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take measures to prevent a recurrence of similar proceedings on the &c.

part of the Board.

H. F. Howard, Esq.

I am,

CLARENDON.

No. 414.—Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Dec. 29.)
MY LORD,
Lisbon, December 19, 1856.

I HAVE the honour of transmitting, herewith, a translation of a Royal Decree of the 3rd ultimo, published in the "Diario do Governo" of the 9th instant, abolishing in all the territories of the Province of Angola the forced labour called "serviço de carregadores" (porter's service), and other forced labour hitherto exacted from the free negroes.

Viscount Sá da Bandeira, the Minister of Marine and Colonies, on whose proposal the Decree is issued, tells me that he had been endeavouring, for a long series of years, to effect the object which it has in view; that he attempted to do so when Minister at a former period, by the Portaria of January 31, 1839, referred to in the Decree; but that his successor in office having given up the Portaria after it had only been twelve months in operation, he had now had recourse to the form of a Royal Decree, in order to carry out his views.

A second Decree, bearing the same date, enacts an increase in the tribute called "dizimo," paid by the free negroes in such of the districts of the Province of Angola as furnished "carregadores." The preamble of this Decree states, that in consequence of the great benefits conferred upon these negroes by the abolition of the system of forced labour hitherto exacted from them, and by the improvement in the means of internal communication between different parts of the province, as contained in the provisions of the first-mentioned Decree, they will be enabled to pay with ease a higher rate of contribution than that to which they are at present subjected. This contribution, it is stated, can, without pressing heavily, be progressively raised to the maximum annual sum of 1,400 reis provincial currency (about 38. 11d.) for each hearth, exclusive of the sum of 200 reis at present paid for each hearth, under the same denomination; this increase being at the rate of 600 reis (about 18. 8d.) for the first year, and to reach the specified maximum in three years, the total sum being still inferior to that exacted from free negroes residing in other parts of Africa subject to the dominion of foreign Powers, and whose social condition does not differ from that of the negroes of Angola. In the body of the Decree it is stipulated that this tribute ("tributo de dizimo") may be paid . either in money or in the produce of the Province of Angola, such as coffee, cotton, iron, cattle, but never in goods produced or manu

factured out of the province; the inhabitants of the chief towns. must, however, pay the tribute in money. The Governor-General in Council is empowered to extend the provisions of the Decree to the other Districts and Presidencies of the Province, according as their respective circumstances may admit of it.

The Earl of Clarendon.

I have, &c.

HENRY F. HOWARD.

(Inclosure.)—Decree abolishing Compulsory Labour of Free Negroes in Angola.

(Translation.)

Palace, November 3, 1856.

Ir being strictly in accordance with justice to abolish, as soon as possible, the abusive practice which has existed from remote times in a portion of the territories of the Province of Angola, consisting in obliging free negroes, Portuguese subjects, to perform the laborious work entitled there "porter's service" ("serviço de carregadores"); considering that right which, according to the Constitutional Charter of the Monarchy, belongs to all Portuguese subjects, without distinction of race, colour, or religious creed, of disposing of their own labour and industry as it best suits them, ought to be secured to the said free negroes; considering that, far from the enforcing of this compulsory labour being sanctioned by law, a Royal Order, dated 1796, expressly forbids the exaction of any forced labour from the negroes of Benguella; and that previous Royal enactments provided that in Angola no person might engage the services of free people without paying them; and that a Portaria, dated January 31, 1839, also strictly prohibits the forced labour of "carregadores" in the whole extent of the said province; and inasmuch as this abuse, being promoted and kept up by avarice, and exercised in opposition to these Royal provisions, has annulled the right of the above-mentioned negroes to dispose freely of their own labour; considering that the argument put forward for preventing the abolition of this vexatious practice, viz., that if the negroes were not forced to perform the said service (" de carregadores"), all trade with the interior of the province would cease, as well as that with the independent tribes in the interior, is a pretext, to be classed with those made use of by the advocates of slavery, against the adversaries of such iniquity; inasmuch as in all the Portuguese territories of Angola where the said forced labour is not exacted, free negroes are to be found who voluntarily hire themselves for the purpose of conveying the merchants' goods, and during the period that the said Portaria of January 31, 1839, was in execution in that province, free negroes came to offer their services for conveying cargoes, in the same manner as the free negroes of Bihé, Songo, and various other places, do now, in the same province, as well as in all the Portuguese

territories in Guinea and in Eastern Africa. Finally, considering that such violence ought no longer to be tolerated, it having for more than a century been stigmatized by various zealous and intelligent authorities of that province, who considered it as the cause of serious impediment to the advancement of the province, and conforming with the reports of the Colonial Board, dated respectively December 10, 1851, and September 12, 1854, I think it right to decree the following:

ART. I. The forced labour called "serviço de carregadores" is hereby abolished and prohibited in all the territories of the Province of Angola, without any exception.

II. All other forced labour, of whatsoever denomination, is also abolished.

Single §. The following are not included in the above provision: 1st. Military service, and the services to which the inhabitants of the continental portion of the Kingdom and adjacent islands are bound according to law.

2nd. The service set forth in Article 3 of this Decree.

3rd. The service of the sluices or dykes, for preventing the ravages of inundations, and which is called there "serviço de bongues."

