Star. — London, England, 1816-06-20 00:00:00

I . • . S o f a r, isdebdi 4rilavtisey.Mmi 'being tibia to prove t o that they could mit even frame igeir accusation'. It contracts for *vie had been' entered into, there must be a when and) Where. Now, if they ivould stat e it !'llll the when and where, he would commit tonoo o 10 the onus of proving that the alleged trans actions did not take place. Every one who studied, that miserable, though able attempt , —(miserable on actount of its :perversion ot facts, able for its so. p oistry and . eloqueaice)—to fix on the colonists the c o m e of having caused the disorders in the West In dies, would perceive that it was full of false reason ing and unfair statement. What kind of proof was it Gentlemen demanded, to convince them that the a l ar m in the West Itidies was not attributable to the c olonists, but arose solely from the Registry Bill ?--; athat kite:l , of proof did they ask ? It they would not stattait, he would adduce every kind of pionf, and eer y kind of proof in the highest degree. Was it ter iniony they wished fur ? They could have the totimony of every white colonist in the islands. No doubt they would refuse this, for they proceeded on two axioms. The first axiom was, let the character of a colonist be ever so excellent—let his motives ap pear ever so pure and disinterested—his testimony, on a subject of this kind, could not be received— Why ? because he was a colonist. Then came axiom tw o. Let a man bring any charge against the West India proprietors—let his character be ever so base— tit his motives be ever so foul and detestable—the single fact of his bringing such a charge removed all liseicei. The only question was.“ Do you not bring so ot charge against the planters ? That is sufficient. core to our arms;--4ake our fraternal embrace." , o ti o matter what your character is—no matter what v a t s disgrace yOu—a charge of criminality against t he West India Colonists washes away every spot.—; (Nair, hear). —Let any man read those books which bad leen lately published against the Colonists—let him attend to the prOceedings of the African Society ...(he here did not speak of those Gentlemen who were Members of that body, and never went near them, but of that miserable junto of impostors, who were active in their proceedings)—and they would perceive, at once, the truth of his description. Well, then, his opponents hid got rid of the testimony of all the white inhabitants. Still he thought he could get through. There were, in the Colonies, Cover. nets amd Officers, Military and Naval. All these, to a man, would state that the insurrection had arisen from the Registry Bill. But then he would be told, that their view of the case was not the result of per. sonal observation, but ,was derived from information given by others. The Officers being with their regiments, and the Naval Officers being on hoard their ships, could not, it would be said, judge for tiemselves. Their evidence must, therefore, be &rind from the inhabitants—and this, of course, disqualified them from giving evidence. Still he was not conquered. He would adduce the testimony of all dee Blacks—:f these Who Rod e joined in the insurrec lila, Sind of those who had shed their blood in defence elf their masters—who would state. that the Registry Bill occasioned all the mischief. Here, no doubt s it would be asserted, that the confessions of the former were extorted, by means of the torture, and that the latter clasi was bribtd. Then, of course, all testimony wiled be set aside—he - could not benefit by it.-- But he would immediately advert to circumstances ; mid, perhaps, on no previous occasion had so great a body of circurnstanoal evidence been brought to Lear upon a fact.* garbadoes was the oldest of our itnlonial establishments in the West Indies. It was fin our possession upward% of 200 years—and. up to `the moment w h en the L it e disturbance took place, aktutigh the laws were estrOnely severe, no insure miien, as far as he could learn. bad ever occurred fled!. But the Registry Bill arrived; and from that moment the ferment commenced. It increased 'with the arrival of every packet—and, when the last in- Ott red there, without bringing them the expected basiio discontent burst forth in insurrsction. Hose del it happen that all the islands were in a state of trate. totality wail the measure was transmitted to them, and then they immediately became disturbed ? Could such a coincidence prosihly occur, unless it anise from the oger.oitie of olio impolitic Bill ? It was mon strous to C.l , , that ti.e inhabitants of the different idathis woov . d exert teernselves to produce a state ot whir, h must have the effect of lowering the vaiue of their property—and yet, such must be the con clusion of close who denied that the Registry 13.11 (sc.' c4ioned th.e evil. This was a strange sort of accusa tion to moke against a body of men who were satJ to be unit Fly guided by their individual interests.