The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-13 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

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LONDON; FRIDAY, JUNE 13.

THE suppression of the African slave-trade has so
inseparable a connexion with the highest interests of
humanity, the loftiest pretensions of our national
renown, and the material interests of our tropical colo-
nies, as to render every step by which that enormous
'time is finally subdued equally interesting to the
philanthropist, the politician, and those pecuni-
arily concerned in its destruction. It is, therefbre,
with the utmost satisfaction that all will note how,
in the speech with which the Emperor of 13nAzit,
opened the Brazilian Chambers on the 3rd of May,
the suppressive career so lately entered on by that
state, is not treated as a mere experiment, but as an
irrevocable change of the national will and conduct:
The law of the 4th September last has been vigorously
enforced. To this law is to be attributed the almost entire
extinction of the slave trade. I hope that you will continue
to co-operate with my government so that it do not agaiu
make its appearance, even on a small scale.

This is a great and noble wish; worthy of the only
monarch on the American continents; and henee-
forth the declared and avowed policy, and the whole
force of legislation of Christendom (for America is
part of Christendom) are in accord as to Africa.
Everywhere now the African slave-trade is acknow-
ledged by laws to be a crime ; everywhere it is
punishable as piracy and felony, and the crusade so
long ago commenced by England is apparently now
about to Ltriumph. Of the more recent offender.,
Portugal was the first to yield ; Spain then followed;
at last, Brazil completes this great circle of
repentance. There is, then, hope that the solution
of negro civilisation is not far distant ; that on the
western and eastern coasts of the great African con-
tinent, legitimate commerce, exciting internal in.
dustiy, and followed by religious influences, will yet
work out the moral and material redemption of its
now barbarous races.
Concurrently with this important change of policy
in a matter formerly assumed to be of such incalcu-
lable importance to its pecuniary and commercial
welfare, Brazil goes on advancing in prosperity. Tho
fears and apprehensions of those who attributed all
its economical progress to the slave-trade, are prov-
ing to be there selfish and interested delusions. Pro-
duction is augmenting, importations are increasing.,
and the revenue is improving in Brazil, notwith-
standing its Emperor is able to announce " the
almost entire extinction of the slave-trade."
In 1847-8 the revenue was only 24,732,000 contos
of milreis ; in 1848-9 it rose to 26,136,000; in 1849-
50 to 28,000,000; in the year 1830-31 it is estimated
at 31,119,000; and in that year, notwithstanding the
heavy military expenses rendered necessary by the
hazardous state of its relations with the Banda
Oriental, there is, on a revenue of only between three
and four millions sterling, likely to be a surplus of
not less than half a million sterling. As with the
revenue in those years, so with the importations: in
1847-8, they produced 14,219,301 contos; iu 1818-9,
13,453,000 ; in 1849-30, 17,378,286 ; and in
1830-31, they are estimated to yield not less
than 20,000,000 contos. And this increase is
the more remarkable and encouraging; seeing
that the emigration of Portuguese slave traders from
Brazil is of course accompanied by a large amount of
capital, and has a tendency still further to restrict
that system of extended credit on which• Brazilian
commerce is too much conducted.
Pending the results of this great change of policy,
the progress of Brazil becomes a matter in which
humanity itself is deeply concerned. Anything that
distracts the attention of the government or people of
the empire from the steady development of its great
resources, hazards and endangers the success and per-
manence of the suppressive policy : and what Brazil
has now most to fear is being involved in those inter-
minable embarrassments and embroglios of the states
on the Rio de la Plata and its tributary rivers.
Towards those states the policy of Brazil has at
all times been frank, avowed, and honourable. With
a territory already too large, Brazil has everything
to lose and nothing to gain by once more pushing
its frontier up to the bank of the Plate. In 1829,
under Lord PONSONBY'S mediation, the Brazilian
government resigned the conquest of the Monte
Vidcan territories, made ten years previously by the
Portuguese, whom it succeeded; guaranteed the in-
dependence of the new state, then constituted as the
Banda Oriental; and has resolutely refused to in-
terfere in those internal struggles for supremacy
which have since not merely retarded its pro-
gress, but almost destroyed its independence. All
that Brazil has required has been tho main-
tenance of a state between it and its old enemy
the Argentine Republic. With such a state, it has
been prepared to carry on amicable relations, regard-
less whether this or that general might bo the de-
pository of its power. This, it is to be gathered
from the imperial speech, is still the policy of Brazil
—the existence of the Banda Oriental as an inter-
mediate state; and for its existence Brazil, has, at
least, the moral guarantee of this country.
Unfortunately, however, as we have before ex-
plained, the frontiers between Brazil and the Banda
Oriental have never been marked out, as was in-
tended by Lord Ponsonby's treaty. The great
landed proprietors of the border country were gene-
rally supporters of RIVERA as president of the Banda
Oriental, and on his downfall and the succession of
General 01118 E, they suffered great violence, vexations,
and exactions at the instance of the successful chief.
Ilis cruelties and depredations were pursued into
the Brazilian territories, about which there could
be no dispute; and for these aggressions on his sub-
jects the government of the Emperor of 'llium de-
manded redress against their repetition and security
from the authorities of the Banda Oriental. Left to
itself and to its own means and resources, that state
would not long have resisted this just demand; but
it was not left to itself. Roses, who as President of
Buenos Ayres can have no more legal authority over
or in the Banda Oriental than the King of the S 0-
WICII ISLANDS, interfered on its behalf. He insisted
on making the dispute his own ; and when this pre-
posterous position was repulsed by the Brazilian
government, he broke off all diplomatic relations.
Brazil, thus threatened, naturally prepared for the
protection of its frontier provinces, and Buenos Ayres
summoned the rest of the Argentine Confederation to
send armaments into the Banda Oriental—a sum-
mons to which URQUIZA, the chief of Entrerios, the
great district lying between the Plate and the Parana,
has replied by calling on the confederated provinces
to join him in: overthrowing RoSAS' power, and
thereby " save the republic of La Plata from the
deep abyss towards which she is hurriedly carried
away by the evil genius which presides over the
counsels of the government of Buenos Ayres."
War between these two powers has thus become
not an improbable contingency; not, however, be-
cause Brazil has any ambitious designs on the Banda
Oriental, or because it desires to direct in any way
its internal affairs, or is party to the general hostility
against Rams which prevails in the upper provinces
of the Argentine Republic—for all these the Em-
peror has disclaimed in his speech to the Chambers—
but simply because ROSAS chooses to assume the pro-
tection of the Banda Oriental, when it had com-
mitted acts of wanton aggression in a Brazilian
province. Any war between Brazil and Buenos
Ayres must of course affect the Plata; and in the
pesos of that river our commerce is deeply interested.
Lord PALMERSTON, therefore, hastened in March
last to offer the mediation of this country, as
the power under whose auspices they both
contracted the treaty of 1829. His lord-
ship's offer has not, however, been accepted;
and based on the ill relations between ROSAS and
Brazil, the hostility long entertained to that person
by the rest of the Argentine Republic is, as we have
stated, gradually developing itself; in the hope, of