The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-24 00:00:00

Ebt Zthrrpool ft, tanbarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 24, 1841

The evidence of Captain Hamilton, taken before the
Immigration Society of Trinidad, establishes the prac-
ticability of obtaining labourers from Sierra Leone for
our 'West India Colonies, in a manner wholly free from
objection. Mr. Hamilton was himself employed to
conduct the first attempt of this nature, and had the
good fortune to execute his commission most com-
pletely and successfully. In a very short time after
arriving at Sierra Leone, he was enabled to make up
the number of emigrants he wished to obtain; no
deceptions inducements whatever were held out to
them, and the act of their embarkation was as perfectly
voluntary as any act could be. The voyage to Trini-
dad was pleasantly performed in the short space of
thirty days, and but one human being perished on the
way—an infant under twelve months old. Captain
Hamilton remained on the island for some time after
their arrival, and visited all the estates where the
immigrants became located. He questioned them as
to the condition in which they found themselves, and
they all expressed themselves perfectly contented with
their lot. Before leaving Sierra Leone, he pledged
himself publicly to pay the passages of six persons
back to report as to the actual state of affairs in Trini-
dad ; but on applying to them, he found that not six
persons were disposed to return, unless they were paid
Trinidad wages during their absence. We cannot
conceive any thing more conclusive as to the desirable-
ness of the move, so far as the people themselves are
concerned, than such evidence as this. There are no
horrors in this middle passage ; it is undertaken freely.
and it is undertaken with the certainty of ameliorating
the condition of the people. The witness states, that
ten thousand persons could be immediately removed
with the greatest advantage to themselves, and to those
they would leave behind—because, in the West Indies,
they can have better wages ; and because, in Sierra
Leone, the labour market is over-stocked.

Ten thousand, however, being but a fraction of the
number of labourers that would be required by Trini-
dad, Guiana, and Jamaica, he is asked concerning any
other sources from which they could be procured on
the coast. To this he replies, that lie would anticipate
"a stream of immigration from the interior to Sierra
Leone, in consequence of the rise of wages that would
take place there ; so that, notwithstanding a continued
and regular emigration of labourers from thence to
the West Indies, the population of Sierra Leone would
be kept up or gradually increased."
With regard to procuring labourers from any other
part of the African coast, Captain Hamilton has some
scruples : he says, that excepting the Kroomen, few of
the natives are perfectly free and independent, and that
their removal could never be effected without first
purchasing the consent of the native chiefs." On this
point he is pressed closely, and is at length obliged to
acknowledge that his objections " partake more of
sentiment than reason." We respect such feelings,
however, as they are plainly an error, if at all such, on
the right side, and proceed from an extreme anxiety to
avoid even the appearance of evil when the abomina-
ble slave traffic dogs us at every side. The question
raised is, however, substantially this—viz., whether
one may not purchase a slave for the purpose of setting
him at liberty ? Now, we do not see any objection to
such an act. That started by Mr. Hamilton is, that
other countries would immediately claim the right to
exercise the same privilege, and use it as a cloak to
carry off the people into slavery. But we do not con-
ceive that they could claim any such privilege, unless
slavery were first entirely abolished within their terri-
tories—as it is with us.

The expense of obtaining the consent of a chief to
make his subject or vassal a free man, Mr. H. estimates
at thirty dollars, which is the ordinary price of a slave ;
the passage to Trinidad would be thirty more, so that
the whole cost of bringing over a labourer would
be but sixty dollars. Now in Brazil and Cuba the
price of a slave is estimated at 350 dollars, without
taking into account certain expenses which make the
amount really about 420 dollars. The Trinidad Com-
mittee therefore conceive that they would have a great
advantage in obtaining free labourers on terms so com-
paratively advantageous; they conceive that with such
an advantage the planter of Cuba or Brazil could not
compete with them—and that free labour would thus
tend to drive the produce of slavery out of the market,
and to extinguish slavery itself.
The evidence is extremely interesting and important,
and cannot fail to engage attention. It leaves not a
doubt in our mind of the feasibility and perfectly un-
objectionable character of the plan of procuring free
labourers at least from Sierra Leone. Captain Hamil-
ton concludes his testimony with the following very
strong and satisfactory statement :
" It was my original intention to have remained here some
time, in order to judge of the condition and prospects of the
emigrants I brought over, and of the desirableness, or other-
wise, of recommending a further emigration. But I already
find that the people are so well off that I can be of no service
to them ; and being fully convinced of the great advantages
which the people of Sierra Leone will derive from removing
to Trinidad, it is my intention to proceed immediately to re-
commend the same in London."

