than denounce in strong language the our experience in other places, we had horrors of the slave trade; but this was reason to expect. I imagined that in every nothing more than mere words. Now, case instructions would have been issued for however, they have sent out a squadron to joint operations; but I venture to believe co-operate with us; and that I consider that eventually that hope will be realised. to have been a most valuable and impor- I hope also we may be informed as to what tant change-a change much more advan- the French squadron has done recently tageous than a continued exercise on the upon the coasts of Africa. Before I conpart of England of the right of search-a clude I must be permitted to say, that neiright, the exercise of which, under such ther our intentions nor our measures have circumstances, necessarily led to much dis-had fair play. At one time stimulus and agreement, and to the discussion of ques- encouragement have been applied; at antions most serious in their consequences. All your Lordships are well aware that we have no squadron on the coast of Africa sufficient for the suppression of the slave trade our squadron was well known not to be sufficiently numerous. At first view it would seem that, in giving up the right of search, which had been so highly valued, we obtained no adequate return that we got nothing in its place; the truth is, however, that the example of two great countries co-operating for such a purpose is a matter of the very highest importance. What those Powers did, consisted not of mere empty admonitions, but was a practical proceeding, directly tending to secure the object in view; nor was it attended with any condition injurious to the means necessary for a suppression of the slave trade. It formed a very valuable part of the French convention, and one well worthy the attention of Parliament, that it operated to the discouragement of slave factories on the coast. With difficulty have the provisions of that treaty been carried out; and if it had not been for the most active co-operation between the French and the English, those barracoons could not have been destroyed. Another advantage, also, of the treaty is this, that for all purposes connected with the suppression of the slave trade we required the cordial co-operation of a French force; and the whole of the force employed was thus enabled, under the joint instructions of the English and the French authorities, to accomplish objects which otherwise would be beyond their power; and it was practicable to do this in several places at once. In Senegal, for example, the French were enabled to maintain a black corps, in which they justly placed the fullest confidence, and which were able to execute any measures which the French and English authorities might think it expedient to direct. I confess that I am in some respects a little disappointed that results have not been produced in this quarter, which, from other a totally opposite course has been in "On all sides, from innumerable tongues But I still hope that the country will not Earl concluded by moving for a return of all slave vessels captured by the ships of Her Majesty's Navy during the years 1845, 1846, and 1847; also of those captured by the ships of the Portuguese, French, and American squadrons in the years 1845 and 1846. The EARL of AUCKLAND had no objection to the returns as far as regarded the cruisers employed in Her Majesty's service; but he doubted whether he could obtain those of the Portuguese and United States. With regard to the French squadron, he hoped to be able to give the number of the captures also; but he could not positively promise. The noble Earl then read a letter from the Commander-in-chief of Her Majesty's squadron on the west coast of Africa, praising in the highest terms the general arrangements of those officers in command on that coast, as well for the efficiency of their arrangements for the suppression of the slave trade, as for the measures they had adopted for securing the health of those employed under them. The letter stated that the writer would, he had no doubt, be able at the proper time to report fewer cases of death, less of illness, and a greater number of captures this year, than at any former period. The expeditions up the rivers he considered most useful. Much had been said of the unhealthiness of the African station; but the sea on the coast of Africa was not more unhealthy than the sea on any other coast within the tropics. The mortality on board Her Majesty's squadron on that coast was, in 1845, equal to 5 per cent; but in 1847, it was reduced to 2 per cent; while the number of invalids, which in 1846 was equal to 10 per cent, in 1847 was only equal to 5 per cent. In addition to this, ships were now allowed to remain on the station only for two years. He (the Earl of Auckland) could further say, that Admiral Sir Charles Hotham was most indefatigable in his exertions to promote the health of those who served under him, as well as to suppress the trade in slaves. It would, in his opinion, be the infliction of a cruel injury upon those native States which had joined this country in treaties for the suppression of the slave trade, and who now began to taste the advantages of regular commerce, if, by the withdrawal of our fleet from the coast, they were plunged into civil war with their neighbours, which would infallibly be the case, as well as their relapse into the old system of slavery. He did not feel called upon to make any further remarks upon the observations of the noble Earl. LORD STANLEY would not have offered a single observation had it not been for a misapprehension into which the noble Earl (the Earl of Aberdeen) had fallen with respect to what he (Lord Stanley) had stated on a former occasion. He remembered, with satisfaction, that during the time he held office along with the noble Earl, there was no subject on which they felt more concurrence than in the measures taken for the prevention of the slave trade. He was a Member of the Government at the time the convention with France was concluded; he was a party to sending a naval force to the coast of Africa; and nothing would be more inconsistent in him, after having been a party to such a measure, than to have used the language the noble Earl had supposed him to have held-language condemning the employment of a naval squadron on the coast of Africa. The opinion he expressed on the occasion alluded to, was the same as that held by the noble Earl, however less plainly stated than in the observations of his noble Friend. He was not aware that the noble Earl intended to advert to anything that had fallen from him (Lord Stanley); but, since he had done so, he had referred to a record of what passed in their Lordships' House, and, though not strictly regular, he might advert to it for the sake of explanation. In the debate on the Address in the last Session of Parliament, he adverted to the change of policy in the sugar duties, deprecating that change as much as he did at the present moment, as calculated to encourage the slave trade to an extent greater than all the damage the successes of a squadron on the African coast could do to it; he returned also to an important treaty-important since it was mentioned in Her Majesty's Speech-that had been concluded with the Republic of the Ecuador, for the suppression of the slave trade; and, in doing so, he said— "He hoped this important paper would speedily be laid before Parliament, to enable them to judge of this subject to let them see what was the naval force of that republic, and what were the stipulations which had been agreed to for keeping ing this subject, he begged to warn the Government to take care that while they were suppressing the slave trade with the right hand, they were He did not not encouraging it with the left. hesitate to say that their past legislation had a naval force on the coast of Africa. Before leav given a stimulus to the slave trade-had increased the labour and exertions of the slave, as between the two alternatives well as raised his price; and, if he had to choose This increase was subsequent to, and he might say in consequence of, the change in their policy adopted in 1846. the abolition of the protective duty or the withdrawal of the squadron from the African coast, with its heavy expense and loss of life, and its aggravations of the evil it vainly endeavoured to put down, he believed he should choose the latter alternative, as the more innocent and less ruinous of the two." The BISHOP of EXETER wished to be allowed to say a few words on this interesting question. If it was the settled policy of this country to encourage the production of slave-grown sugar, he hoped they would decide on the removal of all difficulties in the way of importing slaves from Africa; for it was perfectly clear that the difficulties thrown in the way of that importation only caused increased suffering to those actually imported. The more vigilant and successful the squadron on the coast, the greater was the pressure on the unhappy creatures embarked in the slavers. If, then, they were to encourage the growth of slave sugar, they could not do better than at once give every help to the importation of slaves. What he meant to state was, that however great the exertions of the squadron had been in 1845 and 1846, yet their unfortunate legislation towards the end of 1846 had given such a stimulus and encouragement to the slave trade, that it more than neutralised the efforts of the naval force; and that, if he had to choose the most effective means of putting an end to this traffic, and was compelled to choose one of these means, and one only, he should prefer-as one more innocent, far less destructive, and far more efficient-retaining the differential duty on slave-grown sugar, and withdrawing the naval squadron. The EARL GREY thought the subject too returns from Cuba showed that in 1845, important to be fully discussed on the and up to October, 1846, there was a de- present occasion. But he would totally crease and rapid diminution in the impor- deny that it had been the policy of the tation of slaves; but after that period, in Government to encourage slave-grown suconsequence of a policy which the noble gar. Its policy had been that which every Earl justly described as inconsistent, nay, day's experience convinced him was a sound as irrational and insane, he feared a great one-namely, the relieving their own coloincrease would be shown in the import of nies from the encumbrance of a fancied negroes to the Havannah, notwithstanding protection, and placing the trade in sugar the vigilance and exertions of the naval on the same basis of freedom as that on force on the coast of Africa. He concur- which every great and flourishing trade red with the noble Earl in not thinking was placed. He was convinced that in the the number of captures a proof of the suc- end, and at no distant period, that would cess of the preventive squadron; on the prove to be a wise policy for the sugarcontrary, he had stated that the diminished producing colonies; but to say they encourcaptures in 1845 and 1846 indicated a de-aged slave-grown sugar was utterly withcline in the trade, rather than a relaxation out foundation. What they maintained in the activity of the naval force. The statement of the increased attention paid to the health of the crews, and its result, was very gratifying; but the increased number of captures alluded