The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-10 00:00:00

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LONDON:
MONDAY, MAY 10, 1841.

We entertain a great respect for Dr. LUSH-
INGTON'S sincerity, but we believe him to be
grossly in error. For example, he repelled
the argument that free labour could compete
with slave labour, by asking, "Could the honest
manufacturer compete with the highwayman ?
Could the trader who paid a just obedience to
the lass, and discharged the taxes imposed on
him, compete with the lawless smuggler?" But a
grain ofreilection, which, so far as statesmanship
is concerned, is worth more than a pound of sen-
timentality, and a bushel of smart antithetical
oratory, would have convinced Dr. LUSHINGTON
that his analogy and illustration were unfounded
and unjust.
In that celebrated competition between one man
who stole the materials for his brooms, and an-
other who stole the brooms ready made, which
Dr. LUSHINGTON seems to have had in view, the
thief of the ready-made article hada great advan-
tage over the thief of the mere materials ; but
we submit that the thief who now steals the Afri-
can to carry him to Cuba, has no such advan-
tage over the descendants of those who stole the
Africans long ago, to carry them to Jamaica.
The former do not steal sugar ready made, they
only steal the materials to make it; and the
question to be decided is, whether those who
now steal the materials, or those who formerly
stole them, for making sugar, can produce that
article the cheaper. Dr. LUSHINGTON fancies
the present race of Cuba and Brazilian thieves
can ; we believe that he has not duly considered
the matter.
Man-stealing, as Dr. LCSHINGTON properly de-
scribed it, is a gross iniquity, and the present
conduct of the Brazilians and Cubans carries with
it all the consequences of a fresh act of injustice.
.No art can reconcile the unhappy slaves to their
lit, and no labour can be obtained from them
bat by compulsion. Overseers armed with whips,
a prison on every estate, and all the other, not
only painful but costly contrivances to extort la-
bour, are as necessary now in Cuba and the Bra-
zils, as they were lieretofin-e in Jamaica. We
are sure that the outrages must be brutal, and
the compulsion very costly, for we have Dr.
LUSHINGTON'S authority for asserting that the
slaves are "used up" every ten years, and at the
end of that time require to be renewed.
The price of a slave varies, but is seldom less
we believe, than 501., so that a gang of 100 will
require an outlay of a capital of 5,000/. every
ten years. Besides the cost of their guards,
overseers, and prisons, the slaves must be fed
nearly as well as free labourers to keep them
in working condition. There is no reason to sup-
pose that food can be raised or procured by means
of less labour in Cuba than in Jamaica, so that
while the cost of maintaining slaves must be
nearly as great as the wages given to free la-
b )ur, the slave owner has to lay out a large ca-
p:tal, which the employer of free labour never
expends. That is one of the great advantages of
our colonies.

The injustice of man is healed by time, and
the mercy and goodness of GOD gradually ex-
tinguish the coLsequences of crimes. Even the
memory of injustice, and with that the desire of
revenge, is in time cried up and lost, and the
kindly relations which it disturbed are restored.
But fbr this salutary dispensation feuds would be
perpetual, and Europe would now be like Cuba
or Brazil, the abode of slaves working in gyves,
chained at night in a prison, and oftyrants armed
with whips, swords, and lances. Time has done
something even for our 1,1, est India colonies,
comparatively recent as is the termination of
extinguishing the remembrance of
slavery, in
wrongs, and in substituting the friendly relations
of masters and servants for those of tyrants and

slaves.
All the accounts from the West Indies repre-
sent the black population as working quietly
and well for wao•es. Compulsion, equally hateful
t,
and costly, is at an end ; and the planter, instead
of having to employ a large capital in the pur-
chase of slaves, has received a large price from
this country for those he formerly owned, and
who now work for him as cheaply, as free la-
bourers, as they or their ancestors worked as
slaves. Will Dr. LUSHINGTON, or will any man,
dare to tell the people of Europe, with the com-
paratively free labourer of England and Ireland
toiling more for less wages than any slaves that
ever existed, that slave labour is the Brazils and
in Cuba is cheaper to the planters than free la-
bour in Jamaica or Antigua ?

But there are other considerations which the
anti-slavery people overlook in VI( ir zeal. What,
for exampl.!, can the poor wretches stolen from
Africa, cooped up in ships, and landed half dead
with fright and disease, know of the cultivation
of sugar ? It must take months to teach them,
and it will require weeks before they can begin
to learn. The free labourers already know their
business. They require no teaching and no sus-
tenance, except from their parents, till they are
able to work. They are not only a compara-
tively skilled race, but, like our artisans, they
transmit their skill to their offspring.
Founding on these circumstances, it seems to us,
a mere crude fancy, unwarranted by facts, falsi-
fied by theory, it is contrary to all our faith in
justice, righteousness, and honesty, to assert that
the slave labour of the stolen and ignorant Afri-