The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-22 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRID.IY, OCTOBIR 22.

Oxe mutt of the recent deliberations of the
Cabinet will, it is now confidently stated, be the pro-
minent insertion in the QUEEN'S Speech of a passage
fully recognising, and fully accepting, as the conse-
quence of the general election, the permanence of
the present Free Freda legislation. The motives for
this piece of compulsory penitence by an administra-
tion that would if it could, have been Protectionist,
must be tho hope that an early and frank aban-
donment of restrictive commercial principles and
practices will induce parliament to listen more fa-
vourably to the policy and measures it may develop,
and remove the difficulties that have hitherto
obstructed a junction be: Neon it and the Duke of
Stu evsrte and his friends ;—to facilitate which junc-
tion it is believed that some of the members of the
present government are quite prepared to vacate the
°tikes they now hold, Whether the l)uke of Saw-
CIq.LE and his friends—all of whom owe their intro-
duction to offielal life to the late Sir ROBERT PEEI.,
and who arc the legitimate heirs of his views and the
bounden guardians of his fame—can, however, bring
themselves to sit in a Cabinet with Mr. DISRAELI re-
mains to be seen.

Tile result of the general election had, indeed, from
the tirst rendered Free Trade legislation secure
from government injury on all subjects but one—
and that ono is sugar. On the sugar question
both hopes and fears have even subsequently
been experienced—hopes by the West Indian in-
terest that they might still be able to induce their
friends in the Cabinet to arrest the decline
of the present duties before they reach equality on
all sugars, regardless of their production ; fears that
by attempting any alteration in the present law, tho
whole subject of our commercial policy might be
kept open and in doubt. On this point, too, it seems
certain that no change will be proposed; and
that the prevent sugar duties will be untouched. So
that the recent publication of a memorial to the Earl
of DERBY, praying for the exclusion of slave-grown
sugar, from the committee of the Anti-Slavery So-
ciety, is anything but well timed, or likely to in-
Emma the commits of the government.
There are, however, some statements in the memo-
rial of so singularly inaccurate a character, and so
illogical in their intended effects, that it is important
they should not be allowed to pass unnoticed, at a
time when free trade in sugar is happily about to
receive parliamentary confirmation. The memo-
rialists persist in saying that the Sugar Acts of
1846 and 1848 have greatly stimulated the slave
trade. Now, no doubt the slave trade did increase'
between the years 1843 and 1830; but the cause of
its increase in that period, we most confidently
avert, and proceed to prove, was not our admission
of Brazilian sugar. The cause, on the contrary, is to
be found in the law known u Lord ABERDEEN'eI Act,
which paned in 1843. This, however, requires a
little explanation and a slight retrospect.
There are in Brazil, as in all other countries having
parliamentary government and a constitutional sys-
tem, two political parties ; one called the liberal, ad-
vocating mcreased power to the provincial govern-
ments ; the other conservative, aiming at strengthen-
ing the central authority rather than weakening it
in a country where the state can hardly ever attain
adequate power. The former were in possession of
the government from 1842 to 1848. On popular and
philanthropical principles this party were then more
anti slavery in their views than the other; for it
rested on the support of the great proprietors of the
empire and on high commerce. In power for nearly
six years, the liberal government made several efforts
to pass laws for the repression of the slave trade;
-without, however, being successful; for public
opinion had not then been eonsolidated in favour of
such a policy. Notwithstanding this anti•slays trade
inclination of this party, it was, nevertheless, by the
government constituted thereout, that the Right of
Search was terminated; and from its termination
arose Lord ADIRDECN'S Act of 1813.

The immediate consequenees in Brazil were that
Lord ABERDEEN'S legislation arrested the anti-slave
trade feeling which had previously been growing ;
it associated that trade with the national inde-
pendence attacked by tho act; and it created a belief
amongst the
.planters that under its operation the
slave trade might be suppressed. They, therefore,
made the greatest efforts at once to increase their
supply of alarm; and the consequence of this
anziet3., to procure additional labour was the enor-
mous increase of the slave trade between 1846 and
1850—which the memorial ascribes to oar Free Trade
policy. The increase was certainly owing to British
legislation; but it was to the act of 1846, not to the
sugar duties law of 1846.
tio. large, indeed, were (notwithstanding our costly
cruising system) the importations of slaves into
Braga in 184650, that they rosily exceeded the
ability of the planters to pay he thus. The agricul-
tore of the country, therefore, booms deeply indebted
to the slave trading interest tat slyly imparted
mires?. The mortar/ Naomi this oimoi of
slaves la verygr ; and the eztenalve importations
of dame phssei the piasters is this position : a large
properties tithe's, mamma on credit died, while
their debts contracted by the purchases re-
mained. By this means large tracts of coun-
try parsed from the hands of their cultivators
into dined speculators end slave-traders; and thus
many of the gust
sserstoes of Brazil head rain
where
they hod prowsity,_ Those kilo im-
portations of slaves boils§ a Most lossiossT to
disturb the equilibrium at misty, sad to plus is jr-
q ci.
partly the safety of do empire. This in-1
jury to the cultivation, and political to i the
country, made a deep impression on the t
pert of the community ; at last it brought as
natal interest to the conclusion that the epoch the
history of Brazil had been reached when the slave-
trade most terminate.

Concurrently a new Administration having the
confidence of this clam had attained power, which it'
has since, with some modifications, retained. From
ib secession to office it wee engaged in the prepara-
tion of measures for the suppression of the slave-trade,
and had nearly perfected them when, in 1849, instruc-
tions from the British Admiralty directed our cruisers
to greater violence than ever ; and in the presence
of their ads the excited state of public opinion in
Brazil against England prevented their enactment.
In June, 1850, however, the British admiral agreed
to suspend the instructions he had received. There-
upon the Brazilian government at once introduced
the measures they had prepared ; these incomes were
speedily enacted by the Brazilian Chambers, and are
now known as the law of the 4th September, 1850.
NotwithManding the violence* of our cruisers were
renewed in November, POO, the Brazilian govern-
ment honestly and entrget.cally carried out the law,
and with such success that in 1859, according to
our own Foreign-office returns, the slave importa-
tions had fallen to 3,000 Africans. In 18.32 Lord
M‘LNIEMIVIT revoked the instructions issued in
1810; and at the close of the meanie:l of the Brazilian
legislature last month, the Eatrettoa, in his speech,
stated that " the slave-trade may be considered as
extinct."

For the memorialists, then, in the face of these
facts to say that they cannot place confidence in
the Brazilian government" is really only to
expose their want of information. For so copfirmed
has the anti-slave trade feeling in Brasil become,
that a greet part of the last session of its legislature
was occupied by the disputes of the two political
parties as to which the merit and credit of this
policy belonged; and the speech of Senhor ne
QUELHOZ, in which ho successfully defended the
government, would have made Exeter-hall resound
with cheers, as it did the Senate-house of Rio de
Janeiro. Addressing the opposition, he concluded in
these remarkable words:—" There are many ques-
tions on which you can show us to be wrong, or that
you can govern the country better than us. Do so.
But in a question of this kind, before all things, coo-
sifter your words; ace that they do not, intend of
attacking a government, affect the national }oor."
And thim
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