Star. — London, England, 1826-05-10 00:00:00

.mod the Right Honourable Secretary for Foreign ,airs, whom he believed to be sincerely desirous of sing this traffic abolished, to attend to the evidence, y which he would prove that it was now systema tically and incessantly carried on in the Mauritius.— He would begin with a person who was engaged in the military service from the year 1810 to 1817—(Cries of Iveroe)—No; he was not at liberty to give the name of the Gentleman at present. hut he assured the House that he held a high rank. This Officer stated in direct terms that the Slave Trade was not only tolerated, but encouraged._ Mr. CANNING asked across the table if the Hon. Gentleman meant that the Slave Trade was encouraged uy the Government.) —He meant to say, that it was carried on to such an extent, and in such a manner, as reflected the.g eatest possible disgrace upon the persons of the most exalted rank in the Caleny.— Another officer, a General, had stated that the lauding of nest Africans in the Mauritius was frequent, and by no means clandestine; that the whole of the population were engaged in the violation of the laws respec ing the Slave Trade; and in a feaer, dated July, 1817, the same officer said that seven hundred slaves hati been landed dining the last month. Another officer stated, that during the period in which he had been enabled to make observations on ties subject, thirty thousand new si sves were Linde.] at the Mauritius.— He would now proceed to the evidence given by persons in the naval service. A Gentleman, holding the rank of an Admiral, gave a public notice to the Government there, that the Slave Trade should not be carried there, notwithstanding the encouragement which he saw ey gave to it. This intimation bore date in 1812. Captain Lynn, who captured the port of Tamatave, stated in his official dispatches, a fact which bore strongly upon the case. He said, that upon taking the port, be found -400 slaves there belonging to French owners, who applied to him for permission to remove them to the Mauritius. Captain Lynn refused to grant any such permission ; bat the Governor afterwards gave them leave ; and under the pretext of transporting those slaves upwards of 1,500 were introduced to the Mauri tius. A Captain in the navy also stated, in the sear 1816, that cargoes of slaves were landed in the open day at Port Louis. A Gentleman who had been on the, coast of Africa at the seine period, said that 1,300 slaves were then waiting th re for exportation to the Mauritius, , and that 20,000 were expected, who were to be sent to the same place. At Sychelles, another Officer stated, making use of a seaman's expression, that the Slave Trade was carried on under his ache, in spite of his teeth. There had been, since the year 1812, three Governors. The Hon. Gentleman who sat opposite him (S r It. Fa rquhar) was one; the others were. Generals Hall and Darling. When General Hall succeeded to the govern ment, he stated, in his dispatches, that the Slave Trade had attained the most daring height, and was carried on with a degree of effrontery, which could be only accounted for by the security (tom punishment, on' which the supineness of the Government had induced the violaters of the law to rely. It seemed, indeed, to be the object of the local authorities to afford every facility for the escape of a person detected in carrying on th s barbarous traffic, while the legal officers inter posed all their ability to screen them front merited punishment. It was no wonder, under such circum stan:es, that we found it difficult to induce the Conti nereal G svernments to co operate with us heartily and sincerely in putting down the Slave Trade. He might, upon this subject, allude to the language which had been used in the French Chamber of Deputies, when the question was agitated there ; as well as to the answerl which had been given by the Duke de Richelieu ' to Sir Charles Stuart, when, as our Ambassador, he bad remonstrated with him upon the conduct of the French. Upon that occasion, the Duke de Richelieu observed, that the English Government had to thank themselves f r it, as the conduct pursued by our own countrymen in the Mauritius, and elsewhere, had tended materially to prevent the r stifi:ation of the treaties which had been entered into between the two countries. He would now enter into specific proofs. He could state, from authentic documents, that the nnmber of vessels captured at the Mauritius, for slave trading, amounted to 44 ; these vessels may be presumed to have made several successful voyages before their cap tute. He could also prove that there were many other slave ships which were not captured, ant that between the years 1810 and 1824, there occurred 99 debark.' ations of slaves ; of this he had information from milie tary Officers and soldiers who were stationed at the Mauritius in that time. The deposition of one soldier, named Dickenson, described a disembarkation which took place upon the estate of a Mr. Telifair, who