The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-01-14 00:00:00

l'olll.ltll.

We did nut expect, afterthert. '''''' made by the pub-
lic press, that the proprietors of the Surrey Theatre would
have ventured spiel to produce their melo-drame, referring
to the r.;cent murder in I Icrtfordsbire ; much less did we
cap( ct that any other theatrical establishment would have
followed hail an example. But the management at this
theatre has done inore--it has " Out-tieroilvd Ilerod," in
the disgusting race for false popularity, and gives a detail
of all the revolting circumstances, with a precision that
goes far beyond the resemblance to the bloody deed at the
rival theatre. The plot, as produced at the Coburg, is
manly an epitome of all the facts publiEhed in the Morn-
ing Pap. rs. We have scarcely patience to write on a sub-
ject so appalling to Engl:sl ,or to compare, in a very
cursory manner, two of the most revolting pieces we ever
saw represented on any stage. With reference to the pro-
portion of disgust they have excited in our mind, we should
say the one at the Surrey is the least offensive ; for at the
Coburg the is coolly contemplated and talked over
on the stage ; the person who represents the deceased is
shot before the audience ; and the ruffian who is ouw at
large, ;n consequence of its being deemed necessary to ad-
mit hint an evidence fur the Crown, after the trials arc
over, and his infamy as manifest as the noon-day sun, is
represented as the dupe of villains, instead of appearing in
hid real character as the rigger promoter of murder. We
were happy to hear sonic marks of disapprobation expressed
tut the falling of the curtain ; but by no trims as touch
as we should have widied to have heard; for it was given
out fur repetition to-night. The boxes and every part of
the house were tilled.

The Duke of 110 Mid is rt ported to have recently ex-
pressed an opinion, that the best tenant on his extensive
rent-roll is " Drury-lane Theatre." The rental of v,OOOl.
a year is regularly paid within forty-eight hours of its be-
coming due, and the punctual discharge of all its pecuniary
obligations is now proverbial. We can remember when
the case was very opposite, and so can " Peter Mane."
The Lord Chamberlain, it seems, has issued his veto
against the performance of French plays in any public
building in the metropolis. It is reported also, that his
Lordship Ism issue.' new regulations respecting the minor
theatres, in consequence of the application of the proprie-
tors of the two patent tht atm.
Madame eatalani is engaged to sing at the next Wake-
th Id. Subscription Concert.

The restriction which has been imposed on the recruit-
ing parties belonging to the East India Company's service,
during the :}em Ivry, has not as yet been mound.

NPORO P:MANCIP-1TION:
A bIALOOUN BETWEEN MK. EHENEZER EAST-

LOVE AND GILLIS HOMESPUN.

Sesvc—Al reeloisr is the White Heel lint, ist —, is

--dare,

Pawlove, weld weer o tohk, whith 4 covered with panophlds,
hamdtirs. manuscripts, .rc.

Ecstlove, •das—Prtitions we shall ithtio---4our method is sure--
no general meetings—handbills, planuds, and active emissaries
that is the way.— Yet the COlelliAhl have bestirred themselves—lt
was to be expected-- loss ofincuote they esidumi patiently enough.—
but hope wee a:ill left to thou—good times might return, and,
while the capital was preserved, their ease was not quite delve.
rate. If we succeed, as I trust wd shall, in our present efort,
there is at once an erd to their pmpony—scarce a wreck of it will
/remain—and then--yre, then, we hate the field to ouriches. Free
ntsfroet: will Put niaLe sugar—that is vertain. But Churamars,
Pa-
nieats, the Boicaderti and Batouieng Castes, with other Eastern
lehttiorcr a (for we will not call dorm sievrel, will, if proper sti JJJJ -
hints be used, amply supply our markets with that necessary of
life.

