Star.
London, England, 1824-05-14 00:00:00

Some of these were the absence of owners from their
estates, and mortgages on them. These, however, were
bat subordinate anises, the great one being the existence
of. Slave labour. It was not now observed, for the first
time, that Slave labour was always infinitely more
costly than free labour. There must be an inducement
to labour, for it was not natural to man ; he must'
either feel an interest in it, or be forced to it ; and it
remained to be seen which would most conduce to the
latest quantum of labour. In free labour, a man bad
Ise application of his own earnings, which was a power-
ful induceinent to him—not so the Slave. Besides,
where a man worked by compulsion, it was less in quan-
tity, and deficient in quality to that performed by free
men. This had been remarked by travellers in North
America, in comparisons between the lands cultivated
by Slaves, and those under the tillage of free men. In
Pennsylvania, where labour was flee, the land was
worth one third more than in Virginia, where slavery
prevailed ; and in Maryland it was one half more in
value. He instanced the, case of the Hon. J. Steele,
who, being embarrassed, went over, to see whether his
embarrassment had not arisen from the bad manage-
ment of the Overseers of his estates in Barbadoes.—
Being a man of sense, and unfettered by prejudice, he
thereby produced such a change as retrieved his affairs.
He next instanced the case of Sierra Leone, which, being
peopled by tree Blacks, was increasing in population,
to morals, civilization, and 'comfort—roads, houses,
churches, and trade, were all increasing. • The natives,
.even from the river Niger, traded with that Colony ;
and all these things proved the progress of the human
tnind;*hen the man was left free. This was also proved
from the prosperous state of the trade of Hayti, and he
denied the assertion of the Secretary for the Colonies, in
another House, that they now imported Sugar, instead
of exporting it, as formerly. Without resorting to free
labour, the prosperity of our West India Islands could
never lie restored. The money raised by the bounties
on sugar, from the people or this country, be proposed
to be applied to a fund for the emancipation of the slaves
in the West Indies. For all these reasons he implot
the House to giant him the Committee for which he
had moved, and he.should distinctly limit its present
inquiry into the effect which it would have on the
bounties on sugar; but in a future Committee it might.
be an inquiry as to how that sum might be better em-
ployed. He then moved, that a Select Committee be
appointed to enquire into the operation of the bounties
paid upon the export.of Sugar.
Mr. HUSKISSON rose, and said, that as so large a
proportion of his Honourable Friend's speech related to
the great question of slavery, and so small a pottion to
that specific question which his notice of motion really
involved, he hoped it would not be expected either of
him or the House to embark, and more especially w ith-
out notice, in the consideration of the larger and irre-
gularly introduced subject—one which they would, he
was convinced, think with him had better not be dis-
cussed incidentally, but upon a regular notice, such as
would enable the House to meet so portentous a dis-
cussion in the manner which best suited its gravity and
importance—(cries of Hear). Indeed, he was of opinion,
that far better and more prudent it would be, for all
practical purposes, to leave the question of the Slave
Trade, as Parliament had confided it by mutual con-
sent, in the bands of the Executive Government—(Hear).
He should therefore confine his observations shortly to
what had fallen front his lion. Friend, respecting the la-
bour of cultivation in the West Indies being carried on by
human beings in a state of slavery, and that the conse-
quence was the destruction of the interests of the proprie-
tors, as well as the misery inflicted on those under them.
His Honourable Friend had affirmed the general rule to
be, that distress was the habitual condition of West In-
dian property, and prosperity the exception; and he had
illustrated his position by travelliw.4 through the history
for forty years, from the time of the prosperity arising
out of the great convulsion in the island of St. Do-
mingo, to the distress which followed when the high ex-
citement that led to that prosperity had ceased, and the
revulsion in value, its necessary attendant, became felt.
Now, taking for a moment his Honourable Friend's
premises, that the ger.eral condition of West Indian
property was one of distress to the extent he had de-
scribed, without assuming, however, his cause for that
condition—a cause, however, that he might admit had
necessarily its operation to a certain degree in producing
the effect ascribed to it—still he could not go along with
him in the conclusion which he had drawn from these
premises, or in thinking that the measure which he pro-
posed would administer the relief he imagined. His Ho-
nourable Friend was sanguine (and he wished to Got)
his hopes could be realized) that there might be created
a great facility, in the manner he had pointed out, in
converting compulsory labour into free labour. But
most not they look beforehand at the consequences?—
And when they did, must they not see that before these
salutary advantages could be obtained, all the aids of
improved moral intelligence, all the motives to good
action, must be well inculcated and well understood,
before they'could hope to secure for the slave popula-
tion that benefit which a change in their condition was
intended to realise for them ?—( flear.) His Honour-
able Friend had said that the duty was 275. on each
cwt. of sugar, and that, from the nature of the boun-
ties, the drawback was averaged upon a duty of 30, he
had also argued, that when the price was 475. the duty
was taken only on 375. He had also said that 1121 b.
of sugar, as impoited, would make 561 b. of refined
sugar for home consumption. He was convinced that
if his Honourable Friend had looked with more ewe into
all the details of calculation which the subject involved,
he would find himself much mistaken in many of the
essential parts of his estimate, and necessarily wrong
in the conclusions which he drew from them. Besides,
he had overlooked the fluctuation between the bounties
and the duties which had occurred, as the law stood,
during the period which his calculation professed to
cover. If, therefote, these errors had entered into
his calculations, why call for their correction by the
appointment of" a Committee ? It was a dry matter
of fact, capable of elucidation without taking any
such course; and being so, he saw no parliamentary
ground laid for the appointment of a Committee,
which in the present state of the West Indian inte-
rests was calculated still more to embarrass those
engaged in the trade, in all their fiscal and pecu-
niary arrangements. He must repeat, that the sense of
Parliament having been already expressed upon the
great West India question, and is being understood that
it was left to the consideration of the executive Govern-
ment, and intrusted to their responsibility, it would be
in the exercise of a sounder discretion, not to deal with
it by incidental debates, either in or out of Committees,
but to leave it where he thought it could be most prac-
tically viewed—(Hear, hear).—When his Honourable
Friend said that by his proposed arrangement a fund
for emancipation might be created, amounting to no