The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-14 00:00:00

ing.l The rent, and Learned Lord then resumed. Our
whole case rests on that question. Nobody can say that the
negro slave might not safely for himself, and for every one
else, have been emancipated on the Ist of August, 1834. No
man can say that, much more, on the Ist August, 1838, he
might not be emancipated. He has had four years of that
transition state, anti it was unnecessary for hint to have had
four days of it.—( Cheers.) Antigua and Bermuda proved
that to a demenstration ; and what is the nastier I received ?
" Don't you know that in Jamaica, where there are maroonings
and high mountains to which the slaves had run assay, in Antigua
and Bermuda they have nut these means of escape, and we
cannot be sure that they will not run away when we emanci-
pate them." Run away front what ?—( Hear, hear.) From
liberty?_—( Vehement cheering.) Do they suppose that the
negroes arc as silly as themselves—bent down by the yoke of
slavery—made dull by oppression, crippled in his mind as in
his body—in his feeling as in his senses by that chain which
he has dragged with a patience unexampled in the history of
human beings ; his intellect is nevertheless a thousand times
clearer than those who have treated them in the manner that
has been described.—(Hear, hear, hear.) Their argu-
ment, and the only one I have ever heard, is, that
although in Antigua, where there is no room they may not be
able to escape, and therefore it is safe to emancipate
them ; yet in Jamaica where there is a means of escape they
are likely to run away. When? why ? and for what ? The
moment they are made free, they are sure to run away—those
who had never run away from slavery.—(Great cheering.) I
really must say, and I complain of it, that in all the efforts I
have made both in doors and out of doors, I have had to meet
and confront in conflict all the influence a liberal Govern-
ment
could bring against me. (Cheers, and cries of shame.)
I complain of it—l lament it, and I have bitterly felt
its consequences ; but for that we should have carried our
point—but for that the slave's fetters would have dropped off
on the first of August 1838. But of one thing I have no rea-
son (and it is but candid and fair to our antagonists to state
it)—of one thing I have no title to complain-1 have no right
to complain of the strength of the arguments brought by them
against me—(Laughter and cheering)—of the influence cf
knowledge, which is said to be power, and, if so, I have
met wholly impotent antagonists.—( Hear, hear.) With
the force of reasoning, or even the force of fancy, I have had
nothing to contend. A set of weaker--( Hear, hear)—more
respectable—(Laughter)—more impotent—( Renewed laugh-
ter)—more well-meaning, more laughably ludicrous, more
ridiculous and feeble antagonists I have never yet had the lot
to conflict with on ally subject, in any place, in Parliament or
out of doors. —(Great cheering.) Now, then, how stands
the account with the planters? We gave them twenty mil-
lions sterling, expecting that they would lose by the change—
that it would injure their revenues and lower the value of
their estates. Has it done so ?—(Cries of " No, no.") It
has increased the value of their estates. Although I have
asked that question, 1 have got no answer to it, for it is un-
answerable. Though during the next two years, which is all we
pray for, viz., instead of from. Ist of August, 1840, to have them
emancipated on the Ist of August, 1838, though during those
two years there should be a loss to the planters, unless that
loss exceeded twenty millions sterling, we have a right to it,
for they have got their twenty millions.—( Cheers ) No-
body aasvvers that question, and nobody attempts to do it ;
why, then, should we give them the apprenticeship system for
six years at the time we paid them twenty millions? Not
that they had any right to it. 1 have seen it stated in a journal
which purports to give a conversation between a slave-owner and
an Abolitionist, that the Colonial Secretary, is at fault.
I shall say nothing about the Colonial Secretary—personally
he is a most amiable and respectable man, but he is a tool in
the hands of a certain party, and with that party we conflict.—
( Cheers.) With hint all his Colleagues take a part, and
nothing could be more ranklingly unjust than to bestow all the
blame upon him—there is plenty for all—(much laughter)—
and it ought to be divided between him and all his Colleagues
in rateable and just proportions..—(Cheers.) What is the
answer that I have received ? They admit that the negro
will work for hire—that the experiment has succeeded where
it has been tried, viz., that after working the 45i hours per
week for his master, they admit that the apprentice is ready to
work for wages over hours for whoever will pay him, and that
in Antigua and Bermuda the work is perforated as well and
as cheaply as in ally other part of the West India Islands ;
because, instead of the expenses of the plantations being
1,300/. as they were previous to the Emancipation Act of
1834, they were now only 8001., 5001. out of the 1,300/. being
saved by the difference between voluntary and slave labour.
This is admitted by those men, because they cannot deny it...
( Cheers.) What is the consequence? If we had known all
this in 1833, should we ever have dreamt of six years of negro
apprenticeship? No such thing, because we had given twenty
nellions, which we perhaps should not have given—but we
had given that as an insurance against all possible hazard :
and the twenty millions was on account not of the planters'
interest, but of the negro's interest, because they admit that
they have no right to keep them a single hour in chains after
he was fit to be free. It is admitted that he can work for
aire_it is admitted he is peaceful as freemen—it is admitted
we have no right to keep hint in chains for an instant, after he
becomes a peaceful subject, and a free, industrious labourer ;
therefore I ask what right have we to keep him one hour, aye,
one minute longer now that we know these facts—( Cheers)_.
which, if we had known late in 1833, no power or, earth
could have extorted either from the Government of that day,
or from the people of England—such a sound as negro inden-
tured apprenticeship.—( Cheers.) Now I have shortly stated
the case, but though the statement is short, it is perfectly suf-
ficient ; not a word more is required. It is a question of right,
and what is the answer to all this ? Oh, the interest
of the planter is to be looked to. I totally deny it.
