H2 Notes df^ ihe Month on [^July, 



importance of the Colonies to England, nay, of their paramount import- 

 ance. All the mines of IMexico have not poured into Spain half the 

 actual wealth that those islands have poured into England. They have 

 had a still higher value, in supplying a nursery for seamen ; and their 

 value as a territorial possession is hourly increasing fi-om the changes 

 which have occurred and are occurring in South America and Mexico; 

 The West Indies are, in fact, at once citadels and warehouses, depots of 

 war and of commerce ; and it is from those islands that we must watch 

 at once the growth of the new Spanish republics, and the hostility of the 

 United States. To talk of chastising, or throwing off, or in any way 

 insulting the West Indians, is an absurdity that we cannot conceive in 

 any man in the possession of his understanding. To talk of punishing 

 our countrymen in the colonies, by the loss of their privileges, or pro- 

 perty, at the pleasure of the anti-slavery coxcombs here, would be a 

 sacrifice to selfishness and hypocrisy, which would render England un-: 

 worthy of having the possession of a West Indian acre. 



We hate slavery as much as the most sanctified orator that ever 

 prated ; but not the holiest harangvier of the school of Wilberforce 

 more dislikes to see unnecessary restraint. But there the negroes are, 

 and what is to be done witli them is the question. — Let them loose, and 

 see them cut the throats of every white in the islands in a month, relapse 

 into furious barbarism, and then cut each other's throats ; or keep them 

 in a restraint which gives them food, clothing, and education — imperfect 

 for a while, but undoubtedly advancing in all points — until they shall be 

 gradually capable of the privileges of freemen .'' We cannot send those 

 negroes back to Africa, and we cannot give them up to their own savage 

 passions. The only alternative then is, to keep them under that disci- 

 pline which the safety of the islands, and of our countrymen, requires. 

 In the speeches of the different ministers at the dinner we were glad to see 

 those principles fully recognized. The Colonial Secretary's speech was 

 able and explicit. Sir George BTurray said, " He had never heard of a 

 country becoming great by commerce without having extensive foreign 

 possessions, or having formed extensive colonies. If extension of terri- 

 tory and security of possession could reflect power on the mother country, 

 it might then -again reach and contribute to spread her fame and confirm 

 her power in distant parts of the world. The power wielded by Great 

 Britain, was greatly owing to her colonies. He was fuUy sensible, there- 

 fore, of the importance of the trust reposed in him when placed at the 

 head of the colonial department of so great a commercial state as this 

 country. In that situation he should feel it his duty to exert his abilities 

 to the utmost to strengthen the union that ought at all times to exist be- 

 tween tlie mother country and the colonies by feelings of mutual interest, 

 and by interchange of mutual benefits conferred and received. (Applause). 

 Before he sat down he should not do justice to his own feelings, or to the 

 gentlemen with whom he had had to communicate on affairs relative to the 

 colonies, did he not state that all these commu?iications had affordetl him 

 the greatest possible satisfaction ; and he.should be most happy if they led to 

 any thing that would be to the advantage of our trans-Atlantic colonies." 

 But the West Indians must look to themselves for their true security* 

 They have all tlie materials of poAverful public influence. They have 

 hitherto suffered their cause to go down from mere inaptitude : but the 

 time when negligence could be safe is past. They have now to contend 

 with the double hostility of furious fanaticism and indefatigable avarice. 



