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

Whilst, however, we award this due 'need 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
'Pest 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 beneficial 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 our 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 or 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 ivho 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 revdered necessary by the force of cir-
cumstances. The laws and fiscal regulations that were use-
ful, or possibly indispensable, ender 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 ate 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 he viewed as a whole, and not to be examined in sectional
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 he 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'gbeen 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.
" Six,—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 I urged and entreated her, all in my power, be-
tween 1803 and 1808, to plead femme converts; 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,- as well as from the mysterious manner in which the
clergyman alluded to was smuggled into the palace when my
mother had gone out of it.
" Having subsequently seen the persons alluded to, and
they not denying the fact, I some time afterwards appealed
to his Royal 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
tsmam manner timee I
of the clergyman who had intermarried his Royal Highness
acquainting
aim nyt sister) t.
hiser Royal) a cer certificate i filiciagtiemieos
how
ssuch effect—atand in
what
had become possessed of the clergym_an's name, &c. ; in reply
to which appeal a gentleman of the name of Stephenson
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 with his Royal
Highness's legal adviser on the subject of it. My answer to
which was, that I would willingly meet any honourable-
minded man whom he chose to appoint. The result of
which was, that the present Lord BrOugham,
with Mr. Ste-
phenson, called, when the former (on being nrade acquainted
what
was the cause of our meeting, and my explanation or. w • t
a
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 receiving the certificates required, I re-
paired to the party, who, to the disgrace of his holy office,
though acknowledging his having performed the ceremony,
declined giving to me the certificate, until he had personally
communicated with his diocesan, the late Bishop of Norwich,
who informed me first personally, and subsequently by letter,
that if it depended upon his advice, 1 should not be long
without the certificate require ; yet, notwithstanding ad-
vice to such effect from his diocesan, the old gentleman de-
clined giving the certificate, but pledging himself that one
should be left behind him to such effect ; all of which circum-
stances Sir Augustus D'EsteNtas informed of by me as they
severally occurred, and certainly not through his mother.
" Before I conclude, Mr. Editor, permit me to thank you
for the warm interest which you have taken in the cause of
my late injured sister and her offspring, by a publication of
the various facts which you have given insertion to in your
very respectable journal. And allow me to add, that I am,
A. MURRAY.
with esteem, your obliged bumble servant,:

We)!ive taken occasion, at various times, to bring before
the notice of the public the persevering diligence evinced by
the French government to improve and extend its navy; and
especially the encouragement which it has systematically '
given to the growth of its steam navigation. The contrast
presented by the course adopted by the government of this
country is not a little remarkable. 'While France, a military
pOwer, has spared no pains and grudged no expense in per-
fecting the new element of marine power which the adapta-
tion of steam to navigation has given rise to. Great Britain,
a naval power, altogether dependent on its naval supremacy
for the protection of its übiquitous commerce and tor its in-
fluential position in Europe, has uniformly thrown all sorts
of discouragements and obstacles in the way of the advance-
ment of its steam navigation. It is true there has been a
popular prejudice, now fast wearing away, against steam
navigation ; and it is not difficult to imagine that a vast num-
ber of interested persons, as well as of the ignorant and
envious, would endeavour to decry an innovation which in-
terfered with their pursuits and their prejudices. In this
case an enlightened administrative government might have
conferred an essential service ou the country, by taking
measures to remove the errors existing in respect to steam
navigation, and by the adoption of a judicious system of
encouragement. But instead of taking this course, the go-
vernment rather gave countenance to th 2. misrepresentations
industriously put forth of the deficiencies and dangers of the
new mode of navigation. Whether the tone thus given by
the government influenced the popular feeling on the subject,
it is not our present purpose to inquire ; but it cannot have
escaped the observation of those who have attended to the
question, that the prejudice against steam navigation, and its
conductors, has not been confined to the merely ignorant and
uneducated. In any dispute between the public and steam
navigation companies, the presumption has always been that
the steam company must be wrong. If an obs.inate barge
would wilfully run across a steam vessel, and would not get
out of the way, such a case of " COLLISION" would be sure
to interest at once in favour of the barge, the sympathies of
the judge, jury, and spectators. The steam company came
into court already pre-judged ; the only question was the
quantum of damages. •
This prejudice against steam-vessels may in some respect
have been occasioned by the supposition of the vast number
of accidents consequent on the introduction of steam navi-
gation. Since its introduction every accident of a steam-
vessel has been sedulously made public, and from its novelty
has attracted attention ; sailing vessels have experienced their
usual casualties of masts lost, and leaks sprung ; have been
cast on shore or sunk at sea without giving rise to particular
notice. But the bursting of a boiler has attracted immedi-
ate attention, and excited the general indignation of the pub-
lic .; nothing has then been talked of but the dangers of
steam-navigation, and the horrors of being boiled and blown
up by terrible steam explosions. Now *hat is the fact ? lii
the early part of last year, the government, yieldiuz to the
popular outcry against steam-boat accidents,- appointed a
commission for the purpose of investigating the number and
nature of steam-boat accidents. The inquiry was set on foot
in no friendly spirit; and was much in the nature of an in-
quisition to bring to light.the manifold enormities practised
by the steam companies on an unsuspecting public. The re-
sult, however, of this inquiry, proves in a remarkable man-
ner the gross error of the popular prejudice, and is the
strongest evidence that can be given of the comparative
safety and the great superiority afforded by the application of
steam power to the great purposes of navigation.
We extract from an able article in the Monthly Chronicle,
the following table of the number of, steam accidents :

