exportation), that there were annually sent to the Brazils from that part of Africa alone above 15,000 negroes; and this was reckoned only one half of the total exported from all parts of the Portuguese Settlements. From another quarter, of high authority, he learnt that this, if estimated at 30,000, would not be overrated. But the branch of the Trade which it was the most important to attend to at present, was that carried on by American vessels, in open violation of the laws of the United States. He firmly believed, as he had before stated when the matter had been questioned by a Right Honourable Gentleman opposite (Mr. Canning), that the American Government had all along acted, in regard to the Slave Trade, with the most perfect sincerity. They had, indeed, set us the example of abolishing it. All the states, except two, Georgia and South Carolina, had early abolished it by acts of their separate Legislatures before the period arrived when the Constitution gave Congress a right to pass such a law for the whole union; and as soon as that period arrived, viz. at the beginning of the year 1808, the Traffic was finally prohibited by an Act of Congress. But it was one thing to pass a law, and another to carry it into execution, as we had ourselves found on this side of the water; and although the American Legislature and the Government had done all that lay in their power, it required much greater neval means than they possessed to suppress effectually their contraband Slave Trade. They might, in a great measure, by their police, prevent the importation of negroes into the United States; and this they had done; but the bulk of their contraband Slave Trade was carried on between Africa and the Islands, or Africa and South America; and, to check this, a very different navy was wanted from any that the Americans were likely, for a long series of years, to possess. By such a contraband trade, the Spanish and Portuguese Colonies, and not only they, but our own Settlements were supplied with slaves; and in this manner it was that the Foreign Slave Trade interfered with our own Abolition. What he intended to propose was, that the Executive Government should be exhorted to take such further steps as might be conducive to the object of the joint Address of the other branches of the Legislature. Unless the American flag could, by some means or other, be excluded from its large share in this abominable commerce; and unless the Spanish and Portuguese Governments could be brought to some concurrent arrangement, the Trade must still be carried on to an enormous extent; and it was in vain to talk even of abolishing it entirely in our own Colonies. Our largest Island was within a day's, he should rather say, a night's sail, of the largest Slave Colony of Spain. Our other old Colonies lay in the very track both of the Spanish and American slave-ships. When the vast plantations of Trinidad and Guiana were in such want of negroes to clear their waste lands, and were situated almost within sight of the Spanish slavemarket, where the law still sanctioned that infernal traffic, how could it be expected that the British Abolition should be effectual? A gentleman of the profession to which he had the honour of belonging, having lately returned from Berbice, informed him of the manner in which our planters carried on this contraband intercourse.

The Oronoka falls into the sea between Trinidad and Guiana. The Spanish slave-ships take their station near its mouth, and our planters send large boats along the coast to the station of the ships, from whence they are supplied with cargoes of sixty or seventy negroes by trans-shipment at sea, and those cargoes they land on their return in the various creeks of the settlements, so as to elude the atmost vigilance of the colonial officers. Did not this single fact evince the necessity of forming some arrangement with the Spanish government, while the friendly relations between the two governments subsisted? The great obstacle which he always found opposed to such a proposition was, What can we do? Those nations, it was pretended, are wedded to their own prejudices; they had views of their own, and we cannot interfere. Of this argument he entertained very great suspicion, and for one plain reason, that it was on the single subject of the Abolition that he ever heard it used; it was here alone that any want of

