The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-11 00:00:00

FREE LABOUR IN THE \s EST INDIES

From the Morning Herald.)

In the general views we have expressed on this subject, we
are rejoiced to find a remarkabLi coincidence, forcibly and

ably illustrated, in a pamphlet just published by one of the
most intellip.;ent and energetic planters of an island—Trinidad

'or intelligenc

moderation,

and freedom from party !squabbles and di•pntes betwec

ters and servant

allude to b

ochtire, entitled " Oh

171 dad,

and thr actual sta! o or the experiment of Neer° Emancipation.
By William Hardin Burn'ey, Chairman of the Agricultural
and Immigration Society in that Colony ;" a little work which
we can conscientiously recommend to the attentive consider-
ation of all who interest themselves in the prosperity and
well-doing of possessions such as no other European nation
can boast of, or in slavery and its accursed concomitant the
slave trade. If the great experiment of negro emancipation
has not hitherto been successful, Mr. Burnley demonstrates
that the means of its future and ultimate success are still
within our grasp. If all our past exertions for the extinction
of the slave trade have not prevented its increase, Mr. Burn-
ley shows we have only hereafter to combine self-interest
with philanthropy to rout the traffic from the ocean. Mr.
Burnley's summary of the present condition of Trinidad does
not rest on personal veracity only ; he states no fact for
which he has not the vouchment of testimony taken by the
society of which he is in the colony the chairman ; and now
in England the representative. The monstrous attack of
Lord Melbourne's government on the very existence of Tri-
nidad and the rest of the sugar colonies, roused its proprie-
tors to active exertions : they formed themselves into a so-
ciety, and collected evidence of the actual state of the colony;
they proposed a remedy for the evils which encompass them ;
they d'd more, they have tested the practicability and the effi-
cacy of that remedy, and they now appeal to the British peo-
ple, whether, after having saved them from instantaneous
destructiOn, they will not advance one step further, and in-
terfere to restore their prosperity, and through it work out
the redemption of their own glorious measure—the emanci-
pation act.
This appeal is not either purely local or selfish. The re-
medial application sought by Trinidad is equally suitable, as
it is alike demanded, by all our West Indian possessions. In
seeking to achieve their own future prosperity, the Trinidad
planters are assisting their brethren in all our sugar colonies;
they are doing more ; they are working out the claims of the
British people to cheap sugar, and they are asking to fill the
empty coffers of the British treasury. "One sixth part only,"
says Mr. Burnley, " of the cultivatable surface of Trinidad
would more than supply the actual demand of Gre t Britain
for sugar, and furnish it within a short period of time," and
"at a cheaper rate than Cuba or Brazil." " Our colonies
of Trinidad and Guiana," he adds, " alone would supply the
world with sugar, estimating its present consumption at the
highest rate." The question, tlicn, for the decision of the
people of the united kingdom is, !hall they be stimulated to
do so, and thereby put an end to slavery and the slave trade?
Let us, however, before considering Mr. Burnley's pro-
posed mode of accomplishing these high objects, learn some-
thing of the " present condition" of Trinidad, and through
it an approximation to the state—not indeed of ail the West
Indian possessions—but of those colonies similarly situated,
and from the prosperity of which the supremacy of British
sugar must, if at all, be achievable. For the present condi-
tion of Trinidad, be it good or bad, the Colonial-office is re-
sponsible. The island is a crown colony, and governed at
home; its inhabitants possess neither charter, legislative nor
municipal institutions; there exists in it a political equality
among all ranks, unparalleled elsewhere; the poorest labourer
is of equal political weight with the largest proprietor.
"None of the evils, therefore," Mr. Burnley justly remarks,
" which have arisen in that colony can be imputed either to
the power or hostility of the planters. Further, there has
existed no combination among them to depress wages, nor
have any efforts been made to exact rents ; the former having
been paid lavishly, and cottages gratuitously furnished. Fi-
nally, no religious differences have tended to increase the
difficulties of the experiment. It has had throughout in that
island the fullest and freest course, and the results, conse-
quently, depend upon, and may be traced back to, causes less
complicated than those exhibited by other colonies."

