The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-19 00:00:00

SLAVE TRADE.

TO J. 11. TREDGOLD, ESQ., SECRETARY OF THE BRITISH
AND FOREIGN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
Havannah, June 28, 1841.
SIR—In my last of the sth and 13th of May, per
Pigeon packet, I informed you that the Portuguese slaver
Aguila (the property of Messrs. Fernandez, POzo, and
Co., hardware merchants of this city) had been wrecked
at the port of Cabanas, in this island, and about 470 of
the surviving victims had been seized by the authorities,
and conducted in safety to this port. I now beg leave
to communicate to von some further particulars relative
to this unprecedented occurrence.
It would appear that many of those persons to whom
the Captain-General's circular was addressed had believed
that his Excellency was sincere in ordering that every-
thing possible should be done for the effectual suppression
of the slave-trade ; the consequence was, that the order
was seconded by the Captain-General of Marine, and by
the Intendent, who directed the subaltern officers of their
respective departments to yield implicit obedience to the
very letter of the order contained in the circular.
It had scarcely been issued when the brig Trueno ar-
rived, atter having landed 450 Africans on the coast.
The captain of the port, and the health officer, Doctor
Francisco de Orta, immediately repelled to the Captain-
General the arrival of the Trueno, and informed him
that there were strong suspicions of her having come
from the coast of Africa, and of her having landed
negroeS on the island. The vessel was subjected to
quarantine by the captain of the port, at the sug-
gestion of the health officer, until the Captain-
General should detetmine on what course to pur-
, sue. Two days were allowed to pass over without
anything being done by the Captain-General towards
instituting an inquiry into the case; in the meantime the
owners of the vessel were enabled, through the conni-
vance of the authorities, to discharge every article from
on board which could tend to prove the fact of her being
actually a slaver ; and when the inquiry was instituted,'
as was anticipated, nothing was proved. This vessel
has been again fitted out, and is now ready for sea.
A very few days had only elapsed after the case of
the Trueno when the Aguila was wrecked at Cabanas,
or, as it is positively asserted, was chased on shore
by one of our cruisers. In the attempt to land the
negroes upwards of thirty were drowned, and the re-
mainder were seized by Don Jose Lunar, the command-
ing officer of the Intendant's revenue guard stationed at
Cabanas. Don Jose Lunar immediately despatched an
express to the Intendant, giving him information of their
capture, and the Intendant, without loss of time, com-
municated it to the Captain-General, who sent the steam-
boat Tacon to Cabanas, and had them brought to this
port, where they arrived the following day. On their
arrival here the Captain-General summoned the Mixed
Court to assemble, and offered to hand over the negroes
fur adjudication by that Court, according to the regula-
tions of the Treaty; hut, strange to say, the English Com-
missary Judge. Mr Kennedy, in conjunction with his Spa-
nish colleague, the assessor Pinanso, refused to admit this
most laudable offer of the Captain-General, declaring that
the Mixed Court had no power whatever over them, nee
had it any right to interfere with them, in consequence
of their having been seized on shore by the authorities of
the island.
This is the substance of the opinion expressed by the
English Commissary Judge at the meeting of the Court,
and I am credibly informed that he was the only mamber
who evinced any desire to prevent the Court from in-
terfering.
This most extraordinary proceeding, if not in direct
opposition to the letter of the treaty ( ?) is certainly-opposed
to the object and spirit of its regulations. The mere cir-
cumstance of the Captain-General's having addressed
himself to the Mixed Court on the subject is sufficient to
prove that, if Mr. Kennedy had wished to do so, the Court
might with every propriety have taken charge of and
passed the sentence of emancipation on those unfortunate
persons, by which they would have been placed under
the protection of the British Government, in conformity
with the 13th article of the treaty. But now, in conse-
quence of the Mixed Court not having considered them-.
selve4 bound to take cognizance of the case, it becomes
purely a Spanish question, with which, perhaps, it may
hereafter be contended that we have not a right to in •
terfere, because the English Commissary Judge had
already decreed the non-interference of the Court of
Mixed Commission.
The Spanish Commissary Judge is the Captain-Gene-