activity was ever observed in our Government, or that we ever heard of our want of influence in the councils of our neighbours. On all other measures, some of suspicious, some of doubtful policy-in matters indifferent, or repugnant to humanity-we were ready enough to intrigue, to fight, to pay. It was only when the interests of humanity were concerned, and ends the most justifiable, as well as expedient, were in view, that we not only all at once lost our activity and influence, but became quite forward in protesting that we had no power to interfere. From one end of Europe to the other our weight was felt, and in general it was no very popular thing to call it in question. At all times we were ready enough to use it, as well as to magnify it; but on this one occasion we became both weak and diffident, and while we refused to act, must needs make a boast of our inability. Why, we never failed at all when the object was to obtain new colonies, and extend the Slave Trade; then we could both conquer and treat; we had force enough to seize whole provinces, where the Slave Trade might be planted, and skill enough to retain them by negotiation, in order to retain them with the additional commerce in slaves, which their cultivation required. It was natural, therefore, for him to view with some suspicion our uniform failure, when the object was to abolish or limit this same Slave Trade. He suspected it might arise from there being some similarity between our exertions in the cause and those of some of its official advocates in this House; that we had been very sincere, no doubt, but rather cold-without a particle of ill-will towards the Abolition, but without one spark of zeal in its favour. He should then answer the question of, "What can we do to stop the foreign Slave Trade?" by putting another question; and he would ask, " How had we contrived to promote the Slave Trade, when that was our object?" He would only desire one tenth part of the influence to be exerted in favour of the Abolition, which we had with such fatal success exerted in augmenting the Slave Traffic; when, by our campaigns and our treaties, we had acquired the dominion of boundless regions, and then laid waste the villages and the fields of Africa, that our new forests might be cleared. But if he were asked to what objects our influence should be directed, he had no hesitation in pointing them out and first, he should say, the Spanish and Portuguese Governments. Happily in those quarters where most was to be attempted, our influence was the greatest at the present moment: for both countries we had done much, and having lavished our blood and our treasure in defending them from cruelty, injustice, and every form of ordinary oppression, it was certainly not asking too much to require that they should give over a course of iniquity towards nations as innocent as they, and infinitely more injured by them. Every thing favoured some arrangement with Spain on this point. The only Spanish colonies, where the sugar-cane was extensively cultivated, were the Islands, and of these principally Cuba. To that settlement the bulk of the Slave Trade was confined. On the main land there was little demand for Slaves; about 1400 were annually sent to Buenos Ayres, 500 to Peru and Chili, and only 100 to Mexico, while Cuba received 8600 a year. This then was the only Spanish colony which could suffer materially; and it was reasonable to expect that the Spanish Government would not refuse this inconsiderable sacrifice. At any rate, some arrangement might be made both with Portugal and Spain, to prevent their flags from being used for the purposes of the Foreign Slave Trade.

Adverting next to the means which we had of inducing the American Government to make some arrangement (which our limits compel us to state briefly); he admitted that our influence in that quarter was not so powerful; but he would throw out one or two remarks for the consideration of Ministers. First, an attempt ought to be made to supply the deficiency of naval resources in America, by lending the assistance of our own; and he suggested the necessity of the two governments coming to some understanding, that the cruisers of each might capture the contraband slave-ships of the other country. From communications which he had held with persons of high rank in the service of the United States, he had reason to think that such an arrangement would not be

greatly objected to in America. An opening for a proposal of this nature was certainly afforded by the correspondence which had taken place between Mr. Erskine and the American Government relative to the Orders in Council and Non-Intercourse Laws; for an assurance was there given, that if a British cruiser captured an American found acting contrary to the American municipal law, the Government of the United States would never notice the capture; and though there was an objection to recognising by treaty the right of capture on the ground of the Non-Intercourse Law, it by no means followed that a similar recognition could not be obtained in the present instance. The right thus given must no doubt be mutual, but so was every right which this country claimed under the law of nations; and it should be remembered, that the two parties were very differently affected by it; for while the Americans could scarcely search or detain half a dozen of our slave-vessels in a year, we should be enabled to stop hundreds of theirs. The advantage of such an arrangement to our own planters would also be great: for if rival foreigners carry on the Slave Trade, while it is prohibited in our settlements, our planters are, for a certain time at least, liable to be undersold in the sugar market, and subjected to a temporary pressure.-Another circumstance with regard to American ships he threw out for the consideration of merchants and cruisers. It appeared to him, that even without any such arrangement between the two governments, the experiment of capturing American slave-ships might safely be made. He had every reason to believe that no reclamation whatever would be made by the American Government if such vessels were detained, however great their numbers might be. A claim might no doubt be entered by individual owners, when the vessels were brought in for condemnation, and the courts of prize had been in the practice of saying that they could not take notice of the municipal laws of other countries. But, besides the great risk to which American owners exposed themselves by making such claims (the risk of the penalties which they thereby proved themselves to have incurred under the Abolition Acts of Ame rica), it was to be observed that the courts required a proof of property in the claimants; and he wished to see whether courts sitting and judging by the law of nations were prepared to admit of a property in human flesh. He wished to know in what part of that law any such principle was recognised. He de sired to be informed where the decision or where the dictum was which allowed a person to bring forward a claim in a court of the law of nations, for the bodies of human beings forcibly and fraudulently obtained, or at all events carried away from their homes against their will, and by violence confined, and compelled to labour and to suffer? What he was anxious to see was, how such a claim could be stated with common decency in such courts: he had no great fears as to the reception it would meet with: it was repugnant to the whole law of nature, and any knowledge of the law of nations which he possessed, afforded him no authority for it. He earnestly hoped some persons connected with privateers and cruisers might soon try the question. They could run no risk, he ventured to assert on his own authority; and still more confidently on that of professional friends who frequented the prize courts, that no risk whatever of being condemned in costs could possibly be incurred, even if the vessels were restored. Without any risk, much good might thus be done; and he should feel satisfied that he had more than announced the ends he had in view when he began this discussion, if he could persuade himself that what he now said might lead any one to make this important trial.

