The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The following we believe to be a correct

version of the resolu.ions proposed by Mr:

Stanley, last Tuesday night, on the abolition cf

slavery:—
RESOLUTIONS FOR THY ABOLITION OF COLONIAL SLAV LRY,
PROPOSED BY ME. SECRETORY STANLEY? ON THE 14TH

OF MAT, 1833.
" 1. That it is the opinion of this Committee that
immediate and effectual measures be taken fur the en-
tire abolition of slavery throughout the colonies, under
,uch provision. for regulating the condition of the negro,*
may combine their welfare with the interests of the

proprietors.
" 2. That it is expedient that all children born after
the passing of any Aet,e or who shall be under the age of
-ix years at the time of passing any Act of Parliament
for this purpose, be declared free—subject, neverthele-s, to
such temporary restrictions as may be deemed necessary
for their support and maintenance.
" 3. That all persons now slaves be entitled to be re-

gistered as apprenticed labourers, and to acquire thereby
all the rights and privileges of free men, subject to the
restriction of labouring under conditions and for a time to
be fixed by Parliament, for their present owners.
" 4. That to provide against the risk of loss whicli
proprietors in his Majesty's colonial possessions might
sustain by the abolition of slavery, his Maj,sty be enatiltd
to advance, by way of loan, to be raised from time to
time, a sum not excekding in the whole, 15,000,0001 , to
be repaid in such manner, and at such rate of interest, as
shall be prescribed by Parliament.
" b. That his Majesty be enabled to defray any such
expense as he may incur in establishing an efficient sti-
pendiary magistraey in the colonies, and in aiding Vie
local legislatures in providing for the religious and moral
education of the negro population to be emancipated."
In the present state of this great question,
the Government have adopted the course ol
directing the attention of Parliament to a few
broad and intelligible principles, disencumbered

of those details of execution, a premature con:

sideration of which misleads the judgment and
tends greatly to increase the difficulties of dis-
cussion. It is evidently the object, whatever
may be the effect, of these resolutions, that all the
negro race in the Briish colonies shall, imme-
diately on the passing of the intended Act, be
raised to the condition of freemen, subject only
to certain temporary restrictions. As respects
children, they will be only such as to secure their
support and maintenance ; and, as respects all
other negroes, they will only amount to a tong act
to labour for a definite period, upon fixed con-
ditions, for their present owners. To render
this contract beneficial both to the immediate
and future welfare of the negro, or at most, to
prescribe for him such obligations only as the
peculiar circumstances of the colonies and the
financial state of this country demand,—to di-
minish the possibility of risk to the proprietors.
with as little addition as possible to the fl,,cdl
burdens of the parent country,—are questions of
momentous interest, which ought to be, and it
is to be hoped will be, dispassionately considered
as well by the West Indian as by the abolitionist.
They do not seem to be such as to afford any
probable ground for party opposition. Upon
their satisfactory solution will depend the suc-
cessful working, and the eventual completion of
the great design of justice and benevolence which
his Majesty's Government have undert :ken.
fTrahme
to leave the amplest opportunities of arriving at
edp raospo notse proposed ro
pe sr
eojl
uu
itiigoen s t
ersee accordinglybsuot
just conclusions on the subjects they involve.
And, certainly, no legislative asssmbly was ever
called upon to hear a plan, or to discuss
a question, in which greater interests or more
important principles were involved, and we
do not hesitate to say that the young Minister
of State for the Colonies seemed to rise per-

fectly to the height of his subject. The rights
and duties of our common nature---the necessity
of reversing the attainder of bondage so iniqui-
tously passed on a portion of our race, and the
danger even of executing so holy a purpose
without precautions for securing order and pro-
moting industry—indignation at oppression, re-
strained by a fear of exciting the oppressed to
acts of vengeance—wise and judicious principles
of legislation and economy for the regulation of
our colonies, and gratitude for the ext rtions of
those consistent and noble minded friends of the
negroes who had first resisted the slave trade,
and now are about to see the consummation of
their labours in the declaration of negro free-
dom, all found in Mr. Stanley an eloquent and
generous interpreter. Our readers must have
perused the speech of the Right Hon. Gentle-
man from beginning to end, though it occupied
a large space in our columns, and we need
scarcely, therefore, recapitulate its statements.
He showed, we think unanswerably, that the
demand of the country for negro emancipation
was not the effect of a sudden and transient
burst of enthusiastic feeling or popular passion,
which had been easily kindled, and which might in
a short time be extinguished, but that it was the
result of long reflection and of settled habits
of thought. He showed that the authors of
the measures for abolishing the slave trade al-
ways contemplated the ultimate abolition of
slavery, and that they would have reckoned their
first work incomplete unless it had led to this
ulterior object. He showed that when in 1823
the British Parliament passed its celebrated re-
solutions, the nation looked upon them as the
germ of emancipation, either to be developed by
the Colonial Legislatures or to be expanded and
ripened by the fostering care of the mother
country. He demonstrated the right of the
British Parliament to act independently of the
colonists when the colonists had resisted our
recommendations to amend that system. He
showed seriatim that the planters had not only
disregarded every instruction from the general
Government, but had even disclaimed its au-
thority, and insulted its power. Indeed, it
appeared to most people preposterous to expect
that the colonists would make laws to restrain
their own violence, to lessen their own gains, or
to reduce the value of their own " human
property." Even had they formally accepted
the bills for the amelioration of slavery trans-
mitted to them from England, it is plain that
such reformation introduced by its declared
enemies would have wanted Mr. Burke's
" executory principle ; " in other word:;,
would have remained a dead letter. The Right
Hon. Gentleman thus demonstrated that the
British Government and the British Parliament
were driven, however reluctantly, to take upon
themselves the whole execution and responsibi-
lityof the indispensable measure of emancipation.
In the explanation and defence of the different
parts of the plan embodied in his resolutions, he
evinced equal sagacity ; and his anticipation of
its results, both in our own colonies an] over the
territories in the western hemisphere at present
cultivated by slave labour, appea ed equally just
and eloquently expressed. fhough ,ve are most
willing to admit that so momentous a measure
:night not to be rashly adopted or rejected, and
tay as legitimately warrant opposition
as it cha.-
le,,ges inquiry, we cannot think that
Lord, the ex-Secretary to the Colonte,
an-
ered Mr. S,ani,y, was either happy m his
hjections or wise in his sng4estions. The ad-
' ,ocates for immediate and unronditional t mdu-
,ipation may certainly object to the :on` te,m of
twelve years, during which the negroes,