in a counterpoise to the theories then rampant, even
though the counterpoise itself may have gone some
what too far.
It is not, however, as an amateur physician nor yet
as a master of the ideal philosophy, but in the higher
character of a Christian philanthropist, that we now
ask attention to his history. It will be remembered
that amongst his works there is a tract with this
title : " A proposal for the better supply of Churches
in our foreign Plantations, and for the converting of
the savage Americans to Christianity by a College to
be erected in the Summer islands, otherwise called
the isles of Bermudaa." This tract was written when
the Bishop was Dean of Deny; and in accordance
¦ Berkeley's Works, vol. ii., pp. 281—293.
A 2

with the views therein explained, application was
made to the then Government, for a charter of in
corporation, and a grant of money. After many dif
ficulties, the end seemed secure ; and Dean Berkeley
set sail for Rhode island. His purpose was to wait
there till the grant should be paid ; and, meanwhile,
to prepare the way for his future operations. Sir
Robert Walpole was then at the head of affairs ; and
knowing the man, we are not surprised at what fol
lowed : after a long and harassing delay, the Dean
was informed through his friend Bishop Gibson, that
the money voted would not be paid, and that the pro
ject so dear to him must be given up.
He returned forthwith to Europe ; the funds col
lected for his College were made over to the Society
for the Propagation" of the Gospel ; and from that
time to this (I believe) his great project has been in
abeyance. It is in the hope of reviving it that this
paper is put forth.
In reviving it, we seek to meet a case without
parallel. The circumstances of the West Indies are
scarce realized in England. Men know that the
slaves have been emancipated; and they have a
general impression that their condition is improving ;
yet but few persons are acquainted with the true
aspect of things, or alive to what we have called
its unparalleled character.
Africa may well be called the great crux of philan
thropy : the problem which the wisest and most con
siderate cannot solve. What is to become of it ? how

are its tribes to be taught and christianized ? how are
they to be raised from their deep degradation ? when
shall the children of Ham be forgiven ? when rescued
(if ever) from their world-old curse ?
Now this question is solving itself on the other side
the Atlantic. The future of Africa is to be looked for
in the West.
It is nothing new for conquering nations to be
naturalized in their conquests ; absorbing the strength
and resources of the land, and driving the aborigines
to annihilation; but in the West India islands we
have the reverse of this. We have there, not a con
quering but a conquered race, (conquered too, in a
sense the most abject and dishonourable,) who yet, in
God's providence, have so thriven upon their dis
honour, as to remind us of those who " grew and
multiplied in Egypt." But the comparison fails in
a most material point : in the one case there was a
possible (and actual) removal; while in that which
concerns ourselves such a step is out of question.
We cannot force the departure of our bondsmen :
we cannot make a merit of necessity in permitting it :
the wide sea severs them (utterly) from their father
land; and, for good or for evil, they must remain
where they are. We trust it shall be for good : for
we trace (in their circumstances) that mysterious law
which has made civilization and intelligence to travel
perpetually towards the West. That law at least
seems, so far, to apply to the African, that he has
shewn powers in the West, which in the East were

6
hidden; and a capacity for developement both
physical and otherwise, which cannot but produce
the most important results.
As a first step towards verifying this opinion, we
must refer to the census of population. It has been
usual in the West Indies, since the abolition of slavery,
to make these Returns without distinction of colour :
in four cases, however, the distinction has been main
tained : in Jamaica, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and the
Bahamas ; and as there is nothing very peculiar in
the condition of those islands, we may fairly consider
them as representing the rest.
Now the aggregate population of those islands (as
stated in a Paper read by Mr. Danson to the Statistical
Society in Feb. 1849) amounts to 459,000. Out of
these we have the following as the number of the
whites :
Jamaica ...... 15,776
St. Vincent ..... 1268
St. Lucia ...... 1039
The Bahamas ..... 6062

