The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-22 00:00:00

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

Yesterday a General Meeting of the Members
of this Society took place at Freemasons' Tavern, for the pur-
pose of petitioning Parliament to adopt measures for the aboli-
don of slavery in the British Colonies. The Meeting was very
numerously attended by persons of both sexes.
Mr. WILBWORCE having taken the Chair, he assured
▪ Meeting that it was with unaffected diffidence he had obey-
ed the call of many kind friends in presuming to occupy the
chair. He felt that having been compelled by indisposition
to retire from his more proper scene of labour—he meant Par-
liament.,—it did not become him to occupy so prominent a
situation as that which he filled on the present occasion.—
But he also felt that he ought not for a moment to consider
any motives of a personal nature when he was called upon
to fulfil a great and important duty to God and man.—(Ap-
plause.)--Believing, therefore, that it might be for the in-
terest of the cause that he should occupy the chair without
furtherparley, he consented to the proposal. They were as-
sembled for the purpose of petitioning Parliament to urge for-
ward that reform in the state of the slave population in the
British Colonies, which would place that population in a con-
dition to enjoy and appreciate the blessings of enfranchise-
ment—a consummation that Parliament had pledged itself to
bring about as speedily as possible. Of the necessity and pro.
priety of such an application to the Legislature no one could
entertain a doubt who recollected the circumstances attending
the long contest on a subject similar to that which now occu-
pied their attention—he meant the abolition of the slave trade.
—(Applause.)—lt was in consequence of the people of England
taking up that cause that it was at last rendered successffil. It
was at the present moment the more necessary
.for the friends
of humanity to bestir themselves, because a large and active
party was formed to oppose them. It was by the union of
people of the middle class of society, amongst whom was
comprised the greatest portion of virtue and understanding in
every free community, that they must hope to render their
cause successful, one step towards which was their assembling
on the present occasion.—(Hear !)—He was happy to see se-
veral gentlemen present who would be able to point out the
situation in which the cause at present stood, and what mea-
sures it was necessary to take thereupon.—(Applause.)
Mr. MAcatmEir then read the Report of the Committee of
the Society, from which we make the following interesting
extracts:—

" Since the publication of the Second Report of the Society,
read in this place on the 30th of April last, a large mass of
most important information, on the subject of Colonial Slavery,
has been laid before Parliament. A digest of the most mate-
rial parts of these Parliamentary documents has been publish-
ed, under the title of The Slave Colonies of Great Britain ;
or a Picture of Negro Slavery, drawn by the Colonists them.
selves.' It has happily admitted us to a near view of the in-
terior of society in one of the Slave Colonies, Berbice, where
the Fiscal had been so attentive to his duty as to preserve
sonic record, though an imperfect one, of the causes of com-
plaint, on the part of the slaves, which came before him.—
We are not to suppose that the slave system in this Co-
lony is marked by features of peculiar atrocity. The pre-
sumption, on the contrary, is rather in favour of the com-
parative lenity, because it is one of the few slave colonies in
which the population does not diminish. We have unfortu-
nately no similar disclosures from any of the other colonies.—
But when we consider what a mass of suffering is laid open to
our view in the account which has reached us from this single
colony, containing about 23,000 slaves, being scarcely a fortieth
part of the whole slave population, how frightfully would that
mass have been augmented, had we received a similar report of
the remaining 800,000 ! Over their sufferings the veil of obli-
vion has been drawn. Of them no record has been preserved.
We may imagine, indeed, what they must have been, from
the glimpse which has been afforded is in the returns from
Berbice; but the full amount of their horrors can now be
known only to Him whose eye makes inquisition for the blood
of the innocent, and by whom not one sigh of the oppressed is
disregarded. Revolting, in every point of view, as is the
delineation contained in these papers, of the state of Bri-
tish Colonial Slavery, as it exists in law and in practice,
there is at least this advantage attending the melancholy de-
tail, that it serves amply to confirm the view of the nature
and effects of that cruel system which has been sanctioned
and circulated by this Society, making their statements to ap-
pear even cold and tame in the comparison. These Parlia-
mentary documents are particularly valuable, as exemplify.
ing the unchanged spirit of Colonial Legislation on the sub.
ject of slavery. The local legislatures have refused, without a
single exception, to comply even with the moderate requisitions
of his Majesty's Ministers, as these arc embodied in the Order
in Council for Trinidad ; and the Colonists generally exult in
the refusal, encouraging each other to persevere in the same
contumacious course. Their tone of secure and triumphant
irony is remarkable. 4 'We beg you to observe,' says the
Editor of one of their newspapers—and we give the passage
only as an illustration of the prevailing spirit—' We beg you
to observe, that not one of the unconquered Colonies '(meaning
the Colonies having legislatures of their own) have had the ci-
vility to comply with Earl Bathurst's wishes, notwithstanding
he informed them, in the most earnest and feeling manner, of
the serious extent of the disappointment which his Majesty's
Government would experience if they rejected his application.
We sympathize most sincerely with his Lordship on this unex-
pected event.' "_ •

