The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-03 00:00:00

finally released only to find a grave, for the crime of having
circulated a pamphlet for emancipation, written by one of
the friends who accompanied me. On inquiry of the keeper,
he informed me that slaves are admitted into his cells, and
kept for their owners, at the rate of 34 cents. per day, and
that transfers of them from one master to another some-
times took place during their confinement, thus corrobo-
rating the testimony of the keeper of the private gaol
before-mentioned ; that this city prison, the property of
the people of the United States, and for the rebuildin.,o;
of which a large sum of your money has been appropri-
ated, is made use of by the dealers in human beings as
a place of deposit and market ; and thus you, in com-
mon with your fellow-citizens, are made indirect partici-
pators in a traffic equal in atrocity to that foreign trade,
the suppression of which, to use the words of your Pre-
sident in his late Message, "is required by the public
honour and the promptings of humanity."
As one who has devoted much of his humble labours
to the cause you wish to promote, I perhaps shall be ex-
cused for thus stating these facts to you as they all
passed before my personal observation in the course of
a few hours. I shall deem it right to publish them
in Europe, where lam about shortly to return. Re-
collect
they all occurred and exist within the district of
Columbia, and that those who elect the legislators who
uphold the slave system are justly responsible for it
in, the sight of God and man. Is it not all the natural
consequence of your electing slave-holders, and their
abettors to the highest offices of your state and nation ?
Some of your most intelligent citizens have given it as
their opinion that fully two-thirds of the whole popula-
tion of the United States are in favour of the abolition
of slavery ; and my own observation, since I landed on
these shores, not only confirms this opinion, but has
convinced me that there is a very rapid accession to their
numbers daily taking place ; and yet we have the ex-
traordinary fact exhibited to the world, that about 250,000
slave-holders, a large proportion of whom, bankrupt in
fortune and reputation, have involved many of the north
in their disgrace and ruin, hold in mental bondage the
whole population of this great republic, who permit them-
selves to be involved in the common disgrace of presenting
a spectacle of national inconsistency altogether without a
parallel. I confess that although an admirer of many
of the institutions of your country, and deeply lament-
ing the evils of my own Government, I find it difficult
to reply to those who are opposed to our extension
of the political rights of Englishmen, when they point
to America, and say, that where all have a control over
the legislation but those who are guilty of a dark skin,
slavery and the slave trade remain n& only unmiti-
gated, but continue to extend ; and that while there is
an onward movement in favour of its extinction, not
only in England and France, but even in Cuba and
Brazil, American legislators cling to this enormous
evil, without attempting to relax or mitigate its horrors.
Allow me, therefore, to appeal to you, by every motive
which attaches you to your country, seriously to consi-
der how far you are accountable for this state of things
by the want of a faithful discharge of those duties for
which every member of a Republican Government is so
deeply responsible ; and may 1 not express the hope, that
on all future occasions you will take care to promote the
election of none as your representatives who will not
practically act upon the principle, that in every clime
and of every colour " All men are equal."
Your sincere friend, JOSEPH STURGE.

LETTER FROM EARL FITZ-

WILLIAM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DONCASTER GAZETTE.

Sir,—l am induced to trouble you with a few remarks,
in consequence of having observed that, in a speech deli-
vered at Thorne, Mr. Wortley is reported to have stated

that, "Lord Fitzwilliam said-the repeal of the Corn-laws
would not reduce the price lower than it had been for
the last eighteen years." lam quite sure Mr. Wortley
would not intentionally misrepresent any statement of
mine,, but, in order to give your readers a more correct
view of the proposition which. I adVanced in the House
of Lords, and which Mr. Wortley so very much miscon-
ceived, it is desirable to statQ it more fully and accurately.

The conversation in the course of which it was made,
referred to rents, and to the effect which would be pro-
duced upon them by the Ministerial measure. Your
readers are probably aware of a statement having been
made that it would occasion a reduction of one-third of
the rental
.of the kingdom ; on the other hand, the
proposition which I advanced was, " that any existing
rent which was fairly calculated from the average price
of the eighteen years from 1821 to 1838, both inclusive,
(or even from the 20 years, to 1840,) need not be
much reduced in consequence of the change proposed
by Ministers." I then maintained this proposition in
Parliament (as I will now in your columns), by showing
that the average of the above-mentioned eighteen years was
565. Bd, and that, including the two dear years, 1839
and 1840, it was only about 58s. ; and, further, that the
average with a duty of Bs. would probably be about 535.
or nearer 535. than any other price. It is obvious that a
rent calculated from 535. would be nothing like a third
less than one calculated from 565. or from 585., and,
having advanced these propositions, I expressed the be-
lief, which I continue to entertain, that, with an improving
agriculture, prosperous manufactures, and a thriving
population, land would yield in the first instance nearly
as high a rent, and, ultimately, perhaps a higher, under
the ministerial system than it has under the present
Corn-laws.