The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-01 00:00:00

measure

" In 1832, slavery was depicted as a sin and a crime: it
was denounced as a stain upon the national honour ; as a
blot on the conscience of the people of this country ; from
which, at all hazards, and at whatever cost, they must be
freed. We did not even ask the planters what were their
feelings upon the subject. Nor would it have satisfied our
scruples to have declined for ourselves the receipt of this
slave-polluted produce ; leaving to the planters the re-
sponsibility, if they thought fit, of continuing the use of
slave-labour, and resorting with their produce to the mar-
kets of other countries where no such objections might
have existed. No : the abolition of slavery was declared
to be a matter of principle ; to which all considerations of
cost, or time, or aught else, must be altogether postponed.
" Who could have dreamt that before eight years
should elapse from the final completion of that memorable
measure—as if to humble our national pride, and tarnish
the fame of this boasted Act (of which hitherto we hadre-
ceived all the praise, whilst the much-abused planters
were left to sustain almost all the loss),—another Act
should be passed by the British Parliament, at the instance
of the Ministers of the Crown, for the purpose of admit-
ting into the markets of the country the slave-grown su-
gars of other nations ! Slavery and the slave-trade being
active in Cuba and Brazil, it was discovered that their
sugars might be bought at a penny the pound cheaper
than those of our own free-labour colonies ; and it was
calculated, moreover, that we might derive some addition
to the national exchequer by the transaction 1_ _

" If it were right -to have denounced slavery and the
slave trade as sins and crimes in 1833, what is to be said
of setting ourselves to work in 1846 to derive a profit from
the commission at second-hand of these very crimes ! If
it be right to pursue the slave-dealer on the coast of Af-
rica, and bring him to trial as a pirate and a robber, what
is to be said of sharing the profit of his cheap and polluted
gains across the ocean ! * * * *
" Those of the planters who had means or credit, have
hitherto persevered in the struggle to maintain their es-
tates : they persevered against fearful odds, and, despite
of difficulties the most distressing and perplexing. But
who can tell the bitter sorrows of those who were doomed
to fall in that unequal struggle ! From a condition of
easy independence plunged into distress and ruin ; their
families beggars on the world ; and they themselves left
without even the consolation that, although deprived of
their property, their character would at all events be al-
lowed to remain. But instead of this, to find themselves
classed as reckless bankrupts !—who would not be warned
of the folly and imprudence of overtrading !—Bankrupts,
without any fault or imprudence of their own ! No : one
unpardonable folly, it appears, they must acknowledge.
Must it be owned that they trusted the good faith of their
country !"

The following reasonable remedies are submitted by the
author, as calculated to restore the prosperity of our West
Indian colonies ; and the sooner they are resorted to,
the better for the mother country and those valuable
possessions :

" 1. A fixed differential duty, of adequate amount, be-
tween slave-grown sugars and those of our own colonies,
to be determined either by reducing the present duty on
colonial sugar, or by increasing that on foreign.
" 2. Advances of money to be made to the planters, on
the security of their estates, for the purpose of promoting
improvements in drainage, irrigation, or otherwise, as
may be deemed most expedient. _
" 3. The encouragement of a well-regulated immigra-
tion of free labourers from the coast of Africa.

" 4. Such means, as a proper consideration of the con-
dition of our West India colonies and of the legitimate
objects of emancipation may suggest, for reclaiming to in-
dustrious habits the multitudes among the emancipated
classes who have withdrawn from labour; and for secur-
ing their own gradual moral improvement, as well as for
the instruction of their children.

* Remarks on the present state of the West Indian Colonies,
with suggestions for their improvement. London : Smith,
Elder, and Co.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL PROVISION FOR THE
PARISH OF MANCHESTER.

When the Rev. Canon Parkinson was appointed to the
Presidency of Saint Bees College, with the incumbency of
that parish, and announced his intention of holding in ad-
dition the rectory of Manchester, we drew the attention
of our readers to a memorandum entered on the parish
journal by the churchwardens of Manchester, expressive of
their opinion that the parish would suffer from the length-
ened absence (for the greater part of the year) of Mr.
Parkinson, however earnestly the rev. gentleman° might
strive to prevent it. During the agitation of the question,
Lord Stanley made some strong representations in the
House of Lords, in which he stated that " it was intended
that the Dean and Chapter of Manchester should reside
within the parish; that they did not reside, and that they
violated not only the intention of the founder, but also the
moral duty which dovolved upon them, with reference to
the population of Manchester. They had avoided the le-

gal responsibility, and they had not fulfilled the moral
obligation which had devolved upon them." These were
serious charges, but Lord Stanley was not the man to
make them lightly.

Within the last few days, we have had sent to us a copy
in the original latin, together with a translation by J.
Wheeler, Esq., banister at law, of the " Foundation
charter of Christ's College, Manchester, granted by King
Charles the First, and dated 2nd October, 1635," from
which we make the following extracts :
" And forasmuch as under the foundation as well of the
Lord Philip and the Lady Mary King and Queen of Eng-
land, as of the Lady Elizabeth late Queen of England (of
blessed memory,) the college hath sustained most grievous
prejudice by reason of the absence of the keeper, warden
or wardens, who, though absent and performing none of
the -luty of warden, have drawn from it a large portion of
the revenues of the said college ; we therefore decree, or-
dain, and will, that the warden and fellows, and their suc-
cessors, do constantly reside and eat and drink in the
town or parish of Manchester, or in house or houses col-
legiate, so soon as the same shall have been provided.
" We also decree and ordain and will, that on each day
on which the warden and fellows Shall be altogether absent
from the town or parish of Manchester, so as to be unable,
when called upon, to visit any sick person, or perform any
other works of piety and charity in the said parish, the
warden, as often as it so happens, shall forfeit of his own
proper annual stipend two shillirigs and eightpence, and
the fellows shall forfeit, &c."l'
How far Mr. Parkinson can comply with these provi-
sions, and at the same time effectually discharge the du.
ties devolving upon him at St. Bees, we leave to his own
conscience to determine ; but knowing as we do that the
400,000 parishioners of Manchester require an increase of
clerical superintendence—knowing that the time of Mr.
Parkinson will chiefly be occupied at St. Bees—we feel

bound to say that we sympathise with the efforts now

making in Manchester, by many warm friends of the
Church of England, to procure an appropriation of the
parish funds, more in accordance than at present with the
labours and duties of the working clergy.

* Of course the value of money has amazingly increased
since the period when the charter was granted.

Tun SPIRIT OP ROME.—Bishop Sant, the new Romish
Bishop of Malta, has, like his predecessor, Caruana, re-
fused to take the oath that he will not attempt to disturb
the Protestant faith, required before he can be admitted
as a member of the Maltese council of government.
On Saturdays printer named Bathe recovered £35 4s. Bd.
the cost of printing tly prospectus of the Liverpool and
Derby Direct Railway Campany, from the Hungarian
Count Batbiany, who was one of the provisional commit-
tee-men of the unfortunate undertaking.
EARLY CLOSING.—The anniversary dinner of the mem-
bers of the association, which has for its object the early
closing of shops in this town, was held on Thursday, at
the Queen's Hotel, Lime-street. In the absence of Mr.
E. Flower. the president of the association, the chair was
filled by Mr. Miram, and the vice-chair by Mr. Rayney.
Several excellent toasts and speeches were made ix 4 the
course of the evening.
•