The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-08 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION

the House will forgive me, as it is a subject that does not
some before the House in its ordinary course of business
one on which no direct motion can be made, as it is going
on silently and without necessity for more legislation—per.
haps the House will permit me to make some statements
upon the subject. The first I wish to call the attention
of the House to is drawn up fom the Reports of the
Stipendiary Magistrates and other authorities in the West
Indies. The first statement is that the sugar crops are
unfavourable—that is fer 1839—they state that the crop
is below the average, but they went on to point out the
eagerness of the negroes to possew cottages and gardens.
I desired the Governor to give an account of the number
of negroes who have attained some property. His answer
was that the freeholders under forty acres it 1838 was
2,014 ; in 1840 the number amounted to 7,848, showing
an increase of 5.834.—(L0ud cheers.) That state-
ment is highly satisfactory, and as J wish to
encourage foreign nations to 'follow our example, I am
glad to make it, for nothing can be more enceuraging than
to show that the people are not only sensible of the
blessing conferred upon them, but are (-Ling their utmost
to show they appreciate it. The la'ocuters are allowed
the use of a cottage, and a quarter of an acre of land, rect
free. They work under verbal arrangement, at one shilling
per day for eight hour!. lii Antigua there are various
independent villages created, as the hest mode in which
they can have a little independent property of their own,
and at the same time be induced to hire out their labour.
In British Guiana some very extraordinary measures have
taken plsce. No less than 20,0001. has bees given for an
estate, by a uumber of negroes combined n getiter for
that purpose. There have been other sieelir instances.
lii a letter from a person of great respectability, named
Closndlem, a member of the Society of Friends, it is stated
that in Jamaica the wages are la. 6d. per day, that there
arc 93,000 labourers working five days in the week at IF.,
and that one million and a quarter is paid annually in
wages to the labourers alone. —( Cheers.) Fie also stated
that the labourers do not work hard, they dress ham!-
somaly, and send their children to school, build chapels et
their own expense, support many poor, and do works of
mercy.—(Cheers.) Ttiea making a statement with reiret
to marriage, the number of [marriages under slavery was
as 29 to 34; but marriage is new considered honour.
able, and in the island of Jamaica, during the last
ten years, the number of marriages has been
four times greater in proportion to the population than
in eeland. Such is the statement with regard to the
condition of the Degrees in Jamaica ; and with regard to
other coloades, I have received from various persons the
most gratifying accounts. Now, with respect to the argu-
ments to be deduced from this condition, I would beg the
House to consider whether this condition of the negro does
depend, and is entirely depending, on the very high and
excessive price of sugar? I have often asked gentlemen
who have complained to me of the want of labour, why
higher wages were not offered, and they have told me that
if higher wages were offered it would only give the men
4 (mice the means of becoming independent, and relapse
into habits of idleness. Such are the st 'temente made by
those who wish to promote emigration, but with regard to
tlebteGondition of the eegro, if you admit foreign sugar at a
ilti of 36e, is there any reason to suppose that the people
of%R
• Bice will not go on increasing in comfort, and ob-
taitelefsufficient wages for the iabour they perform,
and left they will not continue to be as well off as any
population can possibly be ? Because, I muse say, that
although I rejoice, as we all must rejoice, in th!s termi-
nation of slavery, and this comfort of our people in the
West Ind:ea I do not think it is incumbent upon us thus
to influence the production of sugar, which, as far as it
appears to me, is not necessary to the comfort and well-
beirrebf the people of Jamaica; while it exposes to severe
privation ttto people of this country. Having given
them freedom,—having enabled them to earn wages,_
having given them a good measure of justice,—we are not
justified in ts:v:ng our attention exclusively to them, while
the people of this country are suffering the greatest priva-
tions.—( Her, hear.) lam told of the coriditim of the
people of Jrrnaica,—cf their extreme comfort, their ea-
j• yrnent of the comforts of life, and their corrtfori able dress.
I will now give you a statement made by a medical gm-
tlets,ln with rcesrd to the town of Bolton. (The Noble
Lini.l then read the statement. It stated that 195,0001.
lees . was paid for food last year than in the pre-
vimus years, and 130,0001. less was paid f.r wages; that
there were 1,125 houses untenanted ; that the shopkeepers
were almost ruined, and the people generally in the
greatest state of distress. In one case 17 persons were
crowded into one small dwelii g. The out-door relief
paid last year amounted to nearly i h ee times the amount
paid in 1830.) Besides that account, Sir, there me ac-
commis front Manchester and ether manufacturing t,wne,
where the ce,ple can hardly obtain tie wagesnesessary for
supporting themselves and their ferniles—(l-leat. I etr)—
ant: there are f,ers that the trade, at present lerguishing,
may be still farther reduced.--( Hear, hear ) 1 aek you,
Gentlemen, es the representative) of the people cf Eng-
land—( Cheers)—with all your humane feelings for the
people cf the West Indies—(Cheers)—not to be so misled
by your feclirga as to force the people of this country.--
(Very great cheering)—as to force the people of this
country, I say, to refuse themselves the articles most es-
sential to their moderate and temperate diet.—(Much
cheering.) Da not force them to make such sacrifices for
the sake of the people of the West ledies with whom those
unfortunate men of Bolton and Manchester would willingly
change places.—( Loud cheers on both sides cf the House.)
We are, Sir, 1 consider, in a great, in a very great crisis,
as regards manufactures.—(Cheers.) Whether it le
owing to the increase of manufactures in Germany, in
Sweden, and in France—or whether it be owing to the
disp(sitioa of the Uni:ei States to impose still greater re-
strtetions upon the importation of our manufactures—or
whether it is owing to tie approaching expiration of our
commercial treaties with foreign nations, I will nut pre-
tend to say. I will not say which cf all these may be
the greatest, or whether they may not bc all of them in
some proportion combined.—( Hear, loan) Be it as it
may,
_Sir, there is at all events a great darne—l say a
very great danger—of a large portion, a very large por-
tion, of your population being reduced to a condition so
far from the enjoyn.cat cf ordinary luxuries, that they may
be obliged in very great numbers to seek relief as paupers.
—lteers.) What I ask you is, that you will give to
the legitimate and praiseworthy means of maintaining
thernselves.—( Renewed cheering.) We find every day
that the people of this country are deserting intemperate
halms, and resorting to the use of tea and coif, e and sugar
as ame les of comfort.—(Hear, beer.) I say encourage
that Ice:iag— ( Loud chers) —arid do cot tell again tee
poor labourer that it shall Le tide year as it was the last,
that the poor man 5h..11 go into the grccer's shop, and
ask the price of sugar, and that Laving heard what that
price is, he shall turn away beeau,e he has not the
power of purchasing it.-s.(Cheers and counter chees.)
That bas bean the case, be it observed, under your present
law. You may tell me of the expectations and pre.-
mists of n.e-chants, and planters, and Colonial clubs—
( Cheers and laughter)—but suppose these promises should
feil_ (Hear, Lear)—and Parliament, on the faith of those
should retain these duties, in the r ourse of next Autumn
you will have your labourirg population suf.
fe-ing the sante privations to which they were

