The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-23 00:00:00

'EVENING EDITION.

so. The name of Wm. Knibb stood unsullied notwith-
standing their rabid abuse.—(Loud cheers.) But
Last night there was a very full meeting of the above when the charges, foul and false as they were, came
Society, held in the Great-room, at Exeter-hall. The with the authority of her Majesty's representative, the
room was crowded in every part, and many persons Governor of Jamaica, he felt bound to take notice. of
anxious to hear the proceedings, were obliged to go them. Was eighteen days' experience on the
away for want of room. island enough to justify Sir Charles Metcalf
The meeting was opened by a hymn and prayer by in saying, that the agents of the Society
Dr. Cox, after which only visited the islands for the paltry pence ? Was 15
Mr. JOSEPH STURGE, of Birmingham, was voted into years of labour in the vineyard of Christ to be vilified
the chair with acclamation. He said, although unac- in such a manner ?—(Cheers.) If the charges were
f
custcmed to preside at public meetings, he could not true, the Society:were bound to scout their agents—if
resist.
the call made upon him by such a meeting, and they were false, as he would prove them, then it was
held for such a purpose. He must, however, throw the duty of the Society to compel air C. Metcalf to re-
himself upon their indulgence should there be any im- , tract the foul calumny. There was no middle course to
perfections in the discharge of his duty.—(Cheers.) ' steer—Sir Charles had the fact before him, that the
There were probably few connected with the Mission agents of the Society had been respected by his prede-
who had visited Jamaica, as he had done, and cessors, Sir S. Smith, Lord Sligo, and Lord Mulgrave.
although when he was thete, the demon of slavery still He ought net to have given implicit belief to those in-
existed, even then the efforts, the noble efforts of their terested persons who flocked around him.—(Cheers.)
Missionaries, had converted the heathen wilderness into Yet a very few weeks after his arrival in the colony, in a
a Christian garden. Even then religious observances, i despatch to the Government, he accused the agents of
and instruction, and prayer, and praise were carried on acting for political purposes—he only mentioned the
gloriously by their Missionaries. Even before the galling Baptists. Now he (Mr. K.) wished to speak with all
chain of the slave vas broken, the noble efforts of the Christian charity of all denominations, but he did
Missionaries in Jamaica shone conspicuous. His friend think that some might be much better employed in their
Knibb, and many other friends, had come to attend an Christian duties than in detracting others.—(Cheers.)
Anti-slavery Convention, which was to be held in Lone He read an extract from the despatch, in which the
don next mouth. The objects of that Society were to Governor said, " Whenever Ministers deviate from their
do away with slavery throughout the world, by all civil, own functions, Sec.," and said, hear that, ye Bishops, in
fair, and religious means ; but No blood was to be shed, the House of Lords, and attend to it as well as the
asset even the blood of the trafficker in the image of his Baptist Missionaries. He did not intend to say much
God. Ilectruiary assistance had been liberally afforded on the subject, but the despatch was not founded on
to that Society, even from Africa.--s,-(Cheers.) He was fact, and on behalf of himself and his brethren, he
liapper so say, that from tlfe emancipated congregation claimed a right to be heard at the Colonial-office in
F.frieted Knibb they ha- received 100/.—(Cheers.) their defence.—(Cheers.) Were they descendants of
rom those who two ye.ars ago were slaves themselves Luther—of those who had sealed their faith by the
they had received that amount, in order to promote blood of martyrs in Smithfield, and were they to sacrifice
the abolition of slavery throughout the world. It their Missionaries, because it would be inconvenient for
*could be presumptuous in him to confirm anything Sir Charles Metcalf to own that he had misrepresented
they would hear from his friend Knibb, whose boast them ?—(Cheers.) Sir Charles said their influence
was that he had never been praised, but had uniformly 'would cease with the fall of the voluntary principle—he
been abused by the traffickers in human flesh. A cla- would have a long time to wait for that.—(Laughter.)