-.- If tho , ,e who blamed the colonists would take flee Iroulle of examining the inhabitants themselves•—if they :would hear with their own ears, and see with thdr own eyes—they' would find that, to the Registry 17.1 alone could the mischief be traced. 'limy would find that the truth had not been stated to them and idiot gross misrepresentation bad been palmed ae on them as fact. If they examined the case theme-l i ves they w0.,1d be satisfied that the Registry Bill, and the tacumstances connected with it, were the sole cause of the alum that existed in the West Indies. The author of that measure ( Mr. Wilberforce) might retire, in the storm of his **Own passions, and the deli rim of his own enthusiasm. but where would he retire, by and bye, when he had discovered that he had been misled ?—.Where would he retire, when, in Soule still hour. the two thousand miserable blacks, who had perished in Barbadoes, approached him and said, " Twelve months ago we were contented and happy, and, but for you, we would have been so °WV" it ever he envied the fame of any man, it was that of his Honourable Friend, earned by his exertions in the cause of emancipation—and, though he meant not to depreciate the great work he had aee complithed. yet, seeing what had passed, and con sidering what was likely to happen, in consequence I of the Registry Bill, he would not eachairge his bumble name for that of his Honourable Friend. If a contraband trade in Slaves had been , carried on, way was not the tact fully inquired into—not by two or three persons of the African Institution, but by those who could have extirpated the evil ? Instead of this direct course, anonymous evidence was offered by the African Institution, as justifying the Registry Bill. The names of the persons who gave this testi. mony were concealed, because they would lose bene. tidal situations if thy were discoveired. Now, in a moral point ot view, he conceived it was wrong to encourage such evidence. Here were a set of men allowed to give testimony, who were anxious to re. Wade/ situations usder their masters, whilst, • • • • j thei 'were belt-apex their etinfidehee.. deal: they could not .be persobi of note; or else they might haie checked the evil. And, if they were ilidividnals whO possessed 'only one or t*o hundred a fear, did not the African Institution, composed as it Was of Noblemen and Prelates, inderinify them, and then (bring them forward publicly? If the African Insti. tution would not do this, the West India Colonists would. Let those persons be produced—let theta substantiate a case against the Colonists—and he pledged himself, that, if they were discharged from any situation, in consequence, the West India Platt ' tern, who were accused, would indemnify them from I any . loss.—(Hear, Rear.)-11 they did not make an arrangement by which the operation of the Registry Bill would be stopped, they would soon have no Colonies. It was impossible for the thing to go on as his Hon. Friend imagined. His Honourable Friend, like others, lived in a world of his own— he heard only one side of the question—and when he (Mr. Barham) proffered to give him informa tion, he disregarded it. With all his experience on this subject, there was no man who was less - - conversant with the real state of the West Indiea than his Honourable Friend.--(flear, bear.)-- I'his arose from . his not receiving intelligence on both sides of the question. It he (Mr. Barham) went to the African Institution to state facts, they would not be attended to by Mr. Stephen or Mr. MRcauley. They lived in ast atmosphere of prejudice, from which they excluded all true information—(lfear, hear.) — He would tell his Honourable Friend. however he might doubt the fact, that the poiso:i of diicontent was perlectly ddrused throughout Ow island.; and he would be a bold man who would say that the nest packet might not bring an account of an insurrection ;in Jamaica. To prove that the tr.:groes were orga nized in that colony, he read an esiract of a letter, dated March '23, in which the wiirer says: " There has been considerable anxiety here, in c.insequenec of the Registry LW being misinterpreted or misconstrued by the Negroes into an Act o: Emancipation. Nleeting4 have beim held, under pretence of preachtug fur Blacks, but, I believe, for pur poses cif a different nature. One Negro has been executed, and anothtr transpomed, in consequence of seditious coniuct. 