The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-05-29 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

" F. H. H.". is thanked for his kind favour, which we shall take
.an early opportunity of acknowledging more in detail.
The Poetry 'of " C. W." is creditable to the feelings of the
author, but not sufficiently correct for insertion.

Vbe, ,Eibierpool g-taitharb.

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 29, 1838.

The Publication of the STANDARD commenced this morn-

jug at 5 o'clock

Tur,j WEST INDIES.—We have received files of the
Royal Gazette, (Jamaica,) the Jamaica DespatCh, and
the Jamaica Standard, to the 27th ultimo inclusive.
These impels announce the .arrival at Kingston of the
Priece de Joinville. He was hospitably entertained by
the public authorities. The Despatch of the 27th ult.
contains the following remarks on Sir Lionel Smith, the
governor, who, it appears, is not so popular as we for-'
Overly apprehended :
" Decipimar is our confessional. Sir Lionel Smith has dis-
appointed our expectations,, and it now appears that his Excel-
lency has been the • principal means of urging parliamentary
interference. Without abiding the issue of events Sir Lionel
Smith, in November last }ear, made an official communication
to the Government, reporting that the assembly would not lis-
ten to, or adopt any recommendations which the Government
might suggest! We be to express our conviction, that an open
foe is always to be preferred to a secret enemy. Ambush fight-
ing, except in great emergency, is discreditable to a highwinded
soldier."

Respecting the present position of the' planters, and
the means necessary to be taken for the protection of their
interests, the Despatch of the same date remarks—

r‘ We are of opinion that a simultaneous'expase shoUld take
ilace in the shape of resolutions and protests by the Local
Magistracy of every parish in the Island, where special abuses
prevail, declaratory of the wrongs and insults to which they
have been subjected, and remonstrating against an. abuse of
special authority, founded upon prejudiceS, partiality and lob-
sided justice, by which the proprietary, Local Magistrates,
stud apprentice masters are subjected to unmerited contumely,
slander, and abuse, and to the 'still greater grievance of por‘slar
insubordination, discontent, and loss of labour, tisreatenis..
yerider.estates valueless, and terminating in the' ruin of the ap-
prentices themselves. Such remonstrances properly signed:and
-authenticated, could not fail to open the eyes of the British
veople to the impositions practised .upou them, and to awaken
the government to 'a
-sense of the unjust advantage which Las

already been sawlioned by a proll ga! vernment clique !"
In reply to the calumnies heaped upon the planters by
Lord Brongliam, and his coadjutors in the cause of Mimi.-
&ate' enianeipation. from the apprenticeship system, the
De.spatch remarks--

" In contradistinction to Ex-Chancellor Brougham, we assert
and can prove that the apprentice owners are, in fact, the op-
pressed, and not' the
.oppressors, as any unprejudiced person
may judge by the extra-judicial power granted to ignorant, par-
tial, and-upstart minions of office to trample equal law and
justice under their feet.

" We have heard of ERA and upwards being the fine im-
posed upon a manager for tying 'a runaway •apprentice with a
rope, and in every case where a Special is called to adjudicate
any'complaint of a negro apprentice against his master the fine
is sure to he excessive, viz. Five pounds for the most trifling
offence, which an English Magistrate adjudicating for a,white
servant, would adjudge fairly compensated fora matter of five
or ten shillings. It is quite enough that the masters are obliged
to endure the over-bearing insolence of office, the impertinent
espionage of their hireling servants into domestic concerns,
and their vexatious and tampering meddling with the proper
management of their plantation work. But to give them.the
power to inflict fines ad libitum, which may be misappropriated,
for aught we can tell or know, would be lieeniing an' unlimited
•power of plunder., In thus denouncing the partial and arbitrary
power to oppress whic6 the Colonial Minister seeins.inclined to
afford to these for the most part prejudiced and unqualified of-
ficials, we must acknowledge that there are amongst them a few
honourable and upright men, inclined to do their duty fairly,
but these few are su badgered by the spies of office, and so be-
wildered with contradictory instructions that they have no power
to act with uniform justice. And the Special Government of
this Colony, by Colonial-office misrule, has almost become, as
the Loco Focus express it, "a stink in the public nostrils," and
a disgrace to any Administration whO can, to secure the aid of
any faction, thus compromise.the sights, liberties, and property
of her Majesty's free-born subjects !"

There is much truth in the following remarks from the
same paper, on the comparative condition of the negro
apprentices and that of the labourers and artisans of
Great Britain. We recommend them to the attentive
perusal of every 'unprejudiced reader. .
The clamour and outcry which the enemies of. West India
trade and commerce have, to servetheir own selfish views, raised
against the proprietors of colonial property, on the vague charge
of cruelty and injustice, is at last beginning to recoil on their
own sinful heads, and the retribution to those who so uncharita-
bly-,judged their brothers, whilst insensible to their own errors
and defects, will be meted out to them with the unsparing
measure awarded to those who have been so unmercifully
treated.

