Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

8 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

THE MEMORIAL TO THE QUEEN.

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CARDIFF.

THE NATIONAL DEBT.

..'; SWANSEA. ' -'.

NEWPORT."

" MEliTJIYR,

----.._..."----__-THE SUGAR…

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

suggested. It is in reality an attempt to patch up affairs that arc deplorably bad, the superficial healing of a danger- ous wound, without touching the root of the matter. There is no.homage paid to first principles. Protection is either right or wreng. If the Whigs believe the former, why not grant it at once? If they believe the latter, then why accept it at all? Free trade principles are applicable to the West India colonies, or they are nott If they are, let them bo honestly and unhesitatingly applied, despite the may-be temporary sufferings of the planters. If the Colonies cannot get on with free trade, then ministers should be prepared to say so. If the traffic in human flesh and blood is bad, 'why attempt it partially? If good, why not adopt it openly and avowedly ? That the proprietors desire the revival of this trade is clear, and that the concession of Government will assist its revival is evident to our mind. It is well known that the planters have the greatest objection to engage the emancipated population. They are not prepared to give them a fair day s wages for a f iir day's work. Hence they clamour for cheap labour. In order to obtain it they have brought over, from time to time, thousands of idolatrous Coolies, who have proved worthless as labourers, and who have beex left to perish on the road sides, and rotten in the fields. They now want to import negroes from the coast of Africa,—and what is more they want it at the expense of Government. Certainly there is no great degree of modesty in this demand. It must be borne in mind that the indi- viduals who make it have already received twenty millions of British gold for parting with stolen property, and that stolen property was human beings. Suppose their demands carried into effect, the result would be the starving out of the present population which has boen civilised and moralised through the exertions of Christian missionaries. That this is the object in view is so evident that he who runs may read. We must therefore regard Lord John Kussell's plan to give them pecuniary relief as singularly ill adapted to remedy the radical defects which prevail in the Colonies. Much is said in regard to the injustice of compelling the planters to compete with the slave holders of Cuba and Brazil in the sugar market but if this emigration n tn ftlicinewill becarried out, we feel assured that slavery in those countries, and West Indian liberty, will be only a distinction without a difference. To hoard men from the wilds of Africa, in their native, uncivilised degradation, to steal others from slave traders, and sent them to the Colonies, will soon produce a state of things, more perplexing to Government than the present panic of the planters. 0 If slave grown produce is to be prohibited at all, it ought to be discountenanced in all cases. If it is villany to buy fcla ."e-grown sugar, it cannot be vil tue to use slave-grown cotton, smoke slave-grown tobacco, or trade in slave-dug copper. Slave producers will find a market for their goods, and the higher will be the protective duties against them, the less humane (if, indeed, humanity can be at all attri- buted to such wretches) and scrupulous they will prove to their slaves in order to realise profits. But it is well known that slave labour cannot compete with free labour in efficiency and skill. There is alvrays this great advantage on the side of the fair trader, and which gives far more valuable protection than any that can be imposed by prohibi- tory duties. The West Indians may now be in distress, but let them reduce their expenditure, and study cconomy, and If the fortunes of some of them may be ruined, let our readers not be surprised. Honesty is the best policy, but for centu- ri s the policy of the planters has been fraud, cruelty, extor- ti ii, degradation, and death. There is a retributive I'rovi- d nce-thereis.an Almighty Being, whose sanction is never given to iniquity, and in whose eyes the oppressor and mur- derer are not held just. Fortunes wrung from human Z5 sufferings and cemented by human blood may be fairly con- sidered as the inheritance which the Lord hath cursed.