The Sun.
London, England, 1833-06-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The . plan of the Government for the settle-
ment of the West India question, though it ha,
encountered strong opposition from the two ex-
treme parties of unqualified abolitionists and
interested planters, has hitherto passed through
the Committee of the House of Commons with-
out any material amendment. Its third clause,
which substitutes a species of compulsory labour,
through the engagements of apprenticeships,
and the authority of magistrates, as a transition
state, or middle term (for 12 years), between
the absolute slavery which has hitherto existed
and the complete freedom which the friends of
humanity hope shortly to see established, was
adopted on Monday night, by the great ma-
jority of 282 to 42, after an ineffectual attempt
on the part of Mr. Buxton to prove that no
transition state was necessary, and that the offer
of adequate wages would always afford a suffi-
cient security in the colonies for the continuance
of the same kind of industry, and with the
same results, as that in which the slave popula-
tion were now engaged. This anti-slavery tenet
always appeared to us to imply a hazard too
great to be encountered without the experience
of its practicability, or of its safety, on a larger
scale than the abolitionists can yet produce, and
consequently on Monday we expressed ourselves
strongly against its adoption. It gives us pleasure,
therefore, to observe the state of the vote on
the following evening, not because it postpones
the hour of ultimate freedom, but because it
assures us that due preparation will be made for
the change which it must introduce. It need
scarcely be added, that apprenticeship, on the
conditions specified, is no longer slavery, and
that the negro labourer, though obliged to work
a certain portion of his time for his employer,
is no longer the property of his master. After
the deduction of one-fourth of his time, which
he can henceforward spend as his own, either
for the accumulation of gain or the enjoyment of
ease, he remains for the other portion of his
time, not under the cart-ship of a cruel or ca-
pricious driver, but under the authority of the
law and the Magistrate. Though the claim of
his master over his services be thus reduced, the
claim of the apprenticed labourer upon his em-
ployer for sustenance in health and medical
treatment in disease, for food and clothing while
at work, and support in infirmity or old
age, remains unchanged. This last provision
should be taken into account in estimating
the advantage of the apprenticeship system
to the negro, -or the loss which it may
contingently inflict upon the planter. It is
on this ground, we suppose, that the Govern-
ment has agreed to alter the original terms of
indemnity in the fourth resolution, and to ex-
tend their accommodation to the colonists from
15,000,0001. to 20,000,0001. But though dis-
posed to offer no factious opposition to a inea-
- sure on which we have hitherto exerted our-
selves to bring about conciliation and compro-
mise, we can by no means agree in the
expediency or justice of this proposed change.
The additional sum of 5,000,000/. appears to
us extravagant on various grounds, and not to
be tolerated on any pretext except that it may
procure the co-operation, by bribing the cupidity,
of the planter. It is extravagant, in the first
place, as compared with the original plan of the
Government, which only proposed to advance
the sum of 15,000,000/. as a loan to the
colonists, fur which they were to pay interest at
4 per cent., and which was intended rather as a
means of enabling them to reduce ther mort-
gages and other liabilities (which cost them
10 or 15 per cent.), than as a free gift or an
irreclaimable compensation. When the planters
held their meeting in the city, and complained
loudly ofspaliation and robbery, the Government
consented to abandon the interest on this large
advance, and to consider it as an indemnity
granted by the nation to the slave-owner for the
deterioration of his property. We agree to this
change, both because we thought it not unrea-
sonable, and because we never had antici-
pated the repayment of the money, though it
had been advanced as a loan. The 20,000,0001.
will, no doubt, be expected on the same condi-
tions as the smaller amount, and therefore ought
to be resisted as an excess. But, in the second
place, the pecuniary compensation to the plan-
ters is not only extravagant as compared with the
original and modified project of the Colonial-
office—it is extravagant when contrasted with
the pike of slaves and the professed value of
West India returns to the capital employed in
the cultivation of sugar. The colonists have for
years been petitioning Parliament to interfere
for their relief, and have obtained committees
to inquire into their calamitous condition. To
these committees they have offered evidence
that West India property was a losing concern;
that they were, in fact, mere nominal owners
of their own estates—and that, where they did
not absolutely cultivate them at a loss, tiiev
received only a very trifling or inadequate
profit.
