The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-04-09 00:00:00

WEST INDIA LABOURERS

Some exceedingly humane and Well-intentiOned persons
have started a joint-stock undertaking, called the " West
India Land Investment Comp any," the chief object of which
is not, as in ordinark Vases, that of profit, but the invest-
ment of capital in the BritiSh West Indies, available for the
support and forage of those negroes and labourers who may
be ill=treated or oppressed by the planters. The whole of the
propilsed capital is £lOO,OOO in shares of £5OO each, and one
half of that amount, or 100 shares, having now been sub-
scribed for, the new company, according to a condition pre-
viously settled, is now in operation. It has becti determined,
however, not to call for more than £lOO On each share in the
first year,,without the sanction of a t pedal meeting of the
proprietors, so that the sum at disposal, out of which the ex-
penses of management are also to be defrayed, does not
amount to more than £lO,OOO, a sum, very insignificant for an
object of so important a nature. Arnsing tht i'esolutions
which accompany the prospettus is One " that in the manage-
ment of the affairs of this contaliy the principles entertained
by the Society of Friends "en the subject of war and the pay-
ment of ministers of religion shall not be violated," the re-
lation of Which to the object in view is not very clearly ap-
parent. A board of directors, consisting of 12 gentlemen, is
named, of whom ' four reside in London, four in Birming,
ham, and one in Liverpool, Bristol, Nottingham, and Leeds.
A list of subscribers to the 100 shares is appended to the pro-
spectus ; of these, 20 are subscribed for in and near Lon-
don, 18 in Birmingham, and the remainder are spread nearly
all over the kingdom, from Darlington to Brighten; With a
greater proportion in Liverpool, Manchester; and the manu-
facturing districts. It is stated, not in the prospectus, but
on private information, that while the company was in con-
templation, some purchases of land were authorised by indi-
viduals at their Ow-n risk, if the company should fail, but
which will now become part of the society's property. The
reason assiped for these purchases by anticipation is, that
the attormes for some of the plantations had commenced
ejecting the labourers because they refused to pay rents
which " were utterly out of their power." This land is to be
divided as it is purchased into small allotments, and let or
sold according to circumstances, " thus furnishing," says a
private letter, " a resource which has been rendered neces-
sary by the unwise, and, I fear, in some instances, the un-
principled course of the agents for estates, which there is no
doubt their employers will have reason to regret." The
above is quite sufficient to make the views of this company
intelligible, and humane and well meant they undoubtedly
are, for the names on the list of Subscribers wholly exclude
the notion of selfish or designing motives, yet the idea pro-
bably never occurred to any of them, that if this was in all
respects S. proper and legitimate, as well as a humane, object,
there must have been, not 20 shares, but 20,000 shares sub-
scribed for in London alone, and the sum raised as many
millions as it now is thousands. This alone should induce
some little distrust in their minds as to the course they are
pursuing ; and when they consider further that the execution
of their plans may fall into hands very different from their
own, who may work irremedible mischief, While they are too
far removed from them to render anything like an effectual
controul possible, they would do well to pause before they act
or commit themselves flirther. The good, if they think pro-
per to call it so, which they can accomplish, even if the
whole of the meditated capital were now at their disposal, is
so limited, that nine-tenths of the " suffering and persecuted
labourers," if their phrases are to be adopted, will be still at
the mercy of the planters, and the differences between them
aggravated to desperation by the comparison with those who
have been so fortunate as to secure an asylum. They Can-
not, moreover, permanently support those to whom they may
offer shelter, and at last they will be, obliged to yield to such
terms as the planters offer them—irritated, perhaps, against
the benefactors who have prevented their doing so at first,
and subjected them 'to in, the attempt to better their
condition. , Whatever may be said of the continued disposi-
tion of the planters to tyrannize over the negroes, and the
difficulty of eradicating old habits, the two classes have now
a mutual interest, which may safely be trusted to for soften-
ing down the bitter feeling which exists, if the parties are but
left to themselves and no injudicious interference permitted.
It is to be hoped that such reflections as these will cause the
benevolent persons who have projected the " West India
Investment Company" to pause in their career, and apply
their money to shore better purpose.—The Times.