The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON„_

Lord's assurance that the Committee would very soon
report to the House, he would consent to a short post-
ponement of his notice.
The motion for the adjournment of the House at its
rising until Monday, was then agreed to.
PROPERTY TAX BILL. _

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER moved
the second reading of this Bill (which was one of the
dropped orders of Thursday).
Mr. HUME said he should not oppose the Bill in its
present stage ; but on the motion for going into Com-
mittee he should certainly propose to send it up stairs to
a Select Committee.
Mr. OSBORNE asked if the Right Hon. the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer had taken into consideration, as
he had promised to do, the question of making a deduc-
tion from the assessment of house property, in respect of
insurance from fire?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said he
had done so; and, after the fullest consideration he
could give the subject, he thought the best course would
be to pursue the course adopted in 1845, and ask the
House to continue the Bill for three years as it stood,
without attempting to introduce matters that might be
supposed by some Hon. Members to be improvements.
Whatever he could do by any arrangement of the
schedules he was perfectly ready to undertake; but not
to introduce alterations in the Bill itself.
The Bill was then read a second time, and the Com-
mittee fixed for Monday.
COURSE OF PROCEEDING WITH THE GO-I

understated the case. He had made the candid avowal
that all his efforts to suppress the slave trade bad only
augmented it in a tenfold degree.—(Hear.) He declared
that Great Britian had expended upwards of a million
and a quarter, besides the annual cost of supporting her
squadron—in all, about fifteen millions sterling ; num-.
hers of valuable lives had been sacrificed ; and yet the
traffic had not been diminished, but the numbers ex-
ported had increased, being as two to one compared
with what they were in 1807, while the loss of life had
been twentysfive per cent. He would be prepared to
show that Sir F. Buxton had understated both the
amount of money which had been spent and the increase
in the loss of human life. As far as he could ascertain
from Parliamentary returns the total amount of money
spent by this country between 1808 and 1347 was`
49,105,705/., including the 20,000,0001. paid to the West
India planters. If to this sum be added the amount paid
for the increased price of sugar, rum, and molasses, thq
total would amount to 82,387,1304 Now with regard to
the loss of life Sir F. Buxton had stated the increase at
25 per cent., but he believed it was at least 33 per cent.
Mr. Cliff had estimated the loss of life on the passage at
one-third, and that was also the calculation of the mer-
chants at Havannah. Papers which had been presented
to the House of Lords in 1799 showed that the mor:
tality in 1791, three years after the passing of the Slave-
trade Carrying Regulation Act, was only 13,1 per cent. In
1803 he believed the loss was still less. Were they,
therefore, to continue a system on an idea of mistaken
philanthropy which had been attended with such disas-
trious results, both in loss of money and loss of life ?
It was shown from official returns, which were quoted in
Sir Fowell Buxton's work, that 49,643 slaves were im-
ported annually into Rio Janeiro between the years
1827 and 1830, and that there were landed on
the entire coast of Brazil no less than 78,331
slaves annually.—(Hear, hear.) Sixty thousand
were landed in Havannah alone, besides those which
were landed in other places. If the trade had remained per-
fectly free he did not think that Cuba and the Brazils
could absorb greater numbers.—(Hear, hear.) So much
with regard to the question up to 1840. From that time
up to 1846 it would be shown that the number of slaves
imported depended on the demand for their produce in
the markets of Europe. It had been said by the Noble
Lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, that only 3,000
slaves were imported in 1846. That might be true, be:
cause at that time a great blow had been struck at the
slave trade by the measure of the late Government'
which admitted free-labour sugar into the markets of
this country.—(Hear, hear.) The house of Drake and
Co., of Havannab, had petitioned the Spanish
Government, in consequence of that measure, for
a total extinction of the slave trade in Cabe'.
They said that the Engiish market being thrown
open to free-labour, sugar would compensate theils for
any loss that might be incurred. It was in consequence
of this measure, and not from any increased activity on
the part of the British squadron, that the diminution in
the number of slaves imported in 1846 was to be attribu+
ted. He could show that the profits realised from the
trade were so large, that it would be impossible for any
exertions on the part of this country to put a stop to it:
He believed it was a maxim at the Custom-house that
no smuggling on which a profit of 33 per cent. was real-
lised could be put a stop to. But the profits of the
slave trade were vastly more than that. He would read
to the House a statement of those profits. The price or
a slave on the coast of Africa was 41. per head. If the
number of slaves amounted to 556, that would give a sum
of 2,2244 The amount of freight was 4,0001., and the
cost of water, rice, 637/. The price of a a slave in
Brazil was 501.; now supposing that only 371 of the 536
were landed alive, that would give 18,550/., or a net
profit, after deducting the expenses, of 11,6891., which
was equal to 200 per cent.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon',
Gentleman quoted several statements of a simii
lar character. All the accounts lately received
had shown that a great impulse had been given to the
slave trade by the measure of the present
Government.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentlemen read
several extracts of letters which had been received by
mercantile houses in the City, which stated that the
slave trade was annually increasing. Those statements
were fortified by the opinions of Mr. Oldfield, who said
that " it was a perfect farce to try and put down the
slave trade by their present naval force." But the Gos
vernor of Sierra Leone himself, in a letter dated October
1, 1847, stated that notwithstanding the extreme yips
lance of her Majesty's squadron, the traffic in slaves was
more vigorous than ever.—(Hear, hear.) Sir Thomas
Herbert gave similar testimony. Was it to be endured
then that the Government should keep up a squadron
at a vast expense to the country for the suppression
of the slave trade whilst they passed a measure
which tended directly to encourage it?—(Hear.) They
must do one of two things—revoke their measure or call
back their squadron.—(Hear, hear.) The people of
England were taxed to support a squadron which was
not able to suppress the slave trade, but which enhanced
the price of slaves in Cuba and Brasil. The people of
England were the great consumers of their produce, and
the consequence was, that they were obliged to buy it at
a much higher price. How long would the people of
England endure this ? He knew that the Government
would answer him by asking if the people of England
were prepared to depart from the course of policy which
they had now followed for several years. But he had
proved that it was desirable, on the ground of humanity,
that the Government should change their policy. The
way the slave trade was carried on was this: the slave-
trader contracted with the merchant to bring him Loop
slaves, for instance, and he wrote to his agent on the
coast of Africa to send him, not 1,000 slaves, but 3,000,
calculating that the difference would be lost on the pas-
sage. He did not believe that the people of this country
were prepared any longer to pay for a state of things
attended with such inhumanity. It' they were really
anxious to put down the slave trade, they must
withdraw their squadron from the coast of Africa,
block up the ports of Cuba and Brazil, and refuse
admittance for their produce into this country. It
was the will, and not the power, to suppress the slave
trade that was wanted. If the Government were not pre-
pared to take the responsibility of that course, let them
at least not put forward their desire to suppress the
slave trade as an excuse for persevering in a system
which had utterly failed, and brought nothing but loss
and ridicule upon the country.—(Hear.) With regard
to their West India colonies, he believed they were well
nigh ruined, with the exception perhaps of Antigua and
Barbadoes. There were some in that House who de-
sired such a consummation. He confessed he was un-
able to join in their views. The Hon. Member for the
West Riding (Mr. Cobden) and the free-traders thought
that their principle would bind the whole world in the
bonds of peace. They had visions et a coming golden
age, but for himself he preferred even the sad realities of
the present Administration to those flattering visions of
the future.—(Bear.) He supposed that assurances
would be given of the adoption of vigorous measures,
but he entreated the House to reflect on the dreadful
sacrifice of human life by which these repeated experi-
ments had been attended.—( Hear,
_hear.) He held in
his hand a statement of the deaths of officers and seamen
and of those who had been invalided in the year
1845. It appeared from this statement that the entire
charges for the squadron in that year amounted to
706,4541.—(Hear)-259 deaths of officers and men had
taken place, and 271 had been invalided, making a total
of 530, which was a greater sacrifice of life than that
which had gained them some of their most brilliant naval
victories.—( Hear.) If this did not move the House, he
called upon them as guardians of the public purse to vote
for his motion. To the sum of 706,454/. was to be added
the expense of their establishments on the coast of
Africa, at Sierra Leone, Fernando Po, and Cape Coast
Castle, the courts, the commissions, and the expense of
maintaining the negroes who were taken, which would
make a total of 1,200,0001. raid yearly by this country
for a purpose which had proved worse than useless.—
(Hear, hear.) He called upon the Hon. Member for
Finsbury and the other Members who represented large
constituencies to aid him in relieving the people of this
country from the unjust burden of the window tax
by supporting his motion—to aid him in dispelling
that delusion which so long prevailed amongst the
people by means of which they had been made to pay a
heavy penalty for the weakness and folly of their go-
vernors.—(Hear.) The Hon. Gentleman concluded by
moving " That an humble address be presented to her
Majesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to
give directions that negotiations be entered into with fo-
reign powers to relieve this country from the engage-
ment under which it labours of maintaining a squadron
upon the coast of Africa."
Mr. HUME seconded the motion, and urged that
nothing could stop the slave trade whilst profits re-
mained as great as they were at present. He contended
that we were aggravating the horrors of the slave arade,
and that we ought. not to be ashamed to,replace our
steps. He dissented, however, from the Hon. Member
in thinking that we could use any measures of coercion
to suppress the slave trade. It was no use our attempting
to drag on.the whole world. But there was a course
open to us—that of giving encouragement to free labour,
in every
overynly sensem aodfe cheap u
the term ;oanrd ifbe tnheavtosleynstteminotefolatroonuir
were
respecting the slave, he felt assured, would have inff •
nitely greater success than at present. All our consuls
were agreed that the present system was ineffectual, and
unless it were put an end to he could never anticipate a
termination to the existing slave traffic.

