Star. — London, England, 1824-12-10 00:00:00

■ 011110 ANb 2:011EIG lENTY EAMEN'S ritIENZ SOC. A getting of this Society was held yesterday even ing, at the City of London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, for the purpose of raising s fund for the temporary re lief of the widows and orphans of the seamen who have perished by the late gales, and also for the formation of a Society to be called the 44 Shipwrecked and Dis tressed Sailors' Family Fund." This Society, in raising such a fund by the. contributions of the benevolent, contemplate the relief of all those who may be left widows and fatherless by future disasters at sea. Cap tain Sir George Keith, Bart. R.N. presided, and urged, in very energetic language, the imperious necessity of such an Institution. He was supported by a number of Gentlemen, who proposed several Resolutions, all of which were carried unanimously. An address and plan of the Institution were read by the Rev. Mr. Smith, and a contribution of about 501. was received in the room. The meeting separated at ten o'clock. ASSIZE INPELLIGENCE. HOME CIRCUIT.—CIIRLMSFORD, DECEMBER s. The Winter Assizes for this County commenced here yesterday, before the Hon. Mr. Justice Bunnouoo and the Hon. Mr. Baron G A R ROW. Edward Finn, James Horn, and Patrick Collins, wets indicted for a burglary in the dwelling-house of James Crossley, Esq. at West Ham, in the night of the '2oth of September last, and stealing therein a clock, a musket, a fowling-piece, seven silver sj oons, and sever al articles of wearing apparel. The Jury, under Mr. Justice BURROUGII'S directions, found the srisoners guilty, and judgment of Death was recorded pursuant to the Statute. Charles Clarke was indicted for killing and slaying Thomas Young, at Great Chishall, on the 10th of Oc tober last ; and John Burrows and Jesse Fowler were indicted as accessaries to the same felony and man slaughter.—lt appeared in evidence, that the prisoners, the teceased, and several other men, labourers in bus banory, had met on the 10th of October, at a public house in Great Cnishali, to spend their harvest money. Between one and two in the morning they left the house in a state of intoxication, for the purpose of returning to their respective homes. In their way home some of the party f•egan to play rough tricks upon each other, such as jostling and slapping one another's faces. The deceased did not appear to have taken any part in this sport, but the prisoner Clarke challenged him to fight, and pushed him into a ditch. Goaded by this act of aggression, he was prevailed upon to fight. Clarke and he stripped, and the other prisoners immediately became seconds. About eight or nine rounds took place, and in the last the deceased tell insensible on the '' around. He was conveyed home in that state, and died next day. Mr. Justice BUaROUGH, in summing up the case to the Jury, said it appeared to him that the affray which terminated so fatally, was what is called a fair fight.- At all events, it was net like any of those cases which had tit late disgraced the country—he meant prize fights ; i which, he was sorry to observe, men were pitted against each other to fight fora purse, in the presence of thousands of spectators, amongst whom were per sons whose stations, fortunes, and education, he would have supposed would incline them to more honourable and gentlemanly amusements. For his own part, he heartily wished that some example would be made of persons actively engaged in, or by their countenance encouraging, such disgraceful contests. Should a case ever come under his judicial notice, when death was the result, he thought it his duty to declare, that he should carry the law to its utmost extent. By a late Act of Parliament (3d Geo. IV. c. 38), Judges were empowered to sentence offenders guilty of manslaughter to trans portation for life. The degrading practice which had now become so prevalent, renders it necessary to make a severe example, for the purpose of checking it ; and his Lordship had come to the resolution, in common with the other Judges, to inflict the severest penalties upon offenders of this description. He was happy, however, to say, that it was very much owing to the good conduct of tire Magistracy in most counties of England, that this barbarous species of ealsibition had been considerably abated. Thete were, however, he lamented, certain exceptions, which had a contrary ten dency. In his opinion, any Magistrate who, either by his open countenance or passive tolerance, in any re spect contributed to the encouragement of such scenes, was unfit for his station in the Commission. And un less Magistrates exerted themselves to put a stop to such practices, they might