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

and changed to mulcts of time. Mr. Gladstone forgot to
I mention that in the House of Commons (hear, and cheers).
lln plantation Rome, in the colony of Demerara,
the proprietor was a Mr. Hindman, who stood
very high in the estimation of the religious world.
The special justice of the district was on one occasion in-
vited by his manager to a late breakfast. He came, and
after breakfast, heated perhaps with wine, a large number of
negroes were brought before him, and he ordered no less than
twenty of them to receive the lash (cries of shame, and
hisses). As soon as the fact came to the knowledge of the
governor, the late Sir James Carmichael Smith, he said
" this is too bad ; I must in future make them report
to me, and see if I cannot diminish the amount."
lie ( Mr. Scobel) had these facts from the lips of the late
Governor himself—( Cheers)—and the date of the circular
shelved that it was six weeks after his arrival in the colony.
He felt that he should be tedious if he were to detain the
meeting any longer.--( Great cheers, and cries of " Go on.")
He would make one observation on the wretched and
degraded condition of the women of that colony, and
he must say that if anything affected him more deeply
than another it was their wretched and degraded condition
Ile found that under the apprenticeship law all the immunities
and privileges in their favour which existed under the slave
law had been withdrawn. He found that all the laws and re-
gulations relativo to women who were anticipating their con-
finement, aged neeresses, and young children, which regu-
lated the amount of their time and labour, had been withdrawn,
and that the women, whatever were their circumstances
were compelled to work as many hours as the
most athletic man in the gang_( Hear)—and that
nursing women with children at the breast were compelled tr
do as much work as the ablest and stoutest men in the gang,
(great hissing, and cries of shame). He could go into details
that would make their ears tingle and the blood in their
hearts throb with indignation--he could tell them of scenes of
the most atrocious nature, which had never been mentioned to
British ears, and which he had felt scrupulous to mention even
to his private friends (hear, hear.) There were a few state-
ments he felt it necessary on the present occasion to relate.
On one sabbath he met at a mission station an intelligent ne-
gro and his wife. The man held the highest situation on the
plantation under the manager. He was trustworthy, and could
read and write, and was a member of a Christian church, a
deacon belonging to a mission Church. His wife was also a
member of some religious community. How was that woman
treated at a period when she needed all the solicitude and
kindness and attention of her master? She was driven to the
field with the rest of the gang, day after day,
—not being able to sustain the toil she applied for some re-
laxation to the driver. She said " You see my situation—
vou know my condition, let me retire if but for a little time.
I am ill, my skin pains me all over (an expression used by the
negroes to denote extreme suffering) let me go to the watch-
man's hut." What was his reply? " No—l dare not do it."
The woman then entreated that her husband, who was in the next
field should be sent for. lie came,and appealed tot he driver on her
behalf to be permitted to lie down for even a little time in the
watchman's hut, and he did not appeal in vain, for the driver
was not able to withstand it. The woman was permitted to
go to the hut, but it was not long before the overseer came,
and Isis first enquiry was for Susey (for that was the woman's
name), and he ascertained that she had gone to lay down in
the watchman's but. He went to the hut where she was
lying prostrate, and asked what was the matter, and she
answered—" Massa me no able to work any longer." What was
his reply." Go to work or you must go to prison." She could
not go to work, and she was taken by the constable imme-
diately to prison, and there locked up in that part of it called
the Sore-foot-room. In that apartment the only persons were
an old negress covered with sores, and a young girl. Two
hours after being locked up she gave birth to an infant, and for
three succeeding hours she was left without the slightest as-
sistance.—( Shame, shame.) He bad seen the woman, with
her husband and the child, when she brought it to a Chris-
tian minister in order to receive Christian baptism.—( Hear. )
Might he be permitted to mention the name of the estate, if
he was not permitted to mention the name of the individual—
the estate was called Breedam Hope.—(Groans, hisses, and
cries of " Gladstone.")
A Mr. ROWEN, who said that he was a planter of Demerara,
here stood up, and said that the statement of Mr. Scobel was
false. This was followed by great confusion, and cries of
" Turn him out."
Mr. SCOBEL resumed. He was used to that kind of
languege, and be would tell them more, he cared not
for it.—(Hear, hear, and great cheering.) He felt that he
would not be dohs.- his duty to the negroes if he did not bring
out those facts before the meeting, and the few ho had stated
must stand for many which had come under his own observa-
tion, that gentleman's testimony to the contrary notwithstand-
ing.—(Great laughter and cheering.) In consequence of the
severe treatment of the women a great mortality had taken
place among the free children. Yes, the mortality was very great.
He had gone over not less than 17 estates, and he had found
that there were over 1,300 males and 1,200 females, and yet
only 319 children under 9 years of age. Would that gen-
tleman tell the meetinr, how that had come to pass?—
( Hear.) He would adefurther, that right-minded people in
the colony of Demerara were alarmed at the decrease in the
free children, and some said that there would be a wide gap
in 1810 in the population, unless the people of England
interposed, and put an end to the apprenticeship system.