ral's Lieutenant-Governor and Assessor-General, and it
is by no means probable that he would have opposed the
interference of the Mixed Court, particularly after the
offer which was made to it by the Captain-General.
This deplorable event, proceeding, no doubt, from a
want of proper zeal on the part of the English Commis-
sary Judge, has caused the Captain-General to emanci-
pate these negroes on his own authority, and in his own
way. Forty-eight hours after the sentence of emanci-
pation was passed, his Excellency, in defiance of all laws
human and divine, caused them to be reduced to the
very worst sort of slavery which the world has ever
known, by selling them to planters, owners of sugar
estates, for a term of five years, for nine ounces of gold
for a male, and seven ounces for a female.
To whom shall we appeal for redress, when English-
men, who are sent here for the special purpose of sup-
pressing the slave trade and watching over, the
fulfilment of the treaty, contribute, by their own con-
duct, to deeds so prejudicial to its object ?
It iS rumoured that the case of the negroes, by the
Aguila, has caused a misunderstanding between the
Captain-General and the Intendant, and that the result
will be that he will not again interpose his authority to-
wards the fulfilment of the Captain-General's jesuitical
orders. Indeed, it is said that the revenue coast-guards
have already received a written order to wink at the dis-
embarkation of negroes.
There were thirty-eight Africans drowned on board
the wreck of the Aguila at Cabanas. These unfortu-
nate victims of the cruelty and cupidity of the slave-
dealer, were the finest and most robust of the men com-
posing the cargo. Their unprincipled oppressors, who
had not forgetton the case of the Armistad, fearing a
similar attempt on board of the Aguila, had secured them
in the hold in fetters, attached to a heavy rod of iron,
and when the vessel struck the reef she filled so fast
with water that these poor creatures were allowed to
perish without an effort being made to save them.
I cannot refrain from calling your attention to another
circumstance, extremely prejudicial to the cause of
African freedom in this country, and which I submit is
well deserving the attention of your society, in order,
through its influence, to cleanse from the pollution of
slave-holding the British name in this countr,y.
allude to Mr. Clarke, the Consul at Santiago de Cuba,
who is also the principal manager of one of the copper
mines in that place, which is worked at this moment
by 400 of the unfortunate victims of slave-dealing
cupidity. With what grace can we appeal to the world in
behalf of this interesting race of persons, when our own
public officers contribute to the continuation ofslavery anti
the consequent degradation of our fellow-man '? Surely •
it must appear clear to the British Government, as well
as to yourselves, that the man who is either directly or
indirectly the holder of slaves cannot be a fit person to
represent the British nation in this country, where, his
most active and untiring exertions are daily //Ad hourly
required to suppress the frightful progress of the slave
trade ? What was the use of removing Mr. Hardy, if
you were to appoint his successor in the management of
the copper-mines at St. Jago in his stead ; and, above
all, why'remove Mr, Tolme from the Havannali, a Mtn
remarkable for the suavity of his manners, end gentle-
ness of his disposition, if not ' for the attSterity of his
abolition principles, when at the other end of the island
such men as Hardy and Clarke Were left at full liberty
to wield the cart-whip and the cow-hide ?
It was only yesterday that I heard a worthy natives
an abolitionist of my acquaintance, declare that the
greater part of the British functionaries resident in this
island migtet be compared to the priests, who preach the
morality they do not practice. "Doas I bid you, but
do not follow my example, is a doctrine from which no
good can come, and such practices afford an obvious ex-
cuse for these of the slave-holders.
I have just been informed that our Gensul has suc-
ceeded in rescuing from slavery a British subject, a native
of Jamaica, originally of free condition, who was stolen
at that island about ten years ago, and brought to this by
a Spaniard named Jose Antonio le Desma, and who has
held him in bondage ever since. It is to be hoped that
the zeal and activity for which Mr. Turnbull is so well
known
amountaexistm,rteihnsptpehire i stot
Id I
Sid
yt ho
ue
rs ame
most
will enable him to rescue many others who still
skate 2
obedient of dseegrrvaandattion_.—l
edeurbryenttklye
sareportedjeofAafrindcanbselbieyvetdhethAagt
utihiae
has been handed over to Messrs. Fernandez, Pozo, and
Co., as a remuneration to them for their losses.
SHIP

