The Sun.
London, England, 1838-05-16 00:00:00

for hi benefit they had set up .an expensive (he did not mean too expen-
sive) establishment of Clergy, wit.`' their diocesans; and when they In.
t minced missionaries into the coloni.", and projected he knew not how
many schemes of religious amelioration ?—(liear.) By the introduction
of Christianity the system of West India Elairery had laid its bosom
bare to receive the coming dcath.lilow ; and if C'ey acted consistently
with the spirit of their missianary labours, and tin.' Principles of Chris.
tianity, the monster of slavery, already mortally wounded, 'would,
bye and and bye, fall lifeless at the feet of the tit'titgn geilitis of
oligion, The 'mete& s themselves felt the absurdity ana „'acansistency
of attempting to christianize men who were held in a state of ,hondage—
it was putting a .7ible into their hands while they fastened the manacles
on t;aeir wrist.—(-hear, hear.) On the principle of this West' India
philosophy what bad 01,7 been doing? They had been supporting' not
congregations of men but riNnagetjes.—(Hear and laughter.) He h
heard of a family of monkeys in the Zoological Gardens of Liverpool,
consisting of a grandfather end grandmother, father, mother, and chil-
dren, and it was not more preposterous or absui-d to appoint a Govern-
ment Chaplain to the monkeys in the ,Liverpool Zoological Gardens,
than to set up a Christian establishment among a re `pie whom, by con-
tinuing In a system of infamous and illegal bondage, th ay virtually pro-
nounced to be something less than men.—(Loud cheers.) If they gave .
fiecdom to those unhappy people it would be far more
,grateful to
extend to them the blessings cf Christianity ; tut having ennforrecl
on then) Christianity-, they were bound in justice to give them freNdona,
and let them not be teaching religion at the expense of morality, but
henceforward let them ra`eounmend morality and religion by example as
well as precept. They had ;tow awakened to a true sense of their post-,
tion—they had beseeched Parlilament with petitions and remonstrances
against the continuation of the system of slavery which had been so
very touchingly depicted in the memoirs of Wilberforce, lately pub.
licked ; and they had been promised ;‘,' satisfactory adjustment of a claim
which pressed heavily on the national Conscience. Mr. Stanley intro-
duced a measure for that purpose in a speech memorable for its eloquence
and moral feeling, which promised much, but was never realised. He
would now ask any gentleman present whether the terms of the resolu-
tion he held in his hand were not strongly hastified by the tact,
that even under the name of apprenticeship slas'ery still ,existed
in full force ? He denied that the system of apprantie,aship
even professed, except prospectively, to abolish the systrm of slavery. It
repealed the name—it abolished some of its most revolting and often.)
stye enactments, but it legalised it for the first time in the history of
British legislation, and prolonged some of its very worst oppressions.—
(Loud cheers.) It was unnecessary to refer to the various arguments
that had been brought forward to establish that feet, but he would refer
to one which would not be the less acceptable because it had emanated
from the venerable Wesley. Upon one occasion, Mr. Wesley was
asked wherein consisted the difference betwen freedom and slavery ?
and lie had answered, " herein, that you and I in England, go
where we will and enjoy the fruits of our labour—this is

freedom; the negro does not, and this' is Fla er y. "—(Cticers.)
He would now call the attention of the meeting to the setitim,nts of
Lord Howick a nobleman of great Intelligence and integrity, of whom
he should always speak with the highest respect, although he direred
from him upon political matters. On the occasion when Mr. Stanley
introduced his Bill, Lord Howick observed that slavery did not consist
in a name—that the House should not allow itself to be imposed on by

...
words—the real distinction between slavery and freedom was, that. in

one state men worked because it was their interest to do &I ; but in the

other they were compelled by a system of tyranny and cruelty, but with.

out remuneration. If, as ha believed, that was the distinction be-
tween a state of slavery and freedom, he would ask, how had his

Right Honourable Friend got lid of slavery? He would maintain
that what his Right Honourable Friend proposed was in effect, wiiat.

