Results Of West India Emancipation

Among many of the leading papers of this country, especially of thcSoüth,there has been manifested a'disposition to suppress the information of the favorable workings of West India Emaacipation or tö magnify its supposed minor inconveniences and evils into aggravated calamities. As many leading presses have thus distorted the truth, thé mass of newspaper readers, on the whole, liave imperfect or incorrect views of the results of thatglorious measure. This is a subject which deeply concerns every American citizen,and especially every Democrat. The Democratie party profess to have the highest zeal for human freedom; and an experiment which has been very recently tried ón nearly a mil] ion of persons ought to excite their attention. We arepy to find the folloving substantial and undeniable teslimony copied into the "North Star," a Democratie paper of this State. The article has no connection wil h party politics; and we respectfully suggest to Editorial gentlemen of that party, that they sbould for once ferget their hatred of every fhing British, and make tbeir readers ácquainted vr'úh thís ampie demonstration of the fact that the enjoyment of the largest liberty by all classes is conducive to the liighestests of community. The following is an extract of n speech in Parliament by Lohd Stanley ; the British Colonial Secretary, March 22, 1842Í "Considering how deeply ho was interest in the subject, and what anxiety lie must have feit when returningto the same situation which hé had held nine years ago, as to the result of' the great experiment in which he took so active a part. the house, he was sure, would grant him some little indulgence. As regarded that result, he was happy to be able to state that the emancipation of the negro population of the West Indios had, in the benefits which werederivedfrom ir. exceeded the most ganguine expectaions of the most ardent advocates of the measure. - In every one of the Islands, the physical condition and prosperity of the Inboring classes had reached to an extent farer than had been anticipated; and. what was still more gratifying, tbc improvement in their physical condition was accompanied by a corresponding improvement in their social and moral habite. - Religious instruction had produced its anticipated eftbcts, inducing greater purity in domestic life, and crealing a stronger desire for edncation. Th is he considoreda result infinitely more important than any improveinent in their physical condition. To show that he did not exaggerate the vost improvement which had taten place in the habils and conditions of j the West India laborers, he would readto the House an extract from an official document which he had a short time since addressed to a foreign power, in answer to a statement in which the great experiment of emancipation was alluded to as having proved a failure. The words are these: "It -vill be found,that the British emancipation took place without the oecurrence of a single inslance of tuinult or disturbance - that the joy of the pegroes on thefirst of August, 1638, was orderly, sober. and relïgious; that siqce emancipation, the negroes have been thfiving artd contented; that they havo vnried their comforts and enjoyroents; that their offences against tho laws have bekome more and more light and unfrequent; that their morab have improvedj thtt marriage has1 ■ come more and more substituted for concubinnge; that they are eager for education, rapidly advancing in knowledge, and powerfully infíuenced by the ministers of religión. Such are among the results of e-mancipaiion which are plaín & indisputable, and these results constitute, in the estimation of her Majesty's Government and the people of England, the complete success of the British emancipation, in sofar as relates to the primary andparamount object of that act.' " Lord Stanley afterwards reai extraets at considerable length from tho correspondence of Sir Charles Metcalfe, late Governor of Jamaica, from a stipendiarymagistrate of that Island, and from Mr. Light, Governor of Guiana, the result of which isstimmed up in these words: "these statements showed, in thought, this, that, os far as the laborera were concerned in Jamaica and Demerara, (and, thoughvaying in degree, they were a sample or he wholeof ourcolonies) the experiment had been not only successful in placing hem in a silimtion of great physical enoyment, beyond the anticipations of their boldest friends, but they also proved that hey had learned to turn to advantage lieir newly acquired gift of freedom in accurnulaiing property, the product of their industry, and cultivating habits worthy of freemen.;?