The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-05 00:00:00

English and French, and that the latter were soured and ir-
ritated by a long continuance of insult heaped on them.
He would, indeed, have been to blame if he bad not les-
sened the insults, but he went so far in that direction as
to call forth the most intemperate hostility from the oppo-
nents of the French. The British part of the Canadian po-
pulation, as is natural, was seconded by the public here,
and the manner in which Lord Joint RUSSELL'S resolu-
tions were supported in 1837, both in Parliament and out
of Parliament, is a convincing proof that Lord GLENELG
had gone as far as was possible on the Liberal side. How-
ever much the extreme Radicals may regret the present
state of public opinion, it is palpable, by the success of the
Canada Government Bill, that the coercive or British po-
licy, as it is called, as to Canada, is still supported by the
bulk of the nation. Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH and his
friends lay it down as the main principle of their poli-
tical creed that the majority must govern the whole. But
the Ministers as to Canada have had the great majority of
the empire with them, and have acted strictly in accordance
with the Radical principle of governing by the majority.
Sir WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, however, and his friends
censure them for not acting in opposition to the great
majority, and in accordance with the opinions embraced by
a party which is represented by about seven Members of
the House of Commons, and in such a borough as Mary-
lebone, by 187 electors. In Sir WILLIAM and his friends
this is grossly inconsistent, and they ought either to give up
the great principle of governing by the majority and contend
for the dominion of a narrow Oligarchy, because
it adopts their opinions, or they ought to abstain from
attacking Lord GLENELG. For the Radicals to censure
him, because our colonial system of administration was in-
judiciously framed originally, while he has administered it
as much as possible, in their sense is both imprudent and
unjust.

of August came, and the day was kept as a sacred holiday.
All the churches were crowded from early dawn. Five or six
times that day was each of the churches filled and emptied in
succession with multitudes who came to render thanks to God
for their liberation. In that island where the bounty of nature
seemed to provoke the appetite to indulgence, and to scatter
with a profuse hand all the means of excitement, not one
negro was, on that Ist day of August, found in a state of intoxi-
cation."

