pulations, however, have been attended with little benefit to Northern Africa, for they have continued to be most grossly and extensively violated by her subjects: some even of her public functionaries, governors of African colonies, have not scrupled by their own practice, openly to sanction the violation, and to set at nought the laws they were bound to execute."

An active Slave Trade had been unceasingly carried on between the islands of Bissao and Cape de Verd, and the adjoining continent. These islands are used as depôts for the Slaves taken thither in canoes and small vessels, by French and other slave-traders, with the view of being afterwards removed to the Havannah or to the French West-India Islands. But it is to the rivers which run into the Bight of Benin, and into that of Biafra, that the Portuguese slave-ships chiefly resort. Many such vessels, in the course of the last year, have been found there by his Majesty's ships completely furnished with all the implements of their criminal traffic, and in a state of readiness to embark their human cargo. The traffic, however, has been but in a slight degree checked by these discoveries.

The Directors are happy to perceive that Portugal, as well as Spain and the Netherlands, has acceded to an important amendment in the terms of the convention for repressing the Slave Trade. It is agreed, that if there shall be clear proof that a slave or slaves have been put on board, for the purpose of illegal traffic, the vessel may be lawfully detained and condemned.

The Directors express a hope that the Portuguese nation, in vigorously asserting its own rights, as it has lately done, will not be forgetful of the equally sacred rights of their African brethren, and that they will allow the voice of justice and humanity to be

heard among them. Much is anticipated from that diffusion of information on the subject, which the liberty of the Portuguese Press will now facilitate. "While the provinces," observe the Directors,

which formerly belonged to Spain on the American continent, and which almost surround Brazil, have proclaimed with one voice the emancipation of their bondsmenand while the political agitations which prevail in Brazil itself must in a greater or less degree produce a fermentation in the minds of its Black and Coloured populationPortugal cannot be so infatuated as to believe that she may continue with impunity annually to import into that colony tens of thousands of enslaved Africans, smarting under the sense of recent injury, and eager to break the chains to which they are still unaccustomed.” Our readers are aware, that the recent revolutions in South America have extended to the Portuguese colonies, and that neither Spain nor Portugal has at present any real control over the settlements on that continent. These and other circumstances will have modified some of the views under which the subject appeared a year or two since. We forbear, however, to enter upon the many important considerations which present themselves in reference to this new order of affairs, till further information shall have been laid before the public.

So

Spain. Until a recent period, the communications between our Government and that of Spain consisted of a succession of unavailing remonstrances on the part of the former, met with apparent indifference on the part of the latter. lately as the month of April, 1821, Spain appeared still so attached to the Slave Trade, that not only was a law for its more effectual repression, proposed by the Count de Torreno, rejected by the Cortes, but an intimation was given of their intending to apply for two years* farther extension of the term fixed

by treaty for its abolition. To this intimation lord Londonderry replied in the most peremptory terms, that his Majesty neither would nor could lend himself to such a proposition.

A few months later, however, a much better spirit began to manifest itself. On the 27th of August the Spanish Minister declared, that orders had been given for the punctual enforcement of the treaty on this subject; and in January last, an article was introduced into the criminal code, enacting that all owners, fitters out, captains, masters, and officers of Spanish vessels who shall purchase Negroes on the coast of Africa, or introduce them into any part of the Spanish dominions, or be captured with Slaves on board, shall forfeit their vessel; and the offending persons shall be condemn ed to ten years' hard labour on the public works. The same penalties attach to all owners, proprietors, captains, masters, and officers of all foreign vessels, who shall illegally introduce Slaves into any of the ports of the monarchy. All Negroes found on board, or introduced by any of the above-mentioned means, are declared free; and of the produce arising from the sale of the slave-ships, one part is to be distributed among the Negroes, that they may be reconveyed to their own country, or be enabled to form establishments in the country where they are introduced.

At the period, however, of this Report, there had been no relaxation of the trade in Cuba and Porto Rico.

Our readers are already apprised of the gratifying circumstance, that throughout the whole range of Spanish America, now become independent, not only has the Slave Trade been effectually prohibited, but the very incentive to this crime has been removed, by providing for the early and gradual abolition of slavery itself. All persons of every colour, born subjects of the

Independent States, have been declared free from their birth. And whatever other variations may appear in the plan of the Constitutions to be adopted by the several independent governments, all have agreed, that difference of colour shall not produce any difference in the civil condition of their subjects. Even in Mexico, the Indians and Africans are entitled to the same civil and political privileges as the Whites.

Netherlands. It appears that no effectual legal check had been put to the importation of Slaves into the Dutch colonies. It is stated, that thousands of new Negroes have been imported into Surinam, since the Mixed Commission has been sitting there; and that there was no doubt the importations would be continued, unless very strong and decisive measures were adopted.

France.-The Slave Trade under the flag of France maintains its guilty pre-eminence. Almost every part of the African coast, whether on its western or eastern shores, is crowded with French contrabandists. Although a French squadron had for some time been stationed on the coast of Africa, for the express purpose of suppressing the Slave Trade, no useful effort appeared to have been made by it. The French cruisers had not, as far as was known, made a single cap. ture. They had even met with ships trading for Slaves under the flag of France, and, after exchanging civilities with them, had left them unmolested to pursue their illegal and criminal traffic. At Senegal and Goree, which form the head-quarters of the squadron, the merchants, and even some public functionaries, were still deeply engaged in this traffic.

