The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-04-14 00:00:00

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(fit Etinrpoot iPtanbarb,

TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 14, 1840.

The extinction of slavery is an object which ought to
engage the attention, and call into vigorous exercise
the energies, of every true philanthropist. Great
Britain has had the peculiar honour of taking the lead
in this truly noble enterprise. She has set the ex-
ample, -in the: first instance, of putting a stop to this
abominable traffic among her own subjects. This has
been followed up by the utter abolition of slavery in
our own colonies, But this does not comprise all that
this country has done in its endeavours to wipe off this
foul blot upon humanity. We have spent millions of
money, and wasted the lives of thousands of our
countrymen, in endeavouring to prevent other nations
from carrying on the infamous trade in human flesh.
All, however, has proved unavailing. The slave trade
still exists in all its activity. The humane endeavours
of Great Britain have been, unfortunately, most signally
frustrated. Under these circumstances, we are not at
all surprised that such men as Mr. Buxton, and those
who have been in the habit of co-operating with him
in his praiseworthy efforts to extinguish the slave trade,
should have been induced to try other and new ex-
pedients for the same benevolent purpose. We have,
however, proved that the sche:ne recently sanctioned
by Lord John Russell must necessarily fail in accom-
plishing the object avowed by its partisans ; and it now
becomes our duty, in fulfilment of our promise, to point
out those means which we think will prove effectual in
securing so desirable an end. Those means have. bet ri
more than once glanced at in the columns of this
paper. They may be briefly and comprehensively
characterised by stating that they consist in the en-
couragement of the free labour colonies of Great Britain,
and the discouragement, as far as consistent with prin-
ciples of sound political economy, of those colonies cad
those countries from which slave-grown produce is now
exported,

We have briefly enunciated our scheme for the ex-
tinction of slavery, and it now remains for us to de-
monstrate its practicability, and to point out its in-
evitable results.
The West India colonies of Great Britain have been
placed, by our legislative interference, in circum-
stances of peculiar difficulty and embarrassment ; and
it becomes an inquiry worth entering upon w:lether

the money which it is proposed to squander upon the
utopian enterprise of colonising Africa might not be
more profitably laid• out in aiding and fostering our
own colonies, and in rescuing them from their present
depression. The experiment which we have made in
the West Indies has not yet been fully completed.
We have abolished slavery, it is true—we have con-
ferred upon the Negroes the boon, of unconditional
liberty—we have admitted them to all the privileges
and immunities.of free-horn British subjects : but, in
doing this, we have completely disorganiaed all the
social arrangements of the West Indies —we have cut
off the foul and disfiguring wen of slavery, but We
have left the wound caused by the Exci, don undressed
and unhealed.
It is an undeniable fact that this (ountry has not

clone its duty to the West Indies. It is true that we
have purchased the freedom of the Negro populatiOn
in those colonies; but it is not true •that we have
secured their happiness in their altered condition.
They cannot be made happy by allowing White civili-

sation to disappear from the islands. They cannot be
made happy by being left to sink into all the de-
grading superstitions of their forefathers. They can-
not be made happy unless they are converted into a •
class of diligent and contented labourers. It is true
also that the Whites in the West Indies have been paid
the purchase money of emancipation. But it is not
true that we have secured for them those advantages•
which might be expected to accrue from our liberality
and their spontaneous concessions. Indeed, it is
notorious that the planters, as a body, after generously'
and voluntarily anticipating the benevolent intentions
of this country towards the Negroes, have been driven
to the very verge of ruin. Their estates lie unculti-
vated, and their capital is rapidly vanishing out of
their hands.
While the staple exports of our 'West India colonies
are rapidly diminishing in amount, and as long as the
cultivation of these products cannot be carried on

