The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-05-02 00:00:00

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

The Second General AnntOre7ting of the Society for mitigat-
ing and gradually abolishing the State of Slsver,y throughout the
British Duminicns, was held on Saturday, at kreennsons IlalL
His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester in the Chair.
We seldom remember to have seen a more interesting or nu.
merous assembly. The Royal Chairman was supported by Lords
Gambier, •I'eigrimouth, Milton, Calthorpe, and Nugent • by Sir
Thomas Baring, and Sir John Sebright, Barns.; by 'Messrs.
Brougham, Denman, Fowell Buxton, Evans, Win. Smith, Dr.
Lushington, Spring Rice. Richard Martin, lienett (Wilts), and
tavern! other Members Of Parliament. The hall was filled by ladies,
among whom we observed a number of the Society of Friends.
The business commenced by Mr. SAML. HOARE reading the
Annual Report of the Society, which depicted, in strong terms, the
utility and imperative necessity of this Society, and the efficient
measutes which it had adopted to suppress the great evil of slavery.
It enumerated the ineffectual legislative steps taken by the local
authorities in the colonies, and enforced the necessity of bringing
public opinion in this country to bear on a question so vitally in.
teresting to the cause of humanity, and which it was vain to regu.
late by compromising measures, the execution of which must
depend u;on the efforts of adverse parties. The report touched
upon the peculiar circumstances of the %Vest India trade, its mo.
nopoly, competition with free labour, and the necessity of an alter-1
ation in the sugar duties. In conclusion, it enforced the necesnity
of diffusing the books and tracts of the Society by the efforts of
individuals within the sphere of their own circle, and lamented the
retirement of Mr. Wilberforce from public life,—a distinguished
statesmen, whose services in the cause of humanity throughout a
long life, had been devoted to the cause of the pour African, was
panegyrised by the Society in terms of suitable and affectionate I
gratitude. (Loud applause.)
Lord Cnntnoiten came forward to move the adoption of the
report then read to the Meeting by the Secretary. VI hen he saw
so many around him, eminently capable of addressing the Meeting
with more effect than he could, he felt exceeding reluctance in
coming before them, for he was but little qualified for the task, and
he would have felt doubly embarrassed if any argument were neces-
sary to induce them to adopt and give circulation to the present
report; it wee, therefore, with great satisfaction that be moved
they should adopt it. He was aware that many imputations had
been thrown out, that many accusations had been made against
then of indulging in exaggerated statements of putting forth rather
the suggestions of a heated imagination-than the naked details of
authenticated fact. For this reason, then, did he feel great pleasure
in recommending for their adoption the report just laid bc:iire
I them, for it was rot open to any cavil ; It was made up of the
' statements, the ad r.issions, the confessions of the very individuals
themselves, who were engaged in administering the dreadful
system of Negro Slavery—a system se little like what they
were accustomed to in this pan of the world--so opposed to
all their previous conceptions, that unreflecting people at once
rejected the too faithful accounts of It, as altogether unworthy
of credit, se having no existence but in the heated fancy of
the enthusiast, or the sinister designs of the knave. It was per-
fectly natural, but at the same time most false, to suppose that
because these details excited horror and disgust, therefore they
had no foundation in truth. By some, who admitted their ex-
istence, they were noticed not so muchl as frightful calamities
admitting of a remedy, but as necensary evils, which were to be
submitted to and borne. The Report had detailed much that was
highly interesting; and not the least important portion of it was
that which referred to the measures of Government on the subject
of the West India Colonies. In a fierce and uncompromising
spirit, the Planters had censured and denounced measures which
had certainly proceeded in the mildest spirit of innovation. He
conceived that the confessions, of which the Report was made up,
were of much more value than any thing that could be urged by
the wannest advocates of emancipation, and if any one portion of
the conduct and language of those was more particularly deserving
of attention than another, it was where they spoke of the use of
the whip, as a suitable means of stimulating human beings to in-
dustrious exertion, as an instrument proper and necessary to be
used in procuring human labour. It was spoken of by those per.
sons as a thing quite essential to the existence of the Colonies, in
the same way as we speak of a free press, or the trial by jury, as
essential to the existence of a free Government. However frightful
the application of such an instrument of human torture, considered
in reference to the slaves themselves, yet it is not merely in that
light that it appears most hateful and corrupt. It is not merely the
agony and degradation which the negro himself suffers; but it is the
corrupting and brutalising effect produced on the task-master him-
self. As another motive for doing away with this hateful system,
he might allude to the immense earn paid by this country for the
growth of sugar in the West Indies, no less a sum than 1,200,0001.
