The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-28 00:00:00

111 E; N DON. Tfatj LIN M.S.,

1
DAAY
fromthe 11Thratng Papers,Julji p 8,1825.
• -

E TIMES-1
FTDI`II a Return of the Slave population of the
BtittiNColonies, it appears that the slaves of our
Vlre‘stqiiilia possessions, including those of Deme-
rainiirmitinted, by the last statements, to 552,400,
and the slave inhabitants' of the Cape of Good:
Hcie and' the ' Mauritius to 120,694—t0ta1,
6,7,3,C:94, Such is, or was, pot long ago, the eX,
tent of the responsibility incurred by England-
on
the score of Negro, bondage: In the detailS,
ho"weer, of this report, there are one or two
poiiitS worth considering. Our West lndia
islands, with the single exception of Trinidad,
present an excess of females over males ; not
great, indeed, but as compared with every free
pop9ition that :we have heard of, sufficiently
sensible and striking. In Barbadoes, for instance,
where' the number of slaves is but 78,816, the
females are 42,657, yielding a surplus over the
_
malei of about 6,500, or nearly one-twelfth of
the who'e. The exposure of the males to more
laborioui work, is one cause, perhaps, for
this inversion of the ratio observable between the
sexes in free communities. Jamaica, again, ex-
bibits a much nearer approach to equality. In
a gross, population of 336,000, the excess of fe-
males is not more than 3,000, or 1-12th of the
, Nshole. Still, however, the difference, though
inconsiderable, is against the males,—a condition
of saciety which ovres'its production to some cause
not usually acting upon mankind when in a state
of peace and freedom. At the same time it may
be necesiatty to observe, that the existing dis-
proportion is not such as to discourage the pro:
spects of the black population mantaining itself
fully* at its present level, and thus removing all
pretext for murmurs at the want of an adequate
supply of cultivators for the colonies. It affords
presumpsire proof, moreover, that the laws
against the slave trade have not been violated, on
the part of our own countrymen in the West
Indies, inasmuch as a large excess of male ne-
trioes could only have resulted from importa-
tion. fit Trinidad, the males exceed the fe-
antles by, 3,400, in a population of 23,000.;
but the abolition of the slave-trade began
to operate in Trinidad more recently than in
the old colonies of Great Britain. The same
cause (that of recent conquest) has occasioned
at the Cape of Good Hope a large surplus of
male over female slaves; but the gradual decease
of the unmarried bondsmen will in a few yetars
bring the two sexes upon a more. natural level as
to numbers. The excess of males in the Mau-
ritius, by the last returns (so long ago as 1816),
was frightful-55,000 to 29,000 females : the
overplus of men was' an infallible consequence
of an obstinate and heartless prosecution of the
slave.trade, for the end of extracting the utmost
possible amount of work from the labourer, of
feiding no superfluous mouths, and of repairing
tlie waste of human life, not by the encourage-
ment of marriage and its consolatory influences,
butby a repetition of the same atrocious villainy
through which the victims successively destroyed
had been originally dragged to the sacrifice.—
'this, thank God,,will be a reproach to us no
lottger.

(Barri* ittEss..l
.Under the auspices of the New Catholic Assc-.
ciatiOn, the primary object of which fwe are told
is to promote peace and union, an aggregate as-
sembly of the Catholics of Wexford. has been
Wald that town. It was digniEed we believe
with the denomination ant county meeting, but
ittmight, with just as much propriety, have been
termed a meeting Of the whole kingdoni. It
was, in fact, as these assemblages usually are, a
collection of as many persons in the immediate
neighbourhood as had time and inclination to at-
tend it. 'Mr.-O'Connell was present at the corn-
intncerrient of the proceedings, but he was called
away to his profeSSional duties. Mr Shell, who
had no such reason for being absent, devoted his
talents), for want of another market, to the .good
ofhts country, and having the field for once wholly
to himself, he laboured with extravagant zeal to
compensate, with his 64 superhuman talents,"
fer4'theloss the meeting sustained in the expected
diiplay of his more profitably employed friend.
lit order to promote ".public peace and tranquil-
lity,_ as well as private harmony and concord
'Moog all classes of his Majesty's subjects
th'tiSngtiout Ireland," and especially we suppose
tV*ement' the 'connexion between the two court-
whO, be it remembered, stood at
tite'balloted.top.of the list balloed by the Catlio-
rics olDublin for'the formation of the new As*
and who may therefore be fairly pre-
Smiled to'enjoy their confidence and express their
sentiments more fully even than Mr. O'Connell,
who was several degrees below him on that occa-
sidti the eitirnation of their associates—Mr.
54011 hegan his, speech at Wexford,of which we
have elsewhere given an abstract, with one of the
moat exasperating, and we had almost said seili-
tiiius allnSions to -what he termed " English do-
atinatinn,'! that we ever remember to have read.
• All" the disasters and degradation of Ireland" he
• akeribed torthis.single'sou'rce Of evil ; and lest it
rnighthave beef( imagined that lie spoke only of
ditYs thdrare passed, We find that heconcluded the
- , first period of his exaggerated and inflammatory
iddrPis by sayitip,r, .pointing at the same time to
Fitz-Stephen's Tower:—" The policy of Eng-
Lind 'is a.g'diialtered as that barbarous hold, and
. the* Norman Baron who raised it'on that rock did
a•More oppressive arm than' the monster
.4110.5-ways OAS ill.4ared lend with an iron rule,
.Ttie'snirit of Strongbow lives in the heart of Li-
, VerlYpot and, the gauntlet of Fitz-Stepheri was
•. • not—m.bre heavythfin'the hand of Peef.l' This
leiindoiabtediy :an 'admirable method of taming
..; th&passloits and raisingthe mind of a quickly ex-
cltiedspealile their influence and controul.
- ••Nuf MY. Shell!, with the effect he was produclng
kninediately tinder his eyes, vehemently denies
ttitit irk •riiltes,tO provoke a- crisis, nisi" he
Ada' ins'y -66 is not the 'ebullition of a mind fer-
rOnting;With bail and foureinotions—none but the
utterly d&speriite:can-desiei a tonvulSion; which
would be in all likelihood as unavailing as it