The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-26 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

all be wholly clear of any longer supporting this unrighteous
system, and contributing to frustrate the gracious and bene-
ficent designs of our Almighty Parent respecting his rational
creation. We believe that amongst the proprietors of slaves
there are those who are amiable in the various relations of pri-
Tate life, and who are seeking to live as becometh the Gospel.-7--
To.these -we would especially appeal. Permit us, iu sincere
good will, to ask you—can you, as believers in Christ, and de-
sirous to be numbered with his disciples both here and hereafter,
continue to be connected with a system-so entirely opposed as
slavery is to the scope and design of his Gospel? When you
contemplate the moral state of the countries where it prevails,
when you consider their blighted prospects, notwithstanding all
the unhallowed gains which it has yielded, can you doubt but
that this system is signally marked by the righteous displeasure
of the Supreme Governor of the world ?
The present circumstances of the slaves and of the free
people of colour in the British colonies, the troubles in the
Mauritius, the insurrections of Jamaica, and the religious per-
secutions which have followed, are momentous signs of the
times •as regards the continuance of slavery. Contemplating
these events, and the increased interest for the oppressed,
which so manifestly pervades every class of society in this
land, the time is surely arrived when all should co-operate in
Christian endeavours wholly and speedily to remove this na-
tional sin. When a people have become enlightened on the
enormity of a crime, the guilt of continuing that crime is ag-
gravated. Ignorance of the real character and tendency of
slavery can no longer be pleaded. Warning has, of later
times. succeeded warning with portentious rapidity. Divine
revelation teaches us, and the history of mankind exemplifies
the truth, that the retributive justice of the Most High does
fall on individuals and on nations when they wilfully conti-
nue in their guilt, and take not heed to the solemn warnings
conveyed in the exercise of his over-ruling providence.
Now is our time : protraction accumulates the guilt. It -is
fearful to look at the present state of society in the colonies ;
it is still more fearful to look forward. As we believe that the
continuance of slavery is an offence in the sight of God, so we
also believe, that if, from a conviction of its sinfulness, we in
repentance towards God put away this evil from before him,
he will graciously turn unto us and bless us; and if laws for
its immediate and entire extinction, accompanied by judicious
and equitable provisions, are forthwith made, that our. Hea-
venly Father will prosper this work of mercy. And we further
believe, that by the substitution of the paternal care of the
Government in the place of the arbitrary power and authority
of the master, the peace of society will be secured, and the
comfort, the happiness, and the prosperity of all be greatly pro-
moted.

We offer these reflections with no feelings of hostility to any
class ; we sincerely pity those who are involved in a system
from which the conduct of our predecessors in religious pro-
fession has warned and guarded us. We cannot doubt but that
many of the colonial proprietors would gladly disencumber
themselves from the burden of any longer upholding slavery,
and that they would unite in such measures for its abolition as
they might deem safe and equitable. We feel for them as
possessors of estates which may have descended to them by
inheritance with the clog of slavery attached to them. At the
same time, being fully persuaded that men are most likely to
prosper in the world when, iu the conducting of their temporal
affairs, they act according to the eternal principles of justice,
we are strongly impressed with the belief that the immediate
provision for the termination of slavery at the, earliest possible
period will, in this respect, greatly benefit the colonial pro•
praetor.
May our legislators, and all in authority both at home and
abroad,—may every one in his individual allotment, who can
sympathize with the sufferings of the oppressed, and to whom
it is given to feel for the present and future well-being of his
fellow-men,7-be so influenced by the power of Christian love
and of Christian truth, as that we may all cordially co-operate
in endeavouring to effect this righteous object, and not relax in
our efforts until its final accomplishment.
In conclasion, it is our earnest prayer, that it may please
Almighty God to continue to regard this kingdom for good ;
and to direct its councils in this and other acts of justice and
mercy so as to promote his glory in the harmony of his rational
creation.

Signed in and on behalf of a meeting representing the re-
ligious Society of Friends in the intervals of its yearl meeting,
by - GEORGE STACEY, Clerk.
London, the 4th of the Ist Month.

