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

WEST INDIES.

The Forth, royal mail steamer, arrived at Falmouth on
Wednesday morning last from the West Indies. Her dates
of sailing are from Vera Cruz Aug. 7. Tampico 8, Havana
15, Nassau 18, Bermuda 23, and Fayal Sept. 1. She brings
Jamaica dates of August 8 and La Guayra July 28. Pas-
sengers—from Barbadoes, Mr. John M•Chlery and Master
Knowles ; from Berbice, Mr. S. Davison ; from Demerara,
Mr. W. A. Britton, stipendiary magistrate ; from La Guayra,
Mr. S. M. Catta and Mr. John Boulton ; from Grenada,
Mrs. Roberts; from Bermuda, Mrs. Tucker; from Madeira,
Mr. R. Davis; from Jamaica Mr. John Clarke, Mr. George
Prince, Mr. Joseph Merrick and wife, and Mrs. Lavinia
Oughton, Baptist missionaries. On freight 135,000 dollars,
400 doubloons, 352 ounces of gold dust, 44 of silver, and 115
serons of cochineal. Capt. Burney, master, and Mr. Brown,
purser, of the late Medina, are come home by the Forth.
After landing the mails she received at Falmouth a supply of
coals and proceeded up channel at 5 p.m.
The Forth came up direct from Mexico, but brought no
specie thence. The Dee left Havana for the Gulf of Mexico
on the 10th August. The Tay furnished the Jamaica mails,
and will be the next to come to England. The Clyde had
not sustained such severe injuries by going on shore on Pe-
lican Point as was at first anticipated. She left St. Thomas's
on the 10th August for Turk's Island, and on the 12th Sept,
thence for Porto Rico and the other islands, with the Eng-
lish mails furnished by the arrival out of the Medway. The
Solway had taken down the Gulf letters of this steamer.
Her Majesty's sloop of war Pilot left Havana, for Vera
Cruz, on the 13th August. The Rover was at Sacrificios,
the Thunder at Bermuda. Spanish men of war at Havana—
one ftigate with admiral's flag at the fore, one corvette,
three brigs, two schooners, and two steam-vessels. Mexican
men of war at Sacrificios—the City of Dublin, (steamer,)
one brig, and a schooner.

The Mexicans still appear determined to carry on the war
against Texas, and proposed to send 800 men instantly to
capture Campeachy, if they could do so. The sickly season
at Vera Cruz had passed by.
Accounts from Havana represent the extreme unhealthiness
of that port, and that many British seamen and masters of
ships had fallen victims to the direful fever prevalent there.
From Jamaica it is learnt that Lady Elgin was improving
in health. The House of Assembly would not meet earlier
than the accustomed period in November. The immigration
of Krumen from the coast of Africa, if j udiciously conducted,
was regarded by the planters of Jamaica as a great advantage
to that colony, and would tend to afford such an impulse to
the labouring population as was calculated to produce the
most salutary effects. It is urged that the government agent,
in obtaining these people, should offer them the advantage of
returning to their native country again in a course of years,
an inducement which few of the better hands would, from
their migratory disposition, refuse. The crops were super-
abundant in several districts, and some merchants complained
of not having sufficient vessels at hand, near their ports, to
receive the produce. On the whole the affairs of the island
began to assume a better state than had for some time
existed.

We learn from St. Kitts that the crops were low. The
necessity for immigration was urged on all hands at Demerara.
Business very flat. The negroes appeared to be making
strong efforts at this colony to provide grounds and houses
for themselves, and were generally disposed to work ; the
employment of their earnings in the purchase of lands had
drawn off from the retail dealers much of their custom.
The shares of the banks were at par. Government measures
had not recently met with such opposition as formerly.
The following summary of the intelligence which we take
from the Guiana Times, of the Ist of August, will be inter-
esting to many of our readers :
" This day, the First of August, is the FOURTH ANNIVER-
SARY OF EMANCIPATION.

" In Town, the extremely depressed state of the times
throws dullness and gloom over nearly all classes. The
Merchant finds little sale for his goods, and the Master
Mechanic dismisses his best hands, for the want of something
to employ them with. The Peasantry on the Plantations,
having money at command, will, probably, indulge them-
selves with an additional luxury or two ; but, even in the
rural districts, there does not appear to be any symptom of
general preparation for a high festival.
" In the Summaries which we have already transmitted to
England, have occurred statements of facts, capable, if in-
correct, of contradiction and refutation. If the labours of
the Parliamentary Committee should be attended with no
practical result, the blame will not be attributable to the want
of data to calculate upon, or the absence of credible witnesses
to examine.

" At this time of day, no rational man will allege, that,
for the mere sake of raising large annual crops, one portion
of the human family ought to have been left exposed to the
selfishness or outrageous ill-temper of the other. What the
philanthropist alike, and the lover of his country, will regret
is, that, as yet, no remedy has been effectually applied to the
agricultural and commercial decay, naturally consequent on
the conversion of coerced slaves into voluntary labourers.
The gentlemen of the Anti-Slavery Society profess to think,
that our assertions as to diminished productiveness are got
up for mere party objects. If they lived as we live, on the
spot, they would know that no man is so dangerous to the
'cause of humanity as he who builds fanciful theories, regard-
less of the truth. We blame no peasant for not performing
field-work. Every man is now as free as we are. But, it is
one thing to rejoice over the happiness of eighty thousand
persons, and another to contemplate the miseries entailed,
mainly through the perverseness of the visionary and the
ignorant, on twenty thousand.
" We cannot doubt that the parliamentary committee will
draw the proper line of distinction between the results of
emancipation, as they relate to the comforts of the vast mass
of human beings, and its results as they relate to colonial
prosperity and national wealth and greatness. Anxiety is
felt by amiable men to convert the young freemen into inde-
pendent proprietors and cultivators. The benevolent object
can never be carried out in this colony, unless drudges be
introduced in large numbers, so needy as to be willing to do
the work, which the others successively lose taste of, as they
rise in the social scale. _

"The records of criminal sessions, just over, exhibit an
increas of crimes, in variety, if not in magnitude. The Court
has found it necessary to award many sentences for long
terms of imprisonment. In the parallel stage of society in
the Mother-country, capital executions were of frequent oc-
currence. The most well-grounded hopes of reformation,
are conceived from the operation of the Penal Settlement in
the River Essequebo.
"The Report, (in our number of the 25th ult.,) exhibits
the British Guiana Bank as possessing stability and compara-
tive prosperity amidst general distress. The timely warning
given by several large failures among the Merchants, has had
the most salutary effect upon the Directors. In tlitir sug-
gestations as to the necessity which exists for legislation as
to Debtor and Creditor, every practical man completely coin-
cides. The prudence by which it is essential that capitalists,
under the present state of the law, should be regulated, neces-
sarily cramps bank business. In spite of this disadvantage,
however, the profits reaped by the Local Bank, and the sur-
plus fund, laid by reflect credit on all parties connected with
t."
2

a
" STERLING" Wii.—Tom Hood, writing of the light and
heavy-headed " sovereigns" that perplex the people, says:
They may talk of the plugging and sweating
Of our coinage that's minted of gold.
But to me it produces no fretting
Of its shortness of weight to be told.
All the sov'reigns I'm able to levy,
As to the lightness can never be wrong,
But must surely be some of the heavy,
For I never can carry them long.