The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-10 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

§rrt,—l have read in your excellent paper both the letters
from' A White JaMaican, relative to Mr. Whiteley's publication,
entitled Three Months in Jamaica, All Mr. Whiteley's state-
ments are 'certainly ex-parts, and, until the evidence of their
truth (called for by your correspondent) be fuinished, must be
considered to be, as he pronounces them, libelous.
It is in my opinion the worst trait in human nature to conceive
evil of our fellow-creatures from party prejudices, and meanly to
retire to a quarter of the world remote from them, to vilify their
characters, and to hold them up to public odium and declama-
tion, and thus cause them to be condemned, unseen, unheard,
and unknown.;—but that which most evinces Mr. Whiteley's
want of integrity, and his dereliction of everything like gratitude
for hospitality and protection from the punishment which his
ill-judged and mischievous interposition between master and
his slave merited, is the publication of his doubts of the sincerity o
admitted friend, Mr. M'Lean, in Jamaica, notwithstanding that
gentleman " vehemently swore to him he would sooner lose his
own life than deliver Mr. W. to his enemies;" and afterwards, in
the presence of his admonishers, spoke with "considerable ve-
hemence, and said, that before he would see Mr. W. abused, he
would rather have a ball through his own breast."
Your correspondent very candidly courts inquiry into the truth
of Mr. Whiteley's statement. Justice demands it for the white
Jamaicans; as well as that the parties accused may, if they
should be convicted of the crueltieskand infringements alleged
of them, be adequately, unished.
Mr. Whiteley must in honour and honesty feel impelled to
comply with such call upon his veracity; especially as he is as-
sured of being franked to and from Jamaica, and paid for ail
his expenses and time. lam certain an ample fund would be
collected for that purpose. lam ready at any time, along with
ninny others, to subscribe £2O, or more, as may be requisite to
accomplish the object; and I have not the least doubt of the
white Jamaicans giving bins every protection in such a mission;
yea more, I believe they would guarantee his safe embarkation
again from the island. Perhaps he is able, without going to
Jamaica, to give the names, places, dates, &c. &c., and may
have no objection to depose to a Written statement thereof, to be
sent to Jamaica for verification or falsification, as the facts may
prove ; if so, he ought not to hesitate to do so in his own justifi-
cation, and as thereby he would afford an opportunity to the
Jamaicans (which they have a right to demand) to refute his
charges, and vindicate their conduct and character.
Emancipators‘ in urging and demanding, at all hazards, the
manumission of the negro, without pausing to consider and de-
termine whether he be prepared for such a transition or not, and
whether such a race, if permitted to intermingle without restraint
in commerce and social intercourse with the whites, would in-
tuitively be enabled to, appreciate and avail themselves thereof;
and whether both classes would co-operate for reciprocal advan-
tage, without which both commercial and social compact would
be alike destroyed, and the interests of the island would most
rapidly retrograde, and the extent of the baneful effects of con-
comitant evils beyond our prescience. Such emancipators know
not what they do a posteriori. Such conduct is somewhat ana-
-1 logous to, and quite as arbitraty as, that of Mehemet Ali, to the
chiefs of all the districts in Egypt, who threatens that he will
tear them in pieces if they do not pay to his messenger all ar-
rears of taxes, regardless of their inability to collect the same
from his tyrannised subjects. Still there is this difference in
the case of the West Indians, that, whether they yield to the de-
mand for the emancipation of their slaves, or by refusing con-
. tinue to suffer from persecution and agitation, they and their
, property appear to be marked out for destruction.
I have neither a shilling of property, nor an inch of land, nor
do I possess any slaves, in any of the British or Foreign colo-
nies, and am in no other way whatever interested, afid therefore
can have ho other motive in advancing these arguments than as
A FRIEND'TO-JUSTICE.