Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-09 00:00:00

carcase in the cattle market, They love their
country and their Sovereign too well to do, as
some would say, a " trick;" yet, let us look at
Rochdale. Bribery, one of the foulest crimes, in
the eyes of the House, has certainly been perpe-
trated in this borough. The Committee say,
" It appears that ABRAHAM ROTHWELL, RICHARD
HUGHES, and MARTIN DALY were bribed by
various sums of money given or offered to them ;
but there was no evidence to show that the
aforesaid acts of bribery committed were with the
consent or knowledge of the sitting member or
his agents." What is the meaning of this
declaration on the part of the Rochdale Com-
mittee ? Simply this—that no bribe can be in
point of law a bribe, unless some one hears it
jingle ad it drops out of the hand of the sitting
member, or his authorised agent or agents, into
the avaricious palm of the corruptible elector.
We have alluded to the nefarious intimidations
practised in Mayo. The corrupt practices at
Cambridge, Rochdale, and other places, show
that, legislate as Farliament may for the purifica-
tion of election, nothing can or will save us from
all the horrors of priestly intimidation, corrup-
tion, and undue influence, but the adoption of
the Ballot.

SOME short time ago, a deputation of gentle-
men waited on the Premier, to urge the expediency
of permitting the emigration of free labourers
from Africa to supply the want which is now
experienced in our West India colonies ; and on
last Friday evening, a petition from Demerara
was presented by Mr. T. BARING, in the House
of Commons, embodying the same request.
Cotton and Sugar are dear at present ; and the
West India interest having an eye t') its own and
the nation's good, strongly argues for this view
of the case. We ought not to be dependent,
say they on America for our chief supply of
Cotton. Free African labourers would make us
able to compete with America. And as it
has often and again been proved, both theoreti-
cally and practically, that slave labour is dearer
in the end than the work of free men, it follows
that the proposed arrangement would be the
most effectual mode of putting down slavery and
the slave trade—a result which has not been
attained by armed squadrons hovering round the
coast of Africa. Then the horrors of the middle
passage would be avoided. There would be no
cramming of miserable human beings together
like sheep in a pen, only with less provision for
air and cleanliness ; for the trade would be
legitimate ; good ships would be sent out with
comfortable accommodation, to receive those
Africans who chose to volunteer to go to a more
lucrative field of labour in a new country. Then
they would be better and safer in a British
colony, and under British law, than in their own
country.

The island of Mauritius affords a splen-
did example of the benefit of free labourers.
There, a hundred thousand coolies from India
have raised themselves, by their own labour, to
comfort and independence. Many of them
become rich enough to return to their own native
land, after having realised a competence. A free,
legitimate, and unrestricted trade in Africans
would, then, benefit this country, by increasing
the amount of the products we need—especially
Sugar and Cotton ; would benefit the negro
himself, by transferring him to a better field of
labour; would affect advantageously the policy
of the Southern States of America; and, in short,
would end in the overthrow of Slavery. Such
is the case for the West Indian interest; and
this policy is endorsed by no less a philanthropist
than Lord SHAFTESBURY.

On the other side it is contended that, how-
ever it may be placently presented and guarded,
yet this scheme might in the end prove a revival
of the slave trade under a new name. But the
people of this country will never consent to
restore the accursed traffic, under any name or
any pretence. We have paid dearly enough
already in our feelings of humanity, and in
twenty millions of money, and long political
agitation, to suffer ourselves to be imposed on by
any pretence however plausible. Sugar and
Cotton are good things in their places, the one
in our tea, the other in our wardrobe ; hut
humanity, morality, religious principle, are
higher things still. Doubtless free labour is
cheaper than slave labour ; and this is the
effectual guarantee written in the decrees of
Providence, and the laws of human nature, that
the slave system cannot be perpetual. But
before committing ourselves to the approval
of a scheme which is yet so imperfectly :deve-
loped and understood ; let us think of possible
consequences in carrying out what sounds so
benevolently. In putting an end to the horrors
of the middle passage, could we also put an
end to the war and kidnapping that might
precede the Africans showing themselves at the
coast ready for transportation.

The case would be quite different from
that of an Irish emigration to America.
No power can steal and force the Irish to
ship themselves off to AmeriCa. They go
voluntarily in a sense, even if compelled by
poverty, they' go to seek new homes in a new
world, and so to better their physical condition.
And if it can be shown that no more constraint
would be put on the African than on the Irish-
man, then so far the cases are parallel—andithe
plan might be defensible. But it is known that
at this moment war is proceeding in Africa, to
procure slaves for Cuba, &c. ; the native chiefs
will sell their unhappy subjects to the trader for
rum, or gunpowder, or some worthless bauble.