The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-13 00:00:00

REE EMIGR

TION FROM AFRICA

,ast Wednesday, Mr. Macgregor
illustrations of the great question of
in emigration. The first paper is one showing the
'tion of Africa, and the proposed
it of undeniable facts, with a comparison
owers of the negro race under different
ie second paper, showing, the moral and
.in to the Negro, the West Indies, and
,y the transfer of Sierra Leone to the West
verbatim, and recommend it to the careful

MORANDUM ON SIERRA LEONE

'arbour of Sierra Leone has been in virtual possession
t Britain since the commencement of the sixteenth
. As it is the only harbour
i properly so called be-
;ape Verde and Fernando Po, t is an important point
maritime power to hold it. Clarence Cove, in Fer-
o, and Amboisas Harbour, under Cameron's 11,1oun-
-3e the only ports on the coast that a frigate can enter
ime of tide ; all other ports are bar and tide harbours.

early voyagers saw the advantages it possessed as a
Id built a fort there in the reign of Charles the First.
tory as a colony dates from 1787, when an attempt
, •. •

made to colonise it with American refugee Negroes : out
11 landed, only 63 remained in 1791; who were settled
"' Town.

A Granv
In 179

2, the Sierra Leone Company sent out 119 Euro-
id others as settlers; who were reduced by the cli-
-1793, to 40 survivors.

a 1792, 1131 Nova Scotians were added to the colony ; of
one-tenth died immediately; and in 1826, 578 alone
shied of those people and their descendants.
a 1800, 550 Maroons, of all ages and sexes, were landed
a Jamaica ; who in 1836 had increased to 681: these
ale took advantage of the first opportunity of returning
amaica ; and in 1841 there were only 70 remaining in the

In 1819, 85 Negroes concerned in an insurrection in Bar-
,dos were transported to Sierra Leone : they have peti-
med to be permitted to return to the West Indies.
In 1818, 1222 pensioners Irons the West Indian and
?yalist Regiments, and their families, were located in the

In 1826, Major Rowan states the apparent decrease in the
pulation of the colony to be 8,924.
Up to 1819, the number of liberated Africans located in

colony was 11

to the 30th June, 1840, 51,524

vulation now is supposed to be 50,000 souls. It is
it making all allowances for the excess of males over
among the liberated Africans, some powerful cause
in operation to prevent a race, above all others

ific, from increasing and multiplying under the protec-
and patronage of the British government, and which
made so many of its inhabitants eager to escape beyond
Sounds. That cause arose, it is believed, from three
rate sources— _ _

‘, —......_
From the poverty of the soil, which is incapable of
ing exportable produce, or repaying the labour em-

From the non-existence of any national character in
pulation ; Maroons, Nova Scotians, and liberated
Is, from all quarters of the continent, being mixed
r, with no common bond of unity or feeling.
,'rom the unhealthiness of the climate preventing an
t European superintendence being established on the
the government over these mixed dnd incongruous
is ; and deterring capital and skill from flowing into
Lony from Great Britain, as it would naturally have
nder more favourable circumstances.
one of these causes would have been sufficient to pre-
Le colony ever attaining a flourishing state : the three
ied are more than enough to account for its present
holy condition.

s incapable of supplying any exportable produce, from
erty of the soil : from the same reason, it is inca-
aintaining its present population, artificially in-
Its existence depends alone upon the lavish
liture of the British government ; as the following

S INTO SIERRA LEONE, 1839

£lOO,OOO 0 0

Expenditure

ii Africans.

£12,755 14 7
6,648 6 5
3,517 4 8
1,204 1 0
530 16 0
352 8 9
2,463 14 10
3,186 2 11

Service

Colonial Militia
Clergy
Pensions

Contingencies

Sundries

£30,658 9 2
49,713 11 1

Military Service..
Salaries, Mixed Commission Court, and ex-

ariat and Victualling,

6,000 0 0
3,096 16 1

ted expe

nditure of religious societies

£189,468 16 4
7,000 0 0
10,000 0 0

2-of-war

£206,468 16 1

alue of exports in 1839

£58,440 0 0

d, probably
I in imports, and
cluded

rises charg

&c. not

48,028 0 0

106,468 0 0

tof keeping up Sierra Leone.. £lOO,OOO 0 0

this expenditure to cease, Sierra Leone would
once into its natural dimensions, and be restricted
dvantages which it might derive from its harbour
m as a kind of depot for the timber•trade and
eighbourhood.

ing commerce in its ii

per annum, therefore, is the balance paid
' Aster up a place from which no advan-
uerived ; as, from its situation, on no great
river, it can exercise little influence on the interior
, and its position operates against communication
r parts of the coast.

s £lOO,OOO

it brit= to b
ieverbed

tructure of its society, a good deal has been
ited about the progress the liberated Africans have
civilisation and wealth : but it is to be observed,
few instances brought forward are confined to Free
__, and those engaged in mercantile pursuits; and when
deadly nature of the climate, which prevents European
tition, and the enormous annual expenditure of the
i government, are taken into consideration, the only
inary thing is, that they have not driven out every
ant long ago : as it is, there are not fifty libe-
-1 the colony that have achieved independence,
people of this country ; and, however
„,„u all are agreed that no good effect on
people of the surrounding country has as yet been pro-

possible that an extension of the colony, if a richer
to be found in its neighbourhood, might be useful,
riculture might follow to a certain extent; but the
would be great, and the impossibility of insuring a
,portion of Whites of a suitable class, in consequence
fatal climate, would cause the experiment to have

as far as the civilisation of the Black race is

ed. The colony should therefore be abandoned as
,cioal station of the British in Africa, and the ex-
re proportioned to its real value ; say to £5,000 per

___The withdrawal of the greater portion of its population to
the West Indies would be advantageous to the individuals
concerned ; to the colonies where their labour is required ; to
s country, at whose expense they are supported useless
mbers of the community ; and inflict a heavy blow and
mragernent on the Foreign Slave-trade.