Never did so many children die under the old as under
the cursed apprenticeship system. Formerly they were
better treated because planters had an interest in the human
cattle bred on his estate, and therefore he took care of the
mother for the sake of her offspring. Now the children
were free, and he no longer had an interest in the matter,
and by a rigid interpetation of the law, and a rigid applica-
tion of its enactments, they extracted from nursing, and
pregnant, and aged women, as much labour as they possibly
co ild. Among the plantations to which he had referred, in
reference to population, there was one that lie would nary.°
end give them the relative proportions. It was plantation
Wales.—( Hear.) He found there 130 males, 102 females,
and 29 children under nine years of age. There was one
other point to which he wished to direct their attention, and
that was the treatment of the sick. He had been very much
entertained by reading at New York the eviden a of a Judge
Willis as to the care taken of the sick in the sick houses.
He ( Mr. Scoble) questioned much whether Mr. Willis
had ever visited a sick house in his life.—( Hear, hear.)
He ( Mr. Scoble) had visited them, and was prepared to
give a description of them. He had already given one at
Exeter Hall which may be seen in his printed speech ; and
let any one contradict it who could.—(Cheers.) But be would
mention what he saw at another plantation, called Nemus,
where there was a very fine sickhouse, but where the care of
the sick was anything but what it ought to he. On a low
floor, lying on the bare ground, he had found locked up A
black man and a •black woman, and, in an upper part
of the sickhouse he found, under the roof, and without light,
a negro incarcerated who had sores, and it was by mere acci-
dent it came to light. There he had found him, a miserable
object, squatted and wretched, and wanting, in many instances
the mere necessaries of life, and there, his friends were not al-
lowed to bring him the supplies his master refused him. In
another sick house, he had found incarcerated in a small apart-
ment (where there were raised boards for 7 persons) 15 discus -el
individuals—seven lying at the foot, and one under the boards,
Yet these wretched beings were locked up from night till morrea
ing, and from morning till night, with only a short interval in
the latter part of the day for cleansing the apartment. He
found among that mass of misery indi% ideals with contagious
disease;, and the usual amount of food the convalescent were
allowed was five or six cold boiled plantains. There was no
wine—none of those luxuries which they had been told were
so liberally dispensed to the sick; and, by the 'eye, a
curious discovery on tl,at point was made, for it was
ascertained that the wine, which came duty free
for the sick, found its way scomehor to the planters
ruble, and the Governor then thought it fit that the duty should
be charged upon all. They found one poor fellow who was in
a state of salivation, and who complained that he could not eat
the cold boiled plantains, which was the only food they allowed
him. If it had not been for the opportune visit of the Specie.
Justice, he knew not whether the man's life would not have been
forfeited to the carelessness and inhumanity of the sick- house
overseers.—( Shame, shame.) Perhaps some one might ask
was there not a place where the contagious might he lodged?
—Yes, there were several, but in the British Colonies sick-
ness was a crime, and consequently every sick-house was a
prison. He called upon them, in conclusion, to do justice to
their principles as men, as Christians, and as Englishmen, by
doing justice to the Negroes ; and let them put down at once
and for ever, the power of the planter to persecute and prac-
tice frauds and cruelties upon the Negroes.—( Loud and ges
neral cheering.) The resolution was then put and carried
unanimously.
The Rev. Ikon I‘PNEII.. came forward to move the next
resolution, and was very cordially received. He came forward
with pleasure in proportion to the intensity of his hatred of
cruelty and oppression, to move the next resolution. At that
late hour he would not attempt to add much to what had
been already so ably stated with respect to the provi-
sions of the Abolition Act having been flagrantly violated.
He would not allude to what had been said by the preceding
speakers, further than to say that he was in the habit of sepa-
rating the !inner from his sin—that he distinguished those
persons who were unhappily mixed up in such transactions
from the crime itself, in obedience to the dictates of Him who
had said, " as far as the east is from the west, so far shall I
eut thy sin from thee."—(Cheers.) So much had been said of
the contract and its violation, that it was difficult to put it in
a novel shape. But he would assert that the breach of con-
tract was on the part of the planters, and that they had not
entitled themselves to the liberal compensation which the Bri-
tish nation bad awarded thern.—( Hear, bear.) It ap-
peared from statements on the authority of Lord Sligo and
Lord Glenelg, that on the most trifling grounds, the
apprentices were removed from the protection of British
law by being sent to the workhouses, where the special justices
were not allowed to visit them.—( Shame.) That was a fla
grant violation of the provisions of the Abolition Act. Every
man who sanctioned such proceedings by his silence—every
man who refrained from protesting against the system, was
actually partieeps criminis.—( Hear, hear.) It was asserted
that if the abolition of the apprenticeship system took
place, property would be materially deteriorated in its value,
because the negroes would not work. But had not these men
received ample compensation fur the time of the negroes ?
( Hear, bear, ) They had heard of a finer hant—not a mer-
chant of Liverpool, or of Guiana—but a merchant of Venice,
and it would appear as if, like the Jew in that play, the
planters were determined to have the full amount of their
bond, —( Loud cries of " Hear, hear," arid laughter. )
If they had nothing but insult, and injury, and fraud, against
the British nation to complain of, he might bear it all, but
when the oppressed and unhappy negroes were made the vic-
tims, lie for one could no longer submit to it.—(Vehement
cheering.) Ile regretted that there should bo any division
among the people Qf Qrcilt. tiritain upon such a subject—he