The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-25 00:00:00

'EVENING EDITION.

eeparation for the innocent victims of colonial injustice.—
( Hear, hear.) The Revolution of 1830—( Cheers)—
that glorious Revolution—(Loud cheera)—had brought
with it one great result—the complete suppression and
overthrow of the slavery trade—( Cheers) —and whatever
wicked men might attempt to do, their intentions had ben
thwarted, and the law had beta effectual in putting an end
to that trade throughout all the French colonies.—( Hear.)
The friends of the blacks might congratulate themselves
on many of the enaatmcnts which had lately been brought
into operation in their favour A child could not now
sell his father, or a father his son. A census had been es.
tablished in the colonies which would became more and
snore effectual—more and more severe, and which would
henceforward prevent the clandestine importation of
slaves.—( Hear, hear.) Religious instruction was now
communicated to the blacks, and black priests had been
ordained for the service of the Church.--( Hear, hear.)
The abolitionists hal had the co operation of the Clergy,
And had lately obtained that of the Pope himself. The
King of the French was determined that his reign should not
close without his carrying forward the work of abolition—
( Hear, hear)—and that slavery and the slave-trade should
alike be destroyed.—(Cheers.) The reigning Consort in
England had lent them his assistance for the overthrow of
slavery—( Hear, hear)—and the Prince Royal of France
bad been giving in Africa a similar aid. The capitulations
which had taken place between the French and the Arab
tribes, nowhere recognized the right of slavery, and the
astabiishment of such a right had been forced further and
further into the desert. He would also congratulate them
on the fact that if they were then engaged in a crusade,
it was not such a one as that in which their forefathers
were engaged in the twelfth century, but a holy crusade—
a crusade for the establishment everywere of the groat
eights of man.—(Cheers.) M. 'Embed concluded by
seconding the resolution.
The Rev. Mr. SCALES wished to make an observation
on one point. In the report to which they had listened, a
reference was made to the constitution, the principles,
And the objects of the Society. It was important that
those principles should be kept constantly in view. The
British and Foreign Anti- Slavery Society as its title bore,
had been established for the abolition of slavery and the
-slave-trade throughout the world. His Royal Highness in
the chair had asked whether in seeking those objects the
Society would be ready to embroil nations, and to expose
them to the evils of warfaro. He would answer of course
ha !they would not, for however monstrous might be the
vil s which they endeavoured to remove—however wide
might be their spread, and however strongly they might be
entrenched, though the traders of the earth might unite to
uphold them, and though potentates should throw orer them
their protecting shield, the Society would not and dared
not use any other means for their suppression, than those
which were moral and religious--(Cheers)—than those
means which they believed to be warranted and sanctioned
by the lessons of the Lord Jesus Christ.—( Loud cheers.)
The Society wished not to use carnal weapons but those
spiritual influences which were " mighty through God ;"
and under the blessing of God those enlightened princi-
ples which Christianity inculcated must eventually succeed.
The resolution was as follows :—" That this meeting, in
reviewing the proceedings of the Society during the first
year of its exigence, feels called upon to acknowledge with
gratit..ude the degree in which it has been enabled to fulfil
the purposes for which it was established, especially in
awakening attention, both in this and other countries, to
the dreadful enormities of slavery and the slave-trade—
enerrnities which call for the united philanthropy of the
world for their extermination."
His Royal Highness then vacated the chair, and left the
Hall amidst great cheering.
Sir E. \Viewer took th'e choir, and
Judge BIKNEY, of New York, came forward. He was
well received, and proceeded to say, that in no country
could such an assembly as that be held—and it was fit
that it should be so—this was the land of freedom.—
His own country, he grieved to say, was debased and
degraded by slavery—slavery which deprived the labourer
of his hire, and stripped sacred marriage of all its rights.
It was thus that they were replied to on the free state of
America when they attempted to discuss the subject of
slavery, to induce them to abandon it ; they were told that
they knee nothing about it. Why, were net the wages
taken from the slaves—was not education denied them—
was not his soul necessary to the joys of a future state—
were not all these known, and rid these, he would ask,
weeetitute nothing ?—( Cheers ) If these were nothing,
whet, he would ask, was the sys.em of slavery itself, when
it was disclosed in all its abhorrence ? How was this sys.
tem to be affected? Why, by the action cf the present
Convention, rent resenting many other countries as well as
their own.—( Cheers.) He would barely allude to the
fact that G,teat Britain had done great things against
slavery by the ern incipation of the West Indian colonies
C.ecrs.) He had reaaon to hope that France would
soon imitate this noble example ; end he toisted, from the
representations they had made there and elsewhere, !hat
she would not be long b2bleci this country.--( Cheers.)