—( Hear, and loud cheering.) The interest of the planter
has been too much looked to already. He has had twenty
millions of money for nothing, and he has had four years of
indentured apprenticeship for nothing. The interest of the
negro is to be looked to, and only the interest of the negro.—
( Cheers.) It is a question of right—it is not a question of
policy—it is a question of strict, rigorous, accurate right, and
the negro is wronged if he is kept longer out of it.—( Cheers.)
I think we are now touching upon the extremity of this long
chain—this long chain which he has dragged—as I already said,
and I am sure said justly—more than mercVully, but with
rigorous justice, has dragged with a degree of patience,
long suffering, and forbearance, which no race of human
beings, except the negro were capable of sheaving. I believe
it to be the most patient, the most peaceful, the most long
suffei ing of all the races of the children of men..—( Cheers. )
Every evidence of old time, every evidence of the present
day, all the testimony even of his adversaries and his oppres-
sors, and his revilers, result in this proposition. Now, then,
let us hope that the reign of justice is about to commence, and
if the reign of her Majesty had begun with some such act
as I have now hinted at, being recommended to the Legisla-
ture, and if it has not begun by the very first Order in Council
which that illustrious Princess in her total ignorance of the sub-
ject, of course, was to pass when she came to the throne, being an
Order in Council for reviving the African slave trade—if
instead of that, treaties had been made with those powers
which still devastate that continent with their Slave-trade—
the Portuguese, who carry 40,000 negroes a-year—the
Spaniards, who carry upwards of 30,000—if such treaties had
been made with those foreign powers, as should have put
down that pest and that crime—and if emancipation, only due,
it is said, in 1840, should be accelerated to 1838, I should
have had better hopes, under Providence, of the successes and
glories of this reign.—( Cheers.) But I still venture to hope
that it is not too late—( Continued cheering)—and if the cry
which has gone up to her Majesty of 500,000 of her
white sisters—( Cheers)—in their petition lately pre-
sented to the Throne, and which was signed by that number
of our countrywomen in behalf of their sisters and their
brothersi now in chains—if that shall bend the Royal mind,
and if the voice of the people, which alone can
bend the minds of politicians—(Continued cheering)—
shall produce its due influence upon the Councillors of that
Sovereign, then I may venture to hope, that by deserving, she
and they will obtain the gracious dispensations of a wise and
merciful Providence. If that should happen, then none of us
have lived in vain ; and above all, those venerable persons who
are still permitted to adorn and to strengthen the cause
of humanity in this world—l mean such men as William.
Allen, whom we all know and love—(Cheers)—end Thomas
Clarkson,--(Cheers)—who was the very beginning of this
struggle against slavery and the slave trade, and who it was
that first pointed the attention of the people of England, and
I may say of the whole world upon that monstrous iniquity.
Ile miry be said, notwithstanding the perils by which his
earlier course was surrounded, and notwithstanding the
sufferings which have awaited him in his maturer years,
and notwithstanding those severe losses in 11;s family by
which his cup had been embittered, arid his breast has
been torn, and hie later evenings of life has heen clouded,
he will still be found to rejoice in having lived—in having
been suffered to exist to see the ultimate fruit of his philan-
thropic labours. —( Cheers. )
" As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale aad midway leaves the storm,
Tho' round it's breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on it's head."
The Noble Lord resumed his seat amidst the most en'lmsiastie
cheers.

The Rev. Mr. BUNTING then came forward, Co.,- the purpose
of stating that he had received letters contain'.ng expressions
either of kind acquiescence in the object of the meeting, or
great regret that ill-health or Parliamentary duties had pre-
veted them from attending, from Sir E. \Vilinot, Sir M. Wood,
the Right Hon. Sir P. Shaw, Sir E. Strickland, Mr. Plump-
tre, Lord Dudley Stuart, and Mr. Ward. He had also re-
ceived similar letters from the Rev. Hugh VNiel and the
Rev. Hugh Stowell.—(Cheers.)
WILLIAM ALLEN, Esq., then came forward, amid much
cheering, to propose the first resolution, He could assure
that respectable audience that nothing bu' an imperative sense
of duty would have led him to expose hirfself to the meeting that
day. If he had been at all conseice;,s of what the Chairman
bad been about to utter with resr,ect to him he thought he
should have shrunk from appeari•,ig before them He could
not, however, refrain from ge,ir.g his feeble support, such as
it was, to the exertions of the Noble Chairman, who, from
the beginning of this great struggle, more than thirty years
ago, he had always sum pleading the cause of the African.
—( Cheers.) If the. Act passed by the British Parliament
at the time the 20,000,000/. was paid for the emancipation of
the negroes, if that act had been righteously adhered to in the
Colonies, slavery would have been at an end. Though at
the time that Act was passed, they deplored the article of
negro apprenticeship, yet their hope vas that the system
could not be carried on. Unfortunately, however, that Clause
had worked, and worked badly, and all the efforts of indivi-
duals to prevent it so working, had been ineffectual.—[Here
Mr. O'Connell entered the meeting and was received with the
most enthusiastic cheering, which lasted for some minutes.]-_
After order had been in some measure restored, Mr. Allen
proceeded. He would not detain the meeting with many
more observations because he was very well assured, that
those that were to follow him, were a thousand ti.nes better
calculated to further the great and noble cause, they were met
to advance. He felt convinced that it would be ia vain for the