TOPICS OF THE DAY.
WEST INDIA SLAVERY.
WE noticed in our second edition of last week, the annual meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society. The principal points insisted on by the meeting were three,—first, the non-acceptance by the Colonial' Legislatures of the resolutions of the House of Commons in 1823; second, the inequality of the duties on East India and West India sugars ; third, the emancipation of the infants of slaves. The third point was discussed on an amendment offered by POWNALL, one of the Committee ; but the resolution which he tendered, and which, with a slight modification, was adopted, had formed one of those which the Committee meant. to move, and was only left out on more mature deliberation. For the first time, we believe, in any meeting of the Society, the principle of compensation in the
case of an emancipation-law was conceded by the Committee's resolutions. Thus far the views of the Emancipationists and of the Colonists seem now to be at one. No mention of compensa- tion was made in Mr. POWNALL'S resolution callieg for the free- dom of all children born after a certain date. We look on the in- troduction of the question of the Sugar-duties, into a meeting such as that of Saturday, to he ill-judged, to say the least. If there were no such thing as slavery in the West Indies; it would still remain to be proved whether the premium of ten shillings the hundredweight was not properly given to West India sugars. If we equalize the duties, we must equalize the burdens and immuni- ties of our colonies in Asia and America. 'Without this previous step, equalization is tantamount to granting a premium on the former. The question is for economists and financiers, and for them only, to settle. To the complaint that the resolutions of the two Houses of Par- liament are still unconiplied with, it has been answered, that unless the power of modifying or of rejecting these resolutions voided in the Colonial Legislatures, it was a supererogatory act in Parliament to submit them to their consideration. By offering the resolutions, Parliament admitted that the Colonists might or might not adopt them ; and Parliament have no right to find limit with the exer- cise of a power which they commenced by recognizing. Of those who call for the emancipation of slave children, we would ask, who are to maintain them till they can maintain themselves ? If it be said that the parents maintain them at present, it will be replied, they are allowed food and raiment for that purpose, or the means of purchasing them, by the master, in consideration of his property in the children. Take away that property, and the master will not maintain them either mediately or immediately, nor can he in com- mon justice be asked to do so.
On the question of compensation, we have but one word to say—how is the sum necessary for that purpose to be raised ? Where is the hundred millions to come from ? Will the people of England submit to an additional tax of five millions, for the sake of all the black men and women in the West Indies ten times told?
Let it be shown that the purchase of grown-up slaves is possible, or that the emancipation of infant slaves is practicable, and we shall go heartily into either measure. In the meanwhile, it is of importance to inquire whether something may not be done to abate a great evil (for that slavery is a great evil, no man pretends to dispute), if it cannot be immediately removed. We think Par- liament ought to pass no more resolutions ; it ought to enact laws. We are friendly to local legislatures, and wish they were more nu- merous,—and more numerous they must be ere long, or the ma- chine of Government will be reduced to a stand-still by the mere friction of its own wheels : but it is essential that the local legis- lature should represent fully and freely all the interests for which it makes laws. The West India legislators not only do not repre- sent the slaves, but they do not represent one inch of black or tawny skin, whether bond or free. We allow that the Parliament at home has less knowledge than the Parliaments abroad, but it has also less prejudice. Besides, what the Colonists know, they can surely declare—we are utterly at a loss to comprehend the nature of that knowledge whiith is incommunicable. What are the points to which Parliament ought first to turn ?—We think, a general registry act, and a general manumission act. We cannot
enter into the feelings that dictate the opposition to these acts. We are every day called on t y the taxgatherer to tell the number of our servants, even our occasional servants,—of our horses, dogs, and a multitude of other things : are these less our pro- perly than the slave is the property of his master? We do not ask for inconvenient or teasing regulations—we would have the registry as simple as it can be made: but registry is essential, for how else are we to find out who are slaves and who are not? When the Colonists demand and the Anti-Slavery advocates offer compensation, they must be prepared to admit of some common rule by which the amount of compensation is in each case to be estimated. There is no hardship in compelling a planter to part with his slaves, that is not submitted to by the holders of other kinds of property. If a house stand in the way of the public ac- commodation, Parliament may order it to be removed ; they do so every session. Has the planter a higher interest in his chattels than he has in his freehold ? If he give up the latter at the de- mand of Parliament, why should he refuse to give up the former? There may be a difficulty in procuring proper tribunals to estimate the value of the slave to be manumitted • but we rather think that most of the difficulty will tell on the planter's side. The cause of the poor and the destitute, on either side of the Atlantic, is not likely to be burdened with superfluity of patronage. These two preliminary points settled, we should feel inclined. to proceed to another, which we have in former numbers more than once touched upqn,—we mean the gradual introduction of a system of villeinage, not so much as an abolition of slavery; as an appren- ticeship.,of freedom. To a certain degree this system has been • already introduced, by the law which forbids the transportation Of • slaves from one island to another. Its complete adoption in the smaller islands would hardly operate any change in their present condition.
One word of slave infants. We do not believe that the colo- nist .deems himself to have any pecuniary interest in the unborn offspring of his slaves. Does he pay one farthing more for a female because she may at some future period become a mother ? Do not health, strength, activity; intelligence, and good character, constitute the only eleinents by which the marketable value of the slave is estimated ? If we are right in this opinion, the eman- cipation of a slave infant will inflict no injury on the planter, pro- vided he be remunerated for the money expended in rearing and _ educating it. ' Now, this may he easily arranged, by manumitting the slave after a certain period of service. Let it be determined that all slaves born after a certain period shall be free; and let that enactment be accompanied by another, binding the infants so freed as apprentices, or by any other name, to their masters for a fixed term of years. It would be the interest of the master to treat such apprentices well, for he must wish to continue their services after they were fully manumitted, and by kind treatment only could he expect them. There would in this way be no violent change S the planters would not be injured; the real friends of humanity would be conciliated. The violent on either side we have no hope of ever bringing together ; but to the moderate—to thoSe who seek for gradual and solid reform—we think our plan offers a middle ground, on which, without compromise of principle, they may properly and wisely meet, and arrange any little differences that still subsist between them.
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