If the!: was done, could Spain, be would ask, hold out
much longer ; and if that country gave way,
the other slave-holding States in the West ladies
must fellow their example.—(Cheers. ) It was said that
the slave was happy, and therefore it was asked, why
should such a systeni be abolished ? How could a
le:al hapr, who was, as a slave, deprived of all the
ights which his fellow-inan erjoyed ? WAS the it state
of things that ought to continue? Could :he slave b.,
happy , when the slave trader tore his wife and children
.li-orn hint, exposed their beauties to enhance their price,
ietimatele disposed of them to the best bidder ?
(Ch,e,s.) Tne
.worthy gentleman concluded by second-
avig tit • resolution.
The venerable Mr. Clarkson here withdrew from the
meeting, mil much elver:rig.
Dr. Lr'iI:INGTUN then rose to address the meeting, and
upon corning forward was root enthowiarically cheered
He said that if he had been lie': to the uebiasaed exercise
4.4 his own judgmerie he should it ,re preferred that S:A11:_•
individual who had atteoded that meeting fro:n other
reentries, should have had an epi-mrtunity of addressing it,
for he. Lad been long at d often before them in the same
cause, ari-1 should thertEre have svish:ci that some
eovelty should heve E. cenferr: don the prc-
stait go eat meeting, but as it was ilia; lot
to obey the directions given him, he could not
-refrain, at the very outset if his address, froin con-
gratulating the Mectieg on the aeeechea they had lward
that day. ile congratulated them that they bad in the
ur,sence cf the people of England, not privately or clan-
riettietely, b t op&l'y and vubliely, heard a Judge of the
S,a-cs deckre cars ction of the ingoity and
eru-lty of the conerneince ef slate tee 'They owed that in-
dividual gtelt and sincere thanks, n t simply for his
energy and re: oluiion in crossing the ocean to attend upon
leo, present cceasien, but as an Arm. ricae, tlissipating the
prejudices that prevailed in that country, having also' the
courage to declare the truth, tied setting an example which
he would venture to say would soon be' followed by the
people of that country.—(Great cheering.) The people
of this eountry in his opinion ought to deal oat kindly with
their American, brethren, for this c itutry had left them the
legacy of the slave trade.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Tee people of England were most deeply responsible
Tor the original crime, vreich was then committed, bet
it would not setil.te far the American to soy because:
the country hail left them in that calemiten3 coedition,
and in a state so perilous, that it was not their bounden
tints to turn their cott--3tt to praCC., mercy, and justice.—
t Cheers.) The Lee-rued Ja•lgo to whom be 11.4.1 al-
luded had &dared to them the misery that w, s crit:ikel
or, the slaves in the United S'ates. lie had depicted
their st.fferinga is elcTient terms, and he (Dr. Lushing.
ton) thought. that one single word would describe the
trehole—nanie,y, that where slavery ex•s-ed tH same rills
ever would exist. Torre `..".1s no such thing. Gad Lad
denied the pessil;ility of their existing a merciful and just
system of aleeery.— (Cheers ) Laws might be made for
the amelioration of the condition of the slaves ; but it
must bc remembered that the executiom of those laws
would rest with the slave-holeers, and in their hand: they
would be made a clog.!, for every species of cruelty, op-
pression, and contempt for their victims —(Cheers. )
.'There were some matt ra connected with the United
States to which he wished shortly to allude; one of thera
was with respect to the nee Stites, where slavery had been
admitted. It could not he said that this country
had introduced slaver) there ; its origin in those States
was a voluntary I,iolation of what was right. net justified
by neeessity, or called for by a jut. expeeiency— (Cheers)
....he alluded especially to Texas, that State which was now
crowing up, fornded on the basis of Irsvery.—( Hear.)
He held it to be the duty of the Government to call upon
that country to render up the freedom of those in it who
were in bondage.—( Cheers.) Leaving America, there
were many others considerably connected with foreign
Slavery and the slave trade, which imperatively called for
t heir attention. In France the future prospects were a
• matter of great rejoicing ; for though he well knew the
Many difficulties which were to be encountered when they
mime to speak of vested interests in human beings, and
though he recollected the outcry with respect to the rights"
of property, he never could believe that that great and
enlightened nation, led on by wise and illustrious states.. •
men, when the iniquity of
slavery. was shown to them,
would permit it any longer to mat there.--(Cheers.) •
What had happened in
other hdeidr countries on this subject?
Why, if his information
and
thmislead him, the spirit
was awakening in Denmark, c people of that country
were becoming aware of the injusticeistvenaenrdahhloorror of slavery.
