The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-05-14 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

TM E AFRICAN

The Anniversary Meeting of this excellent Institution way held
yesterday at the Freemasona' Tavern. The weather wu ,iery
frtountble in the morning, but at the hour appointed for taking the
chair the large room of the Freemasons' Tavern was filled.
At one o'clock his Royal Highness the Duke of GioncrsvEn
took the Chair.

Amongst many distinguished persons present we noticed the
Earl of Clarendon, Lord Nugent, Lord Euston, Mr. nyell Bux-
ton. M.P. _ - .

Mr. ENPSON, Secretary of the Institution, then proceeded to
read the Report of the Board of Directors, detailing the progress
of the Society during the last year.. From this interesting and
well-writtrn document we ;elect the following extracts:—
" The Report of the last year contained a detailed account of
the legislative measures, more or less effectual. which Foreign (io-
vernments had respectively punned, for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. Unfortunately but few steps have since been taken in ad-
vance, and as the greater part of the parliamentary papers con-
nected with this subject have not been yet printed, the Directors
possess at present very little information on the communications
which may have passed with resp,ct to It between our own Govern-
ment and that of other States..
" There has been hitherto no opportunity of advantageously re-
suming the confererees which were 'adjourned fron Verona to Lon-
don. The general law of nations, therefore, still remains in this
respect in its former imperfect and degrading state: but some pro-
great' has been made in two instances by individual Treaties, acting
upon municipal law, towards affixing on this traffic its proper name
and character as a violation of the law of nature and nations, and
of the rights of man: all dealing in slaves by British subjects,
front the Ist of January of the present year, has been declared
piracy by Act of Parliament.
" The Swedish Government had previously published en °Tann-
nanee, putting her subjects engaged in it out of the protection of
the law.

'• A Treaty has accordingly been concluded between his Majesty
and the King of Sweden, fur the more effectual suppression of the
Slave Trade, by providing the necessary measures for carryingthe
above declaration tnto execution.
" A Treaty of a similar description, founded on the same reci-
procal recognition of the piratical nature of the trade, was nego-
ciated between this country and the United States. Some difficul.
ties have arisen in respect of its ratification ; but every modification
which could possibly be admitted, in order to meet the views of
that Power, having been adopted, a.,Treaty has been arranged ac-
cording'y, and sent out to Alt)(tiC.3, against which it is trusted that
no objection can be raised."
• • • •
" Some slaves, the property of an English subject resident in
East Florida, where slavery is tolerated by law, escaped on board
an English ship ; their late owner brought an action in this country
against the Commanders, Sir Alexander Cochrane an] Sir George
Cockburne, fur harbouring them after notice. The Court held that
no such action could be itraintained. The broad intelligible prin-
ciples and emphatical language of Mr. Justice Best were worthy of
the cause: "lite Legislature of this country has given judgment
upon the question. They have abolished the trade in slaves—they
have even boitcht up at a great price the right of other countries )
carry it on. We might perhaps have called upon them to abandon
the traffic without remuneration. It might have been glorious thus
en put down a usurpation spinet the rights of nature, but we had
participated too largely in the iniquitous traffic to be just:hal in
I throwing the first stone, and may he considered as having paid this
sum as • simoffering fur our transgressions. There is no statute
recognising slavery, which operates in the part of the British Em-
pire in which we are now called upon to administer justice. It is a
relation which has always in Jiritish Courts been held inconsistent
with the Constitution in the country. It is matter of pride to me,
to recollect that whilst economists and politicians were recommend-
ing to the Legislature the protection of this traffic, and senators
were framing statutes for its promotion, and declaring it a benefit
to the country, the Judees of the land, above the age in which they
lived, standing upon the high ground of natural right, and dis-
daining to bend to the lower doctrine of expediency, declared that
1 slavery was inconsistent with the genius of the English Constltu-
non, and that human beings could nut be the subject matter of
property. If. indeed, there had been any express law command-
, ing us to recognise those rights, we might then have been called
upon to consider the propriety of that which has been said by the
great Commentator upon the laws of this country, ' that if any
human law should allow or enjoin us to commit an offence against
the Divine Law, we are bound to transgress that human law—for
upon the law of nature and the law of revelation depend all human
laws; that is to say, no human law should be suffered to contradict
these.' Now, if it can be shown that slavery is against the law of
nature and the law of God, it cannot be recognised in our Courts.' "
• • •

The following is a detail of the sufferings on board the Arius :
" The Arise had 465 slaves on board, of whom thirty.four died
after their capture, notwithstanding every attention. such was the
filth and crowd, that not half could have reached the Brazils alive.