Billiter-court, March 13.
Sir,—l have the honour to acknowledge the receipt, through
you, of an address on the subject of slavery from "The Religi-
ous Society of Friends." The perusal of that address has sug-
gested some few remarks, which I think fairly grow out of its
topics, and to which I take the liberty of calling the attention
of the society.
I am not about to canvass the merits or demerits of slavery,
nor shall I inquire whether the documents laid before Parlia-
ment exhibit, as the society asserts, " atrocity and horror, not
as its.occasional fruit, but as its natural and uniform result." I
ought, perhaps, to ascribe it to prejudice and personal interest
that I have come to a different conclusion; that I think those
documents exhibit cruelty as of rate occurrence, and the gene-
ral treatment of the negroes as humane ; but I shall rest nothing
upon that question. I shall take it that we are all desirous of
getting rid of the system of slavery " wholly and speedily:"
I presume, that to advance the negro in the career of civiliza-
tion, and to preserve the colonies as productive possessions to
the British empire, are the great objects which the Religious
Society of Friends have in view; and I must put it to their in-
telligent apprehension of the condition in which a forced and
unwilling emancipation on the part of the white inhabitants
would place the negrocs, whether those objects would be attain-
ed or not. You do not make the negro a happy or a civilized
being by. merely printing a law that he shall be free—your law,
when it is passed, must be executed, and if you are met by sul-
lenness and distrust on the part of every man to whose agency
you must look for giving effect to your law, it is very plain that
you have gained but little by legislation. You may overthrow
the system, because you can break the chain, and send abroad
the elements in mischief; but your object is not mischief, nor
do you seek to subsitute one kind of tyranny for another. 1
hope and believe that I express your feelings, and that your so-
ciety are not indifferent to the horrors of insurrection.
Then, if it be necessary that you should so frame your pro-
ceedings as to carry the proprietors of West India estates and
their brethren in the colonies along with you, as co-operators
in the measures, is your address exactly calculated to effect that
object? Ido assure you most solemnly that I believe the great
body of persons interested in colonial property are at present 1
desirous of entering into any comproinise which, while it gives
freedom to the negro, shall offer a reasonable conipensation for
the loss of that which the lawi have 'recognized as property, '
and a guarantee against that wholesale ruin which the change
of system may. possibly occasion.
Now, there is in your address no substantive pledge of reason-
able compensation for what you propose immediately to take
from us, or of indemnity against what we apprehend may be the
result of vour interference. It threatens us with "laws to be
forthwith.made for the immediate and entire extinction of sla-
very." This is explicit enough, and we understand it. It says,
those laws are to be accompanied by "judicious and equitable
provisions." Here we complain that your words are less ex-
plicit; that if reasonable compensation be intended, it is feebly
and timorously expressed, and we cannot but fear, therefore,
that what you may consider as equity we may feel to be confis-
cation. You are aware that the colonists have already paid the
British people for the labour of the negro and his progeny. This
contract, you will say, can be of no avail against the negro.—
Very true; but inasmuch as the British people now interfere •to
rrescind the contract, we apprehend that they should refund the
consideration on which it was made, and, moreover, guarantee
the consequences of rescinding it. Such are the provisions
which, in our view, can alone, in effecting emancipation; be de-
servedly called equitable : and I must earnestly invite you, upon
this important point, to unfold more at large your meaning.—
At present I must complain that your address is obscure only
where your payments, and lucid only where our losses, are con-
cerned. 1 regret this the more, because upon the value and
ef-
ficacy of such provisions must depend the co-operation of those
whose experience, from their situation, is indispensable to the
successful working of the scheme.
It may be wrong, it may be unchristian, that the co-opera-
tion of the colonial proprietors should depend upon the terms
which are held out to them; but you must take man as he is,
with all the self-interested motives which, for the most part, acs
tuate his conduct, It may be that our blessed Saviour's words
are to be literally taken, and that we ought to offer our scrip to
him who robs us of our purse ; but men never have acted on
such principles, and, it is to be feared, never will. In estimat-
ing property they look to the laws of the society under which
they live, and to those alone; and if those laws have counten-
anced, have encouraged, have enjoined, the cultivation of West
India estates by negro slaVes, and have upheld the right of pro-
perty in those slaves, you cannot decree those laws to be wrong,
and those rights to be nought, without exciting a sense of ill-
treatment and a determinate on to resist.

