METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER,

KEPT AT THE OBSERVATORY OF CAPT. W. H. SMYTH, AT BEDford.

TABULATED RESULT OF THE REGISTER OF A RAIN-GAUGE

THE WEST INDIA QUESTION AS CONNECTED WITH OUR NAVAL

SUPERIORITY.

In a country like England, where every class of the population holds itself entitled to decide on the merits of every act of public authority, and possesses the right of bringing its decisions before the legislature, a high degree of popular excitement on any important political question is but of the train of natural consequences. Were the strength of national feeling in such a case always or generally the result of accurate information and sound judgment, the patriot would have therein only matter of exultation. But our readers have not to be told, that popular opinion is not universally in accordance with the dictates of true wisdom. In a community so circumstanced as ours, at least, it is demonstrable that the impulse of the public mind must frequently be towards a wrong object, and continue in the false direction till dearbought experience has corrected the error. The leaders of the multitude may have been satisfied of the justness of their views by a careful examination of all the data necessary to arrive at a safe conclusion; though even this supposes a conscientiousness not always characteristic of the prominent advocates of political measures. But can the same be said of those who swell the train-of the millions that in England constitute the strength of every party? Of these the great bulk must be totally incompetent to form a just conclusion as to any subject involving the consideration of national and complicated interests. But they have been illuminated by some spouter at a public meeting, or have imbibed the oracular wisdom of the daily press; and ignorant all the while of the solid and substantial reasons which attach to a cause the mercenary agents of political proselytism, as they are the sincerest, so they become the staunchest and most obstinate of partisans. The course of public opinion then, meaning by the term the opinion embraced by the greatest numbers, instead of being determined by the intrinsic merits of the popular side of the question, is, to a great extent, under the control of the men of craft and tact, best qualified to apply the underhand means for producing an impression on the feelings of the multitude.

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Daily experience offers instances enough to verify our assertion. Let a measure vitally affecting the interests of the empire, and for the consideration of which extensive information and profound sagacity are necessary, once become matter of general discussion, and in no long time, even before our greatest statesmen have been able to see their to a conclusion,-the opinions of a certain party are observed to spread wider and wider, and take deep and extensive root throughout the country. In a word, one side of the question is soon known as the popular side; and next comes evidence of the people's determination, that the benefit of their instruction and direction shall not be lost to the legislature. The nation, even that part of it hitherto supposed to possess fewest of the means of information, having already come to a decision on a subject, which still keeps in suspense the minds of men first in intellect as in station, is little disposed to hide the candle under a bushel, but more rationally resolves to give light to all in the two Houses of Parliament. The tables of both are covered with petitions, U. S. JOURN. No. 56, July, 1833,

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intended to dissipate the legislative darkness, and into the Commons especially, members are sent pledged to emit the rays of popular wisdom, unchanged by any reflection of their own.

To speak with the seriousness we feel,-no one can regard a loud and unanimous expression of the public will with greater attention and deference than ourselves, when the people pronounce their own deliberate conviction as to a matter of which they are competent judges. But when they dictate to parliament a definite course of legislation on questions, for the right understanding of which ninety-nine out of every hundred of them are altogether disqualified by want of information as well as capacity, we are then inclined to hesitate before we allow their voices to be at once decisive of the line to be pursued. We attach still less weight to the clamours of the multitude, however strongly they feel and speak on subjects, imperfectly comprehended by them and standing to them in no immediate relation, when they have been worked up into a state of excitement by the misrepresentations of those who make traffic of political agitation, and by it earn their daily bread. In England, unfortunately, this is no imaginary case. Along with the inestimable benefits a free press confers upon us, it brings at the same time no inconsiderable portion of alloy. If fitted to become an instrument of infinite good, we have too frequent experience that it can with powerful effect be turned to a different purpose. The great body of the people, who derive from the pages of a newspaper, or some similar publication, all their ideas on political affairs, little suspect the springs by which those organs are set in motion. The assumption of the dictatorial and patriotic tone gains unlimited confidence in the ability and integrity of the writer on the part of the far greater number of his readers, so that they are completely open to whatever impression he may wish to produce. The privilege, which with us may be carried so far, and still within the law, of haranguing at public assemblies, furnishes to the unprincipled promoters of faction another great hold on the public mind. We allow that a free press, as well as freedom of speech on public occasions, if they multiply power and the means of victory to the advocates of wrong, equally supply materials of which the friends of truth and justice may avail themselves. If, on the one hand, there be a facility of disseminating false and pernicious doctrines, it is on the other as practicable to circulate correct and useful information. This we grant, and add further, that the party which employs these modes of spreading its sentiments with the greatest cunning and dexterity, will in the end be most popular. But does not this very admission imply that by intrigue and manoeuvre, by giving an unavowed direction to the power of the press and of public discussion, the current of opinion may at length be made to set strong in favour of a cause, taken altogether abstractedly from its own merits?

The present state of feeling in the country on the question of colonial slavery, will be a sufficient illustration of most that we have been saying. On a subject with which are closely connected the stability of a large portion of our revenue and commerce, the superiority of our naval power, and, which should have no small weight, the future welfare of the negroes themselves,―towards which the policy of the British government has been constantly directed, ever since the abolition of slavery in 1807, and the final settlement of which, statesmen as distinguished for

philanthropy as talent, have been deterred from attempting, only by a sense of the great difficulties surrounding the question on all sides: on such a subject, the great majority of the British public, passing over all these momentous considerations, have jumped at once to a conclusion, demanding the instant and unconditional emancipation of the entire slave population of the British colonies.

