or St Domingo, the largest of the Antilles or Caribbean islands, has been described, as it existed prior to the French revolution, in the Encyclopedia. Previous to the year 1789 the government of the French part of the island was administered by an officer called the Intendant, and a Governor-General, both nominated by the crown, and invested with authority for three years. Their powers were in some cases distinct, and in others united; but though these powers were extensive and almost absolute, the attention which the old government of France paid to the character and rank of those persons whom it had placed over its foreign settlements, secured to the inhabitants of Hispaniola a very considerable share of happiness. In spite of what our reflexes innovators call political evils, signs of prosperity were everywhere visible; their towns were opulent, their markets plentiful, their commerce extensive, and their cultivation increasing.

Such was, in 1788, the state of the French colony in the island of St Domingo; but in that eventful year, the flame, which had burst forth in Europe, spread itself to the West Indies. An association had been founded in France upon principles somewhat similar to those of our society for the abolition of the slave trade; but that association, which called itself Amis des Noirs, had much more dangerous designs than ours. Avowing its detestation of every kind of slavery, as well as of the African trade, and condemning those abettors of liberty who dared to declare themselves protectors of men, its members kept up an intimate and clandestine connection with those rich mulattoes who resided in France for their education, and laboured to convince them that neither their colour nor their previous birth should make any civil or political distinction between them and the whites who were born in wedlock. To co-operate, as it were, with these factious and false doctrines, the National Assembly issued its famous declaration, in which it was maintained that all mankind are born, and continue free, and equal in their rights. The consequence of this was such as might have been expected. The mulattoes of Hispaniola instructed in the French philosophy of the rights of man, broke out into rebellion; but not acting in concert, they were quickly overpowered.

The spirit, however, which had been excited among them, still continued to ferment; and the National Assembly of France, taking the state of the island into solemn consideration, decreed, by a great majority, that its intention had never been to intermeddle with the internal affairs of the colony; that their internal legislation was entirely their own; and that the legislature of the mother country would make no innovation, directly or indirectly, in the system of commerce in which the colonies were already concerned. However grateful this declaration might be to the whites of St Domingo, and in the state of things however wise in itself, it occasioned discontent and remonstrances on the part of the factious friends of the negroes. They regarded it as an unwarrantable sanction of the African traffic, Hispaniola traffic, and a confession, that the planters of Hispaniola were not colonists, but an independent people.

The colonists themselves, indeed, or rather their representatives, seem to have thought that by this decree they were rendered independent; for in their general assembly they passed an act declaring the king's delegate, the governor-general, from negativing any of their future acts. This violent measure was far from giving universal satisfaction. The western parishes recalled their delegates, while those of Cape François renounced their obedience to the whole assembly, and petitioned the governor to dissolve it.

During these diffusions, the commander of a ship of the line, which lay in the harbour of Port-au-Prince, gave a sumptuous entertainment to the friends of the governor; on which account the seamen, who declared themselves in the interest of the assembly, thought fit to mutiny; and the assembly, in return, voted their thanks to the mutineers. Some of their partizans, feigning at the same time a powder magazine, the governor declared them adherents to traitors, and called on all officers, civil and military, to bring them to punishment. This was the signal for civil insurrection; armed troops took the field on both sides; and war seemed inevitable, when the assembly resolved to repair in a body to France and justify their past conduct.

In the mean time the Amis des Noirs contrived to excite the people of colour to rebellion. They initiated in the doctrine of equality and the rights of man one James Oge, then residing in Paris in some degree of affluence. They persuaded him to go to St Domingo, put himself at the head of his people, and deliver them from the oppression of the whites; and in order to evade the notice of government, they undertook to procure for him arms and ammunition in America. He embarked accordingly, July 1790, for New England with money and letters of credit; but notwithstanding the caution of the Amis des Noirs, his designs were discovered by the French government, and his portrait was sent out before him to St Domingo. He landed on the island in October, and six weeks afterwards published a manifesto, declaring his intention of taking up arms, if the privileges of whites were not granted to all persons without distinction. He was joined by about 200 men of colour; and this little army of ruffians not only massacred the whites wherever they fell in with them in small numbers, but, by a still more unjustifiable mode of conduct, took vengeance on those of their own colour who refused to join their rebellious standard. They were, however, soon overpowered by the regular troops; and their leader, after disclosing, it is said, some important secrets, suffered the punishment due to his treason.

While these things were going on in the island, the members of the Colonial Assembly arrived at Paris, where they were received by the representatives of the French people with marked symptoms of aversion. The resolutions composing their famous decree were pronounced improper; their vote of thanks to the mutineers was declared criminal; they were themselves personally arrested; orders were given for a new assembly to be called; and the king was requested to augment the naval and military force then at St Domingo.

