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    No. 407, Jajtctab,y 9,1858. j THE LEAD E...

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    THE KEGIS SLA.VE TRADE AND ITS SUBSTITUT...

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    Political Plans For India. The Public Mu...

    what if the East India Company , appealing to the Legislature and the nation against a plan for nominating an obsolete Whig peer as Minister for India , and adding a large army to the jurisdiction of the Horse Guards , should array in its favour the public out of doors , and the independent sections , including the Conservatives , in Parliament ? If the lieform for India is to be a bargain between Lord Palmerston and the Court , the influence of the Crown will be increased , the political power of the Minister extended , the honesty of the Legislature still more completely worn away , and the dangers of our Indian Empire multiplied .

    The country is prepared for a plan which would create a new Indian department , and would not be astonished—only insultedwere Lord Clanbicabbe nominated to be its head , with a fine sweep of civil patronage at his disposal . It anticipates also a Council for Indian affairs , merely consultative , the members of which , the Daily JVews says , would probably be selected , in the first instance , from the present Court of Directors , and remain more uninfluential than junior Lords of

    the Treasury . But the military plot , if it be such as is reported , staggers credulity itself . We are insisting upon Parliamentary control over India , and is Lord Palmerston to suggest the Horse Guards ? That department is the most secret , arbitrary , and irresponsible in the State ; with another golden swarm of commissions in its mouth , we may conceive what influence it might exert upon the plastic portion of the Parliamentary community . We do trust that the independent Liberals will meet the Government , when the

    session reopens , with a determination to oppose , to the ] ast formality , any measure that would arm witli new prerogatives and facilities of corruption the Crown as well as the Cabinet of the day . It is necessary to speak plainly . We are in one reign now ; when we may be in another , or what purgatory we may undergo , is a question of the future . At all events , it would be indiscreet to pour millions of hush-money into the coffers of a Commander-in-Chief , to be dispersed at the pleasure of himself , his patrons , and his colleagues .

    As to the non-military patronage of India , a large proportion of it is already in the hands of the Cabinet . Nevertheless , the EastlndiaConvpany , partly through unrecognized channels , has exercised functions of check ; its power o £ velo has at times been beneficially exerted . The competitive system would at least not be a drag upon the wheels of jobbery . Its efficacy is sometimes doubted ; but , as is well known to many persona , appointments on public grounds have been made at home under the new system , which would never

    have taken place under the old . But the main question , at present , is that of military government . How will a native army under local authorities , and a European army under Authorities in England , work together ? How is Parliament to perform its duties with the most important department of the Indian service beyond its control ? And how is the British Indian Empire to be consolidated and secured if rank majorities are to bo purchased

    by Indian patronage , and if the government of neglect la to be succeeded by the government of corruption ? . Against any such _— . scheme— . we—hopo—public-opmiou—w , ill _ r . eBOjv lutely make war . It may be that nothing is positively known of the Ministerial plans . It is probable , indeed , that the idea of Lord CLANBiOABDia ' s appointment to the Principal Indian Secretaryship will be reconsidered ; but the dead silence of the Government is suspicious , and we are at least justifiod in anticipating some grand scheme of deception and jobbery .

    No. 407, Jajtctab,Y 9,1858. J The Lead E...

    No . 407 , Jajtctab , y 9 , 1858 . j THE LEAD E B . 35

    The Kegis Sla.Ve Trade And Its Substitut...

    THE KEGIS SLA . VE TRADE AND ITS SUBSTITUTES , The abolition of slavery is one of the gravest —but by no means the gravest—problems of social science . England , after holding to the tyrannous right of keeping slaves , not only in her colonies but in the mother country , until a much later date than is generally supposed , has long set her heart upon the final eradication of the obnoxious practice . In this pious labour she has spent millions upon millions of money , and God only knows how

    many thousands upon thousands of British lives . At the present moment , she stands practically almost alone in her endeavour to suppress the trade in human kind . Without for a single moment undervaluing the nation ' s labours in this cause , we are bound to say that , so far , they have been ineffectual , inasmuch as they have only succeeded in placing obstacles in the way of the slavetrader—obstacles which he may and does eonstantly find means to overcome—but have not in the smallest degree helped to remove the causes which call the detestable traffic

    That he was himself deceived , is hardly to be supposed ; it is generally believed that his representations—whether sincere or nottotally misled the Emperor . It is now supposed that the Emperor has determined to abandon the scheme , and so graver consequences will be averted ; for possibly there is at present no subject upon which Lord PAiiMEBSTOK would have taken a more determined attitude , even at the risk of the French alliance .

