1830.] Letters on the West India Question. 687 



back, to counteract the machinations of the anti- colonists, and we have 

 much pleasure in noticing that several eminent statesmen and divines 

 have felt it their duty to come forward in defence not only of the rights 

 of property, but of true humanity. The recent report of the church mis- 

 sionary society very clearly establishes the fact that the conversion and 

 religious instruction and education of the negro slaves, for which pur- 

 poses that society was incorporated, is making very satisfactory progress ; 

 and that the colonists are seriously and cordially assisting the clergy in 

 that desirable work. We perceive that a right reverend bishop has pre- 

 sided at a meeting at home, where the justice and necessity of an equit- 

 able consideration of the rights of private property was enforced and 

 subscribed to even by Mr. Wilberforce. Mr. W. Horton, in an admirable 

 letter addressed to the freeholders of the county of York, has explained 

 in the clearest manner the desire and attempt on the part of the abo- 

 litionists, to evade and start away from the resolutions of parliament of 

 1823, to which they stand so fully pledged ; and he has fully exposed 

 the unjustifiable declarations made to the electors during the late elec- 

 tion, and their inconsistency with all the former pledges and declarations 

 of the abolitionists. 



" It is your boimden duty," says he, " to take the pains of informing your- 

 selves with respect to the history of this question of West Indian slavery ; and 

 unless you take those pains when the means are afforded to you, you will be 

 guilty of the greatest and most unpardonable injustice" 



Whatever intelligence there may be amongst the class to whom Mr. 

 Horton particularly addresses himself, we do not believe that a tenth 

 part of the Yorkshire petitioners know any thing whatever of the ques- 

 tion, or are even capable of comprehending its merits. 



ff The sole difficulty of this West Indian question is comprised in two short 

 sentences: First, Do you, or do you not, mean to give the planters equitable 

 compensation, should they, under the operation of any legislative enactments, 

 lose the power of commanding 1 the labour of their slaves P Secondly, If you 

 do mean to give them equitable compensation, what is the mode under which 

 that compensation is to be estimated and applied? From whence are the 

 large funds to be drawn, which may be necessary for the completion of the 

 object?" 



After explaining, that the resolutions of 1823, convey two distinct 

 pledges, as clear and definite as it is possible for language to convey ; 

 the one, that such measures should be adopted as would lead to the 

 emancipation of the slaves at some future period, leaving the distance 

 or proximity of that period to depend upon circumstances ; the other, 

 that equitable compensation should be given to the planters. Mr. Hor- 

 ton shews by a publication of Mr. Stephens in 1825 or 1826, that the 

 abolitionists fully concurred, even at that period, in these views ; which 

 they denominated " temperate and prudent/' and he draws a strong 

 parallel between the pledge which they demanded from candidates in 

 1826, at the then approaching general election, and that which they 

 required during the recent contests. 



<e Whoever the candidate may be," say they in 1826, " demand of him, as 

 a condition of your support, that he will solemnly pledge himself to attend in 

 his place, whenever any motion is brought forward for the mitigation and pro- 

 gressive termination of Slavery by Parliamentary enactments, and that he will 

 give his vote for every measure of that kind, NOT INCONSISTENT WITH THE TEMPE- 



