The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-09-07 00:00:00

COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE.

[From the Barbadian of July 151
The following petition, from the Legislature of St.
Christopher's, was recently transmitted by a Committee of
the Council and House of Assembly, to be laid before the
House of Commons:—

The Inanbte petition of his Majesty's Council and Home of
Assembly of the Island of St. Christopher,
TO THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM IN Par..
LIAMENT ASSEMBLED.
. _

Showeth,—That the yoke of your petitioners, the faithful echo
of the sentiments of the inhabitants of this island, which upon
former occasions has been raised in supplication to your Honourable
House, now assumes the language of defpair.
That the prayer of your petitioners has been suspended, soda
the hope that their representation and manifest distress would have
axcited the attention and compelled the Interference of your honour.
able house in their behalf.

That your petitioners have with mournful fidelity heretofore re.
presen.cd the injustice and oppression which they, and the interesit
they represent, have long endured ; and }our petitioners now tl
elate to your Htinotrrable House that the predicted crisis, the int.
vitable result arising front the neglect of their representtlien,
arrived.
_

That every other part of the empire. every other branch of in.
dustry, has prospered tin ler the wisdom of your protecting care,
whilst this portion of the empire is advancing with rapid strides to
that ruin which a mischievous system and abandonmeut to the vi.
aionary experiments of specious and interested projectors, cintut
fail to co isummate.

That the evils which oppress your petitioners must command
immediate relief, or produce interminable ruin.
That your petitioners may not be silent under this etpeetation,
lest they, to whom important interests are confided, should be con.
sidered as sequiescing in the measures which have laid them pre_
strati., ancllvr rich have made them and their children familiar with
the bitter evils of penury and want.
That the struggle of your petitioners is not now for restoration to
that prosperity which once smiled upon them, but for bread; not
for the acquisition of power, but in order that-the knife may be
averted from their throats. If they are to be sacrificed, let it not be
expected that they are to be their own executioners; if they are to
bares
and let them at least be prepared by converting their ploug!sani
and pruning hooks into weapons of defence. That this ts no ex.
aggerated pictare of the existing distress and apprehensions is at.
tested by the rapid revolution with which property has been tram.
ferred. Scarcely is an ancient name in possession of ha patrimony;
and those who have been driven to the possession of it Aid it an
incurobrance instead of payment.
That the evils by which this desolation has been accomplished
are the heavy duties to which the staple productions are subject,
the peculiar pressure of the 4} per cent. imrost, and the wild and
intemperate machinations of those who contemplate that desolation
with triumphant and most unholy feelings. That your pea:loners
have only to refer to the Journals of your Honourable House for
the proof that the faith of Parliament is pledged to the abolition
of the war duty upon sugar ; that this duty has been drawn, not
from the pocket of the consumer, but of the producer, during ten
years of peace; and that a scale of duties, varying with the price,
is the only fair mode of taxation. They have only to refer to their
own palpable wretchedness as a claim upon the justice of your Ho.
nourahle House, that this pledge' be redeemed by the abolition of
this duty alone, or by the modification suggested by the enlightened
Henri of a Committee of your Honourable House. Can the con.
um? on of sugar be increased so as to make any bereficial impret.
upon the fifty thousand hogsheads for which, under great dig.
advantage to the revenue, a partial sale is now forced upon the
Continent of Euroi e, and of which the residue is accumulating's
a fund, which checks the industry and blaststs the efforts of these
colonies ?

