The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-12-22 00:00:00

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

Yesterday a very numerous and respectable meeting of the
members and friends of the Society for the mitigation and gradual
abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions was held at
Freemasons' Hall.
At a few minutes past twelve the chair was taken by Mr.
WJLSE R FOR CE.
A inong the distinguished persons present we noticed Sir James
Mackintosh, Zechariah Macauley. Esq. ; Fowell Buxton. Esq.
ALP. ; the Common. Sergeant : Henry Brougham, Esq. ALP.
ftlacaule. Eim. jun. F.R.S. : Wm. Smith, Esq. ; the
Rev. Rowland flill ; Dr. Lushington,
The CIIAIRM•W-1 can assure the meeting I am not making
use of mere words of course when I speak of the difficulty I have
experienced in acceding to the wisheemf my friends and this ASSO-
ciation, so warmly expressed, that I would consent to occupy the
chair on the present occasion. It was with considerable diffidence,
arid after some consideration, I accepted the proposal. Induced.
and indeed enamelled, by severe bodily indisposition to retire from
the discharge of my public duties in Parliament, and to relinquish
a field which till then constituted the more immediate anti proper
scene of my labours, as far as they regarded the accomplishment of
negro emancipation, I at first felt as if it would hardly become me
to assume a more prominent situation at present ; but on farther
and snore mature reflection I did not feel myself at fiber'', Its
a cause and on an occasion like this, to decline complying with
the wishes of my friends, or to confine myeelt to the consideration of
motives of a merely personal nature when I had so great and im-
portant a duty to perform both to God and man. Under those
circumstances, I repeat, it was not in my power to weigh private
and particular feelings against considerations of such paramount
importance, and therefore, as my friends thought nay appearance
here would be for the interest of the cause we harcall at heart, and
likely to promote our common object, I yielded to their solicitations
and consented to occupy my present seat. The object of our meet-
ing this day is well known—we have assembled in order to consider
the propriety of petitioning Parliament for that gradual reform and
amelioration in the state of our West Indian slaves, which we have
the expressed opinan of Parliament itself to prove necessary. Both
houses of Parliament coincided long since in the vital necessity of
this change taking place, and it is now our wish that it should be
as speedy and effectual as possible. That our application may
be attended with success, I ardently hope and pray. I trust it will,
and that, as ill the struggle formerly made for the abolition of
slavery, we shall be supported by the warm and unbiassed opinion of
the English people. As in the former inseance, so in this we have
to look for the consummation of our wishes, and I hope it will be
found in the circumstance of the people of this country
taking up the cause. I am aware we are opposed by a
most powerful hotly in this country and the eolonim—the West
Indian proprietors and planters ; but front them I would appeal to
the liberality, justice, and humanity of the best claws—the middle
classes—among ourselves; and from their en-operation and sup.
port I am led to hope fur ultimate success. I will not any longer
detain you from the gratification you must experience in hearing
!mesons so much better calculated to advocate this cause than my-
self. I doubt not but they wail successfully urge upon your consi-
deration those motives and circumstances which, at the present
moment, render the adoption of the measures now in contempla-
tion peculiarly incumbent upon all.—The respected and venerable
Gentleman concluded amid general and continued cheers.
The Report was then read by Mr. MACAU LW y. It contained '
many facts interesting to the friends of negro emancipation, to
which we would willingly give a place in our columns, did not its
extreme length render it impossible.
Sir J. MACKINTOSH moved the first Resolution in nearly the
following terms:—" Mr. Wilberforce, Ladles, and Gentlemen—l
am fully aware it would be unbecoming in me, after the ex-
ample which has been set by the respected and venerable indivi-
dual now in the chair, to say one word on the subject of consi-
derations of private convenience, which, however they might by
possibility have excused nay absence from other public meetings,
could not be pleaded as reasons for declining an attendance upon
this. Already, upon two previous occasions, I have been pre-
vented from attending the meeting* of this Society, but I felt that
if on the present occasion I absented myself, I should not have
been acting consistently with the claims which the merits of this
Association and my own sense of honour, conscience, and in-
tegrity tell me you have, upon the exertions of every friend of
humanity and freedom in the British dominions. Influenced by
such feelings, It affords me particular gratification to be called
on to move the first Reaolutinn : sod it is with pleasure I come
forward for that purpose. It affords me no less 'mere delight to
see in your chair, on this occasion, a respectable and distinguished
individual, such as he who now occupies it ; s man who has always
been found foremost in the van of our great cause ; a venerable and
illustrious person, who delivered Africa, as far as the British Em.