If so large an amount were applied to the encouragement of in-
dustry in other channels, it would be productive of a double be-
nefit. There was another topic, which would perhaps have as
much weight with them as any that he could urge; namely,
that the proudest boast of British Constitutional principles,
when transported to the %Vest Indies, Willi the perpetuation of slavery.
There, when transported to those unhappy islands, they become the
weapons of despotism, and the instruments of heartless ;
and we find that the best, the wisest, and the mildest measures,
which our Government at home could devise, are thrown back
upon the mother country with obloquy. We are told that we know
nothing of what slavery requires; that the whole tendency and ef.
feet of our salutary mamma are to ruin the interests of our West
Indian Proprietors. Those institutions which we consider as the
most unequivocal bles.ings, are by them regarded as evils of the
deepest dye. There was no one acquainted with the state of our 11
West India Colonies, who must not agree that this absence of li-
berty brought with it not only the usual effects naturally conic.,
quest upon this great deprivation, but in that particular case
brought with it multiplied evils of every description. Ought we
then to contemplate such a scene as cold and uninterested specta-
tors. There was a particular passage of the report to which he
would now coil attention. It was a most just observation, and one
in which he entirely concurred, namely, that the people of Eng-
land are the sok supporters of slavery When any one acquainted
with the circumstances of this country reflects for a moment upon
the vast results which public opinion can produce, he could not
doubt, that if the people of England did but will it to be so, sla-
very would cease. When we reflect upon the vast influence which
those called the middle class can exercise in this country, it is not
possible to hesitate in believing, that if they were once to say this
must not be, there would at once be an end to slavery; for, sup-
ported as the principle of emancipation is, in and out of Parlia-
ment, slavery could not last a year, if the middle class did once ex-
press a decided opinion against it; and this Society was particu-
larly called upon to express strongly its sentiments on that subject.
He cordially concurred with that part of the report which gave cat.
terance to the feelings of the Society on the occasion of the retire.
ment from public lite of one of its brightest ornaments, /11r.NVilber-
force. If any man had reason to be cheered and consoled in the
evening of his days, it was Mr. Wilberforce—an evening of more
brightness than generally belongs to the morning or the mend an
of other men's lives. It was with feelings of the deepest regret
that the British nation would witness the close of his great public
career, to which he had devoted forty-five years of his life—of his
precious life, the care of which now compelled him to relinquish
those public exertions which had always supported, and successfully
supported, the cause of humanity and justice. Isle. Wilberforce
was not then present, and he lamented to say, that perhaps never
again would he be present at a meeting of that Institution. Yet,
nevertheless, though not with them personally, it was not too great
a stretch of imagination to say, that he was to be seen in his works.
and he was then visible to them is the fruits of his mind. One, if
ptssible, further motive fur the unabated continuance of
their labours was, that Mr. IVilberforce still survived to be the
witness of their success—still lived,and he hoped would continue to
live, until the gnat object of his life had been attained—until the
mighty work at which he had an powerfully toiled, should be
crowned with success. They owed it to him to strain every nerve,
that within the period he had yet to live he might witness the total
abolition of that odious system which through evil and good report
he never ceased to assail. He trusted they would not leave the great
work undone; he wall sure they would add that one ray of enjoy-
ment to the keening of his days. It behoved them, according to
their measure, in their humble degree--according to the best of their
ability, to use their utmost endeavours to secure their nativeland
from the imputation of being the abettor of slavery; and they
must agree with him, that the only means of accomplishing that
could be derived from pursuing the course pointed out by the whole
tenure of that great mass's life. They should never forget, too,
that even he could not have accomplished his great work had he
not been backed by the people of England. He trusted the meet.
ing would remember that, and would in consequence spare no ex-
ertion to carry with them the weight and influence of public opi.
nion. He trusted, also, that when the people of England came to
estimate whatever rights might be supposed to belong to the West
Indian proprietors, they would, he hoped, forget that they owed it
to themselves to get rid of so degrading an appendage as negro
slavery. They ought never forget that in another part of the
empire there were to be found millions capable of supplying the
very commodity, for the sake of which negro slavery bad hitherto
been upheld. To effect all that they had in view, nothing remained
to be done but to bring the light of English reason to bear on the
subject. lie concluded by moving the adoption and circulation of
the Report, and that the Committee from whom it emanated be
requestedi to continue their labour.
