The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-21 00:00:00

N EGRO EMANCIPATION.

GREAT MEETING AT LIVERPOOL

YESTERDAY.
(BY EXPRESS.)

A very numerous and highly respectable meeting took place
yesterday, at the Royal Amphitheatre, Great Charlotte-street,
Liverpool, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament in favour_
of Sir Eardley Wilmot's motion for the immediate and total
abolition of Negro Apprenticeship in the West India Colonies.
The meeting was convened by a requisition, addressed to
the Mayor, William Rathbone, Esq., and was signed by
.21
Town Councillors, and nearly 200 of the most respectable in-
habitants of the town, including persons of all shades of poli-
tical opinions.
A temporary platform was erected for the accommodation of
the Chairman, the movers and seconders of the various resolu-
tion!, and the members of the Anti-Slavery Society. Among the
Gentlemen present, we observed, I'. Harvey, Esq., Alderman
Bonn, Thomas Rathbone, Esq., Rev. Hugh M'Neille, Rev.
Fielding Ould, Rev. W. Bevan, one of the late delegates to
London, Adam Hodgson, Esq., E. Cropper, Esq., Wm. Thos.
Blair, Esq., Thomas Sands, Esq., Thomas Morecroft, Esq.,
&c., &c., R. Radcliffe, Esq., Town clerk.
At two o'clock (the hour fixed for taking the Chair) the
body of the amphitheatre and the galleries surrounding it, were
crowded in every part, and among the audience we observed a
great number of ladies. At a few minutes past two, William
Rathbone, Esq., Mayor of the Borough, was called to the
Chair, amidst loud and general acclamations.
The TOWN CLERIC having read the requisition calling the
meeting,
The CHAIRMAN rose and said—They were aware that this
was the first meeting that had been held out of the Sessions-
lieuse. It was an unusual course, and he relied upon the
good feeling and the good sense of his fellow-townsmen to
justify him in the novel situation in which he had consented t 0
place himself, by holding a Town's meeting in that amphl-
theatre.—(Cheers. ) The subject upon which they had that
day met was one most important in itself—most important to
millions of their fellow-creatures ; and he hoped the dis-
cussion -would be so conducted as to show they were deeplY
impressed with its importance.—( Loud cheers.) He
trusted they should feel that in a holy and a righteous,
cause they needed no declamation—needed no violence
of language, but that its foundation being on truth and justice
it was only by truth and justice that a righteous cause could be
expected to prevail.---( Loud cheers.) Let them that day
show that this was a deliberative assembly, and that those who
came forward were actuated not by any impulse that required:
a morbid excitement to keep it up, but that it was founded
on a deep and abiding principle, for this was the only way in
which any great or good cause could be triumphant. It was
not by abuse, or imputing wrong motives to others that a good
cause could be successful, and he hoped that this day would be-
n proof that the cause in which they were engaged was'
a pure one, and that every gentleman who might address theme
whether his opinion were in favour or against the measure!
before them, would be heard with calmness and impartiality.
It was his duty to Fee that this meeting was so conducted., eld
to whichever side its opinion prevailed, that that expression'
and that opinion would be given in its true character, to the
public,because it would go forth with the sanction a a t0w.0.,5
meeting, and a town's meeting it would most certainly
(Cheers.) The Chairman in conclusion again claimed for
every gentleman who might that day address them a call'''.
aad deliberate consideration.

The Rev. W. CARRUTIIERS then came forward to in?ver
tha first resolution, which he proceeded to read to the ineetig-
r,s follows:

I. That th's meeting deeply regret the attempt that has been made tcl
divert the friends of the negro from seeking his immediate emanciPach
tion, by the introduction of the
Bill of the Colonial Secretary,
tx
" An Act to amend an Act for the Abolition of Shivery in the BO"'
Colonies." That in their estimation the previsions of that Bill aro
a.together unsatisfactory and inoperative ; and that they are de.cr-
mined never to rest satisfied with any measure which shall eur,'tintle
slavery, wills any modification, under the fallacious name of aPPren.
ticeship.

