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

mercy at the footstool of republican insolence. We
have still hearts amongst us bold enough, and arms
strong enough, to hurl back the defiance even of the
citizens of the model republic. America must not
depend for ever upon the memory of past triumphs.
She achieved her independence .against the arms of
England; but she has not, in the contest which is
approaching; the same cause to animate her sons.
She has not the same motive to induce unanimity of
action and feeling; and, above all, America has now
something to lose. She has a large and profitable
commerce; she has a large mercantile marine ; she
has a market for her valuable produce, to lose. And
what has she to gain ? Canada—a source of strength
to England, which would be a source of weakness to
her; for extended dominion must ever be a source of
weakness, unless cemented by community of interest.

In another column we give insertion to an able article
on immigration into the West Indies, which we have
copied from our metropolitan contemporary, the Jour-
nal of Commerce. We rejoice to find that this subject
is creating such a warm interest in all parts of the

country. In a little time we expect to find the provin-
cial press joining with us in agitating a question so
fraught with immediate and prospective benefits to the
manufacturing and mercantile interests.of this country.

We regret to find that the editor of the Journal of
Commerce is disinclined to advocate the engagement of
Africans and Hill Coolies:as free labourers in our West
India colonies. We believe that a more mature consi-
deration of the subject will satisfy him and others that
these classes constitute the most eligible labourers that
can be selected for field work in those colonies. In-
dependently of their physical adaptation for the climate
of the West Indies—which is, of itself, a most impor-
tant consideration—we have the most abundant evi-
dence of their having proved a valuable acquisition 'to
the planters on all those estates on • which they have
already been engaged. In proof of this we subjoin an
extract of a private letter, received from a gentleman of
the highest respectability at Berbice, who expresses
hiMself in the following terms, while speaking of the
Hill Coolies :—" I have seen with pleasure the efforts
making to get the restrictions withdrawn at present
preventing our getting Coolies from the East. They
are the people best adapted for the colony. Those lo-
cated on Ilighbury now perform as much work in a
day as the Negroes did in former days, and in the qua-
lity there is no comparison. They are seldom sick. I

lave seen them lately throwing out old canals, and

they are most expert at it. In fact, there is no de-
scription of work required on a sugar estate which they
do not set about cheerfully. On the copper wall boil-
ing sugar they are quite at home. Next to them the
African is most likely to suit us." This testimony,
emanating as it does from a party who is not personally
interested in the matter, is invaluable. It is, however,
amply corroborated by the statements of Governor
Light, in his despatches to Lord John Russell. He
has expressed a strong opinion in favour of the intro-
duction of the Hill Coolies into British Guiana. The
position which he occupies has enabled him to enter
fully into the details of the constitutional adaptation,
the willing disposition, and the general treatment of
the East Indian immigrants ; and the result of his in-
vestigations, as deliberately expressed in his recently
published despatches, has been a formal recommenda•
tion to the Colonial-office to remove the existing re-
strictions on the introduction of this class of labour-

ers.

We trust that the editor of the Journal of Com-
merce will consult the despatches to which we have re-
ferred. A candid perusal of those documents cannot
fail to convince him that the interests of our West In-
dia Colonies will be most materially promoted by the
extensive and unrestricted introduction of Asiatic la-

bourers, especially on the sugar estates, for the work
on which they appear to be so admirably adapted.
The extract which we have given above will afford
another answer to the false and unfounded statements
of Mr. Scoble, who has ventured to designate the immi-
gration of the Hill Coolies as "a revival of the slave
trade."

The documents which we published on Tuesday must
have satisfied our readers that Mr. Scoble is a man on
whose opinions or statements very little reliance can be
placed. The truth is that this itinerant anti-slavery
agitator is an inflated-coxcomb, who is just as compe-
tent to form an opinion on matters of business as the
inkstand before us. He began life, we believe, as a
dissenting preacher at Woolwich. In that capacity,
owing to the mediocrity of his talents, lie stood no
chance whatever of rising into any degree of eminence;
but, having an excellent face for a grievance-monger,
he was fixed upon by the Anti-Slavery Society as one
of their travelling agents. Since lie entered upon this
new career he has been indefatigable in his exertions to
malign the planters of the West Indies, against whom
he has published an enormous catalogue of calumnious

libels. The exhibition which he made of himself at
the late meeting in the Music-hall was pitiable in the
extreme. In every important particular Mr. Semple,
who spoke from experience, met him with with a com-
plete refutation of his statements—a refutation which
will serve as a testimonial to Mr. Scoble's character
wherever he goes, and prove to every audience which
he meets his utter disregard of facts, his impudent as-
sumptions, and his reckless propensity for slandering
men who have never done him an iota of injury.