..--.---.
To what extent the British laws have gone in sanctioning an
interest in slavery, and what has been the relative share of the
nation and or the colonists in enacting those laws, you may learn
by reading the paper which I enclose, on "The Origin and
Progress of West India Slavery." You will learn from that
paper that the slave trade originated before the West India
slands existed as colonies of Great Britain; and for 200 years
it was greedily pursued by the merchants and manufacturers of

this kingdom; that it was fostered' by every species of Parli.a-
mentaryprotection : and that repeated attempts on the part of
the colonial assemblies to restrain it were disallowed by the Bri-
tish government, because of the urgent complaints of the Britsh
Merchants and manufacturers, and because the traffic was con-
sidered beneficial to the nation.

The society are pleased to say, that " they sincerely pity those
who are involved in the system, and feel for than 'l as possess-
ors of estates which may have descended to them from their
ancestors." May I beg for some little extension in the sphere
of their comparison ? 1 am not one of those who inherit an
interest in slavery ; but I am one of a numerous class, who
finding, on my first establishment in life, the cultivation of the
West India Islands by. negro slaves a favourite object of the
domestic policy of Great Britain, have largely advanced my
money in aid of their cultivation. I have for many years paid
the expenses of estates and furnished supplies for negroes,
where the proprietors were unable to do so themselves. For
the debts thus incurred I have taken security on the estates and
negroes, whose condition I am willing to hope has been bettered
by my advances. These securities are, in most cases, the only
fund to which I can look for re-payment: they form the bulk
the means to which my creditors must look for the satisfaction
of their demands upon me : upon the value of these securities
depends the maintenance ,or the beggary of myself and of my
family.
Then what is expected from me? We have here, as you say,
a "national sin." We have a had, and, if you please, an un-
christian system fastened upon individuals by the British people.
You tell me that men are most likely to prosper in the world
when, in conducting their temporal affairs, they act according
to the "eternal principles of justice," and that therefore the
termination of slavery at the earliest possible period will, in
this respect, greatly benefit the colonial proprietors. Is it just,
is it reasonable, is it in conformity with " the eternal principles
of justice," to demand that I should sign away the security I
have legally acquired, the onty security I have for all that I
possess, in expectation that Providence will make it up to me
in some other way ? And if. all this be my duty, in what other
way can I hope that Divine Providence will act, than bymak-
ing your justice equal to your compassion, by awakening in
you a sense of the sin and shame of being mercitul at other
men's expense, and of offering to your Creator a sacrifice
which costs me every thing, and you nothing at all ?