But how is it that so large a portion of the people of these kingdoms have put themselves forth, we will not say champions for the assertion of negro rights, for no class of British subjects in any part of the British dominions, not the West India planters themselves, defend the system of slavery, or plead for its continuance one moment longer than it can be safely got rid of; but how comes it to pass that a great proportion of the British nation have taken their stand in the ranks of the inveterate enemies of the colonial proprietors ? Can it be denied that the whole West India body, all in fact who have a direct interest in saving the British West India colonies from ruin, and society there from dissolution, have been brought into violent and extensive odium, while their only crime has been a desire, in preparing the way for the restoration to the negro of his rights,-to make some provision for the maintenance of their own? This outcry then, raised so unfairly and ungenerously against the colonists, is chiefly the result of a system of persevering agitation, for years kept up by the employment, with a coarse and unwearied hand, of the two grand levers of public opinion, the power of the periodical press, and of itinerant public declamation. How much of the excitement on this question is owing to exaggerated and false pictures of a state of things placed at a distance from the contemplation of the English people, and of which they can only judge by report, may be estimated from the comparative indifference with which they behold, subjected to their daily gaze, a form of oppression as revolting to humanity as slavery in its worst shape, the factorychild sinking into a premature grave under the weight of labour, by which an unfeeling task-master overburdens and exhausts his infant strength and spirits.

The periodical circulators of paragraphs and speeches on the side of the "Anti-Slavery party," a name, by the way, to which it has no exclusive right the active agents of this party, we do not charge universally with the want of principle commonly distinctive of their class. We are ready to believe, that the conductors of the "Anti-Slavery Reporter," for instance, gave to the public no other accounts of occurrences in the colonies, than were transmitted to them, and that in their inferences therefrom they were warranted by their own persuasions, Others, too, who lent the cause the aid of their pen or tongue, could have been actuated by none but the best motives. Giving them, however, all the merit of conscientious advocates, we can find no apology for the unjustifiable lengths to which they carried their censures on the intentions and conduct of the planters. A great part of the undeserved odium to which the latter have been exposed, is to be ascribed to the introduction of party-feeling on this head even into the religious world. Hostility to the West India interests, indeed, would in any event have animated all under the influence of a press, ever ready to encourage any species of agitation profitable to itself, and conscious that nothing is read with greater avidity by the discontented, the envious or the disaf

fected, the idle or the profligate of the humbler ranks, than any scheme for the spoliation of a superior or wealthier class. But, certainly, it was only by overcoloured representations of oppression on the part of the master, and wretchedness on the side of the slave, from men of weight with their respective sects, that religionists were prevailed on to enter the arena of political strife.

But to whatever extent a want of principle, or to whatever extent a deficiency of judgment belongs to those who have raised the storm of persecution against the unfortunate colonists, they shall not, we would fain hope, be left altogether without shelter or defence. The generous feelings, which should say to Englishmen, "press not a falling man too far," have, it is true, been forestalled against the almost ruined planter. But the firmness of the British legislature may erect a barrier against the popular torrent, and leave time for national reflection to allay the troubled waters. At any rate, we would suggest to the advocates of the West India interests-nil desperandum. The stakes at issue are of sufficient value to call forth the utmost exertions to redeem them. Such must be the feeling of every one, conscious how great a share of the revenue and trade of Great Britain arises from her West India colonies, and how essential is their commercial prosperity to the preservation of her maritime supremacy. It is the contemplation of them in this last light especially, that makes us take so strong an interest in the West India question-" a question," to use the words of Mr. Stanley in prefacing one of his resolutions, "which it is impossible to consider otherwise than in relation to the actual condition and continuance of the possession of our West India colonies."

Into the discussion of a subject, however, with regard to which partyfeeling has run so high, we have a professional reluctance to enter. With us it is a principle to preserve our field of literary exertion free, as far as is possible, from the political controversies which so often array our countrymen in opposing ranks, and for the cementing spirit of nationality substitute the divisions and heart-burnings of faction.

The member of either branch of the British service knows, that he best discharges his duty to the crown, by divesting himself of every political bias which would confine his patriotism and enthusiasm to any narrower aim, than the security and prosperity of the whole empire.

Patriotic citizens then, without being political partisans, devoted, not to the views of a faction, but to the cause of our country, we are often able to see things in a truer light than most of those around us. On any subject at least bearing not merely on the general interests of the empire, but standing in intimate relation to its warlike capabilities, we may be excused for saying that our opinion is worth as much as that of any of our neighbours.

Before estimating the probable result of any precipitate scheme for the abolition of slavery, as far as the national resources may be affected by such a measure, let us examine the peculiar positions of both planter and negro in regard to the question. Are any of our readers inclined to dispute the right of the former to compensation from the national treasury for whatever loss of colonial property he may sustain by the proposed change? We will not admit such a supposition concerning those, of whose sense or honesty we cannot doubt. But there are always men to be found, ready to purchase a character for justice and