Star.
London, England, 1824-09-20 00:00:00

'WEST INDIA SLAVERY.
TO THE EDITOR OP THE iTA R.
LETTER I.

Saa—My attention was attracted to a letter which
appeared
, .
in the New THINS. of the tch instant, signed
Aser.es, and having the appearance of being the
first of a series. This letter Contained ;lin attack upon
an article which was published in the last number of
the Quarterly Review, as well isOn the Order in Coon-
ci, which has recently been issued by the direction of
the Government, for the improvement of the Slave Code
in the island of Trinidad. The charges brought against
the Government for the issue of that Order were of so
extraordinary a nature, that I was induced to examine,
Kith considerable attention, the article in question, as
well as the Order itself: and having since read two
other letters, with the signature of ANGL'US (who has
presented himself as the advocate of ultra•abolition,
principles, as contrasted with the mere temperate course,
which it appears that the Govei nment has felt it ne-
cessary to adopt), as well as an article in the British
and Colonial Weekly Register, of the 4th of September,
apparently from the same pen, I find so much of what
I presume to call mistatement and inconclusive reason-
ing, that I propose to address some letters to ANGLUS,
through the medium of your Paper ; as there is an in-
dispositionon the part of the Editor of the New Times
to permit the appearance of an answer in the columns,
of that Newspaper, which would have been its most
convenient situation, as far as the elucidation of truth
may be deemed an object of the respective parties.
I consider the examination of what is called the West
India Slave Question, to be of such paramount import-
ance, both in a moral and national sense, that I do not
hesitate, without qualification, to affirm, that any per-
son professing to convey correct and accurate informa-
tion to the Public upon it, who intentionally maintains
an argument founded on data which he himself arows
to be false, is spiky of a positive crime. A writer so
circumstanced can have no hesitation in stating that to
be true which he positively knows to be so; if he only
believes his assertions to be true, he should limit his
statement to the expression of that belief, and nct take
the advantage of reasoning as on a certainty where ma-
terial doubts may exist as to the fact; but, as I have
already said, he is positively criminal if he is guilty of
an intentional mistatement.
I consider that the circumstance of a person writing
under an assumed signature in no degree infringes upon
this principle, unless the tone of his reasoning be such
as plainly to shew that it is of a polemical character,
having for its object the triumph of argument, rather
than the elucidation of truth. But if, under an assumed
signature, a writer states that his object " is purely the
cause of morality and religion, the cause of his country,
and the cause of Goo," he can have no sort of apology
ev iat
muchio n
responsible from the
as
s rules
if which
he werel have t
o alpa
for ainsyadspeaiddr andun-
der his real name. If this be true, as predicated of a
writer professing to be influenced by such sacred prin-
ciples of concict, it is equally true with respect to any
person who may choose to meet and oppose his reason-
ing under a-similar disguise. And if there be no indis-
position on the part of ANCILUS to embark in a corre-
spondence on these conditions of personal responsibi-
lity (if uch a term may be applied to the relations under
which an anonymous correspondence is necessarily car-
Tied on), much public and'national good may be elicited
from an investigation, so conducted, of the complex
and intricate problem of the best and the safest mode of
terminating the system of West Indian Slavery. Upon
the conclusion, or even in the progress, of such a corre-
' spondence, the Public, or at least that part of the Public
'who are disposed to give a patient attention to subjects
'of this nature, will be able to ascertain with whom the
negative merit of fair and impartial reasoning, and cor-
wt statement of facts, resides; and if, fortunately for the
cause of truth, it should appear that this merit belongsto
both parties, no inconsiderable advance will be made in tha
practical examination of a subject the importanceof which
is beyond all calculation. lithe reverseof this should take
nlace, and both parties should be attempting to deceive,
'jilt correspondence would naturally be disregarded as
worse than useless :—And, in a third possible case, that
one party Mould attempt to deceive, while the other was
only anxious to adhere to the truth in every possible
sense of the term, exposure and merited disgrace would
attach to the deceiver.
in the expectation that this proposal will be met by
Artemis with that eagerness which belongs to a confi-
dence in the cause of right, I propose, in a subsequent
letter, to advert to those points in his letters which ap-
pear to me, however unintentionally, to have been stated
or reasoned opon by him in error, when arguing the ge-
neral question. But his remarks on the Order in Coun-
cil are so preposterously incorrect, and shew such com-
plete ignorance of his subject, that I feel it necessary to
advert to them without loss of time, as they are stated
with such .gravity, surd with such assumption of know-
ledge and authority, as to be highly calculated to mis-
lead the public.
Allows considers the recent Order in Council for
the regulation of Slavery in Trinidad, "as a very im-
poitant and beneficial measure." Yet, if it were really
such isle Proceeds to describe it, if it really " holds
1 out an actual premium to murder," if it really deprived
1
Slaves iff leisure .which the anterior law had secured
them, if it enables a hard-hearted proprietor to break
asunder the most sacred domestic ties which Spanish
' law had rendered indissoluble, if it renders inadmissible
Slave evidence which could formerly have been re-
ceived, in other words, if it were such a law as Anglus
describes it to be, then I should agree that it was “ im-
portant," because it would bring to light the otherwise
tocredible ignorance and inhumanity of our Colonial
Administration, and " beneficial," because such a chs-
tiosure would most effectually prevent the repetition of
I suck enormities. As, however, lam not aeCtistottled
readily to conclude that other men fall into selfsevident
absutdjties, and as I think it least of all reasonable to
impute such extreme ignorance and wickedness, so gra-
tui.ous, to those who stand en an eminence from which
they have the most extensive survey, and where they
themselves can never escape the most t igid criticism, I
ti rned from the paper of Anglus to the Order in
G,uncd, which he censures, and having done so. take
oPoR me to assert, and with your permission will pro-
re, d to prove, that instead of being afflicted with a cruel.
e'.'.l iShordat Government/ wehAve only to bear with a