Allow me to bring the case nearer home, You say that the " con-
duct of your predecessors in religious profession has warned and
guarded you against being involved ' in the system. I am glad of it
for your sakes. You are then spared the anxieties of losing in your
old age MY fruits of the industry of Your youth. You have therefore
nothing to lose by the failure of any hazardous experiments which may
he,foreed upon the Government. But though not, as you say, " in.
volved" in the system, have not some of your body approximated to
the guilt which belongs to persons in my situation 1 Surely you are
not ignorant that London and the outports afford many instances of
persons who belong to the Society of Friends,but who, nevertheless, as
agents, as shipowners, as tradesmen, knowingly and profitably con-
tribute to the maintenance of a trade which is based on slavery. I
have told you in what way I am connected with the slave system. that
the demands of myself and my brother merchants arise, in a great
measure, from paying the cost of various supplies for the maintenance
Of estates. Now, some of these supplies my brother merchants and
myself have occasionally purchased from members of your religious
society. ,There has been no disguise about the matter ; the goods
have bees ordered for a West India estate; ,they have been made up
and forwarded with a full knowledge of, and view to, their destina-
tion. We have paid for those goods, and the sums so paid form, in
some instances, a part of our demand at this very momentagainst the
proprietor. We never met with the least objection on the part of any
such member of your society, who was the conscious shipper of these
goods, to receive the stipulated price. We heard nothing about " un-
hallowedvains ;" nor up to this moment has any intimation reached
us that they would have been content to leave the payment to Provi-
dence, or that they meditate the reduction of our demands by bring-
ing back the sums they have received. I call upon any such member
of your society to put himself for a moment in my situation. We have
both administered to the demands of the slave system. He has been
paid for what he contributed, and by me. I remain unpaid. Do " the
eternal principles of justice" stamp my claims as unhallowed, and
quit his receipts scot free ? And whence comes it, may I ask, that
the " eternal principles of justice," which have decided upon my loss,
do not stimulate a little more than they seem to do that remuneration
which I have a right to expect at your hands ?
Again, then, I ask, what do you mean by " equitable provisions ?"
What are persons in my situation to expect for the annihilation of
those legal securities in reliance upon which their advances were
made ? I have now before me a statute, drawn, as lam told, by Dr.
Lushington, and passed only 14 years ago,' and which the late Mr.
Stephen called an act " to record, to render clear and notorious, the
rights of the owner;" which declares the validity of a security on ne-
groes and their issue, if certain provisions have been, complied with.
If that statute has sinned against " the eternal principles of justice,"
shall we mend the matter by fixing the penalty on the individuals
whom it has misled?

Do not suppose I am pleadir'i with you fora continuance of slavery
I have never been blind, to the difficulties which might at any time
beset the social condition in the West Indies, nor to the dangers which
agitation might produce upon multitudes in a low state of civilization.
I thought, and still think, that the only safe mode of breaking down
the system of slavery is, to use the language of the late Mr. Stephen,+
"by an emancipation of which the masters should be the willing
instruments ; and that nothing could be more dangerous than to im-
press the slaves with the notion of a general enfranchisement being
intended for themliy the promoters of an impending act of Parlia-
ment, of the benefit of which their masters, full of alarm and conster-
nation, were striving hard to deprive them." But Ino longer feel
assured that the choicer of the means is in my power. Agitation has
done its work in the West Indies as elsewhere, and I therefore agree
with you that " now is the time,"—" protraction" not only " aggra-
vates the guilt," it accumulates the danger. The colonists are
desirous of adjusting the question upon terms which shall not impose
on them more than their share of responsibility for a " national sin ;"
and if the Religious Society of Friends will come forward with some
distinct proposal of compensation and indemnity, they will find no
want of cordial co-operation on the part of the colonial proprietors.
YOu abound in scriptural quotation. Pardon me, then, for remind-
ing you that in the parable of the Good Samaritan there are two
precedents, and that you follow neither the one nor the other. You
abhor the selfishness of the Levite, who saw it was a troublesome
business, and would have nothing to do with it at all ; hut as yet you
have not imitated the generosity of the Samaritan. You seem quite
as much aware of the expense off' the wine and oil as of their efficacy,
and you pity the groans of the wounded man, without coming down
:with the 2d., or signing the bond for his further relief.
In conclusion, permit me to assure the religious Society of Friends,
that I fully estimate the extent of their charity in hazarding' their
" belief ' that " among the proprietors of slaves there are those who
are amiable in the various relations of private life, and who are seek-
ing to live as becometh the gospel;' and to add, that I should not
have troubled them with these observations, if I did not hope that
there were persons in their body, not only not destitute of candour,
but seeking to promote the great interests of the world with gentleness
and intelligence. I am, respectfully, Sir, your obedient servant,
GEORGE HIBBERT.
Mr. George Stacey, Friends' Meeting-house, •
iloundsditch.

• Defonee of the Registry Bill. Letter I. p. 14.
12. + Speech at the annual-meeting of the African institution, 1817;
P.