It might be supposed that such a display of Christian
meekness, and forgiveness of injuries on the part of eman-
cipated negroes, would have touched with compassion the
hearts of their cruel task-masters. It might naturally be
concluded that upon finding that they sustained no pecu-
niary disadvantage from the emancipatio❑ of the slaves,
independently of the compensation fund, which thus became
so much clear gain, the planters would have taken pains to
conciliate the affections of a race over whom they could not
long hope to exercise even a limited uncontrouled authority.
But no. The system of terror—of cruelty and bloodshed—is
still rife in the Colonies ; and atrocities are committed, as
monstrous as any that ever disgraced those Colonies when
slavery was the law, not only of England, but of the whole
world. Take an instance cited by Lord BaouGuAm :
" I have, within the last two hours, amid the new mass ofpapers
laid before your Lordships within the last forty-eight hours,
culled a sample which, I believe, represents the whole
odious mass. Eleven females had been flayed and scourged
with the lash, put upon the tread-mill, and compelled to work
until nature giving way, they were suspended by the arm, so
that each revolution of the wheel inflicted new wounds on
their members, and thus these eleven females were left, to use
the most emphatic language, to die a lingering death. I
would ask your Lordships the reason why these things were not
stigmatised as crimes' I would ask you why they were unvi-
sited with punishment ? Or were they visited ? No ! The forms
of justice were gone through, coroner's inquests were held—
eleven inquisitions were holden, eleven juries empannelled,
eleven verdicts returned. Were they murder—manslaughter
—misconduct even? No. " Died by the Visitation of God."
Perjury—blasphemy ! The visitation of God ! Yes, they
died by the visitation of God, for all visitations of the kind,
all acts of that Divine Being, by which the inscrutable pur-
poses of his will are worked out, are from Heaven. Yea,
even that most mysterious, and inscrutable, and appalling
power consigned by him for a time to the hand of the wicked
—the power to torment their fellow creatures. But if there
were one visitation of that Omnipotent Being more inscrutable
than another it was when the heavens rained on the earth—not
scorpions, nor famine, nor plague, nor war—but worse than
all these put together—perverters of the law, unjust judges,
perjured jurymen, who, to gratify their owe evil propensities,
their own vile passions, took part with the criminal against the
victim—made law a curse where it should be a blessing—and
forswore themselves on God's Gospels, in order that justice
might not be done the oppressed."
Our readers may naturally suppose that the above, after
all, is an isolated case of cruelty—that it is a case of which
there is nothing in the spirit of the Colonial administration
of the law to provoke the recurrence. They are mistaken :
and we need only pray them to examine the following Out-
line of the manner in which the forms of justice are
gone through in the Colonies, to be convinced that every
encouragement is held out to the perpetrators of such
cruelties to continue them. Lord BROUGHAM thus
described the form of administering justice, or rather of
perverfng both the forms and substance of equity in the
Colonies, and not a whisper was heard in refutation of a
syllable that fell from him :
" The whites are the Judges. The puisne Judges are
chosen on the spot and appointed by the planters themselves.
The whites, too, are the jurors who prefer the bills against
sshites for she maltreatment of blacks—the jurors who try
the slaves thernselves—the magistrates, the jailors, the turn-
keys—in short, the whole apparatus of justice, both admistra-
tir•e and executive, is in the hands of one class. What is
the consequence ? No b.lls are found against them. Six
bills were vreferred for murder end bad manslaughter at one
assizes, and every one of them was thrown out. The same
thing having happened so frequently wagers were offered that
all the bills would be thrown out, and no one fortunately
accepted the bet, for all the bilis were ignored. The House
roust be perfectly aware that, in the proceedings before the
grand jury, not one tittle of evidence can be heard in favour
of the prisoner. Consequently all the testimony must be
against the prisoner. Even in the worst cases of murder, as
certainly and plainly committed as the sun shines at noon-
day, monstrous to all, the bills were thrown out, when half
the witnesses for the proaecution remained to be examined
The whole system of punishments. too, is monstrous. Thirty-
nine lashes for the vague, indefinite, and incapable-of-being-
defined offence of insolence; 29 lashes for the more grave, and
certainly more definite, crime of carrying a small knife in the
pocket ; three months' imprisonment, or 30 lashes, for the
equally grave offence of cutting off the shoot of a cane plant."
To remedy an evil so monstrous, Lord BROUGHAM has
proposed that the apprenticeship of the Negroes shall ex-
pire in 1838—two years earlier than the period flxed by
the Emancipation Act. In answer to the objection that
the Jamaica apprentices are not fit to be entrusted with
their freedom, and that consequently outrages would follow
were their fetters entirely removed, the Noble and Learned
Lord referred to Antigua, where the system of apprentice-
ship was not adopted, the slaves having been set at once at
full liberty. We give the passage in his Lordship's own
words—carrying, as they must, conviction to every mind
not under the influence of the worst prejudices :

We should be perfectly at ease as to the issue were we
not convinced that the Tories will take advantage of Sir
WILLIAM'S imprudence to repeat on an imperial scale
the Marylebone election. The Radicals played that
borough into the hands of the Tories, and Sir WILLIAM
wishes apparently to play the administration into their
hands. That election the Times of this morning tells us
was the success of the Church party, and the return of the
Tories to office will be its complete triumph. Surely
the Dissenters and the Radicals of Leeds and
Westminster did not send Sir WILLIAM MoLEswowrll
and Mr. LEADER into Parliament, to turn out their friends
though they be lukewarm, and carry into office their most
deadly foes ? The Church party is now rampant, proud of
the many defeats it has inflicted on Ministers, who are sup-
ported by Dissenters and Catholics, and let it only succeed
by the motion of Sir WILLIAM NIOLESWORTH, in placing
its friends in administration, and all hope of the extinc-
tion of Church rates, must be at once at an end. Indeed,
we should not he surpeised if the repeal of the Registration
and Dissenters' Marriage Acts were to be amongst the
first measures proposed by the Church party, after
the return of the Tories to office. If the high-church
and Tory party be as consistent as it is sirulent
it must go further, and ask for the expulsion of the
Catholics from Parliament, and the re-enactment of the
Test. Act. Oa that party Sir ROBERT PEEL depends, and
we doubt whether he, if placed in office by its means, would
be able to resist its influence. Thus the popu-
lar representatives of Leeds and Westminster, by their
inccnsistent and unjust attack on Lord GLENELG,
run the risk of placing their Dissenting and Radical
constituencies once more under the roof of high Church
and Tory tyranny. If they expect that this will be a
passport to greater influence and power they will be griev-
ously mistaken, and the first effect we believe of their suc-
cess will be that their dee( ived and injured constituents
will call on them to accept the Chiltern Hundreds, and
eon ign them to that oblivion they will well deserve. AN
the Radicals are deeply interested in preventing the suicide
of these misled gentlemen ; and we trust that no one will
to-morrow night be absent from his pest.

