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

fliE OOLCINIEO,

(From the JoOrnal of Commerce.)

We feel much interested in the present condition of the
West India planters, and think they are subjected to difficul-
ties from which they ought, in justice, to be relieved by the
aid and cordial co-operation of the parent state,
In this opinion all must unite, upon a candid and impartial
examination of facts, dismissing alike from view the preju-
dices raised by well-intentioned but ill-informed clamour,
and the extreme opinions held by the planters themselves, as
to the consequenecs which they apprehended as the imme-
diate result of negro emancipation. That both parties were
wrong is happily no longer a subject for inquiry : the colour-
ed people have been admitted into rank and station in civi-
lized society ; they are no longer bondsmen, but have become
free agents and unfettered labourers with their fellow-men in
the great mart of human industry ; and well have they de-
served the noble boon of freedom which has been conferred
on them, for their conduct has, ever since the period of eman-
cipation, been characterised by an extraordinary degree of
discretion, of docility, and a love of good order, which evinces
their undoubted fitness to become citizens of the state.

Whilst, however, we award this due meed of praise to the
coloured population of the British colonies for the use they
have made of their newly acquired liberties, let us be just
towards the West India planters, who have suffered so large-
ly in their reputations, from the unmeasured and unremitted
calumnies to which they have long been subjected. If the
general charge of the horrible cruelties imputed to the plan-
ters had been true, even in the proportion of one to ten of
those promulgated, the situation of our West India colonies
would be far different from what it is at the present moment.
Our readers will rejoice to learn that the free labourers
have continued, almost without exception, voluntarily to de-
vote their industry on -the same estates, and to the same
masters who so lately held them in bondage ; that no feelings
of revenge for previous imaginary injuries have anywhere
been exhibited ; and that good order and absence from
crime, accompanied by general tranquility, prevail through-
out the islands. What, then, becomes of the numerous ac-
cusations so unceasingly heaped upon the whole body of West
India planters ? Where are the traces, the remaining symp-
toms of that appetite for useless cruelty which has been so
freely and perseveringly cast upon a highly honourable and
respectable class of British subjects? Are they to be disco-
vered in the unbought, freely-given attachment, shown by the
oppressed towards their reputed oppressors ? or do the zeal-
ous disseminators of those malignant calumnies explain the
anomaly, by contending that the coloured people partake of
the quality of the spaniel, and yield their affection in return
for stripes and ill-usage ? Were such a plea resorted to, it
would not avail, for the fact is well known that the passion
of revenge constitutes the predominant feeling of the coloured
race. But they are also susceptible of the sentiment of gra-
titude : they have experienced kindness and protection from
their old masters, and they very properly esteem them as
their best friends. This is the triumphant answer of the
West India planters to their revilers.
In addressing our readers upon this most important sub-
ject, it is with an anxious desire to remove, in the first in-
stance, all remaining unworthy prejudices which may have
been excited during the emancipation struggle : and by so
doing, and burying the past in oblivion, to obtain from go-
vernment and the public the favourable consideration of
those measures which emancipation has rendered indispen-
sable for the protection of West India interests. It is not
the planter only whose property requires to be protected ;
the prosperity of the British empire is equally at stake. We
owe much of the wealth and greatness of Great Britain to
her West India colonies ;—ships, colonies, and commerce,
insure prosperity, influence, and power on all countries to
which they belong.
It was always obvious that free labour would not be equal
in value to forced labour ; and while we rejoice in the
humane and Christian feeling, which, so far as the British
nation is concerned, has terminated the traffic and the bond-
age of our fellow-man, we deem it but an act of common
justice to lend all reasonable aid, to render the consequences
of that national measure as little injurious to the planters
and the country as the nature of circumstances will permit.
The planters ought not to be subjected to any loss that can
be properly prevented ; and independently of their just
claim to be saved from evil forced upon them, it will be found
true policy to assist them in surmounting present difficulties,
for all losses must ultimately recoil on the mother country.

