686 Letters on the West India Question. DEC. 



their justice and humanity. It is in vain to urge that the negroes are 

 more comfortably situated than the greater part of the labouring classes 

 in the mother country, that they are, at present, amply provided for, 

 both in health, in sickness, and in old age ; that their religious instruc- 

 tion is sedulously attended to, by clergymen of the established church 

 and by others, and that a compliance with the indiscreet zeal of the 

 ultra-abolitionists would ruin our colonies, and consequently not only 

 create great distress and misery there and in the mother country, but, 

 also, lead to the destruction of the negroes themselves. They answer 

 "talk not of vested rights and the annihilation of property, perish 

 slavery, even though it should involve the destruction of the life of the 

 slave with that of his master," they persist in shouting " Murder/' 

 and "Robbery," whilst the objects of their solicitude are comfortably at- 

 tending to their pigs and poultry ; and the little laughing " blackies" are 

 said to be dancing about their master, or his representative the manager 

 their friend and benefactor eager to attract his attention and favour, 

 by the most winning endearments. 



The ultra-abolitionists will not, however, look at this part of the pic- 

 ture. They have been so wrought upon, that we have seen peaceable 

 quakers men, who so far from being aggressors, have for ages been 

 celebrated for their doctrine of non-resistance and quiet demeanor- 

 whose boast it has been, that, for the sake of peace, they would when 

 smote on one cheek, turn the other not only bustling at public meet- 

 ings but " smiting lustily" such unfortunate West Indian, or friend 

 of the colonies, as dared to lift up his voice in favour of common sense 

 and common justice, or who even had the hardihood to attempt to 

 obtain a hearing for our ill-used and grossly belied brethren in the West 

 Indies. Others, not contented with calumniating the colonists in their 

 petitions, make a direct attack upon individual Members of both 

 Houses of Parliament ! Seemingly regardless of the acts of those 

 incendiaries, who are laying up such a store of want and misery for 

 the poor in their immediate neighbourhood, they declare that they 

 themselves " BURN with holy indignation" to see persons connected with 

 the colonies sitting in Parliament " LIKE SATAN AMONGST THE SONS 

 OF GOD !"* and pray that the colonists may be robbed of their estates 

 and slaves, without the slightest shadow of compensation ! 



Is this, we would ask, the language of Englishmen ? living under 

 the liberal and paternal government of King William the Fourth ? or 

 have we, by some unaccountable means, been carried back to the time 

 of " Praise-God-Barebones/' when according to history, "hypocrites 

 exercising iniquity, under the vizor of religion," confounded all regard, 

 to ease, safety, interest : when the fanatical spirit let loose, dissolved 

 every moral and civil obligation ? yet such are the questions which 

 naturally present themselves for our consideration, when we take a 

 cursory view of the abominable mass of cant, bigotry, and misrepre- 

 sentation, embodied in a great majority of petitions which are impugn- 

 ing the lawful interests, property, characters, and feelings, of a numerous 

 class of persons, who in every relation of life are more respectable, 

 more loyal, more upright, and more honourable members of society 

 than the great mass of their assailants ? 



We have earnestly and conscientiously endeavoured for some time 



Vide.. Petition from the Independents of Chichester. 



