The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-31 00:00:00

by making them pass through a medium state was the most absurd
nut se Ise that had ever been imposed on a gullible nation—(Hear)—fir
he knew that wherever slavery in any form existed, whether as convicts
or as slaves, it was associated with the idea of disgrace in the minds of
those who were themselves free. Such was the case in the penal settle-
ments of the country, where a free labourer could scarce be induced to
work; such also was the case in Barbadoes, where the whites would
suffer any destitution than do the labour performed by slaves. These
were his opinions ; and having adopted them, he endeavoured to bring
them before the Government of the day. In doing so he strongly urged
the necessity of csnceding the measure of emancipation whole and en-
tire, without any limitations, and without any restrictions ; but, at the
same time, he was not so sanguine as to hope even that the deep-rooted
prejudices of years, backed by the weight of high and disinterested
authority, would disappear before his arguments, or yield to his convic.
tions. He had, however, very cheering hopes that his view of the ques-
tion would be relopted ; and several members of the Cabinet gave him
reason to suppose that they would act on it; but it turned out otherwise.
It was a perfectly notot ions fact that the measure laid before his Noble
Friend, which omitted all mention of compensation, was so
strenuously threatened with the opposition of the West India
interest, that the Government did not deem it wise or prudent
to adopt any of its provisions.—(Hear, hear, hear.) He (Lord
Howick) finding it, under these circumstances, hopeless to struggle
against so many adverse powers, relinquished his intention in conse-
quence of the opinions so strongly expressed by influential members of
the Government unfavourable to his plan. It was not, in his belief, any
betrayal of the secrets of office whets he stated that the Noble Lord who
then tilled the office of Lord High Chancellor (Lord Brougham) consi-
dered it as dangerous because it was too extensive—that he opposed it
solely on those grounds, and that it was his opposition that proved fatal
to it. The exertions of that Noble Lord in behalf of the negroes before
he took office had given the greatest possible weight to his opinions on
the subject of emancipation, and, therefore, his opposition put an end to
all further hopes of success in the matter. He (Lord Howick) felt that
he could then hold office no longer with credit to himself or advantage
to the country. A change, however, took place in the interim, and his
Noble Friend opposite (Lord Stanley) took office. Three weeks subse-
quently the Noble Lord introduced the resolutions on which the present
motion was founded. These resolutions, as he had already stated, had re-
ceived the acquiescence of the House on their introduction,as far as theprin-
ple of apprenticeship was concerned. The then Member for Sheffield
(Mr. Buckingham), and perhaps forty or fifty others, might on that oc.
casion have joined with him (Lord Howick) in his protest against it,
but at least nine-tenths of the House were in its favour. The whole
question under discussion hinged 011 this historical fact. The manner
in which the measure was introduced by the Government, and enter-
tained by those who had all through consistently advocated the cause of
negro freedom gave all those interested in slave property a strong foun-
dation for believing that during the limited period prescribed by the
law for apprenticeship there would be no alteration made in the Act by
the authority of Parliament. But that was not all. When the
Act reached the colonies it was well known that the local
legislation were by no means favourable to the system of apprentice-
ship and that they were much divided among !themselves as to whether
immediate emancipation would not be the better for all parties. The
least countenance from the Government at the time, the least rigour
as to the term of the compensation, would have induced the Assemblies
ti,l grant a total emancipation. If any man would take the trouble of
looking at the files of the Jamaica papers at the period, he would find
that there was then a very strong party in the House• of Assembly
Of that island in favour of unconditional freedom to the negroes. In-
deed it was very doubtful that it would not have taken place if the Go.
velmr had not rather discouraged than encouraged the idea, from a be-
lief that hp was parrying out the intentions of the Government at home.
le, then, this was the state of the case, would it be just to overturn now
the arrangement thqs called into existence and thus sanctioned 2 It was
alleged, he was aware, by the Honourable and Learned Member for
Dublin and others, that there was no contract in being, and that if
there had been it was broken by the planters. But that allegation had
been eoMpletelY disproved by the arguments of his Right Honourable
Friend the Member fer Devonport in the debate of the preceding night.
for his own part, that his surprise arose
He (Lord Howiels) cOnfeSsed,
from the circumstance not of their being so much ground for complaint,
but that the system in itself had worked so prosperously, and in his opi-
nion the Leflisiglife had great cause to congratulate itself that the diffi.
culties which had been eneountered were not of a more serious and insur.
