The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-27 00:00:00

, ...,.. .
Yesterday a Meeting ac _es Iteld_at . the Spread
of the wardsIproprietyvoseEs
p t it
Indies.llle lorfi up e
Emancipation
Ni t,Ai oEtt iel ::nglt-
took
about
Eagle, Epsom, for tlre_purpose ofLconsitiering of the
.e.aNt
eotofot.
iSklaev‘.set:iPisi tthoe.
the a iLuhaaritre:i ..)Libt,
tfobieeoti e,
Meet-
ing was but very thinly attended. Mr. Otway
Cave, M.P. and Mr. Henry Hunt were 'among the
number of those present.
Mr. Gossa moved a series of resolutions.
Mr. POWNALL seconded the Resolutions. An
assurance had long ago been given by the Legislature
that something should be done for these unfortunate
slaves; and so long as that pledge was unredeemed,
so long he trusted would the voice of the people of
Surrey be lifted up in the cause of humanity. Ac-
: cording to the most accurate calculation., slavery
swept from the shores of Africa 150,000 of her inha-
bitants every year; and if this number were to
be multiplied by the number of years from
which the system had been going on, it would
be found that the number taken from Africa
would exceed the population of Great' Britain.--
,
Another false way of looking at the subject was
that so much insisted upon by the planters—the de-
based intellect of the negroes. But they were not
always so; who first peopled Egypt? Who bad
erected the wondrous pyramids of old ? Who had
handed down to all posterity those wonderful hiero-:
glyphics which still told in mystic character what.
Egypt had been ? Let them go to their National
Museum, and study those everlasting porphyries,
if they wished to know what Africa and Africans
had once produced.—(Hear, hear.) It would not;
therefore; do to say, that the negrea mind could not
be expanded : in those relics were to be found the
heraldry of their former science and the aerials of
their pristine art. Seven years ago Mr. Canning
had pledged himself that those measures by which
emancipation wa= pointed out should be carried into
effect, and in 1826 this promise was reiterated ; and
vet, in the very last session of Parliament Sir G.
Murray, in answer to Mr. 0. Cave, contented him-
self with merely repeating that means should be
taken for effecting the desired object. Ile was will-
ing to concede that Sir George Murray was actuated
by feelings of the most enlightened kind ; the course
that he had pursued with respect to the Cape of
Good Hope indicated thut. But this went to show
not only that they were justified in holding the prese, t
meeting, but also that it was necessary, us expressing
part of the feeling of the country on the subject.—
What was the present situation of the slave ? In
the first place, he could be imprisoned at the pleasure
of his master; in the next, he could be fl,igged at
his owner's discretion to the extent of thirty-nine
lashes, for any offence alleged; and no doubt,
in those islands, the mere circumstance of having a
black skin was looked upon as an offence. Then, if
a slave happened to lose his deed of manumission,
and was found loitering about, he could be confined
in the poor-house for a certain period, and then re-
sold as a slave. The murder of a slave, it was title,
was a capital crime ; but then the evidence of a
negro could never be received against a white man,
and, consequently, whatever took place in a planta-
tion pretty well passed over in the dark. In Domi-
nique, for.any outrage short of murder a white was
fined 401.; and in Jamaica the fine was 10/.; but
the worst of this was, that none of this vet ut to the
slave himself, but to his master in compensation for
his loss of services. Another disability tinier which
a black laboured was, that he could not recover at
law any debt against a white, so that if a kind mas-
ter left a sum of money in his will to his slaves,
there was no one whom they could sue for its reco-
very. By .the Returns from Berbice, it appeared
that, in the course of one year, there were 5,939
males,-and 3,173 females flogged, out of a slave po-
Pulationof2l,ooo ; and itiDemerara 12,160 males and
8,461 females suffered the same torture within a like
period. In the Report of Sir Lowry Cole, too, he
was grieved to find that that Governor -had ex-
pressed his conviction of the necessity of continuing
the system of flogging females—of which the bare

_
mention was ao disgusting and revolting to huma-
nity, that he was sure it could not be mentioned in
that room without a shudder. It had been said that

he whip was not an instrument of torture; he had
hen in his hand one which had been made after the
plan of the whip used in the Mauritius (Mr. Pow.
null here produced a most frightful engine, the lash
of which was about five feet in length, and made of
tough thong plaited round; in the thickest part the
lash, we should think, was about an inch and .a
quarter diameter); that was the instrument to which
no torture attached! The Demerara Report con-
cluded by stating, that the negrOes appeared to be
quite content with
.their situation and conditico,
All he could say was, that he wished he had the
flogging of such a man as that.—(A To
carry on such a system was surely conttary to the
laws of God, and no law could have the power of
authorising such things ; tyranny might, but law
never could.
The Resolutions were then put to the vote, tend
carried unanimously.
Dr. EDWARDS rose to move a vote of thanks to
Mr. Otway Cave. For three or four years prior w
the last Session nothing had been done on the suh,
ject in the House of Commons, but last yoar my.
Otway Cave had taken up the subject n the eman•
cipation of the children of the negroes. The mo-
tion of the Hon. Gentleman had, however, been re:
solutely opposed, though he (Dr. E.) must conted.
that he did not understand upon what grounds,—
He, however, was happy to say, that he understood
that it was the intention of that Hon. Gentleman
to propose the very same Resolutions, iu the very,
same form, next year, to the House of Commons.---_,
-.
(Hear, hear.)
Mr. E. CARRINGTON seconded the motion,
Mr. HUNT believed that Mr. Otway Cure,
dividing the House, found himself standing stone ;
therefore, for the resolute manner in vOrlich that
gentleman had performed his task, be thought
that he was fully entitled to the thanks of the
Meeting, and he hoped that the vote would pass
unanimously.—(Hear.) There Masan old say ing, that
a man was seldom a prophet in his own country, and
though it was not his intention to palliate, in any de-
gree the sufferings of the slave in the West Indies,
yet he thought that people in looking abroad some.
times contrived to jump over their own groureis,
It was said that slaves were imprisoned at the plea-
sure of their master; but he would appeal, to the
Chairman, and to the Magistrates present, if there
were not proceedings in this country equally cruel.
(Hear, hear.)—Let them look at, the man who was
arrested for some trifling, unmeaning trespass—it
was true that the Magistrates could not inflict upon
him 39 lashes, but he could send him, vrithout ce-
remony, to the tread-mill for three months -.a pet.
nishmeat which,in his opinion, was infinitely greater
and more dreadful than 39 lashes ; and in this case
be it observed, there wag no more interference be-
tween the Alagistrate and the tread-mil( than be-
tween the slave and the whip•—(Appisuse.)—
Supposing a man with a starving wife and perishing
family went into a preserve end snared a hare, was
there any Jury then between him and tho tread.
mill ? Let them look, too, at the thousands and the
hundreds of thousands of paupers that eould not even
tlrtti potatoes to give their children a single meal;—
was a blessing; for though therworked from Mots
yes, even one wretched potatoe meal to such met*
day morning to Sa!urday night, et the end of the
week they found themselves without potatoes suf-
ficient to satisfy the hungry cravings of their wives
and children. Could any slave's condition be worse
that.—( Hear, hear.)—Let them exert themselves
to get rid of the slavery of their own country.—
(A lank.)

Mr. PQWNALL read a passage from the Berbice
Fiscal's Repot t (presented to the House of Com-
mons June l8:?4), w slew that complaints had been
made us to :he feeding of the slaves. In some of the
islands it was not even a misdemeanour to knock
lltolywrattiatibi
elaegkiorayndo
ft osbnhailman; while, on thed
other
thgaunad;