The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-25 00:00:00

It is painful to contemplate such a result to an
—which received the good

effort made under such auspice

wishes of the virtuous and benevolent of every party, -and

which has been conducted throughout with such energy and

scheme wit wer

'rom the outset of this mis-

;his precise ter-

!Ist fur its failure in realizing the benefits which

ere expected from it by its projectors

The LIVERPOOI

STANDARD denounced it then as a hopeless and •a rr

project; and we viewed it as especially injurious to the real
interests of the African race, inasmuch as it drew away at-
tention for a time, and at an important crisis, from the ad-
vantages to be derived by establishing upon a permanent
basis the prosperity.of our West Indian colonies, from which
source we are satisfied must mainly emanate the future
civilization of unhappy Africa.
Our object in recurring to this subject now is not to in-
dulge in any taunts against those of our fellow townsmen,
who, at the time, regarded the opinions, which we felt bound
to express against the practical usefulness of this expensive
national effort, as emanating from feelings of no very amiable
character. We have no desire to build up a claim to superior
discernment, and thus to triumph, upon an issue so full of
calamity and so destructive to the nation's hopes. On the
contrary we would gladly convert even this disastrous failure
into a blessing. We would gladly erect upon this prostration
of the fond anticipations of so many wise and good men a
beacon to direct them in the true path to the object which
they have in view. We would gladly use it as a warning to
the friends of the negro race, at once to lay aside the con-
templation of visionary projects which involve physical im-
possibilities ; to lay aside, too, unworthy prejudices; and to
direct their attention earnestly and honestly towards the
means which we possess in our own hands of effecting avast
amelioration of the condition of the people of Africa, if not
ultimately, even, of bringing them within the pale of civili-
zation ; and if such a good can be brought out of the evil
which has attended this unfortunate expedition, the treasure
lavished upon it will not haVe been spent, and our gallant
fellow-countrymen, who have ,fallen its victims, have died
in vain.

• Let the friends of Africa nowt—let those whose sympathies
were with this effort of misdirected humanity—turn their at-
tention calmly and seriously to au examination of their posi-
tion with respect to the object which they have in view. The
experiment to promote the happiness and civilization of
Africa by means of colonisation has been made and failed.
We can effect no amelioration internally and directly in
the condition of the people of Africa. Malaria and disease
hedge them round in their present state of abject degrada-
tion ; and the barrier which they form is impassable and
impregnable against any efforts of European cilvilization.
What then are the means by which we can operate upon that
state of degradation from without 1 By commerce along the
shores of Africa, something—and yet how small when com-
pared with the whole which we contemplate ?—may be done.
We may stimulate the inhabitants of the coast to the adoption
of European habits. and create in them new wants, which in
return will induce exertion and industry to supply them. But
there, alas, the curse which aflicts Africa stands in our way •,
and those wants which we create, and from which we look
for the production of industry, result only in giving a stimu-
lus to barbarity. The Brazilian, the Spanish or the American.
slaver lurks in the rivers and prowls along the coasts of that
unhappy land ; and human flesh and blood is barteredto pur-
chase the luxuries and comforts for which commercial inter-
course has created a taste. So long as slavery exists in the
world, civilisation, to the extent to which commerce can
eject it, is a curse and not a blessing to Africa. Unhesi-
tatingly we make that declaration. The continued existence
of slavery and the slave traffic neutralises all our efforts in
the cause of African amelioration ; and a perseverance in
them, unaccompanied by a determined resolution to effect
the destruction of that odious traffic, is cruelty rather than
philanthropy !
But is not Great Britain earnest and resolute in her efforts
to put down slavery ? it may be asked. Are not her cruisers
upon every coast, and at the mouth of every river? And
has she not determined to risk even war rather than relax
in her noble efforts? All this we reply is true ; and yet the
slave trade increases despite of all this energy and determina-
tion, and the horrors of that trade are increased tenfold be-
cause of it ! We cannot, with all the sacrifice of valuable
lives and money, which the effort involves, do more than
check it. We cannot even make it unrernunerating ; and
until we can do this, and so long as avarice is inherent in the
human mind, the slaver will laugh at our efforts and deride
our philanthropy.
Turn, then, we ask of the friends of the African race, to
our British Wrest Indies, and examine the facilities which
there present themselves for effecting the objects which they,
and we too, have in view. In those colonies we see thou-
sands of our African brethren enjoying the blessings of free-
dom, in the enjoyment of every comfort,—civilized, educated,
Christianized, and under the guarding protection of British
laws and British institutions. In those colonies, too, we see
an exhaustless field for the supply of additional hundreds of
thousauds of Africans with the means of comfort and the
blessings of civilization. With proper cultivation those colo-
nies are capable of supplying the whole world with those pro-
ducts which the bosom of unhappy Africa is rifled for limbs
to raise ? And yet what use does Britain make of these noble
possessions ? To what extent are they made to operate to-
wards the accomplishment of that great object which, as a
nation, we profess to have in view ? We answer, NONE !
British philanthropy, when it struck the fetters from the
West Indian slave, there paused, and left but half accom-
plished its glorious and beneficent task. We sought to strike
a blow to the heart of slavery : we have not pierced the skin.
From these fertile lands ought to have gone forth the edict at
whose sound the fetters of every enslaved man beneath the
canopy of heaven would have been broken ; and yet the spec-
tacle which they present bas only riveted those fetters more
firmly and hopelessly upon him.
• We have already shewn that in one at least of our colonies
(Guiana) cultivation by means of free labour cannot be car-
ried on except at a ruinous sacrifice to the planter ; and that
without a supply of labour it must soon cease entirely, and
the markets of Great Britain for tropical produce be thrown
'open without restriction to the cultivation of foreign slave
countries. No government can long maintain the protection at
present afforded to free-labour produce, in the face of a li-
mited and high-priced supply. We must have those neces-
saries of life which the tropics afford us at a diminished price
and in larger quantities ; and there are but two modes by
which that can be accomplished. Abandon West Indian
protection—declare emancipation a failure—proclaim to the
world the harrowing fact that tropical produce cannot be
produced by free labour—throw open the British markets to
slave labour without restriction, and say to the slave-trader,
" Go on in your inhuman traffic, which has now become one
necessary to the comfort and the luxury of mankind ; " or,
as the only alternative which can avert a result so greatly to
be deprecated, throw into the hands of the planters in your
own colonies the means of procuring a supply of labour;
give to the degraded and oppressed natives of Africa the
means of transporting themselves within the confines of ci-
vilization, since civilization cannot visit them in their own
deathly and wretched climate.

