The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-28 00:00:00

Mr. Higginson, the Governor of Antigua, that dispatch •
was not communicated to the Committee for two months
afterwards. But on the occasion to which he was ad-
verting, while the Noble Lord quoted as much of that
dispatch as made fur the view of the question which he
wished to impress on their Lordships, he omitted to
state that it contained this important passage :—" It
must be conceded that, for obvious reasons, free-grown
sugar can never yield so remunerative a return as
that grown by slaves."—(Hear, hear.) He admitted that
it would be sometimes inconvenient and mischievous to
lay the whole of a dispatch before Parliament. But the
Noble Earl extended that doctrine, and claimed on the
part of Government that they should only lay before
Parliament so much of any dispatch as met their own
views, and should exclude from every dispatch whatever
ran counter to those views.—(Hear, hear.) The prac-
tice of the Noble Earl would seem to confirm the strong
charge made by his Noble Friend in the House of Com•
mons, that they adopted the principle of suppressing
and perverting the information which they had
in their possession, and which bad not been
laid before Parliament.—(Hear, hear.) When our
dispatches were asked for, they ought to be exhibited
in such a way as to give a fair, complete, and
impartial statement of the case to he considered
(Hear, hear) and to enable Parliament to judge of
its substantial merits.—(gear, hear.) But what were
they to say of the Minister who held in his hand a docu-
ment from which he quoted whatever supported his own
particular views?—(" Hear, hear," from Earl Grey.)
.le (Lord Stanley) was nut now speaking of the dispatch
of Governor Higginson, but of a memorial which excited
great attention on the part of the Noble Earl, and from
which ho read extracts to the House. He was going to
show that the extract read by the Noble Earl was not a
fair extract, and that, as the Noble Earl read it, it in-
volved an inference diametrically opposite to the whole
tenor of the memorial itself, and that the next sentence,
which the Noble Earl did not read, would annihilate
the inference to which he sought to lead their lord-
ships.—(Hear, hear.)—lt was in reference to this
memorial he presumed that the Noble Earl made
the following remarks on the 7th of February:—" In
a few years he hoped to see the business of planting
carried on solely by residents, and he conceived that
there were not anywhere such favourable opportunities
for the investment of capital as in the West Indies, He
felt assured that men of science going Out there, not
disregarding local experience but applying the great
principles of science to the production of wealth, could
scarcely fail to obtain pre-eminent success. It was his
firm conviction that five or six men of capital and science
emigrating thither with a resolution to assist each other,
and establishing a central manutactory—such a party,
conducting such an enterprise, could not fail of perfect
success. He could not avoid expressing his strong con-
viction that a great property was still in store for those
who engaged in such a course; and he should conclude
with a confident appeal to the House and the country to
say whether or not he had succeeded in proving that the
present state of the West Indies was not to be imputed
to the advice of the present Government." The Noble
Lord expressed that opinion, and he led their Lordships
co entertain this opinion; and he induced the country
and the capitalists of the country to entertain it, whilst
he at the very time held in his hand the document which
would have led their Lordships and the country to form a
different opinion, but which be did not communicate to
them. The memorial which the Noble Earl held in his hand
stated that they (the memorialists) had invested 142,0001.
capital in the production of sugar; but that the price of
sugar at the present time was such, that upon an annual
expenditure of 60,3001. the gross returns were 60,8001.,
being 5001. on an outlay of 60,3001., independent of the
interest of the capital and of the 142,0001. which they
had laid out since the Act of emancipation. They went
on to say that they were resident proprietors; that
they adopted the improved mode of cultivation; but
that they could not cultivate their estates for another
year.—(Sear, hear.) They concluded by saying —" We
heg of you to consider our desperate position as an
excuse for troubling you."—(Hear, hear.) And yet the
Noble Earl, with that document in his hand from which
he read a portion, whilst he withheld the rest for two
;months, would lead their Lordships to conclude from
the part he read that the experiment of resident planters
was immensely successful, and warranted a sanguine hope
that Jamaica would be cultivated in a successful and pro-
fitable manner, when the memorialists themselves told
them that they could not cultivate for another year.
(Cheers.) He followed the Noble Earl through the
whole of his statement, and he would leave it with con
tidence to their Lordships to judge whether the Noble
Earl was justified in that high tone of indignation in
which he thought it necessary to indulge.—(Hear, hear.)
Lie did not ask them to say there was a wilful suppres-
sion of the truth, or a perversion of documents for pur-
poses far opposed to those fur which they were intended;
but he said that he had demonstrated to their Lord-
ships, or to any candid and impartial man, that in the
circumstances as he had stated them, and as they ap-
peared before the public, it was not surprising that his
Noble Friend (Lord George Bentinck), who devoted
himself heart and soul to the cause of the West Indians
—who presided over the Committee with exemplary as •
siduity— should be anxious to arrive at the truth ; and
when he found a portion of the documents which con-
mined important matter had been withheld from that
Committee over which he presided, intentionally or
unintentionally, that he should have expressed himself
in strong and warm language, though in language
perhaps too strong with respect to a case which could
not km made out by complete and conclusive facts.—
(Hear, hear.) It was not surprising that, as chairman
of a Committee to which an important inquiry was dele-
gated, he should have said circumstances of grave sus-
picion Atttuched to the manner in which the Colonial
office hWcl been carried on for some time—(Hear, hear)
—and because he made those charges and statements it
was not fair to say that he was unduly descending to
,nean and petty formalities, as stated by the Noble Earl.
