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XXXI.

CHAP. preceding 1825, from 30,280,000 lb. to 19,812,160 lb. preceding 1836; while the quantity received from Ceylon alone, which in 1825 was only 2,000,000 lb., had risen in 1849 to 35,000,000 lb.*

1833.

107.

effect on the

The effect of this great transfer of production from Disastrous the British West Indies to foreign plantations is thus foreign described by Mr Buxton, the able and consistent advocate slave trade. of negro emancipation: "Twenty years ago, the African

Institution reported to the Duke of Wellington that the number of slaves who annually crossed the Atlantic was 70,000. There is evidence before the parliamentary committee to show that about one-third was for the British Islands, and one-third for St Domingo, so that if the slave trade of other countries had been stationary, they ought only to have imported 25,000; whereas the number now (1838) landed in Cuba and Brazil alone is 150,000 annually, being more than double the whole draft of Africa, including the countries where it had ceased when the slave trade controversy began! Twice as many human beings are now its victims as when Wilberforce and Clarkson commenced their noble career; and each individual of this increased number, in addition to the horrors which were endured in former times, has to suffer from being cribbed up in a narrow space, and on board a vessel where accommodation is sacrificed to speed. Painful as this is, it becomes still more distressing if it shall

* In Cuba, the average produce of sugar for four years preceding

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XXXI.

1833.

1 African

appear that our present system has not failed, by mis- CHAP. chance or want of energy, or want of expenditure; but that the system itself is erroneous, and must necessarily end in disappointment." Thus the effect of the emancipation of the negroes has been to ruin our own planters, Slave Trade, stop the civilisation of our own negroes, and double the Buxton, slave trade in extent, and quadruple it in horror through- 1839, 172. out the globe! 1

by T. F.

London,

on this sub

We are not to imagine, from this calamitous and me- 108. lancholy result, that philanthropic measures necessarily Reflections terminate in disappointment, and that nothing can be reckoned on as likely to lead to the desired effects but what is based on selfish desires. Negro emancipation has not failed because it was prompted by benevolent motives, or directed to philanthropic ends, but because, in the prosecution of these ends, the lessons of experience and the observation of facts were utterly disregarded. The latter were brought before the people in the most forcible manner, but met with no sort of attention, the public mind being entirely carried away by the alluring phantom of destroyed slavery. In pursuing it, the heated enthusiasts forgot altogether the condition precedent requisite to render freedom either practicable or beneficial to mankind; viz., acquired habits of labour. They made the savage free, without his having gained the faculty of self-direction: thence the failure of the whole measure, and the unutterable miseries with which it has been attended. The apprentice system worked so ill that in four years after it was found necessary to abolish it. It came into operation on 1st August 1834, and was celebrated with universal and touching rejoicings among the negroes over the whole West Indies; but it is not thus that a great law of nature can be set aside. In 1838, after four years' experience of the working of the measure, Government was compelled to abandon it, and venture on the hazardous step of total freedom, which has completed the ruin of the West Indies. Such have been

XXXI.

CHAP. the consequences of seeking prematurely to emancipate man-of forgetting the words of God, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."

1833.

109.

of infant

labour in factories.

The remaining parliamentary proceedings of this session Bill regard were more material, as indicating the strong bent of the ing the shortening public mind towards objects of social amelioration, and the anxious desire of the people to reap the substantial fruits of Reform, than from any important change in our laws or institutions which they effected. The subject of the limitation of the hours of labour in factories, a most important one, and loudly calling for the interposition of the legislature, was brought before Parliament by LORD ASHLEY, who had long devoted the ardour of a philanthropic mind to the subject; and Ministers were not a little embarrassed how to act on the occasion; for on the one hand the artisans were eager for a change, and on the other, the master manufacturers were not less resolute to oppose it. After a great deal of discussion, Lord Ashley's bill was carried on a second reading by 164 to 141, which sufficiently indicated the sense of the House on the subject. Government, however, opposed the bill, and in committee its provisions were so far altered in favour of the masters, that Lord Ashley abandoned the conduct of it to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ultimately the bill was carried in these terms, that the labour of children in factories, under thirteen years of age, should be limited to eight hours a-day; that children under nine years of age should be prevented from working at all; that persons under eighteen years of age should never be obliged to work more than sixty-nine hours in the week. Factory inspectors also were appointed, which was a very great improvement, to enforce the due observance of the law; and provision was made for the establishment of a system of education for children in the manufacturing districts. The evidence taken before the committees on which this bill was founded, and the necessity generally felt for the

