The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-24 00:00:00

PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS.

Mr. F. O'CoNNoR complained of the non-attendance of
ministers during the presentation of petitions at the morning
sittings of the house. The other day a petition was presented,
urging the house to impeach ministers, which he was anxious
to have supported; but he did not think it would be manly to
do so when none of the ministers were present. The noble
Chancellor of the Exchequer had violated the pledge which he
gave to be present at the morninc, sittings every dqy. He
moved " That it is the, opinion of this house that the absence
of ministers during the time allotted for the presentation of
petitions is an insult to the Commons and au injustice to the
people of England."
Lord A LTHORP said that, in conformity with the promise
which he made at the commencement of the session, he had
attended the morning sitting up to Easter, when lie found
himself unable to attend any longer on account of the state of
his health. (Hear.) He suggested that if any hon. member
had a petition to present which required the attendance of any
particular minister, he would give such minister notice, and he
would attend in his place on the presentation of the petition.
(Hear.)
After a few more observations from Lord Althorp, the mo-
tion was withdrawn.

Mr. SHAW moved for copies of all grants or patents, or the
material parts thereof, whereby the owners of nopropriations,
or impropriate tithes in Ireland, are expressly bourld to repair
the chancel or provide for the discharge of clerical duties, so
far as the same can be made out.
Mr. O'CoNNELL objected to the motion on account of its
vagueness and its limited extent. The return ought to be more
extensive, and then it would be objectionable on account of the
expense which its preparation would cause.
Mr. S. RICE recommended the honourable and learned mem-
ber to withdraw his motion, and took the liberty of cautioning
the house generally against moving for returns without due
consideration. The country was put to a great expense in
the preparation of returns, and he could state as a fact, which
came under his own observation, that one return, moved for in a
previous session, cost £i,500 in the preparation, and £2,500 in
the printing; yet he was not aware that this return had been
consulted by any single individual. (Hear, hear.) This re-
turn referred to the woods and forests, and was moved for by
the honourable member for Colchester.

The motion was then put and negatived without a division.
Mr. O'CONNELL postponed the introduction of a bill to dis-
franchise the borough of Carrickfergus until Friday next; and
moved that the issue of the writ be suspended until that day.
Agreed to.
I\lr. WARBURTON presented a petition from Bristol, signed
by 2,500 persons, complaining of the prevalence of gross cor-
ruption and bribery at the late election for Bristol. The hon.
member said that the petition did not impugn the conduct of
the sitting members, and after it was received he should move
that the evidence taken before the election committee appointed
to try the merits of the petition against the return for Bristol
be printed, and laid before the house.
Mr. BAILLIE said he had the honour to be one of the mem-
bers for Bristol, and he would venture to state that never was
an election contest in a populous city conducted with less cor-
ruption than the late election for that place. The whole ex-
pense of the contest, which lasted about three months, amounted
to only £9OO.

Sir R. VYVYAN said the petition originated in the disap-
pointment of the radical party at Bristol; and, as it contained
libellous and calumnious assertions against individuals, he should
move that it be rejected.
Lord ALTHORP thought that as many gentlemen considered
the evidence to be partial, it would be as well not to print.it at
present.
Mr. WARBURTON bad no objection to accede to the noble
lord's suggestion, and would, therefore, only move that the
evidence be brought up and laid on the table.
The house then divided :

For the motion ....
Against it

Majority .
On the motion of Sir R. Ferguson it was ordered that a new
writ should not issue for the borough of Warwick before the
17th of June.
The other orders of the day were then diaposed of, and. the
house adjourned at half-past 3 o'clock.

