of liberation: I cannot suppose the British government will allow such a subtile anomaly to continue. Great care has been taken to give those treaties an appearance of fairness, and that reciprocal advantages should arise from the restrictions and compensations, but these high contracting powers have completely forgotten, that, although the poor African is not of such very high consideration as they are, yet he is certainly the most interested party concerned; the active benevolence of Great Britain is acknowledged; she has abolished her slave trade, and is the avowed friend of Africa; she has made many exertions to promote her civilisation, and has expended millions of pounds in the hope of administering to her happiness and improvement; therefore I confidently trust that on this occasion she will not entirely desert her, but insist, that the governments of Portugal and Spain shall establish a situation in which the captured negroes, after emancipation, may be comfortably placed, with similar benefits and protection secured to them, as they would enjoy if liberated at Sierra Leone, and also that an officer from each government, shall annually be sent to inspect their condition and treatment at the different settlements allotted for their reception; by such regulations the African might receive some benefit, and not be completely sacrificed to diplomatic complaisance and courtly etiquette: the treaties positively afford every advantage in trade to Portugal and Spain, and induce heavy expense to Great Britain, without diminishing the calamities of Africa in the slightest degree! I shall now proceed to " the treaty ratified between his Britannic Majesty and the King of the Netherlands, for preventing their subjects from engaging in any traffic in slaves; signed at the Hague, May 4th, 1818. " Article 1. "The King of the Netherlands engages that within eight months from the ratification of the treaty, or sooner, if possible, to prohibit all his subjects, in the most effectual manner, and especially by penal laws the most formal, from taking any part whatever in the slave trade. " I have no hesitation in saying, that I believe the King of the Netherlands sincere in his desire to abolish the slave trade, and must lament that the treaties with Portugal and Spain were signed before the treaty with Holland, as they became precedents from which he could not consistently deviate, therefore occasioned similar instructions to be given to the commanders of his ships of war, sent to detect slave traders, and similar regulations for the Commissioners appointed for the adjudication of vessels under the Dutch flag, detained for having slaves on board. Had not these treaties been ratified, I am convinced the treaty with Holland for an abolition of the slave trade would have been more salutary to Africa; but as it is now settled, little remains for me to add to the remarks already made on the other treaties, I cannot comprehend why Great Britain has been the only power allowed to visit and detain illicit slave traders of all nations; why a reciprocal right of visitation and detention should not have been granted to the royal navy of Spain, Portugal, and Holland, as fully as to that of England? the greater the number, and the more extensively distributed the guard ships were allowed to be, the more efficacious we may conclude, the efforts at detention would become, and after the expiration of the period allowed to Spanish subjects for carrying on the trade, the Spaniards might prove the most efficient in the detention of slave traders, from a knowledge of their illicit practices, prohibited places, and evasions for escape; besides the interest Spain would have in procuring the slaves for herself under this new doctrine of liberation, would induce alertness; but all aid is denied, and the English, who are most ignorant of these subterfuges, and most open to imposition, are the only persons entrusted with the power of visiting and detaining the ships of every nation; surely this does not prove much sincerity in the professions of these powers to abolish or diminish the slave trade, to detect and punish illicit traders, or to liberate the Africans illegally enslaved !! The King of the Netherlands has agreed to establish his Commission Court at Surinam, for the adjudication of such vessels, navigated under his flag, or belonging to any of his subjects, as may be detained with slaves: now if there is one spot on earth more deleterious than Sierra Leone, it is this colony; though the Commission Courts may be inefficacious, the Commissary Judges should not be doomed to a premature death! besides it must be considered that the white inhabitants of Surinam have been, on various occasions, nearly destroyed, by different insurrections amongst the slaves, and that there is even now a republican settlement of runaway slaves, in the fastnesses and mountains of that most unhealthy settlement: if then a cargo of slaves should be emancipated by the Commission Court, about to be established there, with what safety to the colony could the negroes be sent on shore as free laborers? Is it not evident that such a step would add so much fuel to the fire of insurrection already kindled, spread the conflagration, irritate the slaves now residing quietly with their masters, induce them to join the insurgents, and most probably produce a fresh specimen of the horrid cruelties perpetrated at St. Domingo. As the principal object for establishing these courts cannot be carried into effect, namely, the liberation of the illegally enslaved African, the formation of them is futile, the regulations nugatory, and the expense superfluous; nor should the good intentions of Holland be rewarded, by uselessly endangering the safety of one of her most valuable possessions. I trust the King of the Netherlands will reflect on the threatened mischief, and as I believe his Majesty to be determined, as far as his power extends, no longer to suffer his subjects to entail slavery on the wretched Africans, I fervently hope, that the necessity, for establishing any tribunal of this sort, will be done away, before a Dutch ship with slaves for adjudication can be brought into Surinam. Great Britain having selected Sierra Leone as the place in which her mixed Commission Court shall be established, it of course becomes the residence of the convention of these diplomatic justiciaries, and fortunately in that colony the captured negroes, if any should ever be emancipated under those treaties, can be settled as free laborers, and their liberty guaranteed; but to place the British, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch Commissary Judges, the arbitrators from these governments, and their registrars, secretaries, clerks, and necessary establishment of European servants, in a colony, where it is allowed that one-third of the white inhabitants die annually, appears unaccountable; besides the difficulty