IMPOLICY OF SLAVERY,

From the Liverpool Mercury of October 31, 1823.] We trust the whole of the circumstances connected with The late occurrences in Demerara will undergo the fullest Investigation; many of the statements appear, as we have already observed, to be grossly exaggerated, evidently with the intention of preventing the discussion of this subect; but surely the monstrous proposition can never be entertained, that an evil exists in the British dominions of so dreadful a character that neither its circumstances nor mode of remedy are to be subjects of discussion! There is, however, one feature in the case, which we cannot pass over: it does not appear that any white person has suffered; we must therefore be allowed to doubt, whether, if the whites had shown the same degree of feeling, and evinced the same degree of civilization, in their warfare, as the poor blacks, there would have been so much sacrifice of life. The forbearance of the negroes ought at least to have entitled them to more merciful treatment.

The planters seem violently opposed to the interference of the mother country in their concerns: we shall therefore call the attention of the country to the management of its

only of the master or overseer, but of the meanest driver.
That they are compelled to work on the Sabbath for their
own subsistence, which is, in fact, for their master's profit.
That the advantages of religious instruction, and of the
marriage tie, are almost universally withheld from them.
That the most unrestrained licentiousness prevails
amongst them, and is exhibited in a degrading, disgusting,
and depopulating promiscuous intercourse, encouraged by
the debaucheries of the whites.-That they can hold no
property; their evidence is not received, and hence laws
for their protection are but a mockery.-The reader will
be ready to exclaim, "Surely there must be some great
and palpable gain arising from this system, to induce its
maintenance for a single hour!" But what will be his
astonishment to find, that instead of gain, it is attended
with great and enormous loss; that such is its inherent
impolicy, that if it had not been supported and protected
by bounties and prohibitions, it would long since have been
ameliorated and finally have fallen.

The protecting bounties and prohibitions mostly apply
to sugar, which is the chief production of our West India
Colonies. They are:

I-A bounty which is paid on the exportation of refined sugar, and which raises the price of all sugar in the home

market about 6s. per cwt. above its natural price.

II—A high duty of 10s. per cwt. above what is paid from

of voluntary labour on the fertile soils of Africa and of India. But how widely different has been our conduct! What but absolute infatuation could have induced the Europeans to destroy the native inhabitants of the West Indies, in order to re-people those islands, at an enormous. expense, from the coast of Africa! And what but absolute infatuation can it have been, which in this country has actually led us to reject sugar, if produced by the labour of the African on his native soil; and at the same time to give a bounty on the produce of his labour, when converted into a slave, and forced to cultivate the now-exhausted soils of our West India islands! Such is truly the state of things; and how lamentable is it that after condemning and abolishing the African slave trade, we should still be supporting, with enormous pecuniary sacrifices, the remnant of our wickedness and folly!

Let us look at the map of the world. We know that sugar can be produced at least thirty degrees on each side of the Equator; we know also, that an acre of good land, in those climates, will produce as many pounds of sugar as our land does of wheat; and that, if it were not for duties and bounties, sugar might be supplied in great plenty at a very cheap rate. Who then can sufficiently condemn a policy, which holds in chains of bondage 700,000 of our fellow-beings; and for the very sake of maintaining this oppressive and wicked system, confines us to a few little important of all foreign productions! Who can sufficiently condemn a policy, which, for the sake of furnishing to these poor miserable beings the few things with which their masters may choose to supply them, restricts and sacrifices an unforced and beneficial commerce, with tens, nay hundreds of millions in Asia, Africa, and America, whose unrestrained choice would range through the almost indefinitely varied field of our manufacturing inventions!

own; to an examination of how far we participate in the the West Indies, imposed on sugar, the produce of the British colonies for our supply of one of the most valuable and

crimes of the system, by the support we give to it, by bounties to keep up the price of slave produce, and by armies to keep the slaves in subjection:-these are clearly our own concerns;-these we may be allowed to investigate! And surely we shall not be told that the slaves will rise in rebellion if we attempt to interfere with the bounties on the exportation of sugar!

In the cruelty and injustice of negro slavery, in the misery it occasions, and the devastation which it spreads over the face of the earth, all the thinking part of mankind are agreed; how, indeed, is it possible there can be two opinions on the subject, when, to say nothing of the slave trade, it has long been a matter of public notoriety, that the slaves in the West Indies are degradingly driven like cattle by the whip at their labour, which, for nearly half the year, lasts for one half the night, as well as the whole day. That they are held and dealt with as property, and often branded as such with a hot iron.-That they are liable to be sold at the will of their master, or for payment of his debts, and the nearest ties in life are thus sent asunder. That they are liable, whether male or female, to be exposed and degradingly punished at the caprice, not

* It remains yet to be seen whether the colonists will ameBorate the treatment of the slaves, in accordance with the

resolutions of the House of Commons.

dominions in India.

