The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-15 00:00:00

was eagerly seiz

In the midst of the anxieties and the mo-
mentous subjects for consideration occurring at
such a crisis, the cry for the suppression of the
slave trade was eagerly taken up. and formed a
watch-word which exercised a potent influence in
determining the conflicts of party. In 1807 the

agitation reached its climax of success, an act
having been passed which made it a felony for Bri-
tish subjects to be engaged in the capture of slaves
on the African coast, or to allow them to be landed

upon British territory to be employed as in a state
of slavery. This, we repeat, was the first step
towards consummating the ruin of the West India

interest

_ the success with which this agi-
ation had been crowned, the same party set them-
elves vehemently to work to press for further modi-
iscations of our colonial system, which they alleged

Encourag

nished by our rulers not only to the cultivation of
sugar by means of foreign slave labour, but to the
increase of the slave trade itself. _

We shall extract from an able article in this
month's Blackwood a few statements showing that
the diminution of the value of West Indian pro-
perty has been equal to the diminution of West
Indian exports. We begin with Demerara :
Price in Former
1838. price.
£30,000 £50,000
38,000 80,000
20,000 40,000

Anna Catherina Estate
Providence
Thomas

In 1840, the depreciation became greater. Here are a
few examples :

Rome & Houston Estate
Success

William

£40,000 £lOO,OOO
30,000 55,000

26,000 60,000

18,000

40,000

In 1844, the Groenveldt estate, formerly valued at
£33,000, was sold for £lO,OOO. In 1845, the Baillie's
Hope estate, formerly valued at £50,000, was disposed of
for £7,000. And in 1846, the Haarlem estate went for
£3,500, whereas its previous value was not less than•
£50,000 !"

Now, is it not preposterous to suppose that there
can be anything like a fair competition between
the British and the foreign planter situated towards
each other as they now are—the one involved in
almost utter ruin and insolvency, caused by our
own treatment of his interests, and the other in-
flated with prosperity, created by those very acts
by which we have sacrificed our colonial fellow-
countrymen ? Is it consistent with free trade
doctrines that one country should be permitted to
buy its labour in the cheapest market, and the other
compelled to buy the same commodity in the
dearest ? Certainly not; yet this is the position
advanced by her Majesty's Whig Government and
a majority of the free trade party. These philoso-
phers offer to the West Indians, indeed, a few
trifling concessions which might have saved much
distress and loss if tendered at an earlier period.
But though the effects of the act of 1846 are before
them ; although many millions of property have
been swept away by that iniquitous measure, they
still cling to the full maintenance of principles for
the unregulating the colonial industry of the
country; which principles, where they even prove
to be correct as regards every other interest in the
country, have, evidently, in the case of the West
Indies, one exception at least,—they tell the planter
to lay aside his fears, to introduce into his cultiva-
tion fresh capital and improved machinery. Bitter
mockery ; when the planters know that the ink is
scarcely dry upon the document upon which simi-
lar designing assurances were held out to them.
The act of 1846 possesses about it as little of the
character of the law of the Medes and Persians,
which altereth not, as the final settlement of 1842,
whose existence is already only a thing of history.

THE LIVERPOOL INFIRMARY
OF A PHYSICIAN

.-ELECTION

In consequence of the office of physician to the In-
firmary having become vacant by the resignation of Dr.
Duncan, whose exclusive services are required by the
Health Committee, the election of a successor took place
yesterday. in the board-room of the institution, Brown-
low-street. A considerable number of the trustees were

EDWARD GIBBON, Esq. was called to the chair, and
briefly introduced the business to be transacted, remark..
ing that Mr. Joseph Dickenson, M. A., M. D., was' the
only candidate,—no opposition being offered.
T. B. HORSFALL, Esq., the mayor, in proposing Dr.
Dickenson to fill the vacancy, said that he did so both on
public and private grounds. As regarded the public, he
( Mr. H.) could testify that a gentleman of greater zeal,
skill, assiduity, or attention could not be found. He
added a high commendation of the candidate as regards
his private practice, noticing instances in which he had
acquitted himself in a manner showing undoubted science
and the highest gentlemanly bearing.
R. L. JONES, Esq. seconded the proposition, highly
eulogising the candidate on his professional acquirements,
and the assiduity and kindness with which he pursued his
avocation.

The CHAIRMAN declared the candidate to be duly and

tanimously elected
Dr.!, DICKENSON,