---'Po be sure, this doctrine of compeitsation to the colonists is an
awkwanl obstacle. liar statetneest 011 that point makes a deep
impression. Why does not come forward with hie pan_
phlet, and ingeniously *hew that they can establish no such claim ?
Ihies lie suspect that his arguments are ton subtle for British plain-'
dealing? Ilowever, although we may cantatas!" admit the prim-
ciplr-- (am, in some taxers. weemild riotgrt on without doing so)—
we may 141 puzzle the claim, actl tack to it such conditions, as will
make its operation irsiriticant ; and, cost what it, may, the great
work shall be dime ! het its but generate entt.usitoini enough in
the powerful names of humanity an•justire, and, the greater the
sarnlices we demand, the more eagerly will they be mail, !
I have sent for friend Iluniespun--he is well diSpot.ed—and has
much shrewdness and pl tin good sense7—he was very useful to us
last year- -Oh, here he comes !
Friend tales, I 111111 glad to see theet—ithy wife and children are
well. I hope? And how goes it with the farm ?
lake Ilumrsron- .'!'hank you kindly, Master Eastlove—we are
all bravely ; and fanning, Ind as It Is, has semicolon mended
since I saw you. I reckon, by all those papers before yob, that you
are here again on the name errand it last year ?
E4stluve—Thou art right, friend Honiespun ' • and I crave once
more thy :robins and able support in the furtherance of another
petition to Parliament for the hutuaral purpose of setting free skis
wretched olives in our nannies.
Ilosn believe, Master F.sitlew,that I shall neither sign
nor further it.

- Friend Giles, I am astonished at what thou but ut-
tercel ! Haat thou, then, been contemning with certain slave-
holders who dwell in thy neighbourhood?
llonoraptris--NO, believe tile, no. You mean, perhaps, Mr.
Plantain and Mr. Sugarcane ? They are very quiet good gentle-
own' and spend their money, whence''r they get it, like princes.
We have all of us hereabouts been the better for them at one time
or other; but they don't seem to busy themselves about what you
arc doing, notch aa it concerns them. 1 have had no talk with
Men at all about this matter; bet, coos after you carried away our
petition, there was, you know, a debate in the House of Conamone
upon it. and I have had some discourse with Mr. Manly and with
Squire Oldca-the, our 31entlicra, conceming what then passed.
E,rallave__Well, Odes, and what then? Surely those liberal
mot did not talvonite the horrid slave sperm of our colonies?
/forroapao—Master Eastlove, 1 have half an hour to spare, and
don't ohject to telling you what has passed in my mind since 1
talked with our Members ; and I will listen to what you may have to
say on the other aide. I guess that your petition this year. like that last
year. is mot to pray that nu more slaves may be carried, either front
riffles or from any moor parts, into our coluniea; foe if such a
petition as that were necessary, I'd go to John-u'-(iroat'a house to
sign it.
Easilnue—flilev, thou knowing, as well as I do, that this country
has abolished the .tiiiran slave trade; and I must grant (since It
seem, to be proved) thud ItUr colonies have now no concern in it :
but surely, titles, thou wilt allow that the great labour of huma-
nity is not complete till all British auhenits, be they black or white,
are emancipated., and a system of heatiale irreligion and immo-
rality las friend Wilberforce aptly terms it), of unprecedented
degradation and unrelenting cruelty, be utterly and for ever abo-
lished.
//ennerma--Stop a little, Muter Eaatlove, you move m at a
great pace. There are in our eulogies, as 1 understand, about
Itee,Utet oh these black slaves.
Enstlnve—Alan, Friend (tiles, it is too true!
. .

Homespun—And all these have lived in slavery all their lives.
Fos/lose-1 can't quite admit that, Giles ; sonic of the oldest of
them might be powerful men in Africa; ay, nobles sal princes.
//trotripsw—l've heanl that matter talked over, and I've read
' what Mr. Manly Acura me about It ;—1 think you may let that'
' argument rest;—African princes aed nobles, (if it be true that any
of that sort have been carried to our colonies,) have nu great hold
on my compassion.
Pattivre—But this, Gilts, thou wilt not deny, that slaves al-
though they be, and slaves although they may have been burr, they
have not sold thentselves, and they could not sell their offspring to
slavery ; have they not then a right to their freedom ?
. . . .

//unavan—ltliatee Eastlove, I dm'. tleoy their natural right to
freedom.

