The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-15 00:00:00

-zing be mooted in the country,:tbis squabble and conten-
tion among them, each as it were struggling to bring
itself before all others into public notice—this proTo,ed
compression, into less than three Months, of topics which
cannot receive anything like a full discussion in three
years—as a proof of *the superabun6nt wisdom of the
reformed Parliament, or of its rash and reckless temper,
of its ignorance of the nature of the work of legislation,
of its disposition to minister to the prevailing excite-
ment, rather than to promote the permanent interests, of
the people.

WEST INDIA COLONIAL QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THP, LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Sra,—The subject of our West India possessions is one
which invo.yes so many important and momentous interests,
that I trust I may be excused for trespassing, in some detail,
on your notice at this critical period.
Some years ago, it was proposed to a gentleman of long ex-
perience and peculiarly intelligent on this subject, to write
something on the Colonies. His reply Was in these emphatic
words:—•' Were an angel to come from heaven, and to speak
truth to demonstration to the people of this country, regarding
the West India Colonies, he would not be believed."
You are aware that Mr. Henry Broug•luea, now Lord
Brougham, when he canvassed the East Riding of Yorkshire,
and on various other occa dons, saw no difficulties in the way of
immediate emancipation, although his Colonial Policy points
out many practical obstacles that had been experienced by the
Spaniards and others : how this anomaly wises Ido not p cetend
to say. In the one case, a history was penned, by a youth
shortly from college, with this object chiefly before h.m; and
in the other instance, he was addressing constituents who, like
himself, had made up their minds that immediate emancipation
only would satisfy them; but the present Lord Chance:l)r, on
this same colonial question, is confounded by the evidence in
the cause of Thornley v. Burn and others. It is not a
legal
question that puzzles his lordship, hut the. imprac.icability vt
providing for the young and he.pless, and the old and infirm
slaves; and, in this instance, he and others have discovered one
case, out of a hundred other instances that must occur,. of the
ruinous consequences of immediate emancipation, differing
from this now before the public. What seems most irrecon-
cilable is, that his lordship's universally admitted acute and
enlightened understanding did not, at an earlier period, pene-
trate deeper, and more comprehensively embrace this awful
subject, on which the vital interests of the nation hang, when
he had many more extensive and lucid facts before him, which
made the same impresion on common-place minds that this
has produced on the Lord Chancellor. I shall not presume to
say that he and his colleagues now perceive that perseverance
in the measures hitherto puisued towards these ill-fated colonies,
must, in their destruction, involve themselves in disgrace, and
that the evidence given before the several committees on
slavery and on the manufactories, when brought- before the
public, will exhibit a contrast between the condition and com-
forts of the slaves in these colonies, and the misery and wretch..
edness of the operative manufacturers in Britain, such as must
occasion a measure of discontent in the minds of the latter, in
itself to be regretted, and for which occasion should never have
been given, by misrepresentation as to the real condition of the
ne:gro.
I shall here given an extract, from the speech of a gentleman
in Scotland, addressed to a farmers' club in Kincardineshire,
which gives my Lord Brougham and the Government a refe-
rence to.more important and impressive sources of information.
It is in the following words :—" The people of this country have
long been deceived by men whom nothing will satisfy but the
destruction of the colonies; the executive has been coerced br
them into the most absurd and oppressive measures; the wheels
of Government have long been clogged, and could only-move
according to the will of this party, and as they were gratified in
their extravagant ideas. You have been told that the negro.
will be found to labour for himself, and even more for the be-
nefit of the master, if immediately emancipated; but, although
these same men have levied contributions on the public to au
immense amount, and, through the Government, have received
and expended millions in various situations, in order to prove
that these people will become industrious in a free state, they
have failed in every instance: in no situation have any number
been brought together capable of supporting themselves. The
colony of Sierra Leone was established, and has now been car-
ried on, with this view, for upwards of forty years, and has alone
cost the country several millions. Sir James Lucas Yeo, in an_
official dispatch from the coast of Africa, mentioned that tl.e
indigo plant grew wild in the streets of Free-town (Sierra Le-
' one) ; but, was ever an ounce of indigo, or a cask of colonial
produce, brought horn thence ? The task is fraught with mole
difficulty than is generally imagined. The habits of the negro
are not to be changed by an order in council, or an edict from
the British Parliament : he is a differently organised being
from the white. Practical facts tell us more than anything on
this subject. There is not an instance of the American savage,
from one extremity
i of that continent to the other, being edu-
cated and brought into society; and it is desirable that these
philanthropic experimentalists should be able to point out that,
in some one of the various attempts made, it has been proved
that the negroes, in their present state, are prepared for free-
dom, without practising their hypothetical projects over the
whole of the NI est India colonies.'

