The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-12 00:00:00

sugar
upon
to
be
ee
of humanity and justice, which permitted slave-gown.;fl;
cotton be pu
pufteeittubutte
mudidu nol `N.- •
rmit slave-grout:.
which permitted to sillok‘: slave
gr-grown
7.1
t's -
not permit them to taste slave
which permitted them to drink slaVt-grown coffee, btit'" ci ISAt A
did not permit them to sweeten it ‘r,,:a slave-grown
sugar—nay, which permitted them to eat .it at New-
foundland or Barbadoes, but did not permit them to US.
it in Laneashire or Yorkshire ?—(Hear, hear.), He 1,.7-
feetly understood that Hon. Gentlemen opposite mighi
have reasons for showing why they should countenance
it in one case and not in the other, but he altogether de-
nied that they could show any great general law of mo-
rality on which the distinction rested ; and he must say
that when he contemplated the whole of the case, it
seemed to him that the discussion partook much less of
moral feeling than of party interest. These con-
siderations certainly weighed on his mind. He would
suppose that some aspiring philanthropist should oome
down to that House, and called upon them to exclude
the cotton of the United States ; he would suppose that
he drew, and he was afraid he might draw with great
truth, a very melancholy and frightful picture of the
physical, social, and moral effects of slavery in the
southern States of America ; he would suppose that he
asked them whether they would receive from that
country he believed between three and four hundred
millions of pounds- of cotton annually, every ounce of
which was producedt by slavery ;—if such a person
wa.l to come forward with that argument, and call upon
the House to pass a law to interdict slave-grown cotton,
either by prohibition or by prohibitory duties, he was
confident that the Right Hon. -Baronet the Mem-
ber for Tamworth, the Hon. Member for Newark,
and his Right Honourable Friend the Member
for the Tower Hamlets, would all with one
voice declare that such a proposition was inadmis-
sible.--(Hear, hear.) The reasons they should assign
he could but very imperfectly give ; but when he stated'
what the reasons were which influenced his own vote,
he would leave it to the House to say whether those
reasons might not apply to the present case. He should
say, if such a proposition were brought in, " I admit
that slavery is a great and fearful evil—l admit that in
all those parts of the world which lie within the sphere
of our power, we lie under a moral obligation to abo-
lish it. I admit that no cost, however great, that stands in
the way of so clear a duty, should, in that case, be con-
sidered ; but the case of slavery, as within the sphere of
our own power, and in foreign countries, presented cases
of distinct features, and should be treated on per-
fectly different principles.—(Hear, hear, hear.) He
was not the legislator of the United
States,
nor had
he power to say to the planters of Carolii;.
and Georgia,
could
de only exerciseei)e operate
of
te equal
upon
" You must set your slaves at liberty, and -.4ldmit them
a„rs,,eßins,s-,,. es.;ThWate.
ts
ever might be done by those rival means by
themrigh with
in di'
nation acted upon another, that they were bound to do.
Nor should they stop here. He regarded with the
highest admiration those efforts which had been made
for the purpose of putting down the slave trade by means
of our cruisers, and by treating with other nations for
the suppression of the slave trade. But he was not pre-
pared to join in any measure for suppressing slave trade
by suppressing commercial intercourse. The happioeis
of our own people was especially committed to our charge.
.All men had some claim upon them, but not all the
same claim. In this country there was a manufacturing
population depending entirely for daily bread upon
remote markets. There were one million and a half
of people who were supported by the cotton manufac-
ture. It would be frightful to contemplate the effect
which would be produced by suppressing the trade in
slave-made cotton. It would reduce hundreds of thou-
sands to despair and famine, and shake alla,lie institutions
of the State ; would make Germany supply .he
place of
England, and turn the great body of our arth..ans into
beggars. The question before the House was in s very
similar position. He firmly believed that the effect
would be to deprive us of the market of Brazil, if we
persevered in our present line of policy. He had at-
tempted to compare what would be the effect produced
upon the Brazilian slave trade, by the species of influence
which England would be enabled to exercise with the
Brazilian authorities, and with the effect likely
to be produced by the persisteuce in the prohibi-
tive system, the degree of unhappiness among the
slaves which would be removed by continuing
those restrictions, with the degree of unhappiness
which would be inflicted upon our own people, that peo-
ple who were particularly committed to our charge, and for
whose happiness we were more particularly responsible.
If it was his deliberate opinion that on the whole it was
their duty to adopt a proposition somewhat similar to the
one brought forward by her Majesty's Government, he
could not conceive how any Honourable Gentleman could
taunt him as being guilty of any dereliction of principle,
because the result of his calculations happened to be dif-
ferent from his (Mr Macaulay's.) He would not deny
that the country had voluntarily paid a sum of 20,000,0001
to be able to rid themselves of an enormous moral and so- •
cial evil, for the existence of which we were responsible
and which, moreover, pressed upon our fellow-subjects
—(cheers)—but was that any reason why we should pay,
and pay continually what he was certain would amount
to a sum much greater than 20,000,0001. for the purpose
of marking our aversion to the evil for the existence
of which we were not responsible, and which it was ex-
ceedino.ly doubtful whether we could at all mitigate or
lessen by adopting such means 2—(Loud cheers.) It had •
been said that foreign countries would feel astonishment
at our inconsistency. He believed they would feei asto-
nishment, if they understood that we had no scruple in
permitting articles of slave-labour produce to be con-
sumed in our colonies, and yet to retain that scruple. -.