......
• Zeselevrai—Tben, Friend Mies, thesels to end el the question ;
for the petition, to which) ask thy srpport, only prays that Parlia-
ment will do what Is limit, awl giro to these wretched being, what
is their right.
liontespan—l've somewhat to say about what is right sad just
to all parties, itlaster Eastlove; but tray be you'll think me a
wave. fellow it lama% dlaw, thet-beeense the sines here that
natural right which raw speak of, it would, therefore, be either
wise, or just, or h ant, that Parliament should all at once put
them in possession of it.
Eed/ove--Mika, (tiles, thy honest mind has been perverted ;
thou knowest that we do tint pray for inenu•diate emancipation ; we
ask that the thing may be dune elierrally, but that, at all events, It
ma be done.
Ib""P""—Muter Easilnwei you'll beat our at close argument
I am sure; but let me tell you that you are now admitting that a
government may be justitied in withholding, iu sumo cases, front a
. man that which his natural right.
Ea stlare--Yes ; bat with the tiled purpose of delivering it to
him, as soon as it can possibly be dune, without material injury to
himself.

//mmiespen--No matter; It is admitted by you that the de-
livery of their freedom to the negroes, their natural right to which
you .wknowledge in the outset, is not to depend upon their own dis-
, action. but upon the will and discretion of others; and I don't
ask you for any other ground than this for my objections to your
proceedings.
Eustlnt—Explain thyself, I pray thee.
ilmuiresperr-1 understand, from our members, that one of the
King's Ministers, in the House of Caninionct admitted all you
can sob regarding the rights of all men, black and white, to be fire.
lie gave a pledge to the Below that it al Id be the anxious can
of Ministers to urge the West Indian governments eunuch measures
as would best contribute to the present comfort of the 'legroom, and
also to their religious and moral instruction, so as gradually to fit
for the full enjoyment of froedlont ; and he declared,' that hi
conceding free.l to the slaves, the rights of prerty shotda -bms
considered and respected. Now it seems to me, Master &wove,
that this was getting as much by our petitions as we hid any right
to expect ; and that it is a little unimaginable to be again so soon
'vomiting to hurry on measures, which, you yourself have Jug granted,
must be done with great discretion and caution to be done well.
Edit/ore—Giles, thou hart touched the NM place those West
Indian legislatures have done nothing, will do nothing !
HMltrtpllK.Why that's whit you said last year, and shat•all
your printed books say ; but I have been reading something on time
other side ; and there I Med farts asserted, upon good authority,
which prove quite the eontrary,--ehat a gnat deal has been done
ankle doing,---that negroes are well 'lathed and fed, nursed when
sick, and supported when old and imelpleits, ay, and kindly used and
instrueted,—betides, now that Parlimeent baa spoken so plainly,
one may expect that, if you'll give thorn peppery gentlemen in the
West Indies a little time to eon/. they will follow up what they
have done already with nose' spirit Owl seti.ity. 11l tell you
fairly, Master Eaatlove, rtnimlioal to meddle no more Ice the
matte'', at teasetor the present.
East/env—Art thou then so hardena4 as Ii look patiently on, and.
suffer thy poor black fellow-subjects to be driven like brute beasts.
by the scourge of time eart-gbip, to hard labour ? Canst thou en-
dure that time opprissin, mud, sag immoral acts, of which tour
books sheer thee numerous instances, alum continue to be practieed
with impunity ? lifs, Giles, (tiles ! *bent ale those humane feel-
Mgt which only a few months ago, tutigeil thy exertions in our
cause ? . •
Ilonersgna--Master Eastlove, I fee is it did-1 hire just the
same honor of cruelty and detestation of slavery,—the evil is great
enough, though not, as I now think, quite so great as you have re-
presented it. I find that you kayo picked out and put together all
the horrid tales, whether old or new, that suited your purpose ; but
were the rase ever so bad, still we must not aim to cure it by doing
what will only make it worse. One would wish, to be sure, that
there was rim Hogging either of Demote, or sailors, or soldiers ; but
we agree that the negroes are not to be ntade free, all at aye and
immediately ; and I'm afraid they alumnae be managed well, even as
respects themselves, so long as they continue slaves, without coy-
oral punishment. Rut tell me, however. hur.estlys—there me in
Jamaica, I hear, almost 400,0440 people, hhtekelinown. and white.
and nine-tenths of them, or thereabouts, ire doves,.—doyen think
that, in any year you can name, tberemre more horrid ?rimer com-
mitted in that island than in mossy portions of Great Britain and
Ireland, containing just the genie number of inhabitants ? You
rend our newspapers, I dace say, and mind a little what is passing
both here and in Ircianu.