Some license of speech should certainly be permit-
ted at present to our radical and dissenting contempo-
raries. They have met with very mortifying discomfi-
tures ; and there cannot be a safety valve of more ease
in the working for themselves, and of more harmless-
ness to the community, than angry and spiteful words.
Of course the clergy of the Established Church, who
have been mainly instrumental in the late victories in
Church and State, are the objects of the special hosti-
lity of " our esteemed."

A remarkable instance of this appears in the revival
by the Albion of an exploded calumny against the Rev.
Fielding Ould.

It is now nearly a twelvemonth since our contempo-
rary, stung, apparently, by the triumphant defence of
the great scriptural doctrine of the Trinity contained
in the series, of sermons delivered in Mr. Ould's
church; and anxious to cover a retreat by diverting the
attention of his readers from the question at issue to
one of mere personalities, attacked Mr. 0 uld on the
charge of plagiary, and held him up .to public scorn
and contempt for having attempted to pass as his own
arguments and even words derived almost verbatim
from another. We put the slanderous scribe to silence

at the time by quoting the following candid and manly
avowal from the preface to Mr. Ould's sermon :

" It is scarcely to be exnectei that, on such a subject,
much original matter should now he elicited. The praise of
originality was not, however, the author's object, but rather
usefulness and edification. He has accordingly availed him-
self freely of the labours of those who have gene before him
in the controversy, not only in the adoption of their argu-
ments, but frequently of their words ; and being aware how
eagerly advantage is taken of definitions and forms of ex-
pression by those whose tenets are here impugned, he has
preferred rather to clothe himself in the verbal armour of the
tried veterans in this contest, than trust himself in the weaker
panoply of his own providing."

Mr. Ould made no pretence to originality in the ser-
mon in question ; nay, he disclaims the attempt to be
original in either thought or word, plainly, boldly, em-
phatically. Having taken this course, and having thus
proclaimed it in his preface, no reader of common can-
dour could accuse him of any affectation of author-
ship on the occasion, or any unfairness of plagiarism.
There are readers, however, and writers too, who, in
words, boast loudly their love of truth, while they ma-
nifest, practiCally, their hatred of candour.
Such were our contemporaries, who, after circulating
the slander, evinced too great a respect for the fairness
and good feeling of their readers, and too little a regard
for their own fairness and good feeling, to insert the
above passage from Mr. Ould's preface.
Conscious, however, of its effect in our columns,
they desisted from the base attempt to fasten upon the
reverend gentleman the charge of literary dishonesty.
Truly they must be at a loss for a subject for vitu-
peration, when they have recourse to a revival of this
charge now. The Albion has lately reiterated the ma-
lignant slander in a series of articles, in which instances
are given of Mr. Ould having done precisely what he
himself tells his readers in his preface he intended to
do. He said he would adopt the arguments of others,
and frequently their words; and because in the in-
stance of Andrew Fuller's able pamphlet, (which the
Unitarians cannot answer,) he has done what he said
he would do, the Albion and its coadjutors of the
Liberal (!) press of this town have attacked the reve-
rend gentleman as guilty of what a convenient corre-
spondent calls a " literary larceny."
Our readers will not be surprised to learn, that the
articles in the Albion which we refer to, are filled with
a vulgar levity of expression, as disgusting as the dis-
regard of truth, candour, and fair dealing, we have
now exposed, is disgraceful.

Thus, after pointing out a few instances in which
Mr. Ould adopted the language, or nearly so, of Mr.
Fuller, our contemporary says—" From the foregoing
joint-stock premises, the lean-cheeked sectary and the
smug episcopalian thus beautifully harmonise in draw-
ing a conclusion." And again—" Mr. Ould chimes
melodiously in with the defunct Dipper in the follow-
ing manner." And again—" The sharp-nosed theolo-
gical hounds thus proceed to run as a couple."

