No. 1.-Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.-(Rec. Feb. 25) MY LORD, Paris, 22d February, 1821. I HAVE the honour to transmit to your Lordship the Copy of a Note I have received from Baron Pasquier, in answer to the Communication which announced the capture of the Slave Ship, the Louisa, in a Port of the Island of Antigua. I have, &c. Viscount Castlereagh, K. G. CHARLES STUART. (Inclosure.)-The Baron Pasquier to Sir Charles Stuart. MONSIEUR L'AMBASSADEUR, Paris, le 15 Février, 1821. J'AI reçu la Lettre que votre Excellence m'a fait l'honneur de m'adresser le 9 Janvier, pour me faire connoître l'arrestation et la dé tention, à Antigua, du Navire la Louise, qui paroit avoir été employé à la Traite des Noirs. J'ai l'honneur d'informer votre Excellence, que M. le Ministre de la Marine, à qui je m'étais empressé de faire part de cette Communication, vient d'écrire aux Administrateurs François de la Guadeloupe et de la Martinique, pour que les poursuites contre la Louise soient faites par les Tribunaux, aussitôt que ce Navire aura été conduit, par ordre des Autorités Angloises, dans l'une ou l'autre de ces Iles. J'ai l'honneur, &c. S. E. Le Chevalier Stuart. PASQUIER. No. 2.-Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.-(Rec. April 1.) Viscount Castlereagh, R. G. CHARLES STUART. (Inclosure 1.)-Sir Charles Stuart to the Baron Pasquier. SIR, The substitution of the word Mules for Negroes shows the real nature of this Agreement, since it is well known that there are no mules to be purchased on the Coast of Africa. I feel that it is my duty to submit this Document to the attention of His Most Christian Majesty's Government, in the hope that they may be enabled to prevent the Parties from carrying their designs into execution. I have, &c. His Excellency the Baron Pasquier. CHARLES STUART. (Inclosure 2.)-The Baron Pasquier to Sir Charles Stuart. MONSIEUR L'AMBASSADEUR, Paris, le Mars, 1821. Au moment où je recevois la Lettre que votre Excellence m'a fait l'honneur de m'écrire le 23 de ce mois, rélativement à une spéculation qui paraît cacher un projet de Traite des Noirs, le Ministre de la Marine me faisait part des mêmes informations, en ajoutant, qu'il venait de prendre les mésures nécessaires pour que l'opération ne puisse s'effectuer, et pour que les spéculateurs soient récherchés et punis. Le voile dont on a cherché à la couvrir, facile d'ailleurs à pénétrer, est un motif de plus pour que le Gouvernement suive cette affaire de manière *Not transmitted to the Foreign Office. à prouver à ceux qui tenteraient de nouvelles contraventions, qu'elles ne peuvent échapper à sa surveillance. J'ai l'honneur, &c. PASQUIER. S. E. Le Chevalier Stuart. No. 3.-The Marquess of Londonderry to Sir Charles Stuart. SIR, Foreign Office, 8th May, 1821. I HAVE the honour to forward to you Copies of several Documents transmitted to me by the Secretary of the African Institution,* tending to show the continuance of the illicit Trade in Slaves by French Subjects. These Papers appear to contain important information, and I have to refer your Excellency to my former Correspondence on this subject, for the guidance of your conduct in the use which your Excellency may judge it expedient to make of them. H. E. Sir Charles Stuart, G.C.B. 1 am, &c. LONDONDERRY. No.4.-Sir Charles Stuart to the Marq. of Londonderry.-(Rec. June 14.) I HAVE received in due course your Lordship's Dispatch of the 8th of May, and, according to the spirit of my Instructions, I have addressed the official Note (of which I have the honour to inclose a Copy) to Baron Pasquier; and I presume that this resolution will meet with the approbation of His Majesty's Government. I have the honour to be, &c. The Marquess of Londonderry, K. G. SIR, CHARLES STUART. (Inclosure.)—Sir Charles Stuart to the Baron Pasquier. Paris, 9th June, 1821. THE Papers of which I inclose Copies, have been transmitted to His Majesty's Government from the African Institution; and as the information they contain tends decidedly to prove the continuance of an illicit Trade in Slaves by French Subjects, under circumstances which easily admit of satisfactory investigation on the part of His Most Christian Majesty's Government, I hope they will not only be added to the mass of Communications relating to this subject which I have already submitted to your Excellency, but that they will offer additional motives for the adoption of measures to carry into effect the views His Most Christian Majesty's Ministers profess to entertain. The bad success of the endeavours to root out this Commerce would discourage further Representations, if the assurances your Excellency has repeatedly held forth did not justify the hope of a cordial co-operation on the part of the French Government. Referring, therefore, once more, to the facts which have been brought forward, I shall merely remind your Excellency, that it is to be feared the combinations I have denounced may acquire force and consistency * Transmitted in Original. from continued impunity, which the most vigourous exertions of the Government, at a future period, will be unable to controul. I have the honour to be, &c. His Excellency the Baron Pasquier. CHARLES STUART. No. 5.