Mr. CANNING'S speech last...
The Times, 1824-03-17T00:00:00

Mr. CANNING'S spececI last iiight, on the Vest Inilia qucstion, was calculatcd, so far as wve couldl jud(le, to ap- pease the angry passionis wvhich have uRhappily been by various tmeanis excited oni that miiost irritating of all ques- tions-the policy to be obs.rved towards the slaves. The speech was principally remarkable for its exemplary tenper: instead of being the effort of an advo- cate, either to make a case or to garble tes'imony, it was a purely deliberative, indeed almost a didactic (lis- course-applying itself to the unmoved reason of evcry man who heard it. Mir. CAXNI:G enumerated those particulars in which a milder treatmenit of the Negro was enijoined to persons in authority over him, by the Order in Councii relatinig to the island(1 of Trtinidatd, and alleged the resolutions of thc House of Coinusans as the sanction under which Ministers had proceeded:- 1. The useof the whip, so indlecent and so shockinig, is to beI utterly abolished in rcgard to fenmale slaves. 2. The whii) is no longer borne by the driver in the field, to] be no longer employed as a suninliqr punishment of the nialel Negroes; to be wholly laid aside as a stin,zlas to lcbon,r, andi re- sorted to only as a chastiserenit for misbehaviour, dciberatcly proved and recorded. 3. Ample provision is to be made for the religious instruction of the Negroes, by the appiointnent of two bishops, twith regular clergy under thein. 4. Marriage is to be encouraged, families never to be separated, an(d the property of thc slave is to be protected by positive law. 46. Banks are to be established, in whisli the slave may deposit his earnings: the money so placed to bc sacret, in all cases, fronm the master's grasp. 6. The testimony of staves, kndev certain limitations depending on personal character, is to be received in all civil cases except whlen the naster's immediate interests are concerned, and in all cri- minal rases, except Ihen the life of a white peison is involved. 7. The slave who has acquired a certain sum of mnoney is to have the power of pt,rchasing his own manumnission, or that of his wife or child; and thus the father may become, as it is fit lie should, the instrumrent of liberty to his offspring. Lord B kr HU ats uiade a similar statement in the other House. Upon all the above points, exc.pt that of manunisiion, it is no more than justice to say that the gentlemen of the *Vest India ilterest have concurred in, or anticipated, the beneficent views of ?Ministers. It appears that in the first instance the experiment is to be tried in the conqueted colonies alone; and it is hoped that the old English colonies, with the a(lvantage of their Legislatire Assemblies, will not fail to foliow so excellent an example The plan is certainly prulent, but the hope, perhaps, is too sanguine. !'rIe last subject alluded to by Mlr. CANNI: G was that of the Slave Trade, as still carried on utider thQ flag of foreign nations. He made to the House the gratifying statement that a treaty has just been signed betw6en England and the United States, by which each of those Powers binds her- self to consider the Slave 'Trade-should British or Amneni- can subjects be engaged in st-as an offence of a piratical nature, subjecting the guilty party to capture upon the seas by the men of war of either State indiscriminately, and to adijudlication and punishment by the laws of his own Go- vernment. This concession of an inherenit right by the two greatest naval Powers of the world must have, it is presumned, a favourable influence on those of an inferior order.