all the comforts to be found on board; but that, notwithstanding this, 46 Slaves, viz. 34 Men, 6 Women, 1 Boy, and 5 Girls died, as is more particularly specified in the annexed Schedule. That on the arrival of the said Schooner in this Harbour, she was visited by the Medical Officer belonging to the Mixed Court of Commission, and the Slaves continued under his medical care till landed. That, from the said 7th day of June until the 17th day of July, the said Slaves remained on board the said Schooner, waiting for Adjudication, in a crowded and sickly state, much exposed to the inclemency of the present Season, during which period 73 more of the said Slaves, viz. 20 Men, 15 Women, 7 Boys, and 31 Girls died, as per annexed Schedule, making in the whole a loss of 119 by death; and that, on the said 17th day of July, the Survivors, 126 in number, were landed in a very sickly debilitated state. And Deponent further maketh oath and saith, that every possible care and attention was paid to the comfort and health of the said Slaves by the Officers and Men of the Brazen, and every exertion made to save their lives.

T. H. G. HONYMAN, Midshipman. Sworn before me this 22d day of July, 1826.

W. SMITH, Registrar.

(Enclosure 1. F.)-Schedule. Slaves on board the La Fortunée.

(Enclosure 1. G.)-His Majesty's Law Officers to Earl Bathurst. MY LORD, Doctors' Commons, 26th January, 1827. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in your Lordship's Letter of the 18th November last, communicating the substance of a Despatch received from the Officer Administering the Government of Sierra Leone, reporting that two Ships, the Perpetuo Defensor and La Fortunée, were brought into that Settlement for Adjudication, under the Convention with Portugal of the 28th of July, 1817, before the Mixed Commission established under that Convention; and your Lordship is pleased to request that we would report, for His Majesty's information, our opinion, whether Slaves brought into Sierra Leone for Adjudication under the Convention with Portugal, of the 28th July, 1817, can be lawfully disembarked and put on Shore, under the 32d Clause of the Statute 5th Geo. IV. cap. 113, or whether they can be so disembarked and put on Shore, under the Instructions annexed to that Convention, and 52d Section of the Statute, or whether there is any other provision of the Convention or the Statute, under which their disembarkation can be lawfully effected.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands, we have the honour to report, that Slaves brought into Sierra Leone for Adjudication, under the Convention with Portugal, of the 28th July, 1817, can be lawfully disembarked and put on Shore, if sickness, or other sufficient cause, should so require, under the authority, which we think must necessarily be implied from the Treaty, and the annexed Instructions, which are adopted by the 5th Geo. IV. cap. 113, and also from the 52d Clause of the Act, and other Clauses therein, the general purview of which is to carry into effect the purposes of the Treaty and Instructions. The practical result of the whole of these provisions is, that the Slaves must be kept and detained in their character of Slaves, until sentence be pronounced, whether they shall be restored or not. We would further observe, that Article 8 of the Instructions appears to us to afford the direct inference, that Slaves under such circumstances as above adverted to, may be legally disembarked and put on Shore at Sierra Leone. We have, &c.

CHRIST. ROBINSON.
CHS. WETHERELL.

The Right Hon. Earl Bathurst, K.G. N. C. TINDAL.

(Enclosure 2. A.)-Joseph Planta, Jun. Esq. to R. W. Hay, Esq. SIR, Foreign Office, 26th February, 1827. I HAVE received and laid before Mr. Secretary Canning your Letter of the 14th instant, upon the subject of the landing of Slaves brought to Sierra Leone for Adjudication under the Mixed Commission which is established there, pursuant to the Treaties and Acts of Parliament for the suppression of illegal Slave Trade.

I am directed by Mr. Secretary Canning to acquaint you, for the information of Earl Bathurst, that a Copy of your Communication will be transmitted to His Majesty's Commissioners at Sierra Leone, for their guidance upon the points in question.

In reference to your Letter of the 24th of September, 1826, I am, at the same time, directed to transmit to you the accompanying Copy of two Reports from His Majesty's Law Officers, upon the subject of the Ships Actico and Perpetuo Defensor, in which Cases it appears, that Slaves were, during Adjudication, declared by the Authorities at Sierra Leone, to have become free,—in one instance, in virtue of their landing upon a British Possession, in the other instance, in virtue of their being on board of a Government Vessel.

And I am to request, that you will be pleased to lay these Papers before Earl Bathurst, for his Lordship's information and consideration, as to any Instructions which he may judge proper to issue upon the subject, for the guidance of His Majesty's Colonial Authorities at Sierra Leone. I am,

R. W. Hay, Esq.

&c. JOSEPH PLANTA, Jun.

(Enclosure 2. B.)-His Majesty's Law Officers to Mr. Sec". Canning. Doctors' Commons, 26th January, 1827.

SIR,

WE are honoured with your commands, signified in Mr. Planta's Letter of the 11th of November last, transmitting two Despatches from His Majesty's Commissioners at Sierra Leone, detailing the circumstances which attended the Capture and Adjudication of the Portuguese Brig Activo, and also a Communication which has been received from the Colonial Department upon the same subject; and you are pleased to request, that we would take this Case into consideration, and report our opinion as to the Decision pronounced by the Authorities at Sierra Leone, in respect to the Slaves who escaped ashore, during the investigation of their Case, without awaiting the Decision of the Commissioners.