excepting at a ruinous loss, need we wonder that those
colonies in which slave labour is still continued should
become more and more prosperous, in the same ratio
that our own are declining ? Need we wonder that
the slave trade should be perpetuated in all its activity ?
Are we not directly encouraging this trade by our gross
and culpable neglect of our own free colonies ? Shall
we pursue this impolitic, this cruel, this insane career
any longer Shall we not rather strike a fatal blow at
the foul monster of slavery in other countries by
rendering ourselves independent of any !supplies but
those produced by free labour in our own colonies?
Nothing 'short of this will reach the root of the evil-
Every other expedient will prove unavailing.
As we have already intimated, the adoption of Fowell
Buxton's new project will cost.the country £35,000 of
primary outlay, and £10,546 annually to carry it into
effect. Instead of throwing away this large amount of
money on a scheme which is certain to prove a miser-
able failure, let the Government employ it in pro-
moting immigration into our iVest India colonies. `Thus
employed, it would contribute, in a variety of ways, to
put an end to the iniquitous slave traffic ; while, at the
same time, it would give a powerful stimulus to the
prosperity, not only of our colonial possessions, but of
Great Britain itself. Why should we grasp at a shadow
like Mr. Buxton's plan, when we can secure, at the
same expense, a tangible and permanent advantage d
so important a character ?

All that is necessary to increase the productiveness
of the West Indies, under the present system of free
labour, is, an increased supply of labourers. There is.
no reason why we should not obtain all our supplies
of sugar, coffee, cotton, &c., from these splendid colo-.
nies. The capabilities of the soil in these colonies are
scarcely equalled in any other part of the world. Thereat
millions of acres lying uncultivated for want of labour
ers, especially in British Guiana. With all these golden,
advantages within our reach, we are still contented tl3
spend our money in such wild speculations as the Ni-
ger expedition. Shame upon the Government of Eng"
land for its blind perverseness ; and still greater shoo!,
upon the people of England for permitting a line 01
policy so destructive to the best interests of the Cow"
try.

The result of the division upon the motion of Sir.
James Graham is now before us; and although, by:,,,3`
miserable majority of nine, the administration of Ur'
Melbourne has escaped the infliction of a direct vote
of censure upon one of the most important quOti"g
of the session, they have most assuredly no great rya'
son to congratulate themselves upon their; yOorY'
Not one position taken up by the right honourable ba-
ronet has been overthrown, not one charge successfully'
rebutted; and the division by which the debate has at
been terminated has been taken not upon the
merits of the question at issue—not upon the question'

. .
Whether or not the %lir -with China has been precipi-
tated by the negligent or the mistaken policy of go-
vernment--but as regards a great portion of the minis-
terial faction upon the hacknied and convenient ques-
tion of confidence generally in the policy of the admi-
nistration, and on the part of another upon the neces-
sity which unhappily now exists, and which has scarcely
been questioned, of carrying on that war, or those war-
like demonstrations which may possibly answer the
Purpose-of war, with vigour and determination. The
degree of wisdom or the want of it which has charac-
terised the past policy of ministers with respect to
China has throughout the debate been studiously left
out of consideration fiy the advocates of government,
unless the weak and flippant oration of Lord Palmer-
ston can be said to have touched upon that part of the
question ; and the barren majority which still keeps
Lord Melbourne dangling in attendance upon the court
and Lord Palmerston dribbling forth his shallow inani-
ties upon the foolscap of the Foreign-office, has been
gained by a tricky address got up in the city at the
mendacious representation of some ministerial man-of-
all-work.

