The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-29 00:00:00

BRUSSELS PAPERS.

BRUSSELS, DEC. 24.—The Minister of War has
authorized the Colonels of regiments to allow from
ten to fifteen men per company to go to their homes,
on furlough, for a fortnight.
General Piquet leaves Brussels tomorrow, to re-
turn to France.

We ate assured that several manufacturers of this
city have just addressed a petition to the Govern-
ment., in order to obtain bounties on the exportation
of their manufactures.
Hitherto no official information has come to con-
firm the non-ratification of the twenty-four articles
by Russia.
We are informel that from the Ist of January, to
the Ist of December of 1830, the number of boats
that passed through our city (Tourney) was 5,993.
From the Ist of January to Ist December, 1831, it
was only 3,742.—Tourney Journal.
The King received a courier to-day at noon.
His Majesty immediately sent for General Desprez.
A letter from the Hague of December 18, says,
" The army is reinforced daily, and the Government
is said to intend, in case of necessity, to call out the
2d ban of the militia, which would add to the at my
36,000 men, and in the case of a general arming to
call out the Landwehr, amounting to at least 100,000
men. Since the month of July our coasts are de-
fended by 300 pieces of cannon, and the magazines
are amply stocked with ammunition, The Go-
vernment is said to have approved of a plan for in-
unda:iiig the country, which might be carried into
effect very promptly, and for which all measures are
taken. It is reported that seventy merchantmen are
to be armed, and that there will be a great promotion
in the army."
A Liege journal of the 231 says, that a person,
whose testimony may be relied on, affirms that he
had heard that morning very distinctly, for a quarter
of an hour, the report of cannon in the direction of
Maestrieht.

ANTWERP, DEC. 23.—The Court of Assizes ha,
to-day been engaged in the affa'r of the persons (five
in number) indicted for acts of pillage.

NEWPORT, ISLE OF WIGHT.

HORRORS OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

(From the Brighton Guardian.)

A public meeting was held on Tuesday even-
ing, the 20th inst., at the late Choral Society's
Concert Room, at which Capt. C. Stuart, a
native of America, but now of and from Lon-
don, delivered a very interesting lecture on
Negro Slavery, to 300 or 400 people. Captain
S. is connected with a few other gentlemen in
town, who have resolved to apply their time,
talents, and property, as far as they possibly can,
for the immediate abolition of slavery. Most
of the I\linisters of the town were present, and
the meeting was both respectable and numerous,
and he was listened to with a profound attention,
and was frequently cheered. His lecture was
preceded and followed by a very short extempore
prayer. He began by stating that there were
many things wrong in their own nature, which
no length of custom, force of laws, learning, or
talent, ever could make right ; they might be
legalized ; but where that was the case, there law
had taken a part against right. One of these
was slavery, by which he meant any kind of
forced servitude against the will and interest of
the persons so bound. Such a one might have
all that could pamper his body and indulge his
lusts; yet so long as he was thus kept, except
for crime, so long would human happiness be
subverted. Negro slavery, he said, was a pecu-
liar slavery ; it has features of deeply-rooted
atrocity ; so much so that he found nothing
similar to it in the world—no, nothing in the
most barbarous nations was like that which
exists i❑ the British Colonies. Every principle
in the laws of Great Britain frowns upon it, nor
do the colonial charters sanction it ; they say
nothing shall be done contrary to the laws of
England ; so that nothing is wanting but to set
them free, to bring them back to the laws of the
laud. The law which holds them in bondage
is, custom and one or two acts of Chancery in
this country legalizing the acts of slavery in other
countries, and they have no more right to keep
them in slavery than the Cannibals have to kill
and eat each other. The ground is that of de-
spising God and wronging their brethren. They
have a prison in every state, which serves also
for an hospital, some of which have dungeons
attached to them. The masters and mistresses
have the same legal title to flog their slaves when-
ever they please. He referred particularly to
Jamaica. There a master can inflict 39 lashes,
while an underling can inflict but ten ; he added,
" but you would have but a very faint idea of
the suffering if you suppose that each lash is no
heavier than that of a cat-o'-nine-tails ; for a
gentleman of the House of Assembly in Ja-
maica, a Mr. Barrett, has stated that 39 lashes
from one of these whips (C. S. showing some
of the whips whose thongs, some of rope and
one of white leather, nine and te❑ and a half
feet long without the handle, which is sometimes
four feet long) may be made as severe as 500
lashes from a cat-'o-nine-tails." He then re-
ferred to a document by one of the Governors,
dated February 18th, 1831, stating that a Mr.
Bridges had beaten, kicked, and caused one Kitty
Hilton, a domestic slave, to be most in-
humanly flogged for a trifling omission of
part of her master's orders in cooking a
turkey. It was so very bad that it was brought
before what is called a council of protection
and these consisted of slave-masters I ! Dr.
Stenuett was swor❑ ; he had seen her ; she had
two black eyes and her body bore very severe
marks of punishment. Henry Cookson, Esq.
sworn, stated that he had never seen any thing
so severe of the kind before ; her clothes were so
bloody that they were burnt that no one might
see them. And yet there was no sufficient cause
to try Mr. Bridges. lie then referred to
their power to sell their slaves, and how often
it happened on such occasions that the father
was severed from the mother, and the children
from their parents. In proof he read from one of the
India newspapers an advertisement, " Wanted,
a quantity of old copper,. and for sale a young
man, an excellent baker, and his mother, a good
washerwoman, and may be sold separately or to-
gether,—a trial allowed." This is from the
slave-masters' own paper. He then glanced
at Antigua, where twenty years ago a great
number of slaves were deserted by their owners
and perished. He next spoke of a widow
and an infant who were deserted by their
master who came to England, and in time when
the infant had grown up to be able to support
her mother, the master's wife, sent out an order
and had the daughter sold away from her mother
for a few paltry guineas. He then spoke of a
slave who was drawing near his home and heard
the cries of his wife, from the lashes of the driver
who was punishing her; he knocked the driver
down, and for that offence was immediately hung
in the sight of his wife. This was legal ! ! A
Mr. Betty was threatening a young roan to send
him to Rodney workhouse ; his sister heard the
threat, and knowing the manager, and the danger
to which her brother was exposed, could not
help heaving a sigh. Her master had her thrown
down, exposed, and flogged before all the other
slaves ! ! But may not the negro fly from the .