The Sun.
London, England, 1832-04-05 00:00:00

(LEFT SPEAXING.)

The following are the resolutions :
I. That, considering the awful crisis to which the British
West India colonies have been brought, by the pressure of pe-
cuniary distress, as well as by alarming excitement amongst
the Negro population, this meeting is desirous of expressing
its opinion on the value of those colonies to the mother-country,
on the policy which she has lately pursued with regard to them,
and on the measures best calculated to avert the impending
calamity of their total loss as useful possessions of the British
Crown.
2. That the value of the West India colonies to the revenue,
manufacturing industry, and mercantile marine of Great Bri-
tain, may be at once ascertained by reference to parliamentary
documents, whereby it will appear that the duties annually col-
lected from West India produce amount to seven millions ster-
ling ; that the annual official value of British manufactures ex-
ported to the colonies is about 5,500,000/. ; and the amount of
shipping employed in the direct trade about 250,000 tons; alto-
gether exhibiting a branch of commerce almost unequalled in
point of extent, and peculiarly important on account of its na-
tional character; the whole emanating from British capital, be-
ing conducted by British subjects in British vessels, and finally
returning the whole value of cultivation in the colonies into the
general resources of the mother-country, while the cultivator is
suffering the extremity of distress.
3. That, in addition to the direct intercourse of Great Britain
with her West India colonies, an extensive cross trade is
maintained between those colonies and the British possessions
in North America, which affords employment to upwards of
100,000 tons of British shipping; and, by furnishing a market
for the fish, corn, salted provisions, and lumber of British
America, contributes essentially to the prosperity of that other
vast branch of colonial dominion, on which, jointly with the
West India trade, Great Britain depends for the employment of
at least one_third of her whole mercantile, marine, and conse.
quently, for her station amongst the nations of the world.
4. That the loss of the colonies, or the abandonment of in-
terests, thus powerfully contributing to the resources of the
soother country, would inflict upon numerous branches of ma-
nufacturing industry, as well as upon the revenue, an injury of
incalculable magnitude, which would never be compensated by
foreign trade. So great a destruction of commerce, essentially
domestic in all its relations, must not only entail ruin upon
numberless private families, but would withdraw from the ma.
nufacturers of copper, iron, mill-work, hardware, woollen and
cotton goods, the fisheries, the collieries, the salt provision trade
of Ireland, and all the various trades connected with shipping,
a source of employment on which these industrious classes
base been accustomed to rely in war as well as in peace. A
great commercial convulsion insist follow this loss of employ.
ment, while, at the same time, the revenue would be seriously
affected bya great diminution of consumption, arising out of the
diminished ability of the people to purchase taxable commo.
dities, and the enormous advance of prices of all colonial ar-
ticles, which must attend the abstraction of the produce of the
British West Indies from the general market of Europe.
5. That the loss or abandonment of the British West India
Colonies would be no less injurious to the real interests of hu-
manity than to the commerce of this country. The negroes, if
unsupported by the presence, the intelligence, and capital of
Europeans, would speedily sink into a state of anarchy and
moral debasement ; and, while a deplorable cessation of in.
dustry, in raising articles for European consumption, would
thus ensue in the British Colonies, an irresistible inducement
would be given to Foreign Colonies to increase their cultivation,
and for that purpose to extend the African Slave Trade, which
this country, by great exertions and expenditure of money, has
long and ineffectually endeavoured to suppress.
6. That the conduct of Great Britain towards her West India
colonies has neither been consistent with the principle laid
down in the Parliamentry Resolutions of 183, nor with that
spirit of justice and conciliation which is so necessary to the at-
tainment of any national object. It should never be forgotten
that the systent of cultivation by slave labour was established
by Great Britain for her own benefit ; that the Colonists are
Englishmen, lawfully possessing property under the direct sanc_
tion and encouragement of the mother-country, and are entitled
to the protection which the law and the Constitution provide
for the security and integrity of that property ; they are na-
turally jealous of their character and rights; on them must
depend the execution of all colonial laws wherever originating,
and not only are they most competent to frame regulations for
the real comfort of the slave, but they have a direct interest in
his welfare; so that to discredit and endanger their property by
perpetual interference. and to stigmatize them as a class of per,
sons destitute of the common feelings of humanity, can neither
tend to forward the purposes of justice, of sound policy, or of
real improvement in the condition of the slave.
7. That popular clamour, arising from mistaken impressions as
to the real condition of the negroes, and extended to the colo_
nies, has already produced the most disastrous effects, by alien.
ating the affection of the slave from his master, of the master
from the mother-country, destroying the credit of colonial pro..
perty, causing constant agitation, and thus seriously retarding
those measures of gradual improvement in the condition of the
negro population, which it was the object of the British legisla-
ture to accomplish.
S. That this Meeting has observed with great regret, that at
a moment when relief is avowedly necessary, even to the pre.
servatien of the West India Colonies, his Majesty's Minis-
ters have declared their intention to make that relief contin-
gent on the unqualified adoption of an order of the King in
Council, dated November 2, 1831 ; a line of policy, which
being virtually designed to coerce the legislative colonies, by
means of fiscal or penal regulations on their produce, is most
objectionable, and calculated to widen the misunderstanding
between the mother-country and the colonists, to increase the
excitement among the negro population, and thus to precipi-
tate the ruin of the colonies.
9. That this meeting is anxious for the adoption of such
further measures of amelioration as may, on due enquiry, be
found necessary to the real welfare of the negro, and consistent
with the Parliamentary resolutions of 1823, a feeling in which
it is convinced that all the resident planters fully participate ;
but this meeting must protest against the harsh and ungenerous
policy which would proffer relief to the acknowledged distress
of the colonist only on condition of abandoning his constitu-
tional rights.
10. That, in order to avert, if possible, the dreadful calamity
of the destruction of the British West India colonies, this
meeting is of opinion that immediate relief should be given to
the colonists, divested of the conditions imposed by his Ma-
jesty's Ministers, and sufficient at least to maintain the colonies
in cultivation.
11. That, as an act of justice to the colonists, and with a
view of preventing the fatal effects of that continual excite.
ment which has already brought the colonies to the brink of
destruction, and of removing from the public mind erroneous
impressions in regard to the state of slavery in the British
colonies, this meeting is of opinion that a full and impartial
Parliamentary inquiry, on oath, should be immediately insti-
tuted for the purpose of ascertaining the laws and usages of
the colonies, the actual condition and treatment of the slaves,
their habits and dispositions, and the degree of their progres-
sive improvement and civilization. The information obtained
from such authority would not only remove erroneous impres-
sions, but lead to the consideration of such further measures
of amelioration as, in the words of the Parliamentary resolu-
tion of 15'23, " shall be compatible with the well-being of the
slaves themselves, with the safety of the colonies, and with a
fair and equitable consideration of the interests of private pro-
perty."
12. That petitions founded upon these resolutions be present-
ed to his Majesty, and to both Houses of Parliament.
(We shall give the Conclusion in a Second Edition.)