Total 24, 145
So that the proportion (per cent.) of whites to coloured
persons is scarcely more than 5.
Such a Return in the days of slavery need have
caused no remark : nay, rather, it might have been
taken as an evidence of prosperity. Now, however,
that the coloured people (God be thanked for it) are
free — willing, too, and able to make use of their
freedom; anxious for progress, and capable of se-

curing it — the Return sets before us a most por
tentous fact ; revealing (at a glance) the whole future
of those regions : ^ojAot wpovofirjv irour/crovo-i h !
But this is not all. To realize the case completely, we
must take another matter into account. It is a com
mon remark with regard to the English West Indies,
that our countrymen never seem domesticated there.
While the Frenchman in Martinique, and the Spaniard
in Cuba, can each make the land of his adoption a
home, the Englishman remains a sojourner through
out the longest residence : a visitor to the Plantation,
-rather than a member of the Colony ; enduring to be
expatriated for the sake of making a fortune, but
ever fore-casting the day of his return. He is a
stranger in the country, and (bating mercantile pur
poses) the land has no hold upon him.
Now with Government policy we have nothing to do;
but, in connection with our own question, we must
needs remember, that circumstances are tending to
weaken even this slight bond, and to make the white
man more than ever disposed to look homeward.
Explain it how we may, the fact is certain, that in
Guiana, as well as the islands, a state of things has
risen up, which seems likely to bring into the full
est prominence, that the Africans are now the real
natives of that region : not only in regard to their
overwhelming numbers ; snot only in regard to their
having no other home; not only in regard to their
adaptation to the climate (a climate which must ever
b Isaiah xxxiii. 23.

prevent the white man from being a native) ; but also,
and especially, and particularly in this regard — the
ultimate prospect of their being left alone in the land.
I offer no opinion upon questions of finance ; nor
am I insensible to the trials attending social tran
sitions. I desire only to state facts : and if I have
suggested a clue to their interpretation, it is no more
than others have done before me. De Tocqueville
has pointed to the same probability ; and the lecture
rooms of Oxford have heard it said, that " emanci
pation may have given a turn to the course of events,
and opened for our magnificent tropical empire of the
West a new cycle of destiny*?' The same thought is
working in more practical minds. In conversation,
(last year) with a West India merchant who had re
cently wound up his affairs in Jamaica (too thankful
to have lost only half his fortune,) I found that he was
consoling himself under his personal losses, as well as
for what he considered to be a public calamity, with
the belief that God has high purposes in those re
gions, and those purposes such as I have ventured to
hint at. He was a religious man, of very great in
telligence ; he had lived all his life in the countries
he spoke of : and he had about him (let me add as a
most important particular) the strongest personal an
tipathy to the coloured race.
But whatever be our judgment as to the distant
future, this, at least, we have before our eyes already,
a race but of yesterday (in its altered condition), yet
c Merivale's Lectures on Colonization.

9
even now, in its infancy, shewing signs of promise ;
its powers obvious, though undeveloped ; its energies
undisciplined and irregular as those of a child, yet
exhibiting the raw material of which great nations are
made. A good illustration of this is given by Mr.
Coleridge a, when comparing the negroes with the
Indians of Trinidad : " Their complexion does not
differ so much as their minds and dispositions . in
the first," (the Indians) he says, " life stagnates : in
the last it is tremulous with irritability : the negroes
cannot be silent ; they speak in spite of themselves ;
every passion acts upon them with strange intensity.
Their curiosity is audacious ; their mirth clamorous
and excessive ; their anger sudden and furious ; and
yet, by nature, they are good humoured in the high
est degree."
To this judgment, put forth some years ago, I am
able to add a little from more recent experience. The
responsibilities of freedom have had their effect in
checking the exuberance which Mr. Coleridge speaks
of; and a more careful education, with higher objects
of pursuit, will, henceforth, prevent their powers from
running to waste. They are now in the fullest career
of improvement : and after knowledge of them as
parishioners, both young and old; in the school, in
the family, and at the sick-bed side, it is impossible
not to call them a most promising people ; intelligent,
orderly, and (for the most part) religious.
It is not necessary for our purpose that we should
d " Six Months in the West Indies."

10
"make a case;" and I have no wish to hide either
their foibles or their faults. It would be strange, in
deed, if they had not both ; but let it be remembered
that within the last tioenty years these people were
saleable like the brutes that perish ; suffered (almost
encouraged) to live as the brutes ; and it needs must
be considered a most significant fact, that they have
risen to the requirements of their condition so rapidly:
and taken possession of their freedom with so little
effort. Whilst in these regions many are still think
ing of the negro as an animal who wears a monkey-face,
and says " Massa ;" with just wit enough to be cun
ning, and just English enougli to lie ; there is a race
growing up in those Western Islands, seemly in their
bearing, and very often handsome : (civilization and
improvement fast creolizing their features, and effacing
the uncomeliness of the African type :) their peasants
as intelligent, and intelligible as our own : their ad
vanced classes already a powerful bourgeoisie, of whose
future position we have an instalment in this ; that
even now (and I pray it be carefully marked) it has
its merchants, its barristers, its clergymen, its magis
trates, its members of Assembly, and (even) its mem
bers of Council.
I have already alluded to the remarkable fact, that
the first great advance of the African race should take
effect not in the East of the world, but in the West ;
and that a role should thus (as it seems) be assigned
them, in .that marvellous future of which the West is
to be the field. To this consideration we may add

