The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-14 00:00:00

SHAW, and other eye-witnesses, were perfectly correct, that
the army under Colonel EVANS had been twice at least on
the brink of destruction, ia consequence of the culpable
conduct of the Spanish Generals, and that vast numbers of
the Legion perished at Vittoria in consequence of want of
food, want of medicine, want of surgeons, and, indeed, want
of all the necessaries of life. A general belief prevailed,
and the statement of Colonel EVANS last night will not remove
it, that he had not been supported (we use the mildest term)
either by CORDOVA or SAARSFIELD. Though he carefully
avoids imputing any blame to them, or to the Spanish Go-
vernment throughout the whole period of service, the main
facts stated by trust-worthy men, and not denied by bun,
warrant the conclusion that the conduct of the Spanish
authorities was, in the words of Sir HENRY HARDINGE,
" most grossly blameable," and, in the words of General
O'CONNELL. " most infamous." The public believed that
in his attempt to penetrate into the provinces from Vittoria
he had been betrayed. What is his answer to this ? There
is no foundation for the charge of treachery, for CORDOVA
sent an Aid-de-camp to inform the British of Isis intention to
retire. ThatAid-de-camp made a detour to avoid the enemy
and arrived a day after " the affair." We know not
to whom the treachery belongs, but treachery there was.
The Spanish General, at the most critical moment, changees
the plan of his operations, by which the British Legion is
left totally unsupported, and then sends one messenger to
announce the fact, who, by the road he was instructed to
go, could not arrive before the mischief was done ! This
is rather strong evidence, but in the next case the evid!nino
is still stronger. With regard to the unfortunate affair of
Hernani, Colonel Ev ANS says " SAARSFIELD retired on the
11th, instead of marching in the direction he was sup-
posed to have taken, and the Legion in consequence„
was opposed to the whole strength of the enemy-
What was the result ? The Legion, as at Vittoria,
was forced to retreat, and in the course of two
days lost 700 men, or nearly one fourth of the whole.
Yet Colonel Evaiss was not heard to say (for he spoke
indistinctly) one word in reprobation of conduct which
sacrificed so many of his brave followers ! As regards
the treatment of the men during the sickness at Vittoria,
though he seems disposed to screen the Spanish authori-
rities, he does not advance any facts to disprove the state-
ments of Dr. ALLCOEK or Major HALL, who asserted
that 1,223 men died ; that 500 were incapacitated for
service in consequence of the bad arrangements ; and that 300
more were added to this list in consequence of h. au
food. No—he admits that out of •8,000 men, 1,223 died,
and then enters into a calculation to prove that the ow'
tality in the Legion was not greater than in the army un-
der WELLINGTON. That was not the point to be provnti"
The question was whether one half of the Legion had Pe",.
rished for want of proper accommodation, privation. ot
food, and a totul want of faith on the part of the S
authorities. Colonel EVANS has stood forward as the de-
fender of the Spanish Government, but he has miserably
ti
failed. All the main charges are to be disproved, and
we have something more than mere words in praise of On
loyalty of ESPART-E-E-0, or the assertion that there is n°
foundation for the charge of treachery against CoanovA,
or that the Legion was only treated in the usual waY' a
British public will retain the belief that a vast proportion of
the unfortunate men were sacrificed, and that the conduct
of the Spanish authorities, to say the least of it, was " most
grossly blameable." pall
nish

While we are writing, one of the greatest public rn"t-
ings on the question of Slavery, held since the passing
of the Slave Emancipation Act, is assembled in Exeter
Hall, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament in favour
of the immediate abolition of Negro Apprenticeship in
the
West Indies. It will be seen by the report In
OUT columns that Lord BROUGHAM presides as
Chairman ; but as the question under discussion
is the subject of the subjoined article, we shall content
ourselves here with pointing attention to the brilliant specal :1
of the Noble and Learned Lord, on opening the b•usi-
ness of the Meeting. The short-sighted cruelty of the
Planters, and the ignorant obstinacy of the Colonial Leg's"
latures, has at last brought them into direct and fearful col-
lision with the Parliament and people of England.

