The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-03-21 00:00:00

".

TO THE EUT fOR OF THE !AMISH PRESS.

SIR.
The Bill bronght into Parliament, for the Abo-
lition of the Slave Trade, having unfortunately been
lost in the House of Commons, by a small majority,
it has become the more necessary to make a few
remarks en a public advertisement of the West
Indian Planters and Merchants, bearing date the
12th February, which appeared in almost all the
Newspapers. •
The advertisement deprecates in strong terms the
discussion of the Slave Trade question at the pre-
sent moment, as likely to produce the most disas-
trous effects in the West Indies. What is this but
the stale and hackneyed device which has been re-
peated, year aft.rr year, since the question of Abo-
lition was first agitated, in the hope of exciting
some alarms in the minds of timid men ? If their
statement required, at this day, any serious confu-
tation, what could more effectually afford it than
the circumstance that the debate, which took place
last year in the House of Commons, on the intro-
duCtion of Mr. Wilberforce's Bill, and of which this
very point of the danger of insurrection forms a ma-
terial and prominent part, has been detailed at great
length, and with unusual particularity, in the
Rgyal Ga7elte (the Official Paper) of Jamaica, of
the 4th of August, 1804 ? It danger were really 4-
prehended from discussing this question in the Bri-
tish Parliament, should we have expected that the
particulars of that discussion would have been re-
printed, and disseminated in the largest of our Slave
Islands? Cim the Assembly of Jamaica be serious in •
urging this topic? Impossible. It they were, could
they not with ease have prevented the debates on
the Slave Trade from being circulated in that island,
by men wholly under their own controel, and in
a shape which renders them accessible to every in-
dividual, whatever be his colour, who has learned
to read ? They must know that even the echo of
Mr. Wilberforce's speeches could never reach the
slaves in Jamaica, unless they themselves allowed
them to be circulated in the public papers ~t• the
Island. Does not the circumstance then of their
permitting this publication incontestily prove one
of two thongs s either, that no fear of insurrection is
entertained by the Planters of Jamaica, however
loudly they may have sounded the alarm ; or,
which is the most probable supposition, that their
slaves are so sunk and degraded, that no fear what-
ever is entertained lest the information contained in
the Newspapers, consequently the Debates in Par-
liament, should contribute to that event ? .

But from whom do the Planters apprehend dan-
ger ? They will tell us from the negroes. They
are afraid lest the negroes in Jamaica should imitate
the example of those of St. Domingo; and how,
according to them, is this direful ealamity to be
averted? Why, by continuing the import:l:ion of
negroes to an indefinite extent. Sorely such a mode
of reasoning is a gross insult to the understanding
of every man capable of reflection. Can it then be
believed for a moment, that the men who are la-
bouring to prevent an accumulation of the acknow-
ledged materials of insurrection, are the men who
encourage insurreflion ? And is it not manifest,
that the Planters them elves, instead of employing
every means of personal influence, and wilful mis-
representation, to preserve inviolate their darling
privilege of stripping Africa of its Ur:act inhabit-
ants, ought. with a view fo their own security, to
eaU for that very measure of abolition which they
now so loudly deprecate ?
But the advocates for the West Indian system
would insinuate that they alone have an interest in
this question. Every man, who wishes well to his
country. has attired and pei vial interest in the ex-
tinftion of an evil, which involves the happiness of
hundreds of thousands of his fellow subjects, and
of millions of his fellow-creatures yet unborn ;
which affefts the security of our colonial posses-
sions, and consequently of our commercial great-
ness; which most nearly concerns our national
honour and our national charafter ; and, above all,
which is bringing down nn this peculiarly favoured
nation the judicial affliftions of the Almighty.
For as sure as there is a God who judgeth the
earth, so sure is it, that. sooner or later, if vas re-
pent not, we shall have to pay the forfeit of abused
power, of iivorous exaftion, and oppressive cru-
elty: we shall have to answer for the sighs and
groans and tears of which we have been the au-
din's; as well as for the African blood which we
have wantonly shed. Besides, let it he remember-
ed, Abolitionists are nor endeavouring to provide
for their own security at the expellee of. West lii-
dians ; they are not urging them on diegger ; but
entreating them to accept of safety.
One remark more may be required on the use of
the term " African Labourers," which the adver-
tisement employs. An insidious ten* evidently
intended to keep out of view that frightful system
of bondage which pervades our colonies. This
word means neither more nor less than negro slaws,
caught in Africa, and sold in the Welt Indies, to the
best bidder, like so many cattle at a fair.
There is another point, not imusediately arising
from the advertisement above alluded to, but yet
conneftcd with the subjett, io which I beg leave to
call the attention of your readers. It will furnish
an instance of the misrepresentations which are prac-
tised for the purpose of misleading the public mind.
It has been said, in several of die newspapers, that
the American Congress had recently adopted Re,o-
lotions unfriendly to the Abolition of the Slave
Trade. The fait is, that on question on that sub-
jeft has come before them. The motion that met
with a rejection was no more than this :—" That
from and after the 4th July, 1805, all Blacks born
in the Distrift of Columbia, or whose Mothers are
the property of any person residing within that dis-
trift, shall be free at a certain age."
I cannot close this letter, without expressing my
hope that the late unexpefted and probably acci-
dental failure of the question of Abolition in the
House of Commons, instead of damping, should
excite the zeal of all who feel its vast importance ;
and I trust that, even during the present Session of
Parliament, measures will be taken, at least, for re-
ducing the gigantic evils of the Slave Trade within
narrower bounds. This may be done by providing
that the newly-acquired and extensive Island of *Fri-
nidada shall not be allowed to create an insatiable
demand on the population of Africa ; by preventing
the revival of our Slave Trade for the supply of fo-
reign Colonies, which the war has now nearly ex-
tinguished; and by stopping the farther import-

Aix.4