THE FLOOD AT CINCINNATI.--Up to the
`..-!2d ult. the river had subsided several feet. The Cincinnati
Gazette says—" It is ascertained that there has been plundering
to a considerable extent in the deserted houses. Some wretches
detected in attempts of this character, or in their actual per-
petration, have been committed to prison. Other doings little
less dishonourable are tolerated. There is a prospect of a scar-
city of provisions, especially the article of flour. The holders
have advanced the prices. Before the rise, flour in store was
5 dollars to 5 dollars 25 cents per barrel. It is now 6 dollars
50 cents to 7 dollars, and on the rise. This is individual specu-
lation upon a common public calamity, a visitation of Provi-
dence upon a whole country." A letter from Cincinnati of
February 21, to the Editor of the Journal of Commerce, says—
" An infant alive in its cradle was taken up opposite Cincinnati,
and a few days after, its mother, hearing of one being picked up,
came and claimed her child. Three children were taken out of
a house that was going down the current, and a large house,
with several men and women in the garret, went past the city.
Whether they have been saved or not, I have not heard. The
cold has come back to-day, and the river in the streets and
houses is frozen. Coals have been three-quarters of a dollar
per bushel ; wood, ten dollars a cord. Such cold I never felt,
except the cold Tuesday in New York about five years ago.
What the Lord intends to do with us I know not. His hand
is evidently at work among the nations of the earth. May he
give us grace to look to him continually for direction, and make
us satisfied to be wherever he has any thing for us to do or to
suffer."— cu, York Paper.
ALHAKEM THE CRUEL.—From this mo-
ment Alhakem, who acquired the surname of the Cruel, was
torn by incessant remorse. His imagination was continually
haunted by the spectres of his murdered people. Solitude was
intolerable, and sleep almost impossible. In the dead of the
night he called his singers and dancers, and sometimes even
his Ministers and Judges, as if some public affair of the utmost
urgency were to be examined. After making the gaping Mi-
nisters listen to the music, or witness the dancing of his female
slaves, he coolly baste them go home. In 821 this whimsical
tyrant breathed his last.—Lardner's Cyclopedia.