The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-16 00:00:00

ZEETING AT BIRMINGHAM ON THE

SUBJECT OF
TOE NEGRO EMANCIPATION ACT.

A meeting tvs held on Wednesday evening last, at the
Town-hall, "to take into consideration the
cruel oppression and I:jg!•avated sufferings to which the
negroes .of our West InatO colonies are still subjected,
under the name of apprenticeship, notwithstanding the
enormous sum of 20,000,0001. sw rling granted to the
West India proprietors by the British Parliament ; also to
consider the propriety of presenting a memorial to Lord
Melbourne, on the adoption of such resolutions as the
meeting may deem expedient."
The High Bailiff (Paul Moore Jones, Esq.,) took the
Chi ir. Around him we observed the two representatives of
the borough, Messrs. T. Attwood and Scholeficld, and many
clerg}..imetz and other gentlemen.
The
su
en G tRMAN briefly opened the business of the meet—
ing, eystem of apprenticeship, but approving
censuring
en.sation to the planters, and earnestly
the measure or r.onZe
recommending maderai:on to the meeting then assembled in
any proceeding which they might adopt.
Mr. SCITOLEFIELD, M. 11,4 moved this, first resolution, to
the effect. that it was the sure convictioli of that meeting
that in the Act for the abolition ef slavery, passed in 1833,
those parts of it that gave the planter power to exercise
ovIt• the slaves under the name of apprem:iceship were bad,
and that the 20,000,000/. would never have been agreed to
on the part of the country, were it not thought that the Act
would induce the planters to co-operate in the work of negro
emancipation.
The Rev. C. W. MARSH seconded the resolution.
The resolution was then put and carried.
The Rev. J. RYLAND read the second resolution, to the
effect that the meeting learned with deb; regret that both
those objects (those mentioned in the first „resolution) of the
measure had been defeated in most of the colonies, except
in the Bermudas and Antigua, where free labour pre-
vailed ; that it appeared that the Act was the greatest cause
of fraud and oppression; that the magistrates were mere
tools in the hands of the planters, and that they sanctioned
by their authority the extending of torture to a fearful ex-
tent ; that wholesome food was withheld from the aegroes ;
that the time allotted. to them to labour for themselves was
rendered so useless that it was made a source of misconduct
(n; the part of the masters.
Tin, Rev. J: BARNETT' seconded the resolution, which,
after some observations from the Rev. R. Hall and Mr.
Scholfield, of Loudon, was agreed to.
The Rev. T. SWAN proposed the next resolution, to the
-t
effect that the meeting considered t the most vigorous
and decisive measures should be employed throughout the
country to awaken the people from the delusion under
which they laboured respecting the Emancipation Act, and
that a memorial should be presented to Government begging
of them to bring in a Bill to repeal the aforesaid. Act. The
Rev. Gentleman begged to state that Mr. Attwood had
whispered to him just before he left the meeting, that the
facts he had heard that night had made such an impression
on his mind that a revolution had taken place in it, .it that
in the next Parliament he would advocate the total aboli-
tion of slavery.
The Rev. J. A. JAMES, Mr. G. EDMONDS, Capt. Mo.R-
n;soN, &c., addressed the meeting, which did not separate
till a late hour.