'they were iliscoveted, at the dead of the night, singing tha: Mr. Wil berforce bad made them free, but that tie White People here• would not let them get their heedont, and that they would take Ac by force." _ _ He admitted that the Registry Bill had been mitre. presented. It w.ts not intended as an act of entawi. pation. But by whom was it misrepresented ? Was it to be supposed that the cnlonists—those who wete likely to be ruined by the misrepresennition —was it to be supposed that it originated with them ? No, the misrepresentation had been disseminated through Jamaica by the Methodist Preachers. (Loud cheerier* ) It his Honourable Friend wish e d t o p u t hi m to ° the proof, he was ready to go throughiit, and he would not proceed on the cautious principle of concealing names. The Honourable Gentleman then proceeded to combat several observations contained in the ke port of the Afriean Lictitution, which lie termed the text-book and Bible of those who opposed the cobs., fasts, and concluded by expressing his decided con viction. that, finless the Slave Registry Bill %env put an end to, the worst consequences might be appre-- headed in our West India possessioos. Mr. PONSONIW observed, tbat the merits of controversial pamphlets were not the proper subject et debate, but what steps Pat iiament should adopt in the present dangerous situation of the colonies!— (Hear.) T _ he danger to which they were ex,osed he attributed to a misapprehension on the pot of the sieves, that it was the desire of the Excel:Live and Legislature of this country to enfranchise them, itettile that desire was opposed by their masters. To ratmove that erroneous impression was essentially ne. cessary, s Web, lie thuttAhr, would be obtained by rite 'adoption of the !emperate and reasonable amend ' ment proposed by the Honourable Gentleman.— (Neer, hear.) He therefore suggested to his lino. Friend the propriety of acceding to it, for he was in. filienced by a sense of duty, not to proprietors or planters, but even to the slaves themselves, tor. move the delusion under which they evidently laboured ( Meas., hear.) Lord CASTLEREAGH perfectly concurred in tf e opinions of the Learned Gentleman. The general s dormatioo which the Honourable Genlemaii had I aid benne the House, corresponded with the intetli. gence received by Ministers, who, in sanctioning the Registry-Bill, never could have adopted any thing so wild, as to encourage complete emancipation. Any idea so preposterous could only involve the colonies in the greatest caiamities. The Address embraced three propositions. tVe owed it, in the first instance, simply to make Car ;iiiople feel that our hearts and eatr tions were dented to watching over their interests, and that if it wa>i not in our power to undo ail they had soared, we might at least adopt the - only remedy that could prevent a recurrence of the calamity. It was due to the deluded Negroes themselves to unde.l ceive them, by :hewing that the Legislature never could de any thing more than to ameliorate their condition, and he trusted the Assemblies of the Islands would propagate this principle. He lamented chat the question of ultimate emancipation had been at all touched on. He was not so sanguine as to hope that he should live to see complete emancipation effected; but it was only by making manumission a blessing and not a curse to them that this great blessing could be worked out. While the idea ought to be repelled that registry meant manumission, he thought it proper to mark in the strongest manner, that the Legislature at home were anxious to communicate every possible blessing to the slaves, and the House ought to give to each other a mutual pledge to effect this object -- We lived in an age when the risks of discussion could not be avoided ; but he trusted that the Legislatures abroad would feel that the best chance of avoiding danger was, to enter into the feelings of their coon upturn at home, and they might trust to it that there would be sufficient firmness and justice in the mother country to protect them. Of the meaning of the Registry them could be but one opinion, and he trusted that this unanimous opinion would soon be communicated to the West Indies, and acted upon accordingly. lie did consider himself pledged to act on the principle that had been gone into 1 for be did not • believe that illicit importation had taken place in the West ladies to any such extent as his Honourable Friend had surmised. We had the satis faction to know, that we hid obtained the co-opera tion t,f one of the greatest Powers in Europe (France), from which we had received the most cordial assur ances of her determipation to go with tINI heart Aud hand in effecting the object 01 sedisitiog the italic I • ' and th lildWiwi* rise, priipeet, t!tat it ito ietttute period twa. Other Powels (Spain and Portugal) would join as In th*good wofk. 