The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-05 00:00:00

united to the six Financial Representatives of the people,
and by the concurrent authority of which alone can
taxes be raised or appropriated. That body, after a
protracted debate of four days, decided by a majority
of ten against a minority of five to substitute for the
project which we have detailed another, embodying a
Civil List, scarcely less liberal to the Executive and its
subordinate officers, and far more liberal towards the
religious and educational establishments of the colony,
but insisting on the coexistence, with the term of the
Civil List, of complete exemption from the vexatious
restrictions now lying on immigration, a complete con-
troul over the public revenues devoted to this purpose,
an import duty of 24 per cent., and a guarantee of the
integrity of Legislative privileges.

The stand thus taken by the Combined Court ren-
dered inoperative all Mr. Young's negotiations. The
Governor professed his inability to comply with the
requisitions of the majority. . Still there is a locus
penitentice left for the Court of Policy, who cannot
proceed without the concurrence of the Financial Re-
presentatives. The Court of Policy was to meet on the
ph a May, when, it is to be hoped, they would re-
trace their steps, and reject the humiliating conditions
imposed upon the colony by the Home Government,
no doubt, at the instigation of Mr. Young. The
Guiana Chronicle of May 1 states, that a rumour pre-
vailed that an application would be made to appoint
two delegates to proceed to England, for the purpose
of being heard at the bar of the House of Commons,
against the imposition on the colonists of the new
Civil List. A liberal provision, it was understood,
would be voted by the Council of Ten, to meet the ex-
reuses of the deputation.
\%e have not space sufficient at our command to
enter further into this question at present. We shall
recur to it in our next.

We perceive from an advertisement in the Guiana
Royal Gazette, (with a file of which we -have been
Politely favoured) that a public meeting of the Roman
Catholics and "Liberal Protestants" of British Guiana
was convened by Dr. Clancy, the Popish bishop of
the Colony, for the purpose of drawing up a petition
to the Queen in Council, " against the injustice
attempted to he perpetrated by a few Financial Repre-
sentatives, in withholding the means of competent
support voted by the Court of Policy for the Roman
Catholic clergy of the colony." This impudent titular
forgets that the " few Financial Representatives" to
whom he alludes are elected by the people of British
Guiana, and that they have only expressed the feelings
of the great majority of the respectable inhabitants of
the colony.
To add to the impudence of this proceeding, Dr.
Clancy appointed the meeting to take place on Sunday,
old at the time of Divine Service.

We have received our files of the Jamaica Royal
Gazette and of the Jamaica Standard to the 25th of
April, inclusive. They do not contain any news of
importance. The Baptists were holding meetings in
every parish throughout the island, " to take into con-
sideration the Governor's first despatch to the Colonial
Secretary." Respecting one of these meetings the
Royal Gazette exclaims, "We can imagine with what
astonishment our good friends in the mother country
Will stare on reading such an announcement. What ?
the persecuted Baptists—the maligned, injured, and
suffering peasantry—groaning beneath the load of ty-
ranny and oppression—assemble in their chapel, at the
command .6f their meek and lowly pastor—to do what ?
To sit in judgment on an official document, written by
the Executive, to her Majesty's principal Secretary of
State ,for the Colonies." The resolutions passed at
these meetings display that arrogant and presumptu-
°us spirit, and are couched in that dictatorial tone,
Which characterise all the proceedings of these incen-
diaries. They denounce as exceedingly impolitic the
°fficial expression of any opinion by his Excellency so
500 n after his arrival in the island, and stigmatise the
strong censures which he cast upon the Baptist mis-
sionaries, as "in the highest degree disingenuous and
unjust." They insinuate that Sir Charles Metcalfe,
from the commencement of his administration, has
" identified himself with a party hostile to the interests
of the lately emancipated population." These officious
Proceedings of the Baptists are calculated to effect
Much mischief, by keeping alive among the negroes
feelings of hostility and discontent, and from the ten-
dency which they will have still More strongly to for-
tify the prejudices of those planters who may have
shown a disposition to deal harshly with their labour-
ers. We trust that Sir Charles Metcalfe will narrowly
Watch the progress of the new agitation commenced
by the Baptists, and, if necessary, interpose the strong
avm of the Executive in defence of the peaceably in-
clined portion of the inhabitants of the island. The
best proof of the Governor's good intentions, and his
resolution to act justly and impartially, is to be found
in the malignant abuse which such men as Knibb and
Oughton have so lavishly bestowed upon him.

The Jamaica Standard, after quoting some remarks
of our own on the deficiency of produce in Jamaica
and British Guiana, adduces the circumstance of the
great extent of the provision grounds as one main
Cause of the excessive falling off in those colonies.
These provision grounds afford the greatest facilities to
the labourer for supporting himself, in comparative
ease and affluence, without adding one sixpence to the
revenue or commercial wealth of the country. Thus
it is that, acting on the bad advice which they receive,
the peasantry are able to maintain their ground against
the masters. As long as the latter permit the unlimited
cultivation of provisions, they can expect no other re-
sult. The Standard suggests a judicious curtailment
of these grounds, as indispensably necessary in order
to secure a greater amount of labour on the estates.
The policy of this step is so obvious, that we cannot
avoid the expression of our astonishment that the plan-
ters have not generally adopted it. They have proba-
bly been deterred from doing so by the violent oppo-
sition and dangerous interference of the Baptist mis-
sionaries. We hope that this obstacle, under the firm
administration of Sir Charles Metcalfe, will speedily
disappear.

We perceive from our shipping intelligence that the
Thomas Coutts, which sailed from China on the 4th
of February, had reached the Cape of Good Hope, on
her way to London. She has brought intelligence
that the Chinese were determined to resist all attempts
at accommodation excepting on their own terms. 'They
had purchased some European ships, with the intention
of arming and manning them for the approaching war
with Great Britain. The next overland mail, which
may be daily expected to reach England, will probably
contain some very important intelligence—to a much
later date.

The great meeting held on Monday last, in Exeter
Hall, for the abolition of the slave trade, at which his
Royal Highness Prince Albert, for the first time, ap-
peared in the arena of public affairs, has, if we mistake
not, been the means of striking a blow at the ministe-
rial faction in a quarter to which of late the real opi-
nions of the people of England have not been accus-
tomed to find admission. As president of that meet-
ing—a meeting composed of the most eminent men in
the empire, without distinction of sect or party—ad-
vocating a cause noble in itself and further ennobled
by the distinguished countenance under which it was
held—we leave out of our consideration the particular
policy by which that cause is attempted to be advanced
--it must have been impossible for his royal high-
ness to omit noticing the superior estimation which the
leaders of the great conservative party enjoy in the eyes
of an assembly of respectable and right-minded Eng-
lishmen, compared with any to which her Majesty's
Present ministers can justly lay claim.
Where, we ask, on Monday last, were the chiefs of
the whig party ? 'Where were the Russells, the N or-
Inanbys, and the Morpeths on that great occasion ? We
know not where they were, but we know that at the
meeting at Exeter Hall they were not ! A sprinkling
of the small luminaries of the party did venture to
shew themselves upon the platfOrm before the assem-
bled worth and intellect of the empire, and to mingle
their feeble voice in the loud acclaim which greeted the
Presence of the consort of Royalty, and hailed, with
Pride and delight, the support which great principles
and great objects received, and ever will receive, from
the conservative leaders of England; but the ministe-
rial phalanx, so powerful upon their chosen battle-
ground, the floor of a venal House of Commons—so
Prompt to advocate a corrupt job, to defend a national
dishonour, or to lead in an attack upon those national
institutions which they have sworn to defend and