MI urn w, in seconding this motion, expreeeed his warm
admiration of the objects of this Society, and the terms of the Re-
port which haul been read. If the great leaders of this cause
thought they had obtained their object without the abolition of
slavery itself, they little calculated upon the real duty which they
owed both to society and to their Creator. In glancing at the great
efforts which had been mule to enlighten the public mind upon the
horrors of the slave system, next to Mr. Wilberforce, he could not
overlook the great efforts of 3lr. Stephen (the Master in Chancery),
who sat near him, who had, by his writings, exposed, in its naked
condition, the odious evil of which they all now complained.
Indeed, the West Indian mind deluded itself upon this qua-
tion ; and ho believed that many very well-meaning Proprietors
of li'est India Property, who resided away from these estates,
were the unknowing cause of disseminating false intelligence
as to the real state of things upon their plantations. (Hear,
bear, hear.) In advocating this question, he knew that many
of these gentlemen were themselves the advocates of ties labour
in preference to slave cultivation. Even for the sake of their own
interests, he wished to see the system changed, and he entirely con.
curved in the good policy and sagacity of their views. The Noble
Lord eloquently argued upon the degrading effects of African
slavery, and the appalling influence which it had upon the human
mind ; so much so, that at one time ingenious writers had declared
that the blacks ware naturally an inferior order of beings fmm the
whites, and ought therefore not to be treated with the same huma-
nity. For the sake of the West Indies, therefore, he cordially IS-
con.lod the motion, to put an end for ever to so odious and unwise
A system.

, THE BRfITSH MESS.

Mr. W. Estrin, in proposing a resolution of thanks to Mr.
Wilberforce, for his eminent services in the cause of African eman-
cipation, felt his own inadequacy to perform this duty, which was
due to the merits of their venerable associate. It was with the
greatest pleasure that be heard the coincidence of opinion expressed
by the Noble Lord in the details of their report, and particdlarly
of the last Noble Lord, who possessed a hereditary claim upon
their attention, as the successor to the representation of the county
of York, of the eminent Sir George Saville, who was the earliest
of the abolitionists. He recollected an anecdote of Sir George
Saville, whO once visited a slave ship at Liverpool. who be,
coming shocli:d with the preparations before hien, and being asked
if Le was, iii, shook his head at the consciousness of the different
feelings which actuated him and his mercantile companion, and
said, " No, I am not ills but while you are contemplating unmoved
the profits of this voyage, I am wishing the ship may never set the
end of It."—[Applause.l The Hon. Gentleman then did ample
justice to the services of their illustrious Chairsoan • and in review-
ing the names of the able men who had from the beginning assisted
in this good cause, first in die rank, he said, he would place Mr.
Granville Sharpe, who established negro freedom, at least on the
shores of England; then followed Mr. Thomas Clarkson, and the
great luminaries, Pitt and l'ox ; great indeed was the latter,
•• whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will the fierce democraty,., •
Shook the arsenal, and lulmined over Crete*,
To Macedon and Attaiterzes' throne."
Could any body doubt that these great men meant to stop short of
the abolition of Slavery itself? (Hear, hear,) A long litt of
eminent names followed in the present day, who had co-operated
for the same great purpose. At the head of these was Mr.Wilber-
, force, who had shone conspicuously in its progress, and whose set-
ting rays now fell upon the land with a mild and steady lustre.
(Applause.) Every heart, he knew, responded to that feeling, and
must bear a grateful recollection of his brilliant and long-continued
services.
