The Sun.
London, England, 1858-06-21 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 21, 1858.

Fresh ..a r , L
, DI„
laurels for oril ALNIESBURY, if e b
but determined to
gather them. We can certainly
see but little reason -why he should not apply the
same measure to
Spain that has proved so suc-
cessful with Naples. The latima ratio would,
doubtless, have no more to be applied in the case
of the former, than it was in the ease of the lat-
of course, too powerful, and
ter. Great Britain is,
her naval and military resources, as he of Naples
soon acknowledged, when reminded of them, fo,
either Bourbon, Spanish, or Neapolitan; 'QUe'en
or King, to attempt tomeasure their own against
them. Of this very circumstance, however, these
unprincipledevents have taken advantage ; they.
knew that they would not be considered cowarck
for sticking to main, arid that we should be', and

justly, if we abused unquestionably superior

strength. Hence they have both refused us for
months or years what no power which considers
itself our equal, would have thought it honour-
able to refuse for a week. This forbearance of the
strong to the weak, however, cannot be persisted
in to the endurance of manifest wrong or insult.
Because I am a man, a woman or a boy are not to
cudgel me, or rub me with impunity in the street
.--there are limits surely of forbearance with
weakness, and one obvious limit is when weakness
abuses it. Lord MALMERBURY justly thought so
in the case of Naples, and all Europe will approve
the alternative—the arbitration of Sweden, that
was itself moderation, or our fleet in the Bay of
Naples. Another obvious limitation is, that our
case of complaint with a weaker power should not
be a technical or constructive one, but one so
plain and self-evident may be averred that we
simply exact our right and furnish no precedent
for oppression.

In the case of Spain, both these limitations are
conspicuously in our favour. The whole civilised

world knows it, and would justify us in resenting

to compulsion. Spain has grossly abused her
own weakness, trusting to our magnanimous for-
bearance, and our case is so plain in written trea-
ties, that no one could blame us for enforcing
compliance with them. Moreover, in the case
of the Spanish Monarchy, it owes its very existence
first to our great Captain and a wurld of British blood
and money wasted on it, next to a British Legion,
which, though volunteers, and on so much smaller
a scale, yet gave, virtually, the present Queen of
SPAIN her throne. The present conduct of Spain
combines all the corruption, ingratitude, perfidy,
and fraud that could be united in one act of
Court policy. We owe much to the Bishop of
OXFORD for bringing the case again before the
House of Lords. It was quite appropriate
that the son of War. WILBERFORCE should pre-
sent a petition from Jamaica against the Spanish
slave trade with Cuba ; the trade is grossly un-
fair to our own emancipated negroes, and also to
our planters in the West India Islands, since
they are not allowed to cover these lands with
labourers by the simple means of kidnapping
them ; but between us and Spain that, of course,
will go for nothing. The whole question is, have
we undoubted treaties with Spain, treaties of no
trifling importance, which she refusesto execute 7
Has she had ample notice of her bad faith, and is
she able to fulfil the treaties 7

Now, as we have said, there is no pretence of
uncertainty on any of these points. Our slave
trade treaties with Spain are, as that Govern-
ment well knows, of great importance to us. They
are explicit. They are not denied by Spain, yet
they are worse than unheeded, and the proof is

clear that she could easily fulfil them. Ever since

, 1814, Spain has joined us in condemning the
slave trade, and in 1815 she joined with all the
other European powers in an agreement to put it
down. A treaty to suppress the slave trade was
one of the most prized acquisitions of the treaty
of Vienna. Indeed, we hardly received any other
requital for our services to European despotism
than an engagement to secure the freedom of the
coasts of Africa! In 1817, however, a new and
specific treaty was signed between us and Spain,
by which that power engaged that in 1820 the
slave trade, so far as her own subjects were con-
cerned, should cease and determine altogether.
But that was not all. A substantial considera-
tion was given for the treaty. Spain received
from us 400,000/. as a compensation for any
inch losses incurred in meeting the suppression of
the trade. A sum which, with compound interest,
for it was paid at once, and nothing has been done
hitherto, amounts to upwards of three million ;
besides all the expense to which sip has put us
in maintaining our African and Cuban squadrons.
Nothing having resulted, in. 1835 another treaty
was negotiated, by which Spain agreed to pass
stringent laws, such as should effectually prevent
her subjects from engaging in the trade, yet even
then it was ten years before the promised enact-
ments appeared ! When they did, it was the old
s ory of the play of Hamlet, with the part of
Hamlet omitted. Our experience, thoroughly
well-known to Spain was, that we could not re-
press the slave-trade by any penalties short of
those which attach to piracy, and that since we
had treated it as piracy not a vessel had left our
shores for the accursed traffic. Spain, however,
did not declare the slave-trade piracy, and the
result we all know. She has thus not used the
power which she has, and which she knows would
be effectual, since the wretches who will dare a
brief imprisonment and a fine, ao not like swing-
ing at the yard-arm. Even the gold of slave-
dealing is bought too dear at that hazard. But
even as the laws now stand, an honest captain-
general in Cuba could put down the traffic. This
was apparent in 1842. VALDEZ, the captain-
;eneral, was then repaired to stop the trade. He
called the slave-traders together, gave them six
months to wind up (they ought not to have had a
lay), and required them then to abandon their
infernal traffic. Two years before his measures
cook effect, fifty slavers had left Cuba, and had
imported 14,470 Africans ; while in 1842 only
5,100 were imported in three ships. Thia fact
shows what Spain could do. The truth is, that
the trade is kept up to fill the pockets of Court
favourites. It is well known what enormous
sums the scandalous Queen Mother received by
trafficking in the appointments to Cuba. It
is in evidence, too, that captains-general have
received a fee of three doubloons for each slave
landed, and have returned home in an incredibly
short time worth 100,0001., though they had gone
out poor. Better far for the pocket's sake to be
Captain-General of Cuba than Governor-General
Of India. The Cuban planters are, it appears,
quite favourable to the abolition of the trade,
since it would make the present estates
more valuable. There is clearly nothing in
the way but the avarice of the Spanish
courtiers. They would lose the chance
of one of the most lucrative appointments
in the, world ;
it is nothing to them that
it is lucrative only through the greatest
villany on earth. It appears from the
statements of Lord BROUGRAIL and the Bishop
of OXFORD that we are now in a position to
insist on the emancipation of nearly all the slaves
in Cuba. By treaty, after a certain date all
Africans who arrived were to be emancipated
tfter five years' apprenticeship ; and it appears
that now nearly all the negroes belong to this
class—Emancipados, as they are termed. One
of the villanous frauds practised upon us is, that
they substitute the slaves who have died for those
who would have become emancipated by the
treaty. Indeed, there is no fraud, no base trick
to which the Spanish Government has not conde-
:cended to evade its obligations with Great
Britain.

With these and other fact 6 before us we think
that Lord MALMESBURY may try and find SOlll3
4-ay of compelling the minions of ISA BELLA to
Live up their iniquitous gains, and to put a stop
to the traffic. We fear that leaving Cuba to Mr.
SucuArraal will be a remedy as bad as the
disease. Spain knows that ,we are not disposed
o halickover. the island to. the Slave States of
Aroma, incept aa.a dernier resort, indeed, No: