The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-26 00:00:00

commissary judge at the Havannah, from which it appeared
that 50 slave-trading vessels left Cuba in two months of
1858 for the coast df Arica, each vessel capable on the ave-

rage 'of tiansporting 600 slaves, so that they had the fright-
Pu amount of 30,000 taken from their_ allinkiy and their
home in the course of tWo Months only. h Aid not Mean
to multiply that by six, because the Maim ttaffie was not

- -
carried on with the same activity thronglimt the whole
year. Commodore Wise wrote :—" The st,.vo .trade has
taken a frightful extension. New and fo, midable Joint-
stock companies called 'Expeditiolia to Africa' have been
formed, and se opehly that on the Havannah Exchange
the shares in these companies are advertised, and the price
of each share is about 1,000 dollars:" Thlis they re-
duced to a system this abominable traffic. He had it

from a gentleman who held a high official appointment
that in his opinion no less than 18,000 slaves passed that
Way in the course of the year; and his noble friend at the
_ _

head of the Foreign.otneeestitnatta the amount of the slave
trade traffic in the tottrse of the year at from 36,000 to
40,000 persons. Could anything be more atrotittut then

,han the conduct of the Spanish Go' etheaent ? His noble

friend behind him, writini to Mr. Buchanan, their Minister
at Madrid, said, "if Spain honestly performed her treaty

engagements with this country, the traffic in human beings
would cease. The flagrant violation by the Spanish autho-
rities of the engagements eonttatted with this country must

tend seriously to impair the friendly relations so desirable

be maintained between the two countries." It bad beth

said, " how can Spain put a stop to the eliVe trade ?" He
would answer that question by, putting another, " How did

Brazil put a stop to the slave trade ?" The Spanish Govern-
ment had as much power over the authorities of Main the

Brazilian Government had over their subjects, but Brazil

much to her honour) had abolished the slave trade. No less
than 60 cenVictions had taken place before the Vice-Admi

ratty Court at Sierra Leone before 1851. 13ut since 18513
when Brazil abolished the trade) the numbet came down to
12, and last year there were three condemnations, and no
more. In Brazil a man of colour, provided he was free, was
received on the same footing as a white man, was as capable
of enjoying any public trust or office) and lit society he had
the same acceptance as the White man. - Ilis right hon.
friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer had lately received
from Mr. Edward Bryden, an African gentleman in Liberia,
where he was engaged in the honourable office of teaching,
a complimentary letter, and a better written or better com-
posed letter he never read. It contained appropriate quo-
tations from the Latin and Greek authors, which proved
distinctly that he was a person of high classical attain-
ments. He could not help regretting the prejudices that pre-
vailed in some quarters of the world, and especially in the
United States of America, on this subject of colour; and
this put him in mind of an anecdote which was told to
himself and his noble and learned friend Lord Lyndhurst

