guarantee_ of which would be an _immediate_ and _living experience_ of better laws and better treatment? The fifth case may comprehend the slaves of St. Domingo as they were made free at different intervals in the course of the French Revolution. To do justice to this case, I must give a history of the different circumstances connected with it. It may be remembered, then, that when the French Revolution, which decreed equality of rights to all citizens, had taken place, the _free People of Colour_ of St. Domingo, many of whom were persons of large property and liberal education, petitioned the National Assembly, that they might enjoy the same political privileges as the _Whites_ there. At length the subject of the petition was discussed, but not till the 8th of March 1790, when the Assembly agreed upon a decree concerning it. The decree, however, was worded so ambiguously, that the two parties in St. Domingo, the _Whites_ and the _People of Colour_, interpreted it each of them in its own favour. This difference of interpretation gave rise to animosities between them, and these animosities were augmented by political party-spirit, according as they were royalists or partizans of the French Revolution, so that disturbances took place and blood was shed. In the year 1791, the People of Colour petitioned the Assembly again, but principally for an explanation of the decree in question. On the 15th of May, the subject was taken into consideration, and the result was another decree in explicit terms, which determined, that the _People of Colour_ in all the French islands were entitled to all the rights of citizenship, provided _they were born of free parents on both sides_. The news of this decree had no sooner arrived at the Cape, than it produced an indignation almost amounting to phrensy among the _Whites_. They directly trampled under foot the national cockade, and with difficulty were prevented from seizing all the French merchant ships in the roads. After this the two parties armed against each other. Even camps began to be formed. Horrible massacres and conflagrations followed, the reports of which, when brought to the mother-country, were so terrible, that the Assembly abolished the decree in favour of _the Free People of Colour_ in the same year.