justice to say the whigs had nothing to do; for they were then a powerless-a prostrate party, and the supremacy of toryism was complete. * It was that statesman, who is better known by the title of Lord CASTLEREAGH than any other, who having set up Poland as a check upon Russia, confided to Russia the management of the check upon herself! The consequences that might have been easily foreseen occurred. The Russian government took the most effective measures to goad the Polish people into rebellion, that it might have a colourable pretext for confiscating the national rights which it had reluctantly admitted. The savage CONSTANTINE, the brother of the late and of the reigning EMPEROR, was a fit instrument to work the designs of the diabolical policy which studied the most ingenious arts of goading a people to madness, in order to extinguish their national existence in blood. The vice-regal monster executed his Satanic commission effectually, though the brave and generous Poles, when they first rose upon their oppressor and had him at their mercy, spared his life and sent him out of the kingdom under an escort to protect him against any ebullition of that popular vengeance, which he had so wantonly provoked. Europe knows how that magnanimity of the conquerors of CONSTANTINE was repaid! Count SEBASTIANI, then LOUIS PHILIP's minister for foreign affairs, put the result upon record in the memorable words, "Order reigns at Warsaw," when it was the peace of the grave and the desolation of Russian triumph that reigned there. But this destruction of the nationality of Poland was under the ministry of the whigs. The treaty of Vienna, which had erected that portion of ancient Poland that constituted the Duchy of Warsaw into a kingdom, guaranteed the maintenanee of the independence of the new kingdom by England and France. Of these two countries-the one being at the time of the Polish revolution under the dominion of the whigs, and the other under the sceptre of the Citizen-KING, the former deserted the Poles, and the latter betrayed them. The former acted a pusillanimous-the latter a perfidious part. For the delinquencies of both in this matter, we fear, as we did even at the time anticipate, that Europe will yet weep tears of blood. On the plains of Poland-had England been true to the faith of treaties, as well as to her own interests-the march of Russian ambition would have been stayed. Even single-handed the brave Poles vanquished DIEBITSCH, the conqueror of Turkey, and routed successively four invading armies of barbarians—and eventually Poland was destroyed more by English gold than Russian steel. It was the British subsidy sent at that critical moment to St. Petersburg, under the pretence of the Russia-Dutch Loan, which enabled the AUTOCRAT, when his coffers were exhausted, to bring up new levies of barbarians, and overwhelm the unsuccoured Polish people. If that gold was due by treaty, (which we deny, for the severance of Belgium and Holland had put an end to the consideration,) the protection of the independence of Poland was no less obligatory; and, if we paid the one to Russia, we ought to have insisted on the other. *** Then came the "organic statutes," which erased Poland from the map of Europe-then came the depopulation of Poland, the dragging of Polish nobles, chained like malefactors, to the wilds and mines of Siberia-the tearing of Polish children from the arms of their shrieking mothers-—the carrying off Polish young women to the military colonies of Russia, and all the atrocities which have devoted the triumph of the Nero of the North to the execrations of humanity. Russia repaid the British Government for its golden succours and its base subserviency, by excluding the British flag from the Black Sea, and by obtaining behind the back of the British ambassador at Constantinople, Lord PONSONBY, the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, which reduced the SULTAN to the degraded condition of a vassal of the CZAR. But here again justice obliges us to admit that, with regard to the encroachments of the Russian power on Turkey and on the British interests of the East, the tory government which preceded that of the whigs did not act with sufficient energy and decision. It must not be forgotten that the Russian government under the Wellington administration gave as solemn a promise to our own, not to blockade the Dardanelles -as the French government did, not to make any conquests or settlements in Africa, when preparing to chastise the Dey of ALGIERS. Both promises were violated-Russia did blockade the Dardanelles, and the tory government tolerated the breach of faith France has colonized her African conquests, and is proceeding with new ones, and the whig government makes no remonstrance, and demands no explanation. * : * * Abolition of the African Slave-trade by England.