In resuming our comments upon the debate in the House
of Lords, on the 20th ult., on the Slave question, we have
to repeat the expression of our regret, that Lord BROUGHAM
—whose admirable speech on that occasion has been re-
printed in a separate form by the Messrs. RIDGWAY—
did not make such of his resolutions as referred to the
working of the Colonial Emancipation Act the subject of
a distinct and separate motion. By confounding in the
public mind—proverbial for the difficulty with which
it can master more than a single idea at a time—the crimes
of the planters with the horrible atrocities of the slave traffic-
kers, the Noble and Learned Lord so diminished, by the
haze of an imperfectly understood contrast, the guilt of the
former, as almost wholly to exonerate them from that repro-
bation, which would be sure to have followed a separate de-
tail of the evils of the apprenticeship system. We are fully
aware that the Noble and Learned Lord was influenced
by excellent motives in coupling questions which we think
ought to have been kept separate. We know that it
was not his Lordship's wish to raise a popular clamour
against the planters exclusively, and that he especially de-
sired that the Government might have an opportunity of
doing justice to the emancipated negroes, without the im-
putation of being swayed by external influences. But
surely the Noble and Learned Lord never supposed
that the Ministerial pledge which he received for the re-
dress of colonial grievances would be more tardily fulfilled,
were the Government really in dread of a powerful pressure
from without. We at least must say, that Ministerial
pledges arc never so entirely redeemed to our satisfaction
as when we can discern the stalwart form of the people in
the back-ground in an exacting attitude ; and judging from
the proceedings in the House of Lords Thursday night,on the
presentation of the anti-slavery petitions, the Noble and
Learned Lord already begins to feel that he trusted too
much to the voluntary action of the Cabinet.
But by whatever motives of delicacy Lord BROUGHAM
might have been influenced, it is the duty of the
Public Press to deal honesty and fearlessly with
this question—and especially to expose any crimi-
nality on the part of colonists, whose humanity
we have purchased at a price the most extravagant ever re-
corded in the annals of philanthropy. Having paid twenty
millions of money, to obtain a mitigation of the crime of
man claiming a property in the flesh of his brother, it is but
just that we should exact a rigid fulfilment of the contract—
that we should carefully watch over the welfare of those
fellow-beings to whom we have given the hope of
being soon placed on a footing of social equality with our-
selves—and who, under circumstances the most trying,
have proved themselves so worthy of our protection. Long
and bitter as was the period of their slavery—deep and in-
delible as must have been the recollection of their wrongs,
the first dawn of liberty among the negrocs was stained by
no outrage—no act of retaliatory vengeance. Who can We direct the attention of our commercial readers to
read the following touching account of the conduct of the the third half-yearly Report of the Directors of the
coloured race on the Ist of August 1834, and not feel how Southampton Dock Company, which will be found in
much more slavery degrades the soul of the oppressor than
our columns of this day. Any verbal comment of ours
the oppressed—how
.much more worthy the negro popu-
upon the details of a document, drawn up with such evident
lation of our West Indian colonies were of that liberty care and ability would be superfluous ;
but we cannot, there-
which was so long withheld from them, than the majority fore, withhold the expression of the lively interest we
r
of the tyrants who kept them in bondage. We can imagine
take in the success of a project calculated to confer
the inward delight with which Lord BROUGHAM pro-
nouns the following realization of the fondest hope of a lasting benefit upon the country, and Particularly upon
the Slave gmencipationists : the trade of London. Monopolists, we are aware, will
"The Istsef Augest came, that day so confidently and joyously cry out about the danger to existing interests ; but we can
anticipated by the peter slaves, and eo sorely dreaded by their discover no grounds for serious alarm upon that score. It
hard taskmasters, and if ewer there were a picture interesting is quite possible to quadruple the trade of Southampton,
to look noes-.3f sever there were a paecage in the history of
a people that e0u,141. redound to their hoteour—if ever there and yet inflict no commercial injury upon Bristol, Liver-
were a complete refutation ,of the scandalous eeelumnies which Pool, or any other provincial harbour in the king-
for ages had been heaped npmethat helpless race,,as a kind of 0 dom. For several weeks during the present winter
flimsy justification a. the wrongs ,which they had one them, ,all the vessels were ice-bound in the Thames, and a
that picture and that passage are t© he found in the unVorm and
ee ~.„_
gnatt .on of trade was the inevitable consequence. Dur-
tranquil history of that day over the whole of the West India
islands, Instead of the tires of rebellion, lighted by gesense ; mg this period the Report states that the Harbour of South-
of lawless revenge and resistance to oppression—the whom of ampton was free from ice—so that had the contemplated
these islands were lit llp with the mild and benignant light .of Docks been built, and the Riilway finished, the freezing
joy, contentment, peace, and goodwill towards all men. /V
f
civilised nation, after gaining an unexpected victory over op- over o the 'Thames would have been scarcely felt as an
pression, could have shown more delicacy and forbearance t impediment lo the trade of London. It is in this light that
than was .exhibited by the slaves at the great moral consume p,,e F 01,035,10 regard the exertions of the Southampton Dock
oration which they had attai'eled. There was not a look or a
gesture to gall the eyes—not a sound escaped from negro lips
I
and Railway
il Companies in the observations which we intend
tee wound the ears of she plantere. All was joy, mutual con- offering,
-d with hop::
expectation. Theythe course of a day or two, upon the principle
gratulation, earnest hope, and confides,
i left (4.) sortt
the
en
kingdom,ow
(i
whatevert to our re
adds
dd
de rs sio
its Londonligou
vigour,
s,
would soon be struck off, and they looked fo'rme.
telt that their fetters had been loosened, t. ''ay expected that the
to the tirne when the degrading marks which they h ennibles it to force a healthier currrent to the extremities.
'lf
tillieeari{teol
'natural position of Southampton, sheltered as
their limbs wadi be wholly crased.—Olear,) This b's
•
.rsal 5'
'
co ies the
1 I of Wight, entitles it to be regarded as pe-
peaceful joy, delicate towards others as it was q * tth'
' 't is ,„y qv 0 c
themselves, was all that was to lie sacra, heard -uoiretf amongst;
4'
1. ''Y
'
, anted for a great commercial depot ; and the
West India islands. Amusements there were none ttotbien the cu„larly • 1 . .
: th&it it did not sooner attract the notice of
that day—not even those amusements by which they weteseen on.f7 won, ter is,
customed to beguile the hard lot of slavery, and which ia:e.- the mere %mile world.
.„_.._......,.....,„.......-.......ri minded them of the country of their fcrefathers—rio, for shy ' hbours the French are very clever
negroes are an eminently pions people, and they kept as If our lugenious neig
inventions, t
sabbath the day of their liberation.—( Hear, hear.) The set at inai ' d improving upon, our they are
tatl , an
PIL