expect serious notice to be taken of their remissness from the highest quarter of, the state. The Jury found the prisoners Guilty, aad the Learned Judge sentenced Clarke and Fowler to twelve months imprisonment and hard labour, and Burrows to six months' imprisonment and hard labour, in the House of Correction. ALARM OP FLAB AT THE COBURG THEATRE.THES.. day night, the audience at the Coburg Theatre were thrown into considerable alarm by a very noxious smell, which diffused itself over every part of the body of the Theatre, and became in a short time almost in supportable, and demonstrations of displeasure were beginning to be manifested, when Mr. Davidge came forward, and after stating that a trifling accident had arisen in the Gas-house, assured the audience that there was no danger whatever. After this the remainder of the performances proceeded, but the stench from the gas was very disagreeable during the whole of the evening. It appears that the cause of this accident bad nearly proved the destruction of the Theatre.— For a considerable time past the proprietors have had a gasometer of their own, underneath the stage, by which they extracted gas from oil, and they contracted with persons to undertake this department. From some cause or other, on Tuesday evening, the cover or face of one of the retorts not being sufficiently fastened on, Was, by the immense heat and expansion of the gas, forced violently off, and in an instant the gas house ap peared to be in a blaze, which, but for the efforts instan taneously exerted, Would have communicated itself to !le stage, and in a few minutes the whole house would tare been on fit e. The gas, thus escaping, spread itself 6,1 over the house, but more particularly behind the scenes and in the various di e•sing-rooms, driving before It all the performers, dressed or undressed ; and so much :•iected were some of them, that they still feel ill from :ss effects. In consequence of this narrow escape, the rropneto l s resolved to u-e no mote gas extracted from and during the whole of Wednesday men were em lloyed from the Gas Company tee lay on the gas fromthe street, with which the Theatre was last evening lighted. WEST INDIA SLAVERY: LETTER 4 TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR: Stit—ln furtherance of my purpose, I proceed _to the consideration of the experiments made by Mr. Steele, in Barbadoes. Although the experiments of Mr. Steele are un doubtedly interesting, I should not have felt myself called upon to vindicate the Reviewer's remarks upon them at much length, had not a very erroneous impres sion existed on the minds of many individuals as to the real importance, as a precedent, of Mr. Steele's system. ANGLus has attempted to throw discredit on the evi dence on which the statements of the Reviewer are founded :—and as it is highly important to the under standing of the remarks which I.shall have occasion to' make, that the Reader should have a clear idea of the' order in which Mr. Steele made his experiments, I will here briefly recapitulate the facts of the case. Mr. Steele was possessed of two estates in Barbadoes—Plan cation Kendall, and Plantation Byde Mill. The former of these he held by the ordinary tenure, which rendered his Slaves liable to be attached tor his debts; but the Slaves, on the latter plantation, were not so liable. On Plantation Kendall, then, Mr. Steele established the copyhuld system, hoping to evade the liability of his Slaves for the payment of his debts, but Plantation Byde Mill he cultivated by means of the ordinary slave systems. It was in the year 1783, that the Over seers of Mr. Steele's Plantation Kendall, left him—he then established a Magistracy among the Negroes them selves, and made other changes in their government, and in the latter end of the year 1789, he states that he gave all his Slaves tenements of land and pecuniary vralles for their labour and services. That the experiment was in some degree the result of accident, is no deduction from whatever there was of real merit in the system. Mr. Steele's undertaking comprised a practiCal attempt to mitigate the severities of Slavery, and as such it is interesting. It is by no means surprising that ANOLUS is unable to arrive at the same conclusions as those laid down in the Review upon this subject. His information, even, is remarkably limited, and incorrect; and abler men than himself might have fallen into the confusion which he has not been able to avoid. ANOLUS opens his attack by observing, that Mr. Steele had " conceived the dangerous project of substi tuting the stimulus of wages among his Slaves for " that of the cart-whip." This remark appears to be made in that same discreditable spirit which led