We have received a letter signed William Bevan, in
reference to the remarks made by us, in our paper of
Tuesday last, on the proceedings of the Anti-Slavery
Meeting held in Liverpool, at which Mr. Scoble com-
mitted himself by some misrepresentations and inac-
curate statements which called from us the strictures
alluded to in Mr. Bevan's letter. We give it a place
in our columns with much pleasure, as it affords us an
opportunity of putting Mr. Bevan, the party he is con-
nected with, and the public generally, in possession of
our views with regard to the extinction of the Slave
Trade and Slavery throughout the world, and at the
same time, keeping up the productiveness of the British
West India Colonies, where Slavery has been abolished,
and where every negro is as free as the winds that blow
around him. We are no advocates of Slavery, far less
of the Slave Trade, and our humble aid will at all times
be afforded to assist in carrying out any well digested
plan having for its object the abolition of both. We
cannot, however, agree that this is to be done by ca-
lumniating, vilifying, and violently abusing any class
connected with either. Let us, rather, by sound argu-
ment, an adherence at all times to the truth, and by
pointing out the sin of Slavery and slave dealing, en-
deavour to get them to go along with us in carrying
out the object of universal liberty to all men, rather
than make them our enemies, and strengthen their op-
position.

The ostensible object of the meeting was, as we un-
derstand,—" to take into consideration the duty of the
friends of the negro, with reference to the present state
of Slavery and the Slave Trade throughout the world."
This was all very well and very praiseworthy, if the
proceedings of the meeting had been in strict accord-
ance with this declaration. But what was the real
nature of those proceedings ? They consisted in an
attempt to vilify and abuse the Planters of the Mauri-

ties and British Guiana—and to get up a petition to
Parliament to deprive one class of Her Majesty's sub-
jects of freedom of labour, and of the power of improv-
ing their present wretched and miserable condition by
emigrating to other parts of Her Majesty's possessions,
better able to afford them employment as well as ample
sustenance, which they cannot get in their own country.
Mr. Seoble justly deprecated some restrictive laws in
operation in Barbadoes, which amount, he says, almost
to a prohibition on the emancipated negro emigrating
to British Guiana or Trinidad, or elsewhere, and re-
commended the friends of the negro to exert them-
selves . to get such laws abolished. This is all very
proper and just, and if such obnoxious laws do exist,
we advocate their abolition; but this we doubt, and
we believe they exist only in Mr. Scoble's own fabri-
cating brain—as the Demerara papers lately received
state, that it is expected that from five to six thousand
Barbadoes labourers would arrive there during the
present year, and two vessels had arrived with labour-
ers from that island. We believe the only law on the
subject is made to prevent the strong effective people
leaving the island without taking with them the aged
or infirm part of the family, or making some provision
for them, so that they may not become a burden on the
public. What was Mr. Scoble's consistent proposition
in the very next sentence, after advocating the abolition
of the restrictive laws of Barbadoes ? He proposed to
the meeting a petition to Parliament to prohibit the
natives of India from leaving their own country, to