11
another, the insular position of these coloured commu
nities. The effects which attend the possession of an
extended sea-board are too well known to require dis
cussion. The power of the sea to develope national
life is nowhere more likely to be appreciated than in
England ; and in estimating the future prospects of
our sable fellow-subjects, we cannot forget that they have
this in their favour ; nor fail to mark it as an indica
tion of high purposes concerning them.
We might as easily blot out the history of the past ;
of Tyre and Carthage, Alexandria and Venice; as
imagine that the enterprise of these transplanted
Africans will be uninfluenced by the nature of their
Western home. But this has to do with the far future.
Meanwhile there lies before us a weighty task. We
put these people where they are. We did, unwittingly,
that marvellous work whose consequences are almost
too great for thought ; and that we were influenced
in doing it, not by love, but lucre ; that we expended
upon it the most enormous resources, and continued
it from year to year with the most untiring energy,
not led by philanthropy, but by the demon of avarice ;
this (assuredly) is no reason for being indifferent to
the future, but the strongest of all arguments for de
termined exertion.
At first sight it might seem that their freedom is
ours ; and that in setting them at liberty from the
bonds of slavery, we set ourselves (also) at liberty
from all further care. But in equity, the ease is other
wise ; emancipation, after all, was but a feeble amende,

12
and left behind it much yet remaining to be done.
Having made these men cognizant of an advanced
civilization, and giving them the freedom which might
enable them to share it ; we are bound to act, by
them, a gentle part ; assisting them during the season
of their national infancy, and leading them onward
with patient steps, in the career which their emancipa
tion (in its very nature) implied.
Much has already been done to this end ; much by
the Church, much (all honour to them) by the Mora
vians and others. Very much, however, still remains.
Nothing stands still, least of all the childhood of a
growing race : and as the Africans of the West are
fast passing out of leading-strings, they require from
us something more than an elementary schooling ;
something full, and searching, and elaborate ; and
specially (too) adapted to their peculiar needs.
Now to estimate these needs we must remember
the past. I have spoken of the high capabilities of
these men ; and spoken without conscious exaggera
tion of any kind. We have still, however, to recollect
that their origin is barbarous, and that their condition
amongst the whites has been little fitted to redeem it.
Oppression and dishonour always leave their mark;
and we are nothing surprised, therefore, if in emerg
ing from the tomb — the tomb of a long and deep de
gradation — they are found to be somewhat encum
bered with " grave clothes." For a people so circum
stanced, two things are needed. There is required
for them in the first place, an intellectual training

13
which shall give strength, an.d reach, and coherence
to their powers ; and, secondly, a religious and social
discipline, which shall maintain the connection between
the mind and heart ; (between the truth of things,
and the truth of God;) and shall apply those joint
energies in their utmost extension, to the humanizing
and refinement of the life and manners. The import
ance of this latter point is obvious ; nations more ad
vanced might seem able to neglect it ; but a people
without a history, and without social traditions, (or at
least without any but such as are debasing,) such a
people we have to teach, not only how to think, but
how to feel ; how to conduct themselves in common
affairs, how to behave themselves towards others, and
towards themselves. It is in this view that Bishop
Selwyne has observed of the New Zealanders, that
they need a treatment at once the most general, and
the most particular; uniting principles the broadest,
with details- the most minute, and exhibiting truth in
her loftiest character, as our mistress in the homeliest
and most lowly relations. The like may be said as to
e . . . " But such a system must not only provide the means of edu
cation hut also instruction in the most minute details of daily life, and
in every useful and industrious hahit. We are apt to forget the labo
rious processes by which we acquired in early life the routine duties of
cleanliness, order, method, and punctuality ; and we often expect to
find ready made in a native people, the qualities which we ourselves
have learned with difficulty ..... We want a large supply of Ober-
lins, and Felix Neffs, who having no sense of their own dignity; will
think nothing below it, and will go into the lowest and darkest corner
of the native* character, to" see where the difficulty lies which keeps
them hack from being1 assimilated to ourselves." : .
C

