The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-18 00:00:00

SLAVERY IN AMERICA.

Lord DENMAN rose to bring under the con-
sideration of their Lordships a subject which ap-
peared to him to be of immense interest and
importance. A few nights ago, his Noble and
Learned Friend (Lord Brougham) had stated to their
Lordships the fact, that in the state of Louisiana,
in the United States, a capital conviction had been
obtained against a person for promoting the escape of
a slave. When this subject was brought under the
notice of his Noble and Learned Friend, it was gene-
rally believed that the sentence would not be
carried into effect. It was thought that
the law having once been declared, denouncing the
heaviest punishment against persons who should at-
tempt to rescue a slave, that the punishment in the
particular case to which he had alluded would not be
carried into effect. Unfortunately since that time a do-
cument had reached this country, bearing the marks of
authenticity, from which it appeared that on the 25th
April a fellow-creature would undergo the sentence
of death for having promoted the escape of a slave.
Now nobody could be more sensible than he was of
the duty which was enforced on all States of laying
down rules for regulating the conduct of its depen-
dents, and he was aware how very jealous every
State must be if any interference were to be at-
tempted by other powers with respect to the
execution of the law such State had enacted.
This country was remarkable as being one of the first
to modify the sanguinary system of punishments
which prevailed, and Mr. Livingstone drew up
i code of laws for this purpose, which had been
adopted in several countries on the continent,
and the result showed that this modification
tended to diminish crime. He did not introduce
this question as an individual one, but merely in the
abstract, with the view of seeing how far the punish-
ment in this case was proportioned to the crime. He
was aware that many persons were of opinion,
that by giving expression to any sentiment of
this kind, they were likely to increase the
irritation which existed at the other side of
the Atlantic, and render more• difficult the
carrying out of the negotiations between this country
and America for the suppression of the slave-trade ;
but from all that he had been able to learn he consi-
dered that by the expression of those sentiments it
was possible that some benefit might arise from it,
and it was impossible for any injury to be produced.
Indeed, he felt assured that in no civilised
state could any individual be found who would be in-
duced to carry such a law into effect after such an
expression of feeling. His object in bringing for-
ward this measure was the hope that the expression
of the opinion of that House would meet the eyes of
those who had the power to mitigate this sentence, and
that while they carried out all the other laws of the
country, they still would never allow this man
to be put to death, for, by so doing, they would he
throwing, back the cause of civilization, humanity,
and Christianity, for centuries. He felt perfectly
aware that it was not for the constituted and re-
sponsible authorities of this country to interfere in
this matter ; still he thought that the expression of
public opinion in this matter would be likely to pre-
vent the perpetration of this sentence.
THREE-AND-A-HALF PER CENT. ANNUI-

TIES BILL.
The Earl of RIPON, in rising to propose the se-
cond reading of the Three-and-a-Half per Cent. An-
nuities (1818) Bill, said he would detain their Lord-
ships but a very short time. The object which
they had in view was to reduce the interest upon those
annuities from three-and-a-half to three per cent.
He congratulated the House on the fact that the
state of the actual resources of the country enabled
them to make this important change, and give the
public the benefit of this great saving, without add-
ing to the permanent debt of the country.
Lord BROUGHAM said that the operation tes-
tified to all Europe the solidity of the resources of
this country and its untouched credit, a reputa-
tion which they owed to their having religiously
abstained on this side of the Atlantic—that
was, the European English had abstained from
doing anything that might have a tendency, or the
shadow of a tendency, to impeach the right of the
creditor to be paid by his debtor. Instead of affecting
this reduction of interest, by giving a bonus, by which
the capital of the public creditor would be increased,
there had been a careful avoiding of making any in-
crease to the capital of the debt.—(Hear, hear.)
Lord IIONTEAGLE said the change was a very
important one, and if he differed with the mode in which
it had been carried into effect, it was as to
details only. With the general mode in which the
proposal had been carried out he entirely concurred.
The measure was one of unexampled magnitude, af-
fecting an immense mass of capital, yet there
had not been the slightest alarm caused by it,
although there were no less than 81,000
holders of stock whose dividends were under
101. This was to be attributed to the great
confidence they had in the resources of the country
and the good faith of the Government. The Noble
Earl had stated, that the arrangement was the more
satisfactory, because it was not made by any undue
tampering with the credit or currency of
the country. It was effected on sound
and ' rational principles. If they had a
large' surplus revenue with which they could
effect the reduction, the operation could not be
considered unjust, when there was a great reduction
in the interest of money throughout the country. It
was not a question of choice, but of para-
mount duty. The great reduction of interest
on money was not altogether an unmixed bene-
fit. Therefore, when the general body of
public suffered inconvenience from the lowering of
interest they ought to be relieved from paying more
than the reduced rate. The lowering of the value of
money tended to increase speculation in the same
ratio, and this had, on former occasions, been attended
with great public inconvenience and mischief.
There were some evils from which they were some-
what protected: at present. Formerly the low rate
of interest induced people to invest their capital in
all kinds of foreign securities. But he believed the
experience of what had happened within the last ten
years tended very much to guard against the re-
currence of that evil. If they looked to what
occurred in the old and the new world in that period
would prove the importance of maintaining public
credit. If the American States had main-
tained their credit, their territory would
afford to us the best market for our products, and
the advantage would be reciprocal. In 1824 there
was a great abundance of money, which followed from
the same causes that induced his Noble Friend
to reduce the interest in 1822. That was followed
by the subsequent over speculation and calamity of
1825 and 1826
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be some danger of it in our recently opened trade
with China. He by no means attributed the measures
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reduction, which effected a saving of 1,200,000/a
would enable the Government to take off the income-
,
tax, at the time promised. He thought the Govern-
ment deserved thanks for the reductions which they
had effected in the customs' duties, and he hoped they•
would take an opportunity of showing the advantages
the country had derived by those measures. The re-
duction which had taken place since the peace in the
actual burthen of the national debt was far beyond
what had been foreseen by those writers who
declared the burthen could not be reduced. A
further reduction of four . millions in the nomi-
nal amount of the debt would occur within a
period of sixteen years, which many of their Lord-
ships might expect to live to see.—(Hear, hear.) The
great blessings of peace had enabled us greatly to al-
leviate the actual annual pressure of the debt
without injustice or inconvenience to any one, and
considerable progress had been made in dimi-
nishing the nominal amount of the capital debt.
If they calculated the value of the capital required at
two per cent. they would get at the actual amount of
reduction which would be made in the capital of the
National Debt. The success of the experiment
proved the credit of this country to an infinitely
greater extent than if they had kept up an im-
mense amount of taxation for the purpose of
of keeping up a sinking fund. If they had kept
up a sinking fund of 5,000,000/. or 6,000,0001. a-
year, they could not have operated such au amount
of reduction with the same certainty. He