was Private Secretary to the Hon. Member opposite, while Governor and Public Secretary to the Colony: He would also p (duce evidence to shew that soldiers had been ordered by their superior Officers not to inter fere with the landing of slaves. One soldier stated that he went to his Captain, and.informcd him that lie could prove that a dis mbaikation was then g 'jug on ; when he was told to mind his osn business; and that if he interfered h: would be punished. Amongst other evide ce, he should produce that of a Co lonel in the Army, who stated, that in consequence of having endeavoured, by all the means in his power, to put down these practices, everything he did was looked upon with an evil eye, until he was obliged to connive at them. There were twenty soldiers now , in this country, whom he could bring before the Corn. mittee, as also the depositions of these Officers, and by such evidence he could'prove ninety-nine cases of actual disembarkation. Mitre were other cases of suspicious disembarkations, but he could not call upon the House to rest upon any of which he could not bring direct proof. He could prove that there had been 14.3 vessels employed in the trade, and the number of slaves they would bring fawn Africa, upon a fair average, would be 30,000. One peculiarity of slavery, where the slave trade was carried on, was, that the number of the males greatly predominated over that of the females. in the West Ind es, where the trade was abolished, the numbers were about equal. In the sixteen %Vest India Islands, the number of females was 3i9 COO, of males 355,000. But in the Mauritius the difference was in the following proportion—males 41,000, females 22,000. Another remarkable fact in -the slave population of the Mauritius was, that the num- SLAvit TRADE AT THIS MAURITIUS. ber of foreign slaves so greatly exceeded that of the Mr. F. BUXTON said that the motion which he was Creoles. In the West Indies, the slaves were almost all about to submit to the House related to the Slave Trade, Creees, or natives of the soil. The only evidence they arid not to Slavery. He meant to state chat in the had of the co!aparative number of Creole slaves and Mauritius the Slave Trade had been regularly and sys- foreign ones in the Mauritius was to be found in the rematically carried on, in opposition to the law of the advettisements of the venders; and from that he found sand. He did not mean to deny that it had been put there were three foreign slaves to one Creole, whereas down at intervals, once by General Hall, and again in' in the West Indies there were three Creoles to one 1822 by the low price of Colonial produce; but with foreign slave. One of the greatest temptations to the the exception of those two intervals, he would prove to trade in slaves was the growth of sugar. In the year the House that it had been incessantly kept up. He MO, very little sugar was grown in the Mauritius; in which were considered to be against the Indian Go verostnent t but their they were against a most despotic Government. The articles complained of, so far from I eing of a character which would be considered dangerous in England, were such as would be deemed rather, perhaps, deficient of political spirit. When he WAS bre isli-d Irani India, he left a successor to protect the valuable property which he had created by his.lite rary and political talent. The regulations which gave to the tuition Government the power of granting or of withdrawing the license for newspapers had been registered in the Suprem? C,urt by Sir F. M4Naughten, who declared that be recorded them only because be felt assured they' would not be levelled against existing literary property. Notwithstanding this decla ration, however, after repeated aoempts to harass and injure the establishment of Mr. Buckingham, his publi cation was at length suspended by order of the Govern ment. This _step was followed by much negotiation for the renewal of the license; but, after a consi !erable lapse of time, the Government distinctly said that they would never renew the license for the Calcutta Journal, so long as Mr. Buckingham or any of his co-proprietors had any interest in, or controul over it ; and they after wards went so far as to declare, that the license would be granted to no other person than Dr. Mustorn the son-in-14w of a Member of Council. Thus did the 'Government, by an arbitrary act, either antral late the copyright, or transfer it to a favourite of their own.