14
the needs of the negro. We have a people not only
to educate but to civilize ; and to this end we must
bring to bear upon their opening intelligence the
most patient and elaborate supervision. We have
to watch the buddings of national character ; to foster
what is hopeful, and to prune (it may be with
trenchant hand) the over-luxuriant and lawless
branches. We have to mark (yet in no unkindly
spirit) the words, the dress, the attitudes, the tones
of voice; that we may gradually cut off every rem
nant of coarseness, and replace it by a taste for what
is pure and high. This it is to train an uncultivated
race ; to fix the graft of refinement upon the stock
of barbarism.Now an enterprise like this requires a special
machinery. It is not enough to open a grammar
school ; nor to institute what Coleridge calls " a
lecture-room bazaar." We want, indeed, a Univer
sity ; and of the most effective stamp : a visible
impersonation of thought and learning, which shall
pour out its treasures with unceasing stream ; broad
enough and deep enough to quench a nation's thirst ;
and of volume sufficient to maintain its own freshness.
But important as is this point, and essential to
our purpose; what we need even more than the
Professor and his lectures, is the refining - influence
of a Christian home. If we would advance our
poor friends in civilization and humanity, and help
them to slough off the scars of bondage, we must
not only teach them, but we must take them to

15
dwell with us ; we must sever them from every mean
and debasing association, and surround them with
the symbols of elevation and honour. We have to
act upon their taste as well as their intellect; and
upon their affections more than either.
For this we need a family ; a family conducted with
simplicity, yet seemliness; with scrupulous moderation,
yet with fitness and dignity; where gentle breeding
and European refinement may be seen in connection
with a religious life.
We need, in short, a College ; a society of learned
and religious persons, living under a kindly academical
rule ; whose life and occupations may set an example
of study; and whose bearing and habits may shew
the Christian gentleman. Into such a society we
must graft our Africans. We have to give them
position in a Christian household ; with daily Services
to sustain their faith, and seemly arrangements to
refine their taste, and seniors who shall be to them as
friends and brothers. The effect of such an institute
must be immense; and as our darkling students be
come conscious of their position ; aware of the honour
(to say nothing of the responsibility) of bearing part
in a system which has a history as well as a life ; a
tradition in the past, as well as results in the present ;
a system which dates from what they love as " mother
England," and which is associated with all her greatest
names — it cannot be doubted that its influence would
be most elevating, and that, strengthened by a firm
yet gentle discipline, it would go farther to humanize

16
the negro mind, than any amount of mere teaching,
however elaborate or long continued.
God's wisdom has provided such a machinery to
our hand. The College of Bishop Berkeley is pre
cisely what is wanted; and we may say, without
scruple, that it is ready to our hand; not only, nor
chiefly, because of its Charter and Grant (though we
hope it will be possible to revive both), but because a
locale which has been marked out for a century ; an
institution whose principles have been settled for a
century ; and a name, like Bishop Berkeley's, in uni
versal honour — form together a prestige which is half
the enterprise ; a real dimidium facti in our plans.
In speaking of this College, its position and pro
perties, and its admirable adaptation to the end be
fore us, we shall but follow in the track which Bishop
Berkeley has pointed out ; and adopt, in great mea
sure, his own words. It is the essential peculiarity
of the scheme now proposed, that it is the very own
scheme of the Bishop himself; merely writing the
word " negro" where he wrote " Indian." Mutatis
mutandis the two projects are identical.
After mentioning climate as a point of chief im
portance, the Bishop describes that of Bermuda thus :
" The Summer islands are situated in the latitude
of 33 degrees ; no part of the world enjoys a purer
air, or a more moderate climate. The great ocean
which surrounds them at once moderates the heat of
the south winds, and the severity of the north-west.
Such a latitude on the Continent might be thought