There are two positions which have been taken up
and adhered to by the supporters of Ministers through-
out !the debate which demand our attention. The first
is the argument that the impugners of ministerial po-
licy with respect to Chinese affairs ought to have laid
before the house the precise nature of the policy which
they themselves would have pursued ; and the other
the impossibility, even supposing it were advisable, of
putting an end to the illicit traffic in opium out of
which confessedly the misunderstanding with the Chi-
nese authorities has originated. Now, it is extremely
unfortunate for ministers that to both these arguments
the printed correspondence of their own superintend-
entsfurnishes ample reply. In endeavouring to wriggle
out of the charge of furnishing deficient instructions
and power to the superintendents, we find it urged by
that wiry consequential gentleman, the member for
Edinburgh, that those superintendents themselves were
the best judges of the policy to be pursued, in matters
of detail at least. The conservative party complained
that the representations transmitted from time to time
by the local superintendents. were left unnoticed, and.
that they were not furnished with powers to act even
in matters of the propriety of which they were fully
convinced. If Captain Elliot was duly qualified to
perforM the duties of his situation, the policy which he
advised was, on their own sheaving, entitled to the con-
sideration of government, and the powers which he
required to carry out that policy ought to have been
promptly yielded Government. If, on the other hand,
he was not duly qualified, he ought to have been at
once superseded. But neither of these courses were
Pursued. Captain Elliot was neither-permitted to ad-
vise nor to act, and the only interpretation which the
Chinese authorities could put upon his conduct and
Position at Canton was, that the infraction upon their
laws, which were daily occurring before his eyes, and
which he did not check, because he had not the power
to do 803 were committed with the connivance if not
with the express sanction of the government which he
was delegated to represent.
Here then is the reply, furnished by their own do-
en. Merits, to the objection that Sir James Graham and
h
Party ought to have explained, whilst deprecating
that of 'Ministers, what their own policy would have
been. - The right honourable baronet's charge implies
of itself the course which he and his party would have
Pursued, and the arguments by which it is supported
and Which hinge upon the inattention paid to the re-
Presentations of Captain Elliot and neglect of his con-
stant entreaties for powers to carry into effect his own
suggestions are conclusive as to the policy which in
their
Opinion ought to have been pursued.
Ity The second objection, with respect to the impossibi-
t
01 repressing the opium trade, we will very shortly
dispose of, by quoting a letter contained in the copy of
correspondence laid upon the table of the House of
nnimons, in which the British superintendent, Sir
c;C
e°rge Robinson, distinctly declares that " whenever
et. Majesty's government direct vs to prevent British
vessels engaging in the traffic, we can enforce any order
1°
that effect !" It might not be possible to prevent
the Opium traffic from being carried onto some extent
and Eby some other means, but it was undoubtedly pos-
sibl to prevent it being carried on in such d manner as
directly to raise the presumption that the government of
'4.9landfauoUred and- encouraged its growth.
But we are told by the foreign secretary that the
Inestion'hi,issue was' in substance whether or not the
Present government possessed the confidence of the
entintry. Let us weigh government by this standard,
411(1.examine. the- extent of confidence which they do
P°ssess. • Froiii an analysis of the division we-find that
a niajority of the. members for the whole of England
and Wales, amounting to 23, voted against ministers;
that a majority of the members for England, Scotland,
and Wales, amounting to 17, voted against ministers ;
and that the paltry majority of nine in their favour is
001 y secured by the venal votes of the dependants of
°Tunnel', which are thus allowed on every question
affecting the honour and the destinies of this mighty
elnPire to overwhelm and to smother the opinions of
the Peop B
le of Great ritain. The government of Lord
lelbourne has not, on a question affecting such im-
Inenseinterests, the confidence of England, Scotland,
and. Wales ; but exists only upon- the suffrages -of
'°Pish -Ireland. A war the extent of which no -man
.ean foresee—a war to be carried on against a country
Inhabited by a population of upwards of 300,000,000
Or People, and situated at a distance of 15,000 miles
from our shores—is pressed on in defiance of the
°Pinions of the majority of the people of Great Britain,
by the representatives of the priest-led slaves who
e°Mpose the constituencies of Popish Ireland. How
long, We ask, will England submit to be trampled
`ceneath the feet of this base and truculent faction ?
4'°w long will England allow her energies to be
etushed and her very name defiled by this foul in-
Lellllns, which gloats and fattens upon the wreck of
her honour, her religion, and her prosperity ?

The drawing-room of her Majesty on 'Wednesday
/:'4B honoured by the presence of her Grace the
linehess of Inverness; and the public will no longer
he at a loss to account for the peculiar favours show-
e;e'l upon the quondam widow of the attorney knight,
the Lady Cecilia Letitia Buggin Underwood. Her
ladyship, wearied of the shades of Kensington, and
tired
L of the ennui of enacting the part of Chloe for
tne Sole gratification of her. septuagenarian Strephon,
has become ambitious of a larger sphere of admira-
t"l; and the name of Buggin Underwood, although
a good name " to go to church with," was not, even
"hen accompanied with the delightful procnomeß of
Cecilia Letitia, sufficiently euphonious for the atmo-
sphere of a royal drawing-room. Besides, her lady-
ship's moral status might possibly require a little extra
gilding ; and legal deficiencies, which would be obvious
enough in the relict of a City attorney and the grand-
daughter of a Dublin landing-waiter, might be over-
looked in the wearer of a ducal coronet, and the future
mother of a race of male duchesses !

