The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-04-03 00:00:00

John Russell's letter to the Lords of the Treasury. He
proposes to establish new commercial relations with
`hose African chiefs or powers within whose domini-

ons the internal Slave-trade of Africa is carried on, and
the external Slave-trade supplied with its victims. To
accomplish this, it is intended to negotiate conventions
or agreements with those chiefs and powers, the basis
of which conventions would be, first, the abandonment
and absolute prohibition of the slave trade; and, se-
condly, the admission for consumption in this country,
on favourable terms, of goods the produce or manufac-
ture of the territories subject to them. Of those chiefs
the most considerable rule over the countries adjacent
to the Niger and its great tributary streams. It is
therefore proposed to dispatch an expedition, which
would ascend that river by steam-boats, as far as the
points at which it receives the confluence of some of
principal rivers falling into it from the eastward. At
these, or at other stations which may be found more
favourable for the promotion of a legitimate commerce,
it is 'proposed to establish British factories, with a view
of teaching the natives that there are methods of em-
ploying the population more profitable to those to whom
they are
.subject, than that of converting them into
slaves, and selling them for exportation to the slave-
traders.

Such is a partial developement of the plan adopted by
Government at the recommendation of Mr. Buxton :
but is it feasible ? Would it not be better as the Spec-
tator• says, "to take the money at once and throw it
into the sea?
One of the first objections which we have to urge
against this utopian and visionary scheme is, that there
is not on the banks of the Niger a sufficient quantity
of surplus produce of any description to justify the ex-
pectation that a trade may be established. This is
abundantly proved in the published accounts of the
expedition of Messrs. Laird and Oldfield.
The second objection we derive from the circumstance
hat the natives of that portion of Africa will not be al-

lowed to trade with white men. Messrs, Laird and
Oldfield found it utterly impracticable to establish any
commercial intercouse with the inhabitants in the in-
terior, whence nearly all the slaves are procured. It is
quite nonsensical to imagine that any process of reason-
ing will persuade the. predatory chiefs that it would be
more to their interest to exchange the profitable traffic
in slaves for the arts of civilised life—in other words
to substitute labour and poverty for idleness and wealth.
In the third place, the climate of that part of Africa
in which it is intended to establish factories is even
worse than that of Sierra Leone, where so many Eng-
lishmen have been prematurely consigned to their
graves. No white man can survive long the pestilential
marasmata on the banks of the Niger. To transport
Englishmen to such a horrid climate would be almost
as cruel as the Slave-trade itself.

In the fourth place, the proposed plan cannot be
carried into effect without involving this nation in a
system of petty warfare, interminable in its duration,
and involving an enormous expenditure of life and mo-
ney, with the African chiefs by whom the Slave-trade is
now carried on. It is idle to talk of conciliating these
chiefs. They may be intimidated into a compliance
with our demands by the presence of an armed force.
Is Lord John Russell prepared to carry out his plan by
making war on the African chiefs ? Is he, furthermore,
prepared to seize upon the territories of the African
chiefs for the purpose of establishing his factories and
forming his agricultural settlements ?
Another formidable objection to Mr. Buxton's scheme
is founded on the well-known fact, that the chiefs in the
interior of Africa are in a state of almost prpetual
warfare with each other. By what magic process can
we expect to reconcile these chiefs and their belligerent
and predatory clans with each other? Unless we can
accomplish this, it should be borne in mind that it is
utterly impossible to establish a permanent trade or
form agricultural settlements.

We have thus briefly detailed a few of the more pro-
minent objections to the proposed expedition to the
Niger. In our next we shall proceed to show its utter
inefficacy as a means for suppresSing the slave trade.
At the same time we shall detail a scheme which will
effectually accomplish this object, and strike a death
blow to slavery, in every part of the world.

The Great Western may be expected to reach Bristol this
morning, on her return from New York, bringing accounts to
the 19th instant.

The Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Combermere
has been pleased to appoint the Rev. Charles F. Smith, of
St. Mary's, Chester, and late of this town, one of his lord-
ship's domestic chaplains.—Courier.
ATTENDANCE OF UNNECESSARY WITNESSES AT TILE
ASSIZES.—On Monday, in the Crown Court, a case of
sheep-stealing was tried, in which no fewer than three of the
constabulary force of Wigan were brought up as witnesses,
where one would, by proper management, have served all the
purposes of justice. One constable produced the bones of
a shoulder of mutton (that had belonged to the stolen sheep,)
and another, the foot or trotter bone to fit it. On the same
principle a whole posse might have come into court, each
armed with a rib or other bone of the dead animal. His
lordship took occasion to allude to the attendance of unne-
cessary witnesses, intimating that the judges would certainly
not, in such cases, allow them their expenses.

