The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-08 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY DIVISION.

EDINBOI?G/I AIV.b GLASGOW RAILWAY
BILL.
(From the Votes and Prottidiiigs of the Honig of Commons.)

MONDAY, Ittiiir 7.
Read third time ; Clause granting Compentatitiri id the Trustees
of the Stirling Roads, brought up, and read a first tithe Motion
made and Question proposed, " That the clause be now read a second
time :"—Debate arising, Motion made, and Question put, " That
the Debate be adjourned till Thursday :"—The House divided :

AIINORITY—AYES, 57.
Atwood, W.—Greenwich Maunsell, T. P —Northamptr,nshire
Barnard, E. G.—Greenwich Miles, William—Somersetshire
Bewes, T —Plymouth Mordaunt, Sir John—Warwickshire
Blewitt, Reginald—Monmouth Owen, Sir J.—Pembrokeshire
'trotherton, J.—Salford Parker, Montagu—Devon
C trtwright, Wm. R.—South Nor- Parker, R. T.—Preston
thamptonshire Patten, J.'Wilson—Lancashire
Codrington, C. W.—Gloucestershire'Praed, W M —Aylesbury
Cole, Viscount—Fermanagh Pringle, A lexander—Selkirksh ire
Crompton, S.—Thirsk Round, C. G.—Essex
Douml,s. Sir C. G.—Warwick Round. John—Maldon
-nunt—Southampton shaw, Rt. I Ton. F.—Dublin Univer.
Duncit-ii, VTs.
mindas Hon. T.--.....ichmond Sheppard, Tho-nas—Frome
"
Eliot, hon. J. E.—Roxbu:,:hshire I:snrclair, Sir G.—Caithness-shire
Evans, William—North Derby Somerset, Lord G.—Monmouthshire
Filmer, Sir E.—West Kent g-insfield, W. R. C.-Huddersfield
Freshfield, J. W.—Penryn Style, :j.!r Charles—Scarborough.
Gaskell, Jas. M.—Wenlock Sugden, Sir f —Ripon
Gore, Ormsby—Salop lennent, J. E.—Oelfist .
Goring, H. D.—New Shoreham Thomson, Right Hofi. C. P.—Man.
Greene, Thomas—Lancaster chester
Hale, B. R.—Gloucestershire Trevor, Hon. G. R.—Caermarthensh
Hodgson, Rd.—Berwick-on-Tweed: Turner, \V.—Blackburn
Hughes, W. B.—Carnarvon Vere, Sir C. B.—East Suffolk
Ingham, R. -South Shields Williams, T. Peers—Marlow
Inglis, Sir R. H.--Oxford University Wynn, Right Hon. C. W.—Mon
Jackson, Mr. Serj.—Bandon Bridge gomcryshire
Kelly, Fitzroy—lpswich.
Loch, James—Kirkwall
Mackenzie, Thomas—Ross-shire
Manners, ord C. s.—Leicestershi