The National Assembly of France having decreed that every person twenty-five years old and upwards, possessing property, or having resided two years in the colony and paid taxes, should be permitted to vote in the formation of the colonial assembly, the people of colour very naturally concluded that this privilege was conferred upon them. Such, however, we believe, was not the meaning of the National Assembly; but Gregoire, with the other friends of the negroes, at last prevailed, and mulattoes born of free parents were pronounced to be not only worthy of choosing their representatives, but also eligible themselves to seats in the colonial assemblies. This decree sacrificed at once all the whites in the island to the people of colour; and the indignation which filled the minds of both the royal and the republican parties seemed to have united them in one common cause. They resolved to reject the civic oath; to confiscate the French property in the harbour, on which they actually laid an embargo; to pull down the national colours, and to hoist the British standard in their stead. The mulattoes in the meantime collected in armed bodies, and waited with anxious expectation to see what measures the colonial assembly would adopt.

During these diffusions, the negro slaves, into whose minds had been sedulously instilled an opinion that their rights were equal to those of their masters, resolved to recover their freedom. On the morning of the 23rd of August 1791, the town of the Cape was alarmed by a confused report that the slaves in the adjoining parishes had revolted; and the tidings were soon confirmed by the arrival of those who had narrowly escaped the massacre. The rebellion had broken out in the parish of Acul, nine miles from the city, where the whites had been butchered without distinction; and now the rebels proceeded from parish to parish, murdering the men, and ravishing the unfortunate women who fell into their hands. In a short time the sword was accompanied with fire, and the cane-fields blazed in every direction. The citizens now flew to arms, and the command of the national troops was given to the governor, whilst the women and children were put aboard the ships in the harbour for safety. In the first action the rebels were repulsed; but their numbers rapidly increasing, the governor judged it expedient to act solely on the defensive. In the space of two months it was computed that upwards of 2000 white persons perished; and of the insurgents, who consisted as well of mulattoes as of negroes, not fewer than 10,000 died by famine and the sword, and hundreds by the hands of the executioner.

When intelligence of these dreadful proceedings reached Paris, the Assembly began to be convinced that its equalizing principles had been carried too far; and the famous decree, which put the people of colour on the same footing with the whites, was repealed. Three commissioners were likewise sent to the colony to restore peace between the whites and the mulattoes; but two of them being men of bad character, and none of them possessing abilities for the arduous task of extinguishing the flames of a civil war, they returned to France without accomplishing in any degree the object of their mission.

In the mean time the Amis des Noirs in the mother country had once more gained the ascendant in the National Assembly; and three new commissioners, Sathonax, Polverel, and Ailhaud, with 6000 chosen men from the national guards, were embarked for St Domingo. It was strongly suspected that the object of these commissioners was to procure unqualified freedom for all the blacks in the island; but they solemnly swore that their sole purpose was to establish the rights of the mulattoes, as decreed by the law which had been lately repealed. The whites therefore expected that a colonial assembly would be convoked; but instead of this the commissioners nominated twelve persons, of whom six had been members of the last assembly, and six were mulattoes, Une Commission Intermediaire, with authority to raise contributions on the inhabitants, the application of which, however, they reserved to themselves. The governor finding that the commissioners usurped all authority, complained that he was but a cipher in public affairs; his complaint was answered by an arrest upon his person, and he was sent a state prisoner to France.

The tyranny of the commissioners did not stop here. They overawed the members of the commission intermediaire, by arresting four of their number; and disagreeing among themselves, Santhonax and Polverel dismissed Alliaud from their councils. War was by this time declared between the mother country and Great Britain, and prudence compelled the government of France to take some care of the injured colony. Galbaud, therefore, a man of fair character, was appointed governor, and ordered to put the island in a state of defense against foreign invasion; but possessing West India property, which it seems was a legal disqualification for the office of governor, the commissioners disregarded his authority, and took up arms against him. Finding themselves likely to be worsted, they offered to purchase the aid of the rebel negroes, by the offer of a pardon for their past conduct, freedom in future, and the plunder of the capital. Two of the negro chiefs, more honourable than the French commissioners, spurned at the base proposal; but a third, after the governor had fled to the ships, entered the town with 3000 revolted negroes, and began an indiscriminate massacre. The miserable inhabitants fled to the shore, but their retreat was stopped by a party of mulattoes; and for two days the slaughter was incessant. The town was half consumed by fire; and the commissioners, terrified at the work of their own hands, fled for protection to a ship of the line, and thence issued a manifesto, which, while it tried to extenuate, evinced a consciousness of their guilt.

Thus was lost perhaps to Europe, and lost by the frantic conduct of French philanthropists, the finest island in the West Indies; an island which produced alone as much sugar as all the British West India possessions united; not to mention the coffee and indigo, which were in immense quantities cultivated in Hispaniola. Had it not been for the restless machinations of the Amis des Noirs, it does not appear that so general a revolt would have taken place among the slaves; for though the spirit of republicanism had found its way into the island, the republicans joined with the royalists to keep the negroes in proper subjection. The unsuccessful attempt which, at the request of the more respectable part of the inhabitants, the British government made to subdue the execrable commissioners and their adherents, is fresh in the memory of all our readers, and need not here be detailed at length. Suffice it to say, that after prodigies of valour, our troops were compelled, rather by disease than by the swords of the enemy, to abandon the island, which is now under the control of a negro or mulatto-chief. What will ultimately become of it, future events must decide; but let its protracted and bloody disputes be a warning to all, and among others to our association for the abolition of the slave trade, that it is impossible to promote a good end by wicked means, and that slaves must be civilized before they be made free.