Can-the British philanthropist have any hesitation which
of these two courses he should advocate? Surely he cannot.
The only means by which the amelioration of the condition
of the African race can be effected, exist in our emancipated
colonies. In these colonies the labour of Africa may find
an abundant market. Here they may find protection, edu-
cation, and Christianity. From these lands the slave traffic
may be effectually and peacefully put down ; and thence ul-
timately the blessings of civilization may reach the heart of
Africa herself.

" I consider," wrote Lord John Russell, on the 20th of
March last—" I consider the establishment of a regular
INTERCOURSE BETWEEN AFRICA AND THE WEST INDIES
will tend greatly not only to the prosperity of the British
West India possessions, but likewise to the civilization of
Africa. A new epoch has arrived for the African race. We
have in the West Indies 800,000 negroes, of wham, perhaps,
three-fourths are Christians in the enjoyment of practical
freedom, of means of education and of physical comfort, to!a
very high degree. There is no reason to suppose that their
advances in wealth, knowledge, and religious improvement
may not be in proportion to the most hopeful anticipations.
Nothing like this state of society exists among the African
race elsewhere."

Open out, then, we say, even at the expense of the British
government, additional facilities for that intercourse. Let
no unworthy prejudice against the planters of the West Indies
interfere with such a work of real benefit to the African
race. People our West Indies from the shores of that be-
nighted land. Lay the foundation there of an African em-
pire and from its growth and prosperity, and the intercourse
which may be established between it and the parent conti-
nent, who shall place a limit to the vast results of good which
may arise to the cause of humanity and to the negro race ?

"OBSERVATIONS ON THE REV. H. WNEILE'S
LETTER. BY THE REV. T. YOUENS, D.D."
Liverpool : Rockliff and Ellis, Castle-street.