Sir Jannis libentfetrosie..then. addressed the Meeting at
considerable length, founding his charges against the system of
Slavery, mainly upon the information furnished by the report
of Mr. Wallis, a West' Indian Proprietor. That report, while
it furnished the most horrifying details of cruelty, intimated
that Negroes were totally insensible to the wretchedness of
their state. That on the contrary they were a merry and con-
tented population, much addicted to frisking and playing.—
The Poet, in vindication of a benevolent Providence, set forth
the insensibility of the lamb devoted to slaughter as an instance
of mercy—
" The Lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason would he frisk and play ? •
Pleased to the last, he crops the flow'ry food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood."
Such was the mitigation now aflbrded to the misery of the slave.
—Man must be brutalized' into a disregard of his rights and
wrongs, and sunk into bestial apathy, before he can tamely
endure oppression. The rational being was thus reduced even
below the level of the brute, as being conscious of his degra-
dation. From what he could collect, the slave's condition had
this aggravation, that he was made to " lick the hand just
raised to shed his blood:" For any atrocity might be coin-
mitted with impunity upon an unfortunate Negro, if there
were not three witnesses to
,prove the fact. In one instance,
a master had the cruelty to inflict upon his slave 150 lashes,
and because no white person was present at the time, the
criminal escaped unpunished ! This melancholy occurrence
it was which induced Chief Justice Pigot to propose a bill
to the Legislature for the admissibility of Negro evidence,
which, however, was immediately rejected. The pOor Negroes
plainly had- no tongues, but those of their wounds, and the
question was, whether those tongues could speak loudly enough
to reach the feeling of British hearts. The Colonial Legislature
was deaf to the voice of complaint, and the sufferers were left
without advocates--a prey to the barbarity of their masters.--
He was no enemy to the welfare of British Weet Indians,. and
in the present instance he was urging measures, the adoption of
which would eventually contribute to their solid advantageeand
Ito the interests of the Empire. He was no partizan for the
sudden emancipation of the Negroes. He deprecated the con-
sequences which might flow from so ill-advised a measure.--:
He would conceive them to be the second of evils ; • but the
first evil of all others in his estimation was perpetual sla•
very.—(Great applause.)--Ile then adverted to the Parlia-
mentary Resolutions of 1013, which pointed out the expe-
diency of measures calculated to the gradual emancipation
of the slaves and recognized them as subjects of, the realm.—
This last he deemed an important admission, en 'which-lie
would congratulate' the friends 'Of 'humanity. Time Bla'cks
being his Majesty's subjects, ought no longer to be in bondage.
For this assertion he had a high and powerful authority in the
virtuous and lamented Sir S. Romilly, who was the first to use
the language he had just employed. He would therefore con-
fidently maintain that these who were British subjects were un-
constitutionally, immorally, and cruelly deprived of liberty,
their most sacred and inalienable right. An order of the'King
in Council directed that a substantial mitigation should take
place in the treatment of the slaves ; and it was conditioned that
any resistance to the proposed melioration should be founded in
reason—not in contumacy. We were now aware of the species
of resistance made to those equitable propositions, and we
should call Parliament to a sense of its honour in redeeniing
the pledge it had given, we should show that the people were
ready to support them in forwarding the interests of, justice.—
The question submitted to the Legislature of the greatest of the
Colonies as to the admissibility of negro witnesses, was indig-
nantly rejected by a majority of thirty-four to one, that is of
the whole house to the mover. Now the competency of the
evidence of Blacks was so essential to their security, that it
would be folly to propose more after the defiance with which
the colony rejected this first essential measure, as if they
were independent of the legal authority, and regardless of the
feelings of flee British nation. One would imagine that an
independent state might have listeeed to the communication
with more respect than the colony thought proper to pay to
the expressed sense of the mother country. It syas quite clear
that the time of contumacious rejection was now come—it
was .viii} to expect the adoption of a proper course otherwise
than throtigh the interference of Parliament. He proceeded
to argue the safety and reasonableness of the proposed change,
from the concurrence of all parties in its expediency. ' Both
Houses of Parliament, including many West Indian proprie-
tqrs, his Majesty's Governinent, the people to a man, were all