—(Cheers.) When first
friend, Mr.
Clarkson (here Dr. Lushington was greatlywithectehd) be-
gan to advocate the abolition of slavery, and
was proud to say he had acted for so many yearlsv pm he
nothing but a conviction of the truth and justice' it wets
cause—nothing but a humble hope in the final di et
he
sations of an all wise and merciful Providence that scPounlci have induced them to persevere against the scorn and the
contenaely of the world.—( Cheers.) When he said this
he could not but recollect that his Venerable Friend had
lived in earlier times, and at a period when his life was
actually endangered by the slave traders in the town of
Liverpool itself--( Cries of " Shame")--and when be said
that all support and countenance was now withdrawn, not
only to the slave-trade in Great Britain, but to it in
every British colony, he could not but feel the deepest gra-
titude to him who brought about these events ; and he felt
deeply grateful that it bad pleased the Almighty to give
him life to witness them. Others had gone to their long
home wboae efforts must ever be remembered in
meetings like the present ; he might mention the
name of one who never flagged in the great cause, when
so danger intimidated, or threats prevented, from proceed-
ing with his great exertions, and whose whole heart and
soul, fromthe rising of the sun to its t pended in the greatest services to th
causes;thing
em'ewaanst thee-
e
late Mr. Macaulay.—(Great cheers.) He it was who
laid some of the foundations ofthose
now triumphing in their course. Thoymwe ae sr ue r enso twh a tthank
God, living in other days, and it was astonishing t'o think
that the present Society, which had new only existed ior a
year, bad had the power to call together such a meeting as
England never before witnessed.—(Cheers.) One word
more before he sat down. It was true that by eowerful
displays of eloquence the feelings of mankind might be
roused to indignation, and almost to madness, against the
slave trade, for in these two words were comprehended all
the crimes against mankind, and all that was guilty in the
sight of God, but it must be remembered that their object
was not to be achieved by feelings alone, but if they
*gleam,' gv on in a course of permanent and sustained

action, with a full determination and a resolution to cease '
not till they had attained their end, other things that were
necessary.—( Cheers.) He trusted, therefore, that all those
whcm he now addressed, would themselies (and would
induce others over whom they bad influence) to contribute
to the great end of the present meeting. namely, the final
extinction of slavery and the slave trade, and, as a Chris-
tian, he would call upon all present to recollect that in
doing so they were not acting under the impulse of their
feelings, but in obedience to the commands of their God.
—( Great cheering.)
The resolution was then put to the meeting, and de-
clared by the Chairman to be carried unanimously.
Mr. O'CONNELL was then introduced to the meeting,
and received with enthusiastic and protracted cheering.
He said—l have a long resolution, Sir, to propose, and I
ought to make compensation for the length of the resolu-
tion by the shortness of my speech, although I never felt
more disposed to make a long one —( Hear, hear, and
laughter.) Upon the subject on which we are combined
there is much to rejoice at—much to congratulate ourselves
upon—i good deal to apprehend—and enormous mischief
still remaining to be remedied and redressed.—( Hear,
hear.) We have a good deal to congratulate ourselves
upon. We have to congratulate England, in the face of
the world, in having set that mighty and magnificent ex-
ample of the emancipation of nearly one million of human
beings, and having consented, in addition, gratuitously to
compensate those who were not entitled to any compensa.
tion—(Hear, hear)—entitled to no compensation, but pu-
nishment for long and atrocious villainy—( Hear, hear,
and laughter.) I voted against that compensation—( Hear,
hear)—but I should not be sorry it was granted if I saw a
reciprocal spirit of kindliness and benevolence on the part
of those who received it. It is, Sir, a mighty and a mae-
nificent example we have given, and it tells well to the
rest of the world in its immediate results; for what were
we told when we were struggling for the emancipation of
the negroes ? Did not the planters assert, the moment
they were emancipated, violence, turbulence, slaughter,
and massacre would be the consequence ?—( Hear, hear.)
Did not they say..._" Do you want us to have our throats
cut ? It is not whether we shall let the negroes loose,
but whether they shall outrage our wives and daughters,
and slaughter ourselves." What do they say now ?
( Hear, hear,.) Has there been one single riot?
