The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-25 00:00:00

this country must sacrifice these once opulent colonies; a
great number of their countrymen must be consigned to
beggary and ruin ; and the very means of supporting the
negroes themselves must be taken away. As to the ques-
tion of wages, or in other words no wages. in nine cases
out of ten they would not exist. He did not deny the
statement of the Hon. Member about the Hottentot set•
tlernent. He had instanced the absence of any complaints
at the Circuits, as a proof of the good conduct of these
settlers ; but that afforded very slight ground for congra-
tulation, for he (Mr. Stanley) doubted whether
any Circuit passed within one hundred miles of it.
From all accounts, however, which he had received,
nothing could be more peaceable and orderly than
the conduct of these settlers ; but that was not suffi-
cient to prove that the negroes in the West Indies would
act in the same manner. There was another point to
which the Hon. Gentleman had also referred ; he had
stated that the system of apprenticeship was framed
in consequence of a part of the Bill which had now
been abandoned. It was framed from a con-
viction of its necessity, both for the planter and
the slave himself. The period of twelve years had
been assumed with a view to the payment of the price of
the slave by instalments of one-twelfth each ; and the
principle had remained unaltered. Considering that the
mere maintenance of the negro and the continuance of
peace and good order, were not all that they had to look
to in framing the Bill—conceiving the proposal, limiting
the negro's apprenticeship to the shortest possible period
which might he necessary, and then to assign him suf-
ficient wages—conceiving this proposition to be one which
might mean anything or nothing, he did not perceive
what good effect could be anticipated from the motio❑ of
the Hon. Gentleman. The next topic to whirls he hail
to advert was the fear which had teen raised of an insur-
rection among the negroes. Now,. rom the bottom of
his heart and soul he acquitted the Hon. Member of any
intention of exciting the negro's mind by his speeches ;
he would shrink with abhorrence from the idea that any-
thing which he might say or do should lead to the spil-
ling of one drop of human blood. When he proceeded
dealing out the hardest terms against a measure leading
ultimately to the complete termination of slavery—leading
to that which would establish complete equality of civil
rights between men in every portion of the Ving's domi-
nions ; if slaves were taught by the expressions used in
that House, which ought to go out in words and in truth,
" that it is the opinion of persons so deservedly re-
spected, and that it is the opinion and declaration
of a great and powerful party in this country that they
can see nothing in this measure but cruelty and injustice ;

that the slaves are mocked by it ; that they are only about
to have a heavier yoke imposed upon them, and that the
natural consequence is to draw the negro into insurrec-
tion ;" if the negroes learnt that such language was used,
would it not, he entreated the Hon. Member to consider,
be exceedingly likely to produce that very insurrection
'.which he feared? Would it not direct the negro mind to
that as his remedy? He entreated him to consider the mea-
sure with more favour—to exert himself rather to point
out the real advantages and substantial benefits which
it would be productive of, and to persuade the negroes
to justify the confidence which the British people placed
in them, and to prove by their industry, their labour,
their bettering of their own condition during the inter-
val of their apprenticeship, that they were worthy of
the great boon which the justice and humanity of the
British people was bestowing upon them at so great a
sacrifice.—(Cheers.)
Mr. MACAULAY rose with feelings of regret upon
the present occasion. Though there were some parts of
the plan which he highly approved, yet he rose with the
purest and most benevolent feelings to state a few objec-
tions. He believed slavery to be the greatest of political
evils. When he thought of the horrid state of the slave,
he felt ashamed when he recollected the declamation and
the exertions which were once put in operation for the re-
moval of the Catholic disabilities. They had seen guilt
in many ages and in many countries ; but where had
they seen guilt in the hideous forms in which it had for
so many years been exhibited in the West India islands ?
