The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-21 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

Although " Truth" appears fond of finding fault, he is quite
as far wrong as ourselves. The truth is, the Independence
was five days west of St. George's Bank, and though she
did not reach New York until the 27th (not the 28th, we
believe), she made the run across the Atlantic in little
better than fifteen days.

Ebt Ribgrpool *;-)talibarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 21, 1843

A noble position does Great Britain occupy at the
present Moment in the eyes of the world. She has
shaken from her the contamination of slavery in the
West Indies. She has stricken the fetters from the
limbs of every African held in bondage within her ex-
tended dominions; and, by a bill at present before the
Legislative Council of India, she proposes to abolish
for ever the system of serfdom which prevails through-
out that country. By her simple fiat, the curse of
slavery will be extinguished. in a population of a hun-
dred million of souls; and in one month from the pre-
sent time, she will be enabled to proclaim to the nation
sun, which never sets upon the subjects of her
rule, shines not in his course upon one human being,
who owns the sovereignty of Britain's Queen, whose
will is not as free as that " chartered libertine," the air
he breathes ! Has not such a country the right, not
only to hold up for the imitation of other countries her
own noble example, but, as well, to make such imita-
tion the condition of their being admitted to a favour-
ing participation in the advantages of her commerce ?

that the

Nay, is it not imperatively the duty of her statesmen;
as philanthropists and consistent men, to use the com-
manding position in which they are plased as a lever
wherewith to elevate the condition of The depressed and
degraded in other lands ?

Undoubtedly, this must be our course; or" else, not
only have we sacrificed in vain—not only have lavished
twenty millions of money in vain, and all but ruined
our noble colonies in the West Indies, without
achieving the end we had in view—but instead of a
blessing we have fastened a curse upon mankind.
That end was—what ? The amelioration of the con-
dition of the entire African race—the progressive abo-
lition of slavery throughout the world. Ask of the
venerable Clarkson ; ask of Wilberforce—if the dead
could still take interest in the works in which they
toiled in life—for what was it that they struggled
through long years. Was it only that the lash should
no longer be wielded by British hands ? Was it that
slavery should no longer be countenanced by British
laws ? No. These men said in their hearts that,
throughout the world, slavery should cease, and man
no longer hold property in man! These men said
"we hold it as an accursed thing, which we can nei-
ther endure as the work of our own countrymen, nor
countenance and abet in the subjects of other king-
doms." They told the world that the produce of the
tropics could be raised by free labour ; and they said
we will not consume that pro'luce if tainted iy the
blood or the breath of slavery ! What then, if we now
secede from the position which they asserted for us—
if we abandon the cause of the slave, and fly back
to the contamination of the thing which we have de-
nounced, and admit to our favouring consideration
the slave-owner and slave-trader of Cuba or the Bra-
zils ? 'What will then have been the result of our
boasted emancipation ? We shall have acknowledged
to the world the failure of our hopes of seeing the pro-
duce of the tropics raised without its being mingled
with the blood of the enslaved African : and more than
this : we shall have aggravated the horrors of slavery,
by transferring its existence from beneath the benign
sway of British laws, to the despotic sway of other
and less humane countries ! We shall be enabled
only to boast,- in our hideous glee, that we have
wrenched the lash from the hands of British men, to
permit it to fall, in other hands, with tenfold power, to
wither and drink blood upon the limbs of the mocked
and abused objects of our costly philanthropy !

A most contemptible conclusion this of our boasted
efforts of virtue ; and yet it is precisely that which a
certain class of journalists and politicians have in con-
templation. A local organ, the Liverpool Mercury, it
is well remembered, has ever been amongst the loudest
of the pseudo-philanthropists, at whose instance the
emancipation of our West Indian population was
pressed forward. Ls loathsome affectation of huma-
nity—its sickly cant and weekly slanders vented in the
cause—were beautifully proportioned to the malignity
of feeling which it entertained towards certain of our
fellow-townsmen, at whose prosperity and property a
blow was to be struck. And yet what is the course of
legislation which that unprincipled journal now un-
blushingly avows ? We are at present negociating a
commercial treaty with the government of Brazil—a
slave-owning and a slave-trading country. As a con-
dition of the admission of its produce into the British
market, Sir Robert Peel, it is understood, demands
some concessions upon the subject of slavery. The
right hon. baronet, unlike the mawkish sentimentalists
of the Anti-Slavery Society, is anxious to follow out
consistently the policy which has guided our past
legislation upon this subject. He says, in effect,
" ameliorate your laws as they affect slavery—give us
the guarantee that in trading with you, and advancing

your planting interests, we are not rendering more in-

supportable the condition of your enslaved population,
and stimulating that unholy traffic which you carry on
upon the shores of Africa, and Nye will grant you a
participation in the supply of the British market with
your principal staple, sugar." Is this not a reason-
able proposition— worthy of a British minister to
make, and a British people to approve? We contend

that it is; and yet that consistent and humane organ
of liberalism, the Mercury, denounces it with his bit-
terest indignation ! The negociation, says that saga-
cious personage, is in danger of failing " unless Peel"

(it is with your vulgar scribbler "my lord," or "Sir
John," or the "hon. member" to members of his own
party, but plain and insolent " Peel" to the premier of

merce with that country, if we are not to have it, ex-
cept at the price of a virtual approbation of the con-
duct of the Brazilian planters, we say, " let it go !"
We are not willing—and nine-tenths of the people of
England are of our way of feeling—to purchase the
boon with the blood of our fellow-creatures !

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Anti-Corn-law League,
)lore of you to send round the begging-box

we im

your protogees are