In sober seriousness, we are grieved beyond mea-
lore to contemplate the degradation which this ill-
advised exercise of the royal prerogative is calculated
to bring upon the Court of England's Queen, and the
character of England's nobility. Had this ambitious
4dy been in reality the legal wife of the uncle of the
, overei-n
g then we should have granted the justice of
according to her the rank to which she would have
l een entitled. In that case the Lady Cecilia Letitia
ill
ilggin Underwood would, without any interference
c 1 the prerogative, have been entitled to the name and
4211014 s of a royal duchess. But, as she is not
Duchess of Sussex, her title of Inverness can only
!,ell'e to brand with illegitimacy her connexion with
the duke, and to drag into greater notoriety a scandal
neeeh for the honour of the crown, had better have
n allowed to remain in obscurity.
lVe are- told. indeed, that morally her ladyship is
the wife of the Duke of Sussex ; that she was married
byl banns in England, and has always been honourably
jeelVed by that portion of the world of fashion in
ivil'eh his grace has been accustomed to move. So
1"7,, however, as the laws of England do not allow to
leer the name of wife, we contend that the Sovereign,
ho has sworn to dispense those laws equally and
iiPartially to all her subjects, should have been ad-
vised I'ed to pause before she gave her direct countenance
0 an infraction of those laWs. As Duchess of Inver-
ness; this lady, although not legally the wife of the
Duke of Sussex, takes precedence of the whole of our
t 1.11418 nobility; and whatever opinions may be enter-
-4111"1 upon the subject by her Majesty's advisers, we

must venture to doubt whether so unusual a stretch
of the royal prerogative is not too distasteful to the
feelings of the moral people of England, to be ventured
upon, even to reward the political subserviency of an
uncle of the Sovereign.

It is urged, however, in further extenuation, by the
government prints, that the Royal Marriage Act, 'by
the operation of which the pseudo marriage of the
duke with Lady Cecilia is rendered invalid, is objec-
tionable in principle, and unpopular. But, we ask,
ought the Duke of Sussex, of all men in the world,
to complain of the operation of that act, after availing
himself of its provisions to repudiate the amiable and
highborn victim of a former connexion ? Are the off-
spring of the Lady Augusta Murray to be branded
with illegitimacy, whilst the male descendants of this
Buggin Underwood are created duchesses, and their
illustrious mother pitchforked over the heads of the
female nobility of England ? If the Royal Marriage
Act is unpopular and unwise, repeal it; but, until this
is done, let the " social duchess" be, content to luxu-
riate in the bowers of Kensington, and not, by her
indecent intrusions at court, outrage public morality,
and drag more prominently before the memory of the
people of England, the delinquencies of that impure
old man, the vices of whose youth are only surpassed
by the cupidity and grossness of his declining years.

A disgusting placard has been posted on the walls
of this town, announcing that the Socialist Hall of
Science, in Lord Nelson Street, will be opened on
Friday next, when Robert Owen is going to exhibit
his " plans for ensuring to the upper and middle
classes, far greater domestic comforts for £6O per
annum than can be now obtained for £6OO per annum,"
and when a woman of the name of Chappelsmith is
going to deliver a lecture on the " Education, Rights,
and Condition of Woman." These proceedings are to
be concluded by a public tea party in the evening, to
be succeeded by public lectures on "Marriage," &c,
on Easter Sunday, and a "Social Ball" on Monday.
We can conceive of no greater insult to the feelings of
a Christian community than the selection of these high
festivals of the Church, for these abominable and
obscene orgies. Surely it must be in the power of the
magistrates to prevent such an outrage on public
decency. If they have the power and lack the courage
to exercise it, they will justly entitle themselves to the
contempt of every one who has the least regard for
religion or morality.