III.-Prohibitory duties on sugar grown in all other parts of the world.

Thus we see that the cruel system pursued in the British West Indies requires to be supported by a bounty paid by the people of England, and to be protected, not only from the competition of the produce of free labour, but also from that of milder systems of slave labour. But though such injustice and cruelty may flourish for a time, yet the present state of slavery is a clear illustration of the position, that an all-wise Creator has made it the interest of every man to do right; that whatever is contrary to justice and humanity, must be equally contrary to sound policy; that interest and duty are indissolubly bound together.

The impolicy of bounties to raise the price of the produce of slave labour, and their injurious effects on the condition of the slave population, might be clearly illustrated by a comparison of the state of the British West India eolonies, with those of Spain and Portugal, and with the United States. These bounties have enabled the British planters to be absent from, and to neglect their own concerns, and to delegate to others the tremendous responsibilities of their situation; this characteristic of the British system is the fruitful source from which most of its peculiar evils arise. The colonies of Spain and Portugal have been compelled to support themselves; they have neither had bounties on their produce, nor the expenses of a standing army, paid by the mother country. Their system of treatment is more mild; they encourage emancipation, and have vast numbers of free labourers"; and these are the

Had commerce been carried on with enlarged and enlightened views of self-interest, and especially if united with motives of benevolence and humanity, how would knowledge and civilization have marked the steps of Europeans, and have been extended from the coasts to the interior of Africa! Instead of which, we have spread barbarism and desolation on her coasts, and thereby formed a formidable barrier to our intercourse with the more civilized interior! Had these views and these motives characterized our intercourse with India, how would darkness, ignorance, and idolatry have been disappearing amongst her vast population! Then might we, at this the land for their own use and profit; but under the present constitution of things, in the European colonies, they are day, have been exchanging the produce of a vastly-ex-very averse to hire themselves to perform field labour, that tended manufacturing industry, for the cheap productions being the employment of slaves driven by the whip.

* Free men are variously employed: they often cultivate

With prices of produce, sometimes so low as not to pay for the importation of slaves, the slave population of the United States has augmented by natural increase, after allowing for importation, about one hundred and twentyfive per cent. in thirty years; whilst, with prices comparatively high, and with the large importation into Jamaica, during the same period, of 188,785 slaves, the slave population of that island has only increased from 250,000 to 345,252, showing, when compared with the United States, a destruction or waste of human life, or a counteraction of its tendency to increase, of 400,000 in the short period of thirty years. And this is the country, which, thirty years ago, only produced one-tenth part of the cotton which was then produced in the island of Jamaica, but which now produces nearly one-thousand times the quantity it then did; whilst its culture in Jamaica has been nearly abandoned!

countries which are underselling the British sugar planters, | come; but even if his income remains the same, it will energies and prevent the prosperity of Ireland; and thaʻ in all the markets of Europe. have the stability of landed income, instead of the unjust the same remedy, namely, the removal of those restriction, and uncertain tenure of property in the persons and lives will tend to relieve them both. What is chiefly required, in of his fellow men. Wherever slavery exists, land is of order to produce this happy result, is, that the people of little value. We seldom hear a planter speak of the num- England should cease to make the sacrifices, which they are ber of his acres, but of the number of his slaves. In the now compelled to make, in the shape of bounties and proUnited States, land of a worse quality, and more unfavour-tecting and prohibiting duties, and which are the grand ably situated, if cultivated by free men, is worth more than means of perpetuating both the evils in question; both double the price of better land, in a better situation, in the the slavery of our colonies, and the misery and degradation same district, when that land is cultivated by slaves. The of a great part of Ireland. continuance, therefore, of such a system of oppression, of wickedness, of impolicy, and of folly, is almost incredible in this enlightened age; especially as it would unquestionably fall by its own weight, if it were left to itself. But we have not left it to itself; we are now paying in bounty to keep up the prices of sugar, and in establishments and armies, to keep the slaves in subjection, about two millions annually! And all this, we are distinctly told by the planters, is not sufficient. Three millions more, according to their estimates, must be given them to afford even a moderate remuneration, which altogether would make an expense to the country of seven pounds annually, for every slave held in bondage.