unanimous on the subject. The Hon. Gentleman concluded
with moving the first resolution.
Mr. BnouGHAM, on rising to second the resolution, was re;
ceived with loud and continued plaudits. Ho claimed but
few moments' attention, as the eloquent argumenterand insPer'
tant facts adduced by his Hon. Friend, rendered it unnecessal
for him to trespass much at length on the time of the IVleetigi
He would merely give a brief reply to some objections off I: A
by adversaries to emancipation. Be and his party were CC,'
enthusiasts, because they felt indignant that moo' of
fellow-creatures were subjected to the infliction of the :F-,";
eat cruelties--because their feelings were roused by the t,
position of those injuries. They were charged with rasha.red
and how far did they deserve this imputation? They wai. of
patiently the abolition of West Indian slavery for a quarter a
century, and to this day that abolition, was resisted. It was
also objected to them that their reasonings and their chargesl;
rested upon accounts derived from the adversaries of those
whom they accused. But he would not now offer a word frog
himself, not a syllable which was not registered under.thehen7l
and seals of interested proprietors themselves, and they viro.ute
be found to supply matter abundantly sufficient to substantlesp
the. charges made. It was an admitted fact, n
that for the vliai,,
ton abuse of a slave, by whipping, bruising, or otherwise ),b
treating him, which included a large chapter of bodily Po
ment, the perpetrator could only be fined a sum not exceennt
171., hut it might not amount to 17d. And this enactment/ se
was said, would endear the benevolence of the Legislatfsso;
posterity ! Before 1805, the punishment for murder di". the
exceed a fine of 151. A new law increased the mulct, if it
crime were perpetrated without provocation. What auger,
be construed as provocation ? Perhaps the lifting of nee
or any other petty act of disrespect. The maiming of a 8
was punishable by a fine, and that fine without a miribrillos
The white man's greatest violence committed on a black d,
punishable by a fine. The black man, for hearing words !els,
mg to mutiny, and not disclosing the same, was punish,'" the
with a fine ?-0h ! no—with death ! lie would call for of
immediate abolition of the cart-whip, and the admissib7the
negro evidence ; and would insist that the friend! f,tiose,
African slaves were the best friends of the planters.
sentiments he most heartily concurred in the wishes ail's.
Ilon
Friend. .00 in
Mr. F. BUXTON rose to propose a string of resolet: the
furtherance of the object of die meeting. He depretn the
enormous expence at which the nation had to main'," was
abominable system now under consideration ; his her'—asterS
particularly excited by the unnatural power whiell,lll
had, to divide husband and wife—parent and chilo.,. ;$ he
charge, when first made, was called a libel; but iu proof ;fee
offered an advertisement which be had lately read, b). ao' 5,
James Bennett, who offered for sale a fresh supply of b'orlf
carriages, negroes, boys and girls, recommending 1‘,1,1,0i,
selection to his customers. A Mr. Padmore lost 12,w700 to
his humanity, in not selling his slaves with the plat°
which they were annexed. hears
the DEN MAW followed and dilated with great eloquenhord
the impolicy of West Indian jurisprudence. He was tea
with extreme attention by the meeting, and excited reps
applause.
I en'
Dr. LUSHINGTON, who was prevented by profession' or-
gagements from attending the Meeting till a late hour, Poole
sued a line of argument which had already been taken by se of
of the speakers who preceded him. lie implored the v°lool
the people in support of the exertions of the parlinsl", their
liiends of liberty, as great difficulties were oppose,' to whit
benevolent intentions by some fifty or sixty Members' oil
whom private interest was a more persuasive consideration oo
the public good. He pledged himself never to quit the t feel,'
in which he had embarked, until its success was comP sea
achieved. With an elaborate encomium on the labourseete
past services of the Hon. Gentleman, he moved that tbe,ixorii
tion to the House Of Lord should be entrusted to his °iota