Vessels,

ABSTRACT OF NINETY-TWO ACCIDENTS.
Ascertained
Number of
Lives Lost.

40 Wrecked, foundered, or in imminent peril
23 Explosions of boilers
17 Fires from various causes

12 Collisions

Computed number of persons lost on board
the Erin, Frolic, and Superb.
From watermen's and coroners' lists, in the
Thames, exclusive of the above, during
the last three years . 40
From a list obtained in Scotland, exclusive
of the above) being accidents in the Clyde
during the last ten years.

The greatest ascertained number of
lives lost at any one time occurred
by the wreck of the Rothsay Cas-
tle, when
The greatest number at any one time
from explosion
The greatest number at any one time
from tire 2 ..

It is to be borne in mind that the above list of lives lost in
steam-vessels or through their means, comprises a period of
the 22 years during which steam navigation has been in
practice in this country ; and " when it is considered that
Great Britain and Ireland had no less than 766 steam-boats
in full activity last year," we agree with the Monthly Chro-
nicle in thinking, " that a more triumphant case in favour of
the superior security of steam navigation could scarcely have
been presented than by the list thus compiled by the govern-
ment commissioners." In comparing the loss of life in
sailing vessels and in steam-vessels, we have the advantage
of the labours of a parliamentary committee appointed in
1836. From their report we ascertain that the annual loss
by the shipwreck of sailing vessels is three millions of pro-
perty and one thousand lives. It may be alleged, that this
great extent of loss is to be accounted for by the greater ex-
tent of our sailing than of our steam marine. But on exa-
mination it does not appear so. The Monthly Chronicle
shows, that " it appears from Air. Porter's tables, that, in
1836, Great Britain and her colonies owned 25,000 vessels,
of an aggregate tonnage of nearly 2,800,000. We have seen
that, in 1835, the vessels lost were 550 in number. Assum-
ing the same loss for the ensuing year, we have one ship-
wreck for every forty-five vessels afloat. In the same year
of 1836, according to the schedule of Messrs. Parkes and
Pringle, ten steam-boats are stated to have met with serious
accidents : six of these accidents were attended by the com-
plete destruction of the vessel, but only in one instance were
those gentlemen able to ascertain the loss of a single life as
connected with any one of the serious accidents of that year.
In 1836, let it not be forgotten, GOO steam-boats were afloat
in our waters."

As we should damage the following extract by any abridge,
ment, we give it-entire :

" One frequent subject of complaint has been the great
insecurity of the river Thames of late years, in consequence
of the reckless rapidity with which steam-boats are navigated
in our crowded pool, and to this subject it became, of course,
necessary for Messrs. Pringle and Parkes to direct a portion
of their attention. They have, with much labour, collected
a list, as complete as possible, of all the accidents that were
occasioned by steam-boats on the river Thames, during a
period of three years and a half—namely, from May, 1835,
to December, 1838. We will not weary our readers by re-
printing the whole of this list, but the following digest will
show at once how much mischief these terrible steamers have
committed on the bosom of our venerable Thames :
Number of persons drowned or otherwise killed by
steamers upsetting boats, &c.
Number of persons who sustained bodily injuries 5
Number of persons thrown into the water, but saved
from drowning

Total personal accidents l2O

Number of wherries, barges, smacks, or other craft,
sunk and injured by steamers.
Number of steamers seriously damaged by collision
with each other

Total accidents to vessels

Heaven forbid that we should speak lightly of the loss of a
single human life I but really, when we consider the outcry
that has so often been raised, by the newspapers, about the
frightful loss of life occasioned in the river by the culpable
conduct of captains of steamers, we did expect that more
than 43 lives had been lost during a period of three years and
a half. And let us see, during that time, what the activity
of steam navigation on the river has been. From the ac-
counts taken at the government dock-yard at Deptford, it
appears that the number of steam-boats that pass weekly
amount to 7OO
Multiplying this number by..

