The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-30 00:00:00

that great object. In so doing he thought they acted wisely and
judiciously—they considered a preparatory period, ouch as
tho appr!nticeship, to be highly important, as affording an
opportunity, by improving the moral conduct of the appren-
tices, and accustoming them to a limited state of freedom to
prepare them for the unqualified exercise of civil liberties—
that it was important because, by placing a portion of their
time at their own disposal, they might acquire the habit of
labouring for wages, and so b© prepared for the condition
of a free labouring population. For those reasons he could
not but say that not only was that measure important, but that
the two remainin7 years were also of the highest importance
both for the welfare of the apprentices and the masters. He
considered it to be the duty of every master and of every ap-
prentice who entertained anything like a sense of his duty to
occupy that time in taking steps preparatory to the great
change, and he believed that such means were employed by no
inconsiderable number. By the Abolition Bill, Parliament,

..
at the same time that it decided in favour of the total abolition

of slavery, granted—and how could that grant be less binding
than any other part of the measure ?—a continued right to the
services of the slaves for a certain period—for the non-predial
apprentices the term of service was fixed at four years, and for
the predials, subject to various restrictions as to the amount
of labour, six years. These distinctions he had at the time
considered improper; but they were distinctions voluntarily
made by Parliament and imposed upon the Colonists. He
remembered that it had been stated to the non-predials that,
whereas it would be extremely difficult, not to say impossible,
to give them the time granted to the two predial classes, their
period of apprenticeship was therefore curtailed. To the
two predial classes and their masters it had been stated that
time had been allotted to them in consideration of the cx-

tended period of apprenticeship. By that Act the Parliament
gave a beneficial interest to the masters in the services of the
apprentices, and rendered the classes of equal value. Could the
Parliament, consistent with equal justice, curtail the two years
which had been granted to the two predial classes, having al-
ready enforced that sacrifice of labour, in consideration of
which the two years had been granted ? Parliament, too, at
the same time granted the planters the right to transfer or
sell their term in those services, and many very considerable
sales both of predials attached and unattached had taken place,
the purchasers considering that they had obtained the best of
all possible titles, a title under an Act of Parliament.—
( Hear, hear.) Would Parliament then vitiate those sales by
curtailing the period by two years, and thus diminishing the
value of what they authorised to be sold by one-half or
two-thirds of that value ? That grant had been held out as
a boon, and had been joined to the compensation as an induce-
ment to the planters to concur in the measure. Could Par-
liament, having obtained that concurrence, curtail the valuable
consideration which was the price of. it? It had been
stated, however, that the Colonial Assemblies had been
guilty, he would not say of a breach of compact, but of a
breach of faith. On what grounds was such a charge made ?
The Assembly of Jamaica, and the rest, by adopting the Aboli-
tion Bill, had obtained the acknowledgment of the Secretary
of State that they were entitled to the compensation, and for the
Bill in Aid they had also received the sanction of Government.
The Legislature of Jamaica had been called upon to amend
the Abolition Act, and to apply a remedy to those defects, but
they refused to do so, and the last despatch of Sir Lionel
Smith which was placed upon the table of the House, stated
that up to the period at which he wrote, there was no hope
that the Legislature of Jamaica would apply a remedy to those
defects. He did not stand up before their Lordships to defend
the conduct of the Jamaica Legislature. On the contrary,
he considered their conduct altogether unjust and discreditable,
and not only inconsistent with their duty to their constituents,
but showing a disregard of those interests they were deputed
to protect. As to their conduct towards this country, he con-
sidered it to be contumacious and unwise. But he did not
think that this was a case which would justify the Parliament
in not fulfilling their own engagements. He did not consider
that there was any breach of contract involved, because he did
not think that Parliament had so far relied on them. There
was, he admitted, a sufficient remedy. Parliament held the
remedy in their own hands. They had only to do the same as
had been done by the Legislature of Jamaica with reference
to the Bill in aid. This was to enact those regulations which
the former had called upon the House of Assembly in Jamaica
to enact. When there was so much said on the subject of
cruelty and oppression, it ought not to be forgotten that, in
Jamaica, as in everywhere else, oppression and injustice might
b. e inflicted on free persons, as they had often seen happen even
in this country. Last night, and on foi mer occasions, they had
heard of the abuses practised in the workhouses in England.
—( Lord Stanhope cried " Hear, hear," with so much ear-
nestness, as to create a laugh.) In Jamaica they had not
more protection against abuses in workhouses than they had
in England, and he feared that in this respect the condition of
the negro would be rather aggravated than ameliorated by the
immediate abolition of the apprenticeship. At present, all
the old, and infirm, and sick labourers were maintained on
the estate, and all misdemeanours committed were cognisable
and punishable by the Special Magistrates, and punishable in
the workhouses appointed for that purpose. But this could
be no longer the case after the abolition of the apprenticeship
system. There was another consideration ; it would be ne-
cessary to change the laws of the colony and to modify them
to meet the new state of things. He knew that this subject
had already excited the attention of Lis Noble Friend the
Secretary for the Colonies, and that he would give due im-
portance to the necessity of some modification of the law pre-
vious to emancipation. He would also ask his Noble Friend
the late Governor of Jamaica whether some difficulty would
not attend the necessary modification of the law to meet this
great change, or whether he would consider it desirable to
emancipate the apprentices without some previous modification
of the law ? Would they by any hasty proceedings increase
the difficulties of that great revolution, which they already
knew were great? He thought that they could not with safety
depart from that principle of the Bill which bad been admitted
to have worked in such a manner as to meet the most sanguine
expectations of its framers.