TELLERS.
Graham, Sir James—Pembroke
Sibthorp, Colonel—Lincoln

MAJORITY—NOES, 1:0
Abercromby, G. R. —Stirlingshire 1 I Lygon, Hon. Colonel H. B.—West
Adare, Lord—Glamorganshire Worcestershire
Ainsworth, P.—Bolton Lynch, A. H.—Galway
Alsager, IL—Surrey Mackenzie, W. F.—Pecblesshire
Archbold, 'Robert—Kildare McLeod, IL—lnverness
Bailey, Joseph—Worcester McNamara, Maj. W. N.—Clare Co.
Bailey, J. D.—Sudbury Maher, Jno.— Wexford Co.
Sannerrnan, A.—Aberdeen Marshall, Wm.—Carlisle
Barneby, JOhi ...Worcestershire Marton, Oeo.—Lar.caster
Bcamish, F. 13.. ..Cork Mauls, Hon. Fox—Elgin Burghs
Blackburne, I. J.—Watrin,”on Meynell, Captain H.—Lisburne
131akemore, Richard—WClA Milton, Lord—Malton
Bolling, W.—Bolton Nagle, Sir IL—Wecmcath
13rabazon, Sir William—Mayo Co. O'Connell, Daniel—Dublin
I3roadley, Henry—East Yorkshire O'Connell, John—Athlone
Brocklehurst, J.—Macclesfield O'Connell, lit J.—Kerry
Browne, It. D.—Mayo O'Connell, Morgan—Meath
Busfield, W.—Bradford O'Connell, Maurice—Tralee
Butler, Hon. P.—Kilkenny Co O'Neill, Hon. J. 13. R.—Antrim
Clerk, Sir G.—Stamford Pakington, J. S.—Droitwich
Conolly, Edward M.—Donegal Pechell, Captain—Brighton
Courtenay, P.—Bridgewater Peel, Right Hon. Sir R.—Tamworth
Craig, W. G.—Edinburghshire Pendarves, E. W.—W. Cornwall
Crawford, W.—London Perceval, Colonel—Sligo Co.
Dalmeny, Lord—Stirling Philips, Mark—Manchestor
Denistoun, J.—Glasgow Ponsonby, C. F. A. C.—Poele
De Horsey, S. H.—Newcastle-under Power, James—Wexford Co.
Lyme: Pryme, George—Cambridge
D'lsraeii, B.—Maidstone Rae, Right Hon. Sir Wm.—Bute
Divett, Edward—Exeter Redington, T. N.—Dundalk
Dunbar, George—Belfast Richards, Richard—Merionethshire
Duncombe, T. S.—Finsbury Roche, William—Limerick
Pundits, C. W. D.—Flint Rushout, George Bowles—Evesham
Eastnor, Viscount—Reigate St. Paul, Horace— Worcestershire
Ebrington, Viscount—N. Devon Saddon, Lord—Liverpool
Edwards, John—Montgomery Sanford, E. A.—Somersetshire
E lice, Capt. A.—Harwich Scholefield, J.—Birmingham
Waits, G.—Dublin County Smyth, Sir G. H.—Colchester
Feet( a', James Minet—Maidstone Somers, J. P.—Sligo
Ferguson, Sir 11. C.—Nottingham Steuart, Robert—Haddington
Ferguson, Sir R. A.—Londonderry Stewart, James—Honiton
Fergusson, Right Hon. R. C.—Kirk- Strickland, Sir G.—West Yorkshire
cudbright Stuart, Henry—Bedford
Fitzroy, Lord C.—Bury St. Edm. Stuart, Lord J.—Ayr
French, Fitzstephcn—Roscommon Stuart, Villiers—Waterford Co.
Gillon, Wm. D.—Linlithgow Thornely, Thos.—Wolverhampton
Glynne, Sir S. R.—Flintshire Troubridge, Sir T. E.--Sandwich
Grimsditch, T.—Macclesfield Turner, Edmund—Truro
Harvey, D. W.—Southwark Verner, William—Armagh Co.
Hastie, Archibald—Paisley Vigors, N. A.—Carlow Co.
Hawes, Benjamin—Lambeth Villiers, C. P.—Wolverhampton
Hawkes, Thomas—Dudley Wakley, Thomas- Finsbury
Hayter, W. G.—Wells Walker, IL—Bury, Lancashire
Hector, C. J.—Petersfield Wall, C. Baring—Guildford
Hill, Lord A. M. C.—Evesham Wallace, Robert—Greenock
Hoskins, K.—Herefordshire White, Andrew—Sunderland
Houldswortt, T.—Nottinghamshire White, Luke—Longford
Houston, G. J.—Renfrewshire Wilbraham, George —Cheshire
Howard, P. H.—Carlisle Wilmot, Sir J. E.—Warwickshire
Irving, John—Antrim Co. Winnington, T. E.—Bewdley
James, William... Cumberland Wood, Sir Matthew—London
Johnson, W. Augustus—Oldham Wood, G. W.—Kendal
Jones, John—Carmartt2enshire Wrightson, W. B.—Northallerton
Kemble, H.—West Surrey Yates, J. Ashton—r2arlow
Lambton, a—Nor th Durham
Lemon, Sir Charles—West Cornwall
Lister, E.! CunlitTe—Bradford
Lockhart, A. M.—Lanarkshire