when it was proposed to consume them in the United • Al
Kingdom.—(Cheers.) And if they looked further, they
would feel greater astonishment, when they saw that it
was not because the cause of slavery, or the slave trade,
was fostered by the one course more than the other, but
simply because a great monopoly was interested in the
one case, which was not interested in the other.—(Loud
cheers.) They might perhaps apply to such conduct
harsh words, to which he would not give utterance.—
(Loud cheers.) But if, for the purpose of carrying the -
inquiry a little further out, he were to inquire into the
history of the public lives of those who were now most
vehement in their opposition to truirmeasure—(Cheers)—
if they were to compare the division lists on the present
occasion with the lists of divisions which had formerly
taken place—(Loud cheers)—particularly in the year
1833—(Continued cheering)—they would find some rea-
son for astonishment, when they found that those very
men were the, foremost amongst those who struggled- the
most vehemently to prevent the remedying of a great and
crying, evil, for the existence of which we were respon-
sible.—(Loud and long continued cheering.) His inten-
tion was to show, that there was no inconsistency in their
putting an end to slavery, and at the same time giving
their support to the proposition on the table of the House.
The Ministers had been accused of laying the proposi-
tion on the table of the House without the least intention
of its being carried. Now, he believed that we had
arrived at a great commercial, as well as a great financial
difficulty at the same time—(Cheers)—in order to
make up the revenue necessary for the maintenance of
the dignity of the country, in order fully to protect our
trade against our rivals. The great towns in England
were crying out for a removal of all commercial restric-
tions, and he fully believed that the Government were
fully justified in bringing forward the proposition before
the House. The Government had it in their power to
prop up the revenue, and at the same time extend the
commerce of the country. They intended to meet a
greatdeficit, not by making the people poor, but-by
making them more comfortable in their circumstances.—
(Loud cheers.) He denied that they had thrown before
the' House the proposition in any fit of despair. The
Government certainly did hope that the budget would
have been received better than it had been.
They, were perfectly aware that it was utterly
out of the question that it could be car-
ried .by the weight of the Government ' alone ;
but they did hope, up to the moment that the Noble
Lord the Member for Liverpool gave notice of his mo-
tion, that there were some persons on the other side of
the House who, from patriotic motives, would have come
forward, and without relating their generalopposition to
the Government, might consider that the proposition of
the Government was a satisfactory mode of meeting the
difficulties with which they were now beset, and their
support would have enabled them to carry the main pro-
positions of the Budget. That had turned out to be a
miscalculation, but he would predict that the time
was not far distant when the reform proposed by. the
Government would be the law of the land. On what-
ever side of the House he sat, those principles
would be in the ascendant, and to these he would
always continue sincerely attached.—(Hear, hear.)
It would not be the first time they had been eager to
welcome converts whose reluctant recantation, however
tardy, or from whatever motives, had yet appearedw likelyeu
only further thank the House for their kindHe ttenti
to promote the public interest.—(Cheers.)
and relinquish the other parts of the subject to those w
cheers.) -
a o, n,
ho
were better able to do it justice.—(L
• Sir G. CLERK, who was quite
lery, in consequence of the noise arising
wnie7stood
toraiasao f
the Members leaving the House, a
suin°auuddibleminseth several
gl-_
y
that he felt under how great a disadvantage he laboured
in rising after the Right n. Gentleman, who
(Sirla. Clerk) could not
had just sat down. be told that, because
conceive that they ought they
principle of
few years by this country,
the great experiment
toa
ethr.
they ought to abandon it
dGteonhti
notg obtain Were they to be
a supply of cot-
tontold that, because they could
could not carry out to its fullest extent the
give encourage-
ment for the production of sugar also in slave' countries,
when it was clearly shown that we could particularly of free
ob-
tain an adequate supply
eaenriananoyppP:srsoiten,
labour sugar from our
from our own colonies, they were to
colonies ? He was aston
own
contend that their efforts to abolish slavery bearing the name. of the Right Hon.isha
and the slave
trade, were to be confined entirely to the extinction of
those evils in our own colonies. He was astonished that
that Right Hon. Gentleman should state to the House
and country, that their efforts to prevent slavery
in other countries was quite Quixotic. The Rig ht
Hon. Gentleman had also stated, that he would
to what had taken place upon former debates and
fonnty,divisions, and he felt that he should be able
thereby Ed'ekarge many who meant to vote on the pre-
sent occasion -with great inconsistency.—(Hear, hear.)
He also seemed id-,ansinuate that there were a new born
zeal on that-side of the,House for the extinction of sla-
very. He (Sir G. Clerk) did not see how he could maintain
such a charge, for those who fiat on that side of the
House had supported emancipatiorNince it was brought
forward by Mr. Canning in 1823. If the Right Hon,
Gentleman entertained, years back, the opinion he now
entertains on the subject of slavery in Cuba and the Bra-
zils, why glid_he not support the motion of the Hon.
Member for Wigan, when he brought it forward. He
must give the Right Hon. Gentleman credit for one /
thing, and that was keeping strictly to that which was the - I
proper subject for their consideranon that night, viz.. the
proposition with respect to the'Sugar Duties, which had
been brought forward by her Majesty's Ministers. On
gat sititxt,h fels no doubt that altdriadbitimi the pro.