The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-02-18 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

Yesterday we received a file of Lidjon Gazette: to the
3d inst. The following are extracts:—
Lisisovr, JAN. 30.
Thovel we do not hear that the Government has received any
official information of the glorious events mentioned in letters from
Rio de Janeiro, of the 20th of November, which have arrived to-day
from Gibrietar, we are full of the pleasing hope that they will be
confirmed ; anti we therefore announce, with inexpressible pleasure,
that among others there is a letter from Gibraltar, of the 19th inst.,
written in the house of Messrs. 31orrogh and Waish, which con.
tains an extract of one from Rio de Janeiro, of the 20th of Novem-1
bee, in which it is stet d, that "in consequence of a bad understand.'
ing bet seen the Emperor and the Representative Assembly of
Brazil, the latter was dissolved by a decree of the Prince, dated
N0v.12, &c. We trust that Providence, who so visibly watches
over this kingdom, will, in a short time, put an end to its misfire.
tunes in both hemispheres.
JANUASY 29.
The Cazdge of this date contains an extremely long letter
(eight columns), sent to the editor for insertion, on the subject of
revolutions in general—which, says the writer, are al ways preceded
by corruption of manners: in illustration of which position the
writer reviews the history of the world from the time of the Homan
republic down to the present day. The following is an extract :
' The late revolutions of Spain, Naples, Piedmont and Portu.
gal, after all the examples which we have quoted, and others with
which history abounds, as they caution us against the mad spirit
of our times, shew us also clearly, how powerfully, and bene-
ficially the paternal government of a King, the most conformable to
nature, contributes to the preservation and happiness of nations, of
which they are the real fathers, May these examples bealways
present to the memory of men, since they evidently prove, that all
efforts to establish a visionary and impracticable liberty, only lead
nations to opposite extremes, that is, to despotism, slavery, and
barbarian'.

The supreme dignity of a King. the majesty with which he is
environod, his supenor fortune, his cultivated education, the
knowledge of the affairs of the state, the identification of his own
happiness with that of the people whom he governs, all this really
seems to secure him from the influence of mean passions, of petty
interests, to which the inferior classes and the assemblies composed
of such elements are subject. This made the great Sully say, in
his Memoirs—. If Wisdom descended from Heaven, she would
rather reside in one head, than In the heads of a society of different
persons.'"
Tits Buss or Kr N T.-1 he Monumental Statue of
his late Royal llighness the Duke of Kent, erected by spe-
cial permission of his Majesty in Park-crerct•nt, Portland-
place, will be officially opened for public inspection by the
Kent Commemoration Committee on Saturday morning
next, at ten o'clock.
Mr. Nfacready appeared at the Belfast theatre fbr the
first time on Nlonday se'nnight, in the character of Virgi-
aims. He has since played Ilanuct, Othello, and Macbeth,
with the success which his coninianding talent deserves.
We understand that there are several native American
merchants now in Manchester, purchasing goods for the
interior of the new republic of Colombia.—Gfasgow Chro-
nicle.

The Bailiffs of Tewkesbury, in compliance with a
requisition, have convened a Meeting of the inhabitants of
that Borough, to take place on Thursday nest, " for the
purpose of considering the propriety of petitioning Parlia-
ment to ameliorate the condition of the negro slaves of the
British West India Colonies, and ultimately abolish the
system of slavery at present existing."—Gtokeester Journal.
Thursday, at a general meeting of the inhabitants of St.
Michael's parish, Bath it was agreed to petition Parliament
for the repeal of the Lyles on inhabited houses, windows,':
and male servants, more particularly clerks or book-keepers,
and shopmen, warehousemen and porters.

TO TIM* EDITOR OF TAR Bairn* IMES'.

