The Sun.
London, England, 1824-02-13 00:00:00

WEST INDIES.

We extract the following from a Pamphlet.
just published, entitled, " NEGRO EMANCIPA-
TION ; a Dialogue between Mr. Ebenezer East-
love and Giles Homespun :"
HoltEsrtrx.—l understand, from our members, that one
of the King's Ministers, in the House of Commons,* admitted
all you can ask regarding the rights of all men, black and
white, to be free. He gave a pledge to the House that it should
be the anxious care of Ministers to urge the West Indian go-
vernments to such measures as would best contribute to the
present comfort of the negroes, and also to their religious and
moral instruction, so as gradually to fit them for the full en-
joyment of freedom ; and he declared that in conceding free-
dom to the slaves, the rights of property should be considered
and respected. Now it seems to me, Master Eastlove, that
this was getting as much by our petitions as we had any right
to expect; and that it is a little unreasonable to be again so
soon wishing to hurry on measures, which you yourself have
just granted, must be done with great discretion and caution to
be done well.

tASTLOVE.—GiIes, thou hast touched the sore place : those
West Indian legislatures have do-w nothing, will do nothing!
HOMESPUN.—Why that's what you said last year, and what
all your printed books say ; but I have been reading something
on the other side ; j and there I find facts asserted, upon good
authority, which prove quite the contrary,—that a great deal
has been done and is doing,—that negroes are well clothed and
fed, nursed when sick, sod supported when old and helpless,
ay, and kindly used and instructed,—besides, now that Parlia-
ment has spoken so plainly, one may expect that, if you'll give
those peppery gentlemen in the West Indies a little time to
cool, they will follow up what they have done already with new
spirit and activity. I'll tell you fairly, Master Eastlove,
I'm inclined to meddle no more in the matter, at least fur the

present.
EasmovE.—Art thou then so hardened as to look patiently
on and suffer thy poor black fellow subjects to be driven like
brute beasts, by the scourge of the cart whip, to hard labour ?
Canat thou endure that the oppressive, cruel, and immoral
acts, of which our books show thee numerous instances, shall
continue to be practised with impunity? Oh, Giles, Giles !
where are those humane feelings which only a few months ago
animated thy exertions in our cause?
HOMESPUN.—Master Eastlove, I feel as I did—lliave just
the same horror of cruelty and detestation of slavery,—tile evil
is great enough, though not, as I now think, quite so great as
you have represented it. I find that you have picked out and
puttogether all the horrid tales, whether old or new, that suited
your purpose ; but were the case ever so bad, still we must not
aim to cure it by doing what will only make it worse. One
would wish, to be sure, that there was no flogging either of
negroes, or sailors, or soldiers; but we agree that the negroes
are not to be made free all at once and immediately, and I'm
afraid they cannot be managed well, even as respects them-
selves, so long as they continue slaves, without corporal punish-
ment. lint tell me, however, honestly,—there are in Jamaica,
I hear, almost 409,000 people, black, brown, and white, and
nine-tenths of them, or thereabouts, are slaves,—do you think
that, in any year you can name, there are more horrid crimes
committed in that Island than in many portions of Great Bri-
tain and Ireland, containing just the same number of inhabi-
tants ? You read our newspapers, I dare say, and mind a
little what is passing both here and in Ireland.
EASTLOVE.—Friend Giles, thou forgettest that in Jamaica
nine-tenths of the population are, as thou hest just admitted,
subjected to the oppressive power of the slave-master—almost
without protection from law, since laws, which profess to pro-
tect the slave, are not executed. Here, and in Ireland too,
horrid acts occasionally occur; but mark the difference, they
are prosecuted and punished.
HoatEsPux.—Why, in my thinking, the use of punish-
ment is to prevent crimes; and if it be found out that here, in
this country, with all our laws and tribunals, we are growing
worse and worse, and that in the West Indies they are, though
it be but by slow steps, becoming better and better, I can't but
conclude that we might find other matters nearer home that
deserve our looking after quite as well as what is passing in the
Colonies. But there's another objection in my mind to our fur-
ther meddling at present : there's danger, I think, of stirring
up the negroes to risings and rebellions, which can only end in
the destruction both of them and of their masters.
EasTLoVE.—Friend Giles, I thought thee too wise to be
caught in that snare. Did we not predict that these terrors
would be artfully excited, and that plots would be got up for
the purpose ?
Ho stEsruaZ.—For one that is going about on an errand of
charity, is that charge quite consistent, Master Eastlove ? Do
people get up plots, which are to destroy their own property and
endanger their own lives ?
Rasa' Loy E.—lnsurrections, Giles, must and will occur,
where oppression is the spirit that rules. They are the inevi-
table results of that detestable system.
HOMESPUN.—Ay, are they so? These late risings, then, in
Barbadoes and Demerara, have been caused, as you think, by
oppression and cruelty to the slaves ?
EASTLOVE.—Perhaps not, but—
Ho sir.srux.—Pardon me, Master Eastlove—just hear what
it is I want to know—you see they can rise if they have a suf-
ficient motive ?
EAST LOVE.—Doubtless ; but, alas! poor deluded sufferers--
HostEsrusr.—Now, why, if the oppression on them be so
severe and so constant as you say it is, have they not been rising
here and therein some parts of the West Indies from that cause
only ? I cannot find that they have done so—but let them only
be told that something is going on at home that is to overrule
their masters, and up they are in arms in one colony or another.
EAST LoVE.—Oppression, Giles—long continued oppression,
stupifies the man and extinguishes hope ; but let a ray of hope
break in upon the gloom in which these wretched beings are
plunged, and they are suddenly animated to exertions for the
recovery of their rights.
HOMESPUN.—But you have admitted that they are not
themselves able to judge at what time, and by what degrees,
their rights ought to be put into their possession. You profess
in many of your writings, that sudden and unprepared eman-
cipation would be their destruction. How then can you,
Master Eastlove, reconcile it with true humanity, to
be holding out to them such hopes and rays of light
as you call them, which have been found to be the surest
means of rousing them into rebellion, and to end in their de-
struction ? Would it not be better to let instruction go on, and
that they should. step by step, advance in their fitness for li-
berty ? Such, I must tell you, is my opinion ; and, as 1 feel
satisfied that the good work is going on, I will have nothing to
do with your petitions this year.
EAsTLOVE.—I have done with thee, Giles.—l will strike
thy name out of our society.
HOMESPUN.—With all my heart, do so. I have under-
stood, Master Eastlove, that if the worst come to the worst
with the West Indies, you may find some consolation in other
quarters and other concerns—as for me, I have no such pro-
spects. 1 hope the Colonies will be saved from ruin—l know
many places and persons that will grievously suffer if it be not
so—and as it is plain enough that the Colonists have Acts of
Parliament on their side for all they have clone, I feel certain,
that, if we injure their property, we must indemnify them for
it—and God forbid that we should be doing that which will at
once add to our taxes, and take away from our means of paying
them !—Exit Homespun.

* See speech of the Right Honourable George Canning, on
the 15th of May, 1823.
t See List of Pamphlets appended to this Tract.
" Report of Debate on Buxton's Motion." Sec Note x.
Page 227,