We cannot characterise such language, on such a

subject, without submitting to the defilement of imi-
tating its scurrility. We therefore content ourselves
with remarking, that it is not from attacks of this sort
our clergy need fear any loss of their well-earned re-
putation.

Mr. Ould, in opening the course of sermons to be
preached in his church, had assigned to him a branch
of the subject which had already been treated by a
master; and esteeming usefulness and edification to
his readers, rather than the reputation of originality to
himself, he availed himself of the labours of his prede-

cessors in the controversy, and openly avowed in his
preface, once for all, that he had done so. With re-

gard to Mr. Fuller's tract, we adopt gravely what the
Albion has written with an ironical sneer in the follow-

ing terms :—" In thus reviving the sentiments of this
obsolete publication, and in reviving them as they
were originally enunciated, Mr. Ould has done good
service to the religious part of the community."
He has ; and we would recommend the Albion scribe
and his coadjutors no longer to exhibit their own
weakness by evading the arguments, and their own
wickedness by assailing the individual, but at once to
grapple with the substance of Fuller's tract, as adopted
by Mr. Ould; and if they cannot refute it, to give up
their Unitarianism, and seek admission into the Chris-
tian Church.

In the meantime we call upon them, as a matter of
common honesty, to give to their readers the passage
from Mr. Ould's preface which we have quoted above :

but we prophesy that they will be so uncommonly
honest as not to do so, because by doing so they would
at once expose themselves, and entirely vindicate Mr.
Ould from all the sneers and sarcasms by which they
have been endeavouring to injure him.

Those who suffer from thieves are naturally un-
willing to suspect members of their own household,
and require strong evidence to convince them of their
guilt. Nevertheless, it does not unfrequently happen
that much time is thrown away in seeking abroad for
the-depredators—and that when justice is near to over-
take them, the spoliated parties begin to look at home.
Something analagous to this, we fear, will be discovered
to have happened in the care of the piratical trade in
slaves, which, in spite of all that England has done to
prevent it, has been known still to go on, and, in some
unaccountable way, to flourish. Spaniards and Por-
tuguese, or their descendants, we thought, showed an
unwonted degree of energy in defeating all our labours,
and the cause seemed nearly desperate, when the dis-
covery was made, or is at least alleged to have been
made, that chief among these pirates, and busiest
amongst this flesh-dealing, thievish horde, are some of
our own energetic children—British subjects—mer-
chants, capitalists, artisans, and officers both of the
army and navy ! We can scarcely doubt the reality of
this discOvery. It is very unlikely that the Committee
of the British and Foreign Anti• Slavery Society, who
profess to have made it, could be altogether deluded
on the subject; still more absurd would it be to sup-
pose that they had invented such a romance. They
have made their representation to parliament by the
hands of Lord Brougham, and they pray that its truth
may be inquired into by a committee of the house of
parliament to which his lordship belongs.
Disgraceful as are the facts to men having the pri-
vilege to be called British subjects, there is no iir of
improbability on the face of the statement which would
lead us to doubt it. It is certain that there are various
mining companies in this country, with large cauitals
at their disposal, who carry on their operations in
Brazil, and in Cuba, and nearly so, that, in the words
of the Society's petition, " their mines are worked by
slaves." Here, then, there is ground laid for the
charge—and the mat ter of inducement, as the lawyers
call it, is strong. British compauies work mines in
slave-holding countries, and employ slaves themselves
On their works. What, then, suppose that they had
obtained these slaves, in the first instance, by purchase
in the country; their first purchases, like other tools,
would wear out, and must be renewed; or, in other
words, British subjects, by entering into such specu-
lations, have put themselves upon a level with, and iu
the condition of, Brazilians and Cubans, with respect
to labour, and those morals which regard not. slavery
—slavery either in its origin or its continuance—as a
crime. The next question, then, is, have the parties
subjected themselves to the penalties of the sth
George IV., which makes the act of dealing in
African slaves a transportable felony ? It seems
doubtful that they would do so, by the mere act
of purchasing slaves born in the country, or im-
ported previous to the passing of the act; but with
regard to newly-imported slaves, Lord Brougham
says that no doubt can exist that the penalty of trans-
portation for life would be incurred by such a transac-
tion. But the charge against British subjects by no
means stops at this point ; on the contrary, it goes on
till it involves them in this odious traffic in all its most
appalling forms; it casts upon them the broad impu-
tation of slave-dealing, of sending to Africa for fresh
cargoes, and of course with all the incidents which
might be expected when that contraband and detesta-
ble traffic is unequivocally embarked in.

