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false impressions have been made on the public mind as to the real condition of the negro slave in the British colonies; and that, if humanity be their object, the intemperate and misguided proceedings of our ultra-abolitionists are much better calculated to injure than to meliorate the fortunes of the African race. Leaving entirely out of the question, for the present, the incalculable evils, moral and political, which would result from any general convulsion in our slave-population-and which disappointed hope is but too likely to stir up-the very expectation, by other nations, (and by the French in particular,) of such a catastrophe, has already given an increased appetite to speculation in the SLAVE-TRADE. In short, it has been and is their hope and expectation to see their own well-stocked colonies rise to prosperity on the ruins of ours. Our ultra-abolitionists, indeed, argue that the only security for the abolition of the slave-trade is to be looked for in the extinction of slavery itself—and their position would, no question, be undeniable, on the supposition that the extinction of slavery was to be universal and total. But we are sorry to be obliged to say, that the absolute abolition of the slave-trade by England alone, and even the steps hitherto taken by England with the view of ultimately abolishing the condition of slavery, have, in fact, had, as yet, more evil effects than good on the fate of the African race at large. This country has, in truth, offered a premium to other nations to engage more actively in the trade, while we are firmly persuaded that, if once the slave-traffic could be put an end to, the mitigation and ultimate extinction of slavery would follow in all the colonial possessions of every nation, by an operation at once gradual, safe, and certain; nay, that there is no other means from which any such results can be rationally expected.

But how, it may be asked, is this to be effected? Those powers with whom we have made solemn treaties for the extinction of this trade, if they do not directly encourage their subjects to violate those engagements, take no active steps whatever to prevent them from doing so; others refuse absolutely to join in any such treaties; in short, to say the least of it, all of them are lukewarm in the matter. They all, in fact, pretend to regard our interference as a political measure, founded upon self-interest; although it would be difficult indeed to produce even a shadow of argument for the support of such a charge. Our abolition of the slavetrade was a measure carried through parliament with the greatest good faith; it was a measure dictated by the purest principles of humanity; though, it must be confessed, the result has not corresponded with those sanguine views which were taken at the time.

It would not be difficult to prove, that the transfer of the trade from

from England to other nations has been productive of more human misery in one single year, than the sum-total of what has occurred in our West Indian colonies from the date of the abolition to the present hour; while we may safely affirm, that not one slave the less has crossed the Atlantic, since our abandonment of the traffic, than would have done so if we had continued it to this moment. And to say truth, our own government was in some degree to blame for this unfortunate result, by the hasty manner in which, after so many years of discussion, the abolition was at last carried. We took that step absolutely without any concert whatever with foreign powers, although there had indeed been a previous resolution in parliament for an address to his Majesty, that he would be pleased to direct a communication to be made to the other governments of Europe, for the purpose of engaging them to join in the abolition. Indeed it would almost seem, from the precipitate manner of proceeding, that the administration under which the abolition was carried, had anticipated its own speedy abolition. So anxious were the new-fangled and unsteady ministers to get the measure through, that they would listen to no proposal that implied delay. In vain the Lords Eldon and Hawkesbury urged the expediency of acting in concert with those powers who were then actually engaged in the trade; in vain was the cabinet forewarned, by Lord St. Vincent, of consequences now too visible-that France, on the restoration of peace, would get complete possession of this traffic; that the humane regulations by which the trade in our hands had been, to a considerable extent, governed, would be totally disregarded by those into whose hands it would fall; and that the misery of the middle passage itself would be eventually aggravated in a tenfold degree by the rash and isolated humanity of this country.

It is a matter of equal regret that, in the treaty with France of the 30th May, 1814, by which her West Indian islands were given back to that power, it had not been made a condition of the restoration of those colonies, that the slave-trade should immediately, and for ever, cease on the part of France, and a guarantee exacted for the due execution of such a stipulation; instead of which, under a mistaken liberality, our negociators were satisfied with an additional article to the treaty, by which

His Most Christian Majesty engages to unite all his efforts to induce all the powers of Christendom to decree the abolition of the slave-trade, so that the said trade shall cease universally, as it shall cease definitively, under any circumstances, on the part of the French government, in the course of five years.'

His Most Christian Majesty, however, in another supplementary article to the Treaty of Paris, of 20th November, 1815, again engages

004

• to

'to concert, without loss of time, the most effectual measures for the entire and definitive abolition of a commerce so odious, and so strongly condemned by the laws of religion and of nature;'

a commerce which he had indeed before stigmatized as repugnant to the principles of natural justice, and of the enlightened age in which we live.'

To what extent those most effectual measures' of his Most Christian Majesty Louis XVIII. were carried, and what success crowned all his efforts' to wipe off this odious disgrace to the laws of justice, of religion, and of nature, we have in part shown in a former Article; and we shall now briefly inquire, whether the efforts' of his successor, his present Most Christian Majesty Charles X., have been more successful in inducing all the powers of Christendom, and, at all events, his own subjects, to abandon so odious a commerce, now that TWELVE years, instead of FIVE, have passed away since the signing of this solemn compact of May, 1814. We shall confine ourselves, for the present, to the statement of a few cases of atrocious conduct on the part of the three principal sets of slave-dealers, those of France, Spain and Portugal. The other maritime nations of Europe have, as we believe, relinquished in good faith all intentions of carrying on the trade, and every wish of skreening their subjects who may be concerned in it from punishment. Indeed, with the exception of a very few cases, there is no reason for thinking that the subjects of the king of the Netherlands are now engaged in this traffic. They have been deterred by penalties of increased severity: and the zeal of the officers and crews of the Netherlands navy has been stimulated and encouraged, by the government having given up its proportion of the prize-money to the captors.