by an American gentleman who had been an envoy of the
United States, in the south of Europe, and afterwards at the
Hague. This gentleman told them he had made a tour in
Cttba, and that he had been most hospitably and elegantly
entertained for three days by a negro country gentleman,
who resided in a magnificent house. When leaving he
thanked him for his hospitality, but the negro gentleman,
interrupting him, said, "I am a person above all prejudices,
and if I find a man well bred, well educated, and well prin-
cipled, I hold out the hand of fellowship to him, even if he
be as white as that table cloth." (Laughter.) He hoped the
people of the United States would hold out the hand of fel-
lowship to a well educated, well principled, and well man-
nered man, even though his colour was as black as a hat.
He knew it would take a long time to effect this change,
but he lived in the hope that it would take place. He enter-
tained this hope although it had been actually laid down in
the" Dred Scott case" by the Supreme Court of the United
States that what was called the " Missouri compromise"
was unconstitutional, and therefore not to be regarded, and
that Illinois was unfit to be considered a free state notwith-
standing that compromise. The Chief Justice and one of his
brethren laid it down as law that neither parents who had
been imported as slaves nor their descendants, whether they
had become free or not, were to be acknowledged as part of
the people, but were to be regarded as.beings of an inferior
order, altogether unfit to associate with the white race in
social or political relations, so far inferior that they had no
rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that
the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery
for the benefit of the white man. (Hear, hear.) In Ar-
kansas they had lately come to a resolution that free
persons of colour should either be reduced to slavery, or
driven out of the country. It was in vain to expect any
active operations on the part of the United States in the
suppression of the slave trade. It was true they had made
one or two captures, but the offenders escaped punishment.
If they were sincere, why not make the slave trade a capital
offence ? At present, as soon as the slaves were landed, the
Government cared not what became of the vessel. Slaves
bought for £4 on the coast of Africa sold at a profit of 1,400
per cent. In one case a slave ship had been run ashore in
stormy weather to escape a cruiser; and the scene occa-
sioned by the attempted escape of the slaves was described
as horrible in the extreme. Hundreds flung themselves into
the sea, and out of 1,200 only 340 were saved, and 40 of
those died afterwards. He only knew of one worse case,
where the captain and officers of a slave ship, which was
chased, got into a boat, and attempted to set fire to the
vessel. It was to be regretted that our efforts to stop this
horrible traffic amongst the Spaniards and Portuguese
should only hitherto have led to worse atrocities. We had
one influence over the Spaniards at this moment in conse-
quence of the new treaty; let us refuse then the benefit of
that treaty unless they abolished the slave trade.
The Bishop of OXFORD regretted to hear that it
was not considered fitting by the Government at pre-
sent to appoint a consul at Mozambique. The grounds
assigned for that decision had not carried conviction
to his mind. It was said that Dr. Livingstone, by open-
ing a legitimate commerce in the south-eastern part of
the district, was endeavouring to produce the same effect
as would result from the appointment of a consul.
No man appreciated more highly than he did the laudable
efforts of Dr. Livingstone, and the singular capacity of the
man for bringing what he had undertaken to a successful
issue; but he was convinced, from all the information that
reached him, that unless Dr. Livingstone's efforts in the
interior and up the rivers were backed by the consular in-
-1
fluence of England at the foot of the Mozambique theyyould
be almost practically paralysed. What had been done at
the southern branch of the Zambesi mouths ? Until ho
discovered that outlet, the Portuguese Government had
kept us in ignorance that there was a free passage that
way, and had sent the whole flow of the slave traffic by
that channel. As soon as it was discovered by Dr. Living-
stone, they put a custom-house there, to prevent the illegi-
timote traffic. The real question was, did the Portuguese
Government desire, or did they not, that there should be a
legitimate traffic planed on that coast? It was as plain
as possible that the representatives of the Portuguese na-
tion there desired nothing so ardently as to prevent all
legitimate commerce, knowing that that and the slave trade
could not co-exist. That being so, their efforts could only
be defeated by the presence of an authorised representative
of the English Government. It was said that the Portu-
guese authorities had little power to put down the traffic.
On the other hand, he believed it was the direct inflaence
of the Portuguese which had led the native chieftains to
encourage the trade. They had refused to do so until officers
in the Portuguese uniform had gone up with the slave
dealers. The whole settlement of Mozambique was made
ancillary to the carrying on of the slave traffic. Signals
were provided along the coast to give notice r f the approach
of English cruisers. The temptations held out to the igno-
rant natives were strengthened by the encouragement of
the Portuguese Government. They gave miserable salaries
to their agents on that coast, knowing that those agents
would pay themselves by winking at the slave-trade. But
if in the face of those enormities there was an English con-
sul there, the Portuguese Government would be compelled
to send out men of greater honour as governors ; and the
moment this was done, the efforts of the slave traders would
be paralysed. If this were done, along withthe opening of
a legitimate traffic from Dr. Livingstone's efforts, the two
things migLt by God's blessing, deliver that part of Africa
from the curse of the slave trade. No extensive armaments
were required—no alteration of policy—no danger to our
alliances. All that was necessary was that on that coast,
where Britain was spending not only such a large sum of
money, but lives which no money could replace, England
should be represented in her moral feeling by a consular
reps esentative, who could bring to bear on the Portuguese
court at home those claims of humanity which Portugal
had acknowledged in treaties, but which she suffered her
governors to set aside. lie therefore felt the greatest dis-
appointment in hearing that there was no intention to re-
store the consul at 31ozambique. He believed that the
interests of Portugal herself were most deeply at stake in
this being remedied. She had been mainly enabled to re-
tain the hold of that coast through the influence of England.
Portugal might derive a richer return from that colony
than she had ever done from Brazil, were it not for the
wasting and desolating influence of the slave trade.
The English people should bear in mind that they
incurred a vast and peculiar responsibility in this
matter, by mainly enabling Portugal to keep its almost
nominal hold on that coast. But for this there would have
been'revolt against the Portuguese Government; the power
now in the hands of the Imaum of Muscat -would have
spread down the coast, and it would have been a blessing
to the natives that a Mahommedan potentate should be
their ruler rather then a Christian prince. He trusted that
the resolution of the Government was not final., but that it
would be reconsidered, and that this great boon to humanity
—one implying so little sacrifice—would not be withheld in
this critical day of the attempt to ameliorate the condition
of the African race.
The Duke of SOMERSET observed that if treaties or
negotiation could have put an end to the slave trade, it
would have ceased long ago. He wished to set the house and
the public right on one point which had been alluded to by
the right rev, prelate. He spoke as if the appointment of a
consul at Mozambique was the only thing that remained to
be done to put an end to the slave tr. de. That was totally
and entirely a mistaken view. He had seen the reports of
officers from both the east and west coast of Africa, and he
could only say that.the slave trade had been increasing and
was nnw increasing on both coasts. As long as nations
claimed exemption from the right of their ships being visited
by cruisers, though those ships might carry,with them all the
appurtenances of the slave trade, and sail close to our yes-
-B'ls, it was quite idle to ray that sending a consul to Mozam-

a