In such a state of things, which they
seemed to regard as hopeless, even with the
retention of all their power over their human
chattels, an advance of 15,000,0001. ought
to have been hailed as a God-send. They
were thus to receive so large—so enormous—an
amount of English money to indemnify them
for being rescued from a certain share of a los-
ing concern, to reconcile them to a change in a
species of property which threatened them v. ith
approaching ruin, and to bribe them to huma-
nity by ieducieg them to modify a kind of cul-
ture which, according to their own accounts,
had nearly absorbed all their previous fortunes.
If the sum of 15,000,0001. was too great a com-
pensation for their consent to be relieved from
such a state of suffering and embarrassment,
what shall we say of 20,000,0(10/. ? But even
as compared with the value of the slaves— that
value being measured by the average rinteket
price of such " property "—the proposed ad-
vance is excessive and unjustifiable. Suppose
we take the number of slaves in the whole of the
British colonies at 800,00 Q, and estimate on an
average each slave at 351. or 401., the sum
of 20,000,0001. which is 251. for every indi-
vidual negro, young ant -old, amounts to
51: or 101. above half" the- price of each,
though brought toe-the hammer, and sold
pr disposed of to:ifie highest bidder, with-
out the least danger Of tumult, insurrection, or
servile war, whit bp:the Government plan of
emancipation .:be master is only deprived of his
slave labour for the fourth of the time during
which he can now command it. In the third
place, the inOnliiity of 20,000,000 i. seems to
us extravagant, from the stnallness of the change
expected to be produced in the efficiency of the
forced exertions of " the apprenticed labourers"
during the proposed twelve years of the present
arrangement, and the superior cheapness, in or-
dinary circumstances, of free over slave labour.
If the West India resident planter alters entirely
his system, as circumstances will compel him to
do; and offers proper inducements to hii ,1)0...1

rated slaves to exert all their energies In his ser-
vice, he will rather derive a benefit than suffer a
loss from their emancipation. The 20,000,0001.
will thus become a mere surplusage of national
generosity, to reconcile the colonists to a course
of conduct which their own interests dictated
as much as the humanity of the British Le-
gislature ; and though we might be disposed
to make some sacrifices for their cordial con-
currence, that concurrence, like everything
eke, may be bought too dear. We are
as sensible as the most enthusiastic friends
of immediate and unqualified emancipation of
the vast importance to the cause of having the
support of the colonial proprietors in favour of
the measure ; we should not be disposed, on
such a subject, to calculate by farthings or to
drive a hard bargain ; but, surely, there are
limits to national liberality even in promoting
the most laudable objects, and the limit in this
rase appeared to us to be the advance of
15,000,0001., without interest or liability to
repayment, as originally proposed. Had the
Government continued inexorable to any demand
for more, we are convinced that the planters, in
resisting their proposition last night would have
been left in as small a minority as the extreme
abolitionists in opposing on Monday the resolu-
tion for the establishment of apprenticeships.
With St. Domingo before their eyes, and with
the ascertained disposition of the United States
rather to get rid of their own system of slavery
than to accept additional slave possessions under
their protection, our colonists must have agreed
to what was just, rather than have hazarded their
lives and properties by holding out for what is
ectravagant and indefensible.-7
We can assure our readers, one and all, that
we are serious in our recommendation to re-
move the Bishops from the House of Lords,
and to make steady and useful diocesans of
them, instead of Ministerial fags-of-all-work in
Parliament. Nothing would be simpler than
the mechanism of such a proceeding : it would
be merely to move the repeal of the Act of
Charles 11. (anno 1661) whereby the Rev.
brethren were dragged back again from their re-
spective sees, and reseated on those lordly
benches, whence, in the reign of Charles 1., and
' year 1641, for divers just and prudent reasons,
one of which was their always " forming a party
within the House of Lords," they were, by con-
,
' sent of King, Lords, and Commons) expelled.
