The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-16 00:00:00

the decrease has been what 4 have stated, I shall prove no-
thing. In the first place I will instance the island of
Tobago. cannot take a better example. It is a co-
lony exceedingly well circumstanced. Ten years ago the
female part of the slave population in the island of To-
bago exceeded the male. It is a colony in which the Hon.
Member opposite bittuself ago :Imes that the treatment of the
slaves has been vntirtSiful in the highest degree. In the
year 1819, the slave population of Tobago was 15,470
to which must be added the importation, to the reanaleer'a
177, and from which must be deducted the: '24kortation, to
the number of 27, and the mannenisminris, to the number-
of' 172—leaving the pnrmlation, at that period, 15,415,
By the retttrrea of 1829, it appears that the slave ...apula-
tion of Tobago, at that period, moo:toted `Only to 12,556 ;
being a decrease in the ten of 2,592, or a sixth of
the whole. I chalhenke inquiry into the exact accuracy of
this statement. That is the fact ; I make ,r to
the paasions or to the feelings of the : but I simply
describe the destruction cret.e.kied by the slave system.
What I have state 4 it h -rate of destruction, which if it be
permitted tas *eontinue, will soon sweep away the whole
black inhabitants of Tobago, and exterminate the Whole
negro population of that island. Sir, I believe the pro-
prietors in the island of Tobago are es respectable a body
of men as any body of proprietors in the West Indies. I
believe that they are as raercifel in the treatment of their
slaves as the difficulties of their situation permit them to
be. In support of that opinion, I refer to the auahoe'ity
of the Govet-nor of that island, who, in th'e Year 1829,
stated officially, " that there ev.isAil a liberal feeling
with respect to the slave?, towards whom no mo-
tive existed for unnecessary slavery." I do not
believe that there have been any instances for tin •
neceseary cruelty towards slaves in Tobago, I admit all
that the Hon. Gentleman opposite may be ready to say
on that subject, and I acquit the planters of any dis-
position to treat the slaves with unnecessary cruelty.
But, Sir, the more you raise the tharacter of the
planter's, the more you must deprecate the system which,
notwithstanding that character, has been productive of
such pernicious efr,ects. It appears that in spite of all
the mercifnl disposition of the planters of Tobago, in ten
year:: one-sixth of the slave population of that island has
perished. Although, therefore, there may have been ne
unnecessary oppression, it is clear that there has b: en a
necessary oppression, extensively destructiae of human
life, and whirl ought to be put an erd to. I repeat that 1
do not appeal to the feelings ~•,r to the passions of the
House, but to stubborn frets, incapable of contradiction.--
I will now refer to Demerara. The slave population of
Demerara in 1817 was 83,872 ; taking into the calcula-
tion the exportation, the importation, and the manumis-
sions. In 1829 it was only 69,166 ;so that 13,906 went
in the interval. At Ttitddad there were, in 1816, 25,000
slaves, out of which number 6,000 went in twelve years.
Why, Sir, this is a rate of mortality, which, in a few years
would render the crowded city of London—would render
the whole world--desolate, In one of these three colo-
nies they were so well aware of the rapid diminution of the
slave populationthe fact is the same in all three—but in
one of them, Trinidad, they are so well aware of it that as
the. Noble Lord opposite knows, the planters of that island
have endeavoured to repair the evil by a considerable illicit
importation. The fact is, that in that island the slaves,
as the late Mr. Marryat said, " die off like rotten sheep."
Sir, if we allow this system to proceed, we are consenting
to the extinction of the whole negro population of the
West Indies. In the three islands to which I have
particularly alloded, a reduction has taken place in
less that ten years of 22,000 out of 100,000. The
whole ;due population of the West Indies was at pre-
sent 45,800 less in number than it was ten years ago.--
Such are the facts. Unless I have forged the documents,
which I presume will not be imputed to me, such are the
facts. I proceed to state facts with respect to the colonies
generallr,' oh which I am not able to detail numbers with
so much precision as with respect to the three particular
colonies to which I have already adverted. The main
fact is, that since the abolition of the slave trade 100,000,
that is to say a seventh part of the slave population of the
West Indies, has been destroyed. At that period the num-
ber was upwards of 700,000 ; ten years afterwards it was
650,000 ; it is now less than 600,000. If this be per-
mitted to go on—if the House allow the continuance of
such a system, I beg leave humbly to represent to them
that they will sign the death-warrant of many hundreds
of human beings. If there were no other prospect of the
extinction of slavery, it would be found in the rapid ex-
tinction of the negro race. Sir, I have hitherto argued
this question most unfairly towards my own case. I have
argued it as if a population ought only to maintain its
numbers. I have said nothing of the increase which ought
to have taken place in the population. The law of na-
ture is, that a population should increase—not that it
should be stationary, hut that it should increase—not
that it should decrease. In all countries, except those in
which the population are drained off by extraordinary ch.!