-Nov. 1, 1838. THE history of the world records not a nobler triumph of humanity, achieved after a long struggle-commenced under circumstances more difficult and discouraging-than that which severed the commerce of England from its barbarous connexion with the traffic in slaves-delivering Africa from its curse, and England from its contamination. The great battle for the abolition of negro slavery itself, in which we had the honour of taking an humble, but earnest part, though not easily won-even with the aid of twenty millions of public money, thrown into the scale of justice, as a golden argument to neutralize the inhuman logic of men, who talked of having "freeholds" in the bodies of their fellow-men-was not fought against such fearful odds, as the leaders of the opposition to the African slave-trade had to encounter. Public opinion, that greatest of all powers in a free and civilized community—that controller and regulator of all other powers-warred against slavery in the recent struggle for its extirpation. The planters might be strong in parliament-the Government might be timid or treacherous, but the voice of the people of England went up to the legislature, to the throne, and to HEAVEN itself, to invoke human and Divine justice against the most cruel and atrocious system of oppression, that ever blackened the earth with crimes, and degraded the image of GoD in man. All who came forward to uproot slavery, and destroy the "prescriptive title" of the planter in his human cattle, felt that they marched with a countless multitude, and that the irresistible influence of PUBLIC OPINION was with them. How differently were they circumstanced, who, towards the latter end of the last century, commenced the great struggle to abolish the slave trade? They had not only prescription, commercial cupidity, an adverse government, and a hostile legislature to contend against; they had also national prejudice to overcome, and a public opinion favourable to their design to create. They had to awaken the moral sense of the people to the iniquity of the traffic, and to direct their religious feeling to a right perception of its unchristian character. They had to expose the crimes of the system, which were carefully concealed from public view, and to refute the fallacies by which those who profited by its crimes made the nation believe that the destruction of the slave trade would inflict a heavy blow on commerce, and be the ruin of our West Indian possessions. Such were the difficulties which the men who commenced a regular and systematic opposition to the slave trade, towards the close of the last century, had to encounter, and which they did encounter and gloriously overcome. Not less to their intelligence and virtue than to their moral intrepidity was it owing, that the flag of slave-commerce was struck, and the British colours were no longer subjected to the degradation of affording an infamous protection to the worst species of robbery, that man ever practised on man. Who were the leaders of that great movement? It is only just, that upon the imperishable and sublime monument which they raised to humanity, their names should be rightly recorded. We regret to see an attempt lately made in a quarter where it was least to be expected, to efface or throw into the shade the name that is undoubtedly entitled to the first place upon the list of the practical opponents of the slave trade-for the efforts of Granville SHARP, noble and successful as they were in legally establishing the great principle, that the slave who sets his foot in England becomes that moment free, went no farther. We venerate the name of WILBERFORCE; but he was not the first in this great field of philanthropic enterprise. We respect the fidelity, we appreciate the perseverance, we admire the eloquence which he brought to the task; but still more is that man entitled to the respect and admiration of an enlightened people, who made the first practical efforts for the assertion of African. liberty, and the vindication of British justice,-and that man was Thomas CLARKSON. The controversy which has lately arisen on this subject in consequence of the publication of the biography of Mr. WILBERFORCE, has induced us to retrace the history of the great question with which both those celebrated names were inseparably associated, in order that we might form a correct opinion, as to the relative share which each of those distinguished men had in the achievement of one of the greatest moral victories that ever shed lustre on the path of Christian civilization. That opinion we have expressed in saying that the first practical abolitionist of the slave trade was the octogenarian CLARKSON, who, in the evening of his well-spent life, has been forced to vindicate his just claims, against those who ought to have been the last persons on earth to dispute them. * ** * The same continued—Public Testimony to the Services of Ir would coldly express the feeling which pervaded the Corporation [of London] yesterday, in reference to the proposed public tribute of respect and honour to Thomas CLARKSON, to say that it was one of perfect unanimity.-It was more: the response to Mr. Sheriff WooD's motion,† seconded by Sir Peter LAURIE, was an expression of warm, heartfelt, enthusiastic applause. * * * [ The motion (as amended) was as follows:-"That the Freedom of this City be presented to Thomas CLARKSON, A.M., and that he be requested to sit for a Marble Bust, to be placed in this Court, as grateful testimonials of the Corporation of London to the public services and worth of one, who had the merit of originating and has the consolation of living to witness the triumph of the great struggle for the deliverance of the enslaved African from the most oppressive bondage that ever tried the endurance of afflicted humanity,-thereby obtaining for his country the high distinction of separating her commercial greatness from principles incompatible with the exercise of the religion of mercy, and achieving a moral victory whose trophies shall endure while justice, freedom, the clemency of power, and the peaceful glories of civilization shall have a place in the admiration of mankind."] |