mour had been got up against him, that he was a political He was aware that efforts had been made, and would
agitator. Now he never knew any reason why a still be made, to impugn the character of his beloved
Christian should not discharge political as well as brethren ; he was aware it had been said that the sa-
Christian duties, the more especially if among these po- cred duty of a Christian ministry had been surrendered
litical duties were to be reckoned the breaking of the for the stormy arena of political discussion ; but it was
chains of slavery, and the endeavours to allow the op- easier to make these charges than to prove them.—
pressed to go free. The advent of Him who came to (Hear, hear.) If to defend the oppressed against the
save the world was ushered in by " Peace on earth and encroachments of arbitrary power—if to watch with
goodwill to all men." and should not that be the creed untiring energy the first breathing of liberty in the in-
of all Christians? He was so much of a Quaker as to habitants of the West—if to sympathise with the
suppose that whenever the pure doctrines of the Scrip- wretched and unfriended, and strive by day and night
tures were prs;ached there would be Quakerism abound, to give them those rights of which they ought never to
but he thought they were all belonging to the same have been deprived—if to succour the infirm and the
Christian army—they were all enrolled for the same helpless when in distress and ready to despair—if to se-
xervice—they were all serving under the banner of the cure the hard-working peasant a just return for his
Cross of Christ, in whose service alone was perfect labour—if to endeavour to disenthral his mind
liberty. He begged to bespeak their attention to a from the miasma and pollution of slavery, and teach
friend of his, whom he would introduce as Henry him to think of his rights as a man—if to strike from
Beckford, a Deacoe of a Church in St. Ann's Bay— the hands of the female the chain of bondage and place
he was formerly a predial slave, and as he was unac- in its stead the child of her affection, and tell her that
eustorned to address such an assemblage he must be- her home was her place, and not the unsheltered glare
speak their indulgence for him. of a burning sun—if these things were political, then,
Heavier BECNFORD, a negro, good-looking and young, indeed, would he acknowledge that the Baptist Mis-
then very earnestly returned thanks to the British public sionarics of Jamaica had been the greatest of political
for tircir great and unspeakable gift of the Gospel, agitators. He had, in the city of Kingston, in Jamaica,
which was even dearer to them than the great boon of in the town where he laboured, amongst a people whom
freedom, for the one had only freed the body from he loved, publicly challenged his enemies to come for-
labour and tyrant', while the other had freed the soul ward, if they dared, and refute a single statement which
from the bondage of sin and Satan. Ali ranks and he had made respecting their guilt, or the good con duct
classes amongst his countrymen were now bending their of those whom they had so unjustly maligned. He
knees to God. Ile did not now remember the day should not insult an English audience by endeavouring
when he had seen a drunken man in his district.— to refute the slanders which, day after day, and week
(Caesars.) The children, who used to be driven into after week, had been reiterated against him and his
the woods like beasts, were now gathered together to brethren ; he had brought his accusers to the bar of
receive instruction, in order to become Missionaries to justice, and defied them to prove a single act against
Afiica to tell their fathers to cease from murdering them, but, like cowards, they had slunk from the task.
each other, and selling their fellow men. His mother —(Cheers.) They were denounced even in this en-
had told him that she was weld by her own brother for lightened country as infidels and unbelievers, because
a gua, with which to make war upon his neighbours, they wanted to strip State Christianity of some of its
'and he was mow anxious to be enabled to devote him- I gear. If such could take place in England, they must
sew to the work of regenerating his father land, and put up with more in Jamaica. If he was, a political
preaching there the glad tidings of Jesus. agitator because he broke the chains of the oppressed,
c , , 1
The meremea rm..m , introeuced Mr. Barrett, with he gloried in the name. (The Rev. Gentleman pro-
whom he had become acquainted in Jamaica. His duced the neckchain and handcuffs, which he threw
isistory was rather interesting, and he should make an down with disgust.) He said he knew not what to do
observation or two in reference to it. In the year with them—they did not want them now, thank God;
183-2, when the horrors of slavery had driven part of he at one time thought of sending them to the American
the population of that island into a state of rebellion, I churches for the slaves they kept in bondage.—(Cheers.)