to was no test of the increased efficiency of the squadron; it rather proved that the trade was again on the increase the traffic revived, and the captures increased in the same proportion. He was still further confirmed in this opinion by the fact, that though in the sixteen months previous to the alteration in the sugar duties there were several captures, yet they were almost all empty vessels which were prevented from going in to fetch cargoes; and there was a complaint among the West Indian proprietors that so few captured Africans were landed to recruit the number of labourers. But since 1846 the number captured by the cruisers amounted to 5,000: a real proof that the trade was largely on the increase. was, that if sugar, not the growth of their own colonies, was admitted into consumption at all, it was utterly impossible to exclude that which was slave-grown. The measure of 1844, which admitted foreign sugar, but confined the consumption to what was free-grown, had practically the same influence on the trade of Cuba as if the sugar of Cuba had been openly admitted. Sir R. Peel himself, in the House of Commons, stated that his expectations as to the amount of free-grown sugar that would be imported into this country, had been disappointed by the fact of their having been a short crop in Cuba. But more than this, those who introduced the measure were themselves on the point of being compelled, in the face of commercial treaties, to admit the importation of slavegrown sugar; and they only excluded the slave-grown sugar of Cuba by descending to a species of diplomacy which was the only specimen of the kind in English his- | would appeal on this point to the noble tory-the only case in which an English Lord opposite [Lord ASHBURTON exMinister negotiated in the spirit of a petti-pressed his assent]-and thus the cargo of fogging attorney-refusing to fulfil the obligations of a solemn contract on pleas really so shallow and fallacious, that in private life they would not have a very high opinion of a gentleman who endeavoured by such pleas to avoid engagements between man and man. As he had stated before, this was too extensive a subject to be discussed on this occassion. If they really believed their policy calculated to encourage slavery and the slave trade, let them bring the question to a fair issue. But he could never for a moment believe that a British House of Lords would have passed a measure which they believed would encourage the slave trade. If they were now convinced they were wrong-if they thought the measure then adopted founded in error-let the question be fairly brought before them, and they could pronounce their conviction that they had committed such an error. But till they had done that, he, for one, would not sit in that House and listen to assertions that it was the policy of the Government to encourage slave-grown sugar, and, therefore, they had better at once give every facility to the importation of slaves from Africa. LORD DENMAN was not sure that his noble Friend had perfectly understood the right rev. Prelate; but if the policy of the Government in encouraging slave-grown sugar must have the effect of greatly promoting the slave trade, he quite agreed that the question of withdrawing the squadron might require a renewed consideration. At the same time, he denied that those preventive means had increased the sufferings of the negro to so great an extent as the right rev. Prelate and the noble Lord supposed. The torture and misery had always been extreme, and must continue as long as the accursed traffic was allowed to exist. He was old enough to remember, when a Bill was brought into the House of Commons limiting the number of slaves that should be shipped on board vessels of a certain size and tonnage, that that Bill was vigorously resisted. The very discussion by Parliament whether a wretched captive was to have an inch more orless to lie down in, was treated as an interference with the rights of private property, and an invasion of the principles of free trade, as they were understood at that time. The first principies of trade compelled the adoption of the cheapest means for carrying it on. He human beings must be packed in the fetid hold without regard to their health or comfort, or to anything but the profit of the slavetrader; if the trade continued at all, the competition itself would compel overcrowding. It was with the utmost satisfaction he had heard the clear and masterly statement of the noble Earl opposite (the Earl of Aberdeen). The country was infinitely indebted to him for the attention he had paid to the repression of the traffic; but he thought it would be still more indebted to him for the speech of that evening, if it induced them to reconsider the principle of their recent policy, and inquire whether its inevitable tendency was not to benefit the slavedealer, and perpetuate a traffic they must all abhor, and which he knew his noble Friends near him abhorred as much as he did. They would never have proposed any measure which they were not convinced would rather discourage the slave trade than promote it. But now, after a year's experience, that tendency which was previously discovered and exposed in argument, had been more glaringly demonstrated by the fact by the stimulus applied to this abhorred iniquity-the sudden start into prosperity of the slave-cultivated colonies, and the hopeless depression of our own. Public opinion on this subject appeared to him to have undergone a lamentable and disgraceful change; in works issued from the press he could not find a single argument that did not bear tokens of alliance with the slavedealer, founding his unhallowed prosperity on the perpetual degradation and oppression of