The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-17 00:00:00

THE SLAVE TRADE.

Viscount PALMERSTON said that he wished to
make a few observations on the slave trade itself
before he entered upon the motion of which he had given
notice. It was a subject of great importance not known
to that House, and it still continued to engage the atten-
tion of Parliament and the country. Many of the most
enlightened men on both sides of the House and out of
the House had exerted their talents to put an end to
slavery, and they at length succeeded in rescuing this
country from the foul stain of slavery, but that great
result was not completed without much labour.
They must, therefore, look with tenderness on the errors
of other countries who had not yet resolved to follow in
their footsteps, remembering the long and painful efforts
which it had cost them to wean themselves from such
pursuits.—(Hear.) If there were those who had con-
tracted relations with them, the object of which was the
suppression of the slave trade, they would make themselves
participators in the crime if they relieved them from the
engagements into which they had entered. The in-
vestigations which had taken place, with their disgusting
details, had brought round the minds of men in this
country to determine that Enzland at least should
adhere to such treaties. The details were well nigh
forgotten, though perhaps all men had a general
notion that the slave trade was a cruel thing ; that
it was barbarous to tear men by violence from
their homes, their families, and their country ;
to transport them across the sea, and to doom them to
pass the remainder of their short lives in pain and toil,
under the lash of a foreign tyrant : though these things
were known and felt by all, yet he believed there were few
who at that time of day had any adequate conception
of the cruelties of which the slave trade was the cause. It
was difficult to make, with any degree of certainty, a cal-
culation of the number of persons who were annually taken
to the islands and continent of America for the purpose
of being consigned to slavery. The returns for which
he was going to move would, it was true, furnish some
information, but that information was received from
their own consular agents.—(Hear, hear.) The Govern-
ments of the countries into which these negroes
were imported:published no returns. Although those
Governments were bound by engagements with Eng-
land, to prohibit the slave trade, yet many of
them—the Governments of Spain and Brazil notoriously
—set those engagements at defiance—(Elear, hear.) In
some places they even derived revenue from the violation
of the treaty. Of one thing they must be assured, that
all the accounts fell short of the truth.--(Hear, hear.)
Exceed it they could not ; and it was reasonable to be-
lieve that they fell short of it. Now, what were the
numbers calculated as the annual importation into the
islands and continents of America ? Mr. Vandernell, in
his able work, compiled from official documents,
calculated the numbers of those annually landed at from
120,000 to 130,000. Sir Fowell Buxton, in his most
interesting and valuable work, stated the number
to be abont one hundred and fifty thousand, and
whatever calculation they took,what an enormous amount
of human misery and of human crime did that simple
statement involve. When they looked at abstract
general statements of numbers, represented by
figures on paper, the mind was apt not to
embrace, in all its details, the extent of the
fact thus ascertained.—( Hear, hear.) But let any man
consider, in his own mind, what 150,000 people were.
Let any man who had seen a large army, amounting
to 150,000 men, assembled at one time, imagine
that he saw that number assembled together on a
plain; let him consider that they were travelling fast to-
wards their doom—that that mass of human beings were
going to painful and premature death, and under every
variety of bodily and mental torture. Why
would not any man who witnessed such a sight
invoke the vengeance of Heaven upon the authors of
such an enormity ? But if any man looked only at the
number of victims actually sacrificed from the population
of Africa to the avarice and the cruelty of men—he would
not call them Christian men, but men belonging to
Christian nations ; he would be far indeed from
arriving at the truth. It was calculated, and,
he believed, not without good data, that for
every negro who had been landed two others
had perished in the previous stages of the slave trade ;
that whatever number was landed three times that
number had been sacrificed on the passage, and before
they reached the ship. It was well known that the
negroes did not collect in the immediate
neighbourhood in which they were embarked.
Many were imported from a great distance, hundreds of
miles. Some were taken captive in the wars. The
greater number was the result of slave hunting
or mar.-stealing, which prevailed over the interior of
Africa. When the time of year came round for sending
the slaves to the coast, some peaceful African village,
whose unsuspecting inhabitants were buried in that
repose which Nature iiinppy bestow s on man to fit
him for the useful oecnpatioris end innocent enjoyments
of the succeeding day—that village in the dead of night
was surrounded by armed ruffians, the population were
Foused from their sleep by the flames which enveloped
their dwol4ngs, and e—Lleavoured to escape, some
by flight, some Isy re:•istance, but all in vain,
for they were overpowered, afid either slain or
saptwet Sometimes the village was o#
w aforde,d emit natural facilities for
yheß,pe, and. many Of *tshe ur} rtungtg creatures buried
die4441m.,i4 caverns, hit ihcsq they sysre Oinpelkcd
evai toe their MutmoOrsoers Made a .nre At 'the
1;0 only the choice
mouth of the ca;,"n' '"'jt they
Thus all were owns
between suffocation and cap,:i vf:Y.
polled to yield. Then came the selection. These
who were pale and unhealthy, children six or