The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-08 00:00:00

3PIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS._

The decision of Lord Stowell, the day heforl
ismvopmoratuan cnea, mbeodthGarsaicte,c-orirgeocntse a° pope.
ocpcll.4:
Yesterday, in Doctors'-Commons, in the case of
Ilar'idaeersrralbaoviree, and may, consequently, lead to some
future act of the Legislature ; and more particu-
larly as it contains extra-judicial and incidental
matter affecting the slave trade generally, and
evincing his Lordship's opinion of the present
state of that question and its final issue. It war:
universally apprehended, and 'indeed proudly
boasted, that a slave, however purchased or ob-
tained, who had in any way reached the British
island, who had once breathed British air, was
thenceforth for ever free. Lord Stowell's judg-
ment has taken from the friends of humanity thtz

pleasing error : it has shown Them that an un-
manumitted slave of Antigua, or any other West
India island, visiting England, and returning to
the place from whence he started, was a slave
that a lady, the wife of a planter, bringing a
again, and the property of his old master. So
black nursery maid to this country, places her in
a state of freedom among us : from that -state
there are no legal means of removing her ; but
should the maid consent to return, or be en-
trapped on board a ship and carried back, she
is, when in the island from whence she was con-
veyed, a slave again. This doctrine, which there
is no doubt is also the law at present, leads how.
ever to that Particular consequence which is de-
scribed as " impossible" by the maxims of Brie
fish jurisprudence ; for it entails upon an acknow-
ledged body of his Majesty's subjects, tnalurn
absque remedio. If.. a West Indian planter
has lost 'ec slave, and knows him to be in Eng-
land, the law does not suffer him to take one •
step for the recovery of that which we, with pain,
are forced to call his property. But the judg-
ment is remarkable for betraying inc identally
some of Lord Stowell's opinions on the slave
trade. Towards the conclusion of the decree,
he' says—" To such a system (the slave trade),
whilst it is so supported, I feel it to he too
strong to apply the maxim mains usus est abo.
lendus. The time may come when this institu-
tion may fall in the colonies, as 'other institutions
bave„done in other flourishing countries'; but I
am of opinion that it can only be effected at the.
joint expense of both countries : for it is in a
peculiar measure the a ime of this country
(England) ; and I rather feel it to be an objet-
emancipation, that it is in-
tended to be a very cheap measure here, byl tion to this species of
throwing the whole expense upon the colonies I
This is very just—very true. The mother
country has encouraged the slave trade: it was
under the sanction of the mother country that
her subjects invested property in it. Surely,
then, the loss incurred by the abolition of the
trade ought, at least to be in part. borne
Iby the mother country. But---and it is a
woful << but"—where is the money to come
from ? Let not the planters be deceived by
pretences : those who talk to them of indem-
nification for the loss of this traffic, be they
sinners or be they saints, mean' to humbug
them. The noble Judge of the Court of
Admiralty sees through the matter clearly enough.
The following extract from the speech points out
cacy of all the efforts hitherto made by the Abo-
painftilly, but, we fear, but two truly, the ineffs;.,
litionists to' produce the effect they seek ;-•••." It
has been said that the law of England diecoutia-
ges slavery ; and so it certainly does, withirs- the
Inuits':of these Islands; but it uses very different
language, and exerts a . very different force, when
it looks to its coloniee,- for to this trade in those_
colonies it. gives an almost unbound,Cd.protec-
Hon. ; and it is in the habit of doing so at the
present time in many exercises of public autho.
rity ; and even since slavery has become odious,
in England, it has been fully supported by the
authority of many statutes, for the purpose of
carrying it into full effect in the colonies. All
!the efforts of the persons who have contended
for its abolition in the colonies, and who have
robtained many acts of Parliament, for the regu-
lation of it therein, have IN NO DXGREIS, weak-
ened the force of these English statutes, of the
mother -country, which so powerfully support
it." Thst which follows is almost equally stroller
and more specific : we cannot quote the whole!:
But what say the Abolitionists to al!this ? Have
their various and unremitting efforts then ended
in nothing ? or at least have- they hitherto oh.
tanned no beneficial result ? Lord Stowell, in a
few short sentences, not only dashes the laurels
from their brows, but even knocks their beetle
into the dust. But perhaps, stung by these re-
proaches, they may rise and gird themselves
afresh for the contest. 'We ourselves do not
think that they have done-so- little as his Lord-
ship imagines. If slavery still exists under legal
forms, it is not their fault : and it must at least
be allowed that its rigours are practically sof,
tened.—Times.
The decision of Lord Stowell, which we
this day give at length, is well deserving of at-
tention. His Lordship would seem to question
the justice of the decision of Lord Mansfield,
at notth
e destroy,4i.b a
which put an end to " the personal traffic in
slaves resident in England," which " had been
nogwlannedr,
when
afforded et di)
the
slave
aivrarnes,
as public and authorised in London as in any
bgulatnc:
of our 'West India Islands," but he contends
that the decision only went the length of
ingcleclat-
t he
rthi:htttlowitillaew,foorfm
eEr
enforced. At effAetCtthtoe Fslloaseve,ryl;
turned to a country where that right could be
litionists. " How this country
perform the act of justice in f • per orming the act
of charity, men of great wisdom and integrity
have not been able to discover:—Mornsng
Chronicle.
At length it seems at t that I Magistrates of
Middlesex are about to decide the long-pro=
treeted question of the propriety of erecting a
County Lunatic Asylum. We cell it a ques-
tion ; though how, after the facts which have
been disclosed, it can be really a question in the
eves of any rational being, we are at a loss to
imagine. As the same persons have at length,
too, been shamed out -of the privacy of their pro.
ceedings, this matter is, we hear, to be discussed
in open Court, and the public therefore, both
present and absent will stand a chance of know.
ing somewhat, at least, of what passes on a sub-
ject so interesting to them all. That an irre-
sponsible body, composed by no means of the
elite of the land, should have so long contrived_
to carry on a heavy system of taxation with
closed doors, does no great credit to them, or to
the spirit of the age ; nor does it augur touch
in favour of their past acts that they have
YO sel.
dom been allowed to see the light. Even among
Middlesex Justices, however, the zra of dark-
ness has at length passed away, and with it, it is
to be hoped, the age of jobbing, for which their
Predecessors have from time immemorial been so
remarkable. We shall be cu • •
nous to see whe-
ther any and what arguments can be used against
the slow measure of rustic® by which an average