ROBBERY AND SINGULAR MUTILATION OF BooKs.—A short
time since it was' discovered that many of the books belonging
to the library of the Mechanics' Institution. of Chichester, hard
been completely cut to pieces, that whole and long articles were
taken out of the Metropolitan, the New IVlonthlir, the Gentle-
man's, and other Magazines, and that nearly all the plates were
missing from Sweet's Botanic Flower Garden, a most valuable
and expensive publication. As these depredations were by no
means of a limited extent, it became a matter of serious moment,
and a sub-committee was appointed to investigate the affair.—
Suspicion fell on an individual of the name or W. H. Attree,
who has delivered many interesting lectures before the Society,
and his lodgings were accordingly searched, when the scene that
presented'itself can scarcely be imagined, displaying 'a most
wanton destruction of books. Independently. of piles of pages
cut from the books of the Mechanics' Institution, there were be-
tween two and three hundred volumes belonging to Mr. Mason,_
bookseller, in whose employ Attree has for some time been, with
names and marks carefully erased, an immense number of
plates, cut from Rees's Enclycopaedia, from Stackhonse's His-
tory of the Bible, from two fine volumes of Scripture Illustra-
tions, from three hundred volumes of the_ Universal Magazine,

CONTEMPORARY P,RESS.

These are a few isolated assertions of the Colonial
Secreta‘ry, made by hiin in his place in ParliaMent, and
though mis-statements, we should not perhaps have
thought it worth our While to notice them, had we not
observed, that, according to the London press, they
were received with cheers by the House,. and consider
able stress was laid upon them by the Honourable Se-
cretary himself.
Allowing the first to go for nothing, although we be-
lieve the round numbers given are very far from fact,
what is the inference that any man of common sense
will draw from the second assertion ? Why, that in Ve-
nezuela sugar estates are worked by free labour, and
that the sugar and rum spoken of are the produce of
free labour. Such, however, is not the case. In the
whole of Venezuela there are only three estates that
make sugar and rum for exportation, namely, Cambouri
Grande, Chacao, and Trinidad—all of which are worked
by Engli.eh capital, and by SLAVES. We can give the
names of the English Lessees if need be, and can acid,
from what they have frequently said, " that the moment

they are unable to carry on these estates, from want of
slaves, that moment. will they give them up !" Now,
this shews the very reverse of what the Honourable Se-
cretary -for the Colonies wished to prove. He is per-
fectly correct in saying that sugar was never exported
from that country befo th,e year 1821, nor indeed till
the year 1830 ; but 1%-t has that to do with free labour?
It arises from the perfect misery of the planters of that
country, who, unable themselves to work their estates,
for want of capital, let them to Englishmen of skill and
wealth, who will Work them only so long as they have
slaves to carry on with. The exportation of ruin from

Venezuela to Trinidad is rather a startling piece of in-
formation ; and few, we suspect, ever heard of it before,
saving Mr. Stanley. But, supposing this to be the case,
it is easy enough to account for it. The large and va-
luable estate of Cambouri Grande is situate on the
coast several leagues, to the windward of La Guayra.
It makes more rum than the scanty neighbourhood can
consume, and as the eno ous expense of land carriage
will not allow it to be sen the interior for sale, the
planter, rather than have eidead stock on hand, may
send it over to Trinidad, more especially as the naviga-
tion is performed in a very feW days, and in an open
launch. Still, however, we never heard of any rum
being exported to Trinidad until Mr. Stanley, from his
exclusive sources of information, condescended to en-
lighten us upon the subject.
It is also argued by the Honourable Secretary, from
the fact of rum and • sugar being exported from Vene-
zuela, and from the great decrease of slaves, that the
agriculture of the country has progressively improved.
This is a sad mistake. LiA us take in review all the pro-
ducts of the country. With the exception of the three
estates already named, there is no sugar or rum, pro-
perly so called, produced in that state. Their papilon
and aquardiente are made in the same way to-day as
they were made by their ancestors a hundred years ago.
The quantity has grhtly diminished within the last
twenty years partly caused, no doubt, by the "war to
the knife," Aich lasted from 1814 to 1820; but likewise
by the liberating system, several cane estates in the
neighbourhood of Carracas, and in the wallies of Aragua,
(the richest part of Venezuela) being abandoned for want
i„pf slaves to work them.

