Address: To/ J Rickman Esqre
MS: Huntington Library, RS 449. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.
Thank you for our Keswick petition.
(1)
Sir Thomas Acland had presented various petitions against slavery in the West Indies to the House of Commons on 14 April 1824; ‘Similar Petitions were presented from Keswick and Aberystwyth’, Morning Post, 15 April 1824. Rickman had probably helped in this process through his role in The Speaker’s office.
You will be in better humour with its object, if you remember that what it asks for is precisely what Lord Melville originally proposed instead of the Abolition of the Trade.
(2)
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville (1742–1811; DNB), Home Secretary 1791–1794, Secretary of State for War 1794–1801. Melville was a determined defender of the slave trade and, in a crucial House of Commons debate on 2 April 1792, was instrumental in defeating plans for abolition by introducing an amendment that argued abolition should only occur ‘gradually’. In this debate, Melville argued that reformers should concentrate on ‘every species of regulation which should put an end to hereditary slavery, and gradually relieve the condition of slaves’ rather than abolishing the slave trade.
– I am no friend to the practise of petitioning, which I suspect does more is of more advantage to Luke Hansard
(3)
Luke Hansard (1752–1828; DNB) owned the firm that printed the Journals of the House of Commons and the Parliamentary Debates, so reporting on more petitions to the Commons and more debates on these petitions created work for his firm.
than to any body else; – & you may have observed in the present instance a wholesome clause concerning leaving things where they ought to be with the House. But I know enough of modern colonial slavery, to know that it is quite a different thing from any other sort of slavery, & to abhominate with all my heart & with all my soul & with all my strength.
Can you send me the proceedings upon Smith the Missionary’s Trial?
(4)
John Smith (1790–1824; DNB) was sent to Demerara by the London Missionary Society and preached mainly to African slaves. Following the Demerara rebellion of 1823, he was accused of fomenting discontent among local slaves and tried before a court-martial in the colony. Smith was found guilty and sentenced to death. His death in prison in February 1824 produced an uproar in Britain. Southey had asked Rickman to provide him with ‘Papers Relating to Proceedings of Court Martial on Trial of J. Smith, Missionary, in Colony of Demerara, October 1823’ (1824), which Parliament had ordered to be printed…
I am afraid you will find Bertha very shy, very timid, – & at first a little helpless. But she is a good girl, – apt – handy when she feels herself at home & knows what she is about; – & I think she will ripen well. At present she is just in her most awkward age.
Twice I have just past thro Lewes, – & once having lost my way in an open carriage on the South downs in going from Brighton to Portslade, found myself at sunset on the edge of the Devils Dike, – three & thirty years ago!
God bless you -
RS.
April. 21. 1824