PROTESTANT OPERATIVE MEETING.—A meeting of the
members of the Operative Protestant Association was held
on Tuesday evening, in the News-room, Houghton-street,
John Wilkinson, Esq., in the chair, for the purpose of adopt-
ing a petition to the House of Lords, praying their lordships
to reject the Irish Municipal Bill, which was considered so
eminently calculated to injure the Protestant institutions of
that country. The meeting was addressed by several in-
fluential members. The room was crowded to excess, and
many were unable to obtain admittance. It was unanimously
agreed that the petition should be sent to the Duke of 'Wel-
lington for presentation. A great number of signatures were
received in the room. The meeting separated at ten o'clock.
In the Nisi. Prius Court on Saturday, just before his
Lordship passed sentence on the Messrs. Sowler, Mr. R.
Scarr Sowler, the gentleman who committed the assault on
Mr. Jeremiah Garnett, of the Manchester Guardian, passed
from the vicinity of the under-sheriff, near whom he had
been standing, to the place occupied by the elder Mr. Sow.;
ler, immediately behind the seats assigned to'the Queen's
connsel. The vicinity was crowded by gentlemen of the
long robe, who were anxious to hear the sentence ; and in
order to reach his father, it was necessary for Mr. Scarr
Sowler to displace a learned gentleman, who after the lapse
of a few seconds reminded Mr. Sowler (with whose person,
by the way, he was quite unacquainted) that " he had com-
pletely deprived him of his place." " Oh," rejoined Mr.
R. Sowler, politely moving to the gentleman, " I assure you I
shall most cheerfully give way ; the fact is I am here waiting
to receive judgment in the case Garnett v. Sowler, and if
you choose to take the place and its consequences, I'm sure
I have no objection." This sally was followed by a general
titter amongst the gowns and wigs.

NEW FLOATING-LIGHT.—The new Floating-light, the
Queen, is nearly completed, and will bo moored, at the
Formby station, on the 6th of April. It is intended to place
an additional Light-ship in Crosby Channel, about half the
distance between the Rock Light-house and the Formby
Floating-light, which will be ready to be laid crown by about
the 6th May. We shall then have three Floating-lights, viz :
one in Great Crosby Channel, off the east elbow of Great
Burbo Bank, showing a single light; a second at the Formby
Station, showing two lights ; and the third at the Northwest
Station, showing three lights. The Rock light, the intended
Crosby and the Formby Floating-lights, being nearly in a
line with Victoria Channel, will enable vessels to enter or
leave the port at almost any hour of the night, thus afford-
ing means of access and of egress particularly valuable to her
Majesty's mail-packets, as well as to American or other
packets sailing on fixed days, and to the shipping generally,
whether sailing vessels or vessels navigated by steam, as the
port may then be said to be open almost every hour of the
twenty-four. These are great improvements, effected at no
additional cost to commerce, and the Dock Committee de-
serve great credit for carrying them into effect. We under-
stand that two masters will be appointed to the new Floating-
light on the ninth of April.

£35,000 of primary outlay, and £10,546 of annual
expenditure to carry it into effect.
F Mr. Buxton, in his recently published work on the
Slave-trade, has fully demonstrated the utter
ineHi-
cacy of all previous schemes for the suppression of
the Slave-trade. It is no exaggeration to say that the
Government of this country has expended twenty-five
millions of pounds, since the year 1808, in the vain
endeavour to extinguish this traffic. During the same
period, and in the same enterprise, how many thou-
sands of our brave seamen have fallen a prey to the
pestilential climate of Western Africa ? How many
other brave and distinguished men, engaged in a civil
capacity, have also been sacrificed omits plague-struck
coasts ? How many hundreds of thousands, nay mil-
lions of Negroes have been consigned to all the accu-
mulated horrors of slavery in foreign colonies during
the same period ? Is not the answer to the last
question a pregnant proof of the failure of all the
schemes to which we have hitherto resorted, for the
purpose of putting an end to this aboniinable trade ?
As all previous schemes for the suppression of the
slave trade have proved miserable but expensive failures,
it is worth while to enquire whether Mr. Buxton's plan is
better calculated to answer the end in view. We think it
is not. It is as childishly absurd and impracticable as the
most chimerical scheme that has ever been engendered
in the brain of the wildest enthusiast. This is tacitly
acknowledged even by the organs of Government. The
chief of these, the Morning Chronicle, has observed,.
"that the expedition to the Niger may fail to produce all
the good results which some expect from it, but it can
hardly fail to produce much good." So far from pro•
during any good whatever, we believe that the proposed
expedition will be productive of incalculable evil.
Let us examine in detail the plan laid down in Lor