pire could deliver it. from the scourge of slavery (applause) ; and
I trust I may add an ardent hope, that your venerable Chairman
may live to see not only that country, but every spot over which
the British Empire has control, wholly, fully, and entirely freed
from the scourge of slavery, and every inhabitant rejoicing in an
unlimited emancipation and equality of rights. On a subject
which must have exhausted the feelings and sympathies of every
individual present long before, it would be equally unpardonable
and unnecessary to add a superfluous word. I therefore rise shortly
to state the reasons which have contributed to excite my zeal in
this cause. When I say shortly, I mean as shortly as I can, and
so far. as a man has it in his power to foresee the course and
continuance of his thoughts and words. First, I am induced
to wish success to this undertaking, because the ameli-
oration of the condition of the slaves in our colonies is
Indispensable to clearing the honour of the British na-
lion. Secondly, I desire to clear my own conscience on this
subject ; and, thirdly. I feel a most anxious wish for your success,
because this measure, beyond all other measures, is, in my opinion,
most likely to contribute, not only to the safety of the mother
country, but the support of the coloniee, and in theme two ways to
the general welfare and advantage of the empire at large. Lastly,
Sir, I pray success to your effort& principally and particularly
becanse they are calculated to raise a million of human beings
II from a brutal degradation to the condition of men and rational
creatures. (Loud applause.) To the deliverer of Africa I need
not say that I, in common with all friends of humanity, content-
plate a partial and imperfect abolition of the slave trade with
sorrow and deep indignation ; with %mow, on account of the in-
' jury which the colonies are thereby inflicting upon themselves, and
whit deep indignation, because of the shameful Conduct of their
otiri legislature towards the unhappy negro, and the violation of the
best riglys of humanity. In my opinion it is now that we are en.
tering upon the only course which can certainly tend to the entire
and complete abolition of the slave trade. As long as slavery Is
allowed to continue in any of the European colonies in America,
its unavoidable tendency will be to check the natural and ordinary
increase of mankind, and in that manner create a constantly in-
I creasing demand for fresh supplies of slaves, a demand which will
I be found equally to increase the contraband traffic in negroes; so
1 that all measures, short of what we propose, will be found wholly
inefficient. and inadequate to put a final stop and conclusion to that
detestable trade. (Hear.) To stop short of this—to do less than
we now purpose to do—would he only to change the seat of tnieery
without effectually mitigating slavery itself. Nothing short of
what this Association is pledged to perform can deal a death-blow
to the present system ; all other expedients may be a shifting of
some casual circumstances, or a cheating of our own consciences,
but cannot be effectual for the attainment of the end in view. I am
no advocate of a sudden and ill-considered reform ; but our only
possible course at present, and the only prospective mode which
hold out a chance of ultimate success, consists in the adoption of
measures such as we contemplate, and which may finally terminate
in the production of a general and complete emancipation of our
negro slaves ; wlun they shall by tine and circumstances hare
been placed in a situation which qualifies them to accept it with
advantage lo themselves and the community at large. When this
is once begun, and the good effects
resulting horn the amelioration
become conspicuous in the British colonies is America, it will be
utterly impossible fur the Southern States, for the Anglo-American
Republics, for the Island of Cuba, and Brazil, to persist in
the same system of domestic management, and continue the pri-
vate discipline as heretofore adopted towards their own slimes.
If the better example of the surrounding colonies should fail to in•
duce an improved management, shame itself would be all-powerful
to produce that effect, and lead to the adoption of a similar system.