That a system which destroys the lives or prevents the existence, of 400,000 human beings in one island in thirty years, is desperately wicked, whether it yields profit or loss, there can be no question; but if these lives may be reckoned worth £50 each (and nearly half of them have actually been replaced by purchase) the pecuniary sacrifice to the country will be no less than £20,000,000 in this one island, and as that contains not one-half of the slave population of the West India colonies, the whole sacrifice will amount to upwards of £40,000,000, which, at six per cent. interest, would make £2,400,000 per annum, or 15s. per cwt. on 160,000 tons of sugar, being the annual consumption of Great Britain and Ireland! No wonder that the West Indians should feel the enormous expense of this cruel system press so heavily upon them! No wonder that the share the country has borne of that expense is felt to be insufficient; and that they have lately sought for further protection, declaring, that without it they shall be ruined! And so they will, by the operation of the general laws, ordained by a just and wise Providence, if they continue to adhere to a system which is radically wicked and unjust, and

which must fall.

Slavery being a forced and unnatural state of society, can only exist with high prices of produce, and becomes gradually extinguished in a competition with free labour. Thus we see it gradually diminishing in the northern parts of the United States, where there is the greatest com

petition of free labour, and where slave labour is therefore of least value; and, on the contrary, in those States, as we proceed southward, where there is less competition of free labour, and its profits are therefore increased, there we see slavery in its worst form; for in proportion to the prices

Great as this pecuniary sacrifice is, it is not all that we are called upon to make; we are called upon to support a system, the effects of which have ever been to hinder the progress of improvement, and to spread barbarism in its stead; a system, every where marked by the destruction of the very soil, and still more by its tendency to the destruction of every virtuous and moral feeling, no less in the master than in the slave. We are called upon to bind down the energies of the country, and to exclude that competition which would certainly destroy this wretched system. The rapid extension of our commerce, since its opening with South America and India, cramped and restricted as it still is, is abundantly sufficient to show what that extension might have been, under a conduct governed by more liberal and enlightened views. We have seen, for instance, the cotton-trade, not only giving full employment to the population of the districts in England where it is now carried on; but, since the removal of some absurd regulations in the last Session of Parliament, we have seen with delight some branches of this trade extending to Ireland, and presenting the best means of improving and raising her depressed population! Had we but employed the means within our own power, of diffusing employment, civilization, and

The unrestricted conimerce of the world, and the competition of free labour, would necessarily introduce inproved systems into our West India colonies; would g dually ameliorate the treatment of the slaves, and final; extinguish slavery itself; these colonies, enjoying their natural advantages, would not then need to fear the copetition of any other part of the world.

The unrestricted commerce of the world would give an ployment to Ireland; her population would then exchange idleness and rags for industry and comfort; her fine streams, now wasting their powers, would give motion to numerous manufactories; her grain and provisions, now compelled to seek a market in other countries, would then find ample demand amongst her own improved population.

We have already observed, that it might at least have been expected, that in sacrificing such immense national advantages, we should have had some manifest and palpable compensation in the enormous wealth and unparalleled prosperity of those for whose benefit the sacrifice is made. Is then the present system of colonial cultivation advantageous to the planters? If it be, of what do they complain? Have they not the unrestrained use and full control of their slaves? Have they not the privilege of importing their produce at a less duty than other countries? Have they not bounties also on its re-exportation? Yet we hear every day that West Indian cultivation is no longer profitable, and that, without further sacrifices on the

part of the mother country, the planters will be ruined.— But can the planters suppose that this country is prepared to make these further sacrifices? to submit to still heavier burdens, for no other purpose than to support an unjust system, which is at the same time unprofitable, not only longer for such ruinous support, let them employ the to the country, but to themselves? Instead of looking any means of improvement which are amply within their power. Let them examine what it is that enables their comfort, over the regions of Asia, Africa, and America, we competitors to undersell them; they will soon perceive, that comfort for the suffering and depressed, though generous- even with another system of slavery, are so great and obshould long since have received in return, employment and if the advantages of one system of slavery, as compared minded population of Ireland! and even now, if we will vious as they will find them to be, the comparative advan but pursue this policy, we shall soon reap an abundant re-tages of free labour will prove infinitely greater!

ward.