deprive them of freedom of labour, and prevent them
from emigrating to British Guiana, which he himself so
eloquently describes "as the most splendid appendage
of the British crown; so extensive, so fertile, so rich,
as to be able of sustaining no less than forty millions
• of people," nearly double the number of inhabitants of
England, Ireland, and Scotland; although at the pre-
sent moment there are not more than 100,000 inhabit-
' ants, and where, be it remembered, he says, " the
planters allow a guilder (the third of a dollar) for a
tariff or task of work," which it is notoriously well
known can be performed in from four to five hours by
industrious labourers; in addition to which, they get
good houses, as much land as they choose to cultivate,
with provisions for their own support, and which leave
a surplus for market, medicines and medical attendance,
religious instruction and tuition, gratis. For this libe•
rality in wages, allowances, &c., Mr. Scoble vilifies and
abuses the planters of Guiana, instead of holding them
up as an example for others less liberal to follow, and
he would only allow the BarbadOes and American negro
to participate in the advantages to be derived by la-
bourers in this land of promise, although they are a
class well off, and amply provided for in comparison
with the Hill Coolies. Would it be believed that, in
the nineteenth century, the pretended friends of liberty
openly agreed, in a public meeting, as the citizens of
Liverpool, to petition the Parliamebt of the kingdom
to deprive one class of her Majesty's subjects of the
right to the free disposal of their own labour ?
As well might they petition Parliament to prevent the
English, Irish, and Scotch, from emigrating to Aus-
tralia, New Zealand, or the Wilds of Western Ame-
rica. Fortunately for all classes of Her Majesty's sub-
jecis, Lord John Russell, in the name of the Govern-.
ment, has declared that " freedom of laboUr must be
the principle, restriction the exception ;" and we shall
do all in our power to see the principle carried out to
the letter. Mr. Scoble laid great stress on the rate of
wages in Guiana, and wished to impress the meeting
with a belief that a guilder was all a negro could earn
in a day, when a gentleman who knew better put him
right. In confirmation of that gentleman's assertion
that they could earn three guilders, we quote the fol-
lowing from the Berbice papers of December last :
" The inducement to labourers is very great, when the
wages given are so high, and particularly so in a coffee
plantation. We understand from very good authority
that it is no unusual thing for an active man and his
wife to pick four and five bushels of coffee a day, and
in some cases their children pick two or three, accord-
ing to their number or strength, which at a guilder a
basket, is equal to ten or eleven shillings a day, and

its with no more effort than thousands of families in

England must make to earn three shillings a day.
These are truths worthy of consideration with persons
desirous of emigrating to our shores."
Mr. Scoble never touched on the rate of wages the

poor labourer in our own country obtains. his our
duty to record that omission, that the public may con-
trast the condition of our own countrymen with that of

the emancipated negro in Guiana. Be it known, then,
to Mr. Scoble and his friends, that in many of the ma-
nufacturing towns, the poor labourer, after toiling ten
or twelve hours a day, from Monday morning until
Saturday night, finds he has probably earned six shil-
lings, and in many cases not so much, out of which he
has to pay house rent, provide food and clothing, pay
for medicine and advice when needed, and for the edu-
cation of his children if they get any at all !!! And
what are the wages of the labourer of India that they
wish to deprive of freedom ?-1 zd. and 2d.per day, out
of which they have to provide themselves with all they
want. Would it not be a blessing to them and to all
others situated' ike them, to have the means of getting
access to a Colony which Mr. Scoble so eloquently
described at the meeting, but whose description falls
short of that given by the able, intelligent, and honest
philanthropist, Sir Andrew Halliday, in a work pub-
lished by him on the "West Indies," after his return
to this country in 1837. In speaking of the extent of
British Guiana, he says, " I may safely affirm, that
this Colony embraces many more acres of land than
are contained in Great Britain and Ireland combined;
and is a far more valuable possession than either Peru
or. Mexico, with their gold and silver mines, or even

the Brazils, with all its. diamonds to boot. Here we
have.a very different soil froMthat of Barbadoes, a rich
alluvial compost, 147 feet in depth, and quite inex-
haustible, both as regards quantity and quality; and
which as to cultivation and colonization, has limits that

I may truly say are boundless. As yet a few patches
only along the sea coast, and the banks of its three
great rivers, have been subjected to colonization; and
such are their productiveness, that the exports of
Colony are already nearly on a par with those of the
large island of Jamaica with its labouring population
of nearly 300,000. If cultivation and population pro-
ceed and advance in anything like the ratio they have
lately done, it would be a matter of little import (in as
far as sugar, rum, molasses, and coffee, and even cot-
ton are concerned) a few years hence though all the