Arr. Gtos, when he first undertook to refute the Review, to call into his alliance the prejudices of his Readers by the unfounded assertion, that the Review was written in defence of the cart-whip. The Reviewer does not undervalue the powers of wages as a stimulus to la bour : when the time shall have come for their use, that is, when the Negro shall have beerpsufficiently elevated from his brutal condition to appreciate the value of wages ; then they will doubtless prove a co gent stimulus. They might even now operate as a stimulus, though certainly in a very limited degree: but it does not, therefore, follow that they would prove a stimulus to agticultural industry, by means of which, as much productive labour could be as cheaply ob tained as is now in action in the West Indies. On the contrary, this has been shewn to be absolutely impossible.' The position of the Reviewer is perfectly clear, not withstanding the numerous attempts which ANOLUS has made to perplex it. It is simply this—Productive industry is now enforced by coercion—that is, by fear of bodily pain. This is the only physical stimulus which can be applied, and it is desired to substitute a moral stimulus. Now, although there certainly are many exceptions, it is undoubtedly true, of the main body of the Slaves, that they are so degraded in condi tion as to be devoid of moral sensibility. It is, there fore, proposed, Ist, to induce in their minds a moral sensibility by means of moral and religious instruction, and a gradual extension of privileges, to be regulated according to the progress in improvement made by the slave, and with every just consideration of the interests of the master ; and 2d, upon this basis, when formed, to superinduce the artificial wants of civilized life, such as a desire to acquire property and the like, which can only be gratified by means of industry. True it is, that this process can only be the work of great time. But whether or not it be necessary to award compensa tion to the Proprietor, it does appear that it is by this process alone that the Slave can ever be prepared for emancipation, so that he shall receive the boon with advantage to himself or security to the Colonies. Now, admitting (what in fact I wholly deny) that Mr. Steele did, as is alleged, induce his Slaves to v ork for wages in any way analogous to the manner in which freemen work for wages, this will not advance Mr. Steele's case one single step. Moral and religious Instruction formed no part of Mr. Steele's system, and to apply wages as a stimulus to labour to the slave population, in their present condition, would be to apply a stimulus to a subject notoriously insensible to the powers of that stimulus ; whereas, by the system recommended by the Reviewer, a moral sensibility is to be created, in order to prepare the Slave for the eventual operation of a moral stimulus. I was not, then, surprised to find, that, on accurate examination, the brilliant success attributed to Mr. Steele's plan, was founded on little else than on misre presentation-.-that there was little of present import ance in his system—much conflicting testimony— mach of the details involved in doubt, and still more in total darkness. In order to establish the success of the plan, it would be necessary to shew that, cateris parl ous, the profits of his estate were as great as others, worked under the Slave system. It would not be suf ficient to shew merely, that his plan was more pro ductive than the system employed before, for that he states to have been a ruinously mismanaged Slave system. Therefore, unless it were shewn to what ex tent the estate had been before mismanaged, these will be no standard by which to determine the actual pro fits of the estate, as compared with the Slave system. Now, it is abundantly clear, that Mr. Steele's system is at this moment worth nothing, if it be not one which will do for general adoption. We are not to legislate for particular estates, but for the whole Slave popula tion ; and how easy it is to imagine many systems of controuling labour, which, though wholly incapable of being universally applied, might yet prove, in a parti cular instance, more productive than a ruinous system of mismanagement. And again, supposing that the Dr. Diclipon% work, pp. 9, 10, 143,157,180,181, compared with each other, and personal enquiries, established this point. The female, by whom Mr. Steele had the two children, mentioned in his will, was a Save belonging to Byde Mill Estate. profits•gathered under Mr. Steele's system were not' only greater than when he was descending to ruin, but that they were equal to thiSse 'realised in a commonly well ordered Slave Estate, what would then be proved? Most assuredly not