'l7dder-theveairctnstances, he did'uot attach tha t .degree of inipol Once to the qtlestion which was-given to it by his Hon. Friend,. Parliami . ut ought to nuke their sentiment: .clearly understbod, and be was convinced that ho time ought to be lost in doing so: We were not to stand still and see enormities committed withou t . ap plying a remedy ; but nothing was so much zo by deprecated as interfering with the question of local legislation, for if the time came when we shotili take the legislation into our own hands, we should have difficulties to encounter, which we were by no means aware of. We should therefore leave them to leg's. late, and be satisfied. He hoped the disussion would not bear the character of a diffience of sentiment. Let the Addresi go to the Weft Indies, id the name of Goo, with the unanimous opinion of the n ce. It was useful advice that had been gieen to his 116- noursible Friend to withdraw his motion ; for if the House should he unanimous inVoting the Addreis— if it should go abroad that the propOsitiou was made and the House was unanimuut in voting the Address,' then it Might be supposed that the House was unaiii , nlous in . giving the information called for, whereas they were only unanimous hi undeceiving the deluded Slaves He was sure that his Hoiwurable Friend had no obiect in view but to do good, and he there.' fore hopcu and trusted he .would follow the Advice that had been submitted tds Mr. BItODUfiA M d6nied that his Right Honour. able Friend had advised his Honourable Friend to vradraw his Mo it, sot- the purpose of making room Cit. t!►e Amehdlnent. It was rather extraordinary that the HoHourable Centlermin i %rho had given no. cice of a Motion tor to-morrow riiirt on the suliject, should get up that ereniag, an-1 propose, as an amendment to his Honourable Friend's Motion, that which he had given notice he would not move until to-it - sorrow. However desirous be and his lineour able Friend might be of unanimity, he put it td the candour of the House, whether they could be content to sacrifice their declared opinion, by assenting to the Amendment ? Wouid it not be a sacrifice of their principles, to adopt a proposition foen.led re: opposite principle ? letter the course that wits taken on the other side, when citiotnities, which had been fifty times told, and ac alien telote.l, were brought fn.- ward and embotlie.l in the speech of an Honourable Member on the other bide; when tl.e nintives of the ters of Registration had been misrepresented, and when that measure had been coupled With ermine cipa!ioa end insurrection, he felt it itnpoisible to sit silent under the charge, however reluctant he might I he :o trespass on the time of the House. Toe Gentlemen who Agreed with him (Mr. Ileongham) in opinion on this measure, were accthed ten onli a; the causes, but as the wilful causes, of iusturi . :ction. They were charged with a wish fur nothing less than the emancipation of the sieves. If on easy term; well, but at all events and under any conditions, they were said to desite ernaecipation. These he strongly denied to be the principles held by himself or hi'. friends, and he was not surprised at tl , i; misrepre sentation, when he recellezted that whirh.hed gars abroad no other occ tsians, and against Lien now no more, who, w!:en they exerted themselves on the abo lition 13•11, were charged with a disposition to set the black population of the Coloeics et variance with the white. He (Mr. Brougham) and his friends did in deed wish for an amelioration of the condition of the slaves, such an amelioration as would prepare them for final emancipation, but he did not say that the prevere tinge was Z. ll fittest for such emancipation, which would now be a curse, put a blessing, to the sieve and to his master—(Hear, Hear, heor.)