The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-12-22 00:00:00

Ely tibtrpool at tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 22, 1840,

We have received our files of the Jamaica Royal
Gazette and Standard to the 31st of October, inclu-
sive. The House of Assembly had met on the 27th
of October, when his Excellency the Governor deli-
vered a speech of considerable length and of great in-
terest. In commencing his address he alluded to the
late diabolical attempt upon the life of our beloved

Queen. He then proceeded to dilate on those topics
which more immediately concerned the prosperity of
the colony, expressing a hope that the House of As-
sembly would enter upon their discussion in the same
spirit and with the same zeal and devotion that had
marked their previous deliberations. He said that he
was happy in believing that their labours on the occa-
sion would be lighter than they have hitherto been, al-
though they would still have questions Qf great impor-
tance to consider.

Sir Charles Metcalfe then proceeded to animadvert
upon the opposition with which some of the acts passed
during the last session of the House of Assembly had
met with, and especially on the attacks made upon those
acts in public meetings held in England. They had
been accused of designing to restore slavery and co-
ercion in Jamaica, by means of unjust and oppressive
laws. From such a charge it might be supposed that
some monstrous and unprecedented laws had been en-
acted, calculated to produce that astounding effect.
So far, however, from that being the case, the laws so
passed, are, in some instances, transcripts of enact-
ments recently framed, and now in operation in the
United Kingdom ; in others, mitigations of laws previ-
ously existing in Jamaica; and, where particular parts
did not correspond with either of those descriptions,

they in no wise warranted the accusation hazarded, of
could possibly produce the effects alleged to be designed,
He added that "no man, comparing these laws with
those of the mother country, on the same subjects,
could conscientiously retain that misapprehension."
The Governor's language on this subject is so explicit
that we wish we could quote the whole.of his admira-
ble speech. The following extract, however, will serve
to show how completely he contradicts the statements
so confidently put forth by the mischievous anti-slavery

agitators :
" if these laws were really of the character ascribed to
them by our impugners, it would behove those of our fellow-
countrymen in the United Kingdom, who have joined in the
onset, to consider the beam in their eye before they attempt
to pull out the mote in their brother's eye—for these laws
are in most part their own : and if we have erred in deeming
them just and good, we have been led astray by the example
of the mother country. Whether they are necessary, bene-
ficial, or perfect ; whether they might not be improved, or
dispensed with ; whether we have been wrong in supposing
that English laws are the best models for those of a free
country, are fair questions for temperate and impartial dis-
cussions ; but to say that we are seeking to destroy liber-
ty, and restore slavery, by adopting the laws of the chosen
land of freedom, and mitigating those previously in force
here, is an accusation at once unjust and absurd. Whatever
motives may have given birth to the imputation, I trust that
the prejudice and delusion by which it has been too readily
adopted, will yield to the force of truth, and to your perse-
verance in a wise and patriotic course."
This mild and dignified rebuke to Mr. Knibb and
his coadjutors, we trust, will have its desired effect.
The people of England have been sadly gulled and
deceived by these itinerant grievance-mongers, and it
is well that the truth should be made known respecting
the actual proceedings of our colonial legislatures.
The Governor proceeds to remark that all who are