the exigency of the case, they unquestionably indicate a better spirit on the subject. A law has recently passed, by which all who co-operate or participate in any manner whatever in the negro slave trade (including owners, supercargoes, underwriters, commanders and other officers,) are subject to banishment, and to a fine equal to the value of the ship and cargo, to be inflicted jointly on the individuals concerned; the ship and cargo being, moreover, confiscated. The captain and officers are besides rendered incapable of serving either in the Royal or Mercantile Navy; and the marines, those excepted who in fifteen days from arrival, shall disclose the facts of the case, shall be imprisoned from three months to five years. And these penalties are to be independent of such as, by the existing Penal Code, may be incurred for other crimes proved to have been committed in the course of the voyage, such as the murder of slaves, &c.

The discussion of this measure in the Chambers was rendered remarkable by a speech of the Duke de Broglie, which will bear a comparison for acuteness of reasoning, force of eloquence, and comprehensive knowledge of the subject, with any thing which has appeared upon it.

That this law may produce a considerable effect in checking the trade with the ports of France, is very probable; but if a great change shall not be effected in the mode of administering justice in the French colonies, the trade, it is to be feared, will still be carried on thence. Whatever may be its future effect, certainly the annals of the past year exhibit little or no diminution of French slave trading on the coast of Africa. The list of French slave ships boarded by our cruizers will show this.

Since the French cruizers have been more active in making captures on the coast, it has become the practice of the French slave traders to fortify themselves with double sets of papers and flags, their own and those of some other nation-the Dutch for example. With the latter they have been supplied at St. Eustatia, through the connivance of the Dutch authorities. These Dutch documents are held

in readiness, in the case of being boarded by a French cruizer, while the French papers and flag serve to elude English capture.

We are happy to say, that through the persevering efforts of the Society of Christian Morals, formed at Paris, a committee of which devote their labours to the abolition of the slave trade, public feeling has of late been greatly excited on this subject in France, and we may fairly look forward to such other measures of legislation in that country as will at length cleanse it from the reproach of tolerating this traffic.

We presume that it may be ascribed to the expectation of this new law for the repression of the slave trade in France, that the remonstrances of our government with that power occupy so small a space in the papers laid this year before parliament.

2. Netherlands. Notwithstanding the good faith and cordiality with which the Netherlands government have acted in acceding both to the mutual right of search, and to the right of capture and condemnation, not only where slaves are actually found on board, but where an intention to trade in slaves is clearly apparent, some of its colonial functionaries, as has been already remarked, continue to place themselves in opposition to the wishes of their government, and to lend the protection of their official character to the nefarious speculations of the slave trade. About two years ago, some vigour began to be shown by the French cruizers, in executing their abolition laws. It became necessary, therefore, for slavers of that nation, in order to be secure, to protect themselves with the papers and flag of some other nation. The French flag, though an adequate defence against English capture, was no defence against their own cruizers. They have accordingly established in the Dutch islands of St. Eustatius and Curacoa, as well as at the Havana, and the Danish Island of St. Thomas, the means of effecting fraudulent sales, and obtaining fabricated documents and false flags. These documents and flags are exhibited whenever they are visited by a French man of war, from whom also their real French papers

are carefully concealed, and only produced on the visit of an English cruizer. Of these nominally Dutch, but really French or American slavers, seven have been lately condemned at Sierra Leone. The names and particulars will be found in the appendix.

Surely it would not be found difficult for the Netherlands government to put an effectual stop to these frauds. Representations have been made on the subject by our minister at Brussels, but we do not discover in the official correspondence laid before parliament that these representations have hitherto produced any result.

If the

The communications from the British commissioners at Surinam are confined to the details of a plan for preventing the slave trade in that colony, by adopting the plan of a registration of slaves in force in Trinidad. local authorities will bestow their cordial efforts on the completion of this plan, and on securing its due observance, a more effectual termination will be put to the illicit introduction of slaves than could be effected by any other means.