The first and most bencfiCial relief which can be extended
to the West India planters, will be to remove every existing
obstacle to the immigration of free labourers into the colo-
nies, to make up for the deficiency' which was expected and
has occurred, in the labour supplied by the free coloured
population ; and to enable the West India proprietors to
avail themselves of the means to bring into use tracts of land,
for the most part now uncultivated, or devoted to rearing
products for which the soil is unsuited. Confining our ob-
servations for the present to the extensive and very valuable
Island of Jamaica, there are in the parishes of St. Ann, St.
Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon, Westmorland, Hanover,
and Trelawney, from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 acres of excel-
lent land, which, with an adequate supply of free labour,
could be immediately brought into a productive state for the
cultivation of cotton, coffee, and other commodities, and
possessing the important recommendation of enjoying a
temperate and healthy climate similar to all the high lands
in Jamaica, and points them out as the fit location for the
employment of fresh labourers.
The present supply of labour in the island is inadequate to
bring these immense tracts of land into cultivation. Immi-
gration on an enlarged scale must, therefore, be encouraged.
Attempts are now making to supply the demand for labour
by procuring free coloured labourers from the United States.
In onr opinion, there are objections of no little weight to
place any great reliance on this source. Any dependence on
a direct supply of voluntary labourers from the shores of
Africa, as has been proposed, is equally objectionable, as
leading, though it may be slowly, yet surely, to the revival
of the slave-trade under a -ew form. Again, as respects the
Hill Coolies, their inveterate prejudices, their peculiar habits,
their general disinclination to labour, will always render them
unfit for labourers in the West India colonies. From whence,
it may be asked, can the required supply be obtained ? We
are already in possession of facts and views, whereby a pro-
per supply may be obtained—in sufficient numbers for the
wants of these colonies—of robust, industrious men, distin-
guished for their docile and sober habits, and who would be
found an invaluable acquisition to the British West India
colonies ; inured to a warm climate, accustomed to agricul-
tural labour, they would most willingly proceed to our West-
ern Colonies if they possessed the means.
In order to the attainment of the good aimed at, we must
set out with the determination of doing justice, and be pre-
pared for changes rendered necessary by the force of cir-
cumstances. The laws and fiscal regulations that were use-
ful, or possibly indispensable, under a former order of
society and at former periods, may be found wholly inappli-
cable to the new order of society which has arisen, and to
our condition at the present time. We must, therefore,
abandon so much as interferes with the general welfare, and
adopt those laws and regulations which ale best suited to
promote the prosperity of all. It is with this feeling that
we advocate the immediate removal of every impolitic re-
striction upon West Indian industry. We wish the subject
to be viewed as a whole, and not to be examined in sectionel
parts ; and in the same spirit we contend that whatever rea-
sons may have formerly justified confining West Indian pro-
duce exclusively to the home or British markets, they no
longer exist. We are, after mature reflection, and the fullest
examination, decidedly of opinion that, as a measure of
policy as well as justice, the time has arrived when the whole
of our West India colonists should be permitted to select
any markets they may choose for their produce, and the
islands rendered free ports for all nations. On a future day
we will show that this would be the wisest and best policy
for Great Britain to pursue ; that it would benefit every in-
terest of this nation, and give an improved tone to our re-
lations with all other states.

THE DUKE OF SUSSEX-THE MARRIAGE.

(From the Dublin Evening Mail.)

The following simple, affecting, and beautiful letter, reached
us this day. It is written by the Hon. Mr. Murray, son of
the late Earl of Dunmore, and brother to the hapless and ill-
fated Lady Augusta. Its perusal will arouse the feelings of
the public, and tend to increase the sympathy now so univer-
sally felt for her children. Justice has been tardy in her
dealings towards them ; but she will be sure, and her retri-
bution will be bounteous. This letter places her ladyship's
character in a new and magnanimous point of view—as the
resigned snd suffering martyr, and as the firm and uncom-
promising heroine—enduring every misery and privation,
even to the disgrace of arrest—and for her husband's debts—
rather than betray a trust or violate a promise.
We feel proud, as we well may, at the circumstance of the
Evening Mail havi"gheen selected as the medium for placing
such a document before the public, and honoured at the too
flattering manner in which our humble efforts in the cause of
truth and justice have been noticed by the writer :

" To THE EDITOR OF THE DUBLIN EVENING MAIL.