Countries in which abundance had been made to do the
work of famine—the most salubrious air to do the work
of pestilence, and peace to do the work of war ! Coun-
tries in which every effort appeared to have been suc-
cessfully tried to keep down that disposition to increase and
multiply which was manifested by the human race in
every other part of the -world.—(Hear, hear.) Al-
though there had been the most fierce and prolonged
wars in Europe, population went on augmenting ; although
ambition had done all that it could to destroy, and
although it had been assisted in its baneful efforts by
famine and pestilence, the void which they created was
speedily and completely filled up. The law of nature was
not counteracted. As soon as the population became
thinned by any powerful physical cause, early marriages
increased, and the deficiency was soon supplied. In the
West India colonies alone, the situation of the natural
labourer was never beneficially affected by external cir-
cumstances. In the West India colonies a state of society
existed, unparalleled in the history of the world. Fully
believing in the necessity of demolishing slavery, he never-
theless thought that his Majesty's Government had taken
the right course in the Bill which his Right Hon. Friend
had i,itroduced. The only fault which he found with that
Bill was, that it had a leaning to mitigate an evil which
ought to be abolished altogether. The principle of slavery,
as Montesquieu had observed, was a principle of pure, un-
mixed evil. Terror was the only motive that could
operate upon the slave. Terror was the only mode by
which the proprietor of the slave could hope to guard hie
own life, or to save his wife and daughters from violation.
If they abstracted terror from the system, the whole fabric
of slavery was at once destroyed. The introduction of
liberty was a new principle, not a mitigation of an old.
To try to mitigate slavery without introducing liberty,
would be to pull down props without setting up pillars.
Of that patt of the Bill, therefore, which abolished
slavery, he cordially approved. There was another part
of the Bill which he knew was most unpopular—he meant
the compensation clause—to which, however, he gave his
full consent, Adam Smith had most justly declared that
the property of man in his labour was the origin of all
property, and ought to be held most sacred. Therefore, if
there must be robbery at all, he would rather rob the
planter of his property, than the slave of his freedom. But
to that alternative he was not reduced. With the question
of compensation a slave had nothing to do. The State had
solemnly sanctioned the property of the planter. The
public frith had been pledged to its maintenance by pro.
clamation, by treaty, by prescription. Could that Huse
consent to violate it? He had beard that it was maintained
that the planter ought to receive no compensation, because
there ought to be no indemnity for the abandonment of
crime. He protested against such a doctrine, as establish-
ing principles that would be most extensively pernicious.
If they were to violate the public faith pledged to the
West Indian planter, they would establish a precedent of
a most monstrous and injurious character. To illustrate
this position, he would take an instance from the com-
monest life ;_suppose a Catholic gentleman had ordered
an image for the decoration of his chapel to be sculptured
by a first-rate artist, and that when, after immense skill
and labour, the image was finished, he should say to the
artist, " Take it back ; since I ordered it my mind has
been enlightened ; I now believe that the Protestant is the
true religion. I therefore consider the contract between
you and me as sinful, and I cannot consent to pet form my
part of it." Would not the argument that would justly
be used be, .‘ If you are enlightened, so much the better ;
but you must pay for the contract into which you entered
when you were in a state of darkness?" Or suppose a
Maliometan, having three or four wives in his harem, were
to embrace Christianity, would he be entitled to break his
contract with them, turn them all out into the world, and
leave them to starve? Nay, if once such a doctrine as
that which he was contravening were established, almost
the whole of the public debt of this country ought to be
wiped away ; for he held that there was no national crime
greater than to engage in wanton and unjustifiable wars ;
and the greater part of that debt was incurred in the pro-
secution of such wars. For instance, during the Ame-
rican war we had borrowed 100 millions. The pro-
secution of that war was as wicked an act as the main-
tenance of slavery.—(Hear.) What difference was there
between keeping one set of men in a state of severe and un-
merited bondage, and carrying fire and sword among another
set of men who merely asserted their rights ? It it was
unjust to compel the slave to labour throughout
life for his master, was it not unjust to spend money in
sending the sabre of the Hessian, or the tomahawk of the
Indian, into the fields of a people who were only struggling
for liberty? If, therefore, the principle against which be
was contending was established, he thought that those by
whom it was established would be at a loss to make out
how the claims of any public creditor could be considered
as valid. He repeated, therefore, that he was decidedly
favourable to two of the principles of the Bill; the aboli-
tion of slavery, and the compensation to the planter. But
as to the third principle of this Bill, which related to the
transition state of the negro, before the total cessation of
his slavery, he confessed that he entertained great, and
in some respects he feared, insurmountable doubts. What
he objected to was this, that the restraints laid on the
negro by the Bill were not so laid with the sole view of
improving his moral character. his Right Hon. Friend
had, with perfect candour, admitted that. The ninth
clause of the Bill contained a provision that it should be
lawful for the slave at any time to purchase his freedom
on the payment of a value legally fixed. Now that clause