the whole of tire inhabitants of the Oxford Estate fled He called upon the churches in Britain to hold no
from it, leas ine all the property in the hands of the communion with the American churches' while they
stoves ; but though the white man professing Chris- disgraced themselves with the accursed traffic in human
etilowy had doomed hie) to interminable slavery, and in flesh. List time he was in Exeter-hall, he had taken
Ais irereon hail trarnp'ed oe all lews, human and divine, a solemn vow that he would never rest or cease from
Siadward Barrett had learned from the rell,,_>,ion of Christ, struggling until the chains were knocked from the
while in that bondage, that the only revenge he could slaves in the colonies, and lie now renewrd the vow in
take for the wrongs heap," upon him was to return favour of the brethren in America.—( Cheers.) With
good for evil ; and such was the influence lie possessed the sympathies of the British public, he would never
eves his fellow bondsmen, that he kept them quietly at cease his arbours until the Gospel was carried to Tim-
Ivoirk for sie weeks, till the while.. men ventured to buctoo, and the Africans were taught the blessings of
retueu. For this act, even the House of .A.FSCM- I the Gospel. Her own children would heal the wound
lily sowed th,y entertained some value by vet- ,wc had inflicted upon her by the kind instructions we
eine. him 10/., and when the proprietor of the ca- would afford them, and sending them out as Missionaries
ttat* was informed of his conduct he offered to their ,benighted brethren. lie knew it had been
;him his treedcm. Nosy Edward Barrett could tell sai,?, and truly said, that there had been a falling off:in
them that no one could fully estimate the value the produce of the sugar crop since the emancipation of
of freedom, but those who had once been slaves. the slaves ; but it had also been said, and most untruly
He. however, bed a son arrived at the age of 'said, that it was owing to the influence of the Baptist
manhood, to whom the yoke of bondage was less en- Missionaries that this result was to be attributed. It had
durable, and he therefore requested that his son might been his (Mr. Knibb's) happiness to be called upon to
he liberated instead of himse.ll.:—(Loud app! tuse.) form, in connection with an attorney in the island, the
This request was granted, and he had no prospect but first scale of wages on a Jamaica estate, to which not
the.: of ending his days the goods and chattles of his the least exceptions were made by the people. But
master. But on the Ist of August, 1838, through this was not all. They did not fix the price
1
their efforts, and the efforts of the British public gene- of wages—the planters had done this themselves. ,
rally, the last link of the chain which bound him and During- the time of slavery, when the negroes
I
others in Jamaica was broken, he trusted, for ever.— applied to their masters with the view of purchasing
(Heru-, and cheers.) Mr. Barrett now stood before their freedom, the latter were obliged to swear to the
thefts:a free man ; and while he knew they would re- value of their daiiy labour before the price of manumis-
piers in welcoming him and his companions as Chris- sion could be settled, and this they valued at four bits
ties brethren, equal in all respects to themselves in the per day. Now, was it to be supposed that a man, hearing
sight of God, he (Mr. Barrett) would rejoice to tell his master swear that his labour was worth four bits a
theta what a glorious change liberty had wrought for day, would be disposed to place a lower value upon his
his countrymen in Jamaica.—(Cheers.) work ? But yet, such was the desire of the Christian
Mr. BARRETT here came forward and delivered a freemen to act justly, that they struck off ene-
short address, in the course of which he replied to some ' third of the sum which their masters
asters had sworn
of the charges brought against the negroes, re- was their due, and cheerfully worked for two-thirds the
specting the falling off in the production of sugar, by sum.—(Cheers.) Not content with this noble conces-
stating that while the planters, during the time of' sla- sion, a meeting of planters was held to see if they could
very, compelled their children and wives to work in not reduce the rate of wages still lower, but here the
the fields from morning to night, they now sent their Missionaries felt it their duty to protect the people, and
ehildreneto school, and allowed their wives to fill the here they made a final stand.---(Hear, and cheers.)