" But Antigua, what happened there—for in Antigua
there was not even the indentured apprenticeship ? In An-
tigua and Bermuda, as would have been the case at Monserrat
if the Upper House had not thrown out the Bill which had
been passed by the planters themselves, there had been no
preparatory step. In Antigua and Bermuda, on the Ist of
August, 1894, three years and a half ago, there was nota
single slave or indentured apprentice. But it had been said
that it could hardly be expected that, after so complete and
abject a state of slavery which had so long existed; the sudden
emancipation would not endanger the peace of the island.
The experience of August Ist at once seared away the phan-
tom which had been raised in the minds of the planters. It
was then said, only wait till Christmas, when all who have a
practical knowledge of the negro character dread rebellion.
They did wait—and I will go to Antigua, for it is the strongest
case—there there was no preparatory state, there there was no
transition—the chains were at once knocked off, and the negro
was made free. Well, what happened? For the first time within
thirty years, that year martial law was not proclaimed In
Antigua."

We have not space for a longer commentary upon
these interesting details. But the question shall have
our best and most vigilant attention. In the meantime we
are sorry to see that some our pseudo-liberal contempo-
raries are not ashamed to misrepresent in the grossest
manner, the conduct of Lord BROUGHAM upon this ques-
tion, merely because his Lordship is too honest to bow the
knee to certain time-serving objects of their political wor-
ship. They cannot comprehend principle in action apart
from the gratification of individual resentment, or the tri-
umph of personal ambition. The fellow Anti-Slavery
apostle of the great and good WILBERFORCE is charged
with being influenced with revengeful feelings, in denounc-
ing the atrocities of the Slave trade, and the supineness of
the Government that still suffers such a traffic to disgrace
humanity. The idea is as monstrous as it is base and
calumnious ; and we are happy to observe, has been scouted
with contempt by every Tory journal of any character in
the country. Grovelling must be the mind that seeks food
for calumny in motives ; and distinguished must be the career
of the Statesman whose motives must be canvassed, in
order to find materials for an attack upon his public cha-
racter.