III. The inhabitants of the districts and presidencies of the province are also obliged to contribute towards the service of the construction and repairs of the roads in their respective districts, in the proportion not to exceed twelve days' labour, either consecutive or otherwise, to be furnished in person or by a substitute, in each

year,

Single §. The Governor-General in Council shall, as soon as possible, propose the roads to be opened first, and all else relating to the internal intercourse of the Province of Angola, and transmit a detailed report thereof, together with estimates of the outlay.

IV. This Decree shall be published in the "Boletim Official" of the Governorship of Angola, as soon as received at Loanda, and without delay published in all the districts and presidencies, by proclamation, in the usual manner, in order that it may be carried out fully throughout the province, at the expiration of ninety days from its publication in the above-mentioned " Boletim."

V. Any of the authorities who may, subsequently to the publi cation of the present Decree, be convicted of having obliged, directly or indirectly, or consented, that any of the free inhabitants of the Province of Angola should be forced to perform the compulsory labours abolished by the present Decree, shall be dismissed from his post, and shall make compensation to the individuals thus injured, such compensation to be adjudged in accordance with the Penal Code. The Viscount Sá da Bandeira, Peer of the Realm, Minister

and Secretary of State for Marine and Colonial Affairs, shall thus understand and cause it to be carried out. VISCOUNT DE SA DA Bandeira.

KING.

No. 415.—Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Dec. 29.)
MY LORD,
Lisbon, December 19, 1856.

I HAVE the honour of transmitting herewith a translation of a Portaria of the 5th ultimo, addressed by Viscount Sá da Bandeira to the Governors of all the Transmarine Provinces of Portugal, and published in the "Diario do Governo" of the 9th instant, containing directions with a view to secure the full enjoyment of freedom by liberated negroes being entitled to it. I have, &c. The Earl of Clarendon. HENRY F. HOWARD.

(Inclosure.)—Decree securing the Enfranchisement of Liberated

(Translation.)

Negroes.

Palace, November 5, 1856, His Majesty the King, desiring that no delay or obstacle may be placed to the legal enjoyment of liberty by individuals who, in virtue of legislative enactments, belong to the class of liberated negroes, when once they may have complied with the requirements of the law, and conforming to the representation of the Colonial Board, has thought proper to determine the following:

I. That if there should be found, in any of the transmarine provinces, liberated negroes to whom, from any motive whatsoever, letters of enfranchisement may not have been given in due time by the proper authority, the Governor-General of the province shall immediately furnish them with the same.

II. That as soon as the said liberated negroes may have completed the term of service to which they were bound by law, the GovernorGeneral of the province shall cause them to be declared sui juris, provided they be of age, and if not yet of age he shall cause them to be declared free, subject however to the guardianship of the Board appointed by Article X of the Decree of 14th September, 1854, till such time as they become of age. His Majesty commands that the execution of the provisions of this Portaria be strongly urged upon the Governors-General of the transmarine provinces, in order that no delay may ever occur in declaring the full enjoyment of liberty to such liberated negroes as have actually, or may in future have, completed the term of service to which they were bound by law: all of which is made known through the Marine and Colonial Department, to the Governor-General of the Province of Cape Verd, for his information and due performance.

SA DA BANDEIRA.

Similar Portarias were issued to all the Governors of the transmarine provinces.

No. 417.-Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Jan. 14.) MY LORD, Lisbon, January 5, 1857. INCLOSED I have the honour of transmitting a copy of the note which I addressed to the Marquis de Loulé on the 3rd instant, bringing under his consideration, in compliance with the instructions contained in your Lordship's despatch of the 26th ultimo, the proceedings, as reported in the despatch of Her Majesty's Commis sioners at Loanda to your Lordship, dated the 30th September last, of the Board of Protection established in the Colony of Angola under the provisions of the Portuguese Decree of the 14th December, 1854, for the registration and partial emancipation of slaves in the Portuguese Colonial Possessions, in respect of the loan made by them to the Colonial Government for the purpose of carrying out the expedition to the mines of Encoge, and to the case of the slave Fabião, whom they refused to manumit on the payment by him of the sum at which he had been originally valued.

The Earl of Clarendon.

SIR,

I have, &c.

HENRY F. HOWARD.

(Inclosure.)-Mr. Howard to the Marquis de Loulé.

Lisbon, January 3, 1857. HER Britannic Majesty's Commissioners at Loanda have reported to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, two circumstances respecting the proceedings of the Board of Protection, appointed according to the provisions of the Decree of the 14th December, 1854, in the Province of Angola, to which it now becomes my duty, by the instructions of the Earl of Clarendon, to call the attention of His Most Faithful Majesty's Government.

The first of these circumstances is the alleged misappropriation of a portion of the funds of the Board of Protection, which has, upon the application of the Treasury Board, been advanced by way of loan to the Colonial Government for the purpose of carrying out the projected expedition to the mines of Encoge.

Although the Decree of the 14th December, 1854, is silent as to the purposes to which such funds should be applied, yet its spirit seems to point out that the sole object in view must be the improvement, by education and every other possible means, of the slave or liberto, under whichever denomination or class he may be specified, and that to promote this object they should be religiously reserved, from whatever source they proceed.

One of the members of the Board in question, as Her Majesty's Government have been informed, when the proposition for a loan

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