Islands in the Carribean Sea were returned to the bot-
tom of the great deep. British Guiana could furnish
a supply of these articles for the whole world, and for
10,000 years, and still have fresh soil to bring into
cultivation. It is of the utmost importance to Great
Britain, that the attention of Government and of the
whole community, and more especially of our ' mer-
chant kings' and adventurers, should be drawn to and
fixed upon this rich and invaluable Colony ; for were
its resources truly known, its advantages duly appre-
ciated, and its capabilities fully examined and explained,
it would indeed soon become a wealthy state ; and
Georgetown, already a crowded and flourishing sea
port, would rival, if not surpass, New York. Great
capital is not even necessary, IT ONLY requires
labourers to till the ground ; and, I am happy
to have to state, that, since the galling fetters of
slavery have been removed, and the negro is allowed
to bring his free services to the best market, many are
flocking to this land of promise, where not only mere
comfort, but even wealth may be speedily acquired."
Would Sir Andrew Halliday, if he were alive, have
believed that in 1839 the productions of this magnifi-
cent colony had fallen off one half, with the prospect
of a greater diminutionin 1840—that the emigration set
on foot by Sir J. C. Smyth, the late Governor, had
been checked by the Government of England, and
openly opposed by some of that body of which he was
a member—and that they were pursuing a course,
which if persevered in, must end in the free negro
retrograding in civilisation, and becoming the com-
panion of wild beasts in the forests of British
Guiana ? If emigration is opposed, and the crops
continue to diminish, where are the planters to obtain
the means of supporting the immense church and

school establishments to which they have for many years
so munificently contributed ? When Mr. Scoble was
vilifying the planters of Guiana, he never alluded to
this important subject. Mr. Latrobe, the government
commissioner, furnishes this omission of Mr. Scoble's,
which it did not suit his purpose to disclose. We
do not blame the anti-slavery body for continuing to
watch over the progress of the measure of emancipation,
and seeing that the negroes' rights are secured; but is
this to be accomplished by vilifying the planters, tra-
ducing the characters of Governors, judges, and ma-
gistrates, or by sending hired spies to the colonies to
excite discontent amongst the negroes ? No, let them
send honest, upright, and impartial judges, of whom,
we confess, we do not think Mr. Scoble is one, to re-
port on their condition ; and if the report we have
heard of Mr. Scoble be correct, we are fully justified
in coming to this conclusion. It appears he made cer-
tain communications to the Colonial-office against the
Governor, High Sheriff, and Government Secretary of
Demerara, which Lord John Russell had investigated,
and found to be false, and ;his lordship very properly
desired that Mr. Scoble should be denied access to the
Colonial-office. If this is correct, and our informant
says it came from good authority, we think Mr.
Bevan. Mr. Cropper, and Dr. Raffles will gain little
credit by their associate. If a planter commits mur-
der, let him be hvnged—if he commits any offences
against the laws, let him be punished, but donot abuse
a whole community for the acts of a few. Murders,
robberies, and many breaches of the law are of daily
occurrence in England, but the English are not set
down as a nation of murderers, robbers, and law-
breakers. We believe these gentlemen are not
opposed to emigration, or to the successful working
of the colonies with free labour; but they are deceived
by Mr. Scoble, and we would, therefore, recommend
them (unless they wish to see England reduced to the
necessity of having recourse to Brazil and Cuba for slave-
grown sugar and coffee, to supply the home market,

and thereby affording the means tor continuing the
slave-trade), rather to join than oppose Government,
and devise the best means and proper regulations for
carrying out the measure of immigration of free
labourers on a scale commensurate with the wants of
all the colonies, so as to render this country perfectly
independent of all foreign slave countries for the tro-
pical productions. We would remind them of the
words of a celebrated writer on this subject, who says
" Emigration is like an overflowing fountain, it may
be guided but-cannot be stopped."
Mr. Scoble must now see that the nation at large
is now sensible of the justice, humanity, good policy,
and the necessity of emigration on a gigantic scale to
the West India colonies ; and he might as well now
try to stop the waters of the Niagara, as stop emigra-
tion to the mighty rivers of Guiana. If he does he
will be carried away by the torrent.

