Star.
London, England, 1827-06-13 00:00:00

setts crisLos. s.

Mr. DAVENPORT presented a Petition from 9,000 Operative
Weavers of Spit&Melds, praying for an inquiry into the causes of the
distress under which they have been labouring for the last three
years. The Hon. Gentleman regretted that a motion which be
intended to have submitted to the House on this subject, on a
former occasion, was delayed. He hoped, however, fur the honour
of a British Howse of Commons, that full attention would be given
to hiss on Thursday. He was told there would be no House, or
that if he got a House, that the subject would pass unheeded. This
was the rumour, but he hoped unfounded. At all events, he would
not fail In being at his post to do his duty.
Petitions against the Test and Corporation Acts were presented
by Lord Maxim, from Halifax, Sudbury in Suffolk, Rusbworth,
Sowerby, and various other places ; by Mr. Wilms!, from Hatfield,
Wetberby, Bridgeborough, Barking, Wetbersheld, Stanmore, and
Wyville; by Mr. W. Hoar's, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne; by
Mr. HUiTHCOTS, from Boston; by Lord Smarter, from certain
Diesenters in Manchester; by Lord W. Sawrince., from Holshana
and other places in Norfolk ; and by Mr. Hummel, from certain
bodies of Dissenters in Liverpool.—Ordered to be printed.
Mr. WESTERN presented a Petition from the Owners and Oc-
, copiers of Land in the neighbourhood of Marlborough, praying for
an additional duty on foreign wool.—Ordered to be printed.
Mr. KENNEDY gave notice that be should, early in the next
Session, call the attention of the House to the Law of Entail in
Scotland, and propose a remedial measure on the subject. As the
law now stood, it was productive of great inconveniences.

COLONIAL SLAVERY.

Dr.LUSHINGTON called the attention of the House
to the situation of the free people of colour in our West
Indian Colonies. The subject was one of great mo-
ment. The wealth of many of these individuals was
considerable, and entitled them to the rights and privi-
leges of free men. He did not see why one class of free
men should be treated worse than another, merely on
_ . .

account of their complexion. He deprecated the Act
which passed the House of Assembly in the year 1814,
allowing certain persons to bequeath their property to
their own children,under cert sin restrictions, as flagrant,
cruel, and oppressive upon the Natives. He admitted
recent Acts had relieved the black population from
some of the disqualifications under which they la•
boured ; but still enough remained tocall for the prompt
and decisive interlerence ut the Legislature. In 1826
,the white inhabitants of St. Elizabeth petitioned in

(favour of the people of colour, but the Ham of A •
sembly rejected the Petitions, and conferred the pr •
iri!eges desired on Jews. He would not exclede them ;
but he objected to the exclusion of the Brown Cbtis•
tians. The men of colour were excluded from hold.
ing offices of State, from serving on Juries, and from
the Elective Franchise. By the prevention from
serving on Juries, it was tendered impossible for a
Brown man, where a White was implicated, to obtain
justice. A man of colour must serve in the militia;
but if he was worth 100,0001. he could not rank above
a serjeant. If a white reaa was disabled, be was al.
lowed a pension of 751 a rear ; if a mm of colour eras
disabled, his allowance was only 2'L a year. The
widow and children of the one were provided for ; of
the other, not. Notwithstanding that the number of
the population of the brown people greatly exceeded
the number of the white, the number of white cri.

min oh far exceeded the number of brown. Far the

last forty years only four people of colour had
be:n executed; there had been ten white people'
executed in the course of that time. At present
there was a separation at Church, a-different place
of burial—the men of colour were obliged to en-
ter the Theatre by a different door from the whites—
there were, in fact, distinctions of all descriptions. In
Jamaica particularly, marriage was discouraged. There
was a sort of premium on concubinage, for if a &cr.-
man had an illegitimate child by a White woman, the
child was cadged to all the privileges of one free born ;
but if he married the woman, every child he might then
have by her would be a slave. He did not intend to

