The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-12 00:00:00

A few days since a carriage drove up to the
shop of Messrs. Lucas and Co., in the Quadrant, from which
alighted two middle-aged ladies, who were shown into an ante-
room for the purpose of inspecting some boas. Shortly after
their departure a boa, valued at about seven guineas, which had
been put by for a customer, and which had been greatly ad_
mired by the ladies, was missed. Suspicion at once alighted on
the two ladies, and one of the firm having heard the coachman
receive directions to drive to Highbury, the shopman immedi-
ately hired a cab, and went in pursuit of the fashionable depre-
dators. He was fortunate enough to come up with the carriage
in the Regent's-park, when he ordered the coachman to stop,
and sans ceremonie divested the neck of one of the ladies of the
lost property. They protested that it had been taken entirely
by mistake ; and their entreaties were of such a nature as to
induce Mr. Lucas to take no further proceedings in the matter.
The ladies were highly fashionable in attire, and the equipage
was of the first-rate description.

geminii six fluctibus obstitit Ist
The colonists of Trinidad, though more imme-
diately under the controul of the general Govern-
ment than our other colonial possessions with legis-
latures of their own, have shown that their recent
conquest and their more complete dependence have
not inspired them with more respect for the mother
country, or with more reverence for her authority.
N'Ve never read any speeches more absurd in matter,
or more insulting in language towards Great Britain
than those delivered at the meeting to which we
have referred. At this meeting the parties agreed
to protest against the Order in Council, to a peti•
tion to the King for its repeal—a petition to the
House of Commons, and a petition to the House of
Peers for the same object. With this protest the
chairman, accompanied by a deputation, imme-
diately proceeded to the Governor to propose
m•tigations or changes in the order. The Go-
vernor, of course, could not comply with their
request but offered to transmit their representa-
tions to the Government at home. On the return
of the deputation with this answer several
violent resolutions were proposed, and some more
violent speeches made. Among others, a Mr.
White " proposed a remedy,—the only one, he con-
tended, which could be efficacious,—thar until re-
dress was afforded they should refuse to pay taxes."
This suggestion was at first received with enthusi-
asm, but afterwards abandoned from prudential con-
siderations. At the conclusion of the meeting, a
permanent commission called the Standing Trinidad
Committee, appointed to meet regularly for the de-
spatch of business every three months, was proposed
and agreed to. This committee will no doubt be-
come the little Parliament of the colony. Such a
brief outline of the proceedings of the unauthorized
colonial assembly of 'Trinidad on the 6th of January
last, proceedings which may be considered authentic,
as the principal speeches bear evident marks of
being corrected by the authors themselves. The
chief performer on the occasion was a Mr. Jackson,
who proposed the resolutions, the protest, and the
petitions. In order, therefore, to know the parts of
the Order in Council to which the colonists mainly
object, and to ascertain the spirit in which their op-
position originates, it will only be necessary to
attend to his address. Mr. Jackson, and of course
all the colonists, object to the interference of the
Protector of Slaves—to his payment out of the
funds of the colony—to the shortening of the hours
of slave labour, and to the regulations respecting the
quantity of provisions to which the slave is enti-
tled. The orator, after some harmless sneers at
Lord Goderich—which we suppose his Lordship
will easily forgive or scarcely feel—proceeded to
criticise the despatch to the Governor which accom-
panied the order. In this criticism, lie was so happy
as to meet with that concurrence and applause
which he could have expected no where else than
in a slave colony. His Lordship had said (speaking
of the mode of paying the Protector,) I cannot
be a party to so gross an act of injustice as to refuse
to the slaves, from the property created at their
expense, whatever may be required for their ade-
quate protection." In this proposition there appears
to us nothing absurd or irrational ; but to the plant-
ers of Trinidad the matter bears a different aspect.
Regarding their slaves, as their cattle rather than
their fellow-creatures, they bluster about their
" rights of property," and forget the rights of their
slaves to protection :
" The only real difficulty," says Mr. Jackson, which
embarrassed the question of colonial slivery—thatdifficulty
to grapple with which it would require intellects and ar-
guments (neither European or Colonial) of a very differ-
ent description from those exhibited in the despatch—was
altogether overlooked. The question was—supposing it
to be necessary that a measure of amelioration should be
adopted, for which expense is to be incurred and loss sus-
tained,—on whom is this expense and this loss to fall ? The
colonist ought not to pay them. He acquired his property
in slaves under the sanction of British laws and by the di-
rect encouragement of British Government. Slavery was
no new institution : it had prevailed in all climates and in
all ages of the world. The rights which it confers, and
the obligations which it imposes, were as well known as
those which are attached to any other description of pro-
perty : those rights consist in their master's power to ex-
act the labour of his slave ; the obligation was to pro-
vide for his subsistence, clothing, and care in sickness and
in old age. The price which the purchaser paid for his
slave, brought and sold here under the express sanction of
the British Government, was regulated by the value of the
whole of their legal rights, subject to these legal obliga-
tions, and no others. If the obligations are increased, and
the rights restricted by legislative enactments, the value of
the property for which, under the sanction of the existing
law, the whole price has been paid, is proportionably
diminished."

But Mr. Jackson objects more strongly to the
intrusion of the Protector than to his mode of pay-
ment. This intrusion, he it understood, is only to
see that the slave is not tortured, or that the planter
does not use "his property" in man worse than he
would use his other chattels. The strange perver-
sion of intellect and feel,ng created by inhaling the
air of a slave colony, and being obliged at the same
time to use the language of Europe, could
only account for the following confused rhapsody
about universal philanthropy and the assertion Of
"property" in the blood and bones of a fellow-
creature :

" He would now make a few observations on some of
the principal clauses of the older which appeared to him
to be most injurious to property ; and here he must be al-
lowed to say, that in the wide circle of his Majesty's do•
minions there breathed not a man who would more cheer-
fully receive, or more zealously promote, any measures
which he considered would ameliorate the condition of
be negro-saves, and which were not inconsistent with
the Just rights of the proprietor, Nay, more,--he was