We took up the above " Observations " in the full expec-
tation of finding in them a reply to the arguments and the
statements contained in the letter of Mr. M`Neile, which
appeared in our publication of the 11th instant. The repu-
tation of the rev. doctor as a controversialist, fully warranted
us in the supposition that he would meet the whole question
embraced in that letter fully and fairly ; and we must con-
fess that we have laid it down with the impression indelibly
fixed upon our mind, that,, even as a controversialist, per-
mitted by the usage of his order to employ every subtlety of
argument and perversion or.evasion of truth to establish the
case of the church to which, he belongs, the author has most
signally failed to prove himself entitled to enter the lists and
to break a lance, in the presence of intelligent and discrimi-
nating witnesses, with so approved and powerful a champion
as the rev. gentleman againSt whom he has so presumptu-
ously set himself in array. Amore feeble and flippant pro-
duction it is scarcely possible to conceive than the letter
before us ; and could there have existed any reasonable doubt
as to its authorship, we should have unhesitatingly main-
tained the impossibility of so flimsy and trifling a composi-
tion having emanated from the learned doctor whose imprint
it bears.

We could easily prove the correctness of this judgment by
quoting entire the five pages and a half of mingled swagger
and shuffle, which the doctor has endeavoured to palm off
upon the ignorant supporters of his church'as a triumphant
settlement of the whole question at issue, but which no edu-
cated and reasoning Roman Catholic will be satisfied, we
imagine, to accept as such. We have not space for this,
however, even if we were desirous to load our columns with
the rev. doctor's rhodomontade ; and shall content ourselves
with an extract or two merely, as specimens of his style and
of the quality of his arguments :
" On the subject of creeds we have a little more skirmish-
ing on the outskirts of the question. Mr M`Neile attempts
to elude the force of my argument, charging him with incon-
sistency in admitting the Athanasian Creed and in subscri-
bing to the Thirty-nine Articles. He tells us that he can
safely and consistently receive the Athanasian Creed, be-
cause of its scripture contents ' ; and that he can subscribe
to the Thirty-nine. Articles, because they have no condem-
natory clauses.

" This is really amusing. No power on earth could in-
duce him to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles if they had
the condemnatory clauses.' And yet his orthodoxy can
swallow the Athanasian Creed with its condemnatory clauses,
and that without any apparent effort. This reminds me of
a singular peculiarity of deglution mentioned in the Gospel."
This little flourish, we dare say, will be " very amusing"
to the ignorant Popish reader of the learned doctor's observa-
tions, and their author will be incontinently held up as a
przeux chevalier amongst the controversialists of Romanism
but, unfortunately for the doctor's reputation in the eyes of
the thinking and reasoning portion of mankind, the flourish
been gained at the expense of truth.
in question has only
The alleged inconsistency of Mr. M'Neile in receiving the
Athanasian Creed, and at the same time subscribing to the
39 Articles, is thus triumphantly established by,simply mis-
representing the meaning and suppressing a portion of the
explanation itself, by which Mr. M'Neile showed most satis-
factorily the unstable grounds upon which Dr. Youens found-
ed his original charge. 'Mr. M'Neile never told the doctor or
any other person that he received the Athauasian creed " be-
cause of its scripture contents, and subscribed the 39 arti-
cles " because they contained no condemnatory clauses."
His argument, as published, was a consistent whole: its al,
leged substance, as given by the doctor in the extracts above,
is only composed of shreds, cunningly selected, to pervert its

-leaning. The doctor quotes within inverted commas, as
Mr. M`Neile's composition, a paragraph which Mr. M`Neile
never wrote.

We could give similar instances of the doctor's jesuitry ;
but it is perhaps superfluous. Doctor Youens has been met

in his first essay against Mr. Wisieile, has shuffled out of
the encounter, and will meet him no more. The public at
large, and a portion of the reflecting Roman Catholics them-
selves, will not he satisfied unless the doctrines of the Romish
Church can be defended and their antiquity established upon
scriptural evidence ; and its chosen champion, when chal-
lenged to dO this, has distinctly declined the attempt—has
laid down the Bible, and taken refuge in the fathers.
" Let Mr. IVl`Neile not," writes Dr. Youens in concluding
his feeble Observations,' " tell us that Scripture is his test.
In his hand the Scripture ha..i all the potency of a magical
--and : by means of it he can, at will, change truth into error,
►d error into truth. Until, therefore, he and I can come

to some understanding as to the criterio❑ whereby religious
truth is to be distinguished from religious error, let him not
use a test" (the Bible) " against which I protest." By all
means, most learned doctor ; and the conclusion which the
public must and will draw from such a course can only be that
the existing Churdrof Rome is an unapostolical, unscriptu-
ral, and schismatic novelty, or why " protest" against an
appeal to the Scriptures.