mountable character. He did pet wish to be understood as implying an
opinion that the law should stand a it did, or that the pecuniary interests
of the masters should make the House reject the motion. On the contrary
he should hail with joy the immediate termination of the state of ap.
prentieeship ; but he desired it to be terminated by the local I.egisla.
tures, and net by Parliament ; and is to the pecuniary interests of the
planters, he had les fear that the just claims of the negroes could be shut
out by any compact between the Imperial Legislature and their mas-
ters. Under all the existing circumstances of the case, it seemed to him
now to be of the highest importance to all parties, as well as to the
country, that the change to take place in two years should take place
without any sudden or violent interruption of the industry of the colo-
nies. It was important not alone to the masters, but to the apprentices
themselves; for their true happiness, their real interest, consisted not
in escaping from their present bandage to a state of barbarous indolence,
but in assuming a station which would induce them to continue their
habits of industry for their own benefit, and ultimately give them a
position in a civilised community. The arrival of this result
would, however, be most materially retarded by the alienation
of the two classes from each other--a result which could not
fail to ensue from the adoption of the motion. If the masters
and apprentices were at enmity now, the consequences would
be deeply injurious to the future happiness and prosperity of
both. The motion of the Hon. Baronet was the best calculated to pro.
duce that state of discord of any which could be proposed to the House.
If it were passed there would be an authorised condemnation by Par-
liament of the conduct of the masters since 1833, and it would stigma.
tize them to the world as oppressors. The House had no right to take
such a course—to condemn them in their absence. The course he (Lord
Howick) would desire to adopt would be that of giving them the oppor-
tunity of doing the act -of grace themselves by emancipating the appren-
tices. It was admitted that new lewd would be necessary, in case of
total emancipation ; and yet the House was called on to stultify the re-
port of its own Commission by the Hon. Baronet's motion. To adopt
it now would be turn round and inflict the cruelest injustice not alone
on the white population of the colonies, but on the negro population
itself. It was on these grounds, and not on such low and despicable
ones as the pecuniary interests of the toasters or of the apprentices,
that he opposed the motion. He opposed it because, having induced
the colonists without any wish of their own to accept our views, we
were bound in honour and strict justice not to alter them in such
a manner as to inflict a permanent and lasting injury on their in-
terests, It was on this matter that the measure of his Noble Friend in
1833 entirely failed. What he (Lord Howick) considered as of the
greatest importance was the shape which society would assume in the
colonies when emancipation should be complete. The fault of his
Noble Friend's measure was to make it take place under the greatest
disadvantages. By deferring immediate emancipation the gratitude of
the whites for their compensation, and the gratitude of the blacks for the
boon of their freedom, would be forgotten, and instead of both being in
good humour with each other, at the expiration of the proposed period,
they would, from the relation in which they were placed towards each
other fora space of six years—the mutual ill.will, and bickerings, and
bad blood which was sure to ensue in that time—be in quite a contrary
temper, and more inclined to oppose each other than to co-operate for
their mutual benefit. These were the anticipation, he had formed at
the outset of his Noble Friend's measure, and, as far as the matter
has as yet gone, they had been fully realised.—(Hear, hear.) By
the course, however, which the Honourable Baronet proposed to
take this alienation would be carried to the highest possible pitch be-
tween the parties. That would assuredly be the effect of his resolution.
Its adoption would exasperate the feeling of ill-will unhappily so preys.
lent at present between the masters and their apprentices into a state of
bitter and painful and porpetuous endurance. To take it would be to
abandon the chance which still existed of the Colonial Legislature corn.
ing forward of their own accord and granting early emancipation to the
apprentices—a chance that he did not believe by any means improbable.
Indeed there was every reason to hope that such a consummation would
take place, and a very strong inducement to it would be found in the
passing of the Bill before the House. The restrictions imposed on the
planters by it would make them give up the system of compulsory la-
bour, and seek for other and better influence over their apprentices.
Hid knew the House was of a different feeling, but he was of opinion
that harsh measures had been dealt out to the Colonial Assemblies.
Their measures, no doubt, were as bad as they could well be; but.
he might be permitted to doubt whether if, in their place, that
House would, under all the circumstances, have legislated better.
He believed that the fault was far less in the Colonial Legislation
than in the object to which they were called on to direct those efforts.
An impossible task had been set them, and they were called on to re.
concile contradictions by being made to preserve the right of one man
to the compulsory labour of another, and by being required to provide
against any abuse of the power necessarily accompanying that right.
