The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-23 00:00:00

CONDON,

contrary, that the whole responsibility of voting those
estimates lay with that House, and not with the Execu-
tive Government, whose duty simply consisted in pro•
posit"r them. The pinch was coming fast upon them,
and they could not screen themselves from the responsi-
bility of voting too much money by attempting to throw

it on :he Ext cutive Government. The country was
vetting a groat relish for common sense, and he was
there ore glad of this dispute about the property (ax.
As far as economy was concerned, he admitted that the
Reform Act had proved a failure, although in other re-
spects it had worked wonders ; and if the doctrine were
to prevail that the Executive Government was to be the

party responsible for voting away the public money, then
would he defy any absolute Government or despotism to
increase taxation with equal readiness. In fact, no despot
would ver.ture it, for he would be afraid of his neck.
Who was to be responsible, it the Parliament threw the
responsibility upon the Government, and the Govern-
ment flung it back upon the Parliament? The Right
Hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth said that the
people called fur more colonies. True ;. but why did

Noble Lords and Right lion. Gentlemen in that house
continually flatter the people by referring to the pos.
session of an empire on which the sun never sets? The
lamentable massacre at Canton had been referred to as

an excuse for demanding more money ; but, while it
took place, we had ten ships of war in the Taguq,
four steamers, and 4,812 sailors.—(Hear, hear.)
Reserving to himself a perfect independence as to what
Lhese proposed Committees might do, he should in tI,
aleantimv vote against the increase, and for diminution.
Mr. BUCK observed that the predictions of the Hon.

Gentleman, made two years ago, that the principles of
roe trade would secure the prosperity of the country,
had not been fultilled.—(Cheers from Lord G. Beutinck
and others.) When these predictions were made, and
when those who declined to concur in them were invidi-

ously described as monopolists, every class in the com-
munity might be said to have been in a prosperous con-
dition; whereas now, that those principles hat been car-
ried out, they were steeped in misery.—(Hear.)
Mr. C. P. VILLIERS congratulated the Hon. Gen-
tleman who had just spoken on the disappointment he
7nuit have experienced at not finding that the principles
if free trade, in accordance with his prediction 9, had
ruined the agriculturists.—(llcar, hear.) That Hon.
Gentleman was the advocate of L high price for corn.

Now, not only corn, but all provisions had been dearer
in 1847 than in previous years, and what was the conse-
quence ? Why, that there had been a much greater
depression of trade.—(gear, hear.) In his (Mr. Vil-
liers's) opinion th., evil effects of the corn-laws would be
telt for some years to come.
The resolutions were then agreed to.

THE SLAVE TRADE.
Mr. MUTT rose to move for a Select Committee to

consider the best means which Great Britairi could

adopt for mitigating the horrors of the slave
providing for its final extinction. Th., lion. Member
proceeded to observe that he believed this country had
uselessly expended 21,000,000/. in endeavours to sup-
press the slave trade, and were as uselessly adding to
that immense expenditure. Instead of suppressing the
slave trade, it was now more extensively carried on than
before we had made any attempts to suppress it. The
papers before the Hou,e prove this. It was said that
if we were only to increase our squadron on the
coast of Africa we would effectually put down the slave
trade. He utterly denied it. Ho believed that if we
indulged in all those fancies which obstructed the manu-
facturing industry of the country, if we deprived the
people of the means of education—if, in a word, we
poured forth the treasury of England in an attempt to
put down the slave trade by force, is e should only be
adding to its extent and its horrors. Our whole system
was, therefore, an error, in attempting to do by force
what could only be accomplished by other means. We
already knew what difficulties there were in suppressing
a contraband Vale which produced a profit of 30 per
cent. How much were those difficulties increased as

regarded the slave trade, which offered a profit of 1,000,
1,500, and sometimes, as shown in the case of " Buren v.
Denman," of 2,000 par cent. on the coast of Brazil.
Excepting that of the United States, he believed there
was no Government honestly co-operating with us to
put down the slave trade. France had a fleet of
twenty-six vessels on the coast of Africa, but they
were not rested with sufficient authority to be available
for that purpose; and, according to the papers before
Parliament, had done less to extinguish that trade
than the fleet of the Queen of Portugal. The
lion. Member, having pointed out soma of the effects
of trade, observed that notwithstanding those effects,
ladies of the highest rank, and ministers of religion,
as well as persons of the lowest condition in Brazil,
were ready to turn the slave-trade into a profitable
account. It was absolutely carried on by joint-stock
companies, and was looked upon in Brazil as the most
thriving branch of commerce. lie regretted that the
ships in which this trade was carried on were built by
the United States, to whom he had accorded the merit
of assisting our endeavours of suppressing the trade,
and that amongst those ships was the Agnes, built at
Baltimore, and :said to be the property of a Quaker.
—(A laugh.) Ile regretted also that British subjects
should, according to the statement of the Right lion.
Baronet (the Member for Tamworth) in 1845, be en-
gaged in the slave-trade. In 1795 Mr. Pitt said that
the number of slaves taken annually from the west
coast of Africa amounted to 80,000. In 1820 the
African Society stated them in a letter to the Duke of
Wellington, at 7Q000; and in 1835 Lord J. Russell cal-

culated that they were not less than 100,000. So that
the number in 1835 exceeded by 30 per cent. the num-
ber reported to the Duke of Wellington in 1820. He
took these facts from th• parties stating them; but
there were ample reasons to believe them true. Other
information of a valuable character had been communi-