TELLERS.
Campbell, Sir John—Edinburgh
Bentinck, Lord W —Glasgow

CHURCH EXTENSION IN SCOTLAND.-A pub-
lic meeting was held 4Yestertlay at the Freemasons' Tavern, for the pur-
pose of hearing the Scotch deputation address the English supporters of
the Church on the necessity of extending the machinery of the esta-
blishment in Scotland. Dr. Chalmers was moved to the Chair, after
which'Dr. Henderson, of Glasgow, Dr. Glass, from the Isle of Skye, and
Dr. Gordon, of Aberdeen, severally addressed the meeting. The Rev.
Mr. Munroe, Colonel Grant, Messrs. A. Pownall and J. Labouchere
moved and seconded a series of resolutions in favour of the extension of
Church accommodation in Scotland. Doctor Chalmers closed the pro.
ceedings by alluding to the inefficiency of the Dissenting Churches in
Scotland, by proving, from the fact of so many sittings in the Churches
being disengaged, the necessity for new Churches, and by calling on the
Government to endow Churches, as the only security for religion, and
the surest protection against vice and immorality.

CHURCH EXTENSION.—A public meeting of the
friends of Church Extension was held on Friday in the Assembly Rooms,
Edinburgh, for the purpose of adopting resolutions, to be transmitted
to Government, in favour of the endowment of additional places of wor-
ship in large towns. The Scotsman, speaking of this meeting, says—
" The only two speeches of any importance, were those of the Rev. Mr.
Guthrie and Mr. James Moncricif, advocate ; and two more miserable
exhibitions we have seldom met with. The former gentleman we never
saw, and as he has never or rarely appeared in the field of controversy,
we certainly had no prejudice against him. Judging from his oratory
on Friday, we would say that his intelect is of the narrowest descrip.
tion, that his self_conceit is only matched by his ignorance, and that he
only fit to address an audience of Hottentots. Mr. Moncreiff, who is
yet a very young man, has some reputation for talent, and it does as-
tonish us to see how many wretched fallacies he put forth, and how piti.
fully he first begs the question, by imputing to the Voluntaries opinions
they never held, and then triumphs over the demolition of a phantom
which is the work of his own hands. The remark applies equally to Dr
Chalmers, whose magniloquent sophisms some of the London papers
take the trouble to report."

SINGULAR DECEPTION OF A MUTINEER.—
One of them pretended to be an idiot, and had so far succeeded in de-
ceiving the officers, that he was not put in irons like the rest, but
merely placed under the charge of the centinel at the cabin-door,
where his apparently insane and unmeaning gestures excited the mirth
of all but Lord St. Vincent, who immediately read him through and
through, and said to him, " I am very much mistaken, if you are not
the greatest villain of the whole." The man kept up his disguise until
the trial, and even before the Court; but when, in the course of
the investigation, some startling facts were elicited, three of
the prisoners fell down on their knees and implored for mercy.
From that moment, the seeming madmsn shook of all dissi-
mulation, and resumicg his true character, astonished the
Court with his animated countenance, and keenly reproached his ac-
complices for their meanness and pusillanimity. " For shame!" he
said, " is this the way you give yourselves up ?" and then addressing
the President, he said, "Sir, I wish to cross-examine that witness."
This he did with the greatest ability, and the most remarkable acuteness
of observation. In fact, lie proved himself to be a man of superior
talent and education, and fully bore out the observations of Mr. I'itt,
before referred to, he having been selected from among the rebellion
Irish to enter as volunteer into the navy, in order to sow the seeds of re'
hellion and mutiny in the fleet, or in any regiment to which he mighi
gain access.—Trenton's Life ofSt. Vincent.
In our obituary of this week will be found recorded
the demise of an individual whose name is not " unknown to fame" in
Westmoreland, and is " familiar as a household word" in our good town
of Kendal. We allude to James or Jimmy Wiggins, once " poet lau-
reate" to the Blues, and a noted enthusiast in the cause of Mr. Henry
Brougham, that was, during his contest for this county. Whether
Jimmy's penetration into the arcana of Vv'hig-Iladical politics was
quickened in his latter years; whether he felt the keen edge of disap-
pointment when allowed to retire from the political arena without the
" big loaf" promised him, in common with others, before the Ex-Chan-
cellor retired upon his annual pension of 5,0001. ; or whether he was
soured on account of his literary productions meeting no remunerating
patronage from the great father of the society for the diffbsion of Useless
Knowledge, is not ours to divine; but certain it is that, the poet and
orator—for Jimmy has thundered with the os rotundans from our forum,
" itcrum, iterusn, itertunque"—for some time before his death expressed
the most poignant regret that he had ever acquired a laurel in the cause
of liberalism.—Westmoreland Gazette.