of bringing vessels to that port for adjudication is acknowledged. Sir James Yeo in his report of the west coast of Africa to the Admiralty, which was laid before Parliament, has explained it fully; every naval officer that has been stationed on the western coast for six months, could more clearly explain the cause than I can; it depends on winds and currents, which is part of the learning of their profession, not of mine; however I have known several vessels full of slaves captured on the coast near the equator, to continue beating about for three months before they could reach the port of Sierra Leone for adjudication; and in consequence of being so detained at sea, numbers of the slaves perished through want, and many that did arrive had scarcely power to crawl from the beach to the hospital; yet those vessels were navigated with the usual ability of our naval officers. I mention these circumstances more particularly, because it is of the utmost consequence to the miserable African, that he should be liberated (if liberation can be effected by these treaties) in our colonies; therefore it is of peculiar interest to select a place, to which ready access on detention can be had, but there are very few parts of the Atlantic on which it is probable that slave vessels may be detained, that Bahia, Surinam, or the Havanna, could not be arrived at sooner than Sierra Leone, which alone would render that colony extremely ineligible Really the whole arrangement appears so inconsistent with the professed intention, that I scarcely think it possible our. government seriously intend to carry these treaties with their instructions and regulations into execution. A salary of three thousand a year is allowed for the judge, with half salary on retirement, and fifteen hundred a year to a registrar, (which is equal to the highest salary allowed for judges in our other colonies) yet gentlemen are selected to fill the judicial stations, who are neither civilians nor common-law lawyers, though they are to preside and to decide, with the judges and arbitrators, chosen by three highly considered governments, on the liberty of thousands, and on compensation which may amount to millions of pounds. As the noble lord at the head of the foreign department, has been engaged in discharging a very important duty on the continent, an inadvertent arrangement may have been made; now I trust more consideration will be given to those treaties, for I again repeat that no one possible advantage can arise to Africa from these courts; that the instructions are only calculated to free the slave trader from detention and loss, and that a very heavy expense must unnecessarily be thrown on Great Britain. The treaties profess to restrain, correct, and punish criminal conduct, yet how unlike the principles and practice of our criminal law, or in fact any coercive code! I shall not notice the Commission Court established in London; it does not affect abolition as much as finance, but shall leave it for those more conversant with that subject, to balance its utility and expense. The separate article of the Portuguese treaty, signed at London on the 11th of September, 1817, is the only part now left for me to comment on, and I must declare that its obscure construction is only surpassed by its mischievous tendency. SEPARATE ARTICLE. "As soon as the total abolition of the slave trade, for the subjects of the Crown of Portugal, shall have taken place, the two high contracting parties hereby agree by common consent, to adapt to that state of circumstances, the stipulations of the additional convention, concluded at London the 28th of July last, but in default of these alterations, the additional convention of that date shall remain in full force until the expiration of fifteen years, from the day on which the general abolition of the slave trade shall so take place on the part of the Portuguese government." I suppose the meaning of this article to be, that if a total abolition should take place, the high contracting parties agree to adapt to that change the stipulations of the treaty of July, 1817, but in default of such adaptation, the stipulation shall remain in full force for fifteen years, from the day on which the general abolition of the slave trade shall take place. This article begins with giving us some hope that the Portuguese would totally abolish the slave trade, but as we have been fed on this hope for nine years, and as a million of Africans have suffered slavery or death, or both, from the expectation not having been carried into effect, I ask, if Great Britain is not called on now to demand its realisation? Has she not pledged herself at the altar of benevolence to protect the African, and to annihilate this execrable barrier to his civilisation? that pledge must not evaporate in incense to atrocity! her national honor, the precepts of her religion, her respect for moral obligation, and her declaration as to the injustice, inhumanity, and impolicy of the trade, compel her to enforce an universal abolition; and the elevated situation she holds among the nations of the civilised world, has established it her imperative duty to lead the way in terminating this unprincipled degradation of the human species. In the Portuguese treaty ratified in February, 1810, the Prince Regent of Portugal" assures us, that he is convinced of the injustice and impolicy of the slave trade, and of the disadvantages which arise from introducing such a factitious population into his South American dominions, and has resolved to co-operate with His Britannic Majesty by adopting the most efficacious means for bringing about an abolition of the slave trade throughout the whole of his dominions." The treaty signed 22d of January 1815, contains also the following strong protestations. "His Britannic Majesty and his Royal Highness the Prince Regent of Portugal, equally animated by a sincere desire to accelerate the moment when the blessings of peaceful industry and an innocent commerce may be encouraged throughout this extensive. portion of the continent of Africa, by its being delivered from the evils of the slave trade." The treaty then proceeds to prohibit the subjects of Portugal from trading for slaves, north of the equator, which I need not copy. Here is an acknowledgment of the evils of the slave trade, that it prevents the blessings of peaceful industry and innocent commerce from being extended over any portion of Africa where it is carried on; and in another clause it is stated, "That the high contracting parties reserve to themselves, by the same instrument, and engage to determine by a separate treaty, the period at which the trade in slaves shall universally cease and be prohibited throughout the entire dominions of Portugal." And in the treaty of July, 1817, "His Faithful Majesty declares, that he has reserved to himself, in concert with His Britannic Majesty, to fix the time when |