Lords Sitting of 11 December 1837

MINUTES
Petitions presented. By the Earl of ALBEMARLE, from Wisbeach, for allowing Magistrates to act in towns where Quarter Sessions do not at present exist.—By Lord BROUGHAM, from Banbury, and by the Duke of CLEVELAND, from Sunderland, for extending the Municipal Officers' Declarations Bill to the Jews.

ROYAL MESSAGE.
Viscount Melbournepresented the following gracious message from her Majesty, which was read by the Lord Chancellor:—
"V. R.,—Her Majesty taking into consideration the provision made by law for the support of her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, her Majesty's beloved mother, recommends this subject to the care and attention of their Lordships, and relies with full confidence on the zeal and loyalty of the House of Lords to ad6pt such measures for the future provision of her Royal Highness as her rank and station, and her increased proximity to the throne, may seem to require."
On the motion of Viscount Melbourne, the message was ordered to be taken into consideration to-morrow.

NEGRO APPRENTICES.
Lord Broughampresented petitions from the Baptist Missionaries of Jamaica, and from a Wesleyan Chapel, Kingsbridge, (Devon,) praying that immediate steps might be

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taken to place the apprentices in the colonies on the same footing as the emancipated negroes. There was, he conceived, great cause for the complaints which had been made in this country, generally, and also in the colonies, on this subject. Those complaints were directed against the legislatures of the colonies for their delay in performing their part of the implied, if not expressed, compact, when a large sum of the public money of this country was voted to them. He admitted that an important and salutary change had been effected by the emancipation Act; but all that could be done had not yet been effected under it. The further progress of the measure ought to be accelerated, in order that the moral condition of the slaves and their physical situation might be still further improved, and it behoved the Government and the Parliament of this country to adopt measures for effecting that object. He had moved for returns with respect to the money which had been granted to different parties, under the Act of 1833. He had insisted on the necessity of there being laid on the table a return of the names of those to whom awards had been made, for the purpose of seeing who had, and who had not, performed their part of the compact. He conceived that he had given ample time for the production of those returns; but now they were told ''you must wait six or eight weeks longer, until after the recess, as the commissioners cannot be ready before that time." Now, if that delay took place, the return, he feared, would be of no use. If there were any difficulty, he would be contented with an account of all sums awarded, and the names of the parties in the first instance. That, he thought, could be produced without the least difficulty. But, if they waited until after the recess, the whole 20,000,000 l. might be paid without their knowing whether the awards had been earned by a due performance of the compact or not.
Lord Glenelgsaid, that no desire existed in any quarter to withhold the fullest information on the subject. There were, however, difficulties to be encountered in framing the account in consequence of the change and decease of claimants. If his noble Friend would call on the commissioners, he was sure that they would give him every information in their power.
Lord Broughamdid not mean to say,
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as the paper had not been refused, that Government wished to delay its production, or that it was wilfully delayed by the commissioners. But what he complained of was, that what appeared to him to be unnecessary delay had been interposed between his motion and the production of the return. What his noble Friend had said did not in the least degree convince him that the paper could not be furnished much earlier; and he wished to stimulate the commissioners to produce it as soon as possible. It was extremely simple; one line stated the award, another the name, a third the sum paid, and the fourth, the party to whom payment was made. If there were any difficulty in making out the return, in consequence of parties dying, and a delay being occasioned in finding out to whom payment was to be made, he was willing to omit, that part, and to put up with a bare account of the sums awarded. He certainly did expect by the production of the return he had moved for, to be able to make out a case against those who had received money but who had not performed their part of the compact.
The Earl of Aberdeensaid, that when, three years ago, this bill was passed, it was understood that something would be done to give education to the negroes. He wished to know from the noble Lord what had been done on this important subject by her Majesty's Ministers? In his opinion, every thing that was possible ought to be done to qualify the negroes for their new state. The noble Lord had now held the office of Colonial Secretary for upwards of two years, and he thought it was time that the House should know what had been done upon the important subject of negro education. When he had the honour of holding the situation which the noble Lord so ably filled he had been pressed severely upon this subject; and he wished to know to what extent the object to which he referred had been attended to.
Lord Glenelgsaid, that although the papers upon this subject had not been laid upon the table of their Lordships' House, they had been upon the table of the other House of Parliament, and sums of money had been voted by the House of Commons for the purposes of general education in the colonies. Those sums had been applied upon a principle which he had no doubt would meet with the approbation and sanction of the House. They had

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been distributed through the medium of different societies, whose object was to further education in the colonies; and he could assure the House that there had been no laxity on the part of her Majesty's Government to effect so desirable an object as the education of the negroes. Mr. Latrobe, a great traveller, and one perfectly well qualified for the duty, had been sent out last summer, in the capacity of inspector, to examine what had been done in the West India colonies with reference to education; and he had no doubt that that gentleman would be enabled to make a report on the subject that would be satisfactory to the House and to the country.
Lord Broughamsaid, if he had known that the noble Earl meant to put a question on this important subject to the noble Secretary for the Colonial Department, he would have prepared himself to give an answer to that question. He could, however, answer the question, so far as it related to one of the colonies. He had before him two messages, addressed by the noble Governor of Jamaica (the Marquis of Sligo) to the Legislative Assembly of that island. In the first he found this passage:—"I sent you down no less than four measures on the subject of an extended system of education, and, as no measure on that subject, has proceeded from the House of Assembly, can I do otherwise than conclude that you are indifferent to it?" In another message from the same noble Lord to the same body there were these words: "I informed you that the sum of 20,000 l. sterling had been voted by the English Parliament for the support of education in the colonies, with a promise of further assistance. You have taken no steps to make that assistance available." Again, in another part of that message his Lordship said to the House of Assembly, "I have transmitted to you despatches from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, recommending the repeal of the 33d canon with a view to facilitate the extension of religious education; but you have refused to repeal it." There was, then, it would appear, no want of funds, at least in Jamaica, for the purpose of education. Funds had been voted on this side of the water, and the intentions of the British Legislature were frustrated, and its liberality rendered unavailing, by those to whom we had given so many millions.
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The neglect of education, then, was not owing to there being no funds, but to the refusal of the Legislature of Jamaica to repeal an intolerant canon, and their continued disregard of the appeals made to them by the governor.
Lord Glenelgsaid, if his noble and learned Friend imagined that the education of the negroes had been neglected by the Government because the House of Assembly of Jamaica was opposed to its extension, that opinion was not correct. The Government of this country had done its duty as far as it possibly could. The Government had persevered in promoting education. It had applied to that object the sums voted by Parliament for the purpose, and its efforts, he was happy to say, had been assisted by several private societies.
Lord Broughamspoke entirely and exclusively of the conduct of the colonial legislature, and not of the Government, which was obliged, in fact, to contend with the House of Assembly.