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alarm, to be disposed of on the Exchange at 30 and 40 per cent. loss, but without success.

But there was another reason to induce the government to put on the appearance of severity in the case of the Deux Nantais. It seems that public opinion (thanks to the British press and to the persevering remonstrances of Mr. Canning!) was beginning to declare itself in Paris against the infamous traffic. The merchants and bankers of that city had already petitioned the legislature against it; they had held up Nantz as the great emporium for sanctioning a crime which they declared to be compounded of robbery and murder; against which the law, they observe, as it now stands, recognizes but one single offender, namely, the captain of the ship, although his guilt is shared by the owners, the insurers, the advancers of capital, the supercargo, and the seamen. France has also its abolition societies, though yet in their infancy, who are scandalized at the barefaced proceedings of the dealers of Nantz.

Thirty ships (says one of them), belonging to a civilized country, have sailed in the nineteenth century from a single port of one of the most enlightened nations in the world-a nation which honours letters, which admires the sciences and the arts, which publicly recognizes, and professes the religion of Christ; and these ships have sailed, not to communicate to Africa the blessings of civilized life,-not to go, guided by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that Spirit of mercy and of peace, and carry to the inhabitants of Africa the good tidings of salvation,-but to bear thither terror and desolation, to foment war and carnage, to pollute its shores with the most flagitious crimes, and to condemn thousands of innocent victims to the horrors of the middle passage, unparalleled in the history of the miseries of mankind.'

The slave-dealers of Nantz have also been told, by one of their own deputies, what their real character is.

If the pirate is a criminal, an armed robber, often an assassin; so the man who orders, or shares in such a traffic, (for there is no difference between the slave-captain who executes, and the merchant who, from his counting-house, in cold blood, gives out to his accomplice this execrable mission,) the man thus sharing and thus ordering is also a criminal, an armed robber, often an assassin: he is, moreover, as cowardly as he is ferocious: he has not even the courage of a pirate. He does not deserve to be less hated, because he must be more despised.'

The spirit of commercial avarice, however, though checked, is not easily subdued; and we are therefore not in the least surprized that the trade under the French flag should, at the moment we are writing, be as vigorously pursued as ever. If the government manifests, to say the least of it, a frigid indifference on the subject, we may be quite sure that the commanders of the few ships of war, ostensibly sent to the coast of Africa for the suppression

of

of the trade, will imitate the supineness of the ruling power. While these traffickers are swarming on every part of the coast, few, if any of them, are captured. The master of one of them, which was boarded by one of our cruizers, said he had been visited by a French ship of war before he took on board his cargo, the commander of which only told him to take care he did not fall in with him ou his coming out some ten days afterwards; as, if he did, he should be obliged to capture him: a friendly hint which, of course, was not lost upon the slave-dealer. Another slavecaptain says to his owner,

M. La Traite (who commands the Hebe) gave me plainly to understand that he was not ignorant of my voyage, and told me at parting, "Be prudent, and look well about you."

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There appears to be some ground, therefore, for the complaint of the Baron de Damas, that the officers of the navy are disposed to do their duty very reluctantly.' But why are they so disposed? The reason is obvious enough-they meet with a degree of discouragement from the government and the civil authorities, which the spirits and the hardihood of a seaman can scarcely be expected to surmount. Yet one French officer at least has honestly done his duty. Captain Lachelier detained and sent to Senegal for adjudication several French slaving vessels, and among others three that were afterwards boarded by the Maidstone; but mark the issue-they were all liberated by the Court there, and, when very shortly afterwards met by our Commodore, Bullen, they had already audaciously returned to complete their adventure. The law, therefore, as it now stands, is either inadequate to the object, or there is a secret understanding that it is not meant to be acted upon. In truth, it is a mockery of common sense to proclaim a traffic to be unlawful, and to punish the offender with confiscation of the vessel only, while neither infamy nor corporal punishment attaches to the individual, and while he knows that the profits of one successful voyage will more than compensate him for the losses he may sustain in two, by the capture of his ships. France objects to a mutual right of search, and to the capture of her ships actually engaged in the slavetrade, because, forsooth, such a concession would militate against the honour of her flag-strange notions of honour, that can suffer the French flag not only to protect a trade which France has declared to be infamous and illegal, but to give security and protection to the wretches of other countries engaged in the trade who may chuse to display it! France, however, may rest assured that even her flag would not be dishonoured in assisting the British flag in the work of extending humanity to the African race. In point of fact, the privileged pirates under the French flag

openly

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openly declare that they have no fear of being disturbed by the king's ships. Mr. Canning may therefore well say, that the slave-trade is now carrying on under the flag of France with scandalous publicity.' So little,' says Commodore Bullen, do they appear to fear detection, that the officers of La Sabine voluntarily conducted ours over their vessel, pointing out the different apartments for the males and females, and explaining every circumstance connected with it.'

Some notion of the system of atrocities under which this traffic is carried on may be collected from the dispatches of Commodore Bullen; but we must observe, that the number of slave-vessels seen and visited by our squadron, on a line of coast of more than a thousand miles, affords no criterion of the real extent of the trade. Neither can we form an idea of the sum of human misery from the cruelties which are witnessed in those few that are captured; as is justly observed in the Nineteenth Report of the Directors of the African Institution, there is not more of cruelty, it may fairly be assumed, in the one vessel which is captured, than in the hundred which escape.' In their Twentieth Report they

say,

It is stated, under date of 10th December, from Sierra Leone, that, notwithstanding the activity of English cruizers, the coast still swarmed with slave-dealers. The Redwing boarded, during a single cruize, French vessels having on board upwards of three thousand slaves; besides which, she saw many French vessels which avoided her. A brig, la Jeune Caroline, had four hundred and fifty slaves on board, every one of whom was closely battened below when she was boarded. A large French ship, having five hundred slaves on board, and carrying twelve guns and sixty men, bound for Martinique, was boarded a few days prior to the Redwing's return to Sierra Leone. She had all her guns clear for action, but offered no resistance to a visit from the boats of the Redwing.

Three Spanish vessels were captured by the Redwing's boats between the 7th and 11th October, but only one had arrived at Sierra Leone by the 10th December. The schooner Teresa was upset on the morning of the 19th October, in a tornado, when one hundred and eighty-six slaves, three men and one boy belonging to the Redwing, and the Spanish mate, were lost; the remainder, two officers and nine seamen belonging to the Redwing, and six slaves, were picked up on pieces of the wreck the next morning: fortunately, fifty slaves had been removed to another vessel the day before, and have since arrived at Sierra Leone. It is observed, that the captures of the last six months equal any other in a similar space of time which can be named, fourteen vessels having been captured, making a total of 1,690 tons, and carrying about 4,000 human beings. It is stated that the Maidstone boarded, amongst many other French vessels, a corvette fully armed and manned, which originally had 1,000 slaves on board.

On the whole, it appears that the slave-trade has increased during the

last

laying these before the Dauphin, he had the satisfaction of finding the expectations of justice and humanity not deceived. His Royal Highness seems prepared to give the authority of his high station in behalf of this great cause; and has promised that every measure adapted for the suppression of the slave-trade shall have, not only his approbation, but his support.-Twentieth Report, p. 26.