that the system would admit of a successful universal application, which is the only thing that I suppose is contended for, but Merely that there must have been some accidental circumstance, with which we may, or may not (for it is immaterial) be ac quainted, which placed those particular Slaves, on whom the experiment was made, in a different position, in point either of intelligence, industry, or necessity, from that which notoriously characterises the main body of the Slave population in the West Indies. In deed, Amain, and Mr. Clarkson, have atiorded us a striking lesson, if one were required, of the futility ul endeavouring to establish, on the faith of an aleged isolated instance, conclusions which are at vatiance with these deduced from sound general reasoning. I should be quite prepared to dismiss the subject, on the general considerations which I have stated, but as it will be necessary that I should, before I close this let ter, answer some of the allegations, and expose the mistakes made by ANGLUS, I shall have occasion to en-, ter a little into the details of the question. ANGLUS gives faith to the testimony of Mr. Clark son, upon the subject of Mr. Steele's system, while the Reviewer leans mote to the statements contained in a work by Mr. M'Queen. ANGLUS employs nearly two letters in endeavouring to prove that Mr. M'Queen is inaccurate, in a vast number of particulars which were not even mentioned in the Review. As Aplomb professed to be attacking, and as I am vindicating the ,Review, and not Mr. M'Queen's work, any answers made by me, to the charges preferred against that work, would be as irrelevant as the charges themselves ; I shall, therefore, proceed to explain what are the grounds on which the Reviewer appears to me to have acted with strict propriety, in relying more on the ac curacy of the statements contained in Mr. M'Queen's work, than on those made by Mr. Clarkson. • Neither Mr. Clarkson nor Mr. M'Queen professes to have had any persona) knowledge \ of the details of Mr. Steele's plan or its result. Mls. Clarkson drew his statement fiom the work of Dr. Dickson, who himself had no personal knowledge of Mr. Steele's system ; and Mr. M'Queen made his statements on the authority of Mr. Sealy, and Mr. Beckles, the Attorney- General of Barbadoes, both of whom had personal .knowledge of the system. With respect to Mr. Sealy, before his name was re ferred to as authority, it was ascertained, at the time the Review was written, that he was resident in Bristol, and therefore ready to substantiate his own evidence, if it were impeached. But with respect to him, ANGLUS observes, " if he were not himself one of the persons " displaced by Mr. Steele, when he got rid of all white " managers, and overseers, and abolished the whip, I " should say he was of that very class of men who " were the most likely to view his plan with prejudice " and aversion." Mr. Sealy never was in Mr. Steele's service; he is a man of property, and in consequence of having had the superintendence of his brother's pro perty, which was adjoining to that of Mr. Steele's, be became intimately acquainted- with Mr. Steele's system, as conducted by the executor, Mr. Francis Bell. Now, if there be any reason to suspect that Mr. Sealy was under the influence of any particular bias, that might be a reason for rejecting his opinion in matters of judg ment, when that bias would operate. Or, if there were any reason to believe that Mr. Sealy had an interest in perverting the truth, that again would be a reason for receiving his testimony with all due precaution; but the circumstance of his being so biassed, or interested, cannot affect a specific fact, which either did, or did not take place. If it did not take place, where is the evidence that it did not ? ANGLUS has brought none— he has exposed no inconsistency in the statement of Mr. Sealy—he has not even attempted a disproof, and has brought no evidence whatever to prove that for which he contends, namely, that Mr. Sealy is unworthy of credit. And, on the other hand, if Mr. Sealy has not misrepresented the fact, how idle it is to attempt to evade the conclusions to which his testimony would lead, by a mere assertion, that he is probably a West Indian in point t,f judgment, or feeling, it having been matter of fact, and not of judgment, or feeling, on which Mr. Sealy has given his testimony. It is quite clear that ANGLGS has completely failed in his attempt to throw discredit on the statements of Mr. Sealy, whose testimony must be held to remain wholly unimpeached. With respect to Mr. Beckles, AutaLus does not at tempt to impeach his testimony. He merely avails himself of it, in order to prove that the usual Slave system was reverted to on the Kendall estate, on Mr. Steele's death. ANGLUS dwells upon this, and appears anxious to have it inferred, that the ancient system was reverted to before Mr. Steele's death. I need not fatigue the.itteader with a long explanation on this head. The following extract from one of the books of the estate, will establish the fact beyond dispute, that Mr. Steele's system was in operation so late as the year 1797, and conducted by the executor, Mr. Bell : Dste. Sentence. 