Star.
London, England, 1824-03-17 00:00:00

labour had succeeded in Ceylon; he Mist say, that in .
considering how fir; taboo-0111d be- relied epon.
by.thtplanter, it mutt! e 6rst Onsitlited?ht what kind' .1
of labour the %Vest India planteis*,shwes were occupied.
In the West India islands the labour ,44trtre I was for t,
sugar plantations; and in Ceylon no inch article as su-
gar was manufactured ; and therefore, in pint of the
labour necessary in each country the coMparikmi 'did
not hold. Next, look at the condition of the slaves in
both cases. In Ceylon the emancipated slaves were of
the same origin with the other inhabitants; they spoke
the same language, were confined within a narrow corn-
pass, formed but an inconsiderable portion of the whole
, population, and on their labour but little of the cultiva-
tion of the island depended ; whilst in the %Vest Indies
the slaves svere not of the same origin with the other
,habitants, their language was different, they were spread
over a great extent of country, their numbers exceeded
the number of the rest of the population, and upon their
labour depended the sole cultivation of tl.e country.
iietweeit the conditions of the, slaves of the two corn-
tries no comparison could be made but novwithstand-
ing the advantages possessed by the slaves of Ceylon,
it was thought advisable-to have SO or 40 years expe..
rience before the complete extinction of slavery was
carried into. execution. The Noble Marquis had, last
night, in support of the alteration from compulsory to
free labour, called the attention of their Lordships to
Colombia. With respect. to Colombia, he knew that a I
fUnd of 3 per cent. out of the hands of persons deceased I
had been created for purchasing the freedom of such
slaves as might be deserving of their freedom; but it
was not probable that the progress of that measure '
could be so rapid as to enable the Noble Marquis now to
pronounce ith cenfidenie any opinion • upon the 1.01. i
ject. Ile knew that in Colombia all the issue of slaves
born after a certain time were to be fi ee ; but he thought
their Lordships must wait some time before they could
pronoence an opinion upon the effect of that law. In
Colombia the amount of the slave population was stated
to be 360,000 ; but that was an error, and an error
which had arisen, he believed, from confounding the
free people of colour with the slaves. Ile believedEin
point of fact, that the numbei of slaves in Colombia
did not exceed 200,000; and if that statement were cm -
rect, it would appear ton the slave population of Co-
lombia formed a very inconsiderable portion of the
whole population; and therefine between the slaves of
Colombia and the West Indies no comparison could be
made in this respect. He now came to the place
where he thought the experiment of a sudden transition
from compulsory to free labour had failed—he meant
St. Domingo; that place had not for many years, it was
true, been in a state of tranquillity, but still he thought
the period of tranquillity was sufficiently long to enable
the politician to judge of the effect of the measure.
Previous to the emancipation of the slaves of St. Domin-
go, the annual exportation in sugar alone amounted to
160,000,000 lbs.; but now that the inhabitants enjoyed
the benefit of free labour, he would ask their Lordships
to !Orin an opinion as to the annual exports of that tom,
modity alone. Did their Lordships think it was one-
half of the export before the emancipation of the slaves?
'DH their Lordships think it was one-fourth? No, he
had great reason to belie* that in that island they did
not raise sugar enough for their own consumption. He
was led to form this belief from the Proclamation of the
President Boyer, prohibiting the clandestine importation
ofsugar—of sugar which was the produce of slave labour,
and which was in this instance an overmatch for_ sugar
proditced by free labour. The next instance quoted
in favour of 'free labour was the emancipation of
the slaves of
.Guadaloupe; In the beginning of "the
French Revolution all the slaves of that island were
emancipated ; in ten years afterwards, Bonaparte,
upon the representation of the planters, to whom lie
had restored - their plantations, re-established slavery.
At that time a pamphlet, entitled The Crisis of Slavery,
Was written by Mr. Stephen, one of the most intelligent,
enlightened, zealous, and sincere advocates of the Abo-
lition of Slavery, and that Gentleman, in adverting to
the report then in ciroulation, that Bonaparte intended
to restore the plantations to the Guadaloupe Planters,
admitted that it would be a mockery to restore the
plantations without at the same time re-establishing
slavery, the re-establishment- of which was, in the
opinion of this Gentleman, impracticable, but which.
Buonaparte (who agreed with him in 'Opinion, that it
would be a mockery to restore the plantations without
re-establishing slavery) very stibrtly proved to be prac-
ticable. The next instance adithiced in support of the
emancipation of the slaves was that of the American
States. He was aware that, in the year 1782, the State
of Connecticut passed a law declaring the issue of all
slaves born after that time free; but in Connecticut the
number of slaves bore no proportion to the mount of
the whole population, as the proportion did not exceed.
one to thirty, and therefore between the slaves of that
State and those of the West Indies, nocomparison could
be drawn. What reason was there to believe that the
measure had succeeded in that province? In the first
place, the example was not followed by the other States,
and in the next place he had reason to believe that the
experiment did not succeed. He had lately seen a Re-
port of the State of the Jails of that State; and the
number of free Blacks in those jails, compared with
the number of Whites, was out of all proportion. In-
deed, at Philadelphia and New York, establishments
were formed for getting lid of those emancipated
slaves, who had turned out to be a burthen to the State.
'To what reason then was the failure of this measure to
be attributed ? 'Was it because the black slave, was a
being unfit to enjoy the blessings of freedom? No; Gon
forbid that he should ever say that the ALMIGHTY had
formed a race of beings who, under any circumstances,
would be incapable of enjoying and appreciating the
blessings of freedom ! He would not say so ; he would
not attribute the failure of the measure to such a cause ;
but he would attribute it to what he considered to be
the real cause, namely, that the emancipation had taken
place before the slaves or their children bad been pre-
viously prepared by proper education for the enjoy-
ment of the blessings of liberty. In the latter case it
failed because the children had not beeu previously
'educated ; because emancipation had been prematurely
adopted ; because it was adopted in the gloss ; because
it was adopted by one general sweeping Act ; and be-
cause the father of the child who had been emancipated
was incapable of giving him, in his own conduct, an ex-
ample of industry, and teaching him how to enjoy the
blessing which had been conferred upon him.;—(tlear).
But it might be asked, why might not the black' la-
bourer be taught industry, as well as the whitelabourer
in this country ? The answer was obvious. The la-
bourer in this country said to his son, " I work for my.
bread, and if yoa wish to get your bread-honestly, you
must follow m? example." But the slave who was the
father of the emancipated child, said to his son, " I
work because 4am a slave—if Idu nbt work I shall be