(Hear, hear.) Has there been one single outrage ?--
( Hear, hear.) Has there been one single assault ?—( Hear,
bear.) Has anything approaching to spoliation of pro-
perty, or to the murder of a single human being, been
committed ? Humble as I am, I stand here the triumphant
advocate of the negro race.—( Loud 'cheers.) The ne-
groes have much to forgive. Even the planters of Jamaica,
boasting of their high spirit as English gentlemen, still
kept the lash to the female negto's back to the very last
moment.—( Hear, hear, and " shame.") Even the chi-
valry of their character as gentlemen would not let them
relax the power of torture even to that sex whom they said
they respected.—( Hear, hear.) The negro had much
to forgive. He had to forgive the cruelty to his wife—
the horrible treatment of his daughter—the torture of his
son. He had to forgive the stripes that were still marked
on his back by the lash of his tyrant master. Did he
take revenge ? No ; blessed be God, he forgave &B.—
( Tremendous cheering.) And here I stand, proudly
boasting that even the spirit of calumny itself—the dispo-
sition to tell falsehoods of everybody who differ from us—
e disposition that I think is as much encouraged in Eng-
land as in any other land on the face of the earth—notwith-
standing that disposinon to slander and vituperation, no
slanderer has been found, no calumniator has been disco-
vered, vile and base enough to say the negroes have com-
mitted one single act of outrage, violence, or revenge.
May we not then look to the rest of the world and tell
them how easily and how safely emancipation can take
place ?—( Cheers.) Indeed it would have been a calumny
on human nature to assert that it was quite safe to con-
tinue injustice—that it was perfectly secure to continue to
outrage every humane feeling, and that an act of benevo-
lence end generosity would be accompanied by a return of
crime and out: age.—( Hear.) It could not be—it has not
been.—( C'acera.) Human nature has vindicated itself
from such a charge, and we stand here now with the fact
as clear as the sun at noon day, that emancipation has not
been followed by one single act of outrage.—( Cheers.)
But these general assertions are weak, and do nut bear the
same force as when you come to particular instances. Now
there happens to be in this assembly a friend of mine, and
I am proud to call him such—the Rev. Mr. Knibb, the
Baptist Missionary.—( Loud cheers.) You do well to
cheer him, he deserves it.—( Renewed cheers.) He has
suffered imprisonment and the fetter—he has had execution
threatened upon him—he has undergone persecution, arid
now he comes out triunaphanty, the friend and the advo-
cate of the unfortunate negro.—(Cheers.) I take from
him these facts. In the district of Montego Bay, the
population of which is upward: of 125,00 beings, at the
last Assize there were in gaol 19 persons charged with
offences—
,Mr. KNIBB —Oaly 16.
Mr. O'CONNELL -Only 16 !—( Cheers)—and six of these
were whites!—(Great laughter.) Now the negroes are
in the proportion of fifty to one, and therefore you may
imagine what the proportion of guilt between the white
and the black man is when out of 16 in gaol six arc whites.
Weil, r.ut of the 16, 13 were acquitted, so that there ro
[stained but three actual criminals.—( Cheers.) In his
own parish, where the population is 35,000, there was
only ore prisoner in three months.—( Hear, hear.) In
St. Ann's parish, with a large population, the gaol is
shut up, and the key has been turned into nails far shoeing
horses __(Great laughter.) The treadmill, to be sure,
was seen there, but the treadmill got iusty.—( Renewed
laughter.) la the parish of Treiawney, that which Mr.
Knibb b.doegs to, where the treadmill was actually clotted
with human gore—where women were tied on that tread-
mill, and becoming so exhausted they were not able to
kmp their steps, and the ft zsh was torn ca' their limb:—
the brutal plant? r permitting it to be done—
Mr. KNIRD—I have seen it.
Mr. O'CCNNELL—Tbe treadmill has got rusty there—
t. ere have not been a euffieient number of persons
to ter.) it. --( Laud ch.-ors.) In St. Ann's the
curl to shut up, and in Westmoreland the gaol has fallon
into ruins. Now ti-cot initiated frets strike more strong?!
upon the human niicd than hours of declamation cud ge-
neral asset tian —( Hear, hear.) I stand here triumphantly
then with tills gr. at experiment completely worked cut,
that it is perfectly safe to ernancip-ite the negro race.—
Cneers.) But have we nr,t something to fear from the
planter ?—( hear.) I cannot leave Jamaica ct ithout
announcing to you that in the last Session of the Legisla-
ture of that country abominable slavery lams were passed
amid the congia'ulations of Sir Charles Metcalfe—
( Flisses)—alto, with a fatal facility, has given in to the
views of the planters, and given up that generous protec-
tien which my esteemed and admired friend—how proud
I am to call him so—Sir Lionel Smith showed —( Loud
cheers.) I need allude only to one of them. They have
passed a combination law—a law to purii.sh the men from
combining to get wanes (Hear.) No three negroes
can now meet to regulate how much they ought to get for
their wages w:thout being subject to this combinati..:n
To be ewe they have, by an atrocious kind of idiosyncrasy,
made this law apply to masters as well as servants.—
(I, :neuter.) It is mixing the ridiculous with the horrible.