ever it might be in name, a virtual retention of the principle of
slavery, acting by compulsory means—not for the benefit of the negro,
but for the benefit of his master. After depicting the horrors of slavery,
It was for him to show what were the advantages arising from the sys,
tern, which was nothing more nor less than a continuation of the prin-
ciple of slavery. He felt it his duty to enter his protest against the
centinuance, for however short a time of the existing system which
worked only for the benefit of the planter. So strong was the cotevic.
lion of the Noble Lord upon that point, that a few days rifierwasds
he abandoned his seat in the Government, rather than be a party to what
he considered a nefarious and unrighteous arrangement.—(Cheers,
and hear, hear..) Was not the system of apprenticeship a system
of compulsory and uncompensated servitude? He never heard
that denied, and then he would say, that the enactments of
the apprenticeship system were essentially the principles of slavery.—
(Loud cheers.) He (Mr. B.) was present in the House of Commons'
when Mr. Buxton proposed that even so small a sum as a halfpenny a
day would be paid to the negro as a recognition of his right to wager;
but Mr. Stanley insisted that the uncompensated principle was a vital
part of his plan—he declined to accept of Mr. Buxton's proposition,
and the House negatived it without a division. If there had been any
thing like an attempt to cure slavery by the apprenticeship system, it
must have been on the homeopathetic system—that principle of medicine
which, if he understood it rightly, administered in a state of disease
these drugs which would produce that disease in a healthy
state, and assuredly the negro inhaled the system of slavery
very plentifully under the apprenticeship system.—(A laugh.) Could
they forget that a Christian negroes, the member of a Baptist Church,
was, some twelve or sixteen months ago, sentenced to fourteen clays' im-
prisonment on the treadmill, for the specific crime indorsed on her
committal of taking Morrison's pills?—(Laughter.) He would ask,
what did the men deserve, whether in their personal or official capacity,
he cared not, who had been guilty of that system of quackery with the
bodies and sou't, with the lives and liberties of 800,000 of their fellow
beings ? But then, it was universally acknowledged that the apprentice-
ship, with all its eseential defects, contained humane and mitigating
they had abundant proofs that these provisions.
,ireorveissieolifi sd.
feateciby Unhappily
the mischievous clauses of the apprenticeship
code which devolved the arraogement of the details upon the Colonial
Legislatures. How had they heislated P They had heard statements
of their maladministration long be; ore the public of that country had
been roused to make a stand against .'he system. 'I hey were all aware
that Lord Glenelg's speech on introduclieg n is Bill was based entirely on
the statement of those abuses. lie shouiol be sorry to detail) the meet..
ing, and sorry to trouble himself by going oves- the grounds wl:ich he
had felt it necessary four or six months ago to ga _over in demenstration
of the breach of the contract between the Imperial To-Bement and the
Colonial Legislature and the ma'..administration of til'e system of ap-
prenticeship in regard to the division of labour—in regard. to the punish.
inents inflicted for the purpose of coercing the negroes—in regard to this
etude(' and scanty Allowances of food—in regard to the restraint,
upon the time of the negroes—in regard to the inhuman treatment
of the female part of the population—in regard to the corrup'ion in the
courts of justice, and the constitution and conduct of the courts of ap.
appraisement. All these had been long L'efore the public, and Lord
Glenelg had expressly stated, In his hearing in 'the House of Lords,
elthough that statement had never yet been putelished, " that the case
of the abolitionists, as a case of facts, was fully esta,:stished." They had
protested against the apprenticeship system and its a:wises, and against
the arrangement by which the British public had been clofrausied of
2.0,000,000 e of money and six years of the uncompeneateet eervices of
the negro population. By the way, that commereial arrangement and
its results had been well illustrated to his mind by an advert isemeet
which had lately appeared in the Morning Herald. He never thesught
of the twenty millions without thinking of that advertisement, " Any
gentleman having 0,0001. to dispose of, may be placed in a moat el,ga
nt
position, only he must not expect to receive mere than four per cent:*
r his money."—(Hear, hear, and a laugh.) Contrasting that
with the apprenticeship system it would read thus :—" Any
nation having twenty millions to dispose of; may be placed
in a most elegant position, only, it muse not expect
to receive more than next to nothing for its money."—(eLech laughter.)
In that elegant position they were placed, and he congrat,dated them
upon that extraordinary instance of liberality on the part ~'a Liberal
Government. A more liberal arrangement, and he sincerely :selieved
a better intentioned one, was never made; and at the same thew he
thought that one more unhappily conceived, or more signally done ted
was never witnessed in the history of that country —Loud cheen.n)
A few months ago, finding out in the more true than elegant lan-'
guage of Mr. O'Connell, that they had been bamboozled, they protes.
ted against it ; and here again he sincerely congratulated them on the
success of that effort. He was aware that they had sustained a tempo-
rary defeat, hut he would maintain that their cause 1 ad at the same
time received a moral triumph in Parliament, as well as without. He
might refer them with very great pleasure to what took place in
the interval between the presentation of their petitions for
