The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1850-05-02

the birth of man child, now somewhat famous as
"Thomas Carlyle, maker Of booksD Does 1t
become such an one to rave against the West
India negro's incapacity for self-ciyilization
Unaided by the arts, sciences, and rehnements Of
the Romans, he might have been, at this very
day souatted on his naked launches in the woods
of Ecclefechsn, painting his weather-hardened ep-
idermis in the sun, like his Pct ancestors Where,
in fact. can we look for unaided selfimprove-
ment and spontaneous internal development to
any considerable extent, on the part Of any nation
or peoplel From people to people the original
God given impulse towards civilization and per-
lection has been transmitted, as from Egypt to
Greece, and thence to the Roman world.
But the blacks, We arc told, are indolent, and
insensible to the duty Of rsising sssss sad cofse
and spice for the whites, bang mainly eafslnl q
provide for their own household, and till thsi,
own gardens, for domestic comforts and necessas
ries. The exports have fallen Oft somewhat. And
what does this provei Only that the negro ID
now consumer of products, of which, under the
rule of the whip, he was producer merely. AS
to Incidence, under the proper stimulus Of fair
wages. we have reason to believe that the charge
ia not sustained II unthrifty habits and lack Of
prudence on the part of the owners Of estates
combined with the repeal Of duties ON foreign
sugars by the British Government, have placed ii
out Of their power to pay just and reasonable
wages for labor who can blame the blacks, if they
prefer to cultivate their own garden plots rather
than raise sugar and spice for their late masters,
upon terms little better than those of their old
condition. the benefcent whip" always excepted 2
The dispatches of the colonial Governors agree in
admitting that the blacks have had great cause for
complaint and dissatisfaction, owing to the delay
or non-payment of their wages. Sir c. E. Gray,
writing from Jamaica, says that in good many
instances the payment Of the wages they have
earned has been either very irregularly made or
not at all, probably on account of the inability of
employers" He says moreover
"The negroes appear to me to be generally as
free from rebellous tendencies or turbulent feel
ings, and malicious thoughts, as any race of la
borers ever saw or heard Of My impression is,
indeed, that under a system Of perfectly fair deal
ing and of real justice, they viii come to be an
admirable peasantry and yeOmanry e-bodied
industrious, and Woodworking, frank and we'll
disposed
~ nast Siadeed he adaitte2 thst, jndging bE.
their diminished exports, and the growing COM
plants of the owners of estates, that the condi-
ton of the islands, in financial point of view,
is by no means favorable. An immediate cause of
this, however, must be found in the unfortunate
Sugar act of 1S4o. The more remote, but for the
,aoot IN VI nowarrnI az ,ea M Jorro,
sion is to be traced to the vicious and unnatural
system of slavery, which has been gradually but
surely preparing the way for ruin, bankruptcy,
aud decentralization. Never yet, by q community
or an individual, have the righteous laws of God
been violated with impunity. Sooner or later
comes the penalty which the Infinite Justice has
affixed to sin. Partial and temporary evils and
inconvenience have undoubtedly resulted from
the emancipation of the lsborers; and many years
must elapse before the relations of the two here
tofore antagonstic classes be perfectly adjust
ed, and their interests brought into entire har-
mony But that Freedom is not to be held main
ly accountable for the depression Of the British
colonies, is obvious from the fact that Dutch Su-
rinam, where the old system of slavery remains
in its original rigor, is in an equally depressed
condition. The Paramaribo NeuirS en- Adrenentie
Blad, quoted in the Jamaica Gazette, says, under
date Of January 2, 1850" Around us we hear
nothing but complaints. People seek and find
matter in everything to picture to themselves the
lot of the place in which they live IA bittvrer than
that of any other country" "Of a large number
of furnishing plantations, few remain that can
now be called SUCH So deteriorated has property
become within the last few years, that many Of
these estates have not been able to defray their
weekly expenses "The colony stands on the
brink Of yawning abyss, into which it must in.
evitably plunge, unless some new and better sys.
tenn is speedily adopted I" 1t is impossible that
our agriculture can any longer proceed on its old
footing our laboring force is dying away, and
the social position they held must undergo a
revolution
The paper from which we have quoted, the Off
cial journal of the colony, thinks the condition of
the emancipated British colonies decidedly pref
cradle to that of Surinam, where the old slave
system has continued in force, and insists that
the Dutch Government must follow the example
of Great Britain. The actual condition of the
British colonies since emancipation is perfectly
well known in Surinam three of them, Essc-
oubo, Demerara, and Berbice, being its imme-
date neighbors, whatever evils and inconveni-
ences have resulted from emancipation must be
we'll understood by the Dutch Shareholders, yet
we find them looking towards emancipation, as the
only prospect of remedy for the greater evils Of
foot "a &c
Gent answer to the assumption Of Carlyle and
others, that what they call the ruin of the colo
MES y has been produced by the Emancipation
acts of 1883 and 1888.
We have no fears whatever of the effect of this
literary monstrosity which we have been consid-
erng, upon the British colonies. Quashee, black
and ignorant as he may be, will not get himself
made a slave again. The mission Of the "benef-
cent whip is there pretty well over and 1t may
now find its place in museums and cabinets of
CHASTITY curiosities, with the racks, pillories,
thumbscrews, and branding-irons, of old days
w hat we have feared, however, is, that the advO-
Gates and defenders of slaveholding in this coun-
try might find in this Z" Discourse matter Of en-
coura cement, and that our anti-Christian preju-
dices against the cOlored man might be strength
ened and confirmed by its malignant vituperation
and sarcasm On this point we have sympathized
with the forebodings of an eloquent writer in the
London Enquirer:
awe cannot imagine more deadly moral poi
son for the American People than his last compo-
sition. Every cruel practice % SOCIAL ezesns'en
will derive from it new sharpness and venom
The STAKEHOLDER, Of course, will exult to ind him
self not apologized for but enthusiastically cheer
ed upheld and glorifed, by writer OF European
celebrity. But 1t is not merely the slave who viii
feel Mr. Csrlyle's hand in the torture Of his flesh