After a short pause,
Mr. G. THOMPSON said that. abhorring the slave-
trade, he could not hold it to be right to inflict so heavy
a burden as that imposed on this country since 1808, in
order to put down the African slave-trade. In his
judgment it was not right to seek the attainment of mo-
tives, in themselves holy, by such means as this country
had adopted. But it was not necessary for him to press
that argument, for the strong position upon the present
question was that our existing system was utterly abor-
tive. We had found nothing but insincerity among
other nations which had entered into treaty with us to
put down the traffic. Scarcely any one of these nations
ever had the stipulated number of cruisers or guns upon
the coast of Africa, and the consequence was that the
burden upon us had become utterly intolerable. He was
pretty well acquainted with- Sierra Leone and the sys-
tem in operation there, and he could safely declare that
that and like places had been hotbeds of fraud
and chicanery—places full of men who profited
by the humanity of this country to carry on co-
vertly and by fraud the very system they were paid to
suppress. He had every confidence that free labour was
entirely able to compete succesfully with slave labour.
If it were not, he should doubt whether or not free labour
was the law of nature and of mankind. But all
experience proved the coaverse. The condition
and circumstances of India proved it, where freo labour
was quite able to cultivate the soil with success. He
was therefore disposed to confine his efforts to the great
object of suppressing the slave trade by the encourage-
ment of free labour.

Lord 11. VANE thought it would be inopportune to
decide this question in any way whilst the subject was
under the consideration of a Committee. He was in-
clined, however, to agree with the arguments by which
the motion was supported, and should his opinions not