But if we are still to make such immense sacrifices for

of produce, or the profits of the system, are its severities. Low prices of produce, also, compel the adoption of the best and most economical systems; and thus lead almost the colonies, we ought at least to receive in return an necessarily to an improved treatment of the slaves; and, overflow of wealth and prosperity from them. But in in point of fact, low prices of produce have generally been stead of this, we shall find, that to the general prosbeneficial to the slaves; whilst high prices have as gene-perity of this country there are two grand exceptionsthe West Indies and Ireland. The slavery of the West rally been injurious to them. High prices alone have Indies, and the condition of a large part of the popusupported the destructive system which has kept slaverylation of Ireland, form two dark stains on the other. attend the culture of sugar and cotton, so as to compel the

If the obstructions to our commerce

We have seen that the cultivation of indigo, by frae labour, in the East Indies, has almost wholly superseded its cultivation by slaves in the Western world; and this was the only article which could bear the high charges of conveyance to Europe during the monopoly of the East India Company with India were removed, similar success would, doubtles, wise bright and cheering picture. No true friend to this adoption of free labour in the West Indies. It is useless, country can be indifferent to the condition of our Irish however, to pursue a subject which has been so completely brethren. Now the most cursory observer, in contempla- established, that all controversy upon it must now be fr ting the state of Ireland, cannot fail to remark the immense ever at rest; and referring the reader to Hodgson's Letter superiority of the condition of the north as compared with to Say, we shall only just state, that amongst the many the south. The employment afforded by the linen trade proofs of the advantages of free labour, the experiment ef in the north, is an obvious cause of this superiority, and gradually raising slaves to the rank of free men, was re points out to us a practical remedy for the distress of the successfully tried in the British West Indies, by Joshua which has taken place in the West Indies, has there pre. to remark, that from the recent rapid increase of the cotton and fear; by treating his slaves as human beings, this be other parts of that country; and here it is most important Steel! By the substitution of hope of reward for force

in existence, for slavery can only exist where the population is in a ratio greatly below the demand for labour. In Jamaica, we have seen how the population has been kept down, and slavery has been upheld, by means of that system; for it is obvious, that were the population as great there in proportion as it is in England, there could exist no temptation to maintain slavery. Who, indeed, in this country, would ever think of holding men in slavery with a hope of profit? And what but the waste of human life

vented a gradual approach to such a state of things?
An increase in the supply of men, as of any article,
makes them bear a less price, until at length they become
worth nothing as saleable property; but this is no loss to
their master; for, by industry and good management, he
will have a great increase of produce, and probably of in-

trade, we see a part of it already beginning to flow towards
Ireland, so as to afford the most cheering hopes of what
might be soon effected by a liberal and enlightened policy.
It might, indeed, be incontestibly own, that the very
same restrictions which mainly s
bondage of the colonial slaves, also serve to bind down the

ve to maintain the

nevolent individual stopped the gradual decrease in ter numbers; and, after following this system for the she period of only four years and three months, he tripled to annual net produce of his estate.

Amongst all the obvious disadvantages of slave labo there is none more striking than its tendency to dis

te the soil. To those who are at all acquainted with lave cultivation, either of the United States or of the t Indies, the fact is so well known, and so universally itted, as to make any proofs unnecessary. Wherever s are used, the master thinks comparatively little of ing them, but has recourse to their sinews for every g; cattle are, therefore, far less employed than they It to be, and hence slave countries are behind all others gricultural improvements. Our own soils would wear if constantly cultivated, even with wheat, with baror with oats. But, happily, the people of England not slaves! they eat beef and mutton, they wear woolcloth, and leather shoes. A demand for these articles

promotes the introduction of cattle, and of green crops, | terests and claims of the planters, and those of their op-
which manure the soil, and preserve its fertility.
pressed slaves fairly taken into consideration, a plan might
be devised and adopted which would prove greatly benefi-
cial alike to planters, to the slaves, and to the country at
large?

If the change from slavery to freedom was attended both with danger and with loss, who would even then be found to advocate the continuance of slavery? But when its policy has been so fully proved, let us hope that the enlightened part of the West Indians themselves will unite with us to extirpate this evil. And when it is considered that the sacrifices that are now making to perpetuate slavery, would be more than sufficient to purchase the entire redemption of all the slaves at the earliest period they could be prepared for freedom; who can entertain any doubt, that if the subject was properly investigated, and the in

Do not these things call for investigation? Can any individual, who feels an interest in the prosperity of his country, or in the happiness of his fellow-creatures, refuse to examine whether they are true? And, if convinced of their truth, shall we be guiltless if we hold our peace, or relax our efforts until the whole mass of this iniquitous system, with all its ruinous effects, is understood and felt by the country.