Having hitherto only spoken of the foreign Slave Trade, it was with great mortification that he now felt himself obliged to call the attention of the House to the evasions of the Abolition Acts in this country. For accomplishing this detestable purpose, all the various expedients had been adopted which the perverse ingenuity of unprincipled avarice could suggest. Vessels were fitted out

This opinion has since been fully confirmed by the decision of the Lords of Prize Appeal in the case of the Amedie before stated.

at Liverpool, as if for the innocent commerce with Africa. The ships, and even the cargoes, were, for the most part, the same as those used in the trade of gold-dust, grains, and ivory. The goods peculiarly used in the Slave Trade were carefully concealed, so as to elude the reach of the port officers. The platforms and bulkheads which distinguish slave-ships were not fitted and fixed until the vessel got to sea, and cleared the Channel, when the carpenters set to work and adapted her for the reception of slaves. For better concealment, some of the sailors, and not unfrequently the master himself, was Portuguese. But it was remarkable, that, lurking in some dark corner of the ship, was almost always to be found a hoary Slave Trader-an experienced captain, who, having been trained up in the slave business from his early years, now accom panied the vessel as a kind of supercargo, and helped her, by his wiles, both to escape detection, and to push her iniquitous adventures. This was not a fanciful description; he held in his hand the Record of a Court of Justice, which threw so much light on the subject, that he had moved, on a former night, to have it laid on the table. It appeared from thence, that, but a few months ago, in the very river which washed the walls of that House, not two miles from the spot where they now sate, persons daring to call themselves English merchants (Hear! hear!) had been detected in the act of fitting-out a vessel of great bulk for the purpose of tearing seven or eight hundred wretched beings from Africa, and carrying them through the unspeakable horrors of the Middle Passage, to endless bondage and misery, and toil which knows no limits, nor is broken by any rest, in the sands and swamps of Brazil. (Hear! hear!) This detection had been made by the zeal and knowledge of a friend of his (Mr. Macaulay), who was only enabled to pursue so difficult an investigation by that perfect acquaintance with the subject, which he had acquired by his residence in Africa as Governor of Sierra Leone, and by having even submitted to the pain of a slave voyage, for the purpose of better learning the nature of the traffic. Mr. Brougham here read several extracts from the Record of condem nation of the Comercio de Rio, in the Court of Exchequer last Hilary Term. It appeared, that besides an enormous stock of provisions, water casks, messkits, &c. there were found on board 55 dozen of padlocks, 93 pair of hand. cuffs, 197 iron shackles for the feet, 13 cwt. 3 qrs. of iron chains-(Hear hear!) -one box of religious implements; and, that the bodily as well as the spiritual health of this human cargo might not be neglected, the Slave Merchants, out of their rare humanity-which one must really have known a good deal of the sort of character, easily to believe-allowed, for the medical wants of 800 negroes, of all ages, crammed into a loathsome cage, and carried through new and perilous climates during a voyage of weeks, or even months, one little medicine-chest, value 51.—(Hear! hear!) This was not the only instance of the kind, nor even the latest one, he grieved to say, recent though it was. He had mentioned, on a former night, that at one port of this country, six vessels had only just been fitted out, by a similar course of base frauds, for the same trade, or rather let him call it, the same series of detestable crimes.—(Hear! hear!) It was now three years since that abominable traffic had ceased to be sanctioned by the law of the land; and, he thanked God, he might therefore now indulge in expressing feelings towards it, which delicacy rather to the law, than the traffic, might, before that period, have rendered it proper to suppress. After a long and most unaccountable silence of the law on this head, which seemed to protect, by permitting, or at least by not prohibiting the traffic, it had now spoken out, and the veil which it had appeared to interpose being now withdrawn, it was fit to let our indignation fall on those who still dared to trade in human flesh, not merely for the frauds of common smugglers, but for engaging in crimes of the deepest dye; in crimes always most iniquitous, even when not illegal; but which now were as contrary to law as they had ever been to honesty and justice. He must protest loudly against the abuse of language, which allowed such mes to call themselves traders or merchants. It was not commerce, but crime, that they were driving. He too well knew, and too highly respected, that most

