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Show 188 . . u n their minds their moral obligations Dtssenters, to Impress po . h . on what <rrounds . f h • il . to cxplam to t em " ' as cultivators o t c "0 ' . . tl '<rht of the Judge . I they nrc required, m le Sio and Ill wHit way, . 1 ers Jail· work for fair of all flesh, to render to ilictr emp oy . ' waHgeasv.i n<r thus stated f u II Y the view which I take of the justic. e 0 of the case as I• t r•e 1 a tes to the laborers • I am confident you w. ill kindly bear' wi. th me, w1 1 .I1 e I e ndeavor to develop what I bclwvc to be the ntl e oi f n.·g ", t , as it re<or ards the land owne. r, the planter, the employer. I maIc e this attempt under the feel.m gs of respect and Clm.s ti. an c1 1 an.t y, 1111d with ardent good wishes for your temporal, as well as spiritual welfare. . . We all know that the abolition of slavery, by the nnpenal act of emancipation, was total, that it bestows upon the people once in bonds an absolute freedom-a perfect equality, m p~mt 0 f CL. V.l 1 n.g h t, W ith th· e oth· er subjects of the Bnti. sh empa·c. Since this act has become the law of the e~pu·c, all_ the Queen's subjects are bound, on moral and Chnstmn pnnciple, to maintain its grand provisions, and to abstam from all contravention of them in practice. It cannot, I trust, be offensive, on my par·t, to observe that this moral ob.l igation r.e sts, 111 full 1 force, upon the planters of onr West-Indmn colomes, not on y on the general gronnd of subjection to the laws of the empire, but on the specific ground, also, of their havmg received twenty millions of pounds sterling from the public purse, as n compe~lsation for their slaves. I just take the liberty of statmg, m passing, that so far as my little influence extended, I was never opposed to that liberal grant of money, and I may say the same of some intimate friends and connections of rome, well lmown as friends to the abolition of slavery, in the British parliament. Now the very essence of slavmy is compulsory lnbor.-I Prehend that I can make no mistake in asscrtmg that all ~att empts to cornpellabor, be they weak, or be they stn.n gent ,b e they temperate, or be th ey VI·O 1 e n t , are op.p ose. d to the true meaning and purpose of the act of emancipatiOn, and to the ISO principles of justice as they bear on me circumstances of the case. One of the methods which has been resorted to in this island, for compelling work, is the mixture of the question of tenure, with that of labor; and I am confident that a little culm reflection will serve to convince any 1nan, that such a mixtnre is not only at variance with the common-place mlcs of political economy, but also with the rule of rigllt. It is a system which classes under slavery, and is in its nature opposed to that Jaw of liberty in which, I trust, we all now rejoice. Allo1v me to explain myscl f. A planter of Jamaica, at the close of the apprenticeship- the date of full freedom by lawfinds himself in possession of a number of cottages and provision- grounds, occupied by certain freemen, who, I suppose, in such a case, might be regarded as tenants at wilL-Allowing some short interval for the almost inevitable temporary unsettlement, it must soon become evident that sometltiwr i~ due to the planter, in return for such tenancy.-Now, what is that something, according to universal principles which regulate the relations of landlord and tenant? Certainly not labor-much less a personal restriction to work on a particular spot-but a fair rent-such a rent as represents the true money value of the properly tenanted. This is the only quid pro quo, as I conceive, which justice can demand on the occasion. To require of the tenant the regular payment of such a rent, and legally to eject in case of the non-payment of it, are neither of them proceedings to which any reasonable objection can be urged. But to require not merely that the tenant should pay rent, but that he should work on a certain estate, at a certain mte of wages, and for a certain number of days in the week, and to eject him if these latter provisions arc not complied with-appears to me to be unjust in principle-a recurrence, as fur as it goes, to the old system of slavery. It is the compelling of labor by a penni infliction. I presume iliat ejectments from tenements on the ground now mentioned, cannot be legal; and it appears that the object has, |