The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-04-03 00:00:00

LIVER THEATRE, CHURCH-STREET.

Last Night but Four of Mr. TV. J. HAMMOND and
Mr. T. P. COOKE.

HIS present TUESDAY, the 3d of April, will be presented
(curtailed since its last repreSentation,) with new and
extensive Scenery, Dresses, and Decorationi, &c., &c., an
entirely new peregrinating I'iece of Incident, Character, and
Manners, interspersed with Vaudevilles, called
SAM WELLER.;
OR, TFIS PICKWICKIA NS.
As performed nearly.one hundred nights at the Strand Theatre.
Alfred Jingle, Esq., (a walking gentleman, living un.his
wits) .Mr. J. Lee, his original character.
Mr. &linnet 'Weller (the faithful attendant of Mr. Pickwick)

Mr. W. J. Illarnthond, his original character.
DANCING

By Messrs. Brown, King, and Gibson, and Mrs. Gibson.
To conclude with the Drama called
ROBERT MACAIRE.

Robect Macaire (under the assumed. name of Redmond)
...

111 r. T. P. Cooke,

Tickets and naves to lie hod of Mr. FOGG, at the Boxoffice,
front Eleven till Three o'clock, and o: Liridport
street.

Ebt ILiberpool

TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 3, 1838.

Kr The Publication of the STAN pARD commenced this morn'.

jfl at 5 o'clock.

NEGRO APPRENTICESHIP.—A long and interesting de
bate on this subject took place in the House of Cone
mons, on Thursday and Friday evenings last, followed
by a division which we consider to be decisive of the
question. The discussion was opened on the former-
uight
by Sir George Strickland, who rose to move a re-
solution to the effect that the system of negro appren,
ticeship, established under the compensation act, should
cease and determine on the first of August, 1838. He
was followed by Mr. Pease, who dealt largely in the
usual clap-trap expressions resorted to in order to depict
the horrors of slavery. It is scarcely necessary for us
to say that the whole texture of his speech was composed
of shreds and patches from the oft-refuted reports of
friend Sturge and others of' the same kidney. He par.
ticularly dwelt upon the alleged infractions of the abo-
lition law as regarded the food, raiment, and hours of
relaxation of the natives, and asserted that." the quan-
tity of food was reduced one half since the system of
apprenticeship had commenced." This is neither more
nor less than a palpable, self-evident falsehood, on what-
ever authority the assertion is made ; for it is a well
known fact, as proved by the returns of the imports. into
the West Indies for the last ten years, and as acknow-
ledged by Lord Brougham hitnself, that the quantity. of
food consumed by •the negroes has considerably increased
since the date of the abolition bill. Indeed, the allusion
to the feud of the negroes was a most unfortunate one
on the part of Mr. Pease under•any circumstances, -asno
class of the labouring population of Gieat Britain can
be compared, in regard to either the quantity or the qua-
lity of the food upon which they subsist, to the negro
apprentices.

Mr. Pease professed to be greatly horrified while con 7
templating the details which had been introduced in the
various debates which had taken place on the subject of
slavery. We can easily conceive the effect which these
"details" are calculated to produce where they obtain a
ready credence; but we are perfectly confident, that, a
visit to the-West Indies would prove to every dispassion-
ate and unprejudiced inquirer after the truth that theSe
harrowing details have little existence, excepting in the
distempered brains of certain bigotted enthusiasts who
have made it their business. to " get up" cases of atro-
city on the exparte evidence of lying and ungrateful ne-
groes themselves—evidence which would receive a di-
rect contradiction from the well-behaved, industrious,
and moral among the apprentices.
If Mr. Pease wishes to ascertain ." the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the truth," respecting the
treatment of the negroes, let him consult every blaCk
man or woman he meets with in the streets of London.
Let him elicit from them every particular respecting the
feeding, clothing, and general treatment of the negroes
and he will soon find how grossly he and others have
been imposed Upon by the exaggerated statements of
Sturge, Palmer, and Co. •

Of the subsequent speeches delivered during this de
bate we have no room to say much at present. The
closing speech, by Mr. W. E. Gladstone, was one of the
most masterly and powerful oratinns ever delivered on
the subject in Parliament.

Sir George Strickland's motion was rejected by a ma-
jority of 269 to 215. The following is an analysis of
the division l

In the majority voted
Conservatives
Whigs and Radicals
In the minority—
Conservatives
Whigs
So that the government were beaten by their own friends by
13, had not the Conservatives come to their rescue.
Lord Charles Fitzroy, holding an office in her Majesty's
government, voted in the minority, and Captain Deans Thindas,
lately appointed Clerk of the Ordnance, declined to give his
vote in support of those who had so recently conferred the
favour upon him.

THE IRISH EDUCATION BOARD.—In our former 11&,
ticerof Titular Waite's last letter to Lord John Rus.
sell, on the subject of the Irish Education Board, we as
serted that the Titular afforded the strongest cot robora
tion of the charges brought forward by the Protestant
clergy against the system of education sanctioned by the
Board. The Liverpool Times, in animadverting on our
previous article, takes occasion to deny our assertion,
grounding this denial upon the circumstance that the
Protestant clergy condemned the system on account of
its connivance at Popery, while M'Hale, on the con-
trary, denounces it as being too favourable to sectarian-
ism, or, in other words, to Protestantism.
Now, in answer to the Liverpool Times, we" will ad-
duce the following passage from a work in use in the
schools established by the Irish Board. We quote from
M'Hale's last letter, in which we find the following very
liberal remarks

" Not to dwell further on their sensitive antipathy to books
objectionable as peculidrly belonging to some particular
reli-
gious denomination,' allow me to direct your lordship's atten-,
tiun to the declaration Made on the production of the following
passage from 'Dr. Challoner's Catholic Christian Instructed
" ' What if a person, through the absolute necessity of his
uohappy circtimstances, stookd be tied to a place where he can
Geyer hear mass, do you think he might not then be allowed to
join iii prayer with those of another communion, by way of
supplying thiS defect No. Certainly. It is a misfortune—and
a great misfortune—to he kept, like. David, When he was perse.
anted by Bani, at a distance hum the teimple of God and