I. Friend (ides, thou forgetinet that in Jungles nine.
tenths of the population are, as thou has just admitted, subjected tu
the oppressive power of the slave-nilister—almost without protection
from law, since laws, which praises' to sect the slave, are not
executed. Here, and in Ireland too, horrid acts occasionally mut:
but mark the ditcerence, they are proeteuted and punishelL
flasistsrua—Why, in my thinking, the use of punishment la to
prevent crimes t and if it he found out that here, in thiscountrY.
with a'.l OUT 111 PI ..,pd tribunals, we &regrowing mine and worse,
,and that in the .West Indies they an, thosigh it he but by slow
steps, hemming better and better, I can't but eondude that we
might find "ghee matters nearer home that deserve our looking after
quite as well as what is passing in the Colonies. But there's an.
other &Sicilian in my mind to our further meddling at present t
there's anger, I think, of stirring up the negrees to risings and re-
bellions, which can ad) end in the destruction both of titan and of
their masters:

Eestlwou--Friend thin, I thought thee too wise to be caught In
• Vide " Ilorhanan's Travels." Vol. I. p. 19. Vol. 11. pp. 3,
370, tte..te.

t See veep or the Right Ilm.tietarge Canting, on di' ►ity of
Blay, Itha

IJtttt SPIITC. Did we not predict that throe terrors oottld he artfully
eLeited, and that plots would be And ap for the purpose?•
Ilowintrim—ror one that is going about on an errand of charity,
is that charge quite enviiistent, Jfa.ur F.astfori % Do people Krt
up plots, whitth are to destroy their own properiy and eridtuigcr
their own lives ?

Ensnare_ -Insurrections, must and will occur, where op-
p►es.ion is the spirit that tides. They are the inovitable results Sof
that detestable system.
Ilontrapmw—Ay, are they so? These late risings, then, in llar-
Woes ana Itemarara, have been Lathed, as you think, by oppres-
sion and cruelty to the slaves?

k'aathKe--Perhaps not;
/how:pm—Pardon me, klihter Eaulove; just hear what it is
I want to know; you see they cox rise if they have a sufficient
Motive?

Fostloye—lllottbdess; but, alas! pnor deluded sufferers
llornespon —Now, why, if the oppression mi them hr an severe
and so constant as you Cu it is. have they not been rising here and
there in some parts of the West Indies from that cause only ? I
cannot find that they have done so; hut let them only be told that
something is going 011 at home that is to overrule their masters,
and up they are in arms In one colony or another.
Eaellove--4 Ippressioa, Illicit—lung-cow ed oppression—stop,.
fie, the man and extinguishes hope; but let II ray of hope break in
upon the gloom in which these wretched beings arc plunger, and
they are suddenly animated to exertions fur the recovery of their
rights. . . . . .

lionwspwa--But you have admitted, that they are not them-.
selves able to judge at what time, and by what degrees, their
' rights ought to he put into their possession. You profess, in
many of your writings, that sudden and unprepared emancipation
would be their destruction. Ilow then car
.yott, Misster Eastlove,
reconcile it with true humanity, to be molding out to them such
hopes and rays of light, as you cell them, winch hare been fond
to be the surest means of rousing them into rebellion, and to end
lln their destruction ? Would it not be better to let instruction go
on, and that they should, Step by step, advance in their titnevi fur'
liberty 7 Such, I must tell you, is my opinion ; and, as I feel
'wished that the good work u going on, I will have nothing to du
with your petitions this year.
Eolltaile— I have dam with thee, tides; 1 will strike thy name
out of our society.
Ibnirspati—With all my heart, do so. I have understood,
Master Manlove, that if the wont come to the worst with the It'est
Indies, you may Hnd some consolation in other quarters and other
concerns; as for sw, I have no such prospects. I hope the Odu-
nies will be saved from ruin ; I know many places and persons that
will grievoudy suffer if It be not so; and, as it is plain enough that
the Goloniats have Aeta of Parliament on their side for all they
have done, I feel certain, that, if we injure their property, we
must indemnify them thr it; and God forbid that we should be
' doing that which will at once add to our taxes, and take away from
•
our Means of paying them ! [Exit /forncapan.
• " Report of Debate on Bultou's Motion." See Dote 1,
i page ta. _