The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-04 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL

Sir E. L. Bulwer's play of " Richelieu" was played on
Tuesday, and we cannot but admit that it was most admirably
done. Mr. Macready, as the Cardinal, presented us with a
fine portrait of that celebrated statesman. Declining in
years, but not in intellect, we observed the tottering footstep
and the trembling gait, but we saw also the immortal mind
existing strong end vigorous as in other times. Mr. Ma-
cready's acting was most masterly, and with all the high
finish of perfection. The scenes in his chamber—at Rouelle,
and before the king, were all excellent. Mrs. Salsberg (late
Miss Phillips) played Julie very beautifully. She appears
to have grown thin in person since we last saw her, but her
voice and graceful action are as fascinating as ever. Mr. Stuart
played Barradas with great ability. He drew with truthful-
ness the character of the plotting courtier, whose ambition
prompted him to mount—no matter how—but whose mind
had not the power to overreach the master-spirit who swayed
France's destiny. Barradas was extremely well done. Mr.
Stuart has placed another laurel in his histrionic wreath.
Mr. Holl as De Mauprat looked and acted the gallant sol-
dier well. His manly bearing and dashing appearance might
well captivate Richelieu's fair ward. Mr. Lynne (who was
engaged here last season) on this occasion played Joseph, the
humble but tried and trusty friend of Richelieu. This cha-
racter requires great nicety and attention ; many fine points
in the Cardinal would " go tardily off" if not well played up
to by Joseph. Deep in his master's secrets, obedient to
his will, and ready to do his bidding, Joseph goes sturdily to
work, without much prospect of present gain, and looks only
for the " bishopric" in fuluro. Mr. Lynne balanced the
scale nicely between dutiful attention and subserviency ; and
we must say, that he did this uphill, unassuming character
with great ability. Mr. Lynne. only wants opportunity—a
clear stage and no favour. He is a rising actor, and time will
show it. Mr. Bland exerted himself wonderfully as Riche-
lieu's page. It is the best character we have seen him play
for some time. He threw off his apathetic indifference and
that " I don't careishness" which generally prevails through-
out his acting. He seemed to feel what he was about. Mr.
G. Horncastle played Huguet with great judgment. Miss
Barrett must be commended as Marion De L' Orme ; trifling
as is the part she took great pains with it. Several of the
scenes were new on this occasion. Mr. Macready was called
for at the close of the play. When will this absurd custom
be abolished ? The laughable farce of " The Happiest Day
of my Life" sent the audience home not exactly " weeping
to their beds." Mrs. Clarke and Baker played inimitably.
Miss Honner and Mrs. Barton did the bride and bridesmaid
with great sprightliness. Previous to the farce Mr. Aldridge,
jun. s waltzes, Les Herauts, were performed. The house
was well attended. Last night, " Werner" was splendidly
represented ; and the theatre was filled in every part by a
fashionable audience.

Letters fro= all parts of the continent represent the stehi.
lag 'rope an the hut over aau.

CORRESPONDENCE

ON THE PRESENT POSITION OF OUR WEST
INDIA COLONIES,
AND THE BEST MEANS OF RESTORING THEIR PROSPERITY

LETTER 111.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

In our two previous letters we endeavoured to draw atten-
tion to the very critical situation of the West Indies, at
present " in the throes of a mighty moral convulsion" ; to
show the extreme jeopardy in which their prosperity—and,
through that, the grand experiment of partial, and splendid
hopes of general emancipation—now stands ; we attempted
to trace the causes that have led to the present unpromising
aspect of West Indian affairs, and to suggest what we con-
sider the only real remedy for them, and collaterally for the
evils which affect the negio race throughout the world. In
our present communication we shall confine ourselves to the
correction of what we believe some general misconceptions
in reference to the subject, and to a brief summary of the
leading points on which we have touched in the course of
thse observations.