— The Pe:itioner stated, that in consequence of these pro ceedings he had lost a valuable property, and was besides involved in debts to the amount of 10,0001. (the Noble Lord) would only make one or two observa tions on these statements of the Petitioner. The conduct of the Indian Government bad been supposed to have the sanction of•the Marquis of Hastings. From letters he bad seen from that Noble Lord, he could not suppose this to be correct. He could not but consider the case as one of very great hardship. The most rigid censor ship upon the press would have been preferable to these regulations, if they were •to be employed, as in the present instance, to the destruction of property. Lord Hastings had, indeed, thought this kind of power held over the heads of Editors a beneficial mode of carrying on the Indi in Press ; but if he had remained in India he would nut have employed it so harshly; his successor however, did thus employ it. Mr. Buckingham having been encouraged. by the notion of a free press, to establish this lite rary property, he (the Noble Lord) did consider its destruction in the Runner in which that had been accomplished as a dreadful hardship—as a personal grievance of such magnitude as to demand the interposition of that House. Ile should, therefore, after the Petition bad been brought up and read, instead of moving that it do lay upon the table, move that its contents be referred to a Select Committee. M. C. W. WYNN said, that when the case of this individual was on a former occasion brought before the House, be had deprecated any discussion of the subject on the ground that an action had been threatened by Mr. Isuckingliant against Mr. Ad ems, under whose government the transactions had taken place. Unfor innately the death of Mr. Adams had rendered it im possible for that action now to proceed. But be had the most perfect conviction that if it had gone to issue, its result would have been the complete' vindication of that lamented Gentleman, for whose character he c.ruld not express too warmly his admiration and respect.— The motion contemplated by the Noble Lord was so unusual on a petition of this nature, that on forthet re flection he thought the Noble Lord would probably not persevere in that intention. The question was now per fectly unshackled, and he was fully prepared to meet it. He agreed that here, under a free Representative Government, such publications would not be dangerous. The ewe was very diff:rent in India. If they thought proper to alter the government of India, it was within the competency df Parliament to do so, but an absolute greFernment, such iis existed at present in India, and a tree press could not co-exist. A free press might be very serviceable in a representative Government, but could not be anything less than en anomaly in India.— Neither was it to be supposed, that because the passage in the Journal referred to did not appear libellous in this country, that therefore they were perfectly innozi ous in the Colony. A harmless sentence here might there become a firebrand which would set India in a fl .me from one extremity to the other. The question should therefore be—whether or no the whole system of that Government should be changed ? But Mr. Buckingham. at least, must acknowledge that he had not been punished without previous warning. He had thought proper to canvass the appointments of that Go vernment, and he was told that if he did so again he would be deprived of his license. He had done so again, and the threat had been put into execution. If this power were supposed to be impolitic, let a Bill be brought in to annul the regulations which established that power ; but while the regulations were suf fered to continue in existence, they were law in India; and though he admitted the reality of the grievance of which the Petitioner complained, yet he had drawn it on himself by persisting In what be had been informed was an illegal course. He should oppose the' motion on the grounds that no notice had been given. Mr. SCA RI.ETT said, it was perfectly futile to suppose that any sedress could be afforded by action here for an injury inflicted on the Petitioner in India. The only means of redress which lay open to him must come through that House. He should think it his duty to support the motion of his Noble Friend for a Select Committee. 3lr. J. S 311 TII said, the object of the Government in India ap peared to be not only to punish the Petitioner, but to persecute and ruin him. ( Hear). He thought this WAS not the only instance in which that Government had acted with heat and p recipitation.—He should support the motion. Mr. ASTIiLL said, whatever the Petitioner bad suffered, he had drawn it all on himself. Lord J. RUSSELL said, he should persist in his motion, that the Petition be referred to a Select Committee. Dr. PHILLIMOItE opposed the motion. Be the law just or unjust. it was the law that nn individual' could reside in India without a license from the East India Company, which might be revoked by them when they pleased. The Petitioner's Journal had been in the first instance distinguished by the most virulent attack► on private character, after which it had srmred to the higher rank of the Government measures—it attacked all their proccedinp; and, in fine, became so perfectly unrestrained, as to resist interference absolutely necessary. The lion. Geode sists cemeellied, that whatever calamities bad befallen Mr. &a bstain. be bud dawn them upon hirneelL It would have been highly intondest for the Government to have countenanced conduct which tended to lower it in the estimation of the natives. Mr. TRANI* thought there had been oppression towards Mr. Buckingham, on the part of the Indian Government. The subject requited the consideration of the House. 