he took a course in which fair argument ought to be
inet by fair argument. He was justified in making the
statements he had made ; and neither the Noble Lord
aor the Government aught to be offended at the plain.
aess of the statements so made—(lronical cheers from
the Ministerial benches)—and the Noble Earl might con-
sider himself well out of the matter if he can satisfy your
Lordships and the country that he is altogether free from
the charge of naving conveyed by partial statements
made to your Lordships—an inference on an important
question the very opposite of that which was intended
to be conveyed by the document from which he was
speaking.—(Cheers and counter cheers.)
Lord BROUGHAM deeply lamented that anything
should have arisen to make it necessary for the Noble
Earl opposite to depart from the ordinary course of pro-
ceeding, in order to lay this subject before their Lord-
ships, because it was one that gave occasion to heats
both in that House and elsewhere. He was not sur-
prised, however, that the Noble Earl should be anxious
to take the earliest opportunity of clearing himself from
the charge. But could he blame his Noble Friend (Lord
G. Bentinek) for calling on the Colonial-office to defend
itself from the charges which he thought himself justified
in making ? Far from it. It was his privilege to do
so—it was consistent with his right to do so—and it was
nis duty to do so. Whatever was offensive in the charge
his Noble Friend had retracted; he had in a great degree
apologised for it, retaining, however, the opinion that
there had been errors and blunders, and that the circum-
stances justified suspicion. In one or two circum-
stances he could not agree with the statement of the
Noble Lord who ha just spoken. He could
not agree with him that the examination of his
honourable Friend( Mr. Hawes) justified suspicion. With
regard to the dispatch, his lion. Friend might differ
from the Noble Lord with respect to the gloss to be put
upon it, as to its importance or otherwise—but that his
Hon. Friend could have meant to deceive was impos-
sible, because he believed that the dispatch was there
before the Committee.—(Hear, hear.) A. remark of the
ii 11133 kind applied to the keeping back one portion of
Governor Light's dispatch, for when the part omitted
came to be read it made, in his opinion, for the case of
the Noble Earl opposite.—(Hear, hear.) With regard
to the memorial, again, it seems not to have occurred to
the Noble Lord that the part left out might have made a
different impression on the Noble Earl opposite than that
which it appeared to have made on the Noble Lord. He
hoped that this would be the last debate of this kind
that he should be obliged to listen to in that House. He
thought that greater care, more caution, more attention
to a previous examination of the facts, should be ob-
served in charging public men with breaches of their
public duties.—(Hear, hear.) If he were to give his
candid and sincere opinion as to what would best show
that what had been done elsewhere had been done not
from personal views, not from malicious motives, or un-
worthy feelings of any kind, but from public principle—
from a strong sense of public duty, and that high and
honourable feeling which he believed and knew apper-
tained to the conduct and formed part of the character
of Lord G. Bentinck—he would offer this advice, that
this matter be at an end ; that the charge having been
made from a sense of public duty, and having been
partly rebutted and partly explained—and what wa'
most offensive in that charge having been retracted—
orrdise opposite
totethey should hear no more of it, either is that House,
where it gave rise to one disorderly discussion, or in
another House, where it might
an-
other equally disorderly. ilhe
had fully, clearly, and satisfactorily defended his own
agNaionbl e giveL
course, and that of his subordinates in office, without
making any charge against others. Nothing which
he had said required any answer from Lord George
Bentinck, or any one else; and, therefore, he hoped that
here, and now, there would be an end of this unfortu-
nate matter. One observation he must make. Consi-
dering all the enormous mass of business which weighed
on and almost overpowered the Colonial-office, and of the
immense number of dispatches which were received, at
the rate of 10,000 or 11,000 a year, about 300 a week—
he was convinced of the difficulty which must attend the
getting through such a mass of business, relating to colo-
nies at the extremities of the globe, some of them under
laws the very opposite to those which prevailed at home.
Ho was also convinced of the necessity of some further
assistance in disposing of this immense amount of busi-
ness. Here an error had arisen between the Colonial.
office and the Committee of the House of Commons; how
many such errors must necessarily arise between the
Colonial-office and those distant p,ssessions of ours in
the course of his multifarious business, and how pressing
was the necessity for the adoption of the alteration which
he had suggested Should such be the result of the
long discussion which had now taken place, the time of
the House would not have been occupied altogether in
vain.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble and Learned Lord
concluded by again imploring that the debate might be
allowed to terminate.
Earl GREY, who was at first very imperfectly heard,
thanked the Noble and Learned Lord for the sentiment
he had expressed, and said that he concurred in very
much that had fallen from him. Like him he greatly
lamented the necessity of discussions like the present,
but did not see how, in this case, it could have been
avoided. All must admit that there was a great differ-
ence between a simple expression and the mode in which
that expression was used; and it was the peculiar eha-