the abolition of the apprenticeship syeiem in the latter part of last year
and the debate which decided the question against them. He might
refer with great gratification to the procee.'tings of the Committee In
London, of which lie had the honour of bcie'g a member. The bar_
inonious feeling of that Committee, and their unanimous resolution, on
which he might conscientiously say they inveriablet acted to merge and
postpone to the great cause of emancipation all party considerations and
prejudices was highly honourable to that body.—(Vehement cheering.?
He had never acted with a class of men from many of whom he poll.
tically and religiously differed, in whom he met greater consistency in
the prosecution of one object—great singleanindedness—les's of religious
sectarianism, or a more firm resolution to merge everything in the one
great object. He Wight refer them to the interviews which the Cone-
mittee hatf with distinguished Members of both Houses of Par-
liament, including Lord Brougham and Sir George Strickland
but be felt particularly coiled on to allude to their interview with two
bishops connected with diocees:s immediately contiguous, namely, the
Bishop of Bath and Wales, and the Bishop of Exeter, from both of
whom, merely on a statement of this case, they had received the
warmest sympathy and the most cordial aesurance of support That
might be taken as a sufficient answer to a parag:.'ph which he regretted
to have seen in a Bristol paper of last week, in whneh there was an insi-
nuation that their object was too liable to be mixes Up with party
feeling. He could assure the respectable editor of that p.Wer that he
(Mr. B.) was not one of those who would mix himself up wails such a
cause, and a mere statement of the names of the persons by eseeen their
case was supported in both Houses of Parliament would be a sufficent
refutation of such a charge. They had in the House of Commons the Mae-
quis of Chandos, and Mr.Byng, the fat her of that House, one of the most
consistent supporters of the Government; and on the Radical interest they
had Mr. O'Connell ; while in the House of Lords they had the Bishop of
Exeter, the Marquis of Sligo, and Lord Brougham; and he wondered
what point of sympathy those distinguished individuals could find, or
what common ground of political collusion or concert was emirs them ?
—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) On the other side, they had opposed to
them Sir Robert Peel, who apprehended great danger from emancipating
the negroes in 1840, as well as in 1838—Lord John Russell, and Mr.
Hume; and in the House of Lords they had against them, he fettled,
the great Captain, Lord Melb entice and Earl Radnor. It required are
exuberance of fancy, and great strength of ingenuity, to discern what
point of political sympathy or consistency existed between those distin-
guished individuals.—(Hear, hear.) Every circumstance of their
connection with the Abolitionists divested it of every political feeling, and
showed that they had embanked in a contest for the moral improvement
of their fellow-creatures, without reference to any such paltry feeling.
He would refer to the whole tenor of the debate to establish that—he
would refer to the speech of Mr. Pease, which the Times declared to
be a most temperate and able ono—lie would refer to the impassioned
appeal of Dr. Lushington—and he would go farther, and contend that
their case had been established by the speeches of their opponents. Had
they forgotten Sir Edward Sugden's denunciation of the outrageous in-
fraction of the contract on the part of the planters ? He would refer also
to the speech of Sir George Grey, as a striking proof of the want of har-
mony between him and the Chief Secretary ; and it he wante.l to answer
Sir George Grey's speech, he would place Lord Glenelg's in a parallel
position to it.—(Cheers.) He would refer to the memorable admission
of Lord Howie's, that that very Bill of Lord Glenelg's would render the
apprenticeship system so impracticable and unprotit aide to the colonists,
as to induce them to break it up altogether.—(Loud cheers.) That
called up Dr. Lushington, who could not resist the temptation of
animadverting upon such an admission, instead of waiting, as he in-
tended, to reply to Mr. Gladstone, and thus then were deprived cf their
triumph by a manosuvre on the part of thick opponents, and a want of
dexterity and promptitude en their side. In that position they again
wanted to make an appeal to the people of Bristol and the country.
He believed, if the question was placed upon fair grounds It must pre-
vail. Their cause had made such progress as would render it absolutely
resistless; and when the question next came on there would be perhaps
100,000 nomprmdials and other negroes who had been voluntarily manu-
mitted by eight or nine West India proptietors, who wetild be all libe-
rated, It would be impossible to convince that (art of the negro popu-
lation who were stiti held in botudsge that they were not as
legally entitled to their freedom as those V.IIJ received it, and that accu-
mulation of moral and physical power would speedily render their cause
triumphant.—(Cheers.) 'their great object now wits not so mudh to
insure succe 5, but to hove their principles sec eenised in Parliament,
that they who had committed a false step shoul.l Lave the credit of re-
tracing it, and if they did not, it would be effected without interposi-
tion.—(Great applause) As a Christian man, he now more earnestly
influencing the minds of their most respectable members,
and emphatically than ever entreated of that meeting i.ot only by petitions,
t eiroes to seem c a re rose
tboutLibeythir
iltat:en et' the conrctons and
feelings of that gr&tf C hiislia t conithy, ahe. !Mal induce Puiliement
to do that which would otherwise be dune without it. He had come
prepared with a large quantity of documents, but net one of which he