We obtain, as the number of steam-boats pass-
ing annually up and down the river before the
dock-yard at Deptford 36,400

Or, in three years and a half
It would, therefore, appear, that the enormous number of
127,400 trips had probably been performed, up and down the
river, during these three years and a half; so that, including
even the 72 individuals; whose sufferings extended no further
than a ducking (no very pleasant occurrence certainly,) there
would not be quite one personal accident to every one thou-
sand trips performed by steamers on the River Thames."
We have been led to devote so much of our space in the
present instance in showing the erroneous nature of the pre-
judices which exist in respect to the dangers attendant on
steam navigation, on account of the impediments which the
report of the government commissioners threatens to throw
in the way of the advance of steam navigation. Believing, as
we do, that the great discovery of the application of steam to
navigation, must, at no distant time, entirely change the cha-
racter of naval warfare ; and that superiority in naval domi-
nion will depend on superiority in steam navigat.ion, we can-
not but regard any obstacles opposed to the rapid develop-
ment of this new power to be most unwise, and with relation
to this country, most dangerous. And looking at the sedu-
lous endeavours made by rival, and in some respects hostile,
nations, to augment by every means in- their power, by the
most careful protection, by the most unbounded encourage-
ment, and by all the lights and helps which a provident go-
vernment can assist with, this new branch of naval power, it
is not without alarm that we observe the British government,
not only affording neither protection nor encouragement, but
positively throwing discouragement and vexatious obstacles
in the way of those enterprising public companies which have
led the way in establishing for their country the elements of
the new marine power, by which alone its commerce can be
protected, and its national greatness maintained.—Courier.

A CHINESE MAP OF THE WORLD.—It is two feet wide
by three and a half high, and is almost covered with China.
' In the left hand corner, at the top, is a sea, three inches
square, in which are delineated as small islands, Europe,
England, France, Holland, Portugal, and Africa. Holland
is as large as all the rest, and Africa is not so big as the end
of one's little finger ! The northern frontier is Russia, very
large. The left corner, at the bottom, is occupied by " the
western ocean," as it is called, containing the Malay penin-
sula pretty well defined. Along the bottom are Camboja,
Cochin China, &c., represented as moderate sized islands,
and on the right is Formosa, larger than all the rest put to-
gether. Various other countries are shown as small islands.
I should have given an engraving of this curious map, but
that a true reduction to the size of a page would have left out
most of these countries altogether. The surrounding ocean
is represented as huge waves, with smooth passages, or high-
ways branching off to the different countries, or islands, as
weag toli es la.
raal onnege tohre sset s highwaysof
,fedlyiv'erbguet, ifthethye
they represent them. They suppose that ships which keep
ys,oothnroguegthamigonno-g
these awful billows, and are lost. —Malcom's Trarels.
ERSKINE AND Ills ANIMALS.--" He has always had se-
veral favourite animals, to whom he has been much attached,
and of whom all his acquaintance have a number of anecdotes
to relate—a favourite dog, which he used to bring when he
was at the bar, to all his consultations ; another favourite
dog, which, at the time when he was Lord Chancellor, be
himself rescued in the street from some boys who were about
to kill him, under pretence of its being- mail .
, a favourite
ghose,_ which followed him wherever he walked about his
grounds ; a favourite mackaw, and other dumb favourites
without number. He told us now that lie had got two fa-
vourite leeches. He had been blooded by them last autumn,
when he had been taken dangerously ill at Portsmouth ; they
lthem with •
had saved his life, and he had brought him to
in a glass ; had himself every
town ; had ever since kept them
andhad f •
orrne, a friendship
day given them fresh water;
they both knew him, and
with them. He said he was sure.
them different names,
were grateful to him. He had given
surgeons,)
Home and Cline (the names of two celebrated
their dispositicais being quite different. After a good deal of
conversation about them, he went himself, brought them out
upon the table.
of his library, and placed them in their glass
It is impossible, however, without the vivacity, the tones,
the details, and the gestures of Lord Erskine, to give an ade-
quate idea of this singular scene."—Memorrs and Diary of
Sir Samuel Rowdily.