BRAID'S DISCOVERIES

On Saturday evening Mr. Braid, surgeon, of Manchester,
whose discoveries in the so-called science of Mesmerism
have been noticed in our paper, delivered at the Portico, in
Newington, a lecture, which was partly a narrative of the
incidents which caused him to turn his attention to the sub-
ject; descriptive of the process by which he produces the
somnainbulic, or cataleptiform, state ;. elucidative of what he
conceives to be the causes of the phenomena induced ; and
illustrative so far as regarded the production of certain effects
on the parties whom he himself brought forward. The room
was well filled, at an early hour, with a highly-reiliectable
auditory, among whom were several ladies, and many gentle-
men of the medical profession.

The lecture commenced at eight o'clock. It does not,
however, require to be reported at any length, as it was
chiefly' a recapitulation of matter which has been already
published more than once. He set out with a brief history
of Mesmerism ; alluding to the scepticism which prevailed
on the subject ; the admission which had been made touching
its phenomena; the conve.sion of Dr. Elliotson in this
country ; Mr. Wakley's investigatidn of points averred
by the !alter, with the results thereof ; and the deathblow
thereby inflicted on Mesmerism in England till the subject was
revived by the visit of M. Lafontaine. With such variable ac-
counts of the success of the latter he was, like many others, ex-
tremely sceptical, and he determined to go and judge for him-
self. From this point Mr. Braid proceeded to describe the
progress of his discovery, and its gradual developement, all of
which has been abundantly narrated heretofore. He appeared
particularly desirous of drawing a strong distinction be-
tween the professors of animal magnetism and himself,
and ridiculed the notion of one person having a power
over another, as has been constantly asserted by the
former. He believed that the magnetizers produced the
same effects, though not by their manipulations, but by
causes similar to those which he set forth ; and, while the
magnetizers frequently failed, lie seldom did so, as even
the most strong, if they complied with his directions,
mentally as well as bodily, must be influenced, and so far
from it being requisite that any individual should have power
over them, they might, if they pleased, mesmerize themselves
by complying with his directions. The lecturer here paused
for the purpose of cautioning his hearers not to attempt ex-
periments of this nature alone, as one or two individuals,
who had imprudently brought on the cataleptic state without
having some person at hand to awaken them, had been found
in a very alarming condition. The lecturer mentioned the
exceedingly strange susceptibility of the patient, and the extra-
ordinary variations which take place in the pulse. He ad-
verted to an instance which he had noted in a girl, named
Sarah Connor, whose pulse, before she was mesmerized, was
94 ; in two minutes after she was put into the cataleptic state
it was 90: when one limb was mesmerized it went up to 118,
and subsequently to 148. The statement went to show, that.
when the limbs were demesmerized, the pulse sank, and that
it rose again as they were mesmerized or placed in a state of
rigidity.