'I he [louse time divided—Ayes 43—Noes 40—Majority in favour of the motion S. three yeah .the:growth had increased lo half a mil- 0 lion a pounds; and in NO, it was thirty millions— being an increase of sixty. fold. It might be supposed that the cultivation of other articles had been aban doned for that of sugar; but this was not the case, be cause the produce of other articles had also increased. Another argument which proved it no less forcibly, could be drawn from the returns of the registration of shave This had always been considered as the greatest harrier to the Slave Trade ; and h.: would prove before the Committee that the Orders in Council for the regis tration of slaves had almost all been disregarded in the Mauritius. In 1816 the population, according to the register, was 87,000; in 1817 no registry was kept ; in 1818 there was no registry; in 1819 the num bers were reduced to 21,000; in 1820 there was no registry ; and inlB2l the number was 7,482. From this it appeared that the registration of 80,000 slaves, the value of each being 1001. was omitted ; and the penal ties upon these would amount to eight millions of money. It was not for him to say what the Govern ment should do in respect to these fines ; but the slaves who had not been registered, were the property of Government until those fine; were paid. And he would state publicly, that all negroes imported since the year 1810, were free by the law of England. He would make another observation as to Mr. Tellfair, whom he had before mentioned. The number of negroes returned as being upon his estate was 260. Now he would bring persons to prove that new slaves had been seen upon his property, and that the number was from ten to twelve hundred, instead of two hundred and sixty. The next view of the subject which presented itself was the dreadful treatment of the slaves in the Mauritius. Wherever the Slave Trade raged, there the conditions of slavery were clothed in tenfold fero. city. Wben the proper time arrived he should be able to produce such cases of outrageous and detestable atrocity as he believed had never been stated to an/ Assembly. The Honourable Member then referred to accounts upon which he admitted he could not wholly rely, chewing that although the de ohs of slaves in one instance amounted to 6 . 558 out of 11,000, in the course of six years, the population had gone on in creasing. Three years after the Planters returned the number of slaves at 87,000, Governor Hall proved that 40,000 had not been registered. In one of his dispatches the Honourable Gentleman said to the, Earl el Liverpool that he war an enemy to the Slave Trade, and the friend of mankind. After such a de claration what influence and exertions must have been employed to induce him to put his hand to such a dispatch as that dated the 15th of February, 1811, in which he argued strongly in favour of a continuation of the Slave Trade, and said that the Act did not extend to the Mauritius, as we had guaranteed the customs and religion of the island, of which customs the Slave Trade was a past. The dispatch fur:her went on to say, that as we allowed the continuance of the Slave Trade in Trinidad after the passing of the Act (which, however, we never did), the inhabitants of Mauritius were a fortiori entitled to the same immunity, as their island would be desolated by the discontinuance of the trade. He was astonished that the Hon. Gentleman could think of asking the Earl of Liverpool to give hjs sanction to the commission of felony—[Mr. BROUGHAM 'WC suggested that slave trading was not a felonyj; —it was, however, a crime of the deepest dye.— In the year 1821, anew disembarkation of slaves took place. The mode of presenting them was by bodies of aimed negroes sent through the country, who were to seize on every unprotecteJ man, woman, or child, whom they met. Among the unfortunate captives at that time was one woman, the sister of an African King.— W.ten the crew of the Voyageur landed at Mozambique on the coast of Attica, they acted in this manner, attack ing a village during the night; they killed several of the inhabitants, and carried others away. Captain Morsley, who was reluctant to make disclosures, from an apprehension of giving offence to the traders, though he was assured that Government wished him to give information, had no difficulty in speaking as t s the mode of capture. The Arab Slave takers, he said, were accustomed to provide quantities of strung beads, with which they went into the country, where they doomed a village to destruction. After setting fire to it, it was their practice on the following day to assemble the inhabitants, out of whom they selected the adults, and killed the old and infirm, and those who were too young to answer their purposes. —The