Si e,—The fairness and candour with whickyou usually
enter on every question connected with the public interests,
convince me that you will not make the anise of West
India slavery an exception. Advocating, u you do, oir.
most occasions, the cause of freedom and humanity,, it Is
with some reluctance that I find rayed, reduced to the we- '
c:ssity, on cilia great question, of entrt acing you to disabuse' •
your mind from the influence of prjudice. and to do jus-
tice to the efforts of Mr. Wilberforce and the aboliticnists,
who have not, nor can have, any other object than to put
an end to the debased and degraded state of the West
India population, which no Christian can look upon with-
out pity, nor any honest than contemplate without shame.
It is very easy for Mr. Ilibbert, who I readily admit'.
he a most upright and respectable man—it is easy for Mai
and for others, who, like hiM, have grown rich by this
tem of relentless despotism, to throw the blame of its intro.'
duction on the Government, while they reserve the profit.
of its continuance to themselves. As agent to die Jamaica
proprietors, Mr. Ilibbert has funds placed at his ilevotion.
to buy up the support of the daily Press as far as he is
able, sod to pay the stipulated price of its aid t., every
newspaper whose columns are at the service of the best
bidder. But the interested abettors of slavery will fled
themselves incapable of opposing the steady resistance of
the public mind in England, to a system of perpet aid war
with the principles of justice and the righter& the huMari
race. It is very esti), for any set of men to slander their
opponents, when they have no resource left in reason or
in argument. It costs nothing to calumniate the_ abo.
_
litionists ; but to abstain from turning the sweat and blood
of their Negro labourers into the last shilling of exchange—
able produce—this costs something ; for it demands
the surrender of a source of income which they are not
prepared to sacrifice. We are told that the measures in
prospect towards the emancipation of th'e slaves in the Wise
Indies, will be productive of the most serious and ti.ce nee
rive consequences. But when was the time when this omi-
nous result was not predicted? Twenty years ate., Omit
the abolition of the trade in slaves was under • ci,cussion;
it was then urged, with the utmost warmth of areinnenta
that the vessels employed in the slave trade werea nnrsitfe
seamen, and the speedy downfal of our maritime supe4
riority was counted among the first of the many direful
consequences which were predicted as inevitable. Even the
Christian Scriptures *ere ransacked for authorities in sup-
port of this most unchristian traffic; and the Bible- itself was
put under. contribution to furnish texts in approbation of a
system at war with every precept of religion and e ;try prime:-
ciple of morality. In fact, there is no influence that weld
be obtained—whether by false alarm or by false argument,
that has not been resorted to. lam free to admit that the
great 'West India proprietors may be men df humanity,
with a very fervent love of indepentleuce, as far as their own
exemption from constraint and controul is concerned. But
they are not upon ,the spot ; they neither see wish their
own eyes, nor hear rith their own ears • they know nothing
of the treatment of their " prac:leallabOurefs," as they
term them, but reside here in ease and opulence. satisfied
when remittances increase, and suffering the slaves to settle
the balance of misery with their task-masters. They pro-
fess to accede to the justice and expediency of gradual
emancipation—but unless when Parliament and public feel-
ing is strongly excited, they never, of their own 'accord,
stir a step to promote it ;ter make not a single effort to
accomplish what they so readily acknowledge to be de-
sirable.

That the Colonial Assemblies will do nothing effectual
towards a permanent change of system is certain. What
they have hitherto done to this end, does not indicate a
waste of strength, but a matt of it. Mr. fitephen, in Mt
newly published volume, entitled, The Shivery (4. the
British West India Colonies Delineated, his sbewn, with %
force of reaenning not to be refuted) that, if even they had
the will, which they have not, efficiently to reform the
present system of plantation mat,lagement, they have not
the power. " The Aseetilblies, says this able writer;
whose information is moat aCcurete, and llamas exertion* in
this great cause have been undeVitting and indefatigable-4
" The Assemblies, in the intoner Man& at least, are geoerally
composed of dependent fot their sabidatenCe on the specie,
pompom' to be I and to whose hopes in life the inunallbed
correction of it *on be fatal. They are, beside', too illtinuttelV
oseseated with, and dependent on, the small free conimtinttlestbiy
represent, to oppose themselves dm wheat to their general voice
or to venture on measures so offensive to their white brethren, at
all effectual laws would be, the objects of *Nib wronedly,wasoln
raise the Degrees in the social.acale, and by preparing a future
abolition of slavery Itself, to reduce the proud and gainful .
arty a the privileged class. lifeliorring Acts, incapable 11creeilg
enforced, and known to be framed fur the sole put wee of avert-
ing Parliamentary interference, are easily borne with; but the
man who, in one of those petty Assemblies, should attempt to
realize the
.benevolent ideas and plans of the British Government,
would be a herby philanthropist indeed. If be slid not escape,
like the late Barbsdoes missionary, by bight, he would probably
have to feed the fames of his own mansion kindled by a popular
torch.

" The late destruction of the Methodist chapel In Barbadots
is too plain an illustration of my meaning, to be here passed unon.
tined. It was an outrage perpetrated openly in the face of the sun ;
and, u has been stated without contradiction, continued dinint;
two successive days ; and this in the title town, the seat of the
local Government, which durst not interpose, I say dun; not,
because it is due to the Governor to presume that he would hay.:
upheld the authority of the laws, and the respect due to himself se
b:a Majesty a representative, but for the fear of greater mischief. Ile
bad, no doubt, as usual, a military force within call ; but the
petits biases, or white mobility, of Blidgeolllll, were too fontoids,
ble to be opposed. They have also, it seems, since expressly net
the laws and the government at defiance. A black mob which sets
tire to acane.piece, is punished, we may observe, in that country,
with the slanghter of hundreds of the rioters in thy field, and nittl.
titudes afterwards on the gibbet ; but a *bite mob may pull dos n
buildings in the capital town, without resistance, and -brave the
government afterwards, with perfect impunity and triumph.
" The bold Innovator whom I have imagined would have also to
confront dangers, or rather to submit to certain eateaequenee% net
less deterring, though of 1l different kind__l mean sued, as would
affect his own private property, or that of his employers, and thi
security or satisfaction of their creditors.
" Here I build on ground not yet fully rescind from comet.
rem and popular mistake. I ask no credit, therefore, I repeat,
for these views at present, but wish only that they should be under-
stood.