Who is to penish the rnaster.—( Hear, hear, and leuel:-
ter)—when there will he found on the beech the ruffian
that ought to be in tits dock ?—(Cheers.) As yet those laws
have not received the Royal Assent in this country, and by
the blessing of God, the name of cur Queen will never be
sub, crib al to them --( Tremendcus cheering. ) I know they
are in operation in the meantime, that is the worst of its;
On'l therefore no time should be lost in calling on the Se-
cretary for the Colonies, and remonstrating with him upo.i
the sub;ttct. I injtelf asked him the question whether these
laws gild receivA the Royal Assent. lie said they
had not. When I asked how many of them had been
sit-pended, he was not then prepared to give roe an
answer, but I thirds we should ask him again—(Cheer.
ing)—for although they are, as it has been said, in
farce in that country, would not the people of Englan:l.be
laughed at from one end of Europe to the other, if, after
paying twenty millions of money, twelve or fourteen of which
went to tt,i, very Colony, they were to allow themsslres to
be swindled out of its value by these combination laws ?
( Cheers.) Jehn Bell likes to get the full limping value
for his penny, and, therefore, I do not think the British
people will allow themselves to be so cheated.—(Cheers )
It is incumbent on us to take care we are not laughed at—
nobody lima to be—(Laughter)--to take care the public
are not swindled of their money, and to take care
above all that the negro is not sent back, under
the shape of laws, to a state of servitude worse
than the slavery he b.fore endured.---( Hear, hear. )
The planters say they only want to be protected in free
labour. But 'that claim have they for any assistance from
the British people or Government, if instead of free labour
they have taken care it shall be slave labour as soon as the
emigrants arrive ? These are subjects of the utmost im-
portance, and glad am I to have the opportunity of pro-
claiming them to the good sense of the English people.
The night before last we saved the Hill Coolies—(Cheers)
—and it will be our duty within eight-and-forty hours
more to save the coloured man in Jamaica from renewed
slavery.—( Cheers.) There is another portion of the Bri-
tish dominions where slavery still spreads its horrid influ-
ence. We were told, Sir, when the Emancipation Bill
passes' that the Government of the East Indies would take
measures to abolish slavery there. I believe they have
taken none—l know of none—it may be my ignorance ;
but this I know, that there are hundreds and thousands and
hundreds of thousands of slaves still in our East Indian do-
minions, and when we proudly boast that the flag of our
Queen waves over none but freemen, we arc obliged to
make a distinction which has ne difference, for the flag of
the East India Company waves over hundreds and thou-
sands of slaves.—(Hear, hear, hear.) The object of
the Convention_the object of this meeting, cannot be
answered until slavery is abolished in the East Indies
as it hat been in the West.—( Hear, liter, hear.)
And wherever the flag of England flutters in the breeze,
over any part of the dominions in the dependencies be-
longingn vee
fre
etmo
et
nh
aMn
do nnaortchhi
nogf
ht hnets
fer
er
ee
da lomnis , ta
lslh ahl
el
fflnonantdohnel y.
teeth its influence or within its protection._( Cheers.)
There is, indeed, connected with India, another subject of
the most awful importance, but it is not fitted for an anti-
slavery
meeting. I only allude to it, because I think the
humanity
i t
ywill
of
mfr ieeannd st
hoef
situationh u mn
the
and endeavour
land e a voteunr u
rt oremedylna—(
iat e(
poverty
four distress,ofle ande
tenures in
in the awfully rapid
ten years) they
famines
)—an
(ford t
wh e
e have had
create. If we look to other countriems what are our con-
solations. We have heard an able
and I
am sorry he was not and eloquent French
advocate of universal liberty,
able to express himself in the English language. Had he
done so, he would have made an impression such as few
y
are capable of. His sentiments were excellent, and he has
long been a distinguished friend of the negro race in his
own country. But, Sir, I was very sorry to hear from him
what they were going to do. To be sure they had alread
made a law that their masters are not to mutilate them, 'vgh,
it is not the interests of the masters exactly t",
mutilate the negroes.—( Hear, hear.) I was sorry to hear
him talk of the French probably postponing, for ten or
twenty years, the emancipation of the negroes—it is like
what the Latinists call paulo post futurunt—( Laughter)
—the prison counts by the hour, slavery reasons by the
minute.—( Cheers, ) Talk mgt to me of gulatems,
and rules, and laws; commit them to the earls of
the planters and masters, it is no matter what the law is,