next stage of their sufferings was the dreadful journey to the coast, a distance of perhaps 600 miles, which sometimes occupied six months, but was seldom passed in less than 80 days. The horrors of that journey were described in an extract from Capt. Gray's 1 ravels in Africa, which stated that on the 10th of February, 1821, the K tartans went into Bondoo on a plundering excursion, and had made 107 prisoners, chiefly women. The men were tied in pairs by the necks, their hands secured behind their backs, the women by the necks only. Thus they were hurried along at a pace little short of running, so as to keep up with the horsemen who drove them along, as drovers do fatigued bullocks. One woman, at least 60 years old, in the most miserable state of emaciation and debility, almost entirely naked, was compelled to carry a heavy load of water. When ever she :hewed the least inclinat'on to stop, her drover beat her in the most unmerciful manner with a stick. A young woman (who had for the first time become a mother only two days before she was taken, and whose child, being considered too young to be worth saving, was thrown into a burning hut), after endur ing much torture, implored that an end might be pot to her existence; but blows with a leathern horsewhip were immediately inflicted on her, which soon made the wretched creature move again. A man also lay down, and neither blows, entreaties, nor threats of death could induce him to move: he was thrown across a horse, his face down, and with his hands and feet tied under the animal's chest, was carried along for some distance. When be continued obstinate, they bad re course to a mode of compulsion, which though com mon among them, was yet of too disgusting a nature to be described. Bad as the journey was by land, the sea voyage was still worse. According to the state ment of Captain Moresby, the Arab Dows, or vessels, were large unwieldy open boats, without a deck, in which temporary platforms of bamboos were erected, leaving a narrow passage in the centre. The negroes were then stowed, in the literal sense of the word, in bulk, the first along the floor of the vessels, two adults, side by side, with a boy or girl between, or on them, until the tier was complete. Over them, the first platform was laid, supported an inch or two clear of their jsodies, when a second tier was stowed, and so on until they reached above the gun e ale at the vessel. The voyage was expected not to exceed twenty-four or forty-eight hours; but it often hap. pened, that a calm or land breeze delayed their pro 'pets, and in this case, a few boors Were sufficient to decide the fate of the cargo. The lower portion that died, could hot be removed, but remained till the upper nortion also were dead, and then throWn over-board.— From a cargo of frotri two to four hundred thus stowed, it has been known that not a dozen, at the end of ten days, have reached gangibar. On their arrival there, after inspection before the Iman's Officer, those who were weak (Jr maimed by the voyage were left for the coming tide to relieve their miseries. An examination then took place, which for brutality- was never exceeded in Smituheld. But the middle passage exhibited a scene of wretchedness still more terrific—worse in deed than the most morbid fancy could conjure up in, fictitious tales of horror. The hold for pack ing the slaves was from two to four feet high.— Here they were made to sit with their hands pl , ced between their knees, while the packer struck down their legs with a club shod with iron, till they became one mass of living corruption, emitting a stench which would prove fatal to any EuropeaN starving f,•ir want of food, and fainting for want of a supply of water. He must dismiss the cons;deration of their sufferings on the passige, and confine himself to a mere statement of their murders; and he would contend, that for every single slave that was brougli into the Mauritius, two others were murdered. It t' a. a galling reflection to him, that their conduct with regard to the Mauritius afforded apology for the slave trade of the world. France, twice in her official docu ments, replying to their rem )nstrances on the subject, bid them look at home for worse practices than they called on that country to relinquish. In the French Court of Deputies, the question was brought on under the most favourable auspices; some slave vessels were seised at Nantz ; and Petitions were sent in from se veral towns, praying for the abolition of slavery; when, at this ctitical juncture, a Deputy, 'who was himself a Bourbon planter, observed in the House that it wa, true they dealed extensively in slaves; but then in to doing they acted merely in imitation of the English, as was evident from the trade of the Mauritius. The fact thus put forward could not he gainsaid there or here, and the question was consequently lost. In what a state of degradation therefore were they placed, bound by every feeling of honour and religion, by their former professions, to