Highness the Duke of Gloucester, and that to the Coot°
Mr. F. Buxton.
Messrs. J. J. GURNEY (who read and moved the avjls•
e'
of the Petition to Parliament) CHAMBERS, and Cnor!"„,ech
verally addressed the Meeting, and were received with '-
attention and respect.
In putting Dr. Lushington's resolution,
The CHAIRMAN bore testimony to the distinguished ser`ed.ice:
done to the cause by his Royal Highness. He pronoune Tioe
just eulogiuna upon his active, steady, and persevering 1;g1i.
of the measure, from the first moment in which his RoYsf
ness had entered the lists of humanity up to the present.l.tioset
ur
Me also paid a high compliment to the character and ahol,coof
Mr. Buxton, upon whom he fully relied for the furtherf.`iDee.
this great and desirable object ; and when he (Mr. 11
muggy or
force) should be no longer able to attend to Parliarnetr". wars
other duties, there was no one to whom he could look ecelu-
' with more satisfaction, or whom he could more strongly r
mend, than that Hon. Gentleman.
Mr. FAYELL then moved a Vote of Thanks to iirn'`eheir,
berforce, Esq. not only for his conduct this day in the "ow
but for his undeviating principles, his persevering ande close
ampled industry during a long and laborious life, in t" jas'
of universal benevolence. His name must live as lenge not'
ace and liberty should be dear to a Briton's heart. He"'
~ fort is
ed that the City of London bad so long delayed to put , seer
opinion upon this occasion ; but we had at length live• to
it express its voice-3 voice which would reach from s'4f the
shore, and would penetrate throughout all the nation' heard
universe. He believed it was the wish of all who no_s to see
WI him, that he who laid the foundation stone, should '
the edifice completed to his sat,
sfaction. ale
inl l
Mr. GURNEY seconded the motion, eulogizing Fat and
character of the venerable Chairman, whose tneek%rne9)
Christian humility sufficiently exempted him (SIC. .ht be
from the eharge of personal flattery, which otherwise 111 titioti
attributable to him. The Hon. Chairman had a higher 50'ef die
than that of human praise ; nevertheless it was the dtitYhis e%'
Meeting to make these public acknowledgements ofuse.)'''
cellence which his great merits called forth.—(APPB
The motion was carried unanimously (all standing). t
The venerable CHAIRMAN returned thanks in 3 'l:no hie
dress. He said it was not for him to arrogate to hinisele oese,
a distinction as that of bein the promoter of this nobleif; butt
he could name many who bore asgreat a share as hirnse, entles"
to banish all affectation, he acknowledged that be t!'" ii the
your to do his best. If we lay the foundation of a cause it
observance of the laws of God and the just rights °lee embed
must ultimately succeed. The promoters °Odds 00,3001
been charged with having proceeded too rapidly to en migb,
e•
to alter existing things. How far that charge was tr
be collected from the evidence of the Negroes theinseivto of"
sides, what a different picture was presented to theiolf..-'
mere looker-on, and to the slave who felt the lash include
Forty years, as Mr. Brougham had stated, could not riser
be
a hasty measure. He trusted such a charge cold • new
substantiated ; a period of thirty years or thereabouts coail
elapsed since a proposition similar to that which Islr •,`" ece,
had brought before tile House, was recommended, Elirg sn
Indian Gentlemen themselves, for the purpose of Fume/abet
end to so much human misery. Let the 'Meeting Teri' eXer;
that they were answerable both to God and man for t c
tions. The Indians said it was not their interests aw.n3 only'
we consulted, but ours also. It was not their busiPe'to be s
bat our duty. Their very enemies acknowledge then;/ the at:
degraded people, and it was therefore our duty E.° Calt'le 5317
tension of Parliament to their condition. , Let notie, 211.40
outcry be raised now which was raised before, but
be passed which should give those men the liberties ?:4_, woo!„
to which they were entitled, and then let it be seen oal_ss.`ent
I'vesse.°
be its consequence. Let us do our duty, and
do its own, and universal charity and service shall he „hen di''
to all mankind.—( Loud applause.)—The Meeting
persed. _

