Slavery opponents start Westminster petition onslaught

Pubic opinion - in the form of petitions - is already being mobilised to pressurise MPs and peers to pass legislation banning slavery in the British Empire. This is going to be a key weapon of the Anti-Slavery Society, set up at the start of this year.

The first two major petitions have been presented to the House of Commons. One was signed by Quakers, from the Society of Friends, the other by residents of the Surrey town of Southwark, on the opposite bank of the River Thames from the City of London.

The leader of the successful drive to ban the slave trade, William Wilberforce MP (Bramber, Sussex, Ind) said Quakers only became involved in public debate when “the best and highest interests of society” were affected. He noted that the same group was first to petition for the abolition of the slave trade in 1807.

Both petitions did not seek immediate emancipation of slaves, instead seeking that as soon as possible, compatible with public safety.

‘100 dead’ in Welsh ship sinking, troops called in after mill strike in Lancashire ends in violence

Upwards of 100 men, women and children died when a ‘packet’ ship operating between Dublin and Liverpool sank off Anglesey in NorthWest Wales.

“It was impossible for any man of common humanity not to feel distressed and disgusted, when he found that in our West Indian colonies there were about one million of human beings, who every morning as the sun rose, were awakened by the echoing lash of the whip, and knew but too well that they were to be treated, for the remainder of the day, like cattle.”

Southwark’s Radical MP, Sir Robert Wilson said he hoped Mr Wilberforce would live to see the day when slaves were freed. He said it was impossible for anyone with common humanity “not to feel distressed and disgusted” at their treatment.

In a passage that angered pro-slavery MPs, Sir Robert told the Commons that a missionary he knew ”had never seen a black who did not bear on his flesh, the marks of the severe infliction of the whip”.

Bristol’s Whig MP Henry Bright said this claim was “a gross exaggeration”.

The missionary, Mr Bright said, had “too much spiritual pride” to do anything but preach and neglected other ways he could help, by visiting slaves and seeing to their needs. He said the progress of civilisation would do more to better the condition of slaves than any new law.

Henry Bright is from a family with strong links to the Caribbean and is a member of the ‘West India Interest’ group lobbying on behalf of plantation and slave owners. His grandfather, Mayor of Bristol in the 1770s, was active in the Jamaican slave trade.

The vast majority of those who perished were passengers on the Alert, a vessel which has operated these scheduled services crossing the Irish Sea. Just nineteen survived - 13 passengers and all but two of the crew, including the captain. The vessel sank fast after hitting rocks near the Skerries islets three miles off Anglesey. Reports from Liverpool say the captain had stuck close to the shoreline to shorten his passage as much as possible. --------------

Soldiers have protected new employees hired by a cotton mill at Tyldesley, near Wigan, after the employers locked out striking spinners.

Thirty-nine operatives stopped work in late January after demanding pay parity with workers in Bolton, and the mill stayed shut until March.

Messrs. Jones took on new hands - dubbed ‘knobsticks’and provided beds on site after assaults by strikers. Troops were drafted in to keep the new staff safe but they are expected to leave soon after most strikers sought work elsewhere and left Tyldesley.

Trio hanged in Lincoln for homosexual acts

Three men in their thirties have been publicly executed in Lincoln for sodomy after a homosexual vice ring of up to 36 men was uncovered by the authorities.

William Arden, John Doughty and Benjamin Candler died on the gallows outside Lincoln Castle after being convicted on the evidence of a 19 year-old apprentice draper, Henry Hackett.

A mistake by Hackett led to the arrest of his three accomplices, but he escaped death after turning King’s evidence. Hackett had sent a letter to Candler, a valet for the Duke of Newcastle, using the freepost scheme for mail to peers and MPs - but he forgot to write Candler’s name on the envelope, with the result that his letter was read by the shocked duke.

Imposing death sentences, the judge said the crimes were horrible and too dreadful to reflect upon. They were of so damning a nature that the Almighty had destroyed whole cities for the guilt of it.

Both Candler and Doughty were married, with five children in all.