propose any specific measure on the present occasion,
because the present Colonial Secretary had not yet bad
time to make sp his mind as to the course he should
take. If he found hereafter that the subject was not
taken up by Government, he would renew his exertions
for his fellow creatures. He concluded with moving,
that the Petitions be broogheop.
The Petitions were then brought up and read, and
were understood to have come from persons of colour
in the island of Jamaica.
Mr. PALLMER said, we should look upon the pa*
state of the West Indies as matter of regret, but not as
matter of reproach to those who, in latter times, were
not allowing a year to pass without improving the con-
dition of the people of colour. The question in his
mind was not whether the West India population
should be admitted to the rights of freemen, but whe-
ther that important change should not be gradually
brought about? In consequence of the gradual removal .
of restriction, the people of colour had acquired a von
mass of property which must avail them in obtaining
their full freedom. It was a matter for consideration.
whether on a population of 25,000 whites, 40,030
-blacks should all at once be admitted to an equal parti-
cipation of privileges ? and whether the more prudent
mode would not be a gradual admission to privileges
which they had not heretofore enjoyed? He did not
believe that there existed any partiality in the West
Indies in the admstration of justice between whites
and browns, thous justice, he would admit, was
badly administered. He was satisfied- there was
at present a very favourable feeli,g toward the
brown population in the West ladies, and it would be a
great calamity if any alteration in that feeling should
be produced by any interference of that House. He
conjured the Hon. Gentlemen who were taking. an ac-
tive part in the state of the West India population not
to couple their propositions with threats, which must
produce irritation—(Hear.)
Mr. BROUGHAM said he was much disappointed
at the speech of the Hon. Gentleman who had just sat
down, who had made such assertion of his opinions
and personal faith, but not a single fact of the least
value in the case. He had not altered the facts—
he had sot ventura to impugn the statement of his
Hodourable Friend, by any counter statement—by
nothing more than a declaration of his own opinion.
He came' to the point at once, when he said, that be
did not believe that the administration of justice in
the West Indies was perfect. He (Mr. Brougham)
was certain, not only that they had not justice, hut
that it was morally certain they could not have justice.
The Jurors by whom they were to be tried, were the
alien, the stranger, the enemy. Would the Hon. Gen-
tleman like to be tried by a Jury of abolitionists ?—(A
laugh). That House had a duty to perform; and
whether the Assemblies did their duty or not, they must
do theirs. Such were the disqualifying laws, that a
brown man had no chance of justice.
Mr. W. HORTON deprecated the discussion of these
questions in a tone calculated to inflame the passions
and prejudices which were but too apt to be mixed up
in their consideration.. He thought that while keeping
the hardships and the evils which the class who suffered
under the system had to endure, they should never lose
sight of theeomplicated circumstances under which that
system had grown up, and of the important interests
so deeply involved in the question. He certainly did
not understand the speech of his Honourable Friend
(Mr. Pallmer) to have been made in opposition to the
object of the Hon. and Learned Gentleman, but only as
differing upon the means by which that object would be
best and most safely attained. The Hon. Member then
contended, that the Government had done all in its
power by introducing the proposed ameliorations expe-
rimentally in its own colony of Trinidad, and that the
best possible course was to usethe language of persuasion
and concili Ation io the local Legislatures.
Mr. W. SMITH said, that the opinions of the Hon.
Gentleman as to the propriety of the conciliation and
temperate measures towards the Houses of Assembly,
were a direct censure upon all that had been done by
the Government for the last three or four years. it
was now forty years since this subject was agitated, and
he thought sufficient time had been given to the local
Legislatures, if they had the disposition to act as that
House was determined they should.
Mr. CANNING said, that as there was no question
before the House which would require it to express its
opinion by a vote, be could have be n well content that
the speech of the Hon. and Learned Genii man who
had introduced the Petition, should have been the only
one upon the occasion. As the debate, however, had
been prolonged, he would take that opportunity of
making a very few observations. He felt it necessary
to say, that the speech of his Honourable Fri. a f (Mr.
Pallmer) had not produced the same effect on Lim as
it appeared to have done on an Hon. and Learned
Gentleman (Mr. Brougham) whom be did not see is
his place. His Hon. Friend did not defend the system
of slavery, as carried on in our West India Colonies,
but, on the contrary,he lamented that it should ever have
been adopted. What he contended for was, that the best
method of further ameliorating the condition of ihe peo-
ple of colour,whether free or not, was by respecting the
claims of the white proprietors, and not by endeavour-
ing to intimidate them by threats, or causee them by