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

•
will be the bounden duty of Parliament to act with this
view. The best mode in which I can express myself is,
.1 to state to the House certain resolutions which I shall pro-
pose for the adoption of the Horse ; for, after what had
passed, think it will lee admitted that 1 have said enough
to show, I do not agree with the resolution proposed by
the Hon. Member opposite. I agree with the object whith
the Hon. Member has is view, but not with the resolution
by which he proposes to effect it. I shall feel it my duty,
therefore, to negative that resolution ; but after having done
so, I shall move others to the following purport :—'"fhat
this House, in its resolutions of the 15th of May, 1822,
distinctly recapitulated the evils under which the slaves
in the colonies laboured, and the duty of the colonies to
take such decisive measures to relieve the slave population,
and to prepare the negroes for participating in the privia
loges enjoyed by the other subjects of those eolorties. Tina
in those colonies in which there are no Legislative Assern-
. blies, laws have been promulgated for the amelio•
rating and improving the condition of the slave poit-
, lotion, but in those which have legislative assemblies,
though eight years have elapsed since this House
passed the resolutions referred to, and though these colo-
nies have been repeatedly urged to enact similar laws, no
such laws have been enacted, nor have any measures been
I adopted to give effect to time resolutions of this House, to
; the urgent opinions of the Government, nor to the wishes
of the British nation." And then, Sir, I shall propose a
mode in which the colonies will find that they have an in-
terest to adopt the proposition before made by the House.
I do not wish to interfere directly with their proceedings
by a legislative enactment, hut I think we ought to no.ke
it their interest to do what we require, and to show them
that we will take active steps to enforce obedience to our
wishes. The resolution I shall propose for this purpose is
as follows That in the rate of duties levied on the pro-
dace of the labour of slaves, such a distinction shall he
made as will operate in favour of those colonies in which the
resolutions of this House have been adopted and the wishes
of the Government complied with." This is a proposition
which will make if the interest of the colonies to adopt the
measures that have been recommended by Government ; it
is a proposition that calls on them for a compliance with
our wishes, by making an appeal to their interests.—
(Hear, hear.)---This appeal, I admit, would not num a fair
or justifiable proceeding, if we asked from the colonies
anything that was unreasonable ; but we ask nothing of
the sort—nothing which it has not already been proved
might be safely adopted—nothing which has not already been
carried into effect with the utmo4 degree of security in time
Crowe colonies, and which, indeed, has worked so well at
St. Lucja, that that colony has sent up an address to the
Government expressive of their approbation of the mea-
sures which the Government has adopted, though they
state at the sante time, that on the first appearance of these
measures they were viewed with some degree of prejudice.
—(Hear, hear.)—l know it may be objected to the mea-
sure which I have just haul the honour of stating to the
House, that it will bear more upon those West India pro-
prietors who are resident here than on those who are set-
tled in the colonies ; and that the proprieters here are most
anxious to adopt the recommendations of this House, hut
have no power of compelling the adoption of those recomo
nmendations by the colonists. I cannot conceive that the
West India proprietors resident in this country are so
totally without power or influence over the colonists them-
selves, as that objection seems to imply. But even if I
could suppose this to be true, the course I propose must
operate upon the colonies themselves ; and by giving a
worse mat ket to those who will not adopt our resolu-
tions, we must be sure to affect both the proprietors in
this country and in the colonies.—(Hear.)—l am ready
to say at once that I regret much we should be obliged to
press upon the West India proprietors in this country,
but we must resolve on some measure of this hind ; and
the course I propose will only injuriously affect those who
refuse to adopt the measure we have recommended ; for,
with respect to others, it would be an advantage, and the
colonies that are determined to resist the expressed wishes
of this Home, will alone be affected by the pressure of the
regulations I propose to adopt. It will be said, perhaps,
that these resolutions, like these we have before passed,
will have no effect. If so, then we will take other steps;
but I wish to try the measure in the first instance, as the
milder measure, as one that may be put in advance of
others of a stronger kind, to see at least what we can do
by the simple intimation of our resolution to carry our
wishes into effect ; and if this measure does not produce
the desired end, we must proceed further.—(Hear, bear.)