17
too hot, but the air in Bermuda is perpetually fanned
and kept cool by sea breezes which render the weather
the most healthy and delightful that could be wished ;
being of one equal tenor almost throughout the year ;
Mke the latter end of a fine May ; insomuch that it is
resorted to as the Montpelier of America."
As the Bishop gives this description on the au
thority of a resident, there is the less necessity that I
should myself add anything. Having, however, but
recently returned from Bermuda, I am able to bear
an immediate testimony, as well to the faithfulness
and accuracy of the account, as to the beauty of this
singular and romantic spot.
All will remember what Waller says of the islands :¦
" The kindly spring which but salutes us here,
Inhabits there, and courts them all the year ;
Ripe fruits and blossoms on the same trees live,
At once they promise what at once they give ;
So sweet the air, and moderate the clime,
None sickly lives, nor dies before the time ;
Heaven sure hath kept this spot of earth uncurs'd
To shew how all things were created firstf."
This praise is but little (if at all) overcharged. Near
enough to the tropics to enjoy a tropical vegetation,
Bermuda is yet untroubled either by their heat, or
their diseases. So close to the West Indies as to
have perpetual communication (a point most material
to our present purpose), it has but very few weeks of
sultry weather; and even those not otherwise than
' Battle of the Summer Isles.

18
perfectly healthy. The importance of this fact has
been stated by the Governor, in regard both to the
tutors and pupils of our College. In a Paper now
lodged in the Colonial Office13, he writes : " There are
serious climatic objections to the establishment of such
an institution in any part of the West Indies, whilst
at Bermuda there are at least eight months of mo
derate temperature ; and I believe it has been found
by careful observers that this physical condition is as
necessary to intellectual vigour, on the part of the
coloured races, as upon that of our own."
This point discussed, Bishop Berkeley suggests
another; the college (he tells us) must be "in a
place of security." Now in this respect Bermuda is
beyond compare. I allude not merely to its being a
great naval station ; a post whose safety is of the last
importance, and upon the strengthening of which,
therefore, vast sums are spent; but rather to those
marvellous natural defences, (too well known to need
describing,) the coral formations which are at once its
origin and its protection ; and which throw around it
an almost inaccessible barrier. If we remember how
the West Indies have fared in war, we shall be able
to appreciate the reefs of Bermuda.
The climate and safety of the island being deter
mined, Bp. Berkeley proceeds next to remark upon
its inhabitants. " They are represented " (he says)
" as a contented, plain, innocent sort of people ; free
e Revival of Bp. Berkeley's Bermuda College. Extracts of Corre
spondence, p. 7.

19
from avarice and luxury, as well as the other cor
ruptions that attend those vices." On this (as on
other points) I can speak from experience, and jus
tify the authority upon which the Bishop relied.
Having had charge of large parishes in the island of
Bermuda, the condition of the people is somewhat ac
curately known to me ; in all respects it is such as
our case requires. Simplicity marks their social in
tercourse ; and in religion (as is shewn by the last
year's census) they are almost entirely adherents of
the Church : the excess of Church people being as
9 : 2. The bearing of this latter fact is obvious.
The people of colour (also) at Bermuda have very
important recommendations. As the island had re
ceived no fresh slaves from Africa, for a very long
period before the year '34, they were saved from
those repeated infusions of barbarism which checked
the improvement of their brethren further south ;
whilst the fact that their services were not predial
but household, brought them more within the in
fluence of what is kindly and humanizing.
In view of all these matters we may adopt the
Bishop's words, and conclude, as he does, that
" amongst a people of this character, and in a
situation thus circumstanced, it would seem that a
seminary of religion and learning might very fitly
be placed. The correspondence with other parts of
America; the goodness of the air; the plenty and
security of the place; the frugality and innocence
of the inhabitants; all conspire to favour such a

20
design. Thus much, at least, is evident, that yoxmg
students would be there less liable to be corrupted
in their morals; and the governing part would be
easier, and better contented with a small stipend,
and a retired academical life, in a corner from which
avarice and luxury are excluded, than they could be
supposed to be in the midst of a full trade and great
riches, attended with all that high living and pride
which our planters affect, and which (as well as all
fashionable vices) should be far removed from the
eyes of the young."
But another point remains sufficiently important to
be treated separately. It will have been noticed that
the Bishop speaks of nearness to America as one of
the circumstances which should recommend Bermuda.
He speaks with reference to the Indian tribes : we
may say the like with regard to the Africans. Not
only have the British Provinces a large coloured popu
lation, but in the United States alone there are three
millions of negroes. These latter have doubled them
selves in five and twenty years ; so that supposing the
same state of things to continue, by the end of the
present century there will be twelve millions in that
country. Now with the politics of this question we
have nothing to do ; and it becomes us to speak tem
perately about the affairs of other nations. Deeply as
we must lament the attitude of the Union in this
matter ; the sins of the South, and the complicity of
the North ; the guilt which maintains slavery, and
the guilt which sanctions it ; deeply and sorrowfully