Mr. Braid explained the useful purposes to which he had
turned his discovery. It had enabled him to extract teeth
without pain, for the persons so influenced were not sensible
of pain. He had removed rheumatism of long standing ; had
cured a tic-doloreaux in eleven minutes ' • had even restored
the use of paralytic limbs,—limbs which had been paralytic
from birth ; and had cured the deaf and dumb. Some of his
worldly-wise friends had desired him to conceal his disco-
veries, and to practice them in private fur his own profit and
emolument ; but, as he found them important and capable of
being largely beneficial to mankind, he thought they could
not be too widely disseminated. Mr. Braid having con-
cluded his lecture, expressed his intention of illustrating his
discourse by experiments. His plan was first to call forward
those whose susceptibility he had tried, and then to experi-
mentize on any individual who might offer.
Mr. Braid first called forward a young woman, who is, he
informed us, his domestic cook. Her name did not transpire.
He held his lancet-case above her eyes, and she fixed her
eyes steadily upon it. In a few seconds her eyes closed. The
operator raised her arms, so as to bring each of her hands
nearly in contact with herface. He then caused her to fol-
low him. She walked slowly and cautiously, and with an ap-
peorance of great rigidity of muscle. The operator observed
that she was a heavy sleeper, and a heavy walker likewise.
She was placed in a chair, her arms still up, and the operator
extended her legs, which she retained at a right angle to her
spine. He declared her insensible to pain, and, to prove it,
darted pins into her forehead; where they stuck. He then
pierced her legs till the blood followed each puncture. Drs.
M'Culloch and M'lntyre felt her pulse. It was, at first, 84 :
when her limbs were extended it was 166. Her legs were
demesmerized, and she was slightly aroused when the pulse
sunk to 80. The limbs were again extended, and the pulse
rose to 152: During the whole of this time the muscles of
the arms were extremely rigid, her face was flushed, and her
eyes, on being examined by Dr. Sutherland and the other
medical gentlemen, were found to he congested with blood,
the iris was preternaturally dilated, and the retina was insen-
sible to the action of light. All these phenomena were par-
ticularly noted. The girl was next subjected to the influence
of galvanism. -The shocks produced a sensible effect on her
arms, but no indication of pain was visible on her counte-
nance. The pulse, immediately after the removal of the
galvanic apparatus, was 160. As her face had become
much flushed, the operator aroused her by a few strokes of
his fan and a few shakes. She opened her eyes and exhibited
all the appearance of a person suddenly started from a deep
sleep. • Mr. Braid immediately mesmerized her again, for
the purpose of trying upon her the effect of the fumes of
ammonia. The ammonia used was exceedingly strong.
Several young gentlemen who stood about the stage were
sceptical as to its power. Mr. Bushell applied it to his nose,
and it was so potent that it brought the tears from his eyes.
However, it had no effect on the girl. Hereupon the scep-
tics, who were, assuredly, most hard of belief, declared that
she held her breath. his was tested by Dr. Sutherland,
who, while he ascertained that she was breathing, applied the
phial to her nostrils. It produced no effect. A Mr. Bain-
bridge, who was one of the most unbelieving of the unbe-
lievers, required that some snuff should be exhibited. A
copious pinch of snuff was administered, but it produced no
evidence of sensibility. The girl, on being aroused, pre-
sented the same indications of half returned consciousness
as before.

The next girl produced was Sarah Connor. Our space
will not permit us to go into a detailed account of all the
experiments. This girl was quickly put into the cataleptic,
or somnatnbulic, state, when her pulse was found to be 120.
The operator, in order to convince the-audience of the supe-
rior sensibility of persons in this state, took out his watch,
and directed her to follow it, he going with it from place to
place ata certain distance from her. This experiment par-
tially failed, which the operator stated arose from so many
gentlemen having watches about them. The girl was next
seated, and her limbs raised, when she bore the test of
pricking with pins, &c. without any indications of sensibility,
though the blood flowed each, puncture. She was also tried
with the galvanic battery, which produced precisely the same
indications as were exhibited iu the former case. A . young
gentleman, one of the sceptics, at the suggestion of Dr.
M'lntvre, tried the galvanic apparatus, and he was enabled
to hold it without flinching. Dr. M'lntyre had previously
tried it. and had thrown it precipitately from him. Another
gentleman, who tried subsequently, threw one of the bars
from him very quickly.
Mr. Braid next produced two boys, Edward and James
Shelmerdine, two brothers of three who were born deaf and
dumb. Edward had been entirely deaf from his birth, as
had the brother who was absent. James had been capable
of hearing the report of a gun. He had operated on them a
few times, and they were now able to hear the ticking of a
watch, and, though they could not speak, the power of speech
was restored to them, and they could imitate articulate
sounds. Mr. Braid said, these boys were well-educated, and
could write well, having been brought up in the Institution
for the Deaf and Dumb, at Manchester. Mr. Braid read
certificates of the truth of what he said, and gave convincing
proofs that the boys could hear and articulate. He subse-
quently put them into the cataleptic state, when they exhi-
bited all the usual phenomena, the boy Edward in a remark-
able degree. His pulse beat most vehemently, his face
flushed, arid, at length, the vessels of his neck and visage ap-
peared so swoln that the operator deemed it. necessary to.de-
mesmerize him. It was shown that, after this process, the
hearing of the boys was considerably improved. The audi-
ence was compelled, of course, to take this upon the showing
of the boys, who were either deceiving themselves or wil-
fully deceiving the audience.
Mr. Braid mentioned several instances of the great success
which had attended his experiments on deaf persons, which
we are sorry we have not space to advert to. After having
mesmerized his own servant man with the usual results, he
called forward two little girls, one of whom is a daughter of
Mr. Edw. Browne, of this town, professor of the flute. The.
last-named child, he-stated, he had mesmerized only once be-
fore: After gazing a few minutes at an object, they shut
their eyelids, and their arms were raised in different posi-
tions. In this state, with closed eyes, they followed Mr.
Braid whither he desired, and turned and walked in the di-
rection of any individual who called to them. At the desire
of Mr. Braid, one of them waltzed with apparent good-will,
and both essayed to sing, but with an intonation indicative of
drowsiness.

