London, Wednesday, Februa...
The Times, 1824-02-11T00:00:00

A Mleeting of thelVest Indian Proprietors was held yes- terday at the City of London Tavern, upon the present state of West Indian affairs. We feel very strongly that these gentlemen deserve all the consideration that Govern- ment can bestow upon them,consistently withtheparamount interests of humanity. They have determined to addressthe KING at the present crisis, and yet we hardly know what his MAJESTY can do for them in his personal or individual capacity. Theiraddress asserts their right to their posses- sions in land, and that to their property in slaves. Roth these rights have been too often sanctioned by every form of legislation to be disputed; and yet it might be argued, that the same powers which are appealed to as binding, may also loose. We have heard that the Abolitionists talk as if the Proprietors could come to some terms with Go- vernment, according to which the latter could purchase their estates in the West Indian Islands, and cultivate them afterwards upon a new system, without slaves, as national property; and we observe that this idea is seized by the petitioners, and discussed as feasible. Come from whomsoever it may, the notion is impracticable and even absurd. Government can make no such purchase as that spoken of. It would be better, tberefore, to look to those objects which are within the bounds of human policy. There is no question but that if we were now fist ac- quiring possession of the West Indian Islands, we should cultivate them, or direct them to be cultivated, by free la- bourers: but it would be a most tremendous act at once to tell the uhole of the slave population, as it now exists in those islands, that they were free to work or not, as they thouglht proper. A few individuals may be punished for theiriidleness by being left to fasting, and the State sustain no great harm; but thousands upon thousands, if they ab- stain from work, can and will support themselves by plunder. The Abolitionists, therefore, disavow with rea- son all idea of abrupt manumission: but they would pre. pare the slave for such a consummation bygradual measures. rhey would prohibit, for example, the use of the whip; and would allow the slave one day in the week besides the Sabbath for his own labour. The planters ask, in reply, whether it would be just to the masters in England to assign a second day of rest to the labourer ? The truth is, that in England nothing has been more common than for the Legislature to interfcre betweern master and labourer; and it has at various times released the latter from several penalties, even whipping and imprisonment, attached to certain specific acts of neglect, disobedience, or breach of coritract. And witlh respect to the additional day, the hours of work are generally so regulated in England, as to afford the labourer more than that time in the week. Every tasker or thresher in a barn, when not working "' by the CC piece," has his extra hours; and every journeyman me- chanic has the same: so that the right to make these enact- ments for the West Indies cannoc be doubted. The ques. tion, therefore, is one of humanity, mingled with policy. LOANDON, WEDNrESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1824.