The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-12 00:00:00

Negin
ort ni
e
r,.1 and netor:ous fact of the experiment of total eniancipe-
t n had
gw
os ucce
geded
c '-‘iihfuelrije'vaenr dit
plr'onfis tabbeleyn wt,l'ieerde, ha en an
:seen continued an apprentice? In presenting this petition
From
Yorkshire, and these thirteen others from variou
parts of the country, I have the honour of' giving notice
that as soon us the iu
fortunate and ressin; uestion
Canada 11n •
a have been disposed of by the passing or do
ejection of the Bill expected from the Commons, that is.
in about a week or ten days, I shall submit a motion t(
your Lordships with the view of enabling you to comply
with the earnest prayer of your countrymen, by fixing, thi
period of completee • the Ist of. August it
emancipation, on
this year, instead of
But, my, Lords, while I thus express my end% e concu•-
rence in the sentiments of these petitions and of the various
presented upon this
others which I havesubject, I cannot
conceal from di
myself that there is a very material
rerence between the - subject of their complaint and
the complaint which 1 made at our last meeting re.
specting the continuance not of slavery hot the Oa) e trede
which I cannot delay for a single hour-bringing
before Par-
liament. The •that
grievance set forth in the petitions is,
the Emancipation
Act, according to some, did not go fat
enough and fast enough to • e.purpose—that while sown'
hold it to have stopped short,'t's
wiping out the foul stain in not at once and
our
expectations having beenn olslavery, others complain.
of
th(
frustrated
in the orkag of •
measure by the planters and the local authorities—that
enough lace not been -
done,
ofnor with sufficient celerity to re-
lieve the unhappyhis burthen—nevertheless all
admit that whatever slaveas been effected has been done in the
right direction. The
objections made are upon the de
ores, not upon the nature of the proceedings. It is that
too little relief has been • given to the slave—that too late n
day, has been assigned for his final
liberation—that he stilt
ut•fers more than he ought : it is not that we have mad(
slavery more universal, more burthensome, or more bitter.
But what would have been said by the English people—in
what accents would they have appealed to this House—if
instead of finding that the goal we aimed at was not reached
—that the chains we had hoped to see loosened still galled
the limbs—that the burthen we had desired to lighten still
pressed the slave to the earth—it had been found that the
curse and the crime of human bondage had extended to re-
gions which it never before had blighted—that the burthen
was become heavier and more unbearable—that the
fetters galled the victim's limbs more cruelly than ever :
what, I ask, would then have been the language of your
petitioners ? What the sensation spread through the coun-
try? What the cry of rage, echoing from- every corner of
its extent, to charge us with mingled hypocrisy and cruelty,
should we allow an hour to pass without rooting out
the monstrous evil ? I will venture to assert that there
would have burst universally from the whole people an
indignant outcry, to sweep away in a moment every vestige
of slavery, under whatever name it might lurk, and what-
ever disguise it might assume
; and the negro at once
would have been a free man. Now, thisis the very charge
which I am here to make, and prepared to support with
proof, against the course pursued with a view to extinguish
e
the Slave Trade. That accursed traffic, long since con-
demned by the unanimous voice of all the rational world,
flourishes under the very expedients adopted to crush it ;
and increases in consequence of those very measures resort-
ed to for its extinction. Yes, my Lords, it is my painful
duty to show what, without suffering severely, it is not pos-
sible to contemplate, far less to recite, but what I cannot
lay my bead once more on my pillow without denouncing,
that at this hour, from the very nature of the means used
to extirpate it, this infernal traffic becomes armed with new
horrors, and continues to tear out, year after year, the very
bowels of the great African Continent—that scene of the
greatest sufferings which have ever scourged humanity—the
worst of all the crimes ever perpetrated by man !
When the Act for abolishing the British Slave Trade
passed in 1807, and when the Americans performed the
same act of justice by abolishing their traffic in 1806, the
earliest moment, it must to their honour be observed, that
the Federal Constitution allowed this step to be taken ;
and when, at a later period, treaties were made, with a view
to extinguish the traffic carried on by France, Spain, and
Portugal, the plan was in an evil hour adopted which up to
the present time has been in operation. The right of
search and seizure was confined to certain vessels in the ser-
vice of the State, and there was held out, as an inducement
to quicken the activity of their officers and crews, a pro-
mise of head-money,—that is, of so much to be paid for
each slave on board the captured ship, over and above the
proceeds of its sale upon condemnation. The prize was to
be brought in and proceeded against ; the slaves were to be
liberated ; the ship, with her tackle and cargo, to be sold.