PING INTELLIGENCE
t LLOYDS.
LONDON, Arc. 18.—Wind at noon, steady, moderatt
breeze at W.N.W., with dark heavy passing clouds at
times,

PORTSMOUTH, AUG. 17.—Wind W. to S.W.—Arrived
1 - ____lv
her Majesty's steamer, Sanittrangilafyro,
urelia, Forbes, Quebec.
111 Macao,SLlle sailed
29th
ult.,aMndarcAhs,cenMsiaounriti7uths
;231
Sailed the Warrior, Danthwaite, for Calcutta.
COWES, AUG.
Hinchnarsh, from Matanzas rived the James Freeman,
LIVERPOOL, AUG. 17.—Wind W.N.W.—Arrived the
Olive Branch, Lindsay, from Bombay ; cotirtena
Brown, Mobile ; Emerald, Fligg, Montreal ; Northern
Conference, Jude, Quebec. Sailed the Alert, Barr, for
Jamaica. Put back Bonausa, for. Buenos Ayres,
DARTMOUTH, Auc. 17.—The Mermaid, of Brixinun,
for Guernsoy, is renorted to have been run into.
PLYMOUTH, AUG. 17. Wind W.S.W.—Sailed the
Calcutta, Chalmers, for Hobart Town ; Ida, Passmore,
Jamaica ; Victoria, Quebec ; Concord, Lobb, ditto ;
Twins, ditto.

FALMOUTH, AUG. 16.—Wind W. to W.S.W.—Sailed
the Harvest Home, Thompson, Miramichi. Off port the
Indian, Carr, from Launceston, sailed April •
MILFORD, AUG. 16.—Sailed the Maria, Corrigoll, for
Quebec; Pembroke Castle, Stansbury, do.
DUBLIN, AUG. 14.—Arrived the Emerald Isle,
M'Claude, from St. Sebastian. Sailed the Lord Seaton,
Talbot, for Quebec.

CORK, AuG. 15.—Arrived the Belle Barbaric, Barron,
from Honclur, sailed June 28 ; Henry and Mary Ann,
Charles, Newfoundland, sailed Ist inst.
SHIELDS, AUG. 16.—Sailed the Imoggne, Bassett, for
Calcutta.

Virginia Water and the adjacent grounds are be-
come places of Royal recreation. It is not generally
known, but it is nevertheless a fact, that the extensive
sheet of water presents the largest lake within one hun-
dred miles of the metropolis, which, with its picturesque
banks, is become very attractive. The grounds and lake
are open to the public, who avail themselves of the pri-
vilege in great numbers during the summer.
Isr or TFIANET--The crops in this island
arci very good, harvest is in full 'operation, and, if the
weather continues favourable, most of the wheat, barley,
and oats, will be carried by the end of the ensuing week

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

PROS. THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The Tories have a sad knack of anticipating
in some instances, however they may delay in others ;
and though very backward in declaring their own views,
they are exceedingly forward in construing the motives
and intentions of her Majesty. The other day they
wanted to write • the Queen's Speech—an arrangement
which they hinted would have been in the highest de-
gree acceptable to the Sovereign, who, it is alleged, is so
well disposed towards a Tory Ministry, that her private
wish was to have said, on the opening of Parliament,
exactly what Sir Robert Peel thinks she ought to say.
This morning we are told that her Majesty's neces-
sary absence from the House of Lords arises from
nothing at all but a determination not "to be dragged
through the mire " by her present Ministers. We are
at a loss to conjecture where " the mire " is to be found
which her Majesty would be compelled to encounter, un-
less it be the Tory majority in the new Parliament ; but
we suppose we must regard the expression as one of
those " lively " metaphors which our polite contemporary
, has the unhappy propensity of bringing up from the
I depot at Billingsgate. Where our contemporary gets his
information of the personal wishes of the Sovereign, we
should be glad to learn; for if there are any of the servants
of the palace, who make up stories to tell 'the. footmen,
who tell the housemaids, who tell the butchers' boys,
who tell the omnibus cads, who tell the newspaper boys,
who tell the Post's printer's devil, who tells the Editor,
the practice ought, for the sake of our gullible and gos-
siping neighbour, to be put a stop to as speedily as possi-
ble. But let us seriously ask the Tory organ what would
have been the nature of its contents if, in the present
situation of her Majesty, she had been advised to meet
in person the new Parliament ? No insults would have
been too gross, no allusions too indelicate, to have been
applied to the act; and even the vituperative faculties
of the Tory Journalists would have needed refreshing
at these fountains of coarseness and impurity which
flowed daily and nightly through their columns at the
period when the unfortunate affair of the late lamented
Lady Flora Hastings gave an excuse for calumny against
the Queen and the Court, under the pretext of sympathy.
STANDARD.—The Globe of last evening contains
the following apparently official announcement
As, in her Majesty's present condition, any under-
taking involving anxiety or fatigue might prove inju-
rious, we understand that Dr. Locock has interposed his
veto ; and that the new Parliament will be opened by
Commission, instead of by the Queen in person,"
It would thus appear that her Majesty 'will not
open the first session of the new' Parliament
in person. We rejoice, however, that we are
enabled to alay the anxiety which ' the above
intimation is calculated to excite, by,' stating,
which we do on unquestionable authority, • that her
Majesty is in the best possible health, and that there
is no more pretext for the apprehension that the
fatigue of opening Parliament in person will be more
injurious to her now than there has been on any of the
previous occasions on which she has proved herself so
fully equal.to the exertion. Last year, it will be remem-
bered, her Majesty prorogued Parliament in precisely
the same " condition," without sufferinc, the slightest
inconvenience from the effort ; and the anxiety she
has manifested on all similar occasions to undertake
this duty in person, and the energy with which she has
invariably performed it, forbid the belief that she would
not deliver the Speech from the Throne herself, on
Wednesday next, did not circumstances wholly uncon-
nected with the state of her health preclude her from so
doing. It is, indeed, most agreeable to her Majesty's
loyal subjects to believe that she has been deterred from
appearing in Parliament in person, not by the state
of her health, or by her ; apprehension of fatigue,
but by her unwillingness to perform the unpleasant
task her Ministers have imposed upon her. It is
not improbable, moreover, that her Majesty may have
been further influenced in her determination by the im-
pudent and indecent boasts of the Ministerial. journals,
not only of-the certainty of her appearance in the House
of Lords on Tuesday, but of the " marked `manner" in
which she would declare her approbation of the late
budget, and commend it to the notice of • Parliament.
However great the disappointment to which her absence
will give rise, the consciousness that she has been spared
a portion of the mortification which her Ministers would
have imposed upon her will fully compensate for it.

'MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPHRS OF YESTERDAY.
TIMES.—Those who have,watched the movements
of the tea speculators since the commencement of hosti-
lities with China, must have observed that scarcely a
month has passed without the appearance of some fabri-
cation likely to cause an increase of business. The time
selected for such fabrications is invariably about a fort-
night after the arrival of the overland mail, and when
the excitement which the intelligence really received
may have produced has in some measure subsided. Some-
times Russia is fixed on as the medium of communica-
tion between. this country and China ; sometimes a Lou-
don merchant has by some unaccountable means or other
been the fortunate receiver of a letter containing exclu-
sive intelligence of some barbarity committed by the
Chief of the Celestial Empire, which, while it is of the
greatest public importance, if true, has by some curious
contingency been sent to him alone. To such let-
ters, in addition to the valuable political information
they contain, is generally appended a postscript of a
commercial nature, wherein the writer dwells with
apparent regret on the circumstance that the stock
of tea is fast decreasing, and that further supplies
must not he looked for. In one or two instances enough
ingenuity has been exercised by the fabricators of "later
news" from China, to render the receipt of the letters
just possible, though exceedingly improbable, while, in
Most cases, there is a total absence of such tact, and the
discrepancies of dates render the attempts Utterly harm-
less, especially as the public hare continually been ac-
quiring fresh expetielite in similar manoeuvres. A great
deal of amilseMent was occasioned to-day by a fresh im-
! port of such Chinese intelligence, which, judging from
the extraordinary manner in which it is stud to have
been received, and the wholesale manner in which cala-
mities affecting the commerce or the country are an-
nounced, particularly in reference to the important
article tea, has all the features of its predecessors,
with the additional characteristic that it seems dit.
tigHed to give a little impetus to the rhubarb trade.
The letter containing this Intelligente Was, it is an-
nounced, slipped into the Bombay steamer on the 19th
of June, and after lying harmlessly at Paris ever since
the erect el of the overland mail, suddeny made its ape
pearance in that metropolis yesterday. The intelligence
is to the effect that the Emperor has Ordeeed all tette,
rhubarb, and other articlee necessary .for the English, to
be destroyed, he (the Emperet) promising to indemnify
the owners of Snell afticles out of his own pocket, with
the fietthe.i telamities that tea-smuggling hag been me=
tateteeekl, and that great activity has beta shoWii iii
et tiding out fire-ships. The stated Caitiff* of the Wee
smuggling at first gave a ettepieleliA ippeafahce to the
intelligence. front its Vdeicepondence with the outcry
letely raised here about the decreasing stocks in hand ;
the gratuitous liberality of the Emperor in orderiteg his
subjects to burn their property, while he lealet for ib, WAS id
little in accordance with his ktiewn predifeetibil,
taiieYeae,.
silver that it made it stillneereintieclilei Mee When it was
reflected on that so irepoifin't it lettte was allowed to lie
in ottsturity for tepeeeede et a fortnight, the flimsy fabri-
eettoll Was it '610'....;:, seen through. Some suggest that the
Chinese atleices may have been concocted in. .li.fielit-
lane, and thence sent to Paris for thesal-ce Of inimetlette
return, while the generality tietipaft eeffitielnPaik, irfeilg
that the speculator's thee* %Aid hardly have been parties
to so hungii**liba. At the Jerusalem Coffee-house,
whee* perms of the greatest experience in Indian and
Chinese business assemble, the announcement wits diebee
lieved from the beginning, and treated with eidiciiite 111