Neither Mr. Bevan nor Mr. Scoble can make us
believe, or the public either, that there has been but a
slight diminution in the production of sugar since the
period of emancipation. The writer of a letter in the
Morning Chronicle, which we transferred to our co-
lumns of Tuesday last, clearly proves that the produc-
tion of British Guiana is just about one-half of for-
mer years ; and taking all the colonies in the West
Indies, the import of sugar alone has dwindled from
252,000 hhds. to 178,000.
Mr. Bevan talks of foreign nations yet tolerating
slavery, following the example of England, and abolish-
ing the system. How absurd ! Foreigners are reap-
ing a golden harvest at our expense. They see our
productions are falling off one-half, and they are ap-
plied to to make up the deficiency. When we can
prove that by free labour we can raise sufficient pro-
duce for our wants. and have some to spare for foreign
markets (which formerly was the case), we may expect
them to do so, but not till then ; and this, we tell Mr.
Bevan, can only be done by keeping up a constant
stream of emigration to the British colonies, that the
planters may always have as much labour as they can
employ. So long as we give the countries referred to
a market for the produce raised by their slaves, so long
as we keep our refineries going with slave-grown
sugars, and export it to all the British possessions—so
long as we supply the home market with their coffee,
imported either direct or via the Cape, of Good Hope,
so long will slavery be continued and the slave-trade be
followed up. They see that our productions are only
one-half what they formerly were,—many valuable
plantations abandoned to the weeds of a tropical cli-
mate, many others on the eve of being given up, many
planters totally ruined, all of them struggling to keep
their heads above water, many going to foreign colo-
nes in despair, our ships seeking cargoes in their
colonies, which they formerly got in our own, and
the whole colonial interest embarrassed. Truly, it
would be strange, with such an example before them,
if they did abandon slavery. Would Mr. Bevan, under
these circumstances, recommend such a step? We have
no doubt Mr. Bevan means well, but he has not gone
deep enough into the question, and has trusted too
much to the stories of Mr. Scoble. When the latter
was telling him of the bad yielding. of the canes last
year on many estates, why did he not give the reason
for their yielding so badly, viz., because the canes were
not attended to when cut the previous year ? The
weeding, &c., have been entirely left undone, altoge-
ther for want of labour, as the planters could not get
even sufficient to take. off the growing canes ; so that
the deficient yield of the crop is entirely attributable
to the indolence of the negroes, and not to the seasons.
It is true there were three months of drought last
year, but this did not injure the growing canes : it
retarded the making of sugar a little, but not to such
an extent as to affect in any degree the amount of
crop.

Governor Light has been himself sadly deceived in

the working of the system. Having written to the
Colonial-office, in the outset, that the system was
working well, he is now compelled, seeing the crop of
1839 is reduced to one-half of former years, to resort
to every shift to try and make it appear that the planter
is not ruined, although he only gets half the usual
crop, and bolsters up a bad case by saying that the
price of produce has risen. What would have been

the condition of the planter if the price had fallen ?
Governor Light and Mr. Scoble know well that the
expenses of an estate, whether WO hhds. or 500 hhds.
are made, as far as regards the salaries of attorney,
manager, overseers, doctor, &c., are the same;—the
keeping of buildings, machinery, punts, feeding of
cattle, &c., are all the same ;—the capital invested and
interest are the same ;—and the only difference is in

the amount of wages. It is, therefore, an absurd ar-
gument to make use of by Governor Light, that if the
negroes do rot work there is no outlay of wages. If
the work is not performed, what becomes of the culti-
vation, and from what source are the other expenses to
be paid.?