(Hear.) This will finally terminate In a universal emancipation,
slowly and gradually brought about, and the slave trade will cease
(cheers) ; because there can be no trade in slaves where there is no
market or demand for them; but till this crisis arrives the slave
trade must always, In a greater or less degree, continue to exist. I
am astonished beyond measure at the unparalleled Infatuation of
persons, colonists and others, in supposing it possible to maintain
an unmitigated slavery,and the present horrible condition of things,
in the face of the emancipated colonies, in the face of the growing
and daily rising republics of South America, where such an active
desire of freedom has been developed, and, above all, in the very
face of the republic of Hayti, which is so much a ease in point,
and where the independence of the negroes has been recognised by
those very individuals lately their masters and sovereigns. That
any body can suppose such a state of things capable of being conti-
nued for any length of time, and in spiteof all these opposing cir-
cumstances and examples. I must pronounce a delusion of no com-
mon kind—a delusion little short of absolute frenzy. True, indeed,
the West Indian colonists consider these changes as arguments of
the dangers of emancipation. I consider them proofs of the dangers
of slavery. (Applause.) They are changes no less calculated to
promote the happiness of the master than to further the interests of
the slave. Any one who considers the present state of our West
Indian colonies, and follows the light of reason in reflecting upon
the subject, mum admit that the necessary consequence of
the adoption of an improved system in the British West
Indies must be to force all the other colonies of European Powers
throughout the world to adopt measure,of justice and humanity
toy-mile their negroes. This the very principle of self-preservation
will compel them to do. Looking at the respectable individual
now in the chair, I consider him engaged in a work great and noble,
and which forme an apt continuation of his previous labours in the
same cause, which have entitled him to the gratitude of the latest
generation of mankind. In my further remark& and in consider.
ing the, remaining part of this subject. I wish to be extremely
short : but a few observations it is absolutely necessary to nsike.
A great deal has been said in the document read by nay friend,
Mr. Macaulley, of the very able and ingenious tiepin of He.
Dwarrls upon the juditial eetateiehmente—• The civil and criminal
justice of the West Indite.' In my mind this Report has been
drawn up in a somewhat apologetical strain, and contains a pane-
gyric upon the colonists something more than consistent with im-
partiality. This gentleman himself, a large slave proprietor,
scarcely appears to have been the person best fitted Arr the task of
inquiry. anal his object throughout his Investigation and subse-
quent report appears to have been to disarm the prejudices of the
colonists by praise, anti lead them to those humane refomm, which
htslatipas will be pressed upon them best by such a lipe of proceed-

ing. In making these remarks I wish to give Mr. Dwarris all the
credit in my power for sincerity and good intention, but ft_would
be strange, indeed if early prepossessions and long habits did not
in some respect influence his opinion. Nothing can be more sulk-
ing and illustrative of this position than the contrast afforded by
two passages in the course of his Report. With this view I shall
tyke the liberty to read and call the attention of the meeting to
two shone:tit:tett from Mr. baarris's Report, which are well cal.
culated to show the opition and contain the testimony of a most
competent witness on the subject of the state of thinAes in those very
parts of the West Indies latterly principally the subject of com-
mendation, and where reform is said to have done the most, and
the spirit of slave diselpfme to be the mildest end mitigated by dr-
elllnatinCeS. At Barbadoes, according to the report of Mr. Dwar-
ris, every sort of cruelty, if privately inflicted, short of mutilation or '
death. may be visited on the slave, and is unpunishable by the law
of the island. There is no limit to the degree of cruelty that may
be inflicted upon a slave short of these extremities lust mentioned,
provided it is not committed in puhlic, or in a manner offensive to
modesty and decorum. Such is the purport of the first extract to
which I have alluded. The second pasitsge contains a description
of these very slaves who are unprotected by law against any species
of cruelty or severe punishment not ending in positive mutilation
or death. Notwithstanding this, the condition of these unhappy
slaves has been thus described b' the elegant and fanciful pen of
Mr. Dwarris The poor slave,' he says, if left to himself, is
generally contented and- happy. Possessing a spot to which he is
commonly attached, looking to his master for support in health,
are in sickness, and advice and help in distress and difficulty, the
improvident negro, far from pining in misery, dances and sleeps,
trifles and dreams away life—thoughtlcem, careless, and happily Ig.
norant of his own unprotected condition, and of the impotent fury
of the laws. A little more time and a little less work ferns the
narrow boundary of the wants and wishes of the negro.' Thus it
is, and in such glowing colours, that this ingenious persoi de.
scribes the condition of slaves, who are subject to every cruelty
short of mutilation anti death. with impunity to the perpetratcir.
(Hear.) Rut even if the picture were true, however flittering it
may at first sight appear, a closer examinatisn would convince the
most thoughtless that it is illusive and unsatisfactory. If what Mr.