station fi* which they were intended, that of attending They told the planters if the labour of sugar cultivation
Le their families and homes.—(Hear, hear, hear.) was not worth one shilling a-dry, that it was time they
The blessings conferred by the British upon the. negro turned their hands to something else. Another cause
could never he repaid,excepttby the negroes nosy Joining of the diminution of the produce of the estates in Ja-
their Christian brethren, and extending the same bless- maica referred to by Mr. Knibb was, that the planters
ings of the Gospel to their latheriend of Africa ; and he refused to cultivate the land, under the impression that
could assure the meeting that they would do so. [He the negroes would not work. Another cause of tire
entered into a history of his life and conversion, diminution in the produce was the unjust manner in
but our limits forbid us entering upon them.; which it was attempted to force exorbitant rents from
Mr. Resins next presented himself, and was received the peasantry ; and he regretted to say that by a law
with loud acclamations. It was with no ordinary feeliog passed with the sanction of Sir Charles Metcalf, the
teas he found himself once more upon the platform al owner of a house had the power of raising
Exeter Had. Ho well remembered when he stood there i the rent every week if he pleased, and ejecting
eight years ago, advocating the freedom of the black summarily by a written notice.—(hear, hear, hear.)
poreu}sation of the Colonies. The sympathy then put But this was not all. Another cause of the diminution
forth soon reached the island, and he had now the pleasing o,' the produce, and one a hich the planters could not
slaty to tell them that slavery existed no longer in our ge,`. over, was this, that the women had gone to their
Colonies—that the mother now was able to call her proper station in their families, and their children had
e'nild her owe—and that the ties between man and wife gorse to their schools. The meeting was doubtless
avere known and respected.—(Loud cheering.) It was well aweare that in the time of slavery the mother was
their privilege to hear that the black sons of Africa obligeat to surrender her child, when a month old, to
had redeemed the pledge made in their name ; that seine mercenary on the estate, return themselves to
upon their emancipation they would act as rational and the gang in the field, where they were compelled to la-
Christian men. It was his to witness that that act hour from morning to night. And did they suppose that
had led to an extension of the cross of Christ through
theirtll dutye L
agents or they had i
of freedom Jamaica would have done
his redeeming love--it was' his high privilege to havenot attempted to prevent this ?
seen the dawn, to have heard the toll of the bell, which No, t'o ; every one would be delighted to answer, in
broke the chain of slavery throughout all the islands of
R=oost : bosoms glowed the feelings of human beings, ' and
the West—when all stood forth in the enjoyment of he cot ifessed that he for one was delighted to find these
thwse rights which had been so unjustly, so iniquitously wo me: o attending to their domestic duties, and the chile
withheld from them for so ten. a time, He never was dreii I astening to their schools to receive that instruc-
it impressed, so awe-struckhe With any circumstance as
`lion evl r ich, he trusted, would make them wise unto sal-
-1•;e was when 100 mothers, on morning, with their yeti( tn. Mr. Knibb here referred to the rapid progress
iritaiste, came to bins andrs' said, , Here, minister, take which education was making amongst the people, and
tlealt fOr they are ''r
had heard
y O U
of have made them free." adde dit was impossible to deny that the amount of the
the abolition of slavery sue,
-Is.Ce Ile) soonae;rl3' Tli'te.y 4h 'They hadar• crap had decreased, but if they received in this
caught
ithe distant sounds crawl try leis sugar, they exported to their West Indian
of liberty from the Western cl'
amidst all their thunders, and high art
had stood colowtee a much larger quantity of their manufactured
joy, ;4it never, while memory held h
cart had beat with eoods. :; sand if they had not enough of sugar to supply the
braes* ex fisted in his bosons, should heerfseat,
mmoernegmetortahbeljeoyolusts
or remem- home c onsumption, there were other countries to get it
scsties he had witnessed on the from. II i referring to the conduct of the people themselves,
satriodod those
Of August, when thinge becie4 Mr, K Bibb said it was above all praise. It was a fact
who were before but as goods anti chattel's.. that thi we was not a labouring population on the earth
in the
possession of the common rights and priviTlTeessowilth so frec 1 rom crime as the labouring population of Ja-
which God had endowed all his creatures. tunics.. He could prove this from the records of the
Pious results had been mainly Drought about by thege7
this number
so f Law in Jamaica. At the last Assize Court
forts of a band of Christian Missionaries, who had only of Mosnte 'go Bey, amongst a population of 1'25,000 indi-
the eoßciousness of duty to support them ; men who vide& es, omy nineteen were charged with offences. Of
number six were white men ? of the remainder
were frowned on by those in power, for ever the objects
C; a weec acquitted, and there was not a female
t suspicion by the lovers of tyranny and Oppression, ,
,t there all.—(Cheers.) In the parish in which
till, under the power of Christianity, slavery' bowed to ireru °IT ,elf resided,i containing a population of 35,000
The Persona its benign and sacred iefluence.—(Cheers.)