3. Spain. The conduct of Spain, with respect to the slave trade, has evinced one unvarying course of evasion on the part of the colonial functionaries; and of indifference, if not faithlessness, to engagements on the part of the government. The papers now laid before parliament exhibit, in every rank, from the highest to the lowest, an absence of moral restraint, and a recklessness of human misery, which are perfectly sickening. The state of our relations with Spain, during the last year, though it has not prevented the frequent renewal of representations and remonstrances on the peculiar and increasing enormities which accompany her slave trade, may possibly have prevented their assuming that very strong force of urgency which alone seems adapted to the flagrancy of the case. We had interests more immediate and pressing to discuss, and the very magnitude and delicacy of these may have made it more difficult to deal with a question which required the most energetic remonstrances.

The number of Spanish slave ships condemned at Sierra Leone in the

last year, amounts only to six. The number boarded, but not detained, was immense-they appear to have swarmed on the coast. The treaty with Spain, unfortunately, does not admit of their detention unless slaves are found on board; so that our cruizers who visit them, although the indications of their slave-trading purposes are as clear as the sun-and these purposes are in many cases even avowed-are obliged to leave them unmolested to pursue their criminal traffic; and when a fair opportunity of escape offers, they take their slaves on board in a few hours, and set sail for their destination.

The number of slaves captured on board these six ships was 1360; but one of them being overset in a tornado, the slaves on board, to the number of 197, perished. The crowded state of these ships, and the sufferings of the slaves from that cause, and from the ravages of dysentery and small-pox, are now become such necessary incidents of the trade, that they excite no surprise. One case, however, which occurred so recently as February last, may be specified. It is that of the Paulita, Antonio Terrara, master, captured off Cape Formosa by Lieutenant Tucker, of his majesty's ship Maidstone, with 221 slaves on board. Her burden was only 69 tons, and into this space were thrust 82 men, 56 women, 39 boys, and 44 girls. The only provision found on board for their subsistence, was yams of the worst quality, and foetid water. When captured, both small-pox and dysentery had commenced their ravages. Thirty died on the passage to Sierra Leone, and the remainder were landed in an extreme state of wretchedness and emaciation.

Some of the atrocities practised by the Spanish slave-traders on the coast, are forcibly and succinctly described by Mr. Canning, in a letter to our ambassador at Madrid, dated the 3d October, 1826:

"It appears," he says, "that it is the custom of the owners of these Spanish piratical vessels, the greater part of which there is reason to suppose are equipped at the Havana, to send them out fitted both for trade and for war; but their trade is the pro

scribed trade in human beings, and the war they wage is a war of piracy.

"It is their practice to hover on the coast of Africa, where, if they can conveniently barter for, and embark a cargo of slaves, they proceed with that cargo generally direct to the Island of Cuba. If they do not succeed at once in this barter, or if an opportunity of piracy previously presents itself, they sieze the first vessel they meet with, preferring one that may be laden with slaves. Taking possession of the vessel, they murder or put on shore the white men found on board, and proceed with the vessel and cargo to Cuba, where they land the slaves surreptitiously at the back of the island, and then enter in ballast at the Havana."

An instance is then mentioned as having recently occurred, in which a prize, with an English prize crew, had disappeared, murdered, as it is supposed, by these pirates. In another instance, the Netuno, Brazilian slave ship, prize to his majesty's ship Esk, was proceeding to Sierra Leone in the charge of Mr. Crawford, a master's mate, when she was boarded by the boat of a Spanish vessel, called the Carolina, mounting ten guns. The pirate captain and another, who were threatening to drag Mr. Crawford from the prize, were shot dead by him, and the remainder of the boat's crew jumped overboard, and regained their vessel. An action ensued, when the pirate was beat off, but not till one woman had been killed and another wounded on board the Netuno.

The details furnished from the Havana by our commissioners are still more opprobrious than those from Sierra Leone, and exhibit the conduct of the public functionaries there in a light which cannot be suitably characterized without using terms it might be unseemly to employ. They appear to feel the obligations (in what concerns the slave trade,) neither of humanity nor national faith, nor even of personal honour.