" Farmley, near Bagshot, 18th April, 1840

" Stn,—From a paragraph which appears in the Morning
Chronicle (apparently derived from some one to whom the
circumstance was well known) the editor states :
" ' That at the time of the marriage of the Duke of Sussex
to Lady Augusta Murray, in 1793, each of them gave to the
clergyman, by whom the ceremony was performed, a pledge
neither to reveal his name, nor permit him to incur any peril
on their account. The Duke of Sussex has kept his word.'
" And thus the article abruptly terminates, leaving the in-
ference to be drawn that my late sister had been less mindful
of her pledge. But that her memory may not suffer from
any erroneous opinion on this head, I beg to inform you that
on several occasions, when she was arrested for debt, and
otherwise subjected to great mental sufferings, from such
arrests, that 1 urged and entreated her, all in my power, be-
tween 1803 and 1808, to plead femme couverts ; one of her
invariable replies to which was, ' No—l cannot I pledged
my word to the clergyman, most sacredly, that I would not
reveal his name, and that pledge I should be obliged to break,
to establish, in a court of law, were Ito do what you wish.'
" No, Mr. Editor, it was many years after, the before-
mentioned period when, finding my mother, the late Countess
of Dunmore, to be in a very weak state of health, that I was
induced to urge her so solemnly, not only on the act of in-
justice that she was doing to us, her sons, and more espe-
cially to her grandson, the present Sir Augustus D'Este, that
she at last revealed to me not only the clergyman's name and
age, but also the county in which he resided, who had mar-
ried the parties ; as also the name of another person who had
been induced to listen when the ceremony was being per-
formed, from having had their suspicions aroused that some-
thing of the kind was going on, from what had previously oc-
curred,or a a
os
well as from the mysterious manner in which the
l
alluded to was smuggled into the palace when my
clergyman
mother had gone out of it.
" Having subsequently seen the persons alluded to, and
they not
the fact, I some time afterwards appealed
t ohis
Royal denying
Highness whether it would not be an act of
common justice to the family of the Duchess, and to her
children, that he should obtain (considering the extreme age
how and in what manner I
of the clergyman who had intermarried
effect—atrriedhisß othyaelsHamigehtniemses
with my sister) a certificate to such
acquainting his Royal Highness
had become possessed of the clergymto which appeal a gentleman of the a
n's
o a ntan me me,
of Stephenson
; t e pihn replyeosoo
called upon me on the subject of such
certificate, which not
terminating satisfactorily, after two or
three interviews, he
inquired if I had any objection to an interview withy answer h
tois Royal
Highness's legal adviser on the subject of it. _i
which was, that I would willingly meet any honourable-
mindedf
man whom he chose to appoint. The result o
which was, that the present Lord Brougham, with Mr. Ste-
phenson, called, when the former (on being made acquainted
with the cause of our meeting, and my explanation of what
was wanted,) immediately addressed himself to Mr. Stephen-
son, and told him he could not see any objection to his Royal
Highness's compliance with so reasonable a request on my
part, and which I had a right to expect from him ; or what
was tantamount to it.

" However, not rwehceoi,vtinogfit,he certificates required, I re-
paired to the party,
gaig his hale;' disgrace of his holy office,
the certificate, until he had personally
g performed the ceremony,
medtneoculignhedagciklogwlteodi
communicated with his diocesan,
subsequently by letter,
(late Bishop of Norwich,
who informed me first personally, and
notwithstandingol that if it depended upon his advice, should not be long
without the certificate requires; yet,'
f that one
ad-
vice to such effect from his diocesan, the gentleman
'Este was informed of by
mine as they
de-
clined giving the certificate, but pledging h*
should be left behind him to such effect ; all o whichs circum-
stances Sir Augustus D
severally occurred, and certainly not through his mother.
" Before I conclude, Mr. Editor, permit me to thahnelrC
for the warm interest which you have taken in the cause you
my late injured sister and her offspring, by a publication of
of
the various facts which you have given insertion to in your
very respectable journal. And allow me to add, that I am,
with esteem, your obliged bumble servant,
" A. MURRAY."