1797. 6th Dec. Plantation against Dorset, Damage by neglect. 1797. 13th Del Found Guilty of the Charge, and sen. tenced to be locked up in the Strong house, for 4 nights. Approved. (Signed) F. BELL Although directed by Mr. Haynes to take a horse cart, and haul eight loads of Guinea grass to the cattle pens, he never set out till four o'clock, and hauled only four loads instead of eight, and kept out the horses till eight ,o'clock at night. Having now, I think, clearly established that the Reviewer did not quote Mr. M , Queen's work without abundant reason for presuming that the statements of that Gentleman were founded on good testimony, it is necessary that I should explain one or two circum stances which rendered it in this case impossible to rely on the statements of Mr. Clarkson. Mr. Claikson has the following passage :• " It took him (Mr. Steele), " therefore, six years to bring his Negroes to the state " of vassalage described, or to the state from whence "he was sure that they might be transferred without " danger, in no distant time, to the rank of freemen, if " it should be thought ,desirable. lie lived one year " afterwards, to witness the success of his labours. He -" had, therefore, accompli lied all he wished, and he " died in the year 1791, in the ninety-first year of his " age." Now this passage is important. Let it be ob served, Mr. Sleek died in 1791. Mr. Clarkson depends on Dr. Dickson for his account of Mr. Steele's system, and Dr. Dickson received his accounts from Mr. Steele • Thoughts on the necesilty of improving the condition of the Slaves in the British West tudia Colonies, with a view to their ultimate emancipation, page 40. 'tote copynota system was estatassneo m 1789, and as Mr. Steele died in 1791, he could write no more letters, and publish no more accounts; but as the plan succeeded so well, as Mr. Steele witnessed the accomplishment of all his wishes, the world is left to ofer, that had Mr. Steele lived, the success of his plan must have been permanently established. Now, after this uetailed account, my Herders will hardly be dis posed to believe, th.it Mr. Steele did not die at all in 1791, and that he did not even make his will road the ' year 1796! Yet such is undoubtedly the fact.* I have then to enquire, what became of the Copyhold system during the intervening years ? during the period from the 18th Nov. 1789, when Mr. Steele states that he gave 4 , all his Slaves tenements of hnd and pecuniary " wages, by the hour, the day, or the seek, for their labour and services," till the year 1797, when we have shewn, that the system was conducted by Mr. Bea? It does not appear that Mere are any accounts on which Mr. Clarkson and ANGLUS rely. Thus this great • experiment was in operation seven years at least, and although so much stress has been laid upon it, ANGLUS and Mr. Clarkson are not cnly in total darkness as to its results, from the commencernenrto the conclusion, but so completely ignorant of what was passing there during these seven years is ANGLUS, that •he believed the plan to haie been put a stop to during almost the whole of the time in which it was in operation, while Mr. Clarkson, whom ANal.us considers the first autho rity on the subject, believed the author of the plan, the conductor of the experiment, and the Correspondent :with this country, to have been dead during the whole time when he must have been most actively engaged on the spot, and in the superintendence of his great work! But can there be any doubt as to what is to be infened from the silence oa such a topic, by a man of the sanguine disposition of Mr. Steele, who had bre I previously in the habit of corresponding with this country, about his great experiment ? It is really ridi culous to think, with what confidence the success of the scheme has been vaunted and asserted. I think I must have convinced almost ANGLIN him self, that the Reviewer had just grounds for consider ing Mr. M'Queen a safer authority than Mr. Clarkson, in the case of Mr. Steele. It will also have been made apparent, how very little is really known of the result of the Copyhold system, of which we have heard so much, and what an unfavourable presumption is raised by the silence preserved by Mr. Steele, during