STAINES, MAY 4.—The quiet village of Stan-
well, near this town, was last Sunday morning nearly the subject of an
awful conflagration. Between three and four in the morning the house.
keeper of Mr. Samuel Stevens, farmer, was awoke by the appearance of
tire. On going to the window she perceived the litter covering the farm-
yard one sheet of flame. The homestead is situated in the centre of the
village. She immediately alarmed Mr. Stevens, who, without loss of
time, called up his men servants. Fortunately, other inhabitants of the
village were alarmed by the same appearance, and the promptitude with
which they rendered their assistance is beyond all praise; they were all
workmen, and not lookers-on, and in less than an hour the fire was ex-
tinguished by means of buckets and a plentiful supply of water from a
pond close at hand. In the event of the fire gaining ground the conse-
queaces must have been most calamitous; the greater part of the
village must have been destroyed. The fire had burnt through the sides
of a barn, and the wood is actually charred to within two feet of a con.
tinuous line of thatched buildings, upwards of 100 feet in extent. The
extreme dryness of the thatch, straw, &c., and conti:;uity to equally
combustible buildings, and the wind setting in a direction to continue
the mischief, gives rise to an involuntary shudder on contemplating the
result. There has hitherto been no clue as to the manner in which the
fire originated.—Windsor Express.
On Saturday morning, about half-past one o'clock,
as Police Constab'e, John Davis, No. 192, of the T. Division, was pro.
seeding on duty along Albany-street, he discovered a female lying on the
pavement writhing in agony. It was evident the poor creature was
suddenly taken in labour, and the policeman having procured the assis.
tance of a female passing by, repaired to the Station.bouse in Little
Albany-street, and procured the stretcher, on which she was conveyed
to the University College Hospital, and was in the act of being carried
into the Hall when she gave birth to a fine boy, which is now doing well
The mother, we regret to state, is considered in great danger. Her
name is Margaret Morris, aged 28 years, and she had travelled up. front
Shropshire in search of her husband.

The Moniteur Parisien states that the man who
shot himself a few days ago in a pistol-shooting ground, near Menilmon_
taut, did so from remorse at having changed his religion. lie had paid
his addresses some years ago to a widow of the Jewish religion, but only
gained her hand on condition of abandoning the Catholic faith for hers.
This had ever since preyed on his mind ; and when their first child was
born, he had promised his mother that it should be baptized a Christian.
His wife, however, would not consent to this, and the ini-,,•

cumcized. The same day the unhappy father e•
tern to his wife and mother, informic,
of this sad resolution, which I,

On Wednes'i

man was walk;