But in the course of the same year, and previ-
ously to their entire exclusion from their seats
as legislators, a Bid had been brought in (and
was ultimately thrown out by the Lords), for
restraining Bishops from meddling in secular
affairs. On that occasion some good speeches
were made, and among them one by Lord Say
and Sele, from which we quote the following
passage for the edification of our readers, and
emphatically so for that of my Lord Bishop
of Exeter. The country may depend upon it
the Bishops will not be suffered to desecrate
their clerical office, or to abuse the legislative
functions:—
" Did the Apostles, men of extraordinary gifts, think it
unreasonable for them to be hindered from giving them-
selves continually to preaching the word and prayer, by
taking care for the tables ef the poor widows; and can the
Bishops now think it reasonable or lawful for them to
contend for sitting at Council-table; to govern states; to
turn statesmen instead of churchmen ; to sit in the high-
est Courts of Judicature, and to be employed in making
laws for civil politics and government ? If they shall be
thought fit to sit in such places, and will undertake such
employments, they must not sit there as ignorant men,
but roust be knowing men in business of state, and un-
daratand the rules and laws of Government; and thereby,
both their time and studies must be necessarily diverted
from that which God hath called them unto ; and this,
sure, is much more unlawful for them to admit of than
that which the Apostles rejected as a distraction un-
reasonable for them to be interrupted by. The doe.
trine of the Apostles is agreeable to their practice herein;
for Paul when he instructeth Timothy for the work of
the ministry presseth this argument from the example of a
good soldier:—' No man that -warred) entangleth him-
self with the affairs of this life.' Hence I conclude, that
what is, by the commandment of our Saviour, by the
practice and doctrine of the Apostles, and I may add, by
the canons of ancient councils grounded thereupon, pro-
hibited to the ministers of the Gospel, and showed to be
such a distraction upon them from their callings and func-
tion as will bring a wee upon them, is not reasonable for
them to admit ot: and if they shall, notwithstanding, en-
tangle the mselves withal!, and enter into, it will bring a
guilt upon their souls, and hurt them in respect of their
collat.'. laces. In the next place, it doth blemish them,
and strike them in their credit. So far from the truth
is this position, which they desire to possess the world
withal!, t‘ That unless they may have these outward
trappings of worldly pomp added to the ministry, that
calling will grow into contempt, and ' ba despised :' for
the tenth is, these things cast contempt upon them in the
eyes of men ; they gain them cap anti courtesy, but they
have test them out of the consciences of men. The rea
sou of this is plain : every thing is esteemed as it is emi-
nent in its own proper excellency; the eye in seeing, not
in hearing; the ear in hearing, not in speaking ; the one
would be rather monstrous than comely ; the other is
ever acceptable, being proper. So is it with then, their
proper excellency is spiritual; the denial of the world,
with the pomp and preferment's, and employments thereof.