It is no more than justice to the British commissioners at the Havana, Mr. Kilbee and Mr. M'Leay, to say, that they have ably and vigilantly and fearlessly performed their duty, in very trying and difficult circumstances, with almost every public functionary

and the whole Spanish population combined to defeat their vigilance, and to screen the gross acts of delinquency which are continually recurring. It is even surprising how, in the face of such obstacles, they have been able to effect so much as they have done, and particularly to procure such a mass of valuable information respecting the violations of the laws which are daily occurring in the island. This is to be ascribed, indeed, in part, perhaps chiefly, to the effrontery with which in the very harbour of the Havana, and under the very eyes of the commissioners, as well as in more distant parts of the island, slave ships are fitted out for the African coast, and their cargoes of slaves are afterwards disembarked on their return thence.

Some of the cases are of a very aggravated description. In one case a vessel, the Minerva, is chased into the harbour by two British ships of war. Notice is given of the fact to the civil and military authorities; officers of the captain general's suite visit the ship, and see her living cargo; and, notwithstanding all this, two hundred slaves, which were on board, are landed in the presence and actual view of the British naval officers belonging to the ships which had chased her; and when this disgraceful proceeding is denounced, and the incontestible evidence of the facts laid before the local authorities, there instantly seems a concurrence among them to take no steps to recover the slaves and punish the delinquents. All they think of is to question the sufficiency of the proof, and to quibble about the law of the case.

Even an apparently rigorous edict of the Spanish government, which was transmitted to the Havana a year or two ago, though it excited at first a passing alarm among the slave traders, sunk, in a few weeks, into the same state of utter neglect which had been the fate of every preceding decree. It is painful to dwell on this perpetual scene of rapacity and profligacy, of fraud and falsehood, in which it is difficut to say which most excites disgust and abhorrence-the ferocious cruelties practised by the immediate agents in the trade, or the

heartless indifference with which the Spanish authorities contemplate these atrocities.

What can be expected from the infatuated obduracy with which they continue from year to year to crowd Cuba with an accumulation of fresh exiles from Africa, but that a storm should at last burst forth, which will spread, as formerly in St. Domingo, insurrection, desolation, and death, throughout all its coasts?

A considerable portion of the papers which relate to Spain is occupied with a correspondence between the British consul at Cadiz, Mr. Brackenberry, the British authorities at Gibraltar, and our government at home, respecting the outfit of Spanish slave ships at that fortress. Mr. Brackenberry, with a vigilance and zeal in the cause of humanity which do him infinite honour, pointed out to the governor of Gibraltar, at different times, four Spanish slave ships, which were completing their outfit at Gibraltar, He pointed out their owners and consignees, specified the very terms of their insurance from Gibraltar to the coast of Africa, and thence to Cuba, and recommended that the law against them should be carried into effect. The authorities at Gibraltar did not seem at first aware of the power they possessed under the acts of parliament, abolishing the slave trade, of interfering to prevent and punish this felonious and piratical proceeding; and several of the vessels denounced by Mr. Brackenberry were, therefore, allowed to proceed on their voyage. But the matter is now better understood; and a proclamation has been issued, warning all persons against fitting out vessels there for the slave trade, on pain of incurring the heavy penalties of the act of parliament.

The proclamation, however, will do little good, unless it be followed by measures of rigid scrutiny into every case affording fair ground of suspicion, and by bringing the guilty parties to trial and punishment.

4. Portugal.-During the last fifteen years, the only pretence advanced by Portugal for refusing totally to abolish her slave trade has been the necessities of her transatlantic possessions. Since the declaration of the independence of Brazil, this pretence

has no longer existed. Portugal, nevertheless, has clung to the trade; and has recently advanced a claim to carry it on without molestation, from the coast of Africa, for the supply of her African islands, the Cape de Verds, St. Thomas, and Princes, whence it would obviously be an easy matter afterwards to transport them to the Brazils or Cuba. A traffic of that description is actually proceeding at this moment, of the occasional interruption of which, by British cruizers, the Portuguese ambassador ventured rather loudly to complain as a breach of treaty. This complaint, and the intention apparent on the part of Portugal, to cling to the slave trade by means of her African islands, even after the separation of Brazil, have happily led Mr. Canning to search more particularly into her existing compacts with this country. An able and luminous note has been the consequence of this inquiry, in which, after specifying the various compacts and negociations between the two states, from 1810 to the present time, he shows it to be "a distinct engagement" entered into by the contracting parties, "that they shall not permit their flag to be used for the slave trade, except for supplying the transatlantic possessions of Portugal." He then proceeds:

"It is quite clear, that the Cape de Verds, Princes, and St. Thomas's islands are not transatlantic. The supply of these possessions with slaves is, therefore, not permitted; and by the royal passport under treaty forbidding a slave ship to touch at any intermediate port between the legal spot of the embarkation of her cargo and the spot of their ultimate destination, it is equally clear that slave ships touching at these islands for any purpose whatever short of imminent distress, are liable to confiscation.

