Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1858-03-03

I
ror, tears filling his eyes, fell upon the necl
OF Uggero, and fervently embraced him.
|
France England and the Slavery Cues
tion. -
The ReUue 6eS deur No,,des contains ar
| interesting article explanatory of the position
| recently assumed by the French governments:
and Its relations to Great Britain in reference
| to the mooted question of slavery As this
question lies at the bottonlsof all our doines,
tic troubles; as it has been made an issue o.
I party-the football ofdemagoguesm, of the lure
for fools-and fanatics, appearing now in the
garb ofmaudlin philanthropy, then intrhding
! upon our national councils in the captious
gulse OF popular sovereignty" the cause Of
dissensIon and lnternecine strife, threatening g
civil war and disunion In its ultimate devel-
! opements, 1t is of some consequence to know
IN what light the leading powers Of the ether
| hemisphere regard it The writer in the
! Revue des deuc blondes treats the subject
! statesmanlike, upon its economical merits,
and by calmly and dispassionately stating the
| interested motives of British opposition to the
colonial policy of NAPOLEON: he divests the
| question most effectually of the mummery of
blgoted and hypocritical pretensions with
which British avarice surrounded it. When
England started on her mission of abolition
ism, she had conclusive proofs that the in
suitution of African slavery in the French
Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese Islands, and
especially on the Continent of America, would
result, as it really did, in depriving her of the
monopoly of supplying the market of the
world with the costly produce of IT, topics
She had at that time. some so, 900 0G0 Hin
docs at her absolute disposal, who could be
worked quite cheap. The sacrifice of her
West India Islands, with some hundred thou
sand African slaves, was nothing at all, COM
pared with the advantages eventually to be
derived frou the final extinction of all compe-
tltlon. The speculation would have been an
excellent one, had the fre-br of abolition
ism which she threw into her own colonies
spread. as was expected and inteoded, over
American hemisphere, which it did not And
because it did not, England soou regretted
having destroyed end desolated her West In
dia Islands, and earnestly set to work to re-
pair the damage, by the introduction of Coo
he-labor. When Parliament in 1907, pro-
hibited the slaye-trade, France for a long
time refused to accede to the measure, but
forced to acknowledge the naval supremacy of
the British. she had to follow suit in 1916.
The repeated propositions to abolish slavery
In her colonies she, however. resisted, and all
the more firmly after the terrible experience
of San Domingo 1t was not the French Gov
ernment but the fanatacism of the revolution
of 1913 that made the negroes Free and
this was done at a time when England was
carrying cargo upon cargo of coolies into Gu
lana, Jamaca and Trinidad, under false free
Labor pretcnces But as we shall see from
the statements of the writer in tie Retute deS
deus 1Nondes, NAPOLEON was net to be hum
bugged With powerful navy at her COM
mand, France could no longer be prevented
from controlling her colonial policy and inter
ests herself. Unwilling to yield to England
the unfair advantage of oo0lle labor, she fol-
lowed her example, and It was not until Brit
ish jealously interfered with the importation
OF Hlndoos into the French colonies, that Ma
PoLEoN, after having tlmey y warning of his in
tentions to the British Cabinet resolved up-
on engaging negroes ON the African coast on
terms similar to those under which England
expatriates her IIindoo subjects NAPOLEON.
IN so doing, simply vindicated the principle of
party, established in former treaties concern
ing the slave trade, and violated by Great
Britain. The French wfiter referred to de-
fends the contract of the French Government
for 10, 600 negroes on the West coast of Af-1 4
rica, for Guadelaup and Martinique, represen-
ting the enterprise only az imitation of the
British practice, and the resort to Africa as
necessity resulting from the British Govern
ment having, through jealousy" interlicted
the recruiting of coolies for the French West
Indies. He States that as long ago as 1852
the French. Government notified the British
that if the interdict should be continued, Af
rican emigration would be revived 1t ap-
pears from the article alluded to, that the in
PRODUCTION of coolie labor into the Isle of
Bourbon has been quite as successful as In +,
the adjacent British colony of Mauritius
The sugar crop Of the Island of Reunion, or
Bourbon, which was $4,000, 900 pounds in |
1881 rose to ll6, 600, 600 in 1856 In 1856 !
the foreign commerce of this Island amount
ed to 81, 900 600, two per cent increase in I
five years. bourbon replaces, now, St. Do I
mlngo to France. The price of property has |
risen astonlshingly there The number of |
coolies on the Island is estimated at 50 900. /
Since France assumed this determined stand |
boldly sultlng action to words in executing
her threat of the importation of Africans into
her Islands, the independent British press
has completely wheeled round zealously advo- |
eating, now, not only '.free African emigra-
tion," as it called, but deploring with every
outward appearance of contrition and sorrow
the abolition of>Slavery in the British posses-
sions as grlevous error of the past, which is |
high time to redress. And while the world
pulls in this direction, parcel of fanatics md
political incapables with us, stoically persist
in pulling inanothcr. They have erected
their political platform upon the abandoned
wreck of British negro philanthrophy; swear
ing they will stand or fall with the shaky
fabric. -Pcnnsylranian
/