'This they should teeth and practise; but when they,
contrary hereunto, seek after a worldly excellency, like
the great men of the world, and to ru'e and domineer
as they do, contrary to our Saviour's precept, It
shall not be so amongst you ;' instead of honour and
esteem they have brought upon themselves, in the
hearts of the people, that contempt and odium which
they now lie under : and that justly and necessarily,
because the world seeth that they prefer a wordly ex-
cellency, and run after it, and contend for it, before their
own ; which being spiritual, is far more excellent ; and
which, being proper to the ministry, is that alone which
will put a value and esteem upon them that are ef that
calling. As these things hint themselves in their con-
sciences and credit, see have they made, and, if they he
continued, still will make them hurtful tee others: the
reason is, because they break out of their own orb, and
in,ive irregularly, there is a curie upon their leaving of
their own place. The heavenly bodies, while they keep
within their own spi ere', give light and comfort to the
world ; but if they stpat'd break out, and fall from tbeii
regular and proper motions, they would set the wok Id on
tire ;so have these dune. Weide they kept themselves
to the work of their ministry alone, and gave them-
selves to prayer, and the ministry of the word, ac-
cording to the example of the Apostles, the world
received the greatest benefits by them ; they were the
light and life thereof ; but when their ambition cast
them down, like stars from heaven to earth, and they
did grow, once, to be advanced above their brethren, I do
appeal to all who hate been versed in the ancient ecclesi-
astical stories, or modern histories, whether they have not
been the common incendiaries of the Christian world ;
never ceasing from contention, one with another, about
the precedency of their sees and churches ; excotninuni-
eating one anoti,er ; drawing Princes to be parties with
them, and thereby casting them into bloody wars. Their
ainitieion, anti intermerieling with secular affairs anti
State liminess, bath been the cause of shedding more
Christian b'ood than anything else in the Christian
world ; anti this no man can deny that is versed in
history. But we need not go out of our own kingdom
for ex implas of their insolency and cruelty. Then
they had a dependency upon the Pope, and any foot-
ing, thereby but of the land, there were never any that
carded themselves with so much swirl and insolency
towards the Princes of this kingdom as they have done :
tome of these4he Bishop th it last spake bath named ; but
instances of .'many more may be riven, whereof there
would be -no end. Although the Pope he cast off, yet
nuoiewktilntegrdomsr b
eis-any a other inconvenlene no less prejudici el to
their sitting in this House; and that is,
they have such an absolute dependency upon the King
that they sit not here as freemen. That which is
requisite to freedom is to be void of hopes and fears. He
that can lay down these is a freeman, and will be so in
cilia House : but for the Bishops, as the case stands with
demo, it is not ltke'y they will lay asioe their bodes,
greetr bishoprics being still in expectant.) ; and
for their learn they cannot lay them down,since

their places and seats in Parlament are not invested
in them by blood, and so hereditary, but by an•
nexation of a barony tt, their office, and depending tipol
that office, so that they may be deprived of their office,
and thereby f their places, at the King's pleasure. They
do not so much as sit here dum bene se yesserint, as the
judges now, by your Lordships' petition to the King, have
their places granted them, hut at will and pleasure ; and,
therefore, as they were all excluded by Edward I. as long
as he pleased, and laws made excluso clero, so may they
be by any King at bis pleasure in like m inner. They
must needs, therefore, be in an absolute dependency upon
the crown, and thereby at devotion for their votes ; which
how prejudicial it hath been, and will be to this House, I
need not say.°— Times.

It seems scarcely possible that, in the present,
advanced stage of the summer, Parliament
should be able to get through one-half of the
public business which awaits its decision. Tired
and wearied out with endless talking, and little
doing, many Members have already left town for
the season, and, as we advance towards the dog-
days, it is more than probable that the sittings of
Parliament, if persisted in, will be frequently
confined to a small number of Members, just
sufficient to make a House, and therefore far
from sufficient to satisfy the just expectations of
the people, who have not sent 658 Members to
the reformed Parliament to see their most im-
portant duties devolve upon 40. Still the en.
durance of human strength has its limits, and
we might just as reasonably expect a tired post-
horse to undertake a fresh stage with its former
speed and alacrity, as that Members of the Le-
gislature can attend, night after night, during all
the hot months of summer and autumn, and
perform their duties as they ought to be per-
formed. But what is now to be done? Many
of the most vital interests of the country
are still awaiting their turn of legislation.
Some of them are even in such a state as
to resemble a house which has been unroofed
and half-pulled down, and which it is there-
fore indispensable should be covered in before
the setting in of the winter rains. Much
of the evil has arisen from the unprepared
and ur.business-like way in which so much of
the public service is attended to—much from
the sad disposition of modern legislators to
" talk away" the time, and in no small degree
from the late period of the season at which
Parliament has of late years assembled, that
which used to begin in November, or even
October, being now postponed till February.