---
COAI, MARKET," DEc. 21. bblitri.
Burdon, 35s 6d—Beaumont, 35s—Beaton,
Main, 37s 3d—Holywell,-38s—Kiliingwortli, 37s 11`1..--ifoOr,eAr
gs
Windsor, 33s 6d—Tanfield- Moor, 37s
Main, 34s—Ord's Redhugh, 33s 6d—l'ercy East, 3is'
ke sti`
—Walls End Bell and Co. 38s 6d—Walls End Bewlf,, bpd
Co. 40s 6d to 40s 9d—Walls End Burraton, 365--".,;tta }lot'
Green's, 35s—Walls End Hotspur, 36s 3d—Walls
ton, 35s 6d—Walrs End Newmarch,
thumberland, 36s 3d—Walls End Riddell's, 39s— sT
Russell's, 39s 6d—Walls End Walker, 38s 6d—H eV° ;;isu"
22s 3d—Lambton Primrose small, 24s—Tantield Trader:wroet
—Stone Coal, 52s—Eden Main. 36s 3d—batnbton PT lcs]l'
36s 6d—Lyon's Main, 38s 6d to 39s—Russell's Hetton s, get,
End, 42s 6d—Walls End Hetton, 42s 6d—Walls Er3:ort'sr
ton's, 355—Walls End Lambton, 42s 6d—Walls'End Ste
42s 6d.—Ships at market, 83i—Ships sold, 56:

Ifaril'
BIRTHS „.
Yesterday,,at Mr. Bari g's ho use,. in Piccadilly, Pir
phry St. John Illildmay, of a son. • J• 0' ' I
1 ar'
On the nth inst., in Gower.street, the lady of •
_..---
ham, Esq., of a daughter

f ollt.
her
• MEI).
On Wednesday, the 21st inst , aged 20, at the ticwoo-. ri,
brother-in-law, :WI-. S. Passey inst.,
Butts, Sus,,a 61a..
fifth daughter of the late Rev. W. Bradley, of Colef°r"'

cestershire.
On the 11th inst., at Avignon, the non. Mrs. Long: gr. T.
On Wednesday, the 30th oh., Margaret, wilP cR. 5"
Eubanke, secretary to the Vauxhall-bridge Compahisiv-,c 00
On the 17th inst., at her house, Londwater, near
f ,fr.
worth, Herts, Mrs. Elizabeth Al organ.
ber 0 .116
On the 21st inst., Sarah Graham, second datirtt;,ne, in '
George Graham, of Prospect-place, Southwark, soc"T -40'
_..../
24th year of her age

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