• "The people of Great Britain are becoming sick of the cant-
cry of negro oppression from persons who few the most heart-
rending sufferings of their countrymen and fellow-subjects with
the most callous indifference and disdain, and who pass by ano-
ther side, instead of binding up the wounds and relieving the
anguish of the miserable victim who perishes at their gate!
"It is a notorious fact that there is more real suffering, want,
and privation, as well as tyranny and injustice-on the part of
local power existing in one street in London, or in any other
populous district of Great Britain, than in the whole Island of
Jamaica! For, if to laly.tir 40 hours per week be a hardship to
stout, able, healthy, well fed negroes, what must it be for poor
half-starved, decrepit, manufacturing apprentices to labour for
sixteen hours incessantly per day with scarce an interval Wrest ?
Instead of murmuring against this hard toil, they are glad to
perform it to avert the pangs of hunger and of cold, and as lung
'as they are nut locked up to labour in a prison, or turned out to
die of starvation in the street, they cheerfully fulfil their daily
task for the mouthful of refreshment it affords.—This is no ex-
aggerated picture, but true of tens of thousands of our fellow-
subjects who labour to manufacture clothing fur the luxut iuus
natives of this sunny soil, and who have barely rags to cover
their own nakedness, whilst our African apprentices are clothed
in fine linen, purple, and silk.
" We lately adverted to the unmitigated distress of the Spital-
field weavers, who wereactually perishing by hundreds, of sheer
want. We have now to call the attention of the public to the
sort of humane discipline under which the miserable pauper
children of Great Britain are locked up to labour for their
bread, and if it does not afford an ample commentary on the
base hypocrisy of a government pretending to ameliorate the:
rules of our workhouses and penitentiaries, whilst they suffer
such aggravated and heartless inhumanity to prevail in their
own, we must think that common sense is run mad,—that evil
has become good,—and that the dark hue of prejudice and su-
perstition has perverted every- principle of religion, humanity,
and justice." • •

stakew hAelr feel
ne
i‘nveti justified
reflect
present
ul4
experiment
the
thus
xhpeeri extendingitie hecii.
which is
tssgse
which
o negx tarotanec tiasnt,
the West India colonies, and especially when we con-
sider their:reparable damage•which may be inflicted, not
only on the planters and the mercantile community, but
also on
.the negroes themselveS, on whose behalf the
sympathies of the people of England have, of late, been
so frequently exhibited. Audi alteram partem is always
a sound maxim, and never more so than in such a case as
this, where those who are accused of the blackest crimes
which can be perpetrated, are living at such a distance
from their merciless Prosecutors, and so destitute of the
ordinary means of replying to the charges laid against
them, and thereby establishing their innocence, and
proving the falsehood of the accusations under which
their characters are suffering. The British public have
an inherent love of fair play, and we are convinced that
this commendable feeling will lead them to insist upon
having "justice " done to the deeply-maligned planters,
as well as to their apprentices. "Justice" to the anti-
slavery emissaries, who have so grossly imposed upon
the amiable feelings of Englishmen, would involve an in-
fliction which we are not disposed to recommend.

It is scarcely necessary for us to repeat that to slavery
and the slave-trade, in the abstract, we entertain as strong
and unconquerable an aversion as the most zealous of
the Exeter Hall agitators: but after .the long period
during which the system has been carried on in the Bri-
tish colonies, under the especial protection of the Bri-
tish governMent, we deem it right to maintain the rights
and to protect the interests of those who have. been
seduced, by the encouragement so given by the English
people, to iuvest their all in the iniquitous traffic. It is
no fault of the planters that slavery has so long existed,
and-it would be an act of injustice to accuse them of any
general wish to see the system prolonged. The example
of Antigua affords au evident proof of the truth of this
remark.

Nor is it right that the planters, as a body, should be
charged with the faults of a few isolated individuals, and
be made the subjects of unfounded calumnies of the basest
character. This is an act of cowardly injustice against
which we shall ever protest, and in doing so, we have no
fears of offending the most scrupulous of our readers.

We shall, perhaps, give some further. .extracts from the
Jamaica papers in our next, as the subject of negro ap-
prenticeship has recently occupied so much attention.

NEW SoUTU `VALES.—Accounts have been received
from Sydney to the 9th of January. From their con-
tents it appears that the colony was proceeding rapidly
in the course of prosperity, and that a most enterprising
disposition was manifested throughout the settlement.
The tide of emigration seems to have set very strongly
towards this interesting colony, as very nearly 1,000
emigrants had arrived out within a few days in the ships
Sir Charles Forbes, Wellesley, Neptune, and Alfred.
On the year the increase in the population had amounted
to about 10;000 souls, or nearly one tenth of the ‘vhole—
a ratio of increase which would cause the population to
be doubled in the short space of ten years. Merchant
vessels to the amount of 13,000 tons had arrived at Port
Jackson, exclusive of colonial craft of every description.
The price of colonial .vheat was ss. to Gs. per bushel,
and of,Van Dietnan's Land Gs. to 7s. Fine Flour was
16s. per 100Ibs.
It is to be hoped that this rapidly increasing. and pros-
perous colony may not have any reason to regret the
misehievouS influence which is exercised by the home
government in the administration of the colonial affairs
of Great Btitain—an influence whose baneful character
has been already too painfully felt in the Canadas.
der a judicious and wise administration we may confi-
dently anticipate a long career of commercial prosperity
in our Australian colonies. They prevrit a large field
for British enterprise, and incalculable Opportunities for
the profitable employment of capital and industry. In
another century the vast continent of New South Wales
will, in all Probability, rank among the empites of the
world, and, like the United States of Americaf number
its pcptdationby

VAN DUMAN'S LAND.—We have received a file-Of.rhe
Hobart 7'0u:71 Courier to the 17t1 of .i.NOV-ember. Their
contents are.'itOt.nf material interest. The accounts ate

for the most part fa‘ourahle. It is stated that. the low
prices of wool in England at the periud of the lasi ad:.

T 11-: Q,TANDAP,i).