Dwarris says be correct, then is there nothing wanting to prove the
negro in the most degraded and miserable state which it is possible
to imagine. What ! are men on degraded, and deprived of all civil
rights—who have no property, or possibility of enjoying it—who
cannot give trust-worthy evidence in a Court. of Justice—and arc
deprived of all the rights of humanity_ are they, notaftfistaneffog
all these disadvantages, so utterly insensible as to be able to frisk
about in a scene of uninterrupted enjoyment ? How could such a
thing happen, except by supposing the negro destitute of all human
sensibility, and reduced to the level of the beasts of the field ? My
friend, Mr. Macauley, in reading the extract to which I have re-
ferred, from the report in question, observed, and justly, that sup.
posing such a picture to be realized on the estates of a few of the
few resident planters, the same description might be given by any
English country gentleman of his hones or hounds. (Hear.) It
strikes me that when writing his report, Mr. Dwarris must have
been looking into some of the most elevated and beautiful of our
English poets, and had those passages in his eye in which igno-
rance is represented as a mitigation of suffering. Perhaps it is
Pope's lines which may have suggested the description :
' The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he frisk and play ?
Pleated to the last, he crops the flowery food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.'
Here is a description, written by the poet for the purpose, and with
the view to

' Justify the ways of Clod to man,'
and show that some mitigation WAS provided for the sufferings o
even the lowest animal, and that the Deity had wisely appointed in
the ignorance and want of foreknowledge of the brute creation, a
remedy for many of the ills to which they arc unavoidably and ne-
cessarily et/potted. But it is rather revolting to the dignity of the
nature of man, that in effect the same description should be applied
to a million of human beings, by this elegant, ingenious, and elo-
quent writer. If a state of slavery has made such a condition a
state of comparative happiness, it can only have done so by extin-
guishing every elevated sentiment of humanity, by depriving the
slaves of the power of reason and reflection, and brutalising them
—.or doing worse than brutalising—because to lower a reasonable
being to the level of a brute is a still greater and grosser degrada-
tion. \s hat is another part of the condition of these unhappy in-
dividuals, who, like the brute, were
' Pleased to the last,'
and, in fact, ready to
• Lick the hand jest raised to shed their blood ?'
Their situation is such, that no cruelty exercised towards them is
capable of punishment except it hats been inflicted in the presence
of three persona; Mr. Pigott, the Chief Justice of the island of
Tobago, who, from official situation and other local advantages,
must be considered a competent and experienced witness, states
that " A manager sent all free persons out of the way, and then
gave a negro ISO lashes. The negro was brought, in a state of
which he might have died. to us, the sitting magistrates. We had
no means of proving it. I proposed a bill to admit slave evidence,
or to make the accused purge himself on oath. The bill was not
approved.' In this case, as no white man had been present, it
was found imposalble, under the exulting law, to inflict any punish-
ment on the offender. Does not a state of things like this justify
Mr. Dwarris in the declaration that the negro's wounds must
be the only tongue permitted to relate his wrongs ;' and you are
to determine by your proceedings whether these • tongued wounds'
have made themselves beard by the hearts of the British nation.
(Applause.) It appears Mr. Pigott ventured to propose a bill for
the admission of negro evidence, but notwithstanding the occurrence
of that late and most outrageous act of violence recorded by him, the
ears of the legislature of the island were deaf to the negro's tongue
—his wounds, and the bill was rejected. They would not admit the
accused part; to a disproof of the allegations brought against him,
if he were a negro, or require any evidence of innocence if he were a
white man. Thus the unhappy slaves were left to themselves;'
not, indeed, in the sense in which Mr. Dwarris used that ex-
pression—and net, I thank God, left wholly without protectont
and advocates in this country—at least I cannot think so while
looking round on this assembly—but left to the barbarity of those
who might exercise the most cruel practices in private—left with-
out the protection to be afforded by the shield of the law—left alone,
with nothing but their wrongs and oppraosors ; the latter deriving
a new license fur barbarity by the refusal to pass a law admitting
the credibility of negro testimony. The refusal to pass such a
law was, in fact. an encouragement to all to imitate this atrocious I
conduct (Hear, hear.) In saying this. I ant not so much the ad-
vocate of the negro population as of the British inhabitants of the
West Indies: for I am thus beat providing for their present
welfare and future preservation. Without the adoption of an im-
proved slave system, I do not see how they can expect to
escape the most tremendous and rapid ruin (Hear, hear.)God forbid that I should not deprecate events of the cha-
racter I have alluded to, and I repeat, I am no advocate for sud-
den emancipation. I have no desire to see a servile revolution, but
I must confess, great as the calamity would undoubtedly be, the
success of a slave revolution is, in my mind, the second—only the
second—calamity that can befall us. I conaider—l shall always
consider—perpetual slavery as the first ! (Loud applause.)
