The Sun.
London, England, 1826-08-17 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

CHANGE OF QUARTERS OF THE GUARDS.
The following change of quarters of the Guards is ordeted•to
take place on the 23th inst. viz.
The let Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, from Portman-
street barracks to Knightsbridge barracks.
The 3d battalion of the Greutidier Guards froin the Tower to
Westminster quarters.
The lat battalion of the Coldstream Gum (1,, from Knightbridge
barracks to the Tower.
sterTghtuafirdt.ersbattalon o
to
piortnfiatil_ste sdreett.egbaiirnreanctkos.f Guards, from Westinin-

The depot of the 2,1 luttaliou otthe 60th Rifle Corps marelml,
on the 14th inst. from Weymouth for Portsmouth.
Detachments of recruits arrived in town yesterday morning, from
Bristol, on 'route to join their reopeCtive corps and depots.

WEST INDIA SLAVERY.

. • .
I have seen eaves in every variety of condition which the
West . earl• Pr' cut. I have seen them in Barhadoes, and
other Caribbean Isles subject to English command and discipline.
I hare seen them in Martinique and other places subject to French
rule. I have seen theft in St. Thomas's; and other neighbour-
ing isles, obedient to the Danish yoke. Further, I hare seen
many negroes in Colombia who had been 'laves, and are now free.
You know that I have seen and known a good deal of 'Wilber
force and Buxton, Macintosh and • Brougham, Stephen and
Alacauley, and the other advocates of emancipation at' home.
Let me then try to give you a fair account of the question.
In referring to the abstract principle of right there cannot pos.
'sibly be any difference of opinion. No man can possess a' right
to enslave his fellow-man. Nu man can be a slave without being
degraded, and losing, as Homer truly said, half his manhood.
When a slave sighs for freedom, he rouses every sympathy of the
human heart to aid hint.
But the slaves in the %Vest Indies have not the slightest Sense
of having been free, and of having, by the fortune of war, or by
fraud, been deprived •of their freedom. As in all savage tribes,
the animal propensities predominate; they feel whateVer gives,
them pain by corporeal infliction or privation, but reflection,
thought, anxious anticipation, or indignant recollection, they are
absolute strangers to.
That they are capable of being elevated in the scale of reason
and of moral consciousness, no wise or good man will dispute for
a moment ; but whether there are not ignorant and degraded
huittan beings whose education and improvement ought sooner to
be attended to by benevolent Englishmen may be made a question.
Undoubtedly, however, it would be charitable and benevolent to
educate and improve the slaves in the West Indies. Let all
means be speedily and' zealously employed for this excellent
purport*.
The owners answer :—" Let 'well alone. The slaves are con-
tented and happy." Grant it ; they think themselves well, be-
cause they know no better ; they are 'contented becauee they are
stupidly ignorant. Those who believe theni to has', immortal
souls feel anxious to inspire, them with a consciouiness of their
own worth and high destiny, and to train them to hehiti of re-
flection and devotioti. In this argument the planters must fail
they have uo solid ground to stand On, no'sound arguments to ad-
vance. Education, education, education—let education be freely
given to the slaves, and let them be initiated and instructed in all
the mysteries and consolations of the Christian religlion•
But the great and really difficult question is that of emancipation.
Here are thousands and tens of thousands of slaves, subject to a few
whites. Leaving out of view how the owners and slaves came to
be relatively ,as placed, and taking it for granted that Parliament
will give ample compensation to all sufferers from legislative inter- 1
ference, let us calmly inquire what course ought in prudence, wis-
dom, and humanity, to be adopted.
The slavea in the West Indies work incomparably less than'
any
labourers in England. It it quite sickening to see the sleepy style
in which they move their limbs and ply their work. Their ex-
pences for food, house, clothing, medical attendaruw, &c. are
certainly greater than the orrlittazy wages of labour in England.
But their owners, besides these expends, paid originally from lOU
to 250/. a head for then,. If, upon being emancipated, they would
work like European labourers ; nay, if they would work in the
lazy mode in which they now work, their owners might be per-
ked). content and Retained.. Hut two very material considerations
ought never to be lost sight of in discussing this question.
1. A tropical climateiudisposesfor bodily labour, and without
compulsion, direct or indirect, derived from a master's authority
or one's own interest, there Will be no industry, no perseverance,
no work. But the very °llea is to take way the toaster's direct
compulsion, and to leave the emancipated negro to the indirect
influence of his own interest. On this then he depends for via.
thous industry; on this the landowners depend for the due cult
vation of their estates.

