STATE OF THE COLONIES.
During this session cases of great cruelty and injustice, exercised by owners, magistrates, and judicial courts, against the slaves in our colonies, were brought before the parliament, and eloquently exposed. At the close of 1823, and the early part of 1824, a plan of an insurrection among the slaves on certain plantations in Jamaica had been discovered; and eight negroes had been executed as implicated in the conspiracy. The papers connected with these trials had been laid on the table of the house in 1825; and Mr. Denman now brought the legality and justice of these proceedings under discussion, by moving a resolution to the effect, that the house having taken into consideration the trials which took place at Jamaica for rebellion, conspiracy, and other offences, in the years 1823 and 1824, deem it their duty to express their sorrow and regret at the violation of law which took place upon the said trials; that they lament the manner in which the sentence of death was passed and executed; and recommend some alteration in the mode of administering the code of criminal justice affecting the slaves in the said colony. This motion was prefaced by a speech of great eloquence, analyzing the evidence upon which the accused had been convicted, demonstrating its contradictions, its insufficiency, its absurdity, and arriving at the conclusion that such atrocities, perpetrated under the mask of justice, and the law of evidence which permitted them, required the abolition of the system which placed a negro for trial before interested masters for his judges and jury; and in giving him an appeal to the council, merely gave him an appeal to another body of masters equally prejudiced. Having detailed the trials at length, Mr. Denman said he proposed the above resolutions, that the commons of England might have an opportunity of raising their voice against such acts of crying injustice and barbarity. He was ably seconded by Mr. Brougham, who, in the course of his speech, declared that if the circumstances of undefended justice passed unreproved, it would go out to the West Indies that the same error, injustice, or cruelty might be committed again and again with impunity, so long as the present system continued; and if the house negatived the motion, it would set the seal of its sanction on a great and crying injustice, and do more than it would be able speedily to undo towards perpetuating the existing system in our colonies. On the other hand, it was maintained by Mr. Wilmot Horton that the courts had only applied the law which they were bound to apply; and that they had applied it according to the forms required by that law, and in circumstances which fairly called for the interference of the legal authorities. He moved an amendment, that the house sees in the proceedings brought under their consideration a further proof of the evils attendant upon slavery, and derives from them an increased conviction of the propriety of resorting to the measures recommended by government in the order of council; but does not deem it necessary, however desirable a change of the law may be, to impeach the sentences passed according to law by a competent trial, and convicted by a jury sworn to give a verdict according to the evidence. This amendment was supported by the attorney-general and solicitor-general, both of whom, however, frankly admitted the vices of the system of law under which the proceedings in question had taken place. It was impossible, said the attorney-general, to look at the case, arising as it did out of the vice of the system, without wishing for a change. If the white man upon his trial had an opportunity afforded him of knowing the charge, and thereby preparing his defence, why should not the black slave have the same advantage? An act of the legislature had lately passed to compel the charge to be delivered in writing. This act was brought into the colonial legislature of Jamaica; but it was accompanied by a proviso that no objection should ever be made on a point of form. Men were prone to confound substance and form to be permitted this latitude. An instance of this was supplied in the present case. The prisoners were accused of being guilty of a rebellious conspiracy, and other charges; thus the prosecutor could adduce whatever evidence he chose under a charge so very broad. Here was a conspiracy charged; but with whom? No individuals were mentioned. Any overt act specified? Time? No time certified. Place? No circumstance or place. When the Slave Evidence Bill was introduced into the colonial assembly of Jamaica, it was rejected on the ground that the slave was too low in the scale of moral beings; that he had no character, no distinct notion of morality, no notion of religion, or of the distinction between truth and falsehood. But when the slave was to be tried, other slaves were admitted as witnesses; and that, too, on their bare word, and an exhortation from the judge not to speak falsely. It was a known rule in this country—and the common law of England was in force in the West Indies—that hearsay evidence should not be received; yet the whole course of these proceedings showed manifold departures from this important rule: while it was an acknowledged law in regard to the whites, it had no application in regard to the blacks. But while the law was acknowledged to be bad, it was argued, that it was another thing to pass a vote of censure for the observance of it, however defective it might be. The house ought, it was said, to separate the defects-of the law from the alleged delinquency of the parties, and reject a motion which went, not to denounce the system of slavery or to censure the law, but to condemn individuals who had no power to alter the one, or to abolish the other. On a division the amendment was carried by one hundred and three against sixty-three. During this session, however, delay and remedial measures were suggested by Lord Liverpool in the upper house, and by Mr. Canning in the commons, for the extinction of slavery. Mr. Canning declared that if immediate and hasty steps were not taken, our West Indian possessions would be abandoned to a state of savage desolation, of which wild speculators had not the slightest notion. At the same time he was obliged to confess that in most of our colonies the exhortations sent by government, for the amelioration of the condition of their slaves, had been treated with intolerable neglect and contempt. In the lords the resolutions were objected to, on the ground that they were too feeble for the nature of the subject; that though adopted they would produce no practical effect; and that the three years which had elapsed since they were voted by the house of commons—for they had been adopted in May, 1823—had furnished irrefragable evidence of their futility. Lord Calthorpe expressed his deep regret that the commons had not passed resolutions more conformable to the light in which slavery ought to be regarded by a Christian community, and that their lordships were now called upon to concur in opinions better suited to their own dignity. There were not ‘wanting members in the commons who were equally desirous of legislating in the spirit of Christianity, equally with his lordship. It was maintained there with great eloquence that slavery was inconsistent with Christianity and the constitution. Occasion was given for the expression of these sentiments in the commons, by a motion made by Mr. Brougham on the 19th of May, to the effect that “the house has observed with extreme regret that nothing had been effected by the colonial legislature, in compliance with the declared wishes of government and the resolutions of the house of the 15th of May, 1823, for ameliorating the condition of the slaves in the West Indian colonies; and that this house, therefore, pledges itself, early in the next session of parliament, to take into its most serious consideration such measures as may be best calculated to carry into effect the recommendation of the government and the house.” This motion was supported by Dr. Lushington and Mr. Denman; but opposed by Messrs. Canning, Ellis, and Horton. Mr. Canning, however, asserted that government only wished to retard a little the attainment of the object, in order that they might arrive at it with greater security. Sir T. Ackland said, that he did not wish directly to negative the motion; but as he thought the adoption of it would retard the good effects to be looked for from the resolutions of 1823, he moved the previous question, which was carried by a large majority. In the upper house, on the 17th of April, Lord Suffield brought forward a motion to prohibit persons in official situations in the West Indies from being proprietors of slaves; a motion which, he said, had no connexion with the emancipation of the negroes; and was directed not so much to the conceding of civil rights, as to the preventing of criminal wrong. The same topic was brought before the commons by Mr. W. Smith on the 20th of April; but the resolutions thereon were negatived in both houses. At the close of the session, indeed, the colonial legislatures were allowed further opportunity of showing how far they were inclined by timely concessions and purposes of good faith to avert the direct interference of the mother country in their internal regulations.