The present condition of Trinidad, moreover, does not
arise from the ignorance of the Colonial-office. Lord Glenelg,
when colonial minister, had, while preparing for the step
from apprenticeship to freedom, a very vivid foreknowledge
of the evils with which the coming change menaced the
colony, and what has subsequently occurred his lordship ac-
tually foretold in the very remarkable despatch which has
been so frequently the subject of discussion, of Jan. 30, 1836.
Unfortunately, Lord Glenelg's activity and practical energy
were never equal to his intelligence and sagacity ; and his
evident anxiety and uneasiness evaporated when he had
written a didactic and philosophical despatch. One of his
lordship's successors was as remarkable for incapacity as the
other was for priggish rashness ; and so between them the
colony has gone on from bad to worse.
And now, what is the " present condition of Trinidad?
And first, what is the state of the labouring classes ? " Mr.
Burnley thus condenses the evidence, which he subjoins in
extenso ;
" The attention of the friends of humanity is earnestly
called to the condition of the negro labourer, for whose be-
nefit the great national movement, which ended in the
abolition of slavery, first commenced. They are entreated
to consider the position in which we shall stand as a nation
in the eyes of the world, should the result of our measures
plunge him into a gulf of vice and misery. Let them read
the evidence, and passing, if they please, over the statement
of the planters, attend only to the opinions of the magistrates
and clergy—to those who can have no other interest than the
establishment of religion and moral order throughout the
colony ; and then let them consider the state of helpless des-
titution into which the labouring classes of Trinidad will be
thrown when the proprietor is ruined, and wages for labour
cease. They will have no private resources on which to
depend when the hour of trial arrives. The majority spend
what they earn in idle amusements, and the more thrifty in
purchasing lots of land, with little regard to its powers of
production, but chiefly on account of its vicinity to towns
and places of amusement. Cultivation on their own account
they have nearly abandoned, and rely upon imported provi-
sions. Waste of time and dissipation in every shape are
exhibited throughout the evidence. And, notwithstanding
the liberal sums which have been expended in churches and
schools, the only improvement they have manifested since
emancipation is in dress, attendance at church, and marriage ;
all excellent in themselves, but little adapted to assist a man
struggling with poverty, and in want of employment. Among
other demoralising influences, they possess in a great degree
impunity for all crimes and misdemeanors ; for the planter is
afraid to inform against them, lest they withhold their labour,
which to him would be ruinous ; and it is only when the mis-
chief resulting from forbearance exceeds this risk that they
are taken before a stipendiary court; where, if convicted,
they escape punishment by paying a fine, which is easily ma-
naged, in consequence of the great competition for their ser-
viced. This exemption from personal punishment by incar-
ceration is in England confined to thp upper ranks, which is
continually complained of, and it strikingly illustrates the
bias in favour of the lower classes in cur colonies, that a
privilege, impatiently submitted in favour of our aristocracy
at home, should have been designedly conceded to the
labourer in Trinidad; for it appears that the stipendiary ma-
gistrate is restricted from awarding imprisonment except in
default of payment of the fine.
" The description which has been given of the moral con-
dition of the labourers in Trinidad is in no respect exagge-
rated ; the evidence would admit of a much stronger
representation.
" The stipendiary magistrate of St. Joseph, when speaking
of the frequency of drunken quarrels, states that 'the mischief
is increasing every day ; it is now becoming more prevalent
than formerly among women ; and if the practice is continued
for two or three years longer, it will demoralise the whole
labouring population ; and I have observed that the vice of
gambling is increasing almost every day. I thought it my
duty to take the advice of the Attorney-General upon the
subject, who informed me that I could not interfere with it
in private houses, although, from the nature of our climate
and construction of the houses, with all the doors and
windows open, it is quite as public as in the streets, You
can hear the dollars clinking, and see the parties playing as
you pass along; and this occurs more frequently on the Sun-
day than on any other day.'
" ' I have been so much alarmed, says the catholic bishop
of Agtia, when alluding to the excessive eonsumpton of rum,
by the reports made to me by the clergy of my church,
established in the rural districts, that I felt it to be my duty
to visit the estates personally, with the view of pointing out
to the labouring population the evils which must occur from
perseverance in this pernicious habit, which, unless checked,
I am satisfied will so demoralise and enfeeble them before
ten years elapse, that they will be unable to work for their
own subsistence.'