LONDON LATEST NEWS.

Saturday Evening, Half-part Seven o'clock.

We find by the latest advices from Naples that the Government was
employed in completing a treaty of commerce with the United States
upon terms of reciprocity.
Our Consol Market has been rather flat for the last day or two, and
the quotations, at the close of business, was 871 Exchequer Bills
are at 47 to 48 premium.
We believe a meeting of the East India proprietors will take place
on Monday, to consider the state of their atlairs, and the measures
likely to be adopted by the Government, B:.c.
Spanish stock has been an object of very considerable speculation
within the last few days, and has risen to 201 after having experienced
a slight reaction from the improved price, we have before noticed.
The Northern Bonds continue pretty firm ; Russian Bonds are 1038 ;
Dutch,. 478 ; Danish, 738 74 ; and Belgian, 881 89. Brazilian Bonds
are very heavy at 628, although we have a notification that the
dividends will be.paid on the Ist of April, as was expected.
Altogether, our communication of this day is more than usually un-
interesting; nothing having transpired from any quarter of the
world of much interest

We have just seen Canton papers to the 4th Nov, They state that
the rebellion was considered as nearly terminated. Great drought
hae prevailed at Pekin until the end of July, and caused much anxiety.
Rain had, however, fallen then and removed it. Various reports
were current respecting Ls, the deposed Governor of Canton. Ac-
cording to some he had been condemned to death.

M. Dedel, the Netherlands Minister Extraordinary, had this
morning (Tuesday) an interview (probably his last) with Lord
Palmerston and Prince Talleyrand. It is notorious in all the
political circles that the demands of the French Ambassador
are such as Mr. Dedel is not authorised to listen to, much less
to yield; and therefore whether meetings like that of this morn-
ing are continued or not a little longer, there is not the most
remote probability of an arangemcnt at present—Standard.

A short time since a respectable farmer's daughter, whilst on
a visit to a friend's house, near Houghton-le-Spring, became
enamoured of a schoolmaster, and as the feeling was reciprocal,
the joyous pair, after a six days' courtship, were made one-twain
in the- holy bonds of matrimony. The father of the bride, ou
learning what had taken place, provided a wedding feast for his
household, but the revels were most inopportunely interrupted
by a declaration from the farmer's man-servant, that he had
been privately married to the bride a short time before! ,It
would require the pencil of a Hogarth to describe the eclair-
cissement ; the rich prize was left in possession of the astonished
dominie for several days, and was only given up to her original
lover and husband after a treaty to which several functionaries
of the village were parties.—Newcastle. Journal.

It is reported that Capain Barrington, R.N., one of the
Lords of the Admiralty, had resigned on account of ill-health;
and rumours states that P. M. Stewart, Esq. M.P. for Lan7
caster will be his successor.—Guardian.

Yesterday, shortly. after eleven o'clock, the Mayor, attended
by the Bailiffs, Magistrates, and Cougeilmen, anda large body
of the Clergy and Laity, left the Town-hall to lay the first
stone of the new Church to be built in the street leading, out of'
Great-Howard-street, beyond the Boreirgh Gaol. The church
is t.) be called All Saints, and is to c'ontaiti 1,000 sittings, of
which, 200 are to be wholly free, 500 to be let to the labouring
classes at two shillings a sitting per annum, and the remainder
to be let at a moderate rent for respectable tradesmen. There .
are also to be two schools in connection with it to hold 250 boys
and 250 girls. The Corporation gave the ground, the Par-
liamentary Commissioners £l,OOO, the Church Building Com-
mittee £4OO, the School Building Committee in London £l5O,
and the Moorfieldt School Committee £6OO, and there have
been several munificent private donations;_ we understand,
however that £3OO at least, are still wanted to complete the
iequisitefunds.
The Rev. A. Campbell, attended by Messrs. Stewart and
Picton, the architects, presented the trowel, &c. to the Mayor,
who laid the stone with the usual ceremonies, expressing
his high gratification at having had the opportunity of assisting
in so religious a work, and the ceremony was concluded with
'the following prayer:—
Blessed be thy name, 0 Lord, that it hath pleased thee to put
it into the hearts of thy servants to erect in this place a, House
to thy honour and worship. Bless, 0 Lord, those who have con-
tributed their bounty towards it, and accept this their charitable
work. Forget not tliis kindness that they have shewedfor the
House of their God and the offices thereof; let their eyes be-
hold the success of their designs for the service of thy true reli-
gion established amongst us; and grant that all they who shall
enjoy the benefit of this pious work, may shew forth their thank:
fulness, by holy obedience to thy Divine Majesty, and. dutiful
obedience to the earthly powers that are ordained by thee,
so that seriously laying to heart the great dangers we are in by
our unhappy divisions, we may henceforth be all of one heart,
and one soul, united in one hOly bond of truth and peace, of
faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth
glorify thee, our common 'Father, through Jesus Christ our
Lord.

