The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-22 00:00:00

t, CORRESPONDENCE.

MR. COBBETT AND THE SLAVE QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
Sir, —The long-looked-for-come-at-last reformed English
House of Commons having safely assembled, and two or three
of the Goliath's having given us a specimen of their abilities
and gentle bearing, it is time for every true lover of old England
to be on the alert, and watch with lynx eyes the proceedings of
a body of men, an overwhelming number of which is composed
of revolutionists of every grade of mind, from the well meaning
enthusiast, carried away by that coy maiden Liberty, to the
dark, deep-thinking hypocritical leveller, with a heart of steel,
equal to any emergency, and whom nothing but the ruin of. his

country will satisfy.
One of the first .tubs thrown to the whale, will, I Mini, be
the unconditional emancipation of the West India slaves; and

if the gentlemen in this country, who are so deeply interested
in the result of this question, do not bestir them?flves, and that
soon, there is everything to fear that a number of them will
find their private property invaded, and themselves bankrupts
in
,the• turning of a straw. But my present business is with
" the lion of the evening," (something ominous in these words)
Mr. Cobbett. This nian has long stood in the foremost 'ranks

amongst the political writers of this country, and as an agitator
he may lift up his head with Daniel O'Connell, Esq. any day
in the week: he has, in the wane of life, attained the long

wished for object of his ambition, a seat in St. Stephen's. From
his great abilities and known.inconsistency, the fellow is abso-
lutely dangerous ; and if he should take the lead as a debater,
which is far from impossible, he will most certainly carry along
with him a majority of the house : if so, the result may be ima-
gined, but not easily. put upon paper ; my readers must form
their own estimation of the danger.

Mr. cobbett's registered opinions on the slave question are
various and characteristic of the man; and during the last ten
years, in which, I have been in the habit of keeping my eye
upon the host of political luminaries who came within the reach
of my observation, there is not one inconstant planet amongst
them which took my attention more than the said Cobbett.
His inconsistencies were glaring and open to the most admir-
ing of his followers, yet there was a redeeming quality in the
strength of the argument, the inimitable coolness with which he
put forth his schemes of economy and regeneration, and the
next month blaming the government for pursuing the very plan
which he had advocated,. with the concentrated weight of his
acknowledged abilities and equally acknowledged impudence.
I put the plain English question, What will this man do in
Parliament ? say it is nearly impossible to judge. TIM crea-
ture of ,circumstances, he does not know his own. mind for a
Proud of his abilities, flattered by 'his parasites,

moment.

worked up to an unnatural pitch of temerity, may I call it en-
thusiasm, with him right is wrong, and wrong is right, accord.;
inq to the, strength of the fit which is upon him. If this strange
composition of wisdom, folly,. and a slight dash of insanity,-be
allowed to take the whip hand of the House of Commons, he
may pour upon his country an unceasing stream of blessings,
and it is equally probable he may overwhelm it with a deluge

of misery, past redemption. • God, in his mercy, direct the crea-
ture to think aright. But lam digressing from the main plot
of my letter,--the slave question. On this much talked of but
little understood subject, I wish to direct the eyes of the public
to the consistency, or inconsistency, (both equally probable) of
this "lion of the evening." This question has been long in
agitation, and no right-minded map can advocate the crying
sin of keeping in degraded bondage the negro, whose skin alone
seems to render him'obnoxious to his white brethren of Europe.
Yet how is this long-standing evil to be got rid of? Not by the
unjust and cruel means of giving freedom to the slave at the
expense of his lawful master,. the planter. I am, as a private
individual, decidedly opposed to the immediate emancipation of
the Whole slave population of our 'West India Islands, one-half
of whom, it is my 'firm belief, would be wandering vagabonds
in the course of six months after such an event, and the' state of
society in those colonies be completely broken up. how will
Mr. Cobbett treat this vital question in the House of Commons?
Let us see what his opinions were in 1823. In a letter addresse4
to Mr. Wilbeffoce, in that year, after applying the knout
pretty severely on that gentleman. for the fin. fetOed humanity
displayed in a pamphlet published by him in favour of the
West India slaves, he goes on to make a comparison between
the white labourers at home, and the black slaves abroad ; he
eloquently describes the situation of a labourer of England,
applying to the • overseer of his parish for relief, " with his feet
tied up in bits of sack, his legs twisted round with haybands,
&c.," and triumphantly asks, "is it this poor soul actually pe-
rishing by inches with hunger, that you mean to produce, and,
in your exulting humanity, bid the planter of JaMaica bring up
to a level with him—bring up to this state of moral dignity a fat
,and lazy negro that laughs from morning to night." A few
lines further on, he expresses his indignation at the sight of an
,Englishman flying to the West Indies to find objects of com-
passion "amongst a body of persons who suffer less, I verily
believe, in body as well as in mind, than any other labourers of
the same number in any part of the world ;" And, at length, he
openly declares in the following words, whether even a gradual
emancipation would at ail benefit the slave, "No just man,"
says he, " will doubt of the propriety of giving as much secu-
rity as possible to the blacks ; of making their lives as easy and
comfortable as possible, consistent with the safety of the whites
and the peace of the community. But it is a question not to be
decided on in haste, whether even a gradual manumission, would
be beneficial to the blacks themselves." The letter from which I
have quoted the above is a fine specimen of Cobbett's reason-
ing powers, and the ease with which he can, if it pleales him
combat with and overcome an antagonist so powerful as Mr.
• Wilberforce, and render worse than useless his fine writing
and well rounded periods.—Yours, &c., T. G.

THE TOWN DUES CASE.