If the country wishes, as it naturally must, to
see the public business properly executed, it
must, we think, consent to see Ministers enter
into some tacit or implied compromise upon the
present occasion. That compromise should be
this, that Ministers should be allowed, without

unnecoss.ry interruption, to proceed to the
completion of such measures as.will not admit of
delay ; and that Parliament, having had a recess
of three months, should positively re-assemble at
the end of October, or the beginning of No-
vember, to proceed with its unfinished labours.
We are aware that an inconvenience must arise
from even this delay ; but it resolves itself into a
choice of evils, if not into a state of impossibi-
lity ; and we cannot but feel persuaded that the
public interest will, in the end, be best con-
sulted by the business of the Legislature being
done deliberately and effectually, rather than in
that crude and hurried manner which we hive
too often seen, and which has generally ended in
the time of the next session of Parliament being
taken up in passing Acts " to explain and
amend" the errors and haste of the last.—
Morning Herald. .

The question of the compensation to the
planters, occupied the House nearly the whole
of last night. Twenty millions is undoubtedly
a large sum to be added to our national debt ;
and a time may come when the public may not
be so willing to submit to this burden, as they
were eager to compel Ministers to enter on the
course which led to it. There cannot be a
doubt, however, that the planters are justly
entitled to compensation for the loss which
abolition will occasion to them. The nation is
not entitled to turn righteous all at once, at the
expense of the planters. Every individual in
the Unified Kingdom must bear his share of the
burden. But it happens oddly enough, that
this fresh burden is incurred by the nation at
the very time when the people are casting about
in ail directions, to see how they can rid them-
selves of existing taxes. This was forcibly put
last night by Mr. Pryme. " Where, he should
like to know, was the money, to be paid to the
West India planters, to come from ? kVas it to

come from the pockets of the people of Eng-
land ? Why, the people were on every hand
calling out for relief from their present burdens,
from the house and window duties, from the

malt tax ; in short, the cry throughout the coun-
try was for remis,ion of existing taxes, and not
for new impositions." But yet, if abolition is
to he carried, it ought to be carried in such a way

as to insure the co-operation of the planters; and as
they are swisfiedwith the twenty millions,and would
not be satisfied with less, it would be anything
but wise to hazard the plan for five millions.
By the bye, Mr. Pryme was rather going too
far when he disputed the recognition of this
country of the present right of the planters to
property in the slaves, on the ground that the
laws merely recognised the property of the slaves
they had imported. " With regard (said the
Hon. Gentleman) to the question of property in
slaves, which had been mooted, he denied that
any laws or proclamations warranted the asser-
tion made by the planter, that the country has
recognised the right of property in the slaves.
He had examined the acts and proclamations
referred to by the planters in support of their
views, and he was bound to say that they did
not bear out that assertion. He admitted that

the laws had recognised the property of the
planters in the slaves they had imported, but
chose laws never recognised any such property in
the offspring of those slaves." The laws never
recognised the property in the offspring of the
slaves, because it was always understood that
the law giving the property in the slaves gave
the property in the children the slaves
might have. The slave is as much the
chattel of the owner as his horse. All that
proceeds from the slave belongs to the owner, as
much as the lamb to the owner of a Huck of
sheep. In all countries in which slavery exists
by law, the child belongs to the owner of the
mother, as a matter of course. Partus sequitur
ventrem. Slavery existed by the law of the
colonies, and there was no necessity for its re-
cognition by Acts of Parliament; and it only
happened that the imported slaves are men-
tioned in Acts of Parliament, from its being
necessary that Parliament should regulate the
trade. Several ame:.dments were proposed.
F. Buxton moved that half the amount of
compensation should not be paid until the ap-
prenticeship of time negroes had expired, and
until the negroes were put ni full possessioh of
all the rights and privileges enjoyed by all other
classes of his Majesty s subjects in the colonies.
i-le was induced to move this amendment, that
the planters might have a motive fur exerting

themselves to prepare the negroes for freedom.