The physical capabilities of the West Indies are, we think,
♦ery generally underrated. An impression is abroad that
their extent and resources are limited to a few small, but
fruitful islands; whereas the colony of British Guiana alone
contains 100,000 square miles of the richest alluvial soil,
capable of supporting 40,000,000 of human beings—without
mentioning the fertile islands of Jamaica, Trinidad, &c. ;
all of which, if properly supplied with the labour which the
surplus population of other tropical countries can with bene-
fit to themselves so well afford them, are capable not only of
rendering this country independent of the supplies of every
species of slave-grown produce, but even of underselling, and
consequently to a great degree supplanting, the slave-owner
in the markets of the continental nations. In the recent
discussion in parliament on the sugar-duty question, by the
advocates for the reduction of duty on foreign sugars much
stress was laid on the fact, that we continued to use without
compunction all the other productions of slave labour, while
we repudiated the idea of slave-grown sugar; but although
we be as yet necessarily dependent on the slave states for
our cotton, tobacco, and other commodities, there is abun-
dant evidence to prove that our own colonies, with proper
encouragement, would enable us to dispense with the staple
product of the United States, and be in a condition to ex-
clude all slave-grown produce. Then, and not till then, will
it be shown beyond the reach of cavil, that our expenditure
of £20,000,000 has not been in vain, but that its happy fruits
are commensurate with the noble and disinterested motives
which prompted it. British Guiana, between the rivers
Caurantyn and Pomeroon, possesses a sea-coast of 250 miles
in extent, and, along the banks of those and the other prin-
cipal rivers, many extensive tracts, which, under the Dutch
government, were in a high state of cotton cultivation, and
which, though now covered with the luxuriant vegetation of
the tropics, are still capable of being easily reclaimed, and
of producing as much of the finer descriptions of cotton as
would, along with the coarser qualities of India now rapidly
increasing in extent and quality, render us independent of
even the United States in the production of this indispensa-
ble article.

The rise of that country itself, almost unprecedented in
the history of the world, is a striking instance of the mighty
effects of emigration on an extensive scale, the surplus ac-
cruing to her from that source alone having of late been
from 40,000 to 50,000 a-year. while England has been actu-
ally passing laws to prevent free immigration into her own
splendid colonies. But not only with labourers, but also
with the sinews of industry—with capital—has she been
year after year with unsparing hand supplying the constantly
increasing demand of that insatiable country, to such a de-
gree that by its operation she has frequently paralysed her
own commerce and manufactures ; while not one shilling
can be raised on the security of any British colony, for want
of confidence in the policy which she continues to pursue
towards them : in none so strikingly apparent as those
of the West Indies. There are not finer countries in
the world for the investment of capital than Guiana,
Trinidad, Jamaica, or Grenada ; but not a bond of
either of these colonies would command a farthing on the
stock exchange : while Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chili, and
Brazils have been able to draw vast sums from this country,
to carry on their internal improvements and develop their
resources. Even the insignificant state of New Grenada,
adjoining to British Guiana, but not near so valuable, nor so
prodnctive, nor so extensive, has succeeded in extracting
eleven or twelve millions of money from this country for
mining and other purposes. From these startling facts we
must surely arrive at the conviction, that " there is some-
thing rotten in the state of Denmark"—that our West Indian
Colonies at least have not felt the influence of that fostering
care which can alone render them productive dependencies
of our empire.
Is there in the history of nations any stronger proof of er-
roneous policy than may be decuced from the following brief
summary of our efforts, and their results, in the great cause
of negro emancipation and enlightenment ? Since the year
1808, when our crusade against the slave trade commenced,
we have expended 40 millions of money in trying to put a stop
to it—with this result, that its victims have increased three-
fold, and its horrors been stained with a ten-fold deeper dye:
we have paid 20 millions, and jeopardised 100 millions more
of British capital invested in buildings, machinery, stock,
stores, and cultivation, in order to accomplish free labour—
with this result, that these colonies are going fast to decay,
our free labour experiment is likely to prove a failure, and
our colonists, to escape utter ruin, must remove with what
they can save of their capital to other countries, and turn
slave-owners, to furnish the commodities which they have
found themselves unable to produce under British govern-
ment. Nor is this all ; the consequences will not be confined
to this country nor to those who own its sway, for if our
grand experiment fails, it will be a beacon for other nations
to avoid, and put the question of general emancipation
throughout the world entirely beyond the reach of probability.
Such are the results—and they are trot a whit too highly
coloured—to which the present course of events is leading
us. Such are the fatal results which must ensue if the
experiment of free labour be unsuccessful ; and yet effects
quite as cheering as these are disastrous, would as infallibly
be produced by carrying out the line of operations which we
have endeavoured to trace.