CHART OF THE WORLD (ON MERCATOR'S PROJECTION) ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE IMPOLICY OF SLAVERY,

3

2

he shaded part of the map, including 30 degrees on each side the equator, represents the countries suitable for the growth of sugar, so far as climate is concerned. he parts entirely black represent the colony of Demerara, &c. on the Continent of South America, the Island of Jamaica, and the West India Islands, under the British flag; and are the countries to which we are at present confined for the supply of sugar, except by paying higher duties on that article from other quarters.

he part horizontally shaded includes nearly the whole of Africa, from which we are prevented obtaining sugar by the devastating effects of the slave trade, and also by prohibitions for the support of slavery in the West Indies.

he diagonal shading represents Hindostan, from which our trade in sugar is restricted and limited by high duties.

e perpendicular shading (covering nearly the whole of the Continent of South America, the whole of Mexico, Arabia, China, New Holland, the Indian Archipelago, other islands, &c) represents the large extent of territory from which we can derive no sugar, owing to prohibitory duties.

1 these duties and prohibitions, restricting or prohibiting us from trade in sugar with those vast territories, and consequently from the advantages of a proportionate increase e consumption of British manufactures, to an extent that would give empayment to the destitute population of Ireland and Great Britain-all are imposed for the exclusive ection and support of slave cultivation in the West Indian colonies; colonies which form but insignificant specks in the map, in point of extent, as indeed they are insignat and inadequate with reference to the prospective increase of a commerce commensurate with the unrestricted operations of British capital, enterprise, and industry.

No one who will take the pains to examine the subject, No objection anywhere exists on the part of the people eighth part of the rate of consumption in Great Bri can entertain any doubt that the earth is capable of pro-to the use of British manufactures, which are, with little would be enough to give ample employment to Ireland. ducing a sufficiency for all its inhabitants; and that, by exception, cheaper than those of any other country; and IV. The slaves in our West India Islands, by being a the aid of machinery, comforts and luxuries may be manu-it is shown, in the Report of the Liverpool East India As-free, would not only raise more produce, but also e factured to an extent far beyond what any country now sociation, that if the duty on sugar was removed, a native much more of our manufactures Thus would Great enjoys. There can, therefore, be no imaginable limit to of India would be able to procure five pieces of British find within her own dominions abundant scope for the the further extension of commerce, but that of the power calico in return for the sugar which his labour, if applied sion of her commerce, and share with the rest of the of the earth to produce, or of man to manufacture the com- to its cultivation, would produce, in the time which would the vast field which would be opened beyond them. forts and luxuries of life to the full extent of the desire to be occupied in manufacturing one piece of such calico in V-If the population of the whole world is estimas enjoy them. The object of commerce being to make India; but the high duty on the sugar to be received in those exchanges of the products of manufacturing or agri- payment prevents the sale of the British goods as effec-900,000,000, and if their habits were improved so as to e cultural industry, which difference of climate, soil, or other tually as a duty laid on their export. The population of them to consume as much as the population of the Bena circumstances renders advantageous; such exchange will England, and especially that of the cotton districts, is now be most extensive and beneficial between countries where generally well employed. And Great Britain having about double the population of Ireland, it is fair to calculate, that one half more added to our present foreign commerce, would be more than sufficient to relieve that portion of Ireland which is now in distress from want of employ

those are most varied.

Sugar and cotton being the great productions of warm climates, must consequently be the great objects of the foreign commerce of Great Britain, and to them these remarks will chiefly apply.

The people of this country or Ireland have no disinclination to consume sugar if they can obtain it; it is estimated, that many individuals do consume 80lb. per annum, being about five times as much as our average consumption for each individual in the British empire. If the duties on sugar were reduced as the consumption increases, the revenue would sustain no loss. If the consumption was four times as great, the rate of duty might be reduced to one-fourth; and then, with a free trade, we might have brown sugar at 3d. per lb.

ment.

The probability of obtaining such increase may be judged by the following facts:

I. The consumption of cotton in Great Britain is about
160,000,000 of pounds annually.

II.-If one half that quantity is consumed at home, it will
be 4lb. for every individual, and no one who has seen much of
the poor in England, and more especially of Ireland, will con-
tend that even all our population are sufficently clothed.
III-If the population of our Eastern dominions took from
us half a pound weight each of cotton goods, being only one-

dominions, it would probably amount to about eight or Jeha times the extent of the present cotton manufactures of d whole world; leaving an ample field to reward the exerties of other countries which might adopt the same ched policy. But though with respect to Africa, it may truly bel said, that the crimes and devastations of ages cannot be paired at once; and ages may still elapse before she is restest

to the state in which European commerce found her; ind

though this may be true, it is no argument against making commencement.

In conclusion, we may say that among all the abund and impolitic restrictions which still fetter our commere. the greatest obstruction of all to its extension is to be fark, in the effects of the devastation made to procare slaces on the coast of Africa, and the sacrifices we are now making to support the system of Slave cultivation in the Wes Indies.

LIVERPOOL: PRINTED BY E. SMITH AND CO. 75, LORD-STREET.