1830.] [ 685 ] 



LETTERS OF THE RT. HON. R. W1LMOT HORTON AND OTHERS, ON 

 THE WEST INDIA QUESTION.* 



So much has been said and written of late on the subject of West 

 India Slavery, that it would seem difficult to state the question in any 

 new point of view, or to throw any additional light upon its merits. 



The sectaries, since their missionaries quarrelled with the people 

 of Jamaica, Demerara, &c., and since bishops of the Church of England 

 were appointed to superintend the conversion and religious instruction 

 of the negroes have commenced and now carry on a determined 

 crusade for the entire destruction of West India property ; and such 

 iare the false impressions which they have succeeded in creating 

 throughout the country, especially amongst their own followers by 

 repeating over and over again, the same calumnious misrepresentations 

 and exaggerated statements respecting the condition of the slaves in 

 the West Indies, and the " miserable, unhappy, and degraded state" of 

 the negroes that even their most influential leaders have become 

 alarmed for the consequences of their ungovernable zeal ; and while 

 we perceive their most popular advocate glad to escape from the mass 

 of insane petitions which they inflicted upon him, we find Mr. Wilber- 

 force adhering to the wise resolution of Parliament in 1823, and signing 

 a petition, praying the legislature to abolish slavery at the earliest 

 possible period, " CONSISTENTLY WITH THE ESTABLISHED INTERESTS 



OF INDIVIDUALS, AND PROPERTY IN OUR COLONIES."t 



We find the same meeting which adopted this petition, passing the 

 following just and equitable resolutions : 



" 1. Resolved That the abolition of slavery would materially affect the 

 interests of a large portion of our fellow-subjects, who hold property in slaves, 

 under laws passed or recognized in this kingdom ; and that all sufferers there- 

 by will be justly entitled to compensation for the losses they may sustain. 



<e 2. Resolved That to accomplish the great arid desired measure of the 

 abolition of slavery, it seems necessary that a fund should be raised, and set 

 apart for the especial purpose ; and that this meeting will cheerfully submit to 

 any new measure of taxation which Parliament in its wisdom may adopt for 

 that purpose." 



Widely different, however, are the views of the headlong aboli- 

 tionists. They shut their eyes and their ears against every appeal to 



Letter to the Freeholders of the County of York, by the Right Hon. R. Wilmot 

 Horton. Lloyd, Harley- street. 



Presbyter's Letters on the West Indian Question, by the Rev. Dr. Duncan, of 

 Bothwell. Underwood, Fleet-Street. 



Statement of Facts, by John Gladstone, Esq. Baldwin and Co. 



f- The following apposite remarks on this petition are copied from the Bath Herald : 

 " The principles of religious justice upon which the Colonial proprietors ground their 

 claims to compensation for the loss of the services of their slaves, may be gathered from 

 the divine oracles,* wherein Almighty God, who in his unerring wisdom, has sanctioned 

 and decreed slavery, even unto perpetuity, in terms so clear, so positive, so direct, as no 

 human sophistry can mystify, perplex, nor controvert, any more than it can the Deca- 

 logue itself, has also decreed that slaves shall be ransomed for ' a price.' With these 

 considerations before their eyes, and with a thorough conviction of the necessity of gra- 

 dually preparing the slave for his liberty, and in the mean time, of adopting all practi- 

 cable measures for the amelioration of his condition, a petition was adopted by the above 

 meeting, to which the West India proprietors themselves who were present, most cheer- 

 fully and promptly affixed their signatures." 



* Levit. xxv. 44, 45, 46. 