-The Marquess of Londonderry to Sir Charles Stuart. SIR, Forcign Office, 15th June, 1821. IN reference to my former Correspondence on the state of the illicit Slave-trade, as carried on under the protection of His Most Christian Majesty's Flag, I have the honour to transmit herewith to your Excellency, Extracts of two Dispatches, under dates of the 16th February and the 1st March, 1821, from His Majesty's Commissioners at Surinam, which will show to your Excellency that the practice of resorting to the French Flag for the purpose of carrying on this illegal traffick is still actively and continually taking place in the West Indies, to the manifest contravention of the letter and spirit of the Laws of France on this subject. Your Excellency will take an early opportunity of laying these Documents before the French Minister, and of urging his Excellency to adopt such measures as may tend to repress the prostitution of the French Flag to such an unworthy purpose. H. E. Sir Charles Stuart, G.C.B. I am, &c. No. 6.--Sir C. Stuart to the Marquess of Londonderry.--(Rec. June 24.) I AM to acknowledge your Lordship's Dispatch, inclosing two Letters from the Commissioners at Surinam, which contain further information respecting the continuation of the Slave-trade, under the French Flag; and I have addressed the Note to Baron Pasquier, which I have the honour to inclose, pointing out the bad effect these repeated infractions of the French Law are calculated to produce. Though my Representations have certainly made a strong impression upon the minds of the French Ministers, the opposition to every measure which can render the abolition effective in the Chamber of Deputies, appears to render it difficult to comply with my demands. I have the honour to be, &c. The Marq. of Londonderry, K.G. SIR, CHARLES STUART. (Inclosure.)—Sir Charles Stuart to the Baron Pasquier. Paris, 20th June, 1821. THE reports addressed to His Britannick Majesty's Government, hy the Commissioners employed to execute the engagements which have been contracted for the suppression of the Slave-trade, continue to represent the glaring abuses of the French Flag by Persons who are engaged in that commerce, under circumstances which, if correctly stated, can admit of no excuse. In transmitting these Reports to your Excellency, I cannot conceal that the result of the remonstrances I have already brought forward upon this subject, is ill calculated to give the British Government and Nation a full reliance upon the efficacy of His Most Christian Majesty's Regulations for the abolition of the Slave-trade, much less to contradict the assertions these Papers contain, respecting the manifest increase of the evil. The expectation of successive Legislative Enactments has, notwithstanding the various written and verbal engagements contracted by the French Government to this effect, been gradually weakened, until our hopes now rest entirely upon the administrative measures which it is proposed to adopt in the French Colonies; but, as even this feeble bar to the increase of the Slave-trade still remains to be applied, I must remind your Excellency that a heavy responsibility will continue to be incurred, so long as this Question shall give cause for complaint. I have the honour to be, &c. H. E. the Baron Pasquier. CHARLES STUART. No. 7.--Sir C. Stuart to the Marquess of Londonderry.--(Rec. July 1.) (Extract.) Paris, 28th June, 1821. THE accompanying Circular Letter from a Commercial House at Nantes, offers fresh and striking proofs that the French Government do not prevent the continuation of the Slave-trade in the present state of their Legislation upon that subject, which I think warranted a communication to Baron Pasquier, accompanied by the observations contained in the Note I likewise forward. The exclusive attention which the Chamber of Peers devote to their judicial Proceedings, prevented the disclosure of what passed last week in that Assembly respecting the Petition against the Slave-trade; I have therefore been unable, until the present moment, to state to your Lordship, that the predictions respecting the opposition which every endeavour to check the trade would meet with, have been confirmed by the resolution of a portion of the French Ministry, to vote in favour of the resolution to proceed to the Order of the Day, and by their complaints against the Duke de Cazes and M. de Broglie, who alone endeavoured to support the Petition. The fate of the same Petition in the Chamber of Deputies has been placed beyond a doubt by the result of the digression to this subject, in the debate upon the Expenses of the Colonial Department, which took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, when M. Portal's assertions, respecting the good faith with which the Government has endeavoured to put down this trade, and his efforts to prove that the imperfect state of the Legislation renders some additional enactment necessary, to enable them to attain that object, were contradicted by a discourse of M. Lainé,tending to show that the bare consideration of such a mea |