We cannot better conclude our observations on this sub-
ject which have already run to unexpected length, than in
the words of an eluquent and powerful writer, to whom we
have already been more than once indebted :—" By vigorously
pursuing these measures, England would establish a great
and free community of the negro blood—would afford the first
example of negro civilization—would cause the current of the
destiny of the race to flow for the first time in the channel of
improvement. She would sap the foundations of negro
slavery in America, which not only resists all her efforts to
overturn it by storm, but seems to gain strength from every
violent assault upon it. She would put down the African
slave trade by ruining it. She would open to the African,
suffering in his own land, the way to peace, to wealth, to
mental culture, to moral advancement, to the dignity of free-
dom and knowledge. She would point to her negro empire
in the west, and say to the nations which yet cling to negro
slavery :—behold the complete success of my generous policy !
And if her own necessities cave importance to less noble con-
siderations, she might still congratulate herself on a vast ex-
tension of ier colonial markets.
"What a contrast with the present state of the West In-
dies, and with the actual prospects of the negro race every-
where ! And yet the happier picture might be realised by a
tithe of the pains that is bestowed on schemes in relation to
this subject, which result one after the other in conspicuous
failure." M.

SIR JOSHUA WALMSLEY, LATE MAYOR, FU-
TURE REPRESENTATIVE OF LIVERPOOL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

beg respectfully to state my candid opinion of the
qualifications of the above-named gentleman for the honour
of representing this town in parliament.
Though an humble individual, I have not the less interests
and opinions conformable ; and, indeed, we hear in writing
and in speeches of so many like myself, that we may almost
be said to be the majority at least of those who seek to be
conspicuous as Sir Joshua does, and if he is not a humble in-
dividual now, it is, I think, certain that he would speedily
become so if returned to parliament : therefore, I and such
as I are especially bound to promote his interest by every
means in our power.

I shall beg, then, to advance, in the first place, that I think,
nay am almost confident, that Sir Joshua Walmsley, Knt.,
is between forty and fifty years of age ; and although men
are certainly returned to parliament without much considera-
tion of their age, yet when we can ascertain it with correct-
ness, it is always an argument more or less to the advantage
of a gentleman's pretensions. We get the individuality of
the man more distinctly before us, and this will not be neg-
lected by a judicious advocate, at least, until he can find
something more to the purpose to say.
Sir Joshua Walmsley, rit , between forty and fifty years
of age, has doubtless opinions.; I hope and trust he has.
It
is a great point when we can get men with opinions to repre-
sent us. I do not mean right opinions, neither do I mean
wrong opinions. I mean opinions neither right nor wrong,
year,
like her Majesty's ministers. We saw, last the head of
her Majesty s government in the House of Lords pronounce
pronouncee
it madness to entertain such an alteration of the corn-laws,
as, this year, the representative of the same government, in
the other house, declares to be the sole measure that
can
save the country, &c., &c. It is plain, therefore, that for
right use at present a man's opinions should be of this sort—
that is to say, neither right nor wrong.
If I am asked how I know that Sir Joshua Walmsley's
opinions are neither right nor wrong, I answer that indeed I
do not know anything at all upon the subject, nor do I know
whether he himself knows more than I do, though he may
probably guess ; but I submit that it is reasonable to conjec-
ture or infer upon a matter of so much importance, that a
man of a liberal way of thinking (that I think is Sir
Joshua's profession—his trade is that of a corn-factor) will
entertain, or does intend to entertain, or believes that he does
entertain, opinions conformable to the spirit of liberality,
which, the wider it extends itself, the less distinction it sees
between one thing and another, as we see admirably illustrated
in the whole conduct of the present government, the great
government of liberality, par excellence.
On the important questions of a religious or politico-reli-
gious kind which now occupy so much attention, I am fear-
ful, as a sincere friend of Sir Joshua Walmsley, to say any.
thing that may commit him. The earnestness of an enthu-
siastic friend may sometimes approach the verge of indiscre-
tion. Unquestionably he will often have had opportunity
and inducement to turn these subjects in his mind at his
stand in the Corn-market. The place is suggestive of such
contemplation, for in one great topic of a religio-political
sort, the greatest, or the one oftenest before the public and
parliament—that, I mean, perpetually agitated by Mr.
O'Connell—the question is clearly one of bread to him.
As to religion considered otherwise than in its relation to
politics, I think all must be satisfied with Sir Joshua. I
myself witnessed his attendance once at church, after his
election as mayor. Although all eyes were on him, I am
not aware he was detected in the least indecorum—not even
that the most common of dropping an eyelid, but was as
wide awake as he is sure to be found to every turn of the
averages.
As a townsman all will admit that his pretensions are pe-
culiar. To have what we commonly call a standing in the
place, is one of the first things we seem to require in a can-
didate for our votes from among ourselves. He has two—
one literal, mechanical, wooden, which need only be men-
tioned ; the other a moral or social standing. To have been
long known and talked of by all, from the highest to the
lowest, until the very name, as of Bolton, Gladstone, Ros-
coe, Leyland, &c., &c., becomes familiar to us as our own
household words—this is what we mean when we speak of
standing in the social sense. In this sense, who can claim
our suffrages more confidently than this present head of a
family so long highly established in Liverpool, the junior of
the firm of Booth and Walmsley, corn•nierchants, nearly
opposite the Corn Exchange, Brunswick-street ! I venture
to assert, without fear of contradiction, that there is not an
individual who frequents the Corn-market regularly for the
purpose of business, who does not know Sir Joshua Walrus-
ley when he sees him. Such men, so distinguished by sta-
tion, are sure to
have had opportunities. and to have im-
proved them, of benefiting the town in its honour or its in.
terests, and to have laid the inhabitants under lasting obli-
gations by such services. It is not otherwise in the instance
before us. I myself heard a person of credit say, on the
authority of others, that Sir Joshua Walrnsley, then Joshua
Walmsley, Esquire, being mayor, would, for the honour of
the town, have consented to be made a baronet in place of a
simple knight; and when he was plain Joshua Walmsley of
Brunswick-street, before the dignities and desires of these
days, which be so worthily wears, came upon him, he was
deemed by many elear-judging persons, no way partial to
him, to be a very likely man for churchwarden.
He speaks with much propriety. No one who has heard
him, as I have, with that expressive manner, like the marked
chargoor of kit 0011ntnaliter biro his ireasonser u actor

