Star.
London, England, 1824-10-05 00:00:00

WFST DINA SLAVERY.

LIYTTBR llt.
„ .
TO THE 'EDITOR '6F THE STAR.
• •
SlR—Proceeding ir n order to notice the comments of
Allows, as far as is consistent with necessary arrange-
ment, I come to a Charge of a very serious nature
which has been preferred by him against the Reviewer,
and before I make any further remarks upon this sub-
ject, I will cite the charges in the words of ANOLVS.
“ The respectable character of the Qmarterly Review
*flakes it difficult to suppose, that, in order to maintain
any argument, or to serve any cause, its conductors
would wilfully pervert the sense of a writer, by muti-
lating a passage cited from his work so as to make him
seem to contradict himself, and to inculcate the very

opinions which it is his main endeavour to refute. Such,
nevertheless, is the effect of ,the way in which the Re-
viewer cites and reasons upon the language of .Mr. Ste-
phen, in the Crisis of the Sugar Colonies."
" In that pamphlet, written and published at the out-
set of Bonaparte's counter-revolutionary attempt on
St. Domingo, and while hii true objects were yet veiled
with the deepest dissimulation, the author demonstrated
that his design was the restitution of slavery, and
pointed out the formidable difficulties which would op-
pose him in that perfidious project. Among the con-
siderations which probably had determined the Chief
Consul to make such an attempt, Mr. S'ephen noticed,
the impatient wish he felt for the restitution of the
agricultural and commercial interests of France in her
Colonies, to which Negro liberty seemed to be an in-
superable obstacle ; and reasoning, as he supposes Bona-
parte to do, he puts strongly the contrast between the
great productiveness of St. Domingo, when Cultivated
by slaves, and the then contracted state of its exports."
u' While the negroes were in bondage, the Colony
a was rich and flourishing by the effects of their labours;
• since their enfranchisement it has become a compara-
• tively neglected waste. All the solicitations of the
a Officers ofthe Republic, all the influence and authority
4 of their own favourite Chief, have failed to recal them
•to any tolerable degree of regular industry. What
• then remains but either to restore the rigid yoke of the
a private maser, and renew the coercion of the cart-
' s, hip, or permanently to leave this fine Island in its
• present unprofitable state ?' "
" After citing this passage, the Reviewer adds, 4 And
is this all that remains? We trust not,' just as if the di-
lemma propounded had been one that the author him-
self was disposed to maintain and with reference to the
present time ; whereas his very next words following
k the quoted paragraph are, 4 Thus it appears at first
sight uot unnatural for the Chief Consul to reason, and
he proceeds to skew in no small part of the work, the
unsoundness of such reasoning, and the gross impolicy
'of the measures founded upon it."
Such then is the cafe of ANGLIA. It is quite clear
that this charge of mutilation and false quotation, if
substantiated, would materially affect the character of
the Reviewer for integrity and common sense. It is,
however, fortunate that the charge is so specific that it
will be competent to every one to determine whether
or not it is substantiated; and in justice to the Reviewer,
'I claim,, at the hands of all those acquainted a ith the
nature of the charge preferred against him, a patient
consideration of the following statements :
It is undoubtedly true, that in the passage quoted by
the Reviewer, it was the intention of the Author of the
Crisis of the Colonies, to represent the suppo,ed rea-
'toning of Bonaparte ; and that this fact is not stated by
the Reviewer—had either this fact been stated, accom-
panied by the necessary explanations, or had another
passage of the same tendency as that quoted, been se-
lected from the works of Mr. Stephen, it would have
bent mere judicious, not because the argument of the
Reviewer would in consequence have been conducted
with greater clearness and certainty, or recommended
by greater fairness or candour, but because such a
mode of proceeding would effectually have provided
against the possible occurrence of misrepresentations
such as that which I am about to expose.
The whole question turns upon this fact—Does or
does not Mr. Stephen employ reasoning in strict con-
formity with the passage cited by the Reviewer? If
the reasonings of Mr. Stephen are at variance with the
passage quoted, then opinions have been attributed to
him which he never entertained, and the charge of
Ancitus will have been substantiated against the Re-
viewer. But on the other hand, if the contrary can be
shewn—if it be demonstrated that the writings of Mr.
Stephen, published then, and at subsequent periods,
contain, or rather abound in, seasonings of his own,
strictly accordant with the citedipassage then I shall
contend, that while the Reviewer is to be held justified
for the manner in which he has employed the quota-
tion in question, AtteILUS will stand convicted of bay-
ing fixed upon a trivial and unimportant circumstance,
and of having wantonly endeavoured to found upon it
a plausible insidious allegation, directly and falsely im-
peaching the integrity of the Reviewer.
I must observe, that it is not very probable that the
Reviewer should have had the singular folly to misquote
a passage from a woik in a manner which it was com-
petent to any one to detect who would take the trouble
of referring to the original ; and when certain exposure
would accordingly follow. But to come to the point, let
us in the first instance, examine the quoted passage. If
my Readers will refer to it, they will observe that it
consists of the following propositions and conclusions:
When the negroes were in bondage, the colony of St.
Domingo was prosperous.
When they were enfranchised, it was no longer pros-
cerous.
Every endeavour then likely to succeed, had failed
in restoring the negroes to habits of industry—there-
fore slavery must be restored, or the colony continue
no longer prosperous.
With reference, therefore, to the question of free and
slave labour, the practical conclusion to be drawn from
these different propositions is, that slavery had been ad-
vantsgeous, and the enfranchisement of the Slaves dis-
advantageous to the commercial prosperity of the
colony of St. Domingo,* and that there were then no
means of restoring that prosperity, unless by a return
to slavery.
It is impossible to anticipate that any person will be
found to deny that I have correctly stated the meaning
of the quotation, let us now then inquire what are the
'views of Mr. Stephen himself.
• It is, of cosine, to be remembered that the argu-'
Meet does not turn upon the general comparative merits of these
two states of society, or upon the question in what degree the
principles of morality and religion are baplicated and involved iti
taw maintenance of either of them? but upon the question of the
"1 Agrieuheral and Commercial valve of the Coionicsr precisely
In the same sense as the Reviewer argues that the West Indians
of the present day are afraid of any meliorating measures with re-
spect to Slave property, from their possible effects on the Apkul-
tural and Commercial value of the British West India Colonies.