There is some hope too that Spain, having no longer any great interest in pursuing the traffic, and having an honest minister at the head of her councils, may ere long pass such a law against the trade as shall effectually prevent her flag and her subjects from being engaged in it; and as for that wretched government of Portugal, which owes its existence, feeble and palsied as it is, to Great Britain, she ought to be peremptorily ordered to abandon the traffic altogether. Having no slave colonies she can no longer have even a pretext for carrying it on; her ships, therefore, found in the prosecution of the slave-trade ought unquestionably to be considered as mere pirates, and treated accordingly. The Marquis of Palmella acknowledged indeed, two years ago, to our ambassador at Lisbon, that he was almost willing to consent at once to the total abolition of the slave-trade, in which Portugal could have no interest, in case of the independence of the Brazils.' On which the directors of the Institution justly observe,

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As the independence of Brazil has been subsequently recognized, and as any negociation binding its direct interests must be now made with Brazil, it is difficult to explain why, as far as Portugal is concerned, this abolition has not been proclaimed-especially since it is understood that the British government have determined to enter into no treaty with Portugal in which the effectual abolition of the slave-trade should not be provided for.'

We shall presently see what is the determination of the new representative government of Portugal. With regard to the Brazils, the surrounding states of America will, when once settled in their respective governments, dispose of Don Pedro's negroes, and probably of himself; in the mean time, should his ships continue to desolate Africa, we hope they may be most rigidly kept within the limits prescribed in the existing treaties, and harassed even there by every possible means. At present every Brazilian slave-dealer practises a double fraud, assisted by the corrupt con

* While this sheet is passing through the press, we observe (Sept. 2) the arrival of some Sierra Leone Gazettes filled with new instances of Portugueze, as well as French, cruelty and audacity, in the unremitted prosecution. of this traffic. A Portuguéze schooner, La Fortuna, had just been captured and brought in, with 200 slaves, the remainder of 250, of which the cargo had originally consisted. Ten slavers had been seen lying together in the Bonny, of which seven were French, and the Maidstone had just fallen in with a frigate-built French vessel, the original cargo of which had been 700 negroes.

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nivance of the officers of his government. Firstly, his imperial passport directs him to Molembo; but both the giver and receiver of that well know there are no slaves to be had at Molembo; secondly, the same passport declares the tonnage of the vessel to be quite different from what it actually is, by means of which vile trick, instead of taking on board five slaves for every two tons, according to treaty, it has been discovered that they are in the constant practice of taking on board four or five to every single ton.

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It has been attempted' (say the directors of the African Institution) to justify this infringement of positive treaty by the singular declaration that there are two modes of measuring vessels; one for merchant vessels in general, and another for slave-ships in other words, that a nominal and fictitious tonnage is taken for the last, "whereby human beings can be crammed into a smaller space than that known to be occupied by their weight in lead. The wretched creatures thus stowed away have been, consequently, chained together so close, that in all cases extreme misery, and in very many madness and death, have followed." Mr. Canning's expostulation against this violation of common humanity, as well as of solemn compacts, was presented during the course of last May to the government of Brazil, begging for an "immediate decree to do away this one, at least, among many evils." M. Carvalhoe Melho has answered, with a most concise indifference, that " he will take a fit opportunity to direct the proper measures.

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The following description of a Brazilian slave-trader, taken in the present year, may serve as a specimen of the condition of the poor negroes put on board a ship of this nation. It is that of the Perpetuo Defensor,' having on board 424 slaves.

A short time after detention (it is Commodore Bullen who speaks) 'I visited her, to be an eye-witness to the state of the slaves on their being brought on deck for the purpose of being counted; and I have to assure their lordships, that the extent of human misery evinced by these unfortunate beings is almost impossible for me to describe. They were all confined in a most crowded state below, and many in irons, which latter were released as soon as they could be got at. The putrid atmosphere emitting from the slave-deck was horrible in the extreme, and so inhuman are these fellow-creature dealers, that several of those who were confined at the farther end of the slave-room, were obliged to be dragged on deck in almost a lifeless state, and wasted away to mere shadows, never having breathed the fresh air since their embarkation. Many females had infants at their breasts, and all were crowded together in a solid mass of filth and corruption, several suffering from dysentery, and although but a fortnight on board forty-seven of them had died from that complaint.'

The directors of the African Institution appear to think that, by a determined encouragement of free labour, we may make the trade not worth pursuing.' We must take the liberty to say, that we have no great opinion of this free labour' system. The

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directors

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