It is lamentable to think that there are Englishmen
capable of so disgracing their country—lamentable to
consider the number whom the one leading, guilty act
involves in its criminality. If the allegations of the
Society's petition be correct, " officers of the army
and navy, and functionaries in the civil service, have
been the agents employed in the purchase of slaves on
account of these companies"—" banks have been es-
tablished " to facilitate their operations--" goods are
manufactured in this country, in enormous quantities,
and form a considerable branch of the export trade to
Brazil and Cuba, and the western coast of Africa,

which are employed exclusively in the African slave-
trade in barter for human beings "—and still more,
" vessels have been built in this country specially for
the slave-trade, and covertly prepared for that nefarious
traffic in British harbours."
ous charges, which call loudly for inquiry. Such in-
quiry may lead to the condemnation of parties who
cannot be reached by law, but it may lead also to the
condemnation of many whom the law of opinion will
not fail to stigmatise with the most galling opprobrium.
The Society prays that the provisions of the. act of
Geo. IV. may be extended, " so as effectually to pre-
vent British subjects from holding and purchasing
slaves in foreign countries, under any pretence what-
ever." Here lays the fountain of the mischief : if this
practice can be prevented, all the others, which are no
more than consequences, or incidents, will fall to the
ground. No time, we trust, will be lost in following
up this inquiry in the next Session 'of Parliament.
The honour of the country is deeply concerned in its
prosecution.

These are serious, griev-

" Attempt to assassinate Lord Howick !" Such,
reader, is the awful announcement which is just now
travelling in large letters through the columns of the
Whig journals. The son of Earl Grey shot at, or at-
tempted to be shot at, in the streets of the Whig-ridden
borough of Sunderland ! Awful ! Monstrous ! Hor-
rible !—if true. Thank Heaven that we are enabled
to keep down our indignation by those two qualifying •
monosyllables !
But how and when, we may be asked, was this atro-
cious crime attempted ? We must explain. At the
close of the Sunderland election his lordship, in that
amiable mood for which he is distinguished, was en-
joying, it appears, the pleasure of being borne in state
through the streets of the borough for which he had
just been returned as the representative, escorted by a
mob of colliers, Jumpers, and such savoury people,
and accompanied by his lady, Sir Hedworth William-
son, and others of his friends, when " a miscreant in
human form," whose windows the followers of the
noble lord were amusing themselves by smashing, was
observed to point a gun from an upstairs room in so
unsafe and dangerous a manner that the policeman
whO saw it forthwith took to his heels, Lord Howick
himself turned very pale, and cried " A gun !" whilst
Sir Hedworth Williamson, very valiantly, drew down
Lady Howick into the body of the carriage in which
they were seated together, and—fell over her !

So far, however, nothing horrific had resulted,—no-
thing beyond the serious fright of the policeman, the
viscount, and the baronet. But the " miscreant " was
not, it seems, satisfied with the enormity of displaying
a gun to deter a disorderly "liberal" mob, headed by
a policeman, a viscount, and a magistrate, from de-
stroying his property; but is actually suspected of hav-
ing pulled the trigger ! A flash there certainly was;
in this both peer, policeman, and baronet agree ; but
none of them, unfortunately, can swear distinctly whe-
ther the flash in question issued from the gun or from
a pipe of tobacco which the " miscreant" had in his
mouth ! We say it is unfortunate that this circum-
stance cannot he ascertained, because its elucidation
would afford the only evidence required to convince a
jury of the murderous intent of the ruffian in whose
hands the weapon was seen ; for it has been ascer-
tained, beyond question, that the gun was not only
charged with powder, but that it actually contained a
ball—of chewed paper !
We need scarcely add that, before a Sunderland
bench of magistrates, the perpetrator, or supposed per-
petrator of such an enormity as that of attempting to
fire a blank cartridge, or knocking the ashes from his
pipe over the heads of a riotous mob, whilst engaged,
under distinguished patronage, in the patriotic task of
demolishing Tory windows, was committed for it, alr
although subsequently released on heavy bail. We
need scarcely remark, either, that those legal function-
aries who wero aiding and assisting, by their presence,
the demolition in question, were not committed for
trial, and will not be ciilled upon to make good the
property destroyed. Whig peers and baronets in
Northumberland or Durham may not only " do what
they like with their own," but with the goods and
chattels of others as well. Happy Sunderland !we
say.