The Government Bill, for the amendment of the Slavery
Act of 1833, was read a second time in the He"' °f
Lords last night. We will not now enter into a minute,
examination of its provisions ; our only objection to which is
that they are too limited—that they arc palliatives rather
than correctives of a deep-rooted and deplorable evil.
When Lord BROUGHAM first proposed the immediate
emancipation of the Negroes, without passing from slavery
to the full enjoyment of liberty, through an intermediate
and preparatory stage of apprenticeship, we confess that we
shared in the terrors of those who apprehended, from such
an experiment, the social disorganisation of the Colonies.
We were of opinion that a certain period should be
allowed to the masters to conciliate the affections of their
slaves—to prepare them for a state of freedom,
by educating their feelings—and correcting, lindulgence,„:l3Y
those vices in their character inseparable from a state of
personal bondage. But three years' experience of the
working of the apprenticeship system has entirely changed
our opinion upon this subject. We are now persuaded that
nothing short of the absolute and unconditional
emanci-
pation of the Negroes can put an end to the tyranny of th©
planters, whose treatment of the apprentices is marked byd.
a cruelty and a hatred of the coloured race never evince
to an equal extent before the passing of the Emancipation
Act. Of this fact proofs in abundance arc furnished by
Part V. of the Papers relating to the Abolition of Slaverl'
printed by Order of the House of Commons on the 9th inst.
From this goodly sized volume, which consists of documents
illustrative of the working of the Apprenticeship system, since
May, 1837, we propose making a few extracts that th
people of England may learn the hopelessness of trusting()
any share of coercive authority in the hands of a bodY
dead to every feeling of justice and humanity 0
en-
Planters. We begin with the flogging of female ape
tices in Jamaica :
P_ ari
" At a meeting of Magistrates of St. Andrew's
held on the Ist of June, 1837, an inquiry took place
tive to the death of Letitia Johnston, a woman of colour,
who died two days after leaving the House of Correeo.e,r;
The witnesses swore that being unable to " dance the 0,1"_
of
she was strapped upon it, and that in consequence e
torture she suffered, her body swelled, and she was sufferd
to die in a field without medical treatment ! This' 'ant,
similar cases of cruelty, being reported to the Governteebno.
a Commission was appointed since the accession of the
MAJESTY, to inquire into the mode of punishing
apprentices, and from the evidence taken before it, the
lowing extracts are made. Be it remembered, that thl9
evidence entirely relates to the operation of the law, since‘
August, 1834 :
.0111
" Mary Anne Bell, sworn.—l remember being sent to the trot.''
by Mr. Rawlinson, when I was quite heavy in the family way, 'l'2: I
half my time being gone. Two or three weeks after I returned hum p
felt pains in my wrists and knees. The pains were on the par"iiic

had been strapped to the tread-mill." e,
" Amelia Lawrence sworn—The food that we got at the worlo'"tih%
was a pint of boiled corn, and one ale-wife between two persons' ,;y1
was given us in the morning, and we got nothing else till the nest day
The first day I went on the mill it bruised my knee a great deal' the
blood run all down my shins. The women were flogged as well 29 nr
men ; some of them wery flogged very badly. I have seen women halo
lug on the mill by their hands, as they could not keep up ; then
vilic
f
were greatly bruised. I have seen many women put on the Will 5113
had young sucking children ; they were put on the mill morning
100
evening. Their pain would be so great, that they would bawl faint
enough to be heard a great way off. I have seen several women ing
on the mill; when in that situation they were sometimes left hal—wo'
by their wrists till the other people were taken off. I knew an old
not.
man by the name of Sally ; she was often put on the wheel, hut vi3„s her
able to work. She got severely flogged ; Mr. Drake used to 11°' I,
himself. lam a married woman, with a family of four i childreliosr
have never recovered from the punishment of the treadmill. The
pains all over my body, and particularly the small of my bacl,•
and
people were all shackled at night. We used to sleep in shackles'
with big chains about our necks."
" Susan White sworn—l recollect being sent to the workhuu'.,e. I
was chained to Amelia Lawrence, and I was then in the family Wa'.day.
3
was five months advanced. I was put on the treadmill twice sO
On a Thursday evening I danced the mill longer than usual, and ".„ . I
tired that I fell off: One of my hands slipped out of time sr3ru'ite
called to them to stop the mill, but they did not—it went round quite
fast; then my other hand slipped out, and I fell down quite seu'efore
No doctor attended me. I went eat of the workhouse two wee "cleft me
Christmas, and I had a mischance in February , the pains never ce • I
from the time I came out of the workhouse till. I bad the misc""-
have never been in good health since." tO ilia
Every witness examined gave similar testimenY
above ; but several of the women deposed to acts big we
indecency on the part of their tormentors, with act`
the
cannot pollute our columns. When placed "Pc)" er-
wheel their clothes were lifted up, and tied about their riPner
sons, in such a way as to expose their bodies in a 'll biog•
which no Englishwoman can conceive without blus„cita..
Others were constantly exposed to the criminal sw`rta
t in
tons of their keepers, and in case of refusal, were 0:al,.
of being flogged with five-fold severity. The truly t
ing manner in which the females recounted to the Cowrie
of
sioners the pangs they suffered from the brutal °'uon
their persons, cannot fail to make a deep
impression up
the Parliament and people of this country.
We pass over to-day the details of the atrocioto P
ments inflicted upon the male apprentices. liadAen'od
stances of men of sixty years of age being flogge • fieg;
Psalms —a
kept in dunboy was flogged tied to a cart, for sayingsll 1
trll;lte it
was GoD who made tile world, and that man could not f
„int,
—a man was committed to a dungeon, for giving old
ing woman a drink of water—and an old man and a"
tho
woman, both beyond sixty years of age, were flogge d so
d heir
beyon— t
I they died in consequence for not working