21
as we must feel all this ; and hard as it may be to
repress indignation at the unworthy juggle which
proclaims " all men equal," while black men are being
sold and bought like cattle — we have still to remem
ber that we are but bystanders, and that the remarks
of such should be few and measured. Facts, however,
it is impossible to ignore ; and in view of those three
millions, and in the certainty that they will be free (if
not by the operation of Christian philanthropy, at least
by the slow but certain influence of self-interest), we
cannot consider it an unimportant matter, that our
College should give to them, also, the means of
training. In founding an institution which is to live in the
future, it is natural thus to think of times yet distant ;
but even in times present, (placed near to America,)
our College might be as useful to the free-coloured in
that country, as to those who are connected with our
own West Indies. Slavery in the United States is of
British planting ; and we may rightly, therefore, take
thought for the free Africans of that land ; especially
as in doing so, we fulfil the Berkeley charter, which
declares that the object of the College at Bermuda was
to propagate learning and Christian faith ; not only
"infra ditionem nostram, set et in partibus," &c, in
the regions lying beyond. That such care for them
is needed will be easily seen.
I have already disclaimed any wish to be severe ;
and I would rather quote the words of an American
on this point, than use language of my own which

22
might seem excessive. " In the free States," (says the
Editor of the New York Herald11) " the whites and the
blacks are not permitted to live on anything like equal
terms together. We have given them it is true what
is called liberty — that is we do not buy and sell their
bodies — but we crush their spirits, their very souls.
We allow them scarcely one of the rights and privi
leges of citizens. We elect them to nothing, but de
grade them in everything. We sedulously exclude
them from trades ; we drive them out of our school-
houses. We will not have them in our Houses of
God ; we refuse even to go down to the same grave
yard with them."
It were well if these words were words of sorrow ;
but they are not so. They are used, on the con
trary, to justify further harshness ; the closing of the
Northern States against negroes altogether. "The
less," (it is argued on the facts just detailed,) " the
less we have of a population which our society holds
in such unutterable degradation, certainly the better
for the state." We scarce need be told, after reading
this passage, that the higher educational institutions
of America are closed to the members of this unfor
tunate race ; so that, being (spite of all) a thriving
people, and anxious, like their brethren in the West
Indies, for improvement, they will thankfully take ad
vantage of the Bermuda College.
From considering the position of the proposed in-
" Oct. 6th, 1851.

23
stitution, we pass on, naturally, to speak of its form.
The Constitution, as drawn in the Charter, is the fol
lowing : The Secretary of State for the Colonies1 is
Chancellor ; the Bishop of London is ex officio visitor,
the President and Fellows govern the College, making
bye-laws subject to the veto of the Visitor. The
Crown nominates the President ; the nominee being
chosen from amongst the Fellows. The Fellows are
elected as in England. The President and Fellows
report annually to the Chancellor and Visitor, upon
the condition of the College, and the progress of the
students. Such a College may be expected to be (in great
measure) self-supporting; but it can never be made
available for men of small means, unless the President
and " Readers" (as Berkeley calls them) be endowed.
Even though, therefore, the Fellowships, as such, be
unsalaried ; it is hoped that provision may be found
for three Professorships, to be held by those who are
Fellows of the College ; a fourth Professorship, (of
theology and moral science,) being assigned to the
President himself.
For this endowment, as well as the building fund,
we ask our brethren in England: — it cannot in the
nature of things be looked for elsewhere ; the unity,
however, and fixedness of the institution thus secured,
we should turn to the coloured race themselves.

i  ilium Primarium Secretarium nostrum ad cujus provinciam
Plantaciones nostre in America spectabunt.