way, on hi

train of
the ror
,ror

/ 77 ,

ANTI-SLAVERY I'EETING AT

INIANCHESTEIL

(Abridged from the Manchester Guardiet)
In compiiance with a requisition, signed by
upwards of .250 firms and
individuals, the boroughreeve and constables, convened a public fleet-
ing of the inhabitants of Manchester, to be held on Thursday
wire-nine;
last, in the large room of the Town Hall, " to take into coesideratiore
the propriety of petitioning Parliament, for the immediate, entire, and,.
Utiquidified abolition of the system of negro apprenticeship in the British,
coloriteS; and of adopting such measures as may lead to the attainment
of that important object." Shortly after eleven o'clock, the borough-
reeve and Mr. Ferguson, accompanied by a number of gentlemen of the
Committee of the Antl-slavery Society in this town, took their places
on the platform; amongst them were the Revs. Wm. Marsden, Wm.
Nunn, J. A. Coombs, James Griffin, J. Gwyther, Wm. M`Kerrow, John
Aldis, F. A. West, and Messrs. J. C. Dyer, C. J. S. Walker, Thomas
Harbottle, Samuel Stocks, Thomas Townend, Isaac Crewdson, James
Wood, John Scoble, Fowden, &c. John Brown, Esq., borough'.
reeve of Manchester, was called to the chair.
Mr. James Woon, in moving the first resolution, said, that the
Chairman was not the first boroughreeve of Manchester who had done-
himself honour by convening a town's meeting to consider the claims of
the negro. He believed Manchester was the first town in the then
King's dominions to call and hold a meeting to petition Parliament to
put a stop to that disgraceful and diabolical system, the slave trade. He
had been adverse for a long time to the agitation of this question, con.
ceiving that a number of the statements which he had heard were highly
coloured, and had much lack of truth. He was now bound to say that
he had been most awfully mistaken, and that his views had undergone,
within the last few weeks, or at all events months, a most serious
change indeed. These convictions had not been produced by very alight
evidence. it was enough to rouse the feelings of the whole nation from;
one end to the e.ther, to think that, after the country had paid twenty
millions of money, tine colonial authorities should turn round upon us
after taking our money, And give us no quid pro quo, He concluded
by moving the resolution.
The Rev. J. A. Coombs, of Salford, seconded the resolution, am-1 said
that as a minister of religion he felt thankful for this opportunity of
raising a feeble voice, if but for a moment, in opposition to, and denun-
ciation of, that which the God whom they served in common must regard
with infinite detestation. We had paid, to the lasting honour of•
Great Britain, some twenty millions of intoey ; but where was the jewel
for which we paid so enormous a price—the jewel of " liberty to the
captive," and of " the opening of the prison to them that are bound ?"
That jewel has been most unrighteously withheld. We needed no fur-
ther confirmation of this fact, than the admission of Lord Glenelg.
His Lordship had introduced a Bill, which, with all his (Mr. (;:Oembee)
respect for the law of the land, he was compelled to say, while profess.
edly aiming to improve the condition of the apprentice, was a cheat and
a mockery, and an unjust and impracticable measure. We disclaimed
and denounced it as a mere waste of legislation, and as a mockery of the
negro's woes—as a vain attempt to regulate and patch up a system
which was essentially and enduringly unjust. They were, therefore,
met this day to demand a measure annihilating, at once and for ever, the
unrighteous dominion of the white man over the black man.—(Cheers.)
Entire and prompt emancipation, they maintained, was as politic to the
enslaver as it was just to the enslaved.
EDWARD NIGHLINGALE here came forward and said, he had an amend-
ment to propose. Mr. Nightingale proceeded amidst appeals on the
point of order to the chair, and, despite the remonstrances of the bo.
roughreeve, to give, what he called, his proofs of white slavery, which
consisted in g series of statements as to the wages, clothing, and food of
the working population in the district of Colne, of the Spitalfields
weavers; of some. 12,000 persons in the county of Mayo, whose case he
gave to the meetireg on the authority of a newspaper report of Mr. John
Fielden's speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening last.
The CHAIRMAN then oatthe first resolution, which was carried by a
very large majority; only two or three score of individuals raising
their hands against it.
Mr. Scouts then addressed the me;ting with much ability, and at
great length. He said the abolitionists found themselves involved at
this moment in a position of considerable dAeulty; for they saw ar.
rayed against them at this time the leaders of the great political sec.
tions in the country—a fact which proves that this was not a party