When Mr. Braid informed the audience that be would ex-
perimentise ou any individuals who would submit to the ope-
ration, the male candidates were numerous. Mr. Braid in-
quired if any lady present wished to put his statements to
the test of trial. After a slight pause, a lady who sat in one
of the front seats, stepped forward. Previously to trying the
experiment, Mr. Braid related that he had, by fixing the gaze
of a lion on one occasion, and of a Newfoundland dog on ano-
ther, succeeded in mesmerising both these animals. Mr. B.
proceeded to try the experiment upon the lady to whom we
have alluded. After gazing for a few moments at his lancet
case, she closed her eyes, in obedience to the whispered in-
junctions of the operator. Mr. Braid then raised her arms,
which she kept in the position in which he placed them, and,
on her pulse being felt, it was found to be 100. She soon
opened her eyes, and Mr. B. intimattd politely that he had
done with her. The operator was completely under the im-
pression that he had succeeded ' • but the lady was of a diffe-
rent opinion, for she declared that she could at any moment
have put down her arms or opened her eyes, a fact that was
communicated to the audience by Dr. M'lntyre. Mr. Braid
observed that it could not be said that he had not produced
any effect, seeing that the lady's pulse had risen to 140, and
as to her opinion on the subject, he had uniformly observed,
that the parties Mesmerised would not at first believe that
any effect was produced. The lady was, however, in the first
stage, which would have gone on till the cataleptic state would
have been produced in its extremity.
Four of
,the candidates for specimens of the operators
powers were now placed on the stage in a line. The first of
these, a good looking young gentleman, Mr. George Jobbling,
of this town, quickly closed his eyes. One of his arms was
raised, and the operator left him and proceeded to fa the
gaze of Mr. Smith, a gentleman in the corporation treasurer's
office, who, after looking intently at the lancet case for a few
moments, closed his eyes. His arm was then raised, and he,
too, was left with an arm uplifted towards the sky, in the
attitude of a Brutus when appealing to the gods against the
tyranny of a Tarquin. The fourth gentleman, Mr. Moss,
secretary to the Shipmasters Association, Oldhall-street,
gazed most intently, but could not, or would not, yield.
Many times the operator evidently thought he was going off;
but he ever and anon opened his eyes, and created much mer-
riment by gazing around. Suddenly Mr. Jobbling's arm
dropped, his head fell upon his breast, and it was feared he
would have fallen forward. In this attitude he continued
till Mr. Braid again raised his arm, which he held out ri.4-id
as before, The operation was again tried on the refractory
subject above alluded to; but he resisted all Mr. Braid's
powers. A sudden sound awakened Mr. Jobbling, when

the operator, suddenly catching Mr. Smith's arm, per-
formed the same kind office for him. Numerous questions
)e audience, many more than could pos-
answered. Mr. Braid said he had no conceal-
and he requested the gentleman to reply candidly.
.. Smith said, he had closed his eyes at the request of the
operator, and had also, for the same reason, held his arms in
the position in which they were placed, though he had power
at any moment to have opened his eyes and to have let fall his
arms to their natural place. Mr. Jobbling declared that he
had no power whatever either to open his eyes or to move
his armli. He was perfectly conscious, but he seemed to have
lost all control over all his muscles.

were asked by th

A. younfr

„gentleman, named Tinley

whom the experiment was tried. His e,
his arms were fixed. He speedily awoke„
declared that he had endeavoured to open hi