1829 Feb 9. Buxton to Joseph John Gurney, reporting on the anti slavery meeting they had held at Brougham's house the previous day at which the …
1829; Gale Group;
Autores Resumo
Memoir pp 123-30 1829 Feb 9. Buxton to Joseph John Gurney, reporting on the anti slavery meeting they had held at Brougham's house the previous day at which the situation concerning Catholic Emancipation and the action of the Duke of Wellington were discussed.The meeting had decided not to settle on any action concerning slavery until they saw what would happen over Catholic Emancipation, though they wished to have a motion on it before Easter. They wished Buxton to bring a motion on Mauritius, but he had refused on the grounds that if the House was not prepared to listen to Brougham at that time it was even less likely to listen to him. Spring Rice had reported hearing from a former Governor of the Cape of Good Hope that an Order in Council had been promulgated emancipating the Hottentots; he himself had been told by Hay, the Under-Secretary at the Colonial Office, that there was now no distinction between whites and Hottentots as far as he knew;Buxton was to confirm this by seeing Sir George Murray on the Saturday. He was delighted for he foresaw that within a few years the British Empire in South Africa would be very large and by this move slavery there would be limited to 2,000 negroes. He flatters himself that he did something for this cause, if the report should be true, and that therefore his going into Parliament had not been in vain. He urges Joseph John Gurney to persuade his wife Mary to read Dr. Philip's book on South Africa and to do the same himself. Finally he mentions that he was worried about his mining interests. ( p 212.)
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