Your petitioners also bring under the notice of your Honourable
House the peculiar hardship to which they are exposed by the par.
, !eat and oppressive impost of 4i per cent. on all their exported ma
ducr. By a principle, in contradiction to the prevailing liberality of
his Majesty's Government as well as to the wisdom ot pair Ile.
nourable House, this Impost is continued to the most exhatutel
and impoverished colonies; whilst Jamaica, with her Internal re.
sources, which make her independent of foreign supply ; and
Tr aided, who has lately been draining themselves, favoured islands
of thousands of their labourers; and the recent acquisitions of
Permeate and I'etbice with their inexhaustible soil, are exam pt from
tins fiscal duty : the wretched islands of this Government, and
some others under the same sad influence, are exposed to i:s
. unequal operation. Your petitioners know not by what suttee
rity this tax was imposed upon this island. They do not re.
gard the departure from that which is alleged to be the on.
ginal application of this fund. They complain of this !media
as partial and oppressive; as a check upon their anxious industry,
and as preventing a fair competition In the market with more fa-
, voured colonies. If it be contended that it is the price of Immu-
nities granted by the Crown, in what do they consist ? What
privileges do these islands possess that Are not enjoyed by their
most prosperous neighbours ? It is at least incumbent upon those
' who permit the tax, to chow that the colonies which are subject to
it have advantages which are denied to those who are not. But
your petitioners humbly submit that they enjoy no privileges that
are not the birthright of every Briton. That they ought at least
to be allowed to en into the market as unfettered aseheir more yr-o-
gee:ow neighbours, and that the injustice and impost ere to mar-
test to require nattier elucidation. And your pettdonses moreover
complain, that the Act 4 Geo. 111. c. 13, whereby a duty of 7!. is
laid upon every tun of wine of the growth of the Madeiras, import-
ed into these colonies, which is to be paid into the receipt of his Ma.
jesty's Exchecp er, sal (togeth'r with other duties of the said Act
imposed to be entered separate anti apart from all other monies
paid or payable to his Majesiy, and to be there. secured, to be
from time to time disposed of by Parliament towards defraying
the necessary expenses of defending, protecting, and securing these
Colonies, is at variance with the Act of 13 Geo. 111. c. 12, whereby
it was declared, " that the King and Parliament of Great Britain
will not impose any duty, tax, or assessment whatever, payable
in any of his Majesty's Colonies in the West Indies, except only
such duties as it may be expedient to impose for the regulation of
, commerce, the net produce of such duties to be always applied to
the use of the Colony in which the same shall be levied, in such
manner as other duties collected by the authority of the Genteel
Assemblies of the Colonies are ordinarily paid." It was scarcely
' to be expected that that which was so solemnly abandoned in prin.
ciple should be upheld in practice. And that the Parliament, re.
flouncing irjustice for the future, should tolerate, sanction, and
continue that which was already framed and organized. And your
petitioners further represent, that this duty, which ought to hare
been reserved for the exclurive benefit of this colony, shbuld be
I considered as ample indemnity already in the King's Exchequer
(if indeed indemnity can be expected fur such an injustice) for the
4i per cent. duty.
That your petitioners approach the remaining subject of ther
eomplaint with full confidence that the energy of your Honourable
House will fi r ever put down within its walls, the attempt which is
so covertly, but so euccessflilly cen'ributing to that result which
must exterminate one class of his Majesty's subjects in these colo-
nies, and familiarize the other with all the barbarities of savage
&life. Um Obis subject !o ir pet tioners exercise the privilege of
rpeaking open'y—they at once acknowledge the paramount autho-
tity, as by law established, of the King's Government, adminis-
ered by responsible servants, and of a responsible Parliament.—
And if these colonies were the victims of a power which is recog-
nized by the Constitution, they could only deplore in silence that
they are deprived of those blessings and of that equal justice which
their happy form of government promised to all. But your yeti.
tionere protest against their fortuncr, their characters, their ssfety,
being abandoned to the control of an ascendant party, whicn
is composed of sonic noblemen of the highest rank, of several
well-intentioned and of many obscure and crafty individuals,
a party which, as it seems to your petitioners, has been allowed
upon all subjects of colonial policy to have a fatal influence on the
decisions of his Majesty's Government, and even upon the deli.
berate wisdom of your honourable House, and which still urges
on, in despite of the streams of blood which it has made to flow,
its rash and relentless measures, so as to defeat the benevolent
purpose which your petitioners entertain, and hereby to retard iT
trustrate the moral and religious improvement of the slave, which
can alone qualify him for the entire possession of his civil rights—
& party, which in scornful allusion to the calumnies which it
propagates, has desigated the slave as its friend and brother, eel
has placed itself in merciless and unchristian hostility to the
more unfortunate master, and which In its display of cheep
benevolence towards one class of men, has deviated from the
principles of common justice towards another. Your petitioners be
out of your consideration all these circumstances which the flights:
legal opinion would authorise them to urge. They do not rely
upon those facts, which no man can deny, " that perSOD3I
slavery arising out of forcible captivity Is cowl with the
earliest periods of our hitory of mankind ; that it is found existing.
and, as far as appears, without animadversion in the earliest tied
authentic records of the human race. That it is recognized by te
codes of the polished nations of antiquity. That under the lighc
of Christianity itself, the possession of persons so acquired. .'i
been in every civilised country, merited with the character of rt.-
pony, and secured as such by all time protections of law. That
solemn treaties have been framed, and national monopolies eagerly
sought, to facilitate and extend the commerce in this assorted frc-
periy, and ell this with all the sanctions of' law, public and re-
nicipal, and without any opposition, except the protests of a lea
Private moralists, little heard and less attended to in tree
country till wit! in those very few years in the mother country
your petieionere. Such considerations from such authority
undeniable as they are, form no part of the case of your pee
tioners. They will labour with the most zealous of tiler adver-
saries to obtain the object in view, not indeed with the rue,'
rash hand that would immolate when it professed to sane;
as their present legislative labours attest, by every cautious, 55(e.
and practicable measure' which shalt quality the slave for the r
joyment and full participation of his evil rights. But your pet.-
tioners having been deceived, are entitled, they humbly antend, "'
provide against further deception. The party, sty the very /nib-
viduals, within the walls of your honourable house, who advocatd
the cause of the abolition in the detestable traffic ism human bergs.
paved the way to their honourable success by a declaration that Or
emancipation of those already in bondage formed no part °Ghee
project. That which was then stoutly denied, is now as open-
ly avowal. Nor do your petitioners complain of that stuns!; ter
heavy as the claims are upon their forbearance, and great ss are
their sacrifices, it will scarcely be expected that they 1./10111l! ser.
fide in those who have thus abandoned their solemn PT"'"'
sions. The same individuals can call upon the redoes to effect
the emancipation of Weet Indian slave, and their propose! is
qualified by the equitable condition of full indemnity to every
interest that may ber injured thereby. Your petitioners then'
fully accede to the proposal ; but they pray your honour,t,,,,e
house, that they may not be made the instrument of accomplisne,,C
this desirable object, by the surrender of their property, 0w...
wretched as it is, has been the tolerated, the approved, the er.
lei:imaged object of law, and sauctioned by all the security that can