EMORANDUM SHOWING THE COST OF A MONTHLY

COMMUNICATION BY STEAM-VESSELS BETWEEN THE

COAST OF AFRICA AND BRITISH WEST INDIES, THE
COST OF TRANSPORTING PART OF THE POPULATION OF

A LEONE THITHER, AND THE RESULT THAT MAY

E EXPECTED

Two iron steam-ships of 1,000 tons and 250
horse-power, each capable of carrying 1,000
emigrants, (men, women, and children,) on
the plan adopted in her Majesty's transport
service ; 2,000 tons, at £4O per ton
Twelve voyages of 6,000 miles each, being the
distance from the coast of Africa to the West
Indies and back, equal to a total distance of
72,000 miles per annum ; at the cost, as per
statement, of 20s. per mile.
12,000 emigrants per annum, at £6 per head ..
48,000 emigrants in four years ..

£BO,OOO

72,000
72,000
288,000
these 48,000 souls, it is presumed that one-fourth,
or 12,000, would be effective labourers—equal to the produc-
tion of 24,000 tons of sugar annually; which, at the present
duty of 245. per hundredweight, would yield the Exchequer
a revenue of £576,000 ; or at 12s. per hundredweight, to
which it is hoped the duty on colonial sugar will be reduced,
£288,000, or an annual return equal to the whole expense
incurred, supposing the imperial government to undertake
their removal. But as the colony receiving the emigrants
would willingly pay the expense of their transport, the above
sum would be clear gain to this country.
It is proposed the government should supply the steam-
vessels, charging the colony a fair percentage on their value
while so employed, say 121 per cent per annum.
In addition to the revenue thus created by the transfer of
so large a proportion of the liberated Africans from Sierra
Leone to the West Indies, at least three-fourths of the
government expenditure at Sierra Leone, or £75,000 per
annum, would be saved ; the market for British goods would
be increased from 40s. per head, their average consumption

at Sierra Leone, to £7 ss. 4d. per head, the consumption of
the Trinidad population, or in round numbers, £240,000 per
annum ; while the increased supply of 24,000 tons of sugar
would reduce the mice of the 200,000 tons consumed by the
People of this country to £5 per ton, or a reduction of cost
to the consumer of £1,000,000 per annum.
appears from the above statement, that the transfer of

ulese poor people from Sierra Leone to the West Indies
Would be as profitable in a pecuniary view as in a moral one
it is incumbent and imperative on us to do it ; proving that
what is morally right can never be politically or economically

.!ks,
ceive to the moral and physical benefit the people would
,e
re-
West Indiesn
Tviteir compare the Journal of Gurney in the
the despatches nrany traveller's account of Sierra Leone, or
Colebrooke, or sir Sir H. Light, Sir C. Metcalfe, Sir W.
Doherty. Campbell, 1- M4.Leod, with those of Governors
hat such a measure liberated eremie, or Finlay ; and all will agree
liberated Africans. Would be the greatest possible boon to
will be seen I protheir friends and their pose to remove these people in masses,
pastors their families and rela-
there is no disruptiorn
The mass of them are anxious national feeling, for none
,4, by
the now to go, and are
from emigrating
instant our lavish exe grossest misrepresenta-
:neinditure in the colony is
lt desire will become
Leversal, and extend to all
;no country. Sierra
will then become
always to have been,
them by
of refuge for the
ri,t instead of repelling
secution, as is now the case,
ntarated the
by alien acts and
that I have rather under than over
Papers
production, I beg to refer to Parliamentary
,ua, Trinidad, &c., p. 137: where Stipendiary
1. C. Colquhoun states that a labourer in tY Ma"
are
tivated canes sufficient to make four hogsheads
nib' working on Saturdays, holidays, and sit ofr
earning his livelihood besides as thaty labourer.: spare
to evidence of R. Darling, Esq:,. an addition of
ibourers to the population of Trinidad would increase
uction of sugar to 30,000 hogsheads : to p. 17, the
of Stipendiary Magistrate NV. Walker, where he
s the earnings of an able-bodied man, his wife and
Inn, at £5O per annum, working only five days

esult will be the triumph of free over slave
nsion of our commerce, the civilisation of

.oegro race, the creation by
ge population in Africa, speaking the English
and rising gradually in the scale of society : in a
years Great Britain would be exulting not only over the

a of a 1

xtinetion of the s

lave-trade, but also In the annihilation
lavers, itself ; and Africa would slowly but surely emerge
a the blackness of darkness which has so long meow-
ied her.