question. Sir Robert Peel as the head of the Conservatives, Lord
John Russell as the head of the Whig party, and Alr. Joseph Hume
as the head of the Radical party—were arrayed against:- the freedem
of the negro in the House of Commons, when Sir George .strickland
contended for that freedom. Much had been said about there being a
contract ; but the British Legislature could not legally make A con.
tract; they could only enact laws, and give power to the executive
for carrying them into effect. Those laws might be resisted, bui it
was at the peril of incurring the penalties attached to their violation.
He believed with Mr. Nightingale, that if the people of England had
been consulted individually about the twenty millions, not one penny,
of it would have been paid. Even Lord Sleaford, the leader of the
West Indian party in the House of Lords, repudiated the idea of a con.
tract; while the leader of that party in the House of Commons, Mr.
Gladstone, asserted the existence cf such a contract. He (Mr. Scoble)
would not advert to Jamaica; for the question as to that colony had been
completely set at rest by Lord Glenclg's Bill, and by the admission of
Sir Edward Sugden, that, supposing the existence of such a contract, it
had been most shamefully and flagrantly violate(' in Jamaica. By way
of specimen of the working of the apprenticeship system, and of the con-
dition of the negro in the colonies, he would direct the attention of the
ineeglng to the Mauritius, to Barbadoes, and to British Guiana. Mr. Scoble
then en.'ered into a great variety of details as to Mauritius, the felon
planters 01' which colony, he said, who by the law of England would be
doomed to an ;,enominious death, for keeping 50.000 negroes in chains
who were entitled to be free on the Ist of August, 1834, had actually
received not less than two millions of British money in compepsation.
The twenty-one pints per weekly, of farinaceous food, under the
old system, had been reduced six pints weekly under the apprentice..
ship system, in flagrant violation , ;fthe imperial statute. In the short
period of eleven months he found, by tabular statements which he had
drawn himself from Parliamentary pa,.,ers, no fewer than 14,371 ne.
groes, out of a population of 54,000, wesle punished by flogging or
otherwise; 7,304 received 135,124 lashes, and 7,067 were punished
otherwise in various ways ; so that one in every
.eight of all the la-
bouring population of that colony were flogged, and one jn every four
was subjected to flogging or otherwise, to extort labour and enforce su.
bordination. With the lapse of the apprenticeship, there wai An accu.
mutation of physical torture and degradation,—and increase of Pu-
nishments in that colony of, more than 100 per cent. Here, then, WAS
a clue to that vast decrease in the population of that eoiellY.
which had been so frequently complained of. Next, as 10
Barbadoes, which had always claimed for itself a name for hu-
manity before all other colonial.--( Hear, hear, hear.) After showing
that the planters deprived the negroes of their own time to a great ex-
tent, he stated that in Barbadoes the flogging of females was continued
in the workhouses and tread-mills. Women were tied by ligatures to
the mill for a period of twelve hours together, without being allowed to
come off; one of the women actually perished on the mill, and several
others died in consequence of the dreadful treatment to which they
were subjected in one of the workhouses; and the inquest of planters
who sat upon these murdered females returned a verdict of "died by the
visitation of God."—Nay, when the executive of the colony endeavoured
to bring the parties guilty of these murders to justice, the grand juries be-
fore whom the bills were preferred ignored every one of them ; and that
had beets the case with respect to every murder perpetrated in Jamaica
since the Ist of August, 1834. Why, then, should we trust any longer,
in the hand: of men such as these, the destinies of 800,000 of our fellow_
creatures ? Mr. Scoble described his visit to a gaol in Barbadoes, where he
found 110 negroes incarcerated in one small room 25 feet by 20 feet ; and
on the tread-mill he found twelve men obliged to take SO steps its
the minute, the rate of tread-mills in England being only 48 to 50 steps
per minute. The second time he visited this mill, he found 12 women
upon it; one a mulatto about 30 years old, who, being so exhausted
that she was unable to keep step, a negro or; the platform above the
wheel seized her by the wrists, and held her over the wheel suspended
in such a position, that as the wheel revolved, the steps shattered her
knees and legs in the most horrid manner, her blood marking the steps,
and during this torture the whip was applied to her person from the
nape of the neck to the plant of the foot, she moaning most piteously for