for a t.a.kettle, which no ironmonger of the least apprehen-
sion could possibly mistake for an order for smoothing irons,
--no one, I say, could fail (thinking of his present preten-
sions) to imagine the impression he would make on the
House of Commons.
His qualities, in short, will bear the minutest examina-
tion, for they lie in a nutshell ; and I shall conclude this
imperfect eulogy in words which have been used on a less
worthy occasion. If Sir Joshua Walmsley, Knight, be re-
turned to parliament a representative for Liverpool, it will
be an event the recollection or tradition of which will gladden
men's memories when the names of Canning and Huskisson
are forgotten ;—not till then.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
Liverpoq, 1:1 June, 1841. NOGO.

--.29.-

TO EDWARD RUSHTON, ESQ., STIPENDIARY

MAGISTRATE

Workhouse, June 3d, 1841.
conceive that no apology is demanded from me in
addressing you thus publicly on the recent cause brought
under your judical cognizance from this establishment, so
that I shall at once enter upon the subject. I say, then,
that your decision was extraordinary, and that the treatment
I received on that occasion at your hands was most uneour-
teous. What are the facts of the case? An abandoned
female is brought before the magistrate, charged with an
attempt at committing suicide by drowning, and it being
proved that she has been leading a dissolute life, the bench
very humanely recommended her for admission into the
Penitentiary, where, for want of room, she could not at pre-
sent be received, but was sent by the matron of that institu-
tion to this establishment as a mere temporary asylum.
Having remained here three days, and where every possible
care was taken by the governor for her comfort, she became
impatient of controul, and in order to effect her liberation,
broke the window of the apartment where she was fixed :
for this offence she was sent to Bridewell, and subsequently
brought before you. Then, and for the first time, it appears
that a certificate of insanity had been lodged with you against
her. Yet, on the very face of that document, she is recom-
mended to the Penitentiary. How is this? Is the Peniten-
tiary converted into a lunatic asylum ? Now, sir, with
regard to the treatment which I, as a professional man,
received from you, I have just cause to complain. A certifi-
cate of sanity in this case was furnished by me, and treated
by you as a worthless document, because you held a previous
one of " temporary insanity." lam not pinned to the sleeve
of any professional man, but I will just state, that one of the
honorary physicians of this institution saw the case, and
that his opinion coincided with my own. I was, however,
prevented in a court of justice from giving evidence on the
case, and affording information derived from most authentic
sources as to the girl's previous character., which would have
disabused your mind, and have completely altered the entire
feature of the whole affair. But no; the case was summarily
and angrily dismissed, with a severe and, to my mind, an
unmerited reprimand to the officer whom the governor de-
puted to conduct this unpleasant affair. Thus, on an exparte
statement, a decision is arrived at. and the salutary maxim,
"Audi alterani partem," treated as a dead letter.—l am,
Sir, your obedient servant,
BRE BETON NIG HTINGALL,
For eighteen years Surgeon to this Institution, and Member
of the Royal College of Surgeons, London.