He would leave it to his honoured and esteemed f-riend and
brother Secretary of the Anti- Slavery Society of that to'P'
to state to them the provisions of the Ministerial measure now
before the British Legislature, and to show the inadequacy'
of its provisions to the end intended by its projectors. ",
should be his business during the short time he would tresPar
upon their attention to confine himself strictly to the deterno-
nation embodied in the concluding part of the resolution*
They were determined never to rest satisfied with any mel;
sure which should continue slavery with any modificatiorr,
under the false name of apprenticeship.—( Hear and cheer,'-)
Whence did that determination proceed ? Whence, but frog,_
a conviction that slavery was in itself an evil--( Hear),—'ghat
it was an aggregate of evils, and that it did not admit of nn).
modification that could render it in any form, in anY deg'rae„ej.
or under any name, consistent with the dictates of humanity
justice. It was not against the mere seven letters which coral e"
the word SLAVERY that their antipathies were aroused,
their efforts directed. They wanted te, do away with the'
thing itself.—( Cheers.) They wished not to gild. the fetter
of the wretched captive, and leave him wretched and oP
pressed as before; but they teiehed to have his fetters bro-
ken off, and the prisoner to go free..( Hear, hear, and cheers.)
They wished to confer not the name but the reality of fre'e-
doei, and that every one of those who had an inviolable, 53'
indestructible, and an unquestionable right to expostulate wit
his oppressor, and say_" Am I not a man and your brother ?"
Hear, hear.) That determination proceeded upon the
principle that betwixt freedom and slavery there was:
no neutral ground—no transition state—no middle passage ;;
that every man, be he who he may, and be he where he m 211•
is either a freeman or a slave, and that until their West leldia
fellow-subjects had the acknowledgment of the right to dis-
pose of their own labour to the best advantage—until the)"
had the privilege of locomotion from place to place--
until they had the right to go from master to rnas'
ter, according to the dictates of their own judgment
until they had all the privileges of British subjects, they vr"e
in reality in a state of thraldom.—( Hear, and Cheers.) Non'
from that state they sought to release the Negroes, not only
by solicitation but by expostulation, by argument and by 'l3;
peal, addressed to those who had the power to liberate theme
but they had sought it by the fair, the abundant, and 513
ample compensation that had been awarded for the injury and
loss it was imagined the planters would sustain by the
Act of Emancipation—(Cheers)—by the compensation which
had been liberally, generously and freely made, and for which
they expected, as a matter of course, the liberation of 800,000
of their fellow-creatures.--( Cheers.) Their expectatioancl
had been vain—their exhilaration premature; they hd.
asked bread for the Negroes, and instead of it they 1,3
given them a stone.—( Cries of " Hear, hear.") The Negr°L.4
remained in bondage still, and what was the amount of I•L'e
good they had obtained for them in return for the large 3111-
of money which had been so cheerfully paid ? Why, this was
the amount of good resulting from the measure—they 'glad get
a word of seven letters erased from the West India vocabulary,
and that was nearly all they had got in lieu of Their twenty
millions sterling.—(Hear.) They called it negro apprentiee:_
ship—the use of words was arbitrary, but usage fixed their
meaning and directed their application, But, if the word all;
prentice signified the state of things at present existing, in et •
West Indies, then the words. apprentice and apprenticesl
should be blotted from the English vocabulary, for they were D
English words—their evil application rendered them unwortb);
a place in any dictionary of the English language. It embedil
all the ideas associated with impressions which were abhorre",
to the feelings of British bosoms.—( Cheers.) Away vritb itit
Let them not hear even the name of apprenticeship, and let "a
not be said that a mere change of name was all they receive
for their generosity, or their justice in ransoming the slaves'',
(Hear, hear.) If they would not resist the demands of iilss
tice--if they would not sacrifice the claims of humanity,
the far higher and holier claims of the religion they professe"ict
if they would not vilify their own name, if they
won
e•
not bring a stigma upon their country, and an odium tmert th
age they lived in, let them unite in adopting the
determinat'-trw
never to rest satisfied with any measure which did not go
the full, entire, unrestricted, universal, and ii,erpetual liberm-;
tion of those who, in spite of pledges, in sr,ite of promises, av
in spite of payments, were still bowed br.;neath the yoke
unrighteous domination.—( Loud ebeers.)
The Rev. Mr. BEVAN had the duty entrusted to him top,
sent to their notice the Bill which had just passed the LeS'
lature, for the purpose of diminishing the evils which had oc-
curred in the administration of the Abolition Act.—(Cheer,ce'm
>
The feeling of the country had been epeedil) aroused VI,"
first these abuses had been made known ; and it created a lees,
ing of condemnation which must have been manifest to o°4,
to whom was entrusted the administration of affairs, and 'at
fled them of the necessity of adopting some measures for re'
it
medying the abuses which were the subject of complaint. P:i;
first the complaints were regarded as being made upon Tat.
slight grounds ; but, in the course of a very short period, t
ground was admitted to them, and upon it was founded tne,
Act which had passed through Parliament, and received
,as
Royal Assent.--( Loud cries of Hear, hear, hear.) It 'sae-
rather singular that the grounds on which the meesure
supported in the Upper House should be denied to it in rig
Lower House, the statements of our Colonial Secretary bni.ase
directly at variance with the denials of the other. That v;
observeable in six. important and prominent instances. jr!blle,
Chief Secretary admitted that the statements of the No ce,.
Lord (Brougham) were not exaggerated • the Under ni
cretary affirmed that the statements put forthin the coon' ',J,.,0
which neither fell below nor exceeded those of Lord "Wit ,
ham, were not correct. He would quote the Colonial Flo
terry's own words, when he said that the evils of the sYLolietes,
were so many and so great as to furnish
ground for the "do
tion of the apprenticeship system. On thee other hand,
Under Secretary denied that they existe:t except in a minnrty
e,,
l,
of cases.—( Hear.) In three several instances the Colonial f
cretary admitted that the statements James Williams's ra_
tire had been confirmed by the ovidence before the Govern-
ment Commission, while the Under-Secretary treated tl.re_
with somewhat approaclling to derision. The Chief-le:the
tary admitted the evils of the work-house system, 16' ble
Under-Secretary s.iid they could not be fairly chargea _
to the apprenticeship system. The Chief Secretaryw_aiuta,
mitted the improper interference of the Special Justices,
the Under Secretary contended they were always ready
,_ady,
hear the complaints which were brought before him. A
lth
(13ussttl
oym, theary Chiefet! e
ee
scsraertya rya
o w,l admittedee s o theth e
ne withdrawalgroes,ci )1;-
tbai
Under Secretary maintained that they were treated, as wellb
ever they hod been by their masters. —( Hear, 'Jeer.)
and '
me sure, however, had teen carried through Parliament,
however defective it might be, it was 0:oout to b
se
car-
ried into operation in the West India Colon'
now ad,!re himself The defects of the Act grad (Hear, Lear, and cheers.) To that measure he would
el';rly pointed out, and many of Lord Sligo's amendrne
rts t
Gentleman here alluded to the discrc-
tioaary power veated irt the Governor, but which he could notcibefd
been carried, The Rev.