That was the true secret of their bad legislation. Under the new
state of things contemplated by the immediate abolitionists the planters
would naturally say, "We shall derive no profit from the negroes'
exertions, and so we cannot consent to cripple our hands, and to
give up the only choice loft us by the British Parliament." But
when, by the new Bill, she power of annoyance was taken away from
the planters, he thfught it highly probable that the House of
Assembly in Jamaica would say that it was of more advantage to
them to give up the apprenticeship altogether and try free labour
instead. It was of the greatest consequence that both masters
and apprentices should coalesce to arrive at voluntary labour, and
all their experience in the West Indies proved that the negroes
were equally susceptible of being acted on by the motives
which influenced free labourers in this country. The opinions pro.
mulgated by Gibbon I'Vakley eight years ago respecting the equal capa-
bility of the negro in all industrious pursuits, had been since fully sus-
tained by every candid observer. He thought that the proceedings of
those who called themselves the advocates of the Colonial interest, ap-
peared to be guided rather by passion than by sober judgment. They
had allowed themselves to brood over fancied wrongs and sufferings of
the negros till they had worked themselves up into what he must call a
vindictive feeling against the planters, which they had allowed to mingle
with those better motives springing from pure humanity to the negroes.
They all knew how deceitful was the human heart, and how easily vir.
Wes graduated to their opposites. It appeared to him that their feelings
had been suffered, by long dwelling on the sabject, to grow into some.
thing of resentment against the great class of proprietors in those colo-
nies, who, When they were most wrong, should still be looked on with
compassion as also the victims of the sins of the British Legislature.—
(Hear, hear.) They arid their ancestors had been, by their position,
necessarily exposed to the moral blight which corrupts the air wherever
slavery is allowed to exist. We had no right to visit with harshness
the sharers of our crimes, who had also become our victims.—(Hear.)
Let us now treat with firmness, but not with injustice, those whom we
had previously encouraged to become oppressors, and we might thus, by
dispensing equal and considerate protection to both, hope to convert the
districts which had resounded with the clang of chains, and were yet a
reproach to British Legislation, into enlightened and religious commu-
nities.—(Hear, hear.) lie must, in conclusion, warn them of the con.
fusion they would create by a precipitate abolition, and the responsibility
which attached even to a single vote; for the effect even of a small
minority in favour of this untimely proposition might have an effect in
unsettling the minds of the negro population that nothing could repair,
and for which nothing could compensate.—(Cheers.)
Dr. LUSHINOTON said that the Hon. Baronet (Sir G. Grey) In
his speech of the previous night. Maintained that the contract had not
been violated, except in a few trifling instances, such as chaining and
handcuffing women, increasing the hours of labour, and decreasing the
food, and other matters, for which his Bill would prove a remedy. He
did not know what his Noble Friend (Lord Howick) thought of the con-
tract which had been laughed to scorn In the colonies, but he agreed
with him that the whole question should be looked at, taut with respect
to any petty pecuniary consideration, but entirely with a view to the
hehefit of the apprentice. The Noble Lord was originally opposed to
the ~E4ein of apprenticeship altogether, and had stated his opposition,
when the syetenj was first proposed, in a speech which should be read
over and over again. The Noble Lord had now told the House that all
k 4
terns t, f
9re a
taken place, and now that he was
tLateztil:,o haendtahehnalfroyreeasrasw la.
theoi eltrentieeship being yet unex-
pired, to pas. tome measure to root out those evils, and 'wore the negro
to his rights, he said, 1! ;',lo, I have a great respect for Colonial Legisia,
Je!mres—they have acted just gs i thot,ght they would have done—they
1
ctoonsteinourne,. alTl,stettaade
of putting an gn4 tp ow things,
tfeg 14,7 to let all this mutual
jheaavloeusiYuagnild i editi4youg
:he Noble Lord proposed £8 ups an Act to render it impossible Ps-Waal:AY to
e system of apprentieeNsik• WAS this fair ? was it candid
eats; on ,‘..:'
or just ? it w,.s traiuty of Parliament to respect. kil mg aubjects of the
.:.
empire, and it was bound to
;,,;!slats as well for the interests of the MO'
tore as for the comforts of the Regret, jn order to prove his own con-
sistency, the Learned Gentleman here read 90 extr„.,:t from a speech he
had delivered on the Beth of July, 1833, in the House of C,orrapras, in
the course of which he 104 strongly objected to the apprenticeship pro'
Iposition. In November last apP4etiuti Was made to Mr. Buxton to
take part in the agitation of this subject. He replied that though he
agreed In the principle of 004tion, yet before he piped in any attempt