— His object was to prevent that which the Noble Lord (Cestlereaeh) and others had said at the period of the abolition—the introduction of slaves. It was said at that period by the colonists that it would he impossible to prevent the importation of slaves, for that JI was essential to the. colonies ; but they now came forward, and when it answered their own con venience, they alleged that nothing could be mote easy than such prevention. Numerous creeks, and vast tracks of sea, which before were aneauened as so many obstacles to the total abolition of importation, were now declared to be no obstacles. The creeks were now more easily watched, and the large tracks of sea could be More easily guarded against any cl.indestine attempts to introduce slaves. So much for the truth and consistency of the statements made by the opponents of . registration. The Honourable and Learned Member then contended, that there had not been, and could not be, a connection established between the insurrection, which was said to have taken place, and 41:e proposed registration. What Were the prop!' of this connexion A Negro, going to execution for insurrection and plunder on loos mashies estate, was said, to have declared it.— But admitting that this statement was title, sthi:h he (Mr. Brougham) denied, could there not be other witnesses found to give an account of it be sides that unfortunate Negro, if it were of the' nature described i But there were no other produced.— There was another authority mentioned—that was the Speaker of the Assembly at St. Vincent's ; but he did not mention any direct evidence, and only gave an advice, on which the present charge was founded. Yet this was the son of testimony on which the sup ' posed connection between die Insurrection and the Registration Bill was founded. He next contended, 'that the charge brought against the Methodist Mis sionaries, as the cause of insurrection, was equally groundless ; and he alluded to a letter, dated the I.Bth of November, addressed to the Editor of the Jamaica Gazette. . In this letter two persons describ ed themselves as having put on brown beards and grey wigs—(a laegh)—and having gone in that garb, with rueful countenances, to the Agents of Wilber. force, deploring the wickedness of the age, and beg ging to be sent as Missionaries to instruct the blacks. 'they added, that they were immediately appointed Ito a mission, and they went on in the letter to give a ludicrous account of the mode by which the several Missionaries were distinguished. These were the grounds on which charges were made against the Missionaries, and the means which were used to bring them'into disrepute. But he should say for his Ho- Pourable Friend (Mr. Wilberforce), that he had never sent any Missionaries out, and that he was not con nected with any Society for sending them. He wish ed, indeed, that religious instruction should be disse minated as well for the white population as for the blacks, who was more amerce% and more is aced ,••. • . • GP ahe •; am on . i nstruction =and • ) acid' that if, the ei.eitionsi for such religious -iristtuctinn (sere 'confined to the Established Church, . the light 4-the Gospel would , never teach those poor people. He denied that the Registration Bill was the cause's ul any of the blood which hid been ihed t—On the cotitrary, where it had been acted upon in its . spirit, no di stor b ance ha d taken pleee.—(flear.)—• It any bad effects had arisen from it, they pi-neeeded chiefly from the misrepresentations niade of, and the miscor.sit actions put upon, It. If those misrepresen• cations and 4nisconstructions had blowo up th.' Pomo of insurrection, the fault was not with the advocates of Registiaiion, but with ihose who had falarly asso ciated the idea of emaricip ttion with that measure. It was to such speeches Is that made by An Honour .able Member near him—it was to the enitstruction put upon the Bill itself hit some of the L•gialative Assemldies of the Colonies. Ile held in his hand three .1 tmaica Calcites, iii winch it was openly avowed that Registration was only a cloke for tMan• cipatinn. When these and such mita:instructions of the Bill were industriously circulated in the Colonies, would it be said thit a pamphlet publisi; ed in Lon. don, or speech in the House of Commons i. 6 i tvosir of thlt measure, was the real cause of whatcver dinar. bance took place ?It the speeches the j itnphlett in favotfl of Registration could .rind thAr way to. the Colonies, so could the erroneous i onstrttetions which were put upon them, and he would contend that the speeches delivered in the House that even ing were much morn injurious in their tendency than any measure of Registration could lie; One amourable Member had even given an ineen• tive to further distUrhance, by reminding the black population of Jamaica (for if they only got their in. formation through this I.4•iiise of what had heed line there in favour ot Registration, it was just to infer that they would, through the same channel, get shat had been said against),that as they were mare numerous in pr portion to the whites than the population of Bar badues, they could more easily succeed is an insur. rection. This he (Mr. Brougham) contended was a much greater incentive to insuhadination than all that had ever been said in tavour of RegittratiOn Mild be. The Honourable Member next tentended that it would not be sufficient to leave ttis Registra tion to the care of the CAunial Assemblies, who would not take as effectual steps to carry it into effect as might Le wished. And he instanced, as a proof of the construction they would be likely to put in their own favour on such a measure, a case where, at the interference of this country, it teas made a Capital offence to murder a slave with malice prspense.