The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-04-28 00:00:00

IMMIGRATION INTO THE. WEST INDIES.

TO riff: EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. ..
SlR,—Emigration from the British settlements in India
to our West India colonies being at present prohibited, and
the number of emigrants from the United States being li-
mited, it seems necessary that some other source should be
looked to from whence a supply may be obtained. Egypt
has been mentioned, but the state of political affairs seems
now to preclude any chance in that quarter. Mr. Earle, in
a memoir on the colonization of the north coast of Australia,
writing of the advantages it possesses for obtaining a cheap
supply of labourers, seems•to have pointed out a source from
whence such a supply may also be obtained for our western
colonies. He " considers China as the principal source,
emigration being most prevalent there ; but many of the
islands in the Archipelago, and Jaya in particular, would
also afford numbers who would probably be preferred by
European planters." It is at present unnecessary to say
anything of the Chinese, but it may be mentioned that the
" Cochinese are almost their equals in agriculture, but
greatly superior in moral character and conduct, and at the
same time equally disposed to emigrate for the sake of gain."
• The natives of Java, being accustomed to the cultivation of
sugar, which is carried on to a large extent on the West
Indian plan, might probably suit even better than Coolies.
" They are decidedly an agricultural people, and of quite
different dispositions from. the :Malays, to whom they are
always preferred on account of their quiet and orderly ha-
bits." Those who are met with in Batavia are generally of
the worst description, and differ essentially from the natives
of the eastern part Of the island, who are not contaminated
by the Chinese and Malays, and from that part care should
be taken to select them. As they resort in numbers to
Scurabaya, Samarang, &c., there is every facility for enga-
ging. The high rate of wages paid in the West Indies holds
out great inducements to emigrate, besides the desire to
escape the tyranny of the Chinese, who, as middlemen and
proprietors of a considerable' proportion of the land in the
island, universally recluce..the aboriginal inhabitants to the
most ignominious bondage. Bali and Lombok may also be
mentioned as likely to supply good labourers, the inhabitants
of both which devote their whole attention to agriculture,
raising large quantities of rice for exportation, as well as
coffee, tobacco, and cotton. They are stouter than the Ja-
vanese. A good many of them are at present employed by
the French in Bourbon.

Great facilities are presented for carrying on emigration
from these parts. Many of the passenger vessels which go
to Australia, not being able to procure return cargoes there,
proceed to ports in the India and China seas, many of them
calling at Lombok in passing; and were they assured of
obtaining a cargo there or at Scurabava to the West Indies,
they would doubtless prefer it to making a lengthened and
dangerous voyage, and being detained a considerable period
at the port of lading; whilst, being fitted up under govern-
ment inspection in this country for carrying emigrants, they
would afford a most unobjectionable conveyance.
Hoping these few hints may be of some small service, I
am, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
Liverpool, 24th April, 1840. A. Z.

ROSCOE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SIR,—You will have noticed the articles headed as above
which have appeared in some of your contemporaries. As
all the articles have hitherto been directed against " Delta,"
without any attempt to remove the facts revived by him, and
as, in the multiplicity of words used on the occasion by the
editors of the Mercury and the Times, and by the Socinian
writer in the Courier of last Wednesday, the point in dispute
has not been touched, the following brief observations may
not he out of place.
I do not agree with `,` Delta" if he mean to institute a
comparison between the literary merit of the Dairyman s
Daughter and Lorenzo ; in fact no such comparison can be
instituted, the works is question being: of quite opposite or-
ders ; the one being intended to show the influence religion
has on the life, and the consolation it affords in the article of
death ; the other being the history of a man celebrated for his
attachment to learning, and for his encouragement of litera-
ture.

But it does not appear to me that " Delta" intended such
a comparison. All that he says is, that if Roscoe deserves
to have a statue erected to his memory merely on account of
his literary character and 'his being a nativeof Liverpool, and
this to he considered the work of the town, the friends of
Legh Richmond, a clergyman of the Church of England, the
writer of many works by no means destitute of literary me-
rit, and a native of Liverpool, have an equal right to have a
statue erected to his memory by the town.
Now; from the. manner in which this matter of a statue to
Roscoe was first brought.hefore the people of Liverpool, by
an anonymous correspondent of the Mercury, it appears that
it is not to be erected in 'honour of his literary, but of his
political character; if so, then " Delta" is right in objecting
to this being considered the work of the town.
If this is to be a statue erected by the town of Liverpool
to the memory of Roscoe, how is it nothing was heard of it
till " the statue was nearly ready ?"—Again,
The sentiMents of the principal pertion'of the inhabitants
of the town are quite opposed to the opinions advocated by
Roscoe in his political career. How then can a statue be
erected to him by the town ?
• . Till the above questions are answered, I shall agree with
" Delta" in thinking that no person will object to the friends
of Roscoe erecting a statue to him in any private situation,
on account of his literary-merit,- but that the majority of our
townsmen will object to its being placed in any public situa-
tion on account of his Political character.
While I shall leave" Delta" -to answer. for himself the
pitiful charges which been thrown out against him with
so much rancour, I cannot help expressing a wish that the
parties alluded to had., instead of abusing, overthrown the
facts brought before the public respecting the " doings".of
Roscoe;--but this they'were well aware they Could not do.