the whole operation of the plan. -Bat ANOLUS lays great stress on the "general plan" of Mr. Steele, which was commenced at the end of the year 1783, and continued in operation until the establishment of the Copyhold system in 1789. It is said; that that " general plan" was very profitable—that arbitrary punishments were abolished—and that labour was far cheaper, under a system o&, wages, than when enforced by coercion. As to the cheapness of labour, or disposition to industry, it has been unanswerably observed in the Review, that Mr. Steele was resident amongst his Negroes, with the " absolute power of instantly resuming every privilege " which he had conferred. The Negroes would not " for a moment forget that he possessed this power. " What inference, then, could be drawn as to the use " which they would make of the same privileges, if con " ferred upon them irrevocably by law? As a test of " the use which they would make of their entire freedom " the inference would be still less to be relied upon." For the real facts of this case, as to the comparative cheapness of free labour, other persons must be con. stilted, than either ANGLUS or Mr. Clarkson, both of whom I have shewn to be very unsafe guides, when they do not speak from their own personal knowledge. On the present occasion, as on others, I shall appeal to the statements of Mr. Steele himself, from wive!) the Reader will be able to form his own opinion, how far the circumstances adduced justify the inferences made from them. • In page 11 of Dr. Dickson's book, Mr. Steele, in his letter, , dated 30th September, 1790, states that he at orie time contracted for the holing of t his Cane land. And it appears, by a singular want of ordinal) pru dence on his part, that he contracted for this work with his own Manager,whose duty it also was to see that the work was well dune. Mr. Steele also tell) us, that he had little or no confidence in this person ; and the result consequently was (what most people would have expected, when the interest and the duty of ,the Con tractor were opposed to each other)—the wink was very ill done. No person, free from enthusiasm, would e. er have thought of considering such a mode of employing Slave labour as a fair means of comparing its expense with that of free labour, and particularly with such free labour as Mr. Steele describes. Yet, as this has been done, I must proceed to state what Mr. Steele says on the subject. " For a small pecuniary reward," says Mr. Steele, "over and above their usnal allowances, "the poorest, feeblest, and by character the most indo• " lent Negroes in the whole gang, cheerfully performed " the holing of my land for canes (generally said to "be the most laborious work), for le„ than a fourth " part of the stated price paid to the Undertakers for " holing." The enthusiasm of Mr. Steele, in 1790, in favour of his new plan, is here obvious, in his making not only the indolent, but the poorest and feeblest of his Negroes, perform the most laborious work, and in his instituting a comparison of profit,. on a matter where no data for accurate comparison existed. The Undertaker who hired his Slaves •to Mr. Steele, naturally demanded such a sum as would give him a fair interest on his capital invested, comrensa tion for risk incident to such property, taxes, Doctors charges, &c. But Mr. Steele was the .owner of his Slaves, or at least retained the full command over their persons, and their personal labour ; to himself also belonged the interest of their productive industry, he bore all the risks incident to such kind of property, he paid taxes, doctor's charges, and finally, " over " and above their usual allowances," he gave them " a " small pecuniary reward." From this he institutes a comparison with the expense of hiring Slave labour, under circumstances entirely different. He might, with equal reason, have said, lie holed his land at ace tenth, or 0,,e hundredth " part of the stated pr ice paid " to the Undertaker for holing," by making hi, pecu niary rewards bear those proportions; for, as Mr. Steele gave his Negroes the "usual allowances," he could have commanded them, and made them do the work, without any pecuniary reward whatever. His giving them any sum of money to stimulate their extra exertions, may have been prudent, or it may have been liberal, but it unquestionably afforded no standard of • In a Pamphlet published in 1802, printed by T. Barfield, WArtlou c-street, for T. Reynolds, Oxford -street, Loudon, addressed to John Deckles, &q. Attorney-Cvner.i of Barbadoes, by Sir Philip Gibbet, nat. in pages 4 and 5, sre a copy of the Will of the late Mr. Steele, u sign‘il by Joshua Steele, and dated the apti October, 1796. ~q I' l k ii 1 1 ; I