Commodore fallen put the crew on shore in Princes Island;
wretches, who as soon as they found that they must be boarded,
had stove in her boilers, as a last malignant effort to add to the
misery of those whom a few minutes would place beyond their
power. Commodore 'Sullen found this vessel rte a most crowded
and wretched condition, although she had on board 120 less than
directed in their passport from Don Pedro. At the date of her cap-
ture she had scarcely 20 days' provisions for the slaves, and less water.
How they intended to subsist them till their arrival at Bahia, says
the Captain, is to me a problem, unless they could have cakulated
On a great decrease from death.
" The Bella Eliza cleared out far Molembo, but took in her cargo
at a place known only. to slave-dealers by that fraudulent designs-
' tion, but which is, in fact, the western bank of the river Lagoa.
She also was twice boarded by the capturing ship, before, by re-
ceiving her victims, she had become liable to be detained. Accord-
ing to the tonnage as stated in her passport, she was privileged to
take 368 slaves ; she had taken 301, being 13 more even than this
allowance, of whom 22 died before they reached Sierra Leone. The
passage lasted seven weeks after the mature, and the sufferings
from want of water and provisions was so great, that in two days
more all hands must have perished."
• • • •
The Earl of CLARENDON said that the Resolution which he
was about to propose was, that this Report be received and referred
to a Committee for publication. He moved this Resolution willingly,
although there were some expressions in the Report which he
might wish to have modified anti altered. He had now been en-
gaged five and thirty years in promoting the object of this In-
stitution. It was an object nearest his heart (applause); and
although some success had crowned their exertions, they should
not relax, but should persevere with unabated zeal, for their labour
was as yet very incomplete. (Hear, hear.) He was not gifted
with eloquence to expatiate on those topics adverted to in the
Report ; but this was to him a matter of leas regret, as he was
satisfied that these sentiments were already alive in their breasts.
(Hear, hear.) He could not forbear from noticing the many high
names, the absence of some of whom, and the total loss of the
services of others, could not fail to excite a deep regret. What
words could do justice to those, our earliest friends ? What words
could do justice to the services of Mr. Harrison and his associates ?
to Lord Grenville and his aasocistes p—to Mr. l'itt ?—and, though
" last not least," to the eminent services of .Mr. Wilberforce
(Much applause) whose absence on this day was a source of regret ?
But the absence of these men, and the loss of their services, should
only serve to animate our zeal, and make up sensible of the greater
weight of rerponsibility that has devolved upon us. (Hear, hear.',
They should not omit any opportunity of gathering true hinds to
the Institution, by frequently calling the attention both of the
young and the old to what the Slave Trade is. In its extent, it is
true, it has diminished; but in its nature and character it was still
the same. It was characterised by cruelty, irreligion, and every
atrocity of the worst species.It was by the consideration of the
circumstances that alwa)s attended it that we should keep alive our
own' seal, which he hoped would sustain us until the two great
objects of our Institution shall have been consummated, by wip-
ing of the reproach of slavery from the nations of the earth, and
by wiping away the tears from the cheek of misery and despair.
The Noble Lord concluded by moving that the Report be received,
and referred to a Committee for publication.
Mr. F. Btrxros said, that although there was a difference of
opinion between his Noble Friend and himself, it was but a
',Wow of a distinction, as to tin axpreasion in the Report. For Itis
own part, the term .` disgraceful" in the Report was not too strong,
nor was there any terns that was not in his opinion too mild anti
too moderate to designate the atrocious conduct of France. (Ap-
plause.) If there was any thing more than another on which he
NM disposed to congratulate the Society, it was on the acquisition
of the new Secretary, who was the author of that Report, and who,
in the cogency of argument, in the clearness of detail, and the wise
and enlarged views wh;•-h it contained, gave a proof that in him
the Society would ti d an able coadjutor. (Applause.) There
was no language, he % on .1 repeat, that could adequately designate
this horrible traffic—no t.rm ot' any language that was nut tame and
nerveless, and that did not fail in conveying the feelings of horror
which they all entertained of slavery and the miseries that ac-
companied it. (Hear, hear.) We hate wrong—we bate oppres-
sion—we hate fraud and perjury ; these we hate severally, hut
what terns shall we apply to a system which embraces and unites
in itself the combination of all these calamities and crimes ? (hear)
and all these were found united in slavery. (Applause.) So far.