mercy. At length her hand dropped upon her shoulder, And she fell
into a state of complete insensibility; but she was still held in that posi-
tion till the spell of the negroes on the wheel was done.—(shame.) He
mentioned a similar case of a black girl of 18 years, and said that-the
people of England were yet told that the apprenticeship system was
working well in Barbadoes. But he would pass to British Guiana, the
pet colony of the colonial office and the planters. 1 t was on the cast
coast of South America, comprehending indeed the three colonies of
Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice ; and was the most splendid of our
slave colonies, being calculated to sustain a population of 3,000,000. The
planters were bound by the act to make a faithful return of the slaves, di-
vided into two classes, predials and non-predials; but he found, during
his residence in these colonies, that upon every plantation the slaves of
every class were all regarded as predials, by which perjury thousands had
been robbed of their liberties for a period of two years. And let it not
be supposed that the estates of Mr. Gladstone were free from these
charges; for all the domestic slaves on his estates had beef: regarded as
predials. He hoped that, at all events, Mr. Gladstone would do justice
to the non.predials, and say, " Let them go free from the Ist of Au_
gust," if he still retained his grasp upon the predials on his plantations.
There had been a most fearful waste of life in this colony, exhibiting a
decrease of 23,000 some hundreds in fifteen years, in a population which
slid not amount in 1817 io more than 110,000 negroes ; and this de-
crease was over and above ail the births. It was the intention of the
Legislature that the negroes shos:lol work for the planters 45 hours a-week,
viz.:—five days of nine hours tach, and that they should have the Se.
turday to themselves; but the planters :2 :id scattered the 45 hours over
the six days, and thus robbed the negroes of their Saturday, and they
were actually working them as many hours trts.'klY now as during she.
very. The allowance in slavery of twenty-one pin:: of farinaceous food
weekly had been reduced to ten pints, and all ti;f-' free children
(there were 10,000 in this colony) had been thrown upon their parents
for support. Formerly, a slave family of five persons was entitled to
receive 72 pinta of this food in this colony ; now, supposing all the five
to be apprentices, their allowance was only 35 pints; if one of Went
was free, only no ; if two, only 25. He found the punishments
flitted on the slave population in British Guiana were 11 per cent., and
that the balance in this respect was actually in favour of Jamaica. But
much had been said in Parliament in praise of the hospitals for Pick lie.
groes, the attention paid them, and the wine, &c. with which they were
supplied if they needed it. He would give an instance of these sick
'lenses, which had come under his own eyes, in British Guiana. He
visited, in company with a special justice, a very large estate on the side
of the Demerara river, supposed to be one of the finest estates on that
side of the river. In one apartment they found 16 men lying or sitting
upon raised boards, without mat or mattress, or covering of any kind,
save the clothes which they wore when they entered : and in one
niche was a dying negro, in a state of delirium. All these were
locked up together during the whole of the twenty-four hours.
One of these negroes complained to the justice, that they
only allowed him a little rice in a cailtsesh, and would not let
his friends give him any better food. In Another room they
found an equal number of women, all of them suffering frein diseases;
but he particularly noticed one female, emaciated, worn to a skeleton by
disease, resting with her back to one of the iised boards on which the
other females were lying, and looking the very picture of despair. id
one arm she had a little infant, and in the other hand she held a calibash
with a small quantity of cold rice in it. When the justice asked the
females, " Have you any thing to, say tome ?" She exclaimed, " Yes,
Massa," pointing to her withered bosom, " You see me no able to give
pickaninny any thing. Me brought plaint ain powder to make pap for
pickaninny in sick house ; but overseer took it away, and pickaninny no
able to eat cold boiled rice. "—(Shame !) Mr. 6' ladsone talked to us of
the wine and other delicious things given to the negroes in sick houses;
but the scene just described, he (Mr. Scale) saw in out of Mr. Glad.
stone's own plantations--(Shame) —the plantation Wales, in the dis.
triet Demerara. He could give the meeting many other peal -sitars
respecting the sick houses or that gentleman ; he could tell them of the
cruelties p4petrated upon his estate; he could, in short, confute
all `' - '"aolstone had made in the
'a in British