put down the infamous traffic ; and yet they here appeared not only criminal them selves, but apologists for the crimes of others. If his statements were proved false, he was content te he called the greatest librller that ever existed ; but if they were found true, then vengeance ought to fall on the „heads of those wretches who had perpetrated the enor mities which he enumerated. If they entered into an investigation for the redress of the gs ievances of which he complained, they thereby retrieved their character; but if they put off the question to the next year, and made their inquiries through the agency of of hers, they might as well give up the whole matter, and never again ought they to repeat their former professions of hostility to the principles of slavery. He would therefore conclude by moving—" That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire whether the Slave Trade has prevailed at the Mauritius, and to what extent, and the causes thereof, and to report thereon to the House." Sir It. FARQUHAR said, that he had been quite ignorant, until the Hon. Member had addressed the House, of the scope, object, and tendency of his motion. He had thought it usual for an Hon. Member, who intended to found a motion on any specific facts, togive some short notice of what those facts were. The Hon. Member had spread his motion over a period of 16 years, though he had directed the attention of the House to the first ten years of that period, leaving out altoge ther the last sir, as he well knew he could not support the allegations which he had been making to the House by any reference to those six years, with the ezcepticn of one place, indeed, which could not fairly be consi dered within the meaning of the English laws. As that most infamous traffic in sl +tees in the Mauritius had long since been discontinued, the whole of the argu ments of the Hon. Member fell at once to the ground ; he had not, indeed, a leg to stand on. As far as he (Sir R. Farquhar) was concerned, he repelled with scorn the imputation that had been made against him, knowing, as he did, that they were unfounded. " Teturn imbelle sine ictu." —Then, too, with regard to the charges that had been made against Mr. Tellfair, there was nothing true in them ; that Gentleman was too honourable, too high spirited, to have lent himself to what had been charged against him—(Hear,) —as the letter which he held in his hand, and which he would read to the House, would prove. (The Hon. Member here read a letter from the Chief Justice of the Mauritius to the Governor, from which it appeared that Mr. Tellfair had agreed to sub mit all the slaves on his estate to open inspection, and also to justify his possession of them.) He would nest proceed to remark on a few of the facts brought forward by the Hon. Member, as far as his memory would allow. The Hon. Member had said, that he had not gathered much of his information from the printed papers. though it seemed to him that he had made railer an extensive use of them. And here he must observe against the practice of the Government in granting manuscripts , on which charges were to be founded, to those who were to make the cf•arge, while those against whom the charges were to be made bad no sort of information on the subject, until the pspers were printed, and before the House, which, in the present case, happened to be only two days before the discussion took place. All the facts referred to by the Hon. Member came down only to the beginning of 1820. The first case to which he would advert was that which regarded slaves at Timatoe. It had been believed, that by the capitu lation of that place, the slaves there were exempted from the operation of the British regulations, as they were not freed by any article in the capitulation. Then with regard to the traffic in slaves, between the Sechelles and the Mauritius, he had employed his power in extin guishing that, and had succeeded. (Hear, hear). 131 t as to what was done at the Sechelles, he could not be held responsible ;—they wee a cluster of islands, situate at least one thousand miles from the Mauritius, as far indeed as Gibraltar was from Downing-street; and as he was without a navy, or any other repressive force. be could not undertake to put down what was got!,.:: on there. Then, again, with regard to the +o,oo'i slaves being in the Mauritius beyond the number gat was registered, it had never been denied that pren ously to 1820 there had been a great debarkation et slaves at the Mauritius, but he did not believe that t was to the extent state d by the Hon. Member ; and that system had been altogether crushed since the year 182 g. He had a memorandum of General Decamp!. the former French Governor of the Mauritius, wherein it was stated, that by the Tax Rolls there appeared to be in the Island 59,000 slaves; but there was a note in the General's band-writing, observing that he "Jai sure there were 80,010. He (Sir R. Farquhar) on.! mentioned that circumstance to chew that the practice oil