therefore, from condemning the Report for not having used aufs-
ciently strong language, lie would rather regret that there was no
language sufficiently strong to express their sentiments upon the
subject. (Iliac, hear.) Ile (Mr. F. Buxton) was anxious to cull
the attention of the Meeting to the conduct of France respecting
the slave trade, and to the language of this country upon the conduct
of that country, as communicated in a letter from our Ambassador
at Paris, Sir Charles Stuart, to the Count de Villele, the Minister
of the King of France:—
" There seems, indeed, to be scarcely a spot on that coast, which
does not spew traces of the Slave Trade, with all I!, attendant
horrors ; for the arrival of a slave ship in any of the rivets on the
Windward Coast being the signal for war between the natives, the
hamlets of the weaker party are burnt, and the miserable survivors
carried tad sold to the slave traders.
" It is clearly ascertained, by inquiritsa made on the spot, and on
the adjacent coast, by hie Mapaty's cruisers,. that the number of
slave cargoes taken out of the River Bonny, in the peereding• year,
amounted actually to cue hundred and ninety ; and a similar re.
turn from the Calabar, for the like period, snide & total, for that
river alone, of one hundred and witty two.
" I have received the express commands of the King my master,
to address to the Government of his Meat Christian Majesty an
urgent representation of these distressing facts, which, if they
prove any thing, prove that wherever the French flag appears. pro-
' tection sod impunity are granted to the slave trader ; and that the
abuse of the laws enacted in France against this mat, notwith.
itiendiog the allegations at the party disposed to efieseraips the

mischief, afford pmetical exempla of the eoneetroencm which i
• must result from this evil, by occasioning encroachmeers on the
territories of friendly powers of Africa, and exciting bloody wars
among the natives."
lie (Mr. Buxton) would place before the consideraticn of the
Meeting how humiliating it was to civilited nations that the
coming of a white man should be but a signal for war amongst the
natives, anti that the appearance of a Christian should only be
marked " by the hamlet* of the weaker party being burnt, and the
miserable survivors carried and sold to the slave traders." (Ap-
plause.) He would next call the attention of the Meeting to a
setter of an agent to his American employer . • which, notwitiritand-
ing all the exertions that had been made for the suppression of
slavery, would show him how that system continued to operate. •
" I wish to communicate whatever facto will help in the least to
afford the Board a just view of our situation, and of the African
character. The following incident recently occurred. I relate it,
not for its singularity, for similar events take place, perhaps, every
month in the year, lint it has fallen under my own observation, and
I can vouch for its authenticity :—King Boatswain, our most power.
tul supporter and steady friend among the natives (so he has uni-
formly shown himself), received a quantity of goods on trust for
a French slaver, for which he stipulated to pay yetteg slaves. lie
makes it a point of honour to be punctual to his engagements.
The time was at hand when he expected the return of the slaver ;
he had not the :dares. Looking around on the peaceable tribes
about hint fin his victims, he sleeted out the Quesths, a mail agri.
cultural and trading people, of most inoffensive character. His
warriors were skilfully distributed to the different hamlets, and
making a simultaneous assault on the sleeping occupants, in the
dead of the night, accomplished, without difficulty or resistance,
in one hour, the annihilation of the whole tribe. Every adult,
man lad woman, was murdered—every but fired ; very young
children generally shared the fate of their parents. The boys and
girls alone were preserved to pay the Frenchman !"
Nnthirg could he more condemnable than this system, whereby
those who were of an advanced period of life were put to death, and
those who were not arrived at that age were reserved to pay the
Frenchman ! Let them consider the scene which takes place among
the natives when the Saaoisli or French colours are seen floating Oil
the shore--a native power, animated by the desire of ruin, of pow-
der, or of muskets, rushes down to the coast ; fire and desolation
mark their progress; they destroy all that come in their way : and on
one occasion, it was on record, that in a single week eight villages
were burnt, and the wretched victims of their ferocity sold as
slaves to some European villain, Commander. See all the atrocities
which were usually perpetrated—whole communities swept from
off the earth, or sold as slaves. He wanted words to express the
indignation he felt at the sufferings of these wretched creatures ;
and still less could he restrain his feelings, when he remembered
that these cruelties were executed by European wretches, who de..
served the deep execration of every friend to humanity. The in-
fernal traffic was promoted by European villains--by Kings and
Princes—Most Catholic Monarchs and immaculate Ministers—by
the prol:s of the Gospels. (Great applause.) At l'aria and Ma-
drid were to be found the real authors of that abominable crime.
