23 MARCH 1889, Page 14

S A T. - P1 OF PRISONERS INTO SLAVERY.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—In the review of Mr. Besant's " For Faith and Freedom," in the Spectator of March 16th, your reviewer speaks of " that slavery in the plantations beyond seas, into which the English prisoners of James II., like the Irish prisoners of Cromwell, were sold." The inference might be drawn that James was entitled to the unenviable distinction of having originated the sale as slaves of English political prisoners. But as a matter of fact, and as your reviewer will doubtless remember, a Foimilar punishment was inflicted by the Puritan party on English and on Scotch Royalists. Some of the latter• were also, if I remember rightly, sold as soldiers to the