think, and au. persuaded, that the interests of master and slave,
where they most appear to differ, do in fact and reality, coincide
and agree; and I am firmly persuaded, that as it is the interest of
the slave that emancipation should be gra:lual, so it is the interest
of the master that its commencement should be immediate. Ido

not oppose the principles broached by the West Indians, because I
am an enemy to a gradual reformation in the condition of the
slaves, but because they are enemies to any reformation at all
(hear); and I now call upon my countrymen to force them to adopt
a vitally important measure, which they chew a fatal and perverse
repugnance to entertain. (Hear ) The resolutions passed by the
two Houses of Parliament furnish a clear and sufficient ground for
this invitation which I now make to the British people. In 11123
both Houses of Parliament adopted resolutions declaratory of the
positive and urgent neceslity for mitigating and improving the state
of our West Indian slaves, with an ultimate view to their admis-
sion to all the civil rights and privileges enjoyed by the rent of his
alajesty's subjects. (Loud cheers.) Permit me to congratulate
this meeting and the country on the adoption of language such as
this in the Resolutions of the two Muses of Parliamept. By it
the principle is recognised, that one million of persBns, whom
chance has ordained to be horned' a complexion darker than our own,
are nevertheless equally his Majesty's subjects with ourselves, and
are therefore entitled to share the privileges of the law, and to claim
the protection of that sceptre which, in the hands of their oppress
sums, has been hitherto converted into a rod. (Hear.) The indi-
vidual who first used this language Is now, unhappily for his
country and the cause of humanity, no more. Yet 1 canna men.
tion his name at this distance of time without the most profound
and poignant regret. It is unnecessary for me to eulogise the name
of a man, who, like the lamented individual in question, lent the
powerful aid of his great eloquence, unbounded genius, and tin.
suspected virtue, to a cause such as this. In repeating the name of
Sir Samuel Romilly, 1 utter his best eulogium ; and I think I atn
justified in declaring, that he never used an expression every way
more characteristic and worthy of his own great reputation, than
the declaration in question—that the negro was entitled to the
rights of a fellow•subject. Str, it contained a principle, the truth
of which is sure one day to be generally acknowledged. I now
repeat, after the lamented deceased, that I consider these injured
individuals British subjects, who have been cruelly, wickedly,
and unconstitutionally deprived of their just rights and privilege..
The Resolution I have mentioned recogniaea this principle, and it
was followed by another, unanimously adopted, like the first, by
both !louses, which proved that its framers looked forward to the
time when the negroes should be admitted to their rights and pri-
vileges as British subjects. These resolutions were followed by an
order of the King in Council, introducing important improvements
and mitigations in the state or our colonial slaves, in such cases as
the mother country had the power of legislating. This again was
succeeded by a recommendation to such of the colonies whose As-
semblies possessed the power to legislate, to ameliorate the state
of the negroes. In an eloquent speech, made by one of his Ma.
jesty's Ministers, it was openly said, that in the event of resistance
to this order and recommendati,n, Government would have to con-
sider the nature of the resistance. If it was a reasonable resistance,
well ; but if growing out of contumacy, then it would be a sub-
ject for the opinion of Parliament. TM, question is, has Portia.
most in drat relinqui4wil the resolution unanimously agreed to by
Itself. It has been resisted by the colonists, and it should now be
inquired upon what grounds,for the purpose of ascertaining whether
the resistance is founded in reason,of only in absolute contumacy and
defiance. If it has proceeded from the latter, then is it our busi.
ness to call Parliament to a sense of its duty, and by the
petitions of a great proportion of the population of this country,
awake it to a sensibility of its own honour, calling on it to redeem
the pledge given in its own Resolutions. This is s subject of vital
importance, and it becomes the people of tins country «1 press for-
ward and assure the Hovemnient that it will million it in the per.