The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-27 00:00:00

ARMY (CAVALRY OFFICERS).

Mr. GRIFFITII moved that this house to-morrow
resolve itself into a committee, to consider of an humble
address to be presented to her Majesty, praying that she
would be graciously pleased to give directions that the
stoppage from the pay of tha cavalry and artillery
officers for forage be discontinued. The hon. member con-
tended that under the present system much hardship was
inflicted on cavalry officers, and urged that there should be
an increase in their pay.
Captain JARVIS seconded the motion.
Mr. BARING said this subject was attended with much
difficulty, and the alterations suggested by honour-
able members would cost the country £20,000 a year.
Before the house Should take the initiative in a matter
involving an increase in public expenditure, it should be
clearly shown that such was necessary. It had not been
shown that such was the case, and therefore he trusted the
hou,,e would not agree to the present motion.
Colonel prexsoig at,d Colonel DUNNE supported the
motion.
Mr. F. PEEL defended the Treasury in reference to
the conduct they had pursued respecting cavalry officers,
who, he contended, had not any grievance to complain of
as regarded the question of forage.
After some further discussion the house divided, and the
numbers were—

For the motion
Against it .......... 56
Majority
160
The motion was accordingly lost.
RECOVERY OF DEBTS.

Mr. HODGKINSON asked leave to bring in a bill to
prevent frivolous and vexatious defences to actions for the
recovery of debts.

SLAVE TRADE,
Mr. CAVE moved the following resolutions :--
"That the means hitherto employed by this cciuntry for

