The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-12-20 00:00:00

The Russian business, however, is a serious matter.—
England has been most expertly and inextricably juggled
in that affair. The RusSians have made themselves
twisters of Turkey without firing a gun. A treaty was
signed between.the SULTAN and the CZAR, the first no-
tice of which was given to Lord PALMERSTON by the
active correspondent of the Morning Herald. By this
treaty, Constantinople and the passage of the Dardanelles
were quietly conveyed to the Emperor of all the Missies.
TALLEYRAND, we have no doubt, knew of this treaty be-
fore any man in England; but the sly old diplomatist
only laughed in his sleeve. It was a good practical joke,
Worth a month's pay, particularly as it was done at our
expense. And when the treaty was signed and ratified,
the Russians were not tardy •in. acting upon it.
From that moment they considered the Black Sea
their own. They held the key, and they would
not allow any foreigner to enter it without their permis •
sion. Sir PULTNEY MALCOLM, as we have said before,
was ordered off, and off he went in search of fresh in-
structions, and these, we presume, cannot be given unti
the new war of protocols between Lord PALMERSTON
and the Russian Ambassador has terminated.

The Times, however, shouts war—but what will Mr.
JOSEPH PEASE say ? The Whigs at war would be a
burlesque upon Iludibras.

We crave the attention of our readers to a subject of
considerable importance, at the present moment, and
which, we presume, will not be deemed 'less worthy their
Consideration because we here bring it under review for
the first time.
It is known to all that a momentous change has taken'
place in the condition of the labouring population of our
West India colonies. We may not any longer call them
slaves.' That term, hitherto applied to men of sable aspect
and of African blood, can nu longer have a place in our
lexicons. The negroes are virtually, if not literally and
lastingly, free. They may for many years continue the
slaves of their own gross passions--the slaves of their
idle habits—the slaves of Pagan superstition; but is
every other point of view, appertaining to their political
condition, their chains are broken, and they are freemen.
This, which we admit to be the most important change
cf all, is, nevertheless, only one of the many changes
Which have taken place in the West Indies. The indi-

rect representation which these colonies bad in the Im

Aerial Parliament was annulled by the late Reform Bill.
As nomination boroughs were rooted out, and the places
of easy access which a patron could command, or at least
could influence, were reserved to the Whigs alone, the
Wealthy planters and proprietors of the West Indies were
left no avenue to the great council of the nation. The
door was closed against them most effectually. In short,
they were first excluded and then robbed. The Reform
Bill inflicted upon them undeserved wrong, and the
reformed Parliament completed the work of spoliation
and injustice.

The mother country, under the trammels of a Whig
administration, first expelled them from the Imperial
Parliament ; secondly, deprived them of their slaves ;
and, thirdly, overawed their local assemblies, violated
their .chartered privileges, and left them without the
shadow of power, influence, or authority. Had the inha-
bitants of these dependencies been in the condition of '
the American states when they were first assailed by the
insolence and injustice of England, they would have
rebelled, and established their own independence by
force of arms. They were, however,-enfeebled`by sla-
very. The degraded race formed the majority. The
slavery of America was confined to the southern states :
its moral as well as its physical strength lay in New
England and the north. Not so with the West Indies.
The trail of the serpent and the curse of Cain were over
the whole of those beautiful islands; and being weak
they were easily intimidated, easily betrayed, and too
easily induced to sue for mercy.
The gentle Portia says,—
" The quality of mercy is not strained."

Neither, say we,
the honour of should the quality of justice. Wha,
England concedes to power should not be
denied to weakness. A brave nation should not have
two measures or two balances one for the rich and
another for the poor—one for the strong and another for
the 11444
We may be, as we believe we are, fast
sinking towards the lawlessness of democracy; which is
the approved name of the worst of despotisms ; but,
ink
heaven, we have not yet sunk so far as to recog-
nize the horrible tyranny of making war only upon the
unproteetede—of cringing before a foreign dictator, and
expending our spleen and our resentment upon our
dependent kinsmen and countrymen. We assume this
for the honour of the country to which we belong ; and
I.f. it be admitted, then are we content ; for we shall
41orereby be enabled to plead with greater effect the cause
the oppressed and victimized proprietors of the West
India oppressed
What we are about to state must be familiar to all those
lo
pass a silent hour in examining the stores even of
mod.ern history, This, we admit, is a study to which the
Whigs have not recently been much addicted; or if they
vhve, perchance, turned their attention that way, it must
e been after the manner of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, to
•e ad
incident for a play, or after the manner of Lord

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