(Applause.) To show the truth of his latter assertion, he would
read to them an extract of a letter of the British Ambassador : it
was ne fellows

It is clearly ascertained, by inquiries made on the spot, an on
the adjacent coast, by his Majesty's cruisers, that the number of
slave cargoes token out of the River Bonny, in the preceding year,
amounted Remelty to one hundred and ninety • and a similar re-
turn from the Calabar, for the like period, made a total, tor that
river alone, of one hundred and sixty-two."
So that from two inconsiderable streams hardly visible on the
map, no less then 352 cargoes were embarked ; if on board each ship
there were 900, the whole number of those unfortunate beings led
off to slavery in one year, was 105.500. (Vhat mind could grasp
or embrace such a fact as that ? He wanted the power of compre-
hension to conceive all the murders, the countless miseries, the
atrocities anti devastation, which must have been committed in the
enslaving such a number of beings. Language failed to express
his emotion. If they could not embrace one single instance—if
they could not imagine the cruelties which! were confined to one
()tarter of Africa, how could they bring themselves to imagine what
may be perpetrated within the entire range of that most iniquitous
and revolting tett& ? If the Meeting kept in mind that not a
single day passed but some horror of this nature was o:curring,
what must be their feelings ? Perhaps at that very moment the
slave ship was on her passage, and some wretched beings in the
hold, crying out for water, and answered by the foul-mouthed
curse of the despotic and savage commander. The Hon. Member
went into a detail of many instances in which the French fig had
protected vessels engag in the slave trade. and proceeded to say,
that it was gratifying to see with what different feelings the slave-
merchant looked on France and England. If he perceived an
English ship he was seized with dismay, whilst in the French flag
he recognised a deliverer and an accomplice. (Applause.) To return
to a consideration of the Report, it was set forth in it that perjury
was the staple of the trade. Without perjury it was impossible to
proceed ; there was a positive covenant entered into between the
sailor and the merchant that the former shall commit perjury. In
consideration of a certain sum lie undertakes to commit murder it
occasion r.quires ; and there is a specific contract too that he shall
cut the throats of any English officer or sailor. As in some cases it
might be dangerous to avow the real name of the cargo, in some in.
stances the cargo is de-ignated " bales of goods," frequently
"ebony," " ivory," and often (most properly) " logs of wood."
On a particular occasion one of them was called the carpenter, and,
wheu his duty wasiperformed he watt again transformed into a log of
wood. Sometimes the vessels are said to be laden with mules ; and
entaoceurred that when sonic innocent muleteers were brought to
Lierra Leone they turned out to be slave traders. Let him turn
where he pleased over the papers presented to Parliament within the
last six months, and lie found the most horrifying details. An
obvious question presented itself : Could they do anything them.
selves ? Yes, they could, for slavery existed in theirown colonies.
To extinguish slavery was the most effectual mode of abolishing
the Slave Trade. Already they had given it a deathblow front
which it could never recover. lie entertained great hopes from the
iotroduction of the system of free la!;eur, fur the Slave Trade was
incompatible with tree labour. With regard to the resolution
which some well-intentioned persons hail coins to, of not consuming
sugar, the produce of slave labour, he bad merely to say. that he
would withhold hie concurrence from it, until he saw the course
Government pursued. If they did not adopt some measure to
abolish the slave trade, not only lie, but he thought every huneet
and conscientious nisi: was bound to abstain from the use of sugar,
the produce of slave labour. (Applause.)
The motion was then agreed to.