" There was one point (said the Hon. Gentle-
man) on which they must all agree, namely—
that the sconer the negro mind could be brought
under the action of healthy motives the better.
He was about to propose a mode, in addition
to the compensation, which would induce the
planters to exert themselves to produce that
favourable impression on the negro mind."
There is no doubt that the proposition
of Mr. Buxton would add materially to
the chances of negro improvement. But
on the other hand, the planters would be
dissatisfied with the chance. Ten millions at
the end of the apprenticeships is of very different
value from ten millions now ; and they contend
that the Parliamentary measure will make the
loss of property immediate. Several divisions
took place. They were all lost by great majo-
rities. The House on this great question seems to
share the feeling of Mr. Stanley, that having
carried irrevocably the point of abolition of sla-
very, the only point now was, whether that abo-
lition should take place in a manner consistent
with honesty and sound policy. Few men would
wish to have the responsibility of having contd.
buted to what Mr. Stanley affirms must inevi-
tably be the ultimate result of the present unna-
tural state of things in the West Indies—the
effusion of blood. We are glad to perceive,
from what fell from Lord Althorp, that the im-
pediments to the refining of sugar are about to
be removed. " As to the restrictions, then, on
the sugar market (said his Lordship) it certainly
was his honest opinion, that the home consump-
tion ought to be continued to the West India
interest, but that the refiners in this country
should not be prevented from refining for ex-
portation." Upon the whole, we may consider
this question as now nearly settled. What re-
mains is mere matter of detail, and that is to be
left to the Colonial Legislatures,which have now
a motive fairly on the consideration of them.—
Morning Chronicle.
The admirers of English intrepidity— of
English impartiality—and of English justice—
all those, in fact, who deem trial by jury to be
the most important privilege, as it is the un-
questionable birthright of Englishmen will
learn, with the same satisfaction that we have in
making the announcement, that a public meet-
ing will take place at the Crown and Anchor,
in the Strand, on this day week, and that
Colonel Evans has consented to take the chair
upon the occasion. The objects contemplated
by those who have been instrumental in canine,
this meeting are two-fold first, to record,°
in a suitable manner, the noble and indepen-
dent stand made by the Calthorpe Jury against
the dictation of the Coroner—and, secondly,
to render more sacred than it even now is,
. that inalienable birthright of Englishmen—
trial by jury. To these two propositions, no
one can reasonably object. No Jury, either
in ancient or in modern times, ever discharged
its duty to its country more nobly than the se-
venteen who sat upon the body of the slain
policeman, and gave, in spite of all opposition,
the righteous verdict of "Justifiable Homicide ;"
while, on the other hand, considering that the
Court of King's Bench, according to a pre-
cedent, more to be respected in the breach than
in the observance, has taken upon it to quash
that verdict, it is now more than ever most
important that the practice adopted by it should
not pass unnoticed—that fair trial by jury
should be upheld in its purity—and that the
Government, as well as that Court, should
be taught that the only object attained by the
adoption of such unusual courses, is the
very contrary of that at which they aimed.
Both objects, we doubt not, will be amply
accomplished by the intended meeting, at which
almost every liberal Member connected with the
metropolis had been invited to attend. The feeling
of the metropolis is strong on both points, and
it is loudly re-echoed by every independent mind
throughout the country. Many of those, also,
who were wounded in the unprovoked assault
by the police, will, no doubt, attend to convince
the meeting of the barbarity exercised towards
them ; while in so far as regards the liberal inte-
rest of the metropolis, we feel confident that there
is not an individual Member connected with it
who will not give his attendance. Colonel
Evans accepted the invitation of the Committee
to preside at the meeting in the most handsome
manner l and we rejoice in his acceptance of
the office, because we are confident that no one
could have been selected who would do greater
justice to its objects.—Morning Advertiser.