honourable and useful pursuit, that commerce whose province it was to humanize and pacify the world-so alien in its nature to violence and fraud-so formed to flourish in peace, and in honesty-so inseparably connected with freedom, and good will, and fair dealing: he deemed too highly of it to endure that its name should, by a strange perversion, be prostituted to the use of men who lived by treachery, rapine, torture, and murder! and were habitually practising the worst of crimes for the basest of purposes.—(Hear! hear! hear!) When he said murder, he spoke literally and advisedly. He meant to use no figurative phrase; and he knew he was guilty of no exaggeration. He was speaking of the worst form of that crime. For ordinary murders, there might even be some excuse. Revenge might have arisen from the excess of feelings honourable in themselves. A murder of hatred, or cruelty, or mere bloodthirstiness, could only be imputed to a deprivation of reason. But here we had to do with cool, deliberate, mercenary murder ;-nay, worse than this; for the ruffians who went on the highway, or the pirates who infested the seas, at least exposed their persons, and, by their courage, threw a kind of false glare over their crimes. But these wretches durst not do this: they employed others as base as themselves, only that they were less cowardly: they set on men to rob and kill, in whose spoils they were willing to share, though not in their dangers. -Hear! hear!) Traders, or merchants, did they presume to call themselves! and in cities like London and Liverpool, the very creations of honest trade? He would give them the right name, at length, and call them cowardly suborners of piracy and mercenary murder!(Hear! hear! hear!) Seeing this determination, on the part of these infamous persons, to elude the Abolition Act, it was natural for him to ask, before he concluded, whether any means could be devised for its more effectual execution. He suggested the propriety of obtaining, from the Portuguese Government, either in perpetuity, or for a term of years, the Island of Bissao, situated on the African Coast, and the only foreign settlement in that quarter where our commerce chiefly lay. This cession would leave us a coast of 500 miles extent, wholly uninterrupted, and greatly facilitating the destruction of the Slave traffic in that part of Africa. Next he remarked, that the number of cruisers employed on the African Coast was too scanty. It was thither, and not to America, that vessels intended to detect Slave Traders, should be sent; because a slave-ship must remain for some weeks on the Coast to get in her cargo; whereas she could run into her port of destination in the West Indies in a night, and thus escape detection: yet, to watch a coast so extensive as the African, we had never above two, and now only one, cruiser. He recommended, that the ships thus employed should be of a light construction and small draught of water, that they might cross the bars of the harbours, in order to follow the slave-ships into the shallows and creeks, and up the mouths of rivers; and also that they should be well manned, and provided with boats, for the same purpose. It would be impossible to employ six or seven light ships better than on such a service. It was even more economical to employ a sufficient number; the occasion for them would, by this means, speedily cease. Once root out the trade, and there was little fear of its again springing up. The industry and capital required by it would find other vents. The labour and ingenuity of the persons engaged in it would seek the different channels which would continue open. Some of them would naturally go on the highway; while others would betake themselves to piracy, and the law might, in due time, dispose of them.—(Hear! hear!)

But he should not do justice either to his own sentiments, or to the great cause which he was maintaining, were he to stop here. All the measures he had mentioned were mere expedients-mere makeshifts and palliatives, compared with the real and effectual remedy for this grand evil, which he had no hesitation in saying, it was now full time to apply. He should, indeed, have been inclined to call the idea of stopping such a traffic by pecuniary penalties, an absurdity and inconsistency, had it not been adopted by Parliament, and were he not also persuaded, that in such cases it is necessary to go on by steps,