and the price distributed ; but beside this, the sum of five
pounds for each slave taken on board was to be distributed
among the captors. It must be admitted that the inten-
t tlon was excellent ; It must further be allowed that at first
sight the inducement held out seemed likely to work well,
by exciting the zeal and rousing the courage of the crews
against those desperate miscreants who defiled and dese-
crated the great highway of nations with their complicated
occupati-on of piracy and murder. I grant it is far easier to
judge after the event. Nevertheless, a little reflection
might have sufficed to show that there was a lice essen-
tially inherent in the scheme, and that by allotting the
chief part of the premium for the capture of slaves, and not
of slave-ships„an inducement was held out, not to prevent the
principal part of the crime, the shipping of the negroes, from
being committed,but rather to suffer this, in order that the
head-money might be gained when the vessel should be cap-
tured with that on board which we must still insult all lawful
commerce by calling the cargo—that is, the wretched vic-
tims of avarice and cruelty, who had been torn from their
country, and carried to the loathsome hold. The ten-
dency of this is quite undeniable ; and equally so is its
complete inconsistency with the whole purpose in view, and
indeed the grounds upon which the plan itself is formed ;
for it assumes that the head-money will prove an induce-
ment to the cruisers, and quicken their activity ; it assumes,
therefore, that they will act so as to obtain the premium :
and yet the object in view is to prevent any slaves from
being embarked, and consequently any thing being done
which can entitle the cruiser to any head-money at all.
The cruiser is told to put down the Slave Trade, and the
reward held out is proportioned to the height which that
trade is suffered to reach before it is put down. The plan
assumes that he requires this stimulus to make him prevent
the offence ; and the stimulus is applied only after the of-
fence has been in great part committed. The tendency,
then, of this most preposterous arrangement cannot be ques-
tioned for a moment ; but now see how it really works.
The slave vessel is fitted out and sails from her port,
with all the accommodations that distinguish such criminal
adventures, and with the accustomed equipment of chains
and fetters, to torture and restrain the slaves—the invest-
ment of trinkets wherewith civilized men decoy savages to
make war on one another, and to sell those nearest to them
in blood—with the stock of muskets too, prepared by
Christians for the trade, and sold at sixteen-pence a piece,
but not made to fire above once or twice without bursting
in the hand of the poor negro, whom they have tempted to
plunder his neighbour or to sell his child. If taken on her
way to the African Coast, she bears internal evidence,
amply sufficient, to convict of her a slave-trading destination.
I will not say that the cruisers having visited and inspected
her, would suffer her to pass onward. I will not impute to
gallant and honourable men a breach of duty, by asserting,
that knowing a ship to have a guilty purpose, and aware
that they had the power of proving this, they would volun-
tarily permit her to accomplish it. I will not even suggest
that vessels are less closely watched on their route towards
the coast than on their return from it. But 1 may at least
affirm, without any fear of being contradicted, that the
policy which holds out a reward, not to the cruiser who
stops such a ship and interrupts her on her way to the
scene of her crimes, but to the cruiser who seizes her
on her way back when full of slaves, gives and pro-
fesses to give the cruiser an interest in letting her
reach Africa, take in her cargo of slaves, and sail for
America. Moreover, I may also affirm with perfect
safety, that this policy is grounded upon the assump-
tion, that the cruiser will be influenced by the hope of the
reward, in performing the service ; else of what earthly use
can it be to offer it ? and consequently I am entitled to
conclude, that the offering this reward, assumes that the
cruiser cares for the reward, and will let the slaver pass on
unless she is laden with slaves. If this does not always hap-
pen, it is very certainly no fault of the policy which is framed
upon such a preposterous principle. But I am not about
to argue that any such consequences actually take place.
It may or it may not be so in the result ; but the tendency
of the system is plain. The fact I stop not to examine. I
have other facts to state about which no doubt exists at all.
The statements of my excellent friend Mr. Laird, who, with
his worthy coadjutor, Mr. Oldfield, have recently returned
from Africa, are before the world, and there has been no
attempt made to contradict them. Those gallant men are
the survivors of an expedition full of hardships and perils,
to which, among many others, the learned and amiable Dr.
Briggs, of Liverpool, unhappily fell a sacrifice—an irre-
parable loss to humanity as well as science.
It appears that the course pursued on the coast is this :
The cruiser stationed there to prevent the Slave-trade,
carefully avoids going near the harbour or the creep where
the slavers aro lying. If she comes within sight, the slaver
would not venture to put hiscargo onboard and sail. There-
fore she stands out, just so far as to command a view of
the port from the masthead, but herself quite cut of sight.
The slaver believes the coast is clear ; accomplishes his
crime of shipping the cargo, and attempts to cross the At-
lantic. Now, whether he succeeds in gaining the opposite
shores, or taken and condemned, let us see what the effect
of the system is, first of all, in the vessel's construction and
accommodation—that is, in the comforts, if such a word can
be used in connection with the hull of a slave ship—or the
torments, rather, prepared fur her unhappy inmates. Let
us see how the unavoidable miseries of the middle passage