Carracas co a was long known as the finest in the
world, and cern ded a much higher price in the great
markets of Gibr r and Bordeaux than any other kind.
Now, there is sea' a fanega to be met with, or it is of
very inferior quality. 'The cocoa of Para produced by
slaves noo-supplies its place. The same remarks apply
to every estate as to indigo. Not one half is now raised
of what was exported a few years ago, and that of very
low quality indeed. Coffee, which may be termed the
sheet anchor, remains in state quo. The emancipation.
of negroes does not so affect this article, as the number
of hands required to look after a coffee estate is small,
when compared with the complement for sugar and rum.
Land has also decreased amazingly in value. The very
fine estate of Cambouri Grande was, in 1810, valued at
600,000 Spanish dollars, but we will stake our existence
there is no man in Venezuela, who would, at this mo-
ment, pay down the sixth part of that sum for it.
Mr. Stanley's last assertion, viz., that the free people
of colour live in perfect harmony with the other inhabi-
tants, we, upon the best authority, flatly deny. Scarcely
two years have elapsed since the military commandant of
La Guayra, and other places, furnished the foreigners
with arms, and advised them to form themselves into a
patrole, the reason assigned being that the free people of
colour were showing very malignant symptoms toward
all whites. We are sure any man who was there at the
time, and who remembers the anxiety he then felt for his
person and property, will not forget it in a hurry. He
will, at the same time, be able to bear testimony to the

truth of every statement we have now made.
We have said it is with shame we place a British
statesman either in the category of positive ignorance or
malignity, because the effect produced in foreign coun-
tries is to lower the national character. Above, we have
shown how ignorant Mr. Stanley has proved himself to
be upon one or two topics which he incidentally brought
forward, as illustrative of his views on slave emancipa-
tion; and -we are reluctantly compelled, from .a mere
sense of duty, to subjoin yet another. It had attracted
our own attention, after a second perusal of the honour-
able gentleman's speech ; and, as it was so highly cha-
racteristic of the geographical and statistical knowledge
of the Colonial Office, we meant to direct.the attention of
our readers to it in our own way ; but, as a valuable cor-
respondent has taken up the subject, we subjoin his re-

marks in preference to our own :
" After allowing nothing for eloquence,' I beg to sub-
mit as a standard, by which the truth of the statements
and the justness of the reasoning,_ of the whole of Mr.
Stanley's speech, on the West India question, may be
fairly and accurately appreciated, the following passage
from the harangue of the right honourable gentleman, as
reported in the London papers:—
_

" The Island of Demerara afforded a frightful proof of the
destructive effects which the amount of labour compelled from
the slaves had on the population. In that Island the quantity
of sugar exported during the three periods was respectively
665,336 cwt., 662,655 cwt., and 806,120 cwts. ! ! !" &c.

" Is it to the meridian of Constantinople, or Pekin,
that we owe this legislator, who, as you observe in your
last number, ventures to submit to Parliament a mea-
sure involving the lives and fortunes of millions of his
fellow-subjects, and, indeed, the t'ate of Great Britain
herself, as a maritime and commercial power ?' "
The question may well be asked, but who can answer
it, we know not. Unfortunately, the measures of our
present administration appear, for ought we know to the
contrary, better fitted for the inhabitants of the moon,
than for those of this nether sphere. Everything they at-
tempt breathes ignorance, presumption, lunacy and hn-
practicability, and should they remain another year in
office, and proceed in the same way as they have .hereto-
fore done, the ruin of Great Biitain will he consum-
mated.—Glasgow Courier.
An early prorogation of Parliament is said to have
been resolved on by ministers. We should not, perhaps,
have paid much attention to the report, but we find that
it is contradicted with considerable warmth and sensi
tiveness by the ministerial prints, which we take to be
the best of all proof that there is some_ foundation for it.
The same papers impudently contradicted our announce-
ment of the tendered resignation of Mr. Macaulay a few
days ago, and yesterday, we observe, they contained ex-
tracts from Leeds papers, with which that gentleman
maintains a regular correspondence, admitting on his
authority the correctness of the fact, accompanied with a
ludicrous statement of the panic Gyey, people
•thereon. The administration must indeed be in a crazy
condition, when the impertinence, of persons of Mr. Ma-
caulay's calibre can produce any inconvenience to it.—
Guardian and Public Ledger.