Our Government, in their ignorance, settled a proportion of
the Am‘rican negroes in the province of Halifax, where the
climate is unfriendly to their temperament, and twenty times
the labour would not rear the same proportion of food as in the
tropics. These people, although furnished with every means
and comfort for three years, at the expense of this country, are
in a miserable plight, whilst the white settlers, on inferior
lands, without assistance, are thriving and comfortable.
In a more genial climate, Trinidad,- the negroes taken from
the Americans at Washington, (and for whom £lOO each were
paid by the British Government,) were settled at considerable
expense; but these are a nuisance, and are dying of want.
In Sierra Leone, the population does not amount to half the
number sent to that place ; their indolence and dissipation are
beyond belief; they are not supported by their industry, but at
the expense of this country; and vet my Lord Brougham could
only learn, by an isolated case before his court, that these people
have not hitherto, in any instance, been brought to labour for
food. These are but a few of many similar instances; but,
having already monopolised too much space, I shall conclude
this part of my subject,. for the present. It may not be without
effect to add a few specimens as to the state of the blacks in the
colonies, and leave it to your readers to make a comparison
with that of the whites in Britain. • _

Sir Lawrence Halstead, in his evidence before the lords, re-
lates that he went to Jamaica extremely prejudiced against the
colonies, and that he expected to see the slaves treated with
great severity, but that the reverse was the vase.—On employ-
ing a dozen of workhouse negroes, (convicts,) they would sit
down and work round them; and that an English labourer
would perform more work in an hour than they would do in a
day.lle says that the negroes possess advantages, in regard
to food and comforts, much beyond those of the- labourers in
Britain; that they are well treated, and that there is a univer-
sal good feeling towards them in the white population, and a
readiness to listen to their complaints, both in public and
private.
Sir John Keane, in his evidence, says that he had seen more
misery in his own country, (Ireland,) in eight hours, than he
had seen in the colonies in eight years.
Mr. Shand, in his evidence before the lords' committee,
makes a contrast between the hours and the measure of labour
performed by the negro, the weavers, field labourers, and others,
in Scotland, England, and France; and of the sleek, fat, and
cheerful appearance of the black, which might not have been
listened to but from what now appears regarding the manufac:
luring population ; nor does he advert to any harsh treatment
practised in this enlightened country.
It may not be improper to observe, that there is not anything
in the preceding which does not admit of further and more per
feet explanation from parliamentary and public documents.
It may not be inapplicable to advise my Lord Brougham to
revert to the evidence of two individuals who were examined
before the committees on slavery, where he must discover all
that can be learned by the evidence in the cause of Thornley e)
Burn and others, and ten times more upon other points equally
important. One of the witnesses to whom I allude is Mr. Wil-
liam Taylor, a planter, who is an advocate for emancipation. and
was brought forward by the abolitionists, as a gentleman of ex-
perience, competent to establish and confirm their views, and
who was examined by both committees at great length; the
other is Mr. Shand, also a planter, of great experience. I
would more especially refer to the remarks of this gentleman,
made at the instance of the chairman of the commons' coni-
mitte,e, on the statement made by Mr. Taylor on the expense of
free labour.
Should '4nything further be requisite for his lordship's satis-
faction upon this momentous subject, enough may be known by
a perusal of the dispatches of Mr. M4Kienzie, formerly British
consul-general in Hayti to Mr. Secretary Canning, in which the
deplorable consequences of the emancipation of uneducated ne-
groes are in every page most clearly illustrated.—Yours.
AN ADVOCATE FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE.