gers would be augmented, should they listen to the evil advice proffered to them from some quarters; of having recourse to violence and rash proceedings, in the vain hope of inducing Parliament to alter that policy which, in its deliberate wisdom, it had determined to adopt. Agitation in the the system of protection might have a powerful effect in discouraging further influx of capital, and in keeping up the alarm and uneasiness which had already been excited in some places; but they must be blind observers of passing events and of the steady current of public opinion in this country who believed that such proceedings would have the hoped-for effect of inducing the Legislature to alter the policy which, in this respect, it had adopted. To that policy he was convinced the great majority of this country were irrevocably pledged. The noble Earl concluded by moving, that the Bill be read a second time. West Indies. The principal provision of the present Bill was this:-there was to be interposed between the duties on white clayed muscovado, another rate applicable to brown clayed, and that was the duty which would be paid by the majority of foreign sugars introduced into this country. The measure, while it conferred consider-colonies upon the question of a return to able advantages upon the British producer, he felt confident, would not have an injurious effect upon the revenue. Among the measures introduced for the benefit of the planter, were the reduction of the differential duty upon rum, and a loan of 500,000l. He could have wished that this sum were larger, but the financial difficulties of this country rendered the grant of a larger sum an impossibility. Had they attempted more, they would have effected less. They were not true friends of the colonies, who represented the Government of this country as slow to sympathise in their difficulties, and as unwilling to assist them. He was convinced, had they returned to the system of protection, that they would also have returned to all those evils which had grown up under that system. They would have raised the price of labour, and they would have raised hopes which could not have been realised. He earnestly hoped that these measures would be accepted in the same spirit as they were brought forward, and that the colonists would not be led astray by the evil advice of those who would teach them to suppose that Her Majesty's Government were not as deeply interested in endeavouring to relieve them and to promote their permanent prosperity as any other party in the kingdom. If he could have been really persuaded that a system of protection would have been for their permanent advantage, notwithstand ing the heavy expense which it would have entailed upon the country-notwithstanding that it would have been so much at variance with the opinions which he had maintained ever since he entered Parliament he would have advocated its adoption. It appeared to him that a system of protection would have been even more fatal to the planter than injurious to the interests of this country. The colonists should look for their ultimate and permanent prospects, not to Parliaments or to Governments, but to their own industry and enterprise; if they relied upon themselves, he had no doubt of their ultimate triumph over the difficulties which now surrounded them. In conclusion, he could not help pointing out how seriously their difficulties and dan LORD REDESDALE: If the Government desired to retain the colonies in the bonds of loyalty and affection, they should impress upon their minds that they were legislated for with a deep feeling for their true interests. This was the only course which should be pursued, and in observing this he could not help regretting the concluding observations of the noble Earl, as he thought it was rather heartless to allude to the miseries and sufferings of the colonists in the manner he had done, especially as they sprung from the policy of the present Ministry. He did not like the system adopted for the relief of the West Indies. Instead of advancing them half a million of money, which would never be repaid, it would have been much better to have given them protection by increasing the duty, thereby benefiting the revenue of this country. He blamed the Government for having lost three weeks of the Session by the blunders which pervaded the Bill; and he considered that due courtesy was not shown to the House of Lords in introducing a measure of so much importance at such a late period. It had been too much the custom latterly to do so, and he therefore protested against it. He would not oppose the Bill. The EARL of GRANVILLE: The Bill had been introduced at a late period, in consequence of the sitting of the Committee appointed to inquire into the subject, and the protracted nature of the debates in the other House of Parliament. When they remembered the general commercial dis tress which prevailed, they could not won- | iniquities and cruel practices which are inder that the manufacture of sugar, a com- separable from slavetrading. His obsermodity of such a variable character, should vations had been ascribed to a personal also suffer. interest in this matter, because one who LORD DENMAN wished to express the was very dear to him was actively emreasons for that satisfaction which he felt ployed in its suppression. That circumthat this Bill had been introduced to the stance had not, however, the slightest inLegislature by Her Majesty's Government. fluence on his opinions, formed and maThe principal was, because it was in tured as they had been long before the direct opposition to the Act which, two birth of that individual. The professional years ago, he thought it was most dis- reputation, too, of that officer, though congraceful to this country to have passed. nected with his proceedings on the coast That Act, said to be based on "the just of Africa, rested on the past, and was and eternal principles of free trade,' an- wholly independent of the measures to nounced as the final settlement of an em- be adopted by Parliament; and he bebarrassing question, had enjoyed an eter-lieved he might safely leave his repunity of two years and seven days, and was tation to take care of itself. It had been now repealed by its authors. That Act had proceeded on non-protection by differential duties: this Bill revived and prolonged protection. This Bill was, therefore, the proof that the Act of 1846 had failed-except, indeed, in one effect, predicted by those who opposed it, the increased stimulus and encouragement afforded to the traffic in our fellow-creatures -an effect produced by the increased demand for slaves; by the increased activity of the traders who provided the market; and still more fatally by the opinion it had caused amongst the nations of the world, that England had grown indifferent on the subject of that detestable traffic. He was happy to hear from the noble Lords, that hopes were still entertained that our colonies might recover their prosperity. But he was perfectly confident that could only be by means of the extinction of the slave trade; and whoever would calmly consider the evidence which had been given by the most reluctant witness on that subject, would be convinced that that was the case. He rejoiced that the observations which he had addressed to the House a few evenings back, had attracted some portion of the public attention, for if the mind of the people of England were brought to bear upon the subject, and if inquiries were pursued by enlightened men who formed the public opinion, who were anx-ious to obtain the truth, he had not the slightest doubt that the slave trade would be speedily extinguished. And the question was not only of vital importance to the general interests, but it pressed for immediate decision, and an effectual remedy. The supply of slaves could not be less than 200 men a day; and every day that this consummation was delayed, 200 men were exposed to all the VOL. CI. Third Series said of himself, with the same view, that U So newspaper for having called this witness the pet and darling witness of the Committee. My noble Friend (Lord Eddisbury) who, when in the House of Commons, was a Member of the Committee, knows that a great many questions put in the report are more instructive than the answers; many of them proposed to Dr. Cliffe, betoken a remarkable degree of favour to his opinions; and nearly all his answers are in a tone which argues confidence in the partiality or credulity of those to whom they were given. Another proof that this gentleman was the pet and darling witness, was stated by Lord Brougham, though not perhaps reported, that after a British officer had declared his opinion, this person was called upon to confirm it by his sanction. The officer's opinion had been unfavourable to the means employed for suppressing the slave trade; and the quondam slavetrader was asked by an hon. Member of the Committee (Mr. Jackson) to sanction that opinion as common sense and practical wisdom, and opposed to wild theory-that opinion, by the way, being a speculation on what had not taken place, and the wild theory being a description of conduct which had succeeded in crippling the slave trade. Another proof of the favour lavished on this witness, was, that a paper of small print but great length, handed in by him as supplementary to his evidence, was printed twice over in the report of the Committee, which had refused to British officers the opportunity of correcting some mistakes which had arisen in reporting their statements. To my noble and learned Friend, now absent, these observations are due. born; so do the public acts of the learned Friend, who is absent (Lord Brazilian empire, where he is domiciled. Brougham), is violently attacked in this But this newspaper, by whomsoever edited or supervised, thinks proper to make the defence of this gentleman. They state that he is a most honourable man; that this honourable man has been a slavetrader, he and his eulogist admit; but he adds, that he has ceased to be such. On no uncommon principle of deciding on the credibility of evidence, respecting the witness himself, I believe what he confesses; but I do not believe what he states in his own favour. I believe that he continues to be a slavetrader, because his evidence is plainly calculated to promote the gain of slavetraders. I do not believe that he has ceased to be one. He expresses that he is still a slaveowner; and what reason do your Lordships imagine that he offers for giving up his trade? Why, he abstained from motives of humanity, because he was so shocked at the horrors which were committed, that his delicate nerves would no longer allow him to proceed in it. These horrors, however, he takes care to impute, not to his brother slavetraders, or himself, who were the persons practising them, but to our squadron, in the attempt to suppress their iniquity. Is it impossible, if he left the trade, that our squadron drew him from it? Have I no right to examine the history of a witness who comes to offer voluntary evidence before a Committee, as to his former conduct? Am I not to judge from his own story whether he is entitled to be believed? He declines on two or three occasions to enter into particulars which the Committee ask. He says, if I were to tell you, I should lead an uncomfortable life in the country to which I am going; if I were to let out the informa- | tion I possess, you would spend more money in your vain efforts to put down the slave trade. He tells no fact which it is useful to know, and merely repeats the opinion that we cannot suppress his trade. I am asked, in the same article-would you not, as a Judge, hear the evidence of a person who has ceased to be a thief? I would hear the evidence of any man, whether he had conquered his thievish propensities or not; but if, instead of stating facts, he offered counsel how I should suppress crimes in which he had himself been engaged, and he should advise me to let them be carried on to any extent to which high profits would tempt, I should know whether I was dealing with one who had those profits in his eye. My noble and And it is due to both of us to declare that our observations on this witness were prompted by no personal feeling towards him, but solely by the fear that his evidence might so influence the Committee as to cause unutterable misery to millions of our innocent fellow-creatures. The noble and learned Lord then made some further comments on the evidence given before the Committee. Doubts had been raised whether the slave trade was piracy. If not piracy, it was a still more atrocious and infamous crime; and he thought one simple consideration proved it, for the great evil of piracy was the perpetual danger to life and limb, from personal conflicts. But that danger and those conflicts were the constant compan while, on the opposite coast of Africa, he has annoyed those of our countrymen who carry on a legitimate trade with that vast and fertile continent, has burned their factories, and baffled their commercial operations. This branch of the subject has hitherto been little touched, but is full of instruction. The evidence of Mr. Hutton before the Committee is especially deserving of notice. And obviously, the marauding of the slavers off the two coasts may soon require a much more expensive armament than the squadron now engaged in the gradual diminution and final extinction of the traffic. These remarks he submitted to the House on the present occasion, because the Bill, though proper, as far as it went, in providing protection for the colonies, fell lamentably short of the requirements of the case. They could only flourish by destroying the felonious competition which now prevailed over them. How was this trade to be put down? They all called it accursed; they all said it was atrocious. What, then, was it they were to look at? They were to look at the next six or eight years, when there would be a great glut, a great demand for slaves, and subsequently an insurrection of those slaves, and a massacre of all the white proprietors. Who could contemplate that without horror? After all, would it abolish slavery? The slaves consisted of various nations, and were often in a state of absolute hostility to one another. The massacre would not be confined to the whites; it would be the destruction of all. He requested a most attentive perusal of the evidence given before the Committee, particularly the evidence of Mr. Hutton, who showed what the conduct of the slavetrader was. When the slave trade was got rid of, legitimate trade would flourish. It was clear that the slave trade was the thing to be uprooted; and until it was uprooted there would be no prosperity in the colonies. ions, nay, the daily practices, and the di- | dared to fire into an English man-of-war; rect objeet of the slavetrader. It was needless, however, to heap reproaches on the trade; all men in this country write and vie with each other in inveighing against the "accursed traffic-diabolical trade"-familiar designations, as glibly repeated as the courteous epithets applied by Members of either House of Parliament to each other. All admit that it is a nuisance to be put down; but how? Those just invectives will not put it down. The only other mode, complacently suggested, he understood, by high authority, was to make it, by its excesses, work its own cure. Within what time is this operation expected to succeed? In ten years, or six, or five?