The weekly Anglo-African., 1860-02-18
THE LONDON TIMES AND THE
BLACK MAN.

great concern-great in the same Sense
that robber who dexterously despoils you
of your goods is great in proportion, or an
Institution that grinds men down into the
dust is great in the vastness and complete
ness of its work. In this sense, and in
this alone, is the London "Iimesn great
newspaper. 1t is great in power and inhu-
ence because it is representave of vast in
terests rather than just principles. 1t seeks
to know where the pecuniary interest of
mankind In general, and Of England in
particular, is; and ever is the "TimeS" found
doing battle for that interest. 1t seeks to
touch men with the point of pecuniary
lance, on their pecuniary side, well know
ing it to be their weakest-the one on
on which they will vince soonest, fall into
the traces quickest, and adopt its views
and carry out its purposes. 1t thinks far
more of the spindles of Manchester and the
shipping Of Liverpool than it does of the
equity and justice of the British govern
ment. 1t thinks far more of the woolens
and cottons of England than it does of the
hard fare and miserable lives of those of
her fated sons and daughters who manu-
facture these goods. 1T prizes more high
ly a cotton bale than plantation negro,
and would regard far less the sacrifice of
whole plantation Of slaves than of the
cotton crop on it, only prove to it that
the crop was Of the more pecuniary value.
1t sees and knows of no other progress in
the world than that of material matter. To
this all things must bow. 1t recognizes
but capital and labor, whether they as
sumo the forms Of British manufactur-
er and white operatives, or Southern
planter and black slaves.
So long as capital expands and labor is
plenty, the "Times' is content Derange
these, no matter how, no matter by what
process Of right or amount of Justice, and
the "Times" is upon you. All the inius-
tice and misery heaped upon the opera
tives and oppressed at home go for moth
ing with the "Times," much less the blood,
and toll, and sweat of the slaves of Ameri-
ca, only inform it that the material wealth
machinery is in progressive motion.
What wonder, then, that this powerful
journal now and then launches its shafts
at the black man and his friends? What
wonder that it every now and then gives
a savage growl at the West Indian eman-
cipation act2 It's cars of material progress
do not move SO briskly, nor do they come
so heavily freighted to the dominant class
with the products Of some of those Islands,
as in the days of negro slavery. This
dominant class, which the "Times" repre-
sents the world over, has to pay little
more for the luxuries produced in those
islands, fact which is at war with the
doctrines of that journal
Is it wonderful, moreover, that the
'Times" occasionally overhauls the Aboli-
tionists with SO much savage severity :?
Cotton is king, and to sustain it there
must be force" is its language. The slave
must be made to labor to sustain the king,
He must be reduced to state just suited
to his work. 'Tis his mission, and he must
be forced to fulfil it, and we Englishmen
must have cotton, and the world our
goods.
Such are the views and to such ends are
the efforts of the London "Times" directed.
If our memory is not at fault, it opposed
with its powerful influence emancipation in
the British West India colonies, because
from its stand point it could see in the fu-
ture great diminution in the exports from
those colonies only, and nothing in an i'm
proved condition of their people. 1t op-
poses Abolitionism because, if ever success
full, the supply of cotton for British manu-
factories will be cut off, and British free
trade checked. 1t opposed with vehe-
mence John Brown and his sympathizers,
and frowns most terribly upon all slaves
who incline in the least to throw off the
shackles cf their thraldom, because to do
SO would be to unsettle a state of things
which selfish interests and cupidity have
produced, and of which the "Times" is the
exponent.
1t abused roundly Mrs. II. B, Stoves
"Uncle Toms Cabin" because in her truth
fulness of heart she endowed, to use its
own language, an ignorant negro-which
it regarded as the mere labor part of the
material machinery virtues not found
in the refined and religious Caucasian, af-
ter SO many centuries of study.
That British paper should be found
holding such views may seem surprising to
L. I r. i I