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

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GREY, to find a precedent fur some act of ministerial
usurpation. The Inquisition of Spain, and the Star
Chamber of England, have been favourite studies with
these statesmen of late years. Lord BROUGHAM, some
years ago, wrote an article in the Edinburgh Review,
advocating the public sale by auction, to the highest
bidder,. of the representationship of all the boroughs, at
every returning election. The plan was ingenious, and
would have been hicrative in a national point of view.
But the Tories,'stupid old fools, long since voted to be
extinct! could not .endure such liberal notions, and the
project, unfortunately, fell to the ground. The noble
and learned lord also wrote a book in favour of the West
Indies, every dogma, every principle, every sentiment in
which he has, with true Whig consistency, trampled
upon with contempt since he became a patriot : —but
this by the way.

What we have to propose will be found in the parlia-
mentary papers and registers of the period; In the year
1778, certain commissioners were appointed to proceed
to America authorised: to offer terms tabulated, as the
minister of that day thought, to put- an end to the san-
guinary and unnatural war which was desolating those
provinces, and in which the brunt of devastation had to
be borne, as well as the costs of success, by British sub-
jects. This commission consisted of Lord CARLISLE,
(the late earl,) Governor JOHNSTONE, and Mr. EDEN.
They arrived at Philadelphia in June of that year, and
they were empowered to make concessions to "Con-
gress" which were considered much more liberal than
any which the Americans contended for at the commence-
ment of the dispute: The most impokant were to this
effect :---,They were. empowered to concede "that no mi-
litary force should be kept up in the different states of
America without the consent of the General Congress or
of the several Assemblies ; to concur in measures calcu-
ldted to discharge, the debts:of America, and to raise the
credit and value of .the paper circulation, and /a, admit
of representatives. from the several states, WHO-SHOULD
HAVE A SEAT -AND -VOICE IN THE PARLIAMENT OF GREAT
BRITAIN !"

Our dream is Out ! These were, among others, all fa-
vourable, the precise terms offered to t!e revolted sub-
jects of the King,—the planters, proprietors, and other
inhabitants of the North American colonies. The red
flag of war was then hoisted at the mast-head ; the
" striped bunting," laughed at by Mr. CANNANG, waved
over the, arms of General WASHINGTON ; the scoundrels
of the French revolUtion were joined with the rebels
fighting against us on our own soil ; France was at war
with us ; Spain was at war with us ; Prussia and Russia
had adapted an " armed neutrality" against us ; and al-
though three-fourths of the members of the House of
Commons, and nine-tenths of the people, were in favour
of war; although we had the means of engaging, single-
handed, in mortal conflict with all the nations of the world,
and beating them singly and unitedly, as we afterwards
proved that we could do, still the commissioners of peace,
the representatives of the Crown; were empowered to
offer to the rebels of America a fair participation in the
representation of the Imperial Parliament.
The difference-between the two cases is this :—the co-
lonists of the Westlndies are not rebels. They have not
resisted the usnrpation which has been committed. They
have not opposed the speculative and hazardous free-
dom which has been decreed. They have not armed
themselves to resist the spoliation and the ruin of which
they are the victims. Why ? Need we chronicle the
humiliating confession ? No, we take higher ground ; be
the motive what it may, we stand upon our articles—we
rest our defence upon the unchallenged facts—they have
not resisted ! •

Do we lose, by this admission? If so, we withdraw it.
But, we contend, they stand higher, and have more equi-
table claims on the very ground of non resistance; and
if it be said they have yielded from feebleness, then do we
contend that their very feebleness is a more legitimate
draft upon our clemency and our justice. A great and a
yet unconquered nation can never. yield to obstinacy
what it denies to loyalty and obedience. The terms that
were offered to the American rebels must, if there be any
justice extant,'be offered to the injured and loyal, sub-
jects of the King.. This is all we contend for. The
colonial a4embiijs being menaced, their powers and
privileges being invaded and usurped, and their char-
tered rights being violated by the reformed Parliament,
they are no longer of any force or utility. A colonial
parliament is now an empty farce. The royal charters
are mere collections of waste paper or musty parchment,
consecrated to bonfires and mob rejoicings. Our colo-
nial.countrymen have no authority at home, no influence
in the mother country. Even the magistrates of these
colonies are to be superseded by stipendiary hacks,-se-
lected from the seventh seat of briefless and incapable
barristers by Lord BROUGUAM. All power and authority
is to emanate from London. Westminster Hall is to be,
to the extremities of the empire, what Paris is to de-
graded and demoralized France. The mainspring of all
agency is to be.located in Downing-street. The Whigs
have determined to be despots, and where they sit,
there is to be the court of universal power and exclusive
appeal.

We throw out these hints for the benefit of all those
interested by, property or connexion in the fate of the
West Indies. These observations will reach the colonies.
The gist of them will be understood by all who are ca-
pable of calm- reflection ; and the spirit they breathe,
and the acts to which they point, are so clear and so
constitutional, that the real friends of the colonies will be
at noloss to conjecture that they emanate from one who
has been their counsel in better times, and whose advice,
had it been acted.upon, would have preserved them from
the degrading and ruinous fate to which they are now
unfortunately exposed.
Upon the whole, now that the brand of sla:-cry is ob-
literated, why should the people of Jamaica, Demerara,
Barbadoes, and the other colonies, be treated differently
from, the people of Ireland ? The Irish Parliament, at the
commencement of the present century, was purchased, as
the timbers of an-old hulk are purchased, in order to be
burnt. It was bought up and flung into the fire ; but in
order to compensate the people for this measure of state
policy, some of its worthy members were made eligible
to sit in the British Parliament. The Assembly of
.Ja-
maica has not been treated more respectfully. The
twenty millions may be taken to be a bribe; at any rate
the authority of the Assembly and the rights of the colo-
nists generally, are despised. Under these circumstances
have the coloniessziot obtained as good a right to return
members to the Imperial Parliament as the Irish people
did wheif their useless and corrupt assembly was sup-
pressed? . We assert that they have, and not a moment
should be lOst in submitting their just claims in memo-
rials to the KristG, and in petitions to both Houses of the
Legislature.

Perhaps it will be:said that the great mass of the colo-
nial population is not in so advanced a state of civiliza-
tion as the mass of the people of Ireland. We deny
that there is a . shade of difference between the two
classes; or, •if there be, it is in favour of the blacks.
The liberated 'slaves of the West Indies may not have
had the advantage or the misfortune of a Maynooth
education ; neither haVe five millions of the yet hardly
liberated slaves, who form the " beautiful peasantry " of
the sister island. The coloured population of the colo-
nies is a much finer race, in point of intellect, intelli-
gence, and Moral's, than the natives of the southern and
western co*nties of Ireland. Their rights being equal,
all that is required to be known, before they are placed
on an equal footing, has respect only to their fitness or
eligibility. On this we have already pronounced an
opinion ; and if their moral and mental qualifications,
when compared with those of the Irish peasantry, be the
only question at issue, we rest their claims upon the
result of the inquiry. There is no comparison between
the civilization of the inhabitants of the colonies and the
inhabitants of the greater part of Ireland. The supe-
riority is on the side of the West •Indies. On this
ground, and for many other re sons
which we have nei-
ther space nor leisure to enum rate at present, we con-
tend that the other western -ctclonies must, sooner or
later, be permitted to send representatives to the British
Parliament on the same. terms, • and under the • same
reformed regulations, as 'lle people of Ireland.