Lord NUGENT, in moving the next Resolution, spoke nearly to
the following effect :—Sir, in recommending to the Meeting, and
to your Royal Highness. the Resolution which I hold in my hand,
I feel an extreme difficulty--a difficulty which springs from the
very unanimity which prevails amongst us. Sir, there can be no
debate where there is no difference of opinion ; argument follows
argument, and all on the one side. 'Tin said, Sir, by :mike:, that
there is no point in which it is more difficult to steer a ship than
' when before the wind; the whole horizon lies before them; there
is r o slant. no inclination of the vessel to either side, and every
sail is withholding part of the breeze from another; so we, follow.
ing in each other's wake, serve mutually to lessen the effect which,
under different circumstances might be produced, There is, Sir,
however, another place in which the cause so dear to us has a
powerful party opposed to it, (hear, hear) possessirg, too, great re-
sources, and not very scrupulous as to the manner in which they
employ them. (Hear, hear.) Ido tot mean to attack the colonial
party (as they are called:, there are many of them, Sir, to whom
I ain tied by the strong bonds of natural affection. I know too the
difficulties under which they labor. and have no wish to inceease them.
I can make all reasonable allowance for the feelings of men whose
property has become so much lessened in its value. It is, Sir,
against the language held by the colonial party in this country,
anti also by a large party in the colonies themselves. I think we
are called on to protect, not that we Ina, defend the character of
the Society. to which we belong; for while we have your Royal
Highness in that Chair, we feel our personal defence to be unneces-
sary. (Applause.) Wlseu, thereene, we enter on a vindication, it
is not of ourselves, but of the great rights of that cause whose re-
presentatives we are. My Hon. Friend who has just spoken en-
larged can the barbarous horrors perpetrated on the African coast
and the middle passage ; allow me to travel to the opposite coast,
and await the arrival of the slave vessel, to watch the emaciated be-
ings, as their shrinking and worn-out forms areVelivered over to the
planter, who anxiously fixes on them his inhuman eye, and calcu-
lates their value by the quantity of suffering he thinks them able to
endure. (Applause.) The colonial party, Sir, cast on us the impu.
tation of wishing, at one blow, suddenly, unpreparedly, and un-
guardedly, to rff:ct the abolition of slavery. They charge us with
the desire of effecting an immediate emancipation. We all know,
Sir, that the imputation is not true—that it has no foundation in
fact. (Hear, hear.) We feel, Sir, tlast the immediate abolition
of that iniquitous system is not practicable; but the planters
have their own reasons for what they have done; they arty
to us, " Speak out.-tell us she exact period when you think
the slaves ought to be emancipated :" they say so, for they know,
the difficulty in which we are placed, and that silence is imposed
on us from a consideration of the class of people whose feelings we
must manage with caution ; and why because of the crimes oil
their masters_crimes and atrocities perpetrated up to the present
day, and of which, from generation to generation, their slaves have
been the victims. (Applause.) They ask us to " speak out :"
se can't ; we are compelled to proceed cautiously for their sakes as
well as for the slaves—we wish not to intoxicate with the full and
inspiring draught of liberty those who hitherto have not enjoyed
even the taste of justice. (Great applause.) They talk too of the
invasion of vested rights--of the mend rights of peopeety.
From whom, Sir, do we hear of the " invasion of treated
rights"—of the " sacred rights of property ?" Is it from those
who drive their fellow-creatures with the lash? (Applause.) Is it
from those who derive their right of property front original acts of
spoliation ? (Great applsuse.) Is it him the descendants of hue-
cancers and pirates ? I know. Sir, that individually they ate inno-
cent of the atrocities committed at former period, and are mot guihp
of the crimes by which their property was arquireth For there con,,
siderations I wish to speak of them tenderly; but when they came
forward and talk of •• right" and " justice," I confese I can no ,
longer listen with temper. Sir, these terms are incompatible with,
slave labour (great applause). They go further, and in the West
Indio, they talk of the Constitution, and the rights--"the chartered ,
rights of the colonies:" They deny the lawfulness of our interfer-
core, when it is for the hermetic of their slaves. They sanction, 'tis
trite, our protecting their lives; they feel no objection to our aemling
out troops to them, (applause,) bat will not allow us to interfere
with the right of tenure, which the planter enjoys, of infecting the
lash, the chain, and the branding-iron, on 1100,000 human beings.
(Great applause.) Here, Sir, I will, with your permission, read a
copy of a protest entered into by the Assembly of Barbadoes
arum Olt interference. It is dated May 9, 1323, and is an fol-
lows We solemnly preterit, in the name of the Constitution,
against any snot =edemas as dangerous in prinsiple, sod sub.