It has too often been the fate of improvements in mechanical
science and the arts, to have invidious statements circulated re-
specting them emanating from .a spirit of jealous hostility.—
'I here has not been-a more meritorious and useful invention
than Chubb's Improved Patent Detector Locks, yet a malig
nant report was industriously circulated, that at the late rob-
bery of the Wells' Bank, in Somersetshire, the detector lock.
was picked, an assertion, the falsehood of which nas been
proved, by the declaration of the proprietors of that highly-
respectable establishment, a fact that has more than ever tended
to establish the safety and infallible security of that invalu-
able invention.

A most ridiculous rumour of the capture of French vessels itt
the East Indies is going the round of the daily ))apers. Tho,
story originates in the reported captures of vessels by pirates
from the Island of St. Eustatia, in the West Indies, to which
we have lately given the most pointed contradiction.—Guardian.
The letters'from Ostend state that his Majesty of Belgium
intends to put a high duty on English vessels trading with that
country, particularly if they shall presume to enter the canals
of that new Government. The merchant ship Oak had re-
mained ten days at Ostend, without receiving the necessary
documents wherewith to pais up the canal to Ghent, and great
doubts were entertained as to the success of the application foi.
an English ship. A French vessel, they state, would have no
difficulty.—Guardian.

It was reported on Saturday that Admiral Sir Pulteney
Malcolm was about to return to port to strike his flag. This
would argue, either that Sir P. Malcolm is to be superseded in
his command, or, on the other hand, a positive assurance that
hostile demonstration is no longer called for; and yet we know,
that at the present moment so much activity prevails at some
of our dock-yards, and particularly at Woolwich. that it has
been found necessary to demand the assistance of additional
clerks. The Admiral, we find, sailed on Thursday from the
Downs for Sheerness.—Naval and Military Gazette.
We were in hope that we shoull this week have had it in our
power to communicate some favourable intelligence respecting
the Calypso packet brig, to which we alluded last week as not
having been heard of for a considerable period; but we regret
to say that no account has since been received. The Emulous,
another packet brig, which sailed from Falmouth for Americas
about a month after the Calypso (the middle of Dec. last), has
not been heard of since.—Naval and Military Gazette.
A Cabinet Council was held as usual last Sunday. Lordlki-
thorp said in the house that these Sunday meetings were not
Cabinet Councils, but only little consultations,; and since they.
were for the good of the country, there could be no sin in them.
If that is all his lordship's security, his shield is but small.—
John Bull.

Hymen has been very busy among the Benediets at Long's.
Hotel last week. On Monday, Viscount Torrington, who had
been staying at the hotel for five weeks, was married at Lang-
ham church, to Miss Astley, daughter of Sir John Dugdale
Astley, of Langham-place, and Eveleigh, Wilts, Yesterday;
John Burgess, Esq. was married to Lady Caroline Clement*,
daughter to the Earl of Leitrim; ,and about the same hour the.
Count de Bo sere was married to Miss Saunderson, of Port-
man-sguare. . The latter "happy pair" will pass a few days in
the neighbourhood of Windsor.