Mr. Scoble seems particularly careful of the eman-
cipated negroes in Guiana, but he neglects others more
deserving of his care. He said nothing to the meet-
ing about the thousands of captured Africans that

have been taken by British cruisers for the last thirty
years, and located in Cuba, Brazil, &c., under inden-
tures. Are they substantially free, and what rate of
wages and allowances are they receiving, or have they
merged into the slave population of those countries ?
Did Mr. Scoble, when he was in the West Indies,
visit the captured Africans in Surinam, under the care
of a British commissioner ? If so, why did he not
inform the meeting of their condition, treatment, and
the rate of wages they were receiving ? Why was the
meeting not informed of the treatment, condition, and
rate of wages of the captured Africans at the Bahamas
and Sierra Leone ? These poor people are beneath
the notice of Scoble and his party, and it is only Bri-
tish Guiana that is to be persecuted, because Mr.
Scoble has some personal enemies there, and the whole
colony must be ruined that he may have his revenge
on them.

On Friday next that distinguished warrior and statesman,
the Duke of Wellington, will have attained his 71st year ; and
we may be excused for suggesting the propriety of paying his
Grace on that day some public mark of the esteem in which
his name is held amongst his grateful fellow-countrymen. It
is seldom that a great public character has been permitted to
outlive the calumnies and disarm the hostile feelings of his
enemies ; but we do think that the Duke of Wellington has
so fully done this that men of all parties and of all creeds
would be found ready to join in paying respect to his charac-
ter on that occasion. That such a manifestation, coming
from a great community like ours, would convey a feeling of
gratification to the heart of the veteran, we cannot, knowing
the noble qualities of that heart, entertain a doubt ; and we
have as little hesitation in saying that a portion at least of
the honour, which we should thus endeavour to confer, would
revert to those who confer it.

We shall not attempt to dictate the mode in which this tri-
bute should be conveyed ; but when we remember that twice
during the past year the public mind has been racked with
the fear that Death had fixed his palsying hand upon that
iron frame, and that the lofty spirit which sustained the Bri-

tish ranks amid the carnage of a hundred fields was about to
be extinguished, we cannot but feel how appropriate any tri-
bute, however humble, would be at the present time, as a
mark of our satisfaction that England is yet spared from the
visitation of such a calamity. The authorities of Liverpool
would not misuse their powers by directing them to the ful-
filment of an object which would afford gratification to such
an immense majority of its inhabitants.

THE LATE SIR W. BARTON'S RESIDENCE.—We direct
attention to an advertisement in another column, which an-
nounces that the above mansion has been taken by the Misses
Perkins, and fitted up by them in the most splendid manner
as a private boarding-house, for which purpose its noble
suite of rooms and its contiguity to the principal places of
business admirably adapt it.
FANCY-BALL DRESSES.—The costumes brought down by
Mr. Hart, from Regent-terrace, London, and now on view
at the rooms over Messrs. Blackwell and Robinson's shop, in
Lord-street, are exceedingly varied, rich and splendid in
quality, and in perfect order. We never before saw so
gorgeous and extensive a wardrobe. Amongst the richer
dresses we noticed a splendid costume of the " Earl of Lei..
tester," of maroon velvet,trunmed with gold lace : a " Fra
Diavolo" of green silk velvet, trimmed with gold; a green
silk velvet and gold, slashed with white satin, a correct court
dress of Charles IL ; an original Persian Prince's dress of
extremely rich gold and crimson silk brocade in stripes, with
gimp bead and pearl decorations of great minuteness ; this is
one of the richest tissue in the rooms. A real court dress of
Charles I.—dark olive velvet, trimmed with silver, with lace
at the wrists. All these are complete in suits, and many of
the vests are very rich. A dress of a chieftain of the nioun-
tains of Caucasus, is also very rich and characteristic. In
regimentals and uniforms of this and other nations the col-
lection is very splendid—from field-marshals and aid-de-
camps to subalterns. A splendid suit of the Scotch Royal
Archer's Brigade Guards has been much admired, as also
one of a Captain of Yeomen of the Guards, very rich and
rare. Naval uniforms are equally abundant, including the
Lord Nelson style ; and in the Scottish costume, the drepes
and accoutrements are splendid, the dirks, &C., being of su-
perior workmanship, and set with precious stones. There
are several real dresses that have been worn by kings, princes
and celebrated men, and many rich ornaments, in lace, epati:
lettes, &c.,—but we must conclude by recommending an
early inspection, a considerable number of the dresses being
already engaged.