The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-05 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 5, 1833.

WEST INDIA SLAVERY.—Comments have beeri made
upon the case of Lord Crawford's:estate, in Antigua, by
different parties, according to their different inclinations.
An article of singular incapacity on the subject appears
in the Liverpool Albion.
The writer speaks of " the crime of slavery ;" and, at
the same time, says, that immediate emancipation does
not mean—immediate emancipation. A certain period
is to intervene before this immediate emancipation is
even to commence ! But as he does not know the mean-
ing of " immediate," so neither does he know the mean-
ing of " crime." If it be a crime to hold men in slavery,
why does not St. Paul desire the masters to whom he
writes, to liberate their slaves ?—(Eph. vi. 9., Col. iv. 1.)
No consideration whatever, be it what it may, can justify
the continuance in known sin for one moment, as any
national school-boy would tell the editor of the Albion.
In fact; if it be a crime, then he is a criminal, as well as a
blunderer, for nullifying the meaning of his own term—
" immediate" emancipation. But if, on the other hand,
the case of slavery be parallel to that of war,—if it be a
tiling always indicating evil in its origin—always caus-
ing misfortune in its course; it may also be, like war, a
thing which cannot be at once gcit rid of—and in this
case, we must make the fitness of the slave the ground
of emancipation: The West Indians, we believe, are
not ignorant enough of their own plantations, to deny
that the slave would gladly accept freedom if it were of-
fered him, though the writer in the Albion may be ig-
norant enough to suppose it of them: • But can that
writer gravely urge, as he seems in his concluding sen-
tences to intimate, that the desire . for freedom on the
part of the negro constitutes in itself a reason why he
should be liberated ? If it does, let us open our gaols,
and let out the felons, for how many of those confined
are there who have not "burning in their breast" an
"eager desire" to be enlarged ?
Unhappy question to be thus discussed ! and unhappy
negroes I if such are your advoc ates,. what must your
enemies be

THERE may be some in this town who still remember
Mr. William Ewart as the son of a tory=as the brother
of tories—as himself a tory. It may assist them in esti-
mating his present position, to know that he voted on
Tuesday last in the minority of thirty-one against the re-
election of the late speaker, in company with Messrs.
Cobbett, Hume, Roebuck, Warburton, Williams, and the
Irish iepealers. Mr. Grote, of London, and Mr. Faith-
ful of Brighton, both, as might have' been conceived,
sufficiently radical in their sentiments, with many others
of .a similar•Qtamp, notwithstanding, voted for the late
tried and approved Speaker, against an untried and un-
approved -gentleman ; but Mr. EWart, it seems, could
not ! He does all he can, to repair to the Radicals of this
town, tlie losg occasioned by the defeat of Mr. Thornely.
But we lament to see him, professing to be a scholar and
a gentleman,. thus gradually identifying himself with a
faction, openly banded together for the *Overthrow of all
the institutions of the country. As, however, he has
chosen 'to occupy this position it should be known and
understood.

RELtwous AND MORAL EFFECTS OF CHOLERA.—AS
the subject of a day of thanksgiving for the cessation
of cholera has been lately brought before the public
of this town, we think the season is a fitting one to offer
one or two very brief remarks upon it, and to call the
attention of our readers to some circumstances connected
with itg devastations in that part of England, where it was
found most fatal. It cannot be said, that such remarks
are out of place, because the disease has ceased amongst
us. That very cessation calls upon us• for our grateful
reflections as regards the past : nor are they less desirable
as regards the future, inasmuch as they may tend to the
putting away of those " accursed things " from among us,
which draw down judgment upon us. Otherwise, the
same causes which brought it once; may bring it again.
The disease may return: . and how much matter for
anxiety is there involved in this painful contingency.
Alt visitations are instruments of power, and are sent
with a purpose. Nor do they ever return from their
errand, wholly void. They are 'lever inefficient : for if
ineffective of good, they are necessarily effective of evil.
Him whom they do not soften, they harden. Partaking
of the • nature of strong medicines, when they fail of
reaching the evil they are meant to remedy, they exer-
cise a consuming power upon the general functions of
the Constitution.

It is very gratifying to know from authentic sources,
that in one district at least, where its ravages were of the
most conspicuous kind, it produced religious and moral
effects of the most unequivocal and the most pleasing
character. We allude to the south of Stafford mining
district. The name of. Bilston is already, we doubt not,
painfully familiar to our readers : it is a town in that
district—in which there was nearly one case, on the
average, in every family. We,can now. lay before them
some facts, which will at least mitigate the regrets asso-
ciated With its'name.

A little work, which we would recommend to the notice.
of the public, has been published by the Rev. Mr. Gir-
dlestone; Vicar of Sedgley in that district, entitled
" Seven Sermons preached during the prevalence of
cholera, in the parish of Sedgley." .Prefixed is an ac-
count of the results on the spiritual and moral condition
of the population, and detailing not so much feelings and
impressions, which might be feigned or temporary, as
130/salve proofs of amelioration in conduCt.since the dis-
tressing period.
The diStriet in question had been characterised by great
intemperance. It had thirty-one clekymen, and no less
than thirteen hundred publicaps, to. a population of,
165,000 !

"In my own parish "* (says Mr. Girdlestone, p. xv.)
" I have not seen for some months, what used to be no
rare sight even in open day, a drunken man. Nor have
I been applied to—it used to be a frequent -application—
to intercede with a drunkard husband, that he would allot