What I mean is, that the members of these insular Amon-
blies, being en an average, I think, about twenty in number, and
in some islands considerably leas, are for the most part either
planters deeply encumbered with debt. or managers and other de:.
pendenta of such planters, Non if slavery cannot be lightened and
progressively abolished, without present sacrifices iuch as they cr
their nerdy em loyers cannot afford to make; if, for instant...,
labour must be lesatx.ad, and sustenance increased (without whien
the fatal decrease of plantation slates by mortality cannot be pre
vented), at the pride of reducing the sugar crop*, and augmentino
the current expenses on estates that barely now enable their owner
to keep down the interest of the intumbrances ; upon what prieci_
pie can it be expected that he or his manager should propose or
vote for laws, by which such painful sacrifices would lee im-
posed.' Not upon a feeling of humanity, certainly; for that
would have:led to their voluntary adoption—not On a provident re-
gard to the future interests of the estate, for it must soon male lo
be his.

"The case of the constituents, too, is not in general different.
To a large pmpcition of the planters in our old sugar colonies, prr-
sent diminution of net proceeds would infalbblj induce a spe...dy
foreclosure or sale.

" These views doubtless she* the difficulty of effectual refo,n
to be extremely great. It is a truth that I have never desired to
eeal or ettenuate. To Parliament itself, the work would be diffi-
cult to reconcile the relief or preservation of the slatea with the pre-
sent interest of their owners, and the rights of their mortgagee• ;
but td the Assemblies, it would be quite impossible. In that nire.t
essential point of reform, the enforcing an adequate allowance f
food from the planters to their slaves, some of them have virtually,
if not expressly, avowed it."
That the Colonial Assemblies there, will not barnr
thetnselves to forward the viewt and wishes of the BritiOt
Parliament, is certain. Their interest, u well as tin it
inclination, bends all their effiirts the other way. From
such persons it is vain to expect any thing like sincere and
honest co-operation.
But the great body of Slue Proprietor.; put forth a pro-
position, the equity of which they affect to think ir-
c4ntestable. Take our estates, say they to the British
Government, into your own hands; and, if the English
public wish so earnestly for the emancipation of the Slaves,
let them exercise their love of mercy at their own cost, and
take the Sugar Plantations of the Colonies under their
own management. Let them take our estates off cur hands
'at a fair price, and then make experiments at their own
hazard. Thus, they reason on a proposition which tbi v
well know will not be actTpted, that they may fortity
themselves by its re-action, in the cuntinuance of a s)ritin
which ought not to be endured. No doubt the British
Parliament should proceed with cautious and measurid
steps, but they should, and I trust, they will proceed. But
were the work of reform left to the ('olonial Assemblie-,
they would not proceed; they would appear to do so, but
it would be only in appearance: we should have nothing
but a false march, in which the legs are prejected, lu.

.`t

I

without any onward movement ; and make a shew of rapid
advance, without, in reality, going forward a step.
As for the disposition of the Legislative Assemblies to
introduce gradually a spirit of equal justice into the colo-
nial laws, and to manifest a due regard to the rights of our
common nature, we need only turn to sect. 47 of the last
Consolidation Act of Jamaica:—
" And be it further enacted, that if any slave shall assault, or
Mar violence by striking or otherwise, to or towards soy white peo-
ple, Or persons of free condition, such slave, upon due and proper
prod, shall upon conviction be punished with death, tampons-
noa, or confinement to hard labour for life, or a limited time, or
such ether punishment as the Court shall think proper to inflict,
provided such assault or violence be not by command of his or her
*won. overseers, ace. or in the lawful defence of their owner's
person or goods.'
If the Nest India proprietors can satisfy their con-
sciences with this mode of improving Me condition of their
slaves; if It is thus they gradually distribute the bbssings
of freedom in their negro commonwealth, can we wonder
that it should be necessary to keep down the spirit of in-
surrection, and to repress the risings of despair?
I will not trespass farther on your columns at present,
but I shall trust to your candour for re-admission into
them, when my leisure permits me, which it soon will do,
to resume the subject. I sm, Sir, Yours, &c.
LIBERTAS.