exposed during the list yoar, and forced Ito submit to the
want of t e same necessary. But I am told that sup-
posing there should be no sutficiebt supply from the West
Indies. )et the East ladies are now engaged in a vast
aietu rt, of sugar, and hit a large capital has teen
sent ,ut to the East Indies for that purp,se. It is possible
if you ch,:ese to conlieue your sy•em of restr etion, that
tie sigtir planters in the West Indies may fled themselvet
detested anJ ousted of their monopoly, not by a corcue-
tit ion w;th tic foreigner, with a dk.ty of 365. but with the
East Indies with a duty of 245. TLat you may
p.rhaps find the case eventually, but then you
Mill haae (vested an enormous monopoly, a monopoly
not astendiitg cos er a few islands, and confii ei to

a cit on iiuraer of planters in the Weq Indie.s, who
may le retained under the control of Parliament, but a
mono,cly, Lacked by a ciiti,:ct Government, and wt ich
will be supported not only by all those mire immediatey
s•onerri ei in the uphrlding it, but by tt e whole force of
the E-irt India Company, and sit those connected
with its Government.—( Cheers ) And depend upcn it,
)on will then have to consider another que,,tion, if sugar is
to be entirely the production of a monopoly in the E iit
Indies, no*, ccrteinly, a new ques-tion. but a question of
the g e,test difficulty, and one which I never hear men-
ti :ned without a feeling of apprehension on the subject.
You will have to consider the question as regards
the Libouring population cf the East. (Cheers. )
The lab urers receive three half-pcnce a day each as wpg....s,
and when they were brought to Dirt it; aro you found tli; y
were accustomed to be forced to labour by the infliction
of corporal punishment. You will find in dealing with this
question that you will have to deal nt t with a mere simple
system of Slavery, as you had in tha West Indies, but with
the whole relations and complicate state of society in the
East Indies. You will have it as a question how far you
are justified in giving the advantage as against free labour
in the West Indies. Therefore, whatever the immediate
advantage cf
it-may he, I fear that legislation which contem-
plates that the West Indies alone should furnish the whole of
this production. The Noble Lord ( Sandon) has proposed,
is static g his objections to this measure, that this state-
is not the wish of this
merit bo adopted—That it
House to say thet this country ought to admit foreign
sugar. He does not say that slave-labour is to be prolti-
bitel, or that the productions o! it arc never to be inintro-
deset into this country ; but he says, ~ That, considering
the efforts and sacrifices which Parliament and the
county have made for the abolition of the slave trade and
slaver,, with the earnest hope that their exertion and ex-
amples might lead to its mitigation and final extinction in
other countries, this House is not prepared, especially
with the present prospects of the supply of sugar from the
British posessions."—(Ministerial cheers.) Now, I could
well understand though I think it is a mistaken
feeli: g—l could welt understand that scruple of con-
science which induces a man, who has a horror of
slave-brown articles, to say I wi.l not consume slave-
grown sugar—let it be for ever prohibited—let us,
whatever may be its price, take free-grown sugar.
But the Noble Lord ma no such thing.—( Ministerial
chee s.) He says, " With the pri sent prospect of the
supply of sugar from the British possessiJns " this
House is not prepar, dto do—win t? Why, to adopt the
rrca,u, oaf ler Nljesty's Guverninent.—( C;beers. ) Now
I can undo's-Antid that perfectly well. The resolution
I s the Noble Lord pclfietly open to say, ~With a dimi.
prospect of supply—seeing my hopes are frustrated, (
and that I was mistaken about that colonial supply, I now '
prcprise some mea-urn which is cot the measure of her
silsje.ts'a Government. It is the measure of a Govern-
rocnt gone by, and which we repeatedly defeated upon
that questiot. Now that there is not such a good pros.
pect, we will admit slavr.grown sugar.—( Ministerial
cheers.) There is not a word in the resolution of
the 7th May, 1841, which would prevent our adopt-
ing this new measure, with other prospects more
favourable." The Noble Lord's resolution may be, indeed,
a right one for him to move, but a resolution prohibiting
the introduction of slave-grown sugar, would be a very dif-
ferent one. This resolution is one which, I say, Sir, is
totally unfit to be proposed before you leave the chair, and
which the Howe, with regard to the former part of the
resolution, that we are to consider " the efforts and sacri-
fices which the Parliament and the country made
for the abolition of slavery, in the hope that
they might lead to the total extinction of those evils in