trial in I theou ypacloienoeoof
threeo prisonerf
months
0 owas s
—( committedLo
od
cheers.)
e o
rfso.
)r
Church had fallen asleep, and the glorious object harl
been wrought out by a few despised Missionaries of the He wet tto thes t 0
sCorrectionall t at
couldT re lbaowsneeeyo
,bien-
fore he, left the islarusle
Cross. They had won this bloodless triumph.—(Loud
cheers.) To the various kindred institutions he begged i order ti tat he might he
.enabled to tell all that could be
to return his most heartfelt gratitude, To the Bible told, all d asked permission to go on the treadmill, when
Society, which, on. the ever memorable Ist of August, , tire (. -;t venni' said to him, " Mr. Knibb, there is no
had put a Bible into the hands of thousands of emancia I use cot icealiag the truth, but ever since the Ist of
gated friends—to the Tract Soviet and and to the cliffs:- Au g use we have never been able to muster hands
rent Sunday School societies, he begged to render his I enou gar to turn it, and the mill has become rusty, and
grateful acknowledgment. to pieces.'—(Loud cheering.) In the parish
not been in time for theiriii anniversaryHe sorry
Kit he wouldl of' S. a A.nriee's the gaol had been sleet up for the last
mheeetinlgies(,l 1 is
g( 431 g
be
atprottihi
eirto pay his personal s:x n ie inths, and the keeper had been put on half-pay
t'hank's to them
till h, e was again required.—(Laughter and cheers.)
He would only briefly advert to reproachesther"uthlmonthly
n'
meetings.
ucgas-. In the parish of Westmoreland, in which a deacon of
bunnies is rich had been cast u
So-
ciety ; and he eoula not have thoughtpon the agents of the So- his own Church had been flogged for praying to God,
take up ehe time of the meeting in
lilt worth while to the prix an was in ruins, for there was no one to tenant
udinee, to them, it. Th ese were facts which he should resound through-
had the false and foul charges not beena
present Government of Jamaica, and laid as reiteratedl by the out I:ani :land, and let his enemies deny thernif they could.
public do- Out of the whole number of those professing cerise curnent upon the table of both Houses of Parliament.
• I-le would speak very freely—he wished no
iI,V ry one to be lees, . it of this number ; and it was equally' true with
—• die. bound to a ther iris w. t t- a
e i La emen s—ae would state only Qi we other denomina-
t- . 11 facts, and would not be controlled in what he ; e ' reF-li ic,,,t ,to the p:ofcssors belonging
e es ea N
' :lau to
fiebeen brouelit to tine bar
mow" :et so say.—(Cheese.) If the Pre-Slavery Press in this -1'
is—oe dy one individual had e
l'oet:e ee ee •
tssess lee e :country could gain money or further their interests by '
f 1- h 'ntry sine the Ist of August,
is coo •
~ n a .. 1838, and he
' eve eac slat wl of crime laid to his charge.: After
3.%`-'; la •
. -,,,,T.- 16slandering and abusiog him, they were welceene to do e. ': (1 " the * • the Bap-
-1 al 4 :eel
Z ew0,451
A........„
es, 'tag ars ac, count of the manner la which
1 R

BAPTIST MISSION SOCIETY