The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-03 00:00:00

370,000 tons

103,000 tons

As some of our readers may not have an opportu-
nity of perusing the evidence taken before the Com-
mittee, we ►hall here notice some of the more im-
portant parts upon which the witnesses were
examined, premisinc, that we believe a very erroneous
impression is prevalent throughout the country. let.
As to the power of the British cruisers to put down
the slave tracers; and, 2ndly— As to the expense it
is said to cost the country to keep the squadron upon
the coast of Africa.

With regard to the first point, it 'ppears that since
this country embarked in the suppression of the slave
trade, they have succeeded in accomplishing that
object upon the whole cot of Africa, north of the
equator (except in the Bight of Beniu), extending to
about 1,500 miles.

Further, that cur cruisers have succeeded in cap-
turing no fewer than 637 slave vessels within the last
ten years.

Various suggestions have been made for the com-
plete suppression of the slave-trade—among others
that of using screw-steamers; and all the witnesses
concur in stating that, with little or no additional ex-
pense, but with a different distribution of the crews
and vessels to be employed, the slave-trade could be
completely and finally put down.

And 2ily. With regard to the expense of keeping
up the African squadron, it has been erroneously
supposed to cost annually about 500,0001., whereas
last year it was only 166,884/. (See page 147 of the
Report). Moreover the expenditure of this sum is
the means of protecting a legitimate trade along the
coast of Africa of great value to this country, and
which could not exist were the slave-trade carried on
in the same localities.

Both the Spanish and Brazilian Governments are
bound by express treaty with the British Govern-
ment to put down the alaye-trade, but in
place of doing so, their officials have been actually
conniving at its being carried on, many of the Go-
vernors of Havannah having exacted a certain sum
per head for every slave that has been landed in Cuba.
Under these treaties it has been suggested by Mr.
Turnbull, who was Commissioner for some time in
Havannah, in the mixed courts for the liberation of
captured slaves, that