" The correctness of these statements cannot be questioned.
Every clergyman examined has testified nearly to the same
effect. Neither can we flatter ourselves that the vices com-
plained of are the relics of slavery gradually dying away; for
they are stated to have taken a new and vigorous shoot since
emancipation; in fact, it is impossible to avoid confessing
that they are the result of our own mistaken legislation."
Has the emancipation act been successful in Trinidad if
this picture be true? Can we depend upon the permanent
welfare of the negroes if this state be allowed to continue?
These are questions to which 4ord Stanley must reply in the
House of Commons. The general condition of the island
has, of course, deteriorated from such a condition of its
working population,

MYSTERIOUS CASE OF EMBEZZLEMENT AND

THE FT,

1 During the last two or three days considerable excitement
has been created in Glasgow by the discovery of an extensive
system of theft in one of the oldest and most respectable of
our banking establishments, and the apprehension of two in-
dividuals supposed to be ccnnected with the matter, one of
them a teller in the bank, and the other an extensive spirit-
dealer in the city. As yet the affair is involved in great my-
stery, and so far as we can learn neither the authorities nor
the heads of the bank have been abe to discover the precise
means by which the thefts have been accomplished. It ap.
pears, however, that the nefarious transactions have ex-
tended themselves over a period of two years, and that a sum
of not less than £10,500 has, in the course of that period,
beet! abstracted from the bank. A number of particulars
I arc in o.rir possession, bearing upon the manner in which,
from time to time, large sums are alleged to have been taken;
but they are so bound' with circumstances which appear ut-
terly inexplicable, and which involve the whole matter in
mystery, that to give them to the public would be not only
wrong, but altogether unsatisfactory. In the meantime we
may state that an erroneous entry is alleged to have been
made by the teller in the course of Monday last, which was
the means of bringing to light a deficiency of two thousand
pounds. Information was given to the police, and at two
o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, Captain Miller took the
teller into custody in his own house, and lodged him in the
police-office. All his papers were at the same time seized,
and conveyed to the office. Among these papers were found
a number of hank cheques, for considerable sums, on various
banks, subscribed by the spirit dealer to whom we have al-
ready referred. On inquiry, it turned out that, in some of
these banks this individual had no credit whatever, and, as
several documents were found which led to the fact that he
and the teller had had occasional transactions with each other,
and such as the authorities considered to be of a very suspi-
cious nature, he was also taken into custody. The existence
of these cheques, bearing the signature of the spirit-dealer,
on banks where he had no credit, and the fact of their being
found in the possession of the teller, or for what purpose
they had been drawn out, are all matters which fall to be
classed among the mysteries with which the whole of this
extraordinary affair is surrounded. Their existence, never-
theless, combined with the discovery of other documents, the
authorities seem to have considered sufficient grounds to
warrant them in taking the spirit-dealer into custody, on
suspicion of having been a recipient in the moneys abstracted
from the bank. In the course of Tuesday these individuals
sustained long examinations in the presence of Bailie Bogle,
the lord provost being also in attendance during a part of the
time; but the whole of the proceedings were of course con-
ducted in private. We are able to state, however, that both
parties deny all connection, directly or indirectly, with the
thefts from the bank ; and that, in the meantime, that have
been committed for further examination, having on Tuesday
evening been transferred from the police-office to the north
prison. The teller is Mr. Robert Smith, of the Glasgow and
Ship Bank, and the spirit-dealer, Mr. James Wishart,
High-street.—Glasymv Guardian.

THE KING OF PRUSSlA.—Extract of a letter from Ber-
lin, dated Dec. 23:—" I learn on good authority that the
king will proceed by way of Magdeburg, Cologne, and Liege,
to Ostend, where he will embark for England. His majesty
will he absent about three weeks, that is to say, unless he
should return by the way of Paris, in which case his absence
will be protracted one week longer.—Cologne Zeitung.