Mincing-lane, however, there wits * geetet ANYositibii tte
take it more seriously, and teesitiketinitiell about 2d. per
lb. Susceptiblee heti-Ott, as this market has of late been,
and ready td Move at reports which have the slightest
tqlptOXimation to probability, it is evident the .110-5 was
not much regarded even here, as tees titlieV*ite ithist
have rise from 4d. to 6d. per lb. We Mityeitd% :that iii
the price of rhubarb there is 10 eedeiteie3o.lllg advance.
HERALD.—The intellikei ere month later in date
from Macao (Qhiett) received by extraordinary elm ss
front Paris and Communicated in a second editien le - t AS
Herald to-day, created a consideraiele tekeiteneerit ha t'6
city, and especially in the to t, seas ten Wong the deeleiei
1
The prices of-that teammodity adeieektd epoWEht tenth
of it full 2d per lb. There Wes * leeteu deal of discussion
about the pe4eble eaeiteettless of the news thus received
and the possibility of its transmission in
it tklky 'd'e-
scribed, It was observed that, if put ea lee-WI-1e etteaMer,
ne Stated, the advices must hetet lettee jeCeleeetKe'CCAt.6l4
with the rest of the oeteeleed Mail-, and thee'Aiii V44e;`,l,u
have become known., At eete leW:xee'Ll however that
such immediate o.ls4s'eiety trio not necessarily follow,
as, astsnAt* ih4, trst premise, the party exclusively in
eresseeeion U the advices, a party not ifnpeobribly 'don_
earned in mercantile speculatioes, might lee herereeeted
in keeping them private until his 'OM cepOetiotee *
completed. Such was the teak* Set Qity discussion on
the subject, about which it is the less necessary to offer-
any observetionS or to arbitrate in any way in tee
mutter, as the, regular express from Paris in to-sititteees
Herald will, in all probability, put an Nut to all eineee-
tainty upon the subject. It may he retiree:lced, hoeeeeeie
that there is no impossibility in t 6 case 'OA lett& lien
so despatched and received: On the arrival of a vessel
from Macao, as stated ill'ete could be no difficulty in
despatching adeitta express by dak from Calcutta to
Bombay, *Molt might reach just as the steamer wtte
under weigh with its mails on board. The re pote ikl tho.
City is that this Chinese news is taken front Wiftfhttds
Messenger at Paris.
CHRONICLE.—We have on several occasions lately
alluded to the critical position of the Bank of Eneelenel,
with little over 5,000,000/. of gold in her coffers, exposed
to a drain to pay for more than two millions of quarters
of foreign grain, if the weather should continue unfa-
vourable ; and, under tiny circumstances, being called
upon to find gold equivalent to the price of 1,000,000 of
quarters, at 50s. per quarter, which would place the
Bank precisely in the same peril.as in November, 1839,
when the stock of gold was reduced to 9,500,000 e, and
bankruptcy avoided by a loan of 2,000,0001. from the
Bank of France. The truth of our remarks begins now
, not only to be felt, but fairly acknowledged ; for not-
; withstanding the propitious advent of the " new moon,"
and somewhat better weather, the organ of the Bank
I parlour admits, in a long article this morning, they do
not know that any well-grounded argument can be
(T-
-posed to the general force of such conclusions. " Our ,
contemporaries are impressed," says the " accre-
dited organ" of the Old Lady, " with the conviction
that every quarter of wheat imported must be paid for
in hard cash ; and this within so short a period, that is
to say, immediately upon the termination of the conti-
nental harvests, that without a:most circumspect and pro-
vident Administration, the coffers of the Ranh must in-
evitably be drained of their last sovereign before the end
of the year."
The organ of the Bank admits.there i 3 no good argu-
ment against the general force of this very startling con-
clusion. He attempts, of course, to sneer at the writors
" whose views are identified with the masterly financial