1

XXXI.

1833.

Parl. Deb.

bill itself, revealed a melancholy fact, illustrative of the CHAP. tendency of advanced civilisation, that in its later stages the thirst for gain or intoxicating spirits obliterates the strongest feelings of nature; for the oppressors against whom the legislature found it necessary to defend the 841; Ann. little children were their own parents, who sent them out 205, 209. to work before they were equal to its fatigue.1

xix. 729,

Reg. 1833,

110.

the session,

of its pro

The session was closed on the 29th August by the King in person, who with reason congratulated the House Closing of on the important legislative changes which they had intro- and review duced, from which he anticipated the greatest advantages; ceedings. and on the beneficial effects which the additional powers conferred on the executive had had in Ireland. In truth, the country had good cause to be thankful for the proceedings of the first session of the reformed Parliament, and much reason for gratitude to the Government which had made such a use of the almost unlimited power which was placed in their hands. The changes made had in some respects been great, but they were not of the dangerous kind which had been so much apprehended; and wherever extreme measures-such as vote by ballot, confiscation of the Church property, or the like—had been proposed by Radical members, numbers had given them their decided opposition. The great measure for repressing disorder in Ireland had been attended with the most salutary effects; the revenue was still kept up, notwithstanding urgent attempts to have it ruined by the repeal of unpopular taxes; and all the great institutions of the country remained intact. By pursuing this wise and patriotic course, Government had damaged their popularity, and endangered their political existence; but they had steered the State through a great peril, and deserve 1833, 227. the lasting gratitude of their country.2

The succeeding year opened under brighter auspices, so far as the manufacturing and commercial interests of the country were concerned, although the extremely low prices of agricultural produce still continued a very great

2 Ann. Reg.

XXXI.

1834.

111. Improved

state of the

interests,

sion of

land.

CHAP. degree of distress among the proprietors and occupiers of land. The seasons for two years past had been uncommonly fine, and wheat, on the average of the whole year, was only 39s. 8d. the quarter-lower than it had been commercial since the time of Oliver Cromwell. The effect of this and contin- extremely low price, of course, was to produce great emued depres- barrassment among all whose income depended on land, for their money obligations, for the most part, were contracted and fixed when prices were double; the present amount of these had undergone no diminution, though their means of defraying them had been halved. But for the very same reason a great degree of prosperity began to be felt among the manufacturing and commercial classes; for the value of their produce had undergone no corresponding diminution, and the low price of provisions had nearly doubled the portion of their income which they could devote to the purchase of comforts and conveniences. Confidence was in a great measure restored by the nation having weathered the Reform tempest, and capital, issuing from its places of concealment, where for some years it had lain hid, began again to animate industry, and spread its vivifying influence around.

112.

of the recent

At this period, too, the effects of that great change in Great effect the currency which had been made in the preceding year changes in began to develop themselves, and, coupled with the fine in stimulat harvests in England, and the increase in the supplies of ing industry. the precious metals from South America in consequence

of the more pacified state of its provinces, induced the brief prosperity and long-continued disasters which ensued. As Bank of England notes were now declared a legal tender everywhere except at the Bank of England, they were to all practical purposes an inconvertible paper currency, except in those periods when bad harvests, foreign wars, or any other cause, induced a great drain upon the metallic resources of the country, and brought the notes back in multitudes to be exchanged for gold at

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