— This had al!rrwards been construed into murdering a slave without any. provocation. So that by that conaruCtica the most trilliog provocation on the part of a slave, even an angry word or a look, would be held a sufficient justification of his murder. He also observed, that the conviction of a white man for the murder of a slave was a thing almost unknown in the colonies, although it was no:minus that eeveral catch murders had been committed. He could mention to the House three cases of as fi :grant murders of slaves under circumstances as shocking as ever disgraced human nature, and these were committed in the pre sence. of others, and in jusaificatian of them it was said that the persons murdered were oily slaves. He did not mean to impure to his Honourable hood (Mr. Barham), or to any of ids West India friends, any of those abuses which he had mentioned.. He thought, on the coatrary, that their presence on their West India property, would preclude the occurrence of such disgraceful scenes— ( flear.)— But while they were discharging their duties in this country, so much to its advantage, and to their own credit, the care of those estates must necessarily be committed to ethers, and he did not hesitate to say, that the lower order ot. Whites in the Colonies were the grossest and basest rabble that ever deserved the name of human popul aims. It was on this account that he wished to preserve the distinction between legislation and regulation. It was because he wished to tear off the film which covered the worst of crimes by which torture and murder were kept up under other names. It was because he wished to have come regulation of the property of West India Proprietors, when that property was of the same nature with them selves, that he supported the motion of his Honourable Friend. He would agree on the part othisklonourable Friend (Mr. Wilberforce) to the Amendment; pro vided it were not substituted for his motion. Mr. CANNING said, the Honourable and Lear. ned Gentleman had been so clear and faithful an in terpreter of the speech of his Honourable Friend, that lie feared he should be unsuccessful in enforcing the expediency:of adopting the recommendation of the Right Hon. Gentleman ; but he did not alto gether despair. The Hon and Learned Gentleman. it seemed, bad understood. the recommendation of the Right Hon. Gentleman in a totally -different sense from what it was understood in by every other Mem ber in the House. He (Mr. Canning) understood it to be to accept the amendment ; but the Hop. and Learned Gentleman understood it to be to vote his own motion. He called upon his Honourable Friend to consider bow little lie would gain if be persevered in his motion and carried it, and how much lie would risk by going to a division. Tile House had manifested a sincere disposition to st cond the fervent zeal of the Honourable Gentle. man, and his motion, if it were now pressed, could only have the effect of weakening the Address is which the House seemed willing unanimously to jai::. He and leis friends bad ever taken a distinction be tween the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and the Emancipation of the Slaves. Far be it from him to doubt the omnipotence of Parliament, but. he hail always thought, as he still c.lntinued to think, question on the latter subject ought not to be stirred up, unless interference became absolutely necessary. When the necessity for such interference should be proved to exist, his voice would' be fearlessly raised in its favour, but he would not anticipate the arrival of that period at which so painful an exertion would be imposed on the British Parliament. He disap proved of the manner in which the Colonial Assem blies had been spoken of that night. It the honour.. able Gentleman opposite had any remote idea of making use of these, it was not well that they should be treated with so much contempt. If such a thought had been entertained, so much pains ought not to have been taken to degrade them. It was an unwise effect t c t e to hewiasnhesattemp of thatL to to to o e teilth c e a m rl into ve H in ous du c ce , distrust your motives,. we bare no confidence in