2. A tropical dilute reduces human wants to such narrow
bounds, that industry has no stimulus and sloth is scarcely
punished. The wise precaution of Jove, to make food the fruit
of much labour, that man might not become the victim of sloth,
extended not to the tropics, for here houses and clothes can be dis-
pensed with. This then is au immense reduction of the motives
to labour. But food is abundant and cheap. Give them phintains,
caroutas, and the like, and they havenothiug to seek. One
day's labour will procure provisions of this sort for a week. It is
so, in fact, in Colombia. You *ill not get Peones to Work more
than half a week. 'On pretence of holidays, illness, or without
pretence at all, they are idle the rest of the week, and their wages
not only supply them food, but enable them to be abominably
drunk with the Creole rum of the country.
Now, Sir, casting aside the violent passions of emancipators
and slave-owners, I submit to you that there is here a very grave
difficulty. It cannot he the object of our good men at home to
Make the Condition' and prospects of the Africans worse and
darker than they are. I know it is not. That they should he
jealous of arguments urged by slave-owners, by the same class of
persons who advocated the slave-trade in it. horridest forms, and
shrieked and howled as for life when the abolition was the ques-
tion of the day, is nut only reasonable but unavoidable. The
senseless outcry against such men as Wilberforee, Macintosh,
Brougham, and Stephen, can only prove the weakness of the
cause, and the violence of the passions on that side of the ques-
tion. But the men I have named need only to he apprised
of the consequences of precipitate emancipation,, to: be guarded
against any rash and ill-considered measures on the subject.
In the treatment of slaves there is certainly great mildness and
fOrbearance. Far this, the slaves are undoubtedly indebted to
their English advocates. The punishment of death is rare, be-
cause the life of the convict is valuable to hiss owner. Hence you
see many labourers in perpetual chains. In the French colonies
there is far less severity than in the English, that happy-tempered
people bestowing the solace 'of their politeness even' on their
'
slaves. In St. Thomas's I saw• several young men and several
young women chained together in separate groups, and levelling
the public road. It was a pitiful aught to see the poor young
Women, with an iron-chain round their unformed waists, loading
baskets with atones, and filling up a hole in the road: Their
surly euperintendent, every now and then reminded them he had
a whip. I asked their offence. "Oh I their owner is gone-fel:4n
Fannie ; he was afraid they would run away in his ahaeuet, and
sent them to the Government-prison. This is the only work we
have for them to do." But this sear Danish.
lo this ameliorated state of slavoryin a climate which power-
fully indisposes for labour, and in .places where extremely little
khOur is necessary for the preservation of life, the propneition,to
imancipete is involsed in great difficulty. By bestowing educa-
tion you must enlarge the demands of the negroes for. food, clothes,
and holieehold accommodation, and ;thug add to the motives for
industry and sobriety. But above all, by' conVertin
Christianity, and instructing them in the doctrines, precepts, and
S theta to
pmspecte (if our religion,
you jay the best foundation, and esta-
blish the strongest 'security' for their obedience, virtue, and happi-
DM. It is melancholy, and to say the truth, not creditable to
the owners, that there should be such multitudee of slaves under-
standing and Speaking English, who have never been taught' the
truths of the Gospel, or baptised in the'name of Christ. Sup.
pose the period arrived when- slaves generally read the Bible, and
attend religious worship. They would then be sensible Of the
benefits and: hazards of ernancipetion. Therwould wish-for it,
beg for it, and gratefully receive It. A boon is no ;blessing to
him' who is insensible of its nature and value. Excite their thirst
before you force them to drink.
By these means the safest precautions will at least betaken to
render emancipation not eraraarinlese, but really benefichit both