_ .
cumstancea, that law invariably operates. To avoid all
possibility of computation on the ground that I am com-
paring blacks with whites, that I am comparing the poor
with the rich, that I am comparing the inhabitants of
one soil and climate with the inhabitants of another, I
will again refer to the colonies of Demerara and Trinidad.
The free black and coloured population of Demerara, in
1811, amounting to 2,980, in 1825, to 4,700, being an
increase of 1,720, or, deducting the manumissions, of
1,282. While the black free population thus in-
creased at the rate of from 1,000 to 2,000, that
black slave population decreased at the rate of from
1,000 to 500. I might illustrate this position further by a
reference to the Maroons of Jamaica ; but I prefer an in-
stance more conclusive in showing the uniform increase of
free blacks, and the uniform decrease of blacks in a state
of slivery. I allude to the island of Hayti. While the
population in the slave colonies has been unable to main-
tain its numbers, while it appears by official locuments,
that in the course of the last few years above 100,000
negroes have been imported into those colonies, the free
black population of Hayti, which in 1804. was only
423,000, was found twenty years afterwards to have in-
creased to 935,000. Those are the two facts on which
I mainly dwell. In slavery the blacks have not been able
to maintain their numbers—in freedom they have
doubled their numbers. In Demerara, blacks in
slavery have decreased rapidly—in Hayti blacks in freedom
have increased rapidly. I ask the Hon. Gentleman op-
posite for a satisfactory explanation why, in the island of
Trinidad the free blacks increase in number two arid a
half per cent. per annum, while the other blacks decrease
in a similar proportion ?—(" Look at Barbadoes,"observed
some Hon. Gentleman on the opposite side of the Houae.)
The Hon. Gentleman desires me to look at Barbadoes.
Sir, there is a great difference between the two islands.
Although the population of Barbadoes, as compared with
the population of Trinidad, is 78,000 to 25,000, yet
there is not a quarter of the sugar grown at the former
island that there is at the latter. I do not mean to
allude to the colonies which are small sugar growers.
Ore Trinidad merchant does as much business in the
article of sugar, as four or five in Barbadoes. If the
Honourable Gentleman is anxious for mere particular in-
formation on this fact I will give it to him. The popula-
lation of Barbadoes is 81,000—the population of Trinidad
is 24,000 ; being only about a third. The average quan-
tity of sugar exported annually from Trinidad is 394,000 .
hogsheads, while the average quantity of sugar exported
annually from Barbadoes is only 298,000 hogsheads.
These, Sir, arc facts on which I defy contradiction. I
have shown, in the first place, that in the fourteen West
_ .

India colonies to which I have allude,' there has been a
decrease of population wbere there ought to have been an
increase. I have shown, in the second place, that in the
same colonies the free black population has greatly in-
creased. In the third place, I have instanced the case of
Hayti in support of my argument. And with respect to
Hayti li.t it be remembered that the black inhabitants of
that island are said to be in a state of great demoralization
—that in that island there is no commerce, no cultivation
of sugar, no civilization. The population is admitted to
be slothful, sensual, and improvident. Vices such as
these are inimical to population. It is, therefore, an ad-
ditional fact, of great importance to my argument, that
even under such disadvantageous circumstances the popu-
lation of Ilayti has greatly increased. If slavery, there-
tore, be net justly chargeable both for the decrease in po-
pulation which it causes, and for the increase in popula-
tion which it prevents, I wish to know with what any
system is chargeable ? The slave population of the colo-
nioi ten years ago was 650,000 in round numbers.
If the blacks in slavery had increased as the free
blacks have incredsed, that population should have
added 200,000 to its number ; whereas that num-
ber hail been diminished by 45,000. To keep pari passe
with the free blacks, the blacks in slavery should have in-
created 20,000 a year; whereas they have decreased
4,000 a year. They should have increased fifty a day,
whereas they have decreased ten a day. For this effect,
this striking exception to the universal law of nature,
‘h there..ati must he a cause. It could not occur by accident.
What the cause a I will tell the House what it is not.
It is not, as it has been said to be, any disproportion be-
e: ne;umrh rydeficieney in the cumber of females.
Itlveelsn It‘thethB
of 3
male slaves was 295,909 ; the
number id f. male slaves
fore, of this decrease in thOeo,9lv 30.
The cause, there-
population is not any
disproportion between the sexes, slave
is
away its thousands, it is not climate, noti war, sweeping
any one thinks that the two last cireunist!,:coest soil. If
may ope-
rate injuriously upon the slave population, I ask lairn why,