the unfortunate negro race. But he was told that this measure of 1846 was discussed and agreed to with such singular deliberation and care, that "a British House of Lords" (such was his noble Friend's expression) could not now take a different line of conduct without culpable inconsistency. He must say, as a witness, that the passing of that measure deserved a completely opposite description. The discussion, on the contrary, had been hurried on in a manner wholly unprecedented. The Bill had been brought from the House of Commons on Saturday, the 9th of March. In the ordinary course of things its principles would have been debated on the Motion for its second reading towards the close of the ensuing week. He had himself expected a summons to attend at that period; but he was suddenly called by three urgent messengers, and came up in | laws of that State to which the slave trader feeble health, perfectly incompetent to do belonged, was, ipso facto, piracy. It was justice to his own sentiments on the most true that, in a particular case, Lord Stowell interesting of all subjects. This was had given a different opinion; but it was little; but the debate was fixed for the met by the high authority of Sir W. first reading instead of the second, and Grant, and could not alter the nature of the first was fixed for Monday the 11th. things. Lord Stowell had promulgated Dates were very material; the 12th of his notions in a case which did not require August was devoted to other arrangements. them, and they would not stand the test of Noble Lords were already absent on their reason. The fact was remarkable, that in the annual expedition against the grouse. [Earl year 1817, the very year when his doctrine GREY intimated that the postponement was was laid down, we had equipped our squaat the request of the noble Lords opposite.] dron on the coast of Africa to suppress the That was immaterial for his statement, trade. In that same year England had enwhich was, that the Bill had not been at tered into her treaty with the Emperor of all considered by the majority of the House Brazil, by which the slave trade of Brazil of Lords; many of whom, he personally was tolerated till a final arrangement of knew, were not aware that the Bill was in the matter; but in 1820 it was finally arprogress, while the minority, compelled by ranged by a mutual declaration between their offices to be on the spot, had passed those two Powers, that slavetrading should the measure. It was, therefore, perfectly be "deemed and treated as piracy.' open to that House to enter upon a dis- Such a declaration was necessary on the cussion, which really had not been sub- part of those who had so long recognised mitted to them. Even the Bishop of Ox-it as a legitimate commerce; but it was ford had been left in ignorance of the pre-made because it was true, and both parmature discussion; and he could not but re- ties agreed to call it by its right name. gret that the noble Earl (the Earl of Aber- When in 1823 an offer was made by the deen) had been at a distance at that time; United States of America to declare the he believed the speech which he had just slave trade piracy by the law of nations, made would then have produced a great it was a great misfortune that Mr. Canning impression on the House, and might have did not see the advantage of agreeing to insured the rejection of the Bill. He (Lord this proposal; for though the declaration Denman) rejoiced, however, that the returns of two countries could not bind all, nor had been moved for; and he was glad that make a particular crime piracy by the law a Committee had been appointed in the other of nations-if in its own nature it was not House that would enter into the inquiry so-still it would have been binding on the with those full means of information which subjects of each. If that proposal had must remove the sordid prejudices indus- been accepted, he (Lord Denman) believed triously propagated. On the subject of the that the slave trade would not now exist. slave trade, he wished to say a few words But there was a still more important testimore. It was often supposed that we were mony-the declaration of the Parliament doing something very improper, and inter- of England. In 1824 that Act received fering with the just rights of other nations, the Royal Assent which proclaimed this when we aimed at a forcible suppression of truth to the world, and denounced all who that traffic. It was not so. England had took part in the most atrocious of crimes relinquished the slave trade because she the seizure and sale of their fellow-creaconsidered it an enormous crime; he, for tures-as "pirates, robbers, and felons." his own part, was anxious to record his Did it declare them such, because they his opinion, that it was no less than the did not deserve that character? No; but crime of piracy in its most aggravated form because it was their only true designation. -an opinion formed on the fullest consider- We need not then encumber our proceedation, and now avowed with perfect confi-ings with any scruples about their lawfuldence in its correctness. Lawyers had hardly turned their minds to this subject; but he was sure that if his noble Friend on the Woolsack, and his noble Friend below him (Lord Campbell), examined the subject, they would agree with him that the slave trade carried on without the authority of any State, and in contravention of the ness, but proceed to inquire to what extent they had been effectual for their purpose. The noble Farl (the Earl of Aberdeen) had furnished some important information on this subject, and the disclosures likely to be brought out before the Committees alluded to, would doubtless be of the greatest value. The treatment of the |