But the ravages of the French Slave-traders are not confined to the western shores of that devoted continent. The eastern coast, and especially the island of Zanzebar, have attracted the cupidity of these

and the Netherlands. In France especially, these have excited considerable attention; and fresh editions of some of them have been undertaken by booksellers in Paris, with a view to the profit to be derived from the sale. A pamphlet by M. Gregoire, and the excellent speech of the Duc de Broglie have been read with avidity. Mr. Wilberforce also has published, in the French language, a letter addressed to the Emperor of Russia; in which with all the fervour of his eloquence, he paints the atrocities of the existing Slave Trade, and urges his Imperial Majesty to fulfil the obligations so solemnly contracted by himself, and the other powers assembled in congress at Vienna, to put an end to this enormous evil. It would have been impossible to make these efforts but for the silent and unostentatious, yet effectual, liberality of many of the members of the Society of Friends, who have contributed largely to the diffusion of information on the continent. Further aid, however, is needed; and the Directors add, that "they are persuaded that the British public will never suffer such a cause to fail for want of support: and it is in this confidence that they make their appeal to its tried benevolence."

United States.-TheGovernment and Legislature of the United States have continued to manifest the same anxious desire to put an end to the Slave Trade which has always distinguished them.

Their cruisers on the African coast have well seconded their wishes; and five slave-ships detained on suspicion of being American property, though disguised under foreign flags, had already been condemned in their Vice-Admiralty Courts, previously to the month of January 1821.

The pertinacity with which some of the subjects of the United States still adhered to this infamous commerce, induced the American Legislature, as was stated in the intro

duction to the Supplementary Report of last year, to go a step beyond any other nation, even beyond Great Britain herself, in its measures of repression. An Act was passed, declaring the crime of Slave-trading by American ships, or American subjects, to be piracy, and as such affixing to it the pu nishment of death.

Another important document had reached the Directors from the United States; the Report of a Commitee of the House of Representatives, in the session of 1820 and 1821, relative to the mutual exercise of the right of search by Great Britain and America, with a view to the suppression of the Slave Trade. This Report contains a clear and decided opinion in favour of the exercise of such a right, as the only effectual means of suppressing the Slave Trade; while it demonstrates that its use involves no sacrifice of national interest, nor any compromise of national honour. A correspondence which followed on this subject between Mr. Stratford Canning, our ambassador at Washington, and the Secretary of State of the American Government, manifested a strong repugnance, on the part of that Goverument, to the measure recommended by the Committee. This sentiment, however, appeared to be confined to the Executive; for, notwithstanding the arguments so recently urged by the American Secretary of State, a Report of the Senate of the United States, presented during the session of 18211822, concurred entirely in the view taken the year before by the House of Representatives, and earnestly urged the adoption of the proposed expedient of a reciprocal right of search as a most desirable measure.

The Report goes on to allude to various other topics, to a few only of which we can advert. Several of them have indeed appeared before our readers in other shapes.

A treaty between Radama, King of

Madagascar, and Mr. Farquhar, for the suppression of the Slave Trade in that island, had been carried into effect, and every attempt to elude its beneficent provisions had been defeated.

In the Isle of France, Governor Farquhar had exerted himself with great zeal, in endeavouring to suppress the Slave Trade within the limits of his own government; and the measures he has adopted it was trusted would prove effectual.

An Act had been passed giving to the captors of slave-ships a moiety of his Majesty's share of the prize, and a bounty of 10l. per head, on all Slaves liberated under the treaties with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, and granting also the same bounties in some other cases not previously provided for by Act of Parliament. This salutary provision will both stimulate and reward the exertions of our cruizers.

The Directors express their concern, that when an important change was about to take place in the navigation laws of this country as they affect the intercourse of the West-Indian Colonies with foreign nations, it should not have been made a substantive part of the measure that an efficient and ope rative Register Act should be adopted by every colony to which the boon was to be extended. While the sugars of the West Indies are protected in their monopoly of the home market by a high duty, not merely on foreign sugars, but on the sugars grown in our own EastIndian possessions, thus giving a decided and exclusive preference to the produce of cultivation by slave labour, over that by free labour, the least that could be de sired seemed to be, that no means should have been omitted of effectually preventing both the clandestine introduction of Slaves into our own colonies, and their clandestine removal to the more productive colonies of foreign nations, according as temptations to the one or

the other course might arise out of the train of events.

No less do the Directors regret the tardy progress of general improvement in the state of colonial bondage. More than fifteen years have elapsed since the Abolition of the Slave Trade was enacted by the British Parliament; but during that long period no effective measures have been adopted either by the Imperial Legislature, or by the or by the Colonial Assemblies, for ameliorating the condition of the Slave, or paving the way to his future emancipation. In many of the colonies, voluntary manumissions by the master still continue to be loaded with heavy imposts; and this cruel tax upon private benevolence prevails even in colonies where the crown is the sole legislator. In all, the Slave continues absolutely inadmissable as a witness in any cause, whether civil or criminal, which concerns persons of free condition; and even in questions affecting his own personal freedom, and that of his posterity for ever, the onus still rests on him to prove that he is free, and not, as in all justice it ought to do, upon the person denying his freedom to prove that he is a slave. In none is the marriage of the Slave made legal, or guarded by any legal sanctions; and, with partial exceptions, his instruction in Christianity is left to the fortuitous efforts of voluntary missionaries. These are some of the opprobrious circumstances which continue to attach with undiminished force to our colonial system, and for which it is clearly the duty of this country to provide a remedy.

In urging upon the British public the duty of assisting by their efforts and pecuniary liberality in this great work of mercy and of justice, the Directors thus energetically remark: "For centuries we were foremost in carrying on this guilty traffic. Other nations may plead that they are but treading in our steps, and committing a crime into