-the longest of these limits is less than the most sanguine have ventured to fix. But even for the shortest, Africa is to go on enduring, and Europe tolerating, this most enormous of evils, with increased and accumulated aggravations. And by what means is success to be attained? The means thus coolly contemplated are insurrections of the slave, and the massacre of the masters! The indulgence of all the worst passions, exasperated by the sense of the most hideous wrongs! Insurrection would most probably be vanquished by the superior powers of civilised men, and oppression become more grievous. If it succeeded, are we sure the slave trade would be extinguished? The insurgent negro, if triumphant, might be tempted to the same career which had conferred wealth and power upon his master, and the slave trade, in savage hands, rage more fierce and bloody than ever before, for all time, and over a boundless region. He would now contend, that if all regard to justice and humanity were to be cast aside-if man was merely a money-making animal-and if the principles of free trade could be consistently invoked for the protection of slavetrading, prudence itself would enjoin us to perscvere in our resolution to suppress that traffic. The great practical argument against this course is, that the Brazilian slavetrader may bid us defiance, and secure success to his adventures in our despite. But if he does so, his piratical force will sweep those seas, and soon place all the trade of the world in that quarter at his mercy. With no more respect for the white merchant's bales than for the bodies of the negroes, he has often turned pirate in the more ordinary sense, and has even The DUKE of ARGYLL said, that it appeared to him that the arguments in favour of the Bill were somewhat transposed from their natural position. He was no protectionist; he rejoiced most sincerely that these restrictions had been removed; but for that, he feared to think what their position might have been. Another question, however, ought to enter into their consideration; he meant, the element of the slave trade. Throughout the whole 583 The West India Colonies {COMMONS} and Mauritius Bill. 584 against the Poor Removal (England and Scotland) Bill.— By Colonel Sibthorp, from the Trustees and Managers of the Lincoln Savings Bank, against the Savings Banks Bill. THE WEST INDIA COLONIES AND On the Motion that this Bill be read a course of the speech of the noble Earl, he had scarcely alluded to this. If he wished the system of protection to be continued to the West Indian colonies, it would not have been on the abstract theory that protection was the right system generally, but that we should constantly endeavour to exterminate by every means, direct and indirect, the slave trade. The whole argument had LORD G. BENTINCK would intreat the been to prove that this measure would be Chancellor of the Exchequer to take fuller an advantage to the West Indian colonies. powers-which he need not exercise if he He asked his noble Friend, had it been any should hereafter find it expedient to do so foregone opinion that the system of pro--extending the provisions of the Bill, so tection abstractedly was bad for our colonies, that had led to the adoption of this system? Had it not been a desire to have our sugar cheaper at as little loss as we could to our own income? That had been the object of our policy; and after we had determined to get our sugar cheaper, we turned round and said, it will do you no harm; we will take our sugar from the slaveholders; we hope you can compete with them. He hoped they might. He could not agree with one sentence of the noble Earl, when with a solemn face he addressed the West Indians, and said, you must labour for yourselves; we can afford no more protection. If they succeeded in maintaining their place in the world as sugar-producing colonies, they owed no thanks to us. EARL ST. VINCENT contended that free labour could never compete with slave labour. Believing this principle, he regarded with considerable jealousy any measure which sanctioned the introduction of slave-grown sugar into the markets of this country. EARL GREY replied. House adjourned. as to enable him to make advances on the coming crops in the colonies. This would confer a great benefit under the present circumstances of pressure, He thought the Chancellor of the Exchequer need not be ashamed to follow the example of Mr. Pitt, who in a time of difficulty advanced 5,000,000l. sterling on the credit of the four great manufactures of this country; thereby saving the manufacturers without the cost of one shilling to the revenue. Unless such aid as he now asked for were afforded to the colonies, he feared the plantations might be abandoned; and then the price of sugar would rise in consequence of the deficient supply of the article. If, added to this, a revolt should take place among the slaves of Cuba and other foreign settlements, the price of sugar would be higher than it ever had been before in this country; and then what would become of the revenue, the consumption of sugar being necessarily reduced by the high price? He pressed upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer to take his suggestion into consideration. The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER was not insensible to the weight of the noble Lord's suggestion, although he did not anticipate such a result in our colonies as the noble Lord had adverted to. Upon the whole, the course pursued by the Government was, he thought, best calculated to promote the permanent interests of the colonies; and, indeed, the words standing in the Bill, or very nearly those words, had been adopted at the suggestion of an hon. Gentleman, after a communication with the West Indian body. The Bill drew a distinction between the cultivation of private estates and objects which were of a more general or public benefit, such as road making, drainage, &c., and proposed to assist the latter; and he must observe, that the amount of capital not drawn from private individuals for these |