24
There is nearly a million of that race in the British
West Indies, and a very moderate gift from each
father of a family, would amount to an exceed
ingly important sum. It is proposed that they be
personally visited, in this view ; and it may be con
sidered certain that if the project is explained to
them, they will not only appreciate it, but gladly assist,
by the founding in our College of Exhibitions and
Scholarships, appropriated to natives of their respec
tive islands. It is in this part of our project that we
look for Government help. Glaring as was that
breach of public faith which the Journals of the House
of Commons still survive to testify, and a Writ of
Privy Seal makes yet more flagrant, we may very well
believe that if philanthropy found the College, the
State will not be sorry to set itself right, by appending
to it some provision for our sable clients. It might,
perhaps, be advisable that such grant should be con
ditional ; apportioned in shares to the different islands,
to be met by an equal contribution on the spot. In
any case, however, success is certain ; and Bermuda
may be made what Berkeley wished it ; a centre of
civilization : " a reservoir," as he writes, " of learn
ing and religion ;" with " rivulets perpetually issuing"
through the West : not a local Grammar School, nor a
mere Diocesan College ; but a veritable ' Universitas'
in its broadest sense ; an Iona to all who love truth
and soberness, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to
the shores of Surinam.
Let us not be thought over-sanguine. We do not

25
expect all this at once ; and it may be well, therefore,
to trace out the various steps which are to lead, as we
believe, to so grand a consummation.
We should propose, then, that the coloured people,
(their gifts doubled by the Government,) should found
two Exhibitions for each Scholarship. At first the Ex
hibitions would be held by boys, (Bp. Berkeley's " young
savages" were to be under ten years of age,) and till
we make good our ground, the Bermuda College would
be a school. From the Exhibitioners found most pro
mising, we should choose our Scholars, to enter upon
a specially collegiate course, and to receive at its con
clusion, an academical Degree. As time however pro
ceeds, and the level of intelligence rises higher, the
Exhibitions will command a better market, and the
holders of them would be such as our undergraduates
at home. When we have reached this point, our
scholars will be chosen from amongst the graduates,
and their position will be that of a Bye-Fellow at
Cambridge ; ranking in all social respects as a Fellow,
but having no voice in the College government. Such
men might remain in residence for a term of years ; to
mature their knowledge, and enlarge its stores; or
even to act (where suitable) as Assistant Tutors.
By these means, it will be seen, we progress natu
rally and without effort, through all the stages which
divide School from College ; reaching ultimately the
result which subsists in England, where more students
enter College than there are Foundations to be given,
and the possessors of those Foundations are not the

26
stock of the Institution, but the elite of a larger and
more promiscuous class.
The only remaining considerations are financial, and
on these there need not be many words. Three things
are to be done, and there are three sets or classes of
men to do them. Exhibitions and Scholarships must
be provided in the West Indies. The general Enghsh
public (including the great Church Societies) — to them
it will belong to provide a Building Fund ; whilst the
educated classes (and especially the Universities) will
be asked to raise an endowment for the President and
Professors. It is not, of course, pretended that this
division can be exact : but taking it as a general basis
of calculation, we see that the enterprize, though large
(as a whole), is not at all beyond the compass of a
united effort. If those who know the difference be
tween teaching for a living, and being provided with
a living, that they may teach for love ; if these will do
their part, the rest will follow. The churchmen of Eng
land will provide a building ; " Young Africa" in the
West will give her scholars subsistence.
A noble prospect thus opens to the Universities of
England ; the prospect of doing a deed past all price
in itself, and in its consequences second only {if second)
to the Emancipation. It rests with them to put the
finishing stroke to that great work ; to give form and
completeness to what were otherwise a fragment ; and
by opening to the men of colour an academical career,
to mould and fashion their whole national life. Those
only who know the other side of the Atlantic, can

27
imagine the results which may flow from this. They
are such, (to adopt the idea of Bishop Berkeley's
epitaph1-,) as may rejoice both the patriot and the
Christian. And great as is the work, it is yet easy to compass.
On the Books of the two Universities conjointly, there
are nearly (if not quite) twelve thousand members ; and
if these, (to say nothing of the Dublin University ; the
University whose boast it is to have produced Bishop
Berkeley;) if these would become answerable for a
trifling contribution, to be spread (where necessary)
over the next five years, a sum might be raised with
comparative ease, which would suffice to do all that
the case requires.
There seems but one reason against it ; " We have
done so much for them already." This argument,
however, (in reality) tells the other way. The greater
gift ever implies the less, (Romans viii. 32,) as the
Samaritan's " two pence," whatever trifle was " spent
more." We paid our " two pence" in the ransom of
'34 ; and having bought these men's freedom at the
cost of millions, we cannot now grudge the thousands
which will make their freedom worth having.
k Si Christianus fueris,
Si amans patrias,
Utroque nomine gloriari potes
Berkleium vixisse.

OXFORD : PAINTED BY I. SHEIMPIOK.

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