The government of the United States is unquestionably influenced by an honest desire to put an end to the trade; and to accomplish this the more effectually, it entered into a negociation with us, in which the principle of a mutual right of search was recognized; but the Senate, from some crotchet of jealousy, refused its sanction to a treaty, which made the slave-trade piracy. In consequence of this unhappy refusal, several American vessels, generally under the Dutch flag, have been slaving on the coast of Africa; one of them, the Bey, was lately seized under that flag, the crew of which, consisting entirely of Americans, escaped the punishment that, had the American Senate been as wise as the American Cabinet, must have awaited them. Their cruizers, however, are, we rejoice to know and to say, honestly and actively employed in looking out for offenders against the laws.

The New States of Spanish America, interested as all of them had immemorially been in the traffic of slaves, have eagerly dis

owned

owned and prohibited it. The abolition of slavery was one of the first acts of the Constituent Assembly of Guatimala. It declared not only that 'every man in the republic is free,' but that no one who takes refuge under its laws can be a slave; and it positively debars any one who carries on the slave-trade from the privileges of a citizen. This law was no sooner promulgated than one hundred slaves from the Honduras escaped into Guatimala; and these, though demanded back by our superintendent, were justly allowed the full protection of the statute which had proclaimed them free.

The recent conduct of Spain, and of the late Spanish colonies, in regard to this matter, has been justly held up by Mr. Canning as a reproach to the ancient and civilized monarchy of France. The cabinet of Madrid has readily entered into treaties for the abolition of the trade, and the voluntary acts of the emancipated colonies for the extinction of slavery have been already mentioned. But the urgent and reiterated expostulations of our minister, on the utter inefficiency of the existing French law for prohibiting the trade, have hitherto proved of little avail. In fact, the years 1824 and 1825 show an increased activity in the slave-trade under the flag of the lilies; and we do not find, in the papers before us, any mitigation or diminution of those atrocities which, from the first, have been exercised in the prosecution of this traffic. An earnest wish, and even a hope, it seems, was early expressed by our ambassador, Lord Granville, to the Baron de Damas, that the era of the reign of his Most Christian Majesty Charles the Tenth might be signalized by some decisive measures for the suppression of practices which he (Lord Granville) stated to be a scandal to the flag of France—and no doubt the answer was smooth. In vain, however, does Mr. Canning, up to this day, direct our ambassador to remonstrate in the strongest terms against the odious practices of the French slave-dealers, the indifference of the government, and the inefficiency of its regulations to check this disgraceful traffic under the protection of the flag of France;'this traffic which, as he distinctly says, disgraces the French name? The French minister is always ready enough with his assurances, that the French naval officers are strictly charged with the execution of the laws, and are zealous in intercepting slave-traders at sea, and in bringing the parties concerned before the tribunals; but, unhappily, these assurances are not supported by facts. We know, on the contrary, that the authorities, civil and military, seeing the indifference of the government, have openly, as well as secretly, lent their aid in support of the diplomatically denounced traffic and we shall give one sufficient example. Les Deux Nantais was one of those numerous vessels annually fitted out at

:

Nantz

Nantz for the African coast. The attention of the French government was specially drawn to this vessel by Sir Charles Stuart, in his note to M. de Chateaubriand, accompanied with a description of several other vessels fitting out at the very same port for the slave-trade, and terminating in a distinct call on the French ministry to take means for preventing the intended voyage. M. de Chateaubriand, in reply, gave the usual assurances,

'that the government of the king of France did not feel an interest less deep than that which was felt by the British government in the suppression of this odious traffic, and would not neglect any means for effecting the object.'

The interest,' however, which the king of France took would seem to have been the other way; for, notwithstanding these assurances of M. de Chateaubriand, the Deux Nantais did perform her African voyage without any molestation, either at home or on the coast, until she was boarded by his Britannic Majesty's ship Primrose off St. Domingo; when she was found to be laden with a cargo of 466 negroes from the river Sherbro' and bound for Cuba, where she afterwards landed them. The case was so glaring, and the French government was so pressed upon it by our ambassador, that an order was sent to the Commissary of Marine at Nantz to seize the vessel on her return from the West Indies. On the very day, however, after the receipt of this order by the Commissary, the several pilots at the mouth of the Loire were in possession of a circular, of which the following is a copy: 'M. Mahé, Master of the "Deux Nantais." The moment you receive this you will steer for the port of Antwerp, whither I intend proceeding without delay. Pray do not, on any account whatever, put into a French port. Give the pilot, who is the bearer of this, and who will take you out to sea, a receipt, upon producing which he will be paid by me one hundred francs for his pilotage. I wish you a good voyage. (Signed) OGERAU.'

We need scarcely say, that at Antwerp she accordingly turned up, laden with a cargo of colonial produce. M. de Damas put forward an attempt to justify the local authorities; but the case was found to be too strong for him, and the affair was reluctantly brought before the tribunals; and the Deux Nantais' was finally confiscated. The notoriety and the novelty of this proceeding, and its issue, alarmed the worthy people at Nantz, and still more so the receipt of new orders addressed to all the ports by the minister of the marine; the result of which was, as stated by Sir Richard Clayton, (in a letter dated 25th January, 1826,) that

a temporary stop has been put to every thing in this shameful commerce, and shares in the concern were yesterday endeavoured, from the

alarm,

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