The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

There was a numerous meeting of Members
of Parliament at Lord-Attlsorp's office on Satur-
day, when Mr. Stanley fully explained the ob-
ject and details of the Ministerial plan of
slave emancipation. There seemed to be a very
general disposition to support it. For ourselves
we are so fully aware of the difficulties which
surround this important question, and are so
thoroughly convinced of the sincerity with which
the Ministers have addressed themselves to find
a cure for an evil, the magnitude of which none
acknowledge more feelingly than themselves, that
we should he acting a most unjust part if we
should, except on the most essential grounds,
do anything to impede their benevolent endea-
vours ; at the same time we shall not conceal
the opinions which are entertained concerning
their project by persons competent to form a
judgment, for by such publication we shall ren-
der them a real service. The principal objec-
tion is, we find, that the details are complicated
and all but impracticable. We are sure that
Ministers are not so pedantically attached to all
the minutia of their plan as not to take the
advice of persons thoroughly conversant with
the subject ; and we would recommend
them, while they firmly adhere to the prin-
ciple of their measure, to consult the agents and
proprietors of the different colonies as to the
best and least vexatious mode of carrying that
principle into application. The subject will be
discussed in Parliament to-morrow. We have
received from a correspondent, who is tho-
roughly acquainted' with the measure, both in its
object and details, the following explanation,
which we will give in his own words, merely
adding that we entreat our readers, whether
abolitionists or planters, to throw aside their
personal prejudices and passions, and to ex-
amine and consider the plait with calm temper,
and in the spirit of justice. If the plan is bad let
it be rejected ; but let it be rejected deliberately,
and not with precipitate rashness:—" In an-
other column will be found the outline of the
Government plan for the extinction of slavery,
containing some further particulars than those
which were given, in our impression of Satur-
day. We invite the public attention to this
very important subject, and we think that some
further elucidation of its principles and details
may be acceptable to our readers. The first
and most important clause enables the slave im-
mediately to acquire all the rights enjoyed by
his fellow men. Henceforth the slave will be a
citizen of the state, with the same privi-
leges, the same responsibilities, the same freedom
of conscience, as his white brethren. All those
odious and unnatural distinctions, which have
been so jealously preserved in some of our colo-
nies and so reluctantly modified in others, as to
the testimony of the negro, are immediately and
for ever to cease ; all those impediments which
the narrow and selfish views of his owner have
thrown in the way of his religious and moral
improvement are to be instantly removed. The
9th and 10th clauses of the plan show that the
Government will not be lukewarm in this im-
portant duty. The second clause of the plan
prescribes the terms of the contract by the ac-
ceptance of which the negro acquires the ad-
vantages of freedom. The negro will enter into
an engagement to work upon a particular estate
for the moderate interval of seven hours and a
half per diem, in return for his clothing and
maintenance, and such other necessaries as he
by law is now entitled to. He is thus, in the
infancy of his freedom, at once secured from the
evils of poverty and want, and from the still
greater evils of unrestricted idleness. This labour,
however, is not to be the labour of slavery, but
the industry of freedom ; it is notto be wrung from
the negro by the outrage of corporeal punishment,
capriciously inflicted on him by the master, butit
is to be secured to the master by the control of the
law, in like manner as the industry of the labourer
in this country who thinks fit to bind himself for a
specific period. We find, too, from the eighth
clause of the plan, that the law will be adminis-
tered, not by slave-owners or colonists, but by
magistrates, selected and sent out from this coun-
try. The Governmett, moreover, have fixed a
limited duration and a certain termination to the
apprenticeship. For this purpose it is intended
that the labourer shall have the right to demand
labour and wages from his master for that one-
fourth of the working day which is left at the
labourer's disposal. The difficulty of fixing the
wages is removed by a novel and ingenious ex-
pedient. The master is to fix himself the price
of the slave, and the wages are to bear a fixed
proportion to that price ; consequently, if the
master fixes too high a price, he will have to pay
very high wages. If he fixes too low a price, the
apprenticed labourer will be able to buy off his
apprenticeship, as will be seen from the
tenth and eleventh clauses of the second
section of the plan, upon very easy terms.
Again, the termination of the apprenticeship is
wall,: certain by fixing the annual wages for the
labourer's surplus working time at one-twelfih
of the price, $e may, therefore, put an end to
the apprenticeship in twelve years, or earlier if,
by extra industry, or higher wages, or the
kindness of his friends, he should be
able at an earlier period to furnish the
full amount of his 'Nice. The mode in which
his price will thus be paid is calculated to teach
forethought and self-denial to the negro ; for
although the wages will be paid weekly, the tax,
out of which the master will be reimbursed the
uric,. 2f the negro, will be collected at longer
int,ervala, It would be dangerous, however,
entirely to trost to the labourer's desire to termi-
nate his apprenticeship, and a provision has ac-
cordingly been devised for compelling him to
attain his unconditional freedom at the end of
twelve years and a half. The 9th section of the
2d clause of the plan prescribes, that if the la-
bourer does not regularly furnish his half-yearly
quota towards buying off his apprenticeship, the
master must advance it, and thereby entitle him-
aelf to a corresponding part of the labourer's
!surplus working time during the preceding half
year. is evident that the effect of this may
be to protract the period of the apprenticeship
one half-year, but no further, beyond the end of
twelve years from the commencement of the ap-
prenticeship. It seems hardly necessary to advert
to the other parts of the plan as respects the
negro, except to point out that the contract,
under which the negro will continue for
twelve •years, independently of the advan-
tages he will demive under it, is calculated to
create and strengthen in him those qualities
which will most contribute to his wel-
fare when he is absolutely free. It remains
for us to consider in what mariner the Govern-
ment plan affects the West India proprietor.
In the present state of public feeling respecting
taxation, it would have been a hopeless and pit-
wise attempt to have proposed to relieve that
important and suffering interest by an actual
grant of money, entailing a permanent charge on
the nation. Justice, however, required that
neither the whole loss nor the whole risk of this