The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-11 00:00:00

TO THE ELECTORS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,

AN Association of persons, styling themselves the
Al t
Slavery Society, are endeavoutiag to dictate to you
manner which is quite inconsistent with the freedom of Eke-
Lion for a reformed Parliament. They presume to publish
lists, pointing out the Candidates you ought to choose, i/e-
-nouncing others as unworthy of your confidence; and
hold out the terrors of Schedules A and B against all such
Ihall venture to appear before you without a pass from their
society. No matter how well qualified the Candidate may be
in point of general information, attachment to your local in-
, terests, or acknowledged liberality of character ; he is to 'be
cast aside as wholly undeserving of your support, unless he gill
prostitute his independence of opinion by giving a blind pledge
to vote without inquiry, for the immediate unconditioi;rd ex-
tinction of Colonial Slavery.

It follows of course, that if this dictation be submitted to, the
first use you will have to make of your extended privileges 4.4
Englishmen, must be not only to exclude from Parinanent
every person connected • with, or inclined to protect, the in-
terests • of a, huge class of your fellow subjects who have 'l,O
direct Representatives in the Legislature, but even so far as in
you lies, to assist in confiscating their property.

Fellow Countrymen, suffer not yourselves to be made !the
tools of a party, however numerous they may be, or howe'ver
plausible their object. Be content with selecting honest men
for your Representatives, who will merely pledge themselves to
look at the difficult question of Slavery in its only rational
light; viz. as a system long established, encouraged, and in-
deed originally enforced by the British f.4overnment in cue
Colonies, which is to be exchanged for a better so soon as may
be compatible with the real welt= of the black population,
and with the rights of private property.

Consider for a moment how little yoti can hitherto
stand the details of a system which, objectionable as may be
:has formed the frame-work of Colonial society r centuries
past, and therefore how incapable you must of instructing
your Representatives on such a ;subject, or .ey, if they be
honest men, of binding themselves to • course of conduct
respecting it• Are you:aware that u to this moment the
•Negroes have been accustomed to depend wholly on their
masters for home, food, clothing, for every thing necessary to
the support of existence from its commencement to its close ?
and have the Anti-Slavery Society been able to satisfy you
that in the present moral condition of the blacks, this habit of
dependence could be suddenly and safely t-changed for a
system of free labour; in short, that the Negroes are at this
moment disposed to support themselves and maintain the staple
cultivation of the Colonies, as a tiee peasantry ? So tar trorn
having satisfied you, it would appear that the Society them-
selves have some misgivings on this important point; for they
do not seem disposed to let you wait the final result of two
Parliamentary Committees, which are collecting evidence as to
the Negro's actual progress towards civilization : nay, they
have even had the assurance to stigmatize as a " profligate ex-
penditure of public money" the lean lately made by Parlia-
ment for the express purpose of enabling certain Jamaica
planters to resume cultivation on their dilapidated estates,
which had heretofore furnished the means of supporting their
Negroes ; thus plainly evincing that the boon which the So-
ciety expect you to confer upon the emancipated blacks, is not
that of profitable industry, but idleness.

If you will be content to wait the result of Parliamentary in..
vestigation, the actual condition of the black population will
then, for the first time, be before you. Should it turn out that
they are still incapable of appreciating the benefits of industry,
looking to freedom only as to a state of luxurious inactivity,
then immediate emancipation would be to them what it has
been to the blacks of St. Domingo, a bitter curer, commencing
in bloodshed, and ending in compulsory labour, enforced by
the drum and the bayonet. Freedom to the Negroes under
such circumstances would necessarily be the destruction of all
profitable cultivation in our Colonies ; the sacrifice of a trade
which now consumes five millions worth of our manufactures,
and employs one-fourth of our whole mercantile marine, and a
direct bribe held out to induce foreign nations to continue the
Slave Trade with all its horrors. But if, on the other hand, it.
should appear that the Negroes have advanced in moral charac-
ter, hare acquired property, and are even approaching a state of
fitness for receiving the previleges of industrious free citizens,
then what will become of all, the abuse which has been heaped
upon the head of the calumniated and nearly ruined British
planter? and how unnecessary will it be that you should add to
his embarrassment, by precipitating measures which must in-
evitably produce destruction and bloodshed, unless they are
conducted with the greatest circumspection.

The difference of feeling between the planters and yourselves
relates only to the time and manner of terminating slavery ; 41
good men must lament that such a system should have been
established and encouraged by a British legislature : and f
considered as a national crime, it can only be expiated by
the nation giving freedom to, the slave as soon as he may be
found capable of making a rational use of that blessing. But,
fellow countrymen, do not suffer the Anti-Slavery Society to
cajole you into the fatal belief, that the favor of Heaven will
attend this natioral atonement, if it be made at the sole ex-
pense of the unfortunate British planter. The specious prin_
ciple which has been recently promulgated for the sake of
covering injustice, viz, that " man cannot claim property in
the person of his fellow man," may he applicable enough as
between the slave and the people of Great Britain ; hut it can
never invalidate the claim of the planter to due compensation
for the loss he may sustain, or the risk he may incur by the
abrogation of those laws under which he was encouraged to
purchase slaves from British subjectS,brought to him in British
vessels, and the profits resulting fi:orn which traffic at this mo-
ment constitute a part of the individual and, collective wealth of
the Mother country.

It would be idle to expect tl
escape from their full share of t
frame of society is to be kept to
people to assist in making laa
but every hOnest judge and six
you introduce the precedent o:
private rights for what may b(
that principle will draw after it
species of individual property:
G. W. &S. HIBBERT CO.
DAVIDSONg, 13 A RKLY, & CO.
A. STEWART & WESTMORE-
. LAND.

;hat foe people of England can
this responsibility, so long as the
nether ; it is in the power of the
Fi.3 as well as in recalling them ;
tesman will tell you, that it oilce
if sacrificing legally established
e considered the common benefit,
t the speedy destruction of every

BROOKE, SMI7D, &C.
COLVILLE & CO.
REID, IRVING, & CO.
TIMPERON & DOBINSON.
HAWTHORN & SHEDDEN..
MANNING & ANDERSON,
CAVAN, BROTHERS, & CO.
RANEE; PLUMMER, & WU.*
SON
HALL, 3PGAREL, & CO.
BECKFORD & RANKEN.
W. HERVEY.
BODDINGTON & DAVIS.
THOMAS. DANIEL & Co.
NELSON, ADAM, & Co.
COTTAM & MORTAN.
CHAUNCEY & LANG.
R. J. GRANT & CO.

FRASER, ALEXANDER, NEIL
SON gr. CO.
ALEX. & JAS. CAMPBELL &

W. R. & S. MITCHELL, &. Co.
DAVISON, SIMPSON, '& DAVI-

SON.
THOS. & WM. KING.
JOHN DEFFELL & SON.
JOHN HENRY DEFFELL & CO.
ROGER KYNASTON, JUN:
TUQMsoN HANEEY & CO.
ALEIANDER GRANT.
EDE, BOND, & PEARSE.
AUGS. E. FULLER & CO.
Biliter-square.