Mr. F. BUXTON, in seconding this motion, said, that his
• lion. Friend had gone through list of their ablest advocates, 'lave
one, which one was himself (applause); for often had Mr. %Vatter-
force mentioned, that during forty years of hard and labor'aus
counsel and action, he had always found Smith by his side
(Applause.) Mr. Wilbetfurce bad been at length reluctantly coin.
pelted by hielliends and family so retire, by ill-health, from the
public service. which he had adorned for 45 years. It was their
duty, then, to pay their tribute to so Illustrious a character. The
Hon. Gentleman then eulogized the powerful services of alr. Wit-
berforee in maintaining the honour and reputation of his native
country against the odium of the slave trade, and took a retrospect
of the public services of that eminent individual, whose private as
well as public principles were, he observed, so well calculated to
shed a lustre upon any man's fame. Engaged as he had been in
public Aides, it was the great fortune of that individual never to
have made one personal enemy, while he had always enjoyed a
large and devoted circle of affectionate friends. (Applause.) At
this advanced period of their services in the cause of African slavery
they could hardly estimate the obstacles which Mr. Wilberforce
had early to encounter, when, in addition to parliamentary and
commercial influence, he had local popular clamour to encounter in
the progress of his arduous labours, which often beset his friends,
and hunted them in public The lion. Gentleman contrasted the
present with the past state of the question, and declared there could
not now be found one man in the community to avow himself a
friend of the Slave Trade ; and he augured the best results from a
continuance in the labours of the public, which bad already been
the means of accomplishing so much good.
The Revolution was then put and carried unanimously.
Mr. V. IVizornsoacx (the son of the excellent person whose
name had been mentioned in the Resolution), then presented him-
self to the notice of the meeting, and with tears of mingled grati-
tude and emotion, expressed his sense of the difficulty under which
he laboured, when attempting to address his Royal Highness and
the company, in terms commensurate with the depth of his feelings.
It was utterly impossible indeed for him at say how much he felt,
because, however glowing, however ardent, had been the language '
of those highly-gifted persons wno had, by the expression of their
sentiments. embalmed, if he might an so, .she memory of his
father, still they must be sensible that their lahguage or their feel-
ings would fall very far short of that which might be said or felt by
strong filial affection. (Here the speaker again shed tears, and
seemed unable to proceed ; after a pause of some length, however,
he continued.) It would be some consolation to his father when
he deplored his absence from the lest field in which they would
probably be called upon to contend—from the last battle which
might be fought—it would be some relief in the pain of his situa-
tion, to learn that his Royal Highness was surrounded in that hour
by those valued friends, who for forty years had combated by his
(father's) side, and that those who had fought the tight were about
to enjoy the triumph. (Applause) That hour of success could
not be distant. Ile thought so from the state of the cause, from
the condition of their enemies, and he thought so still more from
seeing at the head of their phalanx, and in the front of their battle,
a member of that illustrious House of Brunswick, from whose set-
tlement on the Throne they had derived those principles which
were the fountain of every good, and which had rendered this
country most deservedly the envy of the world. (Applause.)
Mr. Baot. au ex, in rising to propose a resolution, said, it gives
me great satisfaction to have an opportunity of addressing my bre-
thren of this Society upon the present occasion, because I was for.
'only unable to meet them as I-intended, and because I have the
gratification, in meeting them now, of congratulating them upon
the prosperous aspect of that question in which we are all so deeply
interested.- For although it is true, as an lion. Gentleman has ob-
served, that nothing, absolutely nothing, has base done o• tither
side the Atlantic to retrieve the solemn pledges which we received
last year—although the only occurrence which could excite our at-
tention has been the lamented retirement of that distinguished In.