" CHEAP BREAD " MEANS " CHEAP LABOUR.'

There is something strongly corroborative of all which we
have ever asserted with respect to the objects of the corn-law
abolitionists, in the attempt which is,now making to precipi-
tate the decision of the great question of the coin laws. If
the manufacturer looked only or mainly to the opening of
foreign markets—to the reduction of the tariffs of foreign
countries in favour of British manufactured goods—as the
result of a free trade in corn, obviously his first anxiety
would he that neeociation to effect this desirable object
should be entered upon. Markets, however, we have ever
maintained, or at least such markets as can be gained to us
by the mere concession of the power to import foreign corn
into Great Britain, are not the real objects for which the
anti-corn-law league are agitating. cheap labour it is which
the manufacturer is in search of—cheap labour, which will
enable him to inundate every market of the world with
cheap goods—cheap labour, which will at once contribute to
raise the value of his deteriorated machinery, and which will
once more restore to him his pre-eminence over the manu-
facturers of every other nation. The attempt to compel a
settlement of the corn laws by clamour out of doors, and by
factious opposition in parliament, without at the same time
seeking, or allowing to the government of Sir Robert Peel
the opportunity of seeking, any relaxation of the continental
tariffs—any additional privileges in those foreign markets
whose corn we are urged to purchase—is to us satisfactory
evidence of the fact, that the cry for " markets " is only
subsiding to the cry for " low wages " and " cheapness cf
production." . _ _

•
That this is the fact, too, may be gathered from other and
striking indications. Amidst all the diatribes of the manu-
facturing agitators, not a word is allowed to escape which
would favour the inference that an extension of our com-
merce in foreign markets can be derived from any other
source than the adoption of a free-trade policy with respect
to articles of consumption amongst the manufacturing popu-
lation. Market after market has been closed upon our mer-
chants, by the blundering and inefficient policy of whig le-
gislators ; yet we hear not a word of complaint against the
policy which has thus crippled our commerce. Our goods
are virtually excluded from at least half-a-dozen important
foreign countries—from Spain and Portugal—from a large
portion of the coast of Africa—from China and other mar-
kets ; yet we hear not a word of any sincere desire to seek
for readmission into these. We hear of nothing, in fact,
but the markets of the eorn-growing countries ; and these
even are put forward, not as being in themselves of any
overwhelming value to the manufacturing interest, but as a
cloak to the real object in view, which is " low wages to the
manufacturing population."

We admit all that is urged by the advocates of a prompt
settlement of the corn question, with respect to the wretched
condition of the manufacturing population and their misera-
ble prospects during the approaching winter. We know that
agitation will spare no exertion to render that condition in-
supportable, and to goad the suffering poor into frenzied
excesses. But we cannot by any means admit that the ex-
istence of such misery, or the contemplation of its too pro-
bable results, should impel any statesman to rush upon a
hasty and undigested settlement of the corn-laws or any
other laws. What legislation in conservative hands can do,
in the judicious exercise of its power to give an impulse to
commerce, the government of Sir Robert Peel will do.
But, upon the corn-law-repealer's own shewing, that impulse
can only be given, through the medium of a free trade in
corn, by the aid of negociation with the governments of fo-
reign countries. By the mere repeal of the corn laws we
derive no relaxation in the tariffs of foreign states ; and we
should therefore, by hasty measures, be only throwing out
of our hands the power of compelling a return for the sacri-
fice which we are called upon to make.
Conservatism is manifestly not in fault that nothing is
done in the present session to relieve the embarrassments
into which whig mismanagement has thrown every great in-
terest throughout the country. Whether whig adhesion to
office, for four months after their power to legislate for the
community had ceased, is blameable, we leave to the com-
munity itself to declare. Lord John Russell can see in
September the importance of adopting measures for the re-
lief of the labouring classes, immediately. Pity that his
lordship was blind to this pressing necessity during the four
months which intervened between the rejection of his budget
in April, and the day on which he reluctantly bid adieu to
Downing-street and the Home-office !