    But the French want of negro labourers in the West Indies differs in no respect from our own want . Our rich possessions there are absolutely pining for the want of such labour as the African could give , and possibly the African only . At all events , the attempts made to supply the fatal deficiency by the introduction of Coolies from India have been almost abortive . And it may well have been so ; for the Coolie is about as well adapted to furnish the labour required in the West Indian Islands as the camel would be to

    make up for a deficiency of draught-horses in this cold , wet country . A short time ago a suggestion was published , and received with much favour , that a number of Sepoy convicts should be transported to the West Indies . We were inclined to treat the scheme seriously , but it must be confessed that the objections raised by more than one correspondent are of so alarming a nature , that we are now compelled to regard the idea in a different light . As first struck out , it seemed reasonable ; but what answer can be given to the following argument of a valued correspondent ?— " How the necessities of these colonies are to be relieved has long

    into requisition . Nothing can put a stop to slave-trading while there is an unsatisfied demand in tropical America for efficient labour , which the negro alone can supply . It is one of the first and soundest principles of commerce that demand creates supply ; and whether the demand be for nails or for negroes , while men seek the best markets to trade in , there will inevitably be found traders to supply the commodities wanted . . This is the stumblingblock to all treaties upon the subject . Let us take a very late example .

    The French colonies of Guadeloupe and Martinique have long been suffering from the want of efficient labourers . The Emperor Napoleon , compelled to observe the treaties by which France stands bound to this country , and to respect the endeavours making for the suppression of the slave-trade , adopted the notable idea of importing into the said colonies ' free emigrants' from the coast of Africa . The scheme owed its origin to a M . R £ gis , a merchant of Marseilles . When it was first talked of here it was discussed rather as a doubtful experiment than

    been an anxious question , and an answer has lately been given—such an answer as has turned my northern blood cold ; it is—transport thither the condemned Sepoys ! . And scarcely has this suggestion—full of horror to my mind—been made , than we ] hear of British Guiana expressing itself as ready , not only to receive this loathsome addition to its population , but to pay its share of the cost of transportation . Nor does it appear that the Emperor of the French looks upon the scheme as being repulsive or unfeasible ; and it is understood that his consent to finally abandon the ' free' emigration plan of M . Riois has been aided by the expectation of being permitted to supply the labour-wants of his West Indian colonies from China and

    as a movement which was to endanger the dearly-bought successes of nearly half a century of sustained endeavour on the part of this country to implant the healthy seeds of civilization in Africa . As everybody anticipated , M . BIgis found no * free' natives to emigrate ; but he had created a demand , and the supply was very soon forthcoming . A letter , dated September 3 , 1857 , from Mr . CAMPBEiiii , British Consul at Lagos , gave ub a startling insight into the state of affaire produced by the French demand . Mr . C ampbeix said : —

    India . " Now , it is not so many years back that whispered stories of atrocities committed by the convict population of Van Diemen ' s Land and New South Wales upon the free populations of those countries reached this country . The crimes said , to have been committed were so revolting , so devilish , that generally they were discredited , not only in England , but in the colonies where they were said to have taken place . Sir Wiixiam Moiveswobth , however , was not incredulous , and through his exertions a committee of inquiry was granted by the House of Commons . Then it was discovered that the most frightful

    re-11 Imporial Majesty of France having taken to purchase slaves in this quarter , a whole hoBt of unwashed , unbearded faced Spaniards , Portuguese , and Americans have followed his example 5 and if his Imperial Majesty persists in continuing to purchase slaves at Whydali , I fear wo must say good-by to cotton from tills part of Africa . " Already the AbeokuUns have gone to hunt for slaves . The Ibuddons , a more numerous and warlike people than the Abookutans , are preparing to do tho sumo in tho Jabod country , near , to Lagoa . "

    ports that had been current were less frightful than the simple facts upon which they had been founded . At a Inter date , the very talk of restoring transportation to New South Wales , and of ^ making Moreton Bay a penal settlement , led to unmistakable , threats of resistance , and , the scheme was abandoned . ButTaTthe " worst , what couTcl ihe ~ se £ tlortf ot Australia have had to drood from tho criminal refuse of the mother country , compared with the horrible dangers to which tho planters ot the West India Islands would be helplessly exposed by the" influx of a horde of villains , carrying with them ovory vice to which the imagination can attach the idoa of possibility t What they have already done under the

    ra-Tho prospect of a profitable traffic being opened to tho chiefs , the labours of the missiouary ^ aud ^ ofjkhej ^ uatria overthrown in n moment by the wild acquisitive desires of the natives . Man-hunting , for tho purpose of supplying the marketdemand for men , was twenty times more attractive to savage instincts than the slow , dull labours of civilization , with its constant restraints and intangible spiritual rewards . The injury done at WhydaU by M . IUgis ' s experiment nppeuvs to bo almost irreparable .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 9, 1858, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09011858/page/11/