sated to the Admiralty by Dr. Bryson, and even the
evidence in the blue books, now on the table of the
House, showed that the slave-traders bad nowintroduced
vessels of a smaller build, in order the better to be able
to carry on their traffic in security. A letter from Mr.
Goring, the Consul at Pernambuco, stated that these
vessels carried crews varying from 8 to 14 men, but had
stowed away on board them from 150 to 300 human
beings, without space to lie down or even to stir. This
at least showed at what expense to humanity the existing
suppression system was carried on. But unhappily the
African negroes were not the only persons who suffered
—there were besides the subjects of the Crown, the
countrymen of every Member ofthe House brought in this
vortex of pestilence and death. On the west coast of
Africa there were generally from 27 to 30 British ships
employed to suppress the traffic in slaves—those ships
bearing from 4,000 to 5,000 sailors and marines. This fact
was alone sufficient to induce the Legislature to pause be-
fore it continued its sanction to the existing system of sup-
pression. The mortality among these crews surpassed
all imagination. In one year one ship alone (the Eden)
lost, iu less than six months, II 1 men, out of a crew of
160 men.—(Hear, hear.) In 1837, it was proved that
the mortality averaged 13 per cent; and; besides, there
were considerable numbers sent home invalided, with
ruined constitutions. Such a destruction of human life.
and of health and constitution, ought to induce the House
to interfere in recommending the Government to with-
draw the fleet. Turning from this point, he came to
another part of the subject well deserving of considera-
tion on the present occasion—he meant the annual ex-
pense incurred under the system now practised for sup-
pressing the slave trade. For several years he had en-
deavoured to ascertain the exact amount of those
expenses. Ile, as well as the Honourable
Member for Montrose (Mr. Hume), had moved
for many accounts, but had never been able to as-
certain the extact truth. But, from such materials as he
had, he could state the following as the result of careful
examination. The annual expense of the squadron em-
ployed on the west coast of Africa he estimated at
300,0001.; of that on the east coast at 150,0001.; at
Sierra Leone, the Gambia, Gold Coast, and other
stations, 20,0001.; the Commission Court and super
annuation allowances at 25,0001; the bounty to officers
and crews for captured slaves, 50,0001.; for bills drawn
on account of liberated Africans, 30,0001 ; and for mis
cellaneoue charges, 30,0001.; the whole amount to
650,0001. per annum—which, he contended, was worse
than thrown away.—(Hear, hear.) And now ho might
be asked how, after thus condemning the whole system,
he was prepared to deal with this important but truly
painful subject of the slave trade? Ho answered most
unequivocally, " Leave the slave trade to itself."—(lfear,
hear.) If merchants would engage in it, let the guilt of
such a nefarious and unholy traffic rest upon their owe
heads, and leave them to a higher tribunal than any
human ingenuity could erect. He knew it would be
stated by the Noble Lord at the head of the Government
that if this country withdrew her cruizers from the
African coast, the stream of slavery would rush forth
like a torrent, and that for every man now embarked in
that trade, five men would do so. But he (Mr. Hutt)
denied the truth and justice of such an inference.
He did not believe that if the people of Cuba and the
Brazils saw that fouteend-a-half millions might be added
e) their population, and that thereby so great a dispro-
portion in point of numbers might be created between
the white end black population, they would be actuated
by a sense of self preservation, and would endeavour to
avert so dire and awful a sacrifice of human life as the
history of the island of St. Domingo presented as having
arisen from the same cause. There existed, he believed,
in the Colonial Office a petition from Cuba im-
ploring the Imperial Government, in the most earnest
and energetic language, to take the necessary
steps to stop such an influx as the only means of
averting from that community so dire a misery. The
same was the case with the Brazils. Let the British
Government, then, let Cuba and the Brazils know that,
unless they came forward to stop the traffic in slaves, it
would be impossible to rescue them from a bloody revo•
lution, and this would induce them to exercise the
powers those countries possessed to prevent the intro-
duction of slaves.—(Hear, hear.) Finally, he believed
that the slave trade was now only kept alive by the
ignorant and meddling interference of the British Go-
vernment—(Hear, hear)—who, if they wished its final
extinction, ought to leave it alone. In conclusion, he
trusted the House would think that ho had made out a
priew facie case for the Committee for which he now
asked.—(Hear, bear.)
Mr. JACKSON said that, in rising for tho first time
to address the House, his apology was that ho had for a
period of sixteen years been engaged in the commerce
carried on with the coast of Africa. On this ground he
claimed the indulgence of the House.—(Hear, hear.)
He rose for the purpose of seconding the motion made
by the Hon. Member for Gateshead (Mr. Hutt), and he
did so for three reasons, the first of which was that a
charge had been brought against the merchants of this
country engaged in the traffic between the west coast
of Africa and England. The Hon. Menabor s dt.
infer that the British merchants had, to a certain xteut,
a guilty knowledge of 'Oho nefarious transacti, as car.
ried on on the African coast. Now be (Mr. Jackson).
in connexion with his late partner, had carried on, while
in business, commercial transactions between Liverpool
and every river and almost every creek on the west
coast of Africa; with Sierra Leone, the Gallinas, Cape
St. John, the Gold Coast, Bonney, Now and Old Ca-