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the suppression of the African slave trade have failed to
accomplish the object.
"That this failure has mainly arisen from ur having
endeavoured, almost exclusively, to prevent e supply of
slaves, instead of to check the demand for th re.
"That the true remedy is not to be found countenanc-
ing immigration into those countries whoro, slavery exists,
the working population those
but in augmenting whichin
slavery has been abolished.
possiblen l d
be
eon"tTmhuaetd,,tahnedreefovreen, wrehnidleereredpmreos
i
encouragement and assistance should be given to the rs ve ra
effective,e au r e s
every should
intro-
duction of free immigrants, and especially of settlers from
China, into the British West India colonies."
The hon. gentleman observed that since last session several
important documents had been laid before the public. The
first was the noble lord the Foreign Secretary's circular on
the slave trade, and the reply to it of the President cf the
United States; respecting which he must observe that
while he agreed with the sentiments it expressed, he was
peined at the arrogant tone of the document—a tone which
there was nothing to provoke in the temperate circular of the
noble lord. Next there was the ordinary slave trade corre-
spondence, A and B, for 1860 ; and lastly, the convention
with France on the subject of coolie immigration into the
French colonies. In his circular the noble lord indicated anew
line of policy against which he (the hon. member) felt it his
duty to protest. The first resolution to which he asked the
assent of the house was only too easy of proof. The noble
lord himself said that the slave trade with Cuba was already
very active, and that intelligence had been received of
steps being taken for its more extensive prosecution. Mr.
Crawford, our consul-general at Havannsh, stated that in
1858 17,000 slaves had been imported into Cuba. In 1859
that number inci eased to 30,000, and last year it rose to be-
tween 40,000 and 50,000. The sugar crop of last year was
said by Mr. Crawford to have been 450,000 tons, and later
advices estimated it at more than half a million. At first
Brazil was the great offender ; but after the passing of the
bill of 1845 the slave trade of that country fell off till it had
at last altogether ceased. It was said that that circumstance
was due to the exertions of the British squadron ; and no
doubt that was true to a certain extent. The British cruiser
Cormorant had chased a slaver under the guns of a Brazi-
lian fort, and being fired upon blew it up. That factfand a
feeling on the part of the Brazilian people that the sieve
population was already enough, led them to suppress their
slave trade. At the same time, Brazil had no great horror
of slavery, for at this moment there were 27,000 emanci-
pados—that was, negroes who had been set free by British
cruisers, and apprenticed in Brazil for a term of years—who
were still kept in servitude. In Cuba, wbich was now the
great supporter of the slave trade, there could be no doubt
of the interest which those engaged in it had in carrying it
on. A negro who was worth less than 20 dollars on the
coast of Africa would sell in Cuba for more than 1,000. No
doubt the slave squadron, by enhancing the price, had a
tendency to check the demand ; but a demand there was
which would always produce a supply. Probably measures
against the Cuban trade like those adopted against the Bra-
zilian would be found to have a great effect ; and so thought
the President of the United States, who said that until the
British Government followed the slaves landed in Cuba and
set them free—until, in fact, it compelled the Government of
Spain to fulfil the treaty they had received £400,000 to
enable them to carry out—the slave trade would continue.
The noble lord proposed a joint cruise, but the President
refused to have anything to do with it. Nevertheless, the
noble lord's proposition was a most reasonable one ; for it was
impossible that the whole line of the African coast could be
watched by any British squadron of moderate extent. It
was proposed, again, that a portion of the squadron should
be stationed in the West Indies; and that also was a very
sensible suggestion. It might be said that it had already
been tried, and had been obliged to be abandoned on account
of the remonstrances of the American Government. That
arose from the unfortunate fact that the very first slaver
captured was an empty one sailing East with dollars—which
had led captains of our cruisers to show great vigilance to-
wards such vessels, and to overhaul two or three honest
traders. Still, any one who knew the West India Islands
would be aware that ships sailing from the coast of Africa
to Cuba must necessarily pass through one or two very nar-
row channels; and it was also well known that by the
simple expedient of going to the leeward it was perfectly
easy to detect a slaver on account of the horrible effluvia
which proceed from it. A very few quick steamers, there-
fore, cruising in our own waters about Jamaica would be
able to pick up more vessels, becalmed as they were so liable
to be, when the morning breeze encountered the trade winds,
than all the African squadron put together. Another pro-
posal for checking the slave trade was the civilisation of
Africa. No doubt a legitimate trade in palm oil had sprung
up with Africa, and it might be capable of a large increase.
Still, a very long time must necessarily elapse before much
progress could be made. Besides, we were by no means cer-
tain. that labour in Africa was free. Captain Forbes stated
that slaves were bought and sold in Liberia; and he gave
a by no means encouraging account of his mission to Da-
homey. He presented the prime minister with some silk
handkerchiefs, and told him he might have whole cargoes
of them if he would only produce palm oil. The minister
took two gold rings and two handkerchiefs from Captain
Forbes, and bade him good-bye, merely observing that the
slave trade was very lucrative, and that it would require
many years to grow the palms. There had lately been a
horrible massacre in memory of this very king, and per-
petrated almost in the very presence of the envoy sent to
remonstrate against it. The noble lord next proposed a re-
gistration and inspection of the slaves ; but the President of
the United States replied that if the profits of the sugar
trade were such as to enable the planters to corrupt the
officials in the manner they already did, there was no hope
that such a registration would be effectively carried out.
But in August, 1854, Lord Clarendon announced that in
the previous March the Queen of Spain had given her autho-
rity for such a 'registration—that was to say, if any slave
was afterwards found unregistered be should be, ipso facto,
set at liberty, and that law had been as well observed as
Spanish laws usually were. The next plan of the noble lord
was to substitute free for slave labour, and he entirely agreed
with the noble lord as to the efficacy of that remedy, though
he could not agree with him as to the source from which
the free labour should be procured. The noble lord had al-
lowed the immigration of coolies into the French colonies ;
but he (the hon. gentleman) had the authority of an Eng-
lish chaplain at Mauritius, who had recently paid a visit to
Bourbon, and had published a work in two volumes on the
subject, for saying that the French immigration of coolies
had been a complete failure. The Madras coolies who went
to Bourbon never returned, whereas those who went to Mau-
ritius did; and the rev. gentleman said that that fact would
enable the evil to cure itself, for the Madras coolies now re-
fused to sail for the French colonies. The noble lord had,
however, allowed the French to ship coolies from Calcutta,
where the bad name of the French had not yet become
known, and had thus given the sanction of the British flag
to an emigration from which it was rather the duty of her
Majesty's Government to have protected the natives of India.
There was no real liberty enjoyed bythe coolies in the French
colonies; but if the plan was objectionable where there was
at any rate the name of liberty, what might they not expect
from it where slavery existed in its most detestable form?
He thought it was not acting with much dignity to go cap
in hand to the Spanish Government and say, "It is true we
gave you £400,000 to put an end to the slave trade—a sum
which with the interest that has accrued upon it would now
amount to nearly a million and a half of money, and would
pay for bringing over 80,000 Chinese to our own colonies—
it is true that you have entirely disregarded the engage-
ments into which you entered with us ; but now, just to
save our credit in having put down African slavery, will
not Chinese slaves serve your turn as well ?" He did not
believe the noble lord had any idea of the treatment which
the Chinese met with ie Cuba; otherwise he was sure he
would never have sanctioned the scheme. He was sorry
the hon. member for Poole (Mr. Henry Seymour) was ab-
sent, for that gentleman had last year stated that they were
not ill-used. He (Mr. Cave) had been in every slavehold-
ing colony in the West Indies, and every slaveholding
State in America, and he had never seen a slave treated
with cruelty in his life. But those things were not done in
the open day. (Cheers.) They might just as well say that
the act against cruelty to animals was never violated in our
sw reallyt rheee when
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authority of two writers on this point. One was Mr.
Russell, a writer on chemistry and agriculture, who
visited Cuba for scientific purposes in 1855, and who
said that the treatment of the Chinese there was not
better than that of slaves, whereas they were less able
to bear it than negroes, and the result was that large
numbers committed suicide. His other authority was
that well-known author Mr. Dana, who was in Cuba last
year but one, and who made a similar statement. They had
heard a good deal about the horrors of the middle passage in
the case of coolies for the French colonies, but nothing of
the kind had been ever said about coolie emigrants for our
own. In our colonies they enjoyed freedom, as was proved
by the concurrent testimony of governors and missionaries.
The new system was inaugurated by the noble lord the
member for King's Lynn, who had been in the West In-
dies, and thoroughly understood the subject. Mr. Under-
,
had actually been to
how the system
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eoefl
et hn e
e Baptistfe
r t
he Missionary
purpose Soot. c i
seeingety ,
worked, and he reported it to be a complete success. He
said that the houses of the coolies were at any rate better
than they had in India; that they looked well fed and happy;
and that they received 10d. a day for four hours' work.
The French, always wise in their generation, we're strain-
ing every nerve to obtain coolie labourers; but in this coun-
try it was treated merely as a planter's question, As long
as they doled out aid in the scanty manner they did our
West Indian colonies would never obtain the amount of
free labour they needed. lie heard that in June last there
were 70,000 free negroes in the Southern States of America
who were anxious to emigrate to our colonies, but her Ma-
jesty's Govcrnment stated that from motives of interna-
tional policy they must decline to give them any assistance.
There was also a largo number of negroes in Canada, with
respect to whom there could be no such reason for refusing
their aid ; but none had been given. The people of this
country had said that they would have sugar and cotton at
all risks ; and those commodities must therefore be pro-
duced either by free or by slave labour. It could not by
the former, unless there was a considerable free immigra-
tion ; and so long as the planter was expected to pay two-
thirds of the coat, it was totally impossible that it could be
otherwise than restricted within very narrow limits. In,