In obedience to your commands, we have the honour to report, that with respect to the Slaves belonging to the Ship Activo, inasmuch as a Sentence was duly pronounced by the Court of Mixed Commission, by which it was decreed that the Vessel and Slaves should be restored to the Claimant for the use of the Brazilian Owner, we are of opinion that the Authorities at Sierra Leone were bound to have taken measures to procure that Sentence to be carried into effect.

It appears that a few days before Adjudication was made, the Slaves revolted against the Persons who had charge of them on board, and came on Shore, and were taken possession of by an Officer of the Castoms, within the Colonial Jurisdiction, and that an application was made to the Deputy Governor by the Agent of the Captors, desiring

him to give directions to deliver them up. This application was refused on the alleged ground, that no Slaves could be given up after being once landed in the Colony.

The principle thus assumed, and which we think has been mistakenly borrowed from the Decision of the Court of King's Bench, in the well known Case of "Somerset," the Negro, namely, that a Slave acquires his freedom, from the mere circumstance of his landing upon the soil of Great Britain, is, in our opinion, wholly inapplicable to the case of Slaves landing upon the Territory of the Colony of Sierra Leone, under the circumstances which give rise to the present question. We conceive that we need only remark, that the Convention between this Country and Portugal, and its annexed Instructions, have been recognized and adopted by the 5th Geo. 4. ch. 113, and that the Court of Mixed Commission, which has been established in the Colony of Sierra Leone, in pursuance of that Statute, is a Court of competent judicature, constituted for the very purpose of deciding on the legality of the capture or detention of Vessels with Slaves on board, brought in there for Adjudication, and whose express duty it is to decree restitution of those Vessels and Slaves which shall be found to have been captured and detained, contrary to, or not within, the provisions of the Treaty and the annexed Instructions. To apply the doctrine laid down in Somerset's Case, as an abstract or universal principle, to the case of the Slaves who landed at Sierra Leone, under the above circumstances, would involve the contradiction on the part of this Country, and in the Law itself, of establishing a regular Tribunal at Sierra Leone, bound by the faith of a Treaty, and by the positive directions of an Act of Parliament, to decree the restitution of them to the Claimant as Slaves, and as having been illegally captured or detained by a British Vessel, as the facts turned out, and at the same time of refusing to permit the Sentence itself, which gave the Claimant a judicial title to the Slaves, to be carried into effect.

We have, &c.

The Right Hon. Mr. Secretary Canning.

CHRIST. ROBINSON.
CHS. WETHERELL.
N. C. TINDAL.

(Enclosure 2. C.)-His Majesty's Law Officers to Mr. Sec. Canning. SIR, Doctors' Commons, 26th January, 1827. WE are honoured with your commands, signified in Mr. Planta's Letter of December 29th last, transmitting 3 Despatches, with their Enclosures, containing a Report of the Vessel Perpetuo Defensor, and the course taken by the Colonial Authorities in respect to the Slaves which were brought on board of that Vessel; and you are pleased to request that we would take this Case into consideration, and report our opinion thereupon.

In obedience to your commands, we have the honour to report, that the Slaves put on board the Susan, before the adjudication of the Mixed Commission Court, in the Case of the Perpetuo Defensor, ought to have been delivered to the Claimant as a necessary consequence of that Sentence which decreed restitution of them. The only ground upon which the Local Authorities at Sierra Leone refused to permit delivery of the Slaves to be made, notwithstanding the Sentence, was, that they had obtained their freedom from the circumstance of being on board a Government Vessel, but this ground is, in our opinion, untenable.

We beg to observe that, in a Report, bearing the same date as the present, which we have had the honour of transmitting to you, respecting the delivery to the Claimant of Slaves belonging to another Vessel, called the Actico, after Sentence of Restitution, we have had occasion to state the grounds of our opinion, on a question involving the same principle as the present, more at large. We have, &c.

The Right Hon. Mr. Secretary Canning.

CHRIST. ROBINSON.
CHS. WETHERELL.
N. C. TINDAL.

No. 5.-Mr. Secretary Canning to His Majesty's Commissioners. GENTLEMEN, Foreign Office, 26th February, 1827.

I SEND to you, for your information, the accompanying Copy of a Letter, dated the 22d ultimo, addressed to one of the Under Secretaries of State of this Office, by one of the Under Secretaries of State for the Colonial Department.

From this Communication you will perceive, that it is the intention of His Majesty's Government, that the Mixed Commissions established at present at Sierra Leone, should be removed from thence to the Island of Fernando Po, so soon as the proper arrangements can be made for carrying this measure conveniently into effect.

You will be made acquainted in due time with the progress of the arrangement. In the mean time I have thought it right to inform you, that the measure is in contemplation.

His Majesty's Commissioners.

SIR,

I am, &c.
GEORGE CANNING.

(Enclosure.)-R. W. Hay, Esq. to Joseph Planta, jun. Esq. Downing Street, 22d January, 1827. WITH reference to the Correspondence which has passed, upon the subject of removing to the Island of Fernando Po the Courts of Mixed Commission, which are now established at Sierra Leone, under the provisions of the Treaties with Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands, I am directed by Earl Bathurst to acquaint you, for the information of Mr. Secretary Canning, that, in his Lordship's opinion, it is expedient that measures should now be adopted, for preparing for the arrangement

C