dividual whose name will be meutioned with veneration as long as
charity, justice, piety, and humatlity are counted virtues in man
(applause), yet I cannot but feel confident of ultimate and not long
deferred success, from one single statement—namely, that nothing
has been done. (Applause.) We were told, not only for the se-
cond, but for the hundredth time, when we last pressed forward to
lay the axe to the root of that poisonous tree, under whose shade
our fellow-men have so long withered and perished, that ours was
not the task to feel the trunk—that ours was not the task to even
prune the branches—that the evil must be gradually coped with in
the West Indies, and that time for withholding nourishment to its
culture, for ceasing to water its roots, or for pruning its luxuriancea,
could only be judged of by those on the spot who knew the soil and
the climate in which it was cultiva,ed. (Applause.) 11'e were
told that by various means, slow, gradual, and almost imperceptible
to the naked eye, our object would be accomplished, without that
interference which could only mean warfare and destruction; we
were told, in short, to let them alone and they would do the thing
effectually for us. Now, we did not believe them, and we told them
so. (Laughter and loud applause.) And what did they say to
that? Why, that we were only vituperative, uncharitable, and
inhuman to the West India planters—that we were always as
much the blind, prejudiced enemies of the whites as we were
the perverse, blind, and prejudieed advocates of the blacks ;
and, that it' we only waited a very little time, a month,
or at most two, we would see the whole of oar wishes
speedily and surely effected by the West India Legislatures,
It'hat has been the result ? Unbelieving, he did wait, and what
have they done? Why, I say again, absolutely nothing. And
here I beg it to be borne in mind, that I mean to follow them up
by something of a Parliamentery notice on this occasion, and
compel them either to abide by their own contract, or take the con-
sequences which must surely and inevitably follow any longer neg-
lect. They have now had not one or two, btu twelve mouths, and
during that revolutioa of the sun they have done nothing. (Hear,
hear.) I almost retract my assertion, when I say they have done
I nothing, for they have done much for us, nothing for themselves.—
(Great applause.) We have redeemed our pledges—they have for-
hated theirs. (Applause.) I feel deeply impressed with gratitude
to the West India Planters, God knows, more than I ever expected
to feel—(a laugh)—for their advancement of this cause, by ful-
-1 filling all I have ever ventured to predict of them. (Hear, hear.)
I know it is true, many %Vest India Proprietors, towards whom, as
far as I can to absent owners, living near 3000 miles from the un-
happy objects of their compassion, and, by necessity, leaving over
them delegates, invested with a power so absolute, that it might be
almost called impiety to Clod to grant it over fellow-creatures;
towards those proprietors, for their directions of lenity, and
charity, and humanity, as far as it goes, I do owe gratitude.
As far as it can be given to non-resident owners, who cannot con-
, Mee that any thing else is wanting than that which they have
commanded to be supplied, I have felt gratitude. To one or
two resident proprietors too, I might express my obligation
for their desire to meliorate the condition of their unhappy slaves—
, for their endeavour to do that which, as long as shivery exists,
can be very Hide ; because under its system the very best intentions
of any resident Proprietor must be crushed ; but I never expected
to live to feel such a weight of obligation to the whole West India
legislature, and towards whom I now Wig leave to esprit'', my
most unbounded gratitude, (Loud laughter and applause.) What
has Trinidad done ? Why, much. It has resisted from the very
instant they were promulgated those Orders in Council which were
framed in consequence of our efforts, and upon which rot only our
hopes rested, but the faith of the planters was pledged. It resisted
them to the very latest moment, and only yielded at last in °been-
, ence to the strong arm of authority. But in that simple resistance
the p'anters of Trinidad have done more to advance our cause than
we had done in a quarter of a century ; they have given an avowal
of that which we never knew before, and in doing so entitled them-
selves to a gratitude hardly to be exceeded by that which we owe
to the exertions of my able and philanthropic friend, Mr. Stephen.
This was admitted, I say that which my Hon. Friend had long
assorted, that the cart whip was essentially necessary as a stimulus
to West India labour. (Hear, hear) The Legislature of Trinidad,
I repeat, has declared, that to interfere with the discipline of the
cart whip was to cut off at once that which every one knew
was the very emblem of West India slavery. (Loud applause.)
In Barbasines, you must know, they demolished the meeting house
because it hai been devoted to the instruction of the unhappy oh.
jests of your protection ; but that was not all—.hey burnt the house
of the Missionary, Mr. Shrewsbury, and drove him with ignominy
front the island, rivalling almost in cruelty their treatment of the
persecuted and hapless Smith; and when a successor was ap- I
pointed to succeed Mr. Shrewsbury, they actually warned him oft'
the island, and would not, I believe, suffer him to land. This too
from Bobailoes, the place which had been always triumphantly
heist up to them in the arguments for the planters—the best fur
theirs, the worst for oars. Why, does it not plainly show that they
are determined to support the tyranny and cruel y practised over
the bodies of their slaves, by perpetuating as far an they can the bru-
tality and ignorance of their minds? (Hear, hear.) IVhat. next of
Jamaim—the largest of the slave islands—the most enlightened in
' its legislation—the place to which we were always called upon to
helot our hopes ? Why the legislation of Jamaica stands &wanes'
in the non-performance of prumises-0 the violation of engage.
mews ! A Bill, it is true, had been brought in, after oft repeated,