Lord BROUGHAM—I heard the Noble Duke opposite
present the two petitions, the two solitary petitions, which
have been presented on that side of the question—( Hear,
hear, )__in answer to the thousands upon thousands of petition-
ers whose petitions have crowded the table of your Lordships'
House and of the other House of Parliament—the two solitary
petitions which have lifted up their voices in either House of
Parliament on ono side of this great question ; and, my Lords,
I give the petitioners credit for proceeding with due care, for
having formed their opinions after great and due deliberation ;
so far I am willing, my Lords, to attribute great weight to the
petitions, and to give to them, from this circumstance alone,
some of that value which makes up for the want of num-
bers when compared with other petitions. The petitions un-
doubtedly came from those who are deeply interested in
this great question after calm inquiry and with the utmost
impartiality ;—(Hear, hear)—with that perfect want of rash-
ness, that perfect absence of partiality, which never fails to
actuate the determination of a man in his own case, and in
that singular tribunal where one and the same individual is
both a party in the cause and the judge who is to decide its
merits, and with that calmness,. that delicacy, and with that
conscientiousness, and that perfect disinterestedness, these pe-
titioners have come to the clear and decided opinion—God
wot that it is clear, God wot that it is decided enough—and
perhaps they might have added, without doing to themselves
any injustice, an unalterable opinion against the vast numbers
of their fellow-citizens who are loudly calling for the abolition
of the apprenticeship system, of that vast body of persons who
are loud and unanimous in the prayer which they have directed
to effect their object in their petitions to both Houses of Par-
liament.—( Hear, hear.) My Lords, on the presentation of
petitions I have rigorously observed the rule, and I will ap-
peal to the Noble Lord opposite (Earl St. Vincent), who asks
leave to refer me to my own remarks upon an entirely dif-
ferent subject—l will appeal to that Noble Lord, if indeed—
which I very much doubt—he has been present on any other
occasion, save this night, when I have presented petitions,
if I have ever deviated a hair's breadth from the rule which I
have laid down, not to raise debates on the presentation of
petitions, and if I have on any one occasion ventured to raise
a discussion on their merits. So, my Lords, when to-night I
had received the opinion of my revered and excellent friend
the Lord Chief Justice, I simply read it to your Lordships ;
but now, my Lords, after all this care, I find myself involved
in inquiry—l find the whole merits of the question dragged
into discussion; and, my Lords, I have considerable doubts in
my own mind, doubts which I shall determine before I sit
down, whether I ought not now to conclude with a motion
which I avowed that 1 would postpone till after the recess—
whether I ought not now to press what I would not have at-
tempted to'revive till after that period—and, my Lords, I can
do it, for it requires no notice—whether I ought not to take
the sense of the House upon the important question which has
been raised and debated by my Noble Friend who spoke last.
The Noble Duke slightly mentioned the subject on the pre-
sentation of the petitions with which he had been entrusted, the
Noble Earl on the Opposition benches (Earl St. Vincent) en-
tered upon it at greater length, but the Noble Lord who spoke
last, from the seat behind him, has debated it as minutely and as
fully as if the question then on the table of the House, and
which had been read a first time, should or should not be read
a second time—whether the debate into which I have been
dragged shall compel me, whether the debate which has been
got up, doubtless without any concert and without any notice,
and, at any rate, without any concert with me, and without
any notice given to me, in which the planters' interest and the
interest of the West Indian slaveholders have been set against
the interest of the negroes themselves and against the inten-
tion and the prayers of the people of this country, shall urge
me to proceed; and whether it was desirable for the planters
evenrf for
e peculiar their own sakes,
in
the
p
in wsheineth
circumstances
force on that night a discussion on the merits of the hundreds
present of affairs, and
arc placed, to
of thousands of persons who had petitioned for the abolition
of the West Indian slavery; whether I shall adopt the sug-
gestion remains for me to determine before I resume my seat.
Instead of doing so I should, when the Noble Duke had pre-
sented his petition, have risen to say that I trusted that neither
the House nor the Noble Duke would consider me guilty of
any want of respect if I declined to say ono word in answer
to the arguments adduced by the petitioners, that their bene-
ficial interest ought to be respected, and that a right of
property had been established, but that I would reserve myself
upon that point, as well as 'Spun the whole of this great ques-
tion, to a more fitting occasion, to the second reading of the
Bill which I have introduced to your Lordships' House. Such
was my determination, and I am sorry that that determination,
I lament,l grieve, that by any, and especially by as delibe-
rateatatement as it was possible for a planter to make,
or for a pen to deliver, that determination should have been
altered, and that I should have been dragged, as it were,
into the discussion of the whole question of negro eman-
cipation. But I know, my Lords, if
.I did not enter upon
it, what would be said ; I know that it would be imme-
diately stated that the prayer of the petitions which I have
had the honour to present could not be supported by ar-
gument ,• but that immediately the planters, at the eleventh
hour of the day, when the hour was about to strike,