"By the tenor of the arguments of the Portuguese negociators, from the date of the treaty of alliance, in 1810, down to that of 1817, and by the plain inference to be drawn from its words, the terms Transatlantic Possessions' of Portugal must be held to designate the Brazils.

"As Portugal has no longer possession of the Brazils, she has no longer

any possession for the supply of which, by treaty, the slave trade was permitted; and all vessels under her flag now trading for slaves, must be trading to places outside of the line which she has drawn for herself in this respect, and are obviously acting in direct violation of the existing engagements between Portugal and Great Britain.

"Although our remonstrances have hitherto failed upon this matter, still, aware as we have been of the necessarily unsettled state of the councils of Portugal, we have been unwilling to take the enforcement of the treaty into our own hands as if she had declined to fulfil her engagements. We have been willing to believe that she required time for their completion.

"Under these engagements, therefore, Great Britain now calls on her (only in a friendly spirit) to give a pledge || in writing for that general abolition of the slave trade, for which the time is come."

In the letter accompanying this note Mr. Canning stated, "We have already said distinctly, that we never will sign a treaty with Portugal, that does not contain an article for the final and total abolition of the Portuguese slave trade.”

The above note was presented to the Portuguese minister for foreign affairs, on the 23d of September, 1826. His excellency's reply to it is dated the 2nd of October, and is conceived in the following clear and gratifying

terms:

“The undersigned is authorised to declare that the Portuguese government acknowledges that the moment is come to put an end to the inhuman trade in slaves; and that, consequent. ly, it will have no hesitation to insert in the Treaty of Commerce, which the undersigned hopes will be shortly concluded between Portugal and Great Britain, an article, by which his most Faithful Majesty binds himself, not only to the total abolition of the slave trade in the dominions of Portugal, but also to co-operate with his Britannic Majesty for the total extinction of so barbarous a traffic in the countries where it unfortunately still exists.”

This is a fresh triumph, for which humanity is indebted to Mr. Canning.

A motion has also been made in the

Portuguese chamber of deputies for the entire abolition of the slave trade, but with what effect has not yet appeared.

5. Brazil.-The largest chapter of the parliamentary paper is given to Brazil. That division of it which relates to the transactions of the mixed commission court at Sierra Leone, contains a variety of details of the same cruel and revolting description which are to be found in the successive reports of the institution during the last fifteen years.

Between the first of January, 1825, and the 31st of July, 1826, upwards of 1500 Brazilian slaves were condemned into freedom; and it appears from the Sierra Leone Gazette, that several important captures were subsequently made. One, the Principe de Ġuinee, freighted with 608 slaves, and strongly armed, was gallantly taken, after a desperate resistance, by Lieut. Tucker, in small schooner, a tender to his Majesty's ship Maidstone. Another, the Intrepida, measuring only 100 tons, had on board 310 slaves in a state of great wretchedness and emaciation, 70 of whom died in 46 days. A third, the Invincible, with a cargo of 440 slaves-a number, it seems, 63 short of her full complement; but these were so crowded together, that it became absolutely impossible to separate the sick from the healthy; and dysentery, opthalmia, and scurvy, breaking out among them—the provisions and water being of the worst kind, and the filth and stench beyond all description—186 of the number had perlshed in less than 60 days.

Two Brazilian ships brought into Sierra Leone for adjudication, were ordered to be restored to the claimants, because, though they had taken their slaves on board north of the line, they were actually captured south of the line-an occurrence for which the treaty had not provided. The slaves on board these two ships, the Activo, and the Perpetuo Defenso, amounting in all to 590, when they understood they were to be given up to the claimants, mutinied, and effected their escape to the shore; and having made good their landing there, the acting governor refused to permit force to be used to recover them; and they are