Star.
London, England, 1824-10-19 00:00:00

WEST kNIDII

,VERY.

--rErrEw I.
. TO THE EDITOR OF TEIX STAR.
• Sia—My'attentkm was attracted to a letter wh
. appeared in The New Tines, of the 6th instant, signed
Artor us, and hailng theaippearance of being•the first-
. of a series. This letter contained an attack upon an
article which was published in ,die last number of the
QUarte7l.9 Review, as well as on the Order in Council,
• ...4ich 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,
with considerable attention, the article in question, as
w ell as the Order 'itself : and having since read two
other letters, with the signature of •ANGLUS (who has
presented himself as the advocate of ultra-abolition
prineiples, as, contrasted with the more temperate course,
,which it appeals that the Government has felt it neces-
sary to adept). as well as an article in the British and
Colonial 'Weekly Register, of the 4th of September. tip-
' yarentlY from the same pen, I find so much of what I
presume to call mistatement and inconclusive reasoning,
that I propose to address some letters to ANGLUS,
-.thrOugh.the medium of yoqr Paper ; as there is an in-
• .Iqinosition'on 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 einridation of truth
"iliay'lledeenied 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-
, ilea.; both fir a moral and national. sense, that I do,not
hesitate, without clealification, to affirm, that any per-
Son professing to convey correct and accurate informa-
tion to the Public upon who intentionally maintains
• an argument, founded Oti data. which he himself knows
Vase, gutiltfOla, positive crime. A writer so
. •
cireumstanced can haveno hesitation in stating that to
he 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, not take
the adirantage of reasoning as on a certainty where ma-
terial dioubts may exist as to the fact ; but, as I have
already said, he is positivcty arimligd 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 vine of hi* reasoning be such
'as plainly to' 'thew that I is, id' 'it, polemical character,
. having for,.its,ebject the trinornkultiguntent, rather,
than the elucidation of truth. But if, under an assbnsed
' signature, 'a writer states that his object " is purely the
''effuse of morality and religion, the'fauseof his country,
shill thatcaita of Goat". he can have no sort of apology
for any deviation from the rules which I have laid down,
and is as much responsible as if he were to appear tin-
der his real name: If this be true; as predicated of a
writer professing to be influenced by such sacred prin-
ciples of Conduct; it is equally true with respect to any
perm who may choose to meet and oppose his reason-
ing under a similar disguise: And if there be no indis-
po,ition on the pact of ANGLUS to embark in a corre-
spondence on these conditions of personal responsibi-
lity (if such a term may be applied to the relations under
which an anonymous correspondence is necessarily car-
ried 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. Slivery. •Upoir
the conclusion, or even in third:is-gesso( 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 ascertaiiiwith 'whom the
negative merit of fair and impartial reasoning, and cot-
red statement of facts, resides; aad if, fortunately for
the cause of truth, it should appear that this merit belongs
to both parties, no :inconsiderable advance will be made
in theraCtical exttnination'a a subject the importance
Of *uch is beyond all calculation. ~If the reverse of
"this shOuld take place, and bath parties should be at-
tempting cc:deceive; the correspondence would naturally
•beslittegaided as worse than useless :—And, in a third
Isoakilile case; that one party should attempt to deceive,
While the other was only anxious to adhere-to the truth,
in rem pciesible•sense 'of the term, expostire and merited
disgrace would attach tct the deceiver. •
• the expectation that ;this proposal will be met by
Airows with that eagerness which belongs to a con&
• denote in 44141 cause oflight,• I. propose, in a subsequer.t
toltdvert, to thistle Hot's, iln;his letters which ap-
pear to 1.1• e; heerever Unintentionally, to have been stated
• `arelsOned upon by MM in error, when arguing the ge-
'um.' qiestions-But his remarks on the Order in Cciun-
.o art•stiprepristertiuslfinOrrect, And spew such com-
plete ignorance of hissnhject; that I feel it necessary to
adiert to them without loss of time, as they are stated
with such gravity, .elid with such assumption of know.
hedge and authority, is to• be hit hlf calculated to mis-
lead the ptiblic. ••• •
ANGLIgi considers the recent Order in Council for
the regulation of Slavery in Trinidad, " as a very int-
*llan, and beneficial measure." Yet, if it 'were really
'such as he proceeds to describe it, if it really " holds
ob( an actual premium to murder,"if it really deprived
Slaves of leisure' which the anterior law had secured
theM, if it enables a hard-hearted proprietor to break
aainder the most sacred domestic ties which Spanish
• la* had rendered indisscluble, if it renders inadmissible
Slave evidence which could formerly have been re-
ceived, in other words, it it were such a law as Atiocus
describes it to be, then I should agree that it was " im-
portant," because it Would bring to light the otherwise
incredible ignorance and inhuiaanity of our Colonial
Administration, and " beneficial," because such a dis-
closure would most effectually prevent the repetition, of
• such enormities. As; hOwever, lam not accustomed
readily to conclude that Other men fall into self-evident
absurdities, and as I think it least of all reasonable to
impute such extreme ignorance and wickedness, so gra-
tuitous to those who stand on an eminence from which
they have the Most extensive survey, and where they
themselves can never escape the most rigid criticism, I
untried 'from the paper of ANGLUS to• the Order in
CoUncil, which be censures, and having done so, take
upUr lite to' melt 41Strieith your permission will pro.
cetd'its-pteve, that•instead of being afilitted with acruel
.and ignorantGoverdiuent, we have cd), to bear with a
raslesusdill;itiforrned '
critic decidedly the lighter evil
.
.of the tseti. • •
Ist. ANGLUS asserts, "that by the Spanish law the
slaves,•his" ides Sunday, art entitled to a day in each
Week'aidiu *SO hotldays'in the year, to be employed for
their Own bitiefii-.7 By "the Differ in ;Council: be
.pfuceeds," no time 4.clusitre opt sunday ittallotted to,

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