I prefer the proposition to that of my Hon. Friend, for to
a certain extent it has a different ohject in view, and at
time present moment I think we ought to urge nothing
more than an amelioration of the condition of the slaves,
with a view to timer ultimate emancipation. The propo-
sitions which have been pressed upon all the colonies have
been adopted, not indeed in all, but in those belonging to
the Crown, and sonic of the most important of them—
such as the compulsory emancipation, and the institution
of the office of Protector of Slaves, have been adopted in
the foreign colonies. The creation of the office of Pro-
hector of Slaves is a measure of a most important
kind, and the adoption of it is one great step to-
wards a practical amelioration of the condition of the
slaves. Allusion has biam made by the Honourable
Member for Dumfries-shire to the appointment of a Com-
mittee to inquire into the state of the negroes in the
Colonies. If I rested my case upon the argument of
their condition, and on that alone I should say that a
Committee might be a fit and proper mode for attain-
ing that argument alone. I think it is impossible to say
that a state of slavery, whether productive of a diminu-
tion in the amount of population, or of whatever other evil
it may be productive, is not to be regretted, and there is
no man in this House who will stand up and say that it
is a state which it is not desirable to get rid of.—(Hear,
hear.)—Every exertion ought to be made to rid us of
its presence.—(Cheers.)—Of the evils of i's existence we
are assured, and I do not therefore see the advantage of
appointing a Committee of Inquiry. The point on
which I put the case is, that these resolutions to which I
have referred, were unanimously agreed to eight years ago
—I put it on the orders of the Council, and on time adop-
tion of those orders in the Crown colonies—an adoption
which has been followed by nothing but the most benefi-
cial effects—and finally, on the fact that these resolutions
have been pressed upon the other colonies ; but they have
not been adopted. These are facts, Sir, which we do not
require a Committee of Inquiry to make out. We know
what are the laws that have been adopted in the Crown
colonies, and what are those that are in force in those
which possess legislative assemblies; and I therefore think
that a Committee of Inquiry would be useless, and that
this House, if it consults its own dignity, and the wishes
of the country, will do nothing but insist on the enforce
ment of the measures which they have desired should I.e
adopted.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. BURGE observed, that the importance of the ques-
tion must be manifest, when it was considered that the
colonial produce equalled an amount of sixteen millices
and all time property there was at stake when it was pro-
posed to be affected by legislative enactments in this
country. The Hon. Member who opened the discussion
wished for immediate emancipation, but the Noble Lord
opposite differed from him on that point, and desired to
proceed with greater caution, proposing to effect the
ulti-
mate object of emancipation by the means of gradual im-
provement. A great many charges had been made against
the colonists, but he denied that they took pleasure in cru-
elty, or that they administered the rules of justice by pu-
nishing crimes only when they were committed by parti-
cular persons. He insisted that some inquiry was neces-
sary before that House could pretend to legislate on this
subject, fur they knew absolutely nothing of the real con-
dition of the slaves at the present moment. There had
been no real inquiry since 1799, and therefore the House
was not in a state to pronounce judgment on time subject.
How was it possible to pretend, that in time short space of
twenty-two years a change of the most extensive kind had
taken place in the condition and character of the negroes,
for twenty-two years only had elapsed since their civiliza-
tion had really begun by the abolition of that infamous
slave trade, which had so long disgraced this country, and
which the colonists never wished to be continued.—(No,
no, no.) He repeated, that it had never been the wish
of the colonists that that trade should be continued : it
was time trade, not of the colonists, hut of those merchants
who had embarked their capital in the traffic of
slaves. The colonists of Jamaica were particularly
anxious for the abolition of the slave trade ; and if they
had succeeded in obtaining their wish some years earlier,
the condition of the slaves would have been by this time
much more ameliorated. He begged to remind the Hon.
Gentleman who had introduced this discussion, that the
resolution be had proposed went much farther than those
of Mr. C inning, in 1823 ; for that Right Hon. Gen-
tleman had never looked forty" rd to anything like an itn-
o (one Nionble thLeo crdro op-
positecolmediate emancipation, and he referred the question of
compulsory emancipation to the decision of the Colonial
Legislature.
onhad
Colonies,
b ttiot l
dtTlitelim
them
nl-1
Hoeneon.
whatoMemberugbhatto recollect that these ibeen i
i and the
colo-
nies could not be properly compared with the others, on
account of the peculiar differences of their extent and the
the old laws of the colony, while tinder the Spanish de-
ta,teneonurnetfiof rret,hi etior,
but population.
that
wasT
ahesepolanonigyh ocf Trinidad
olon3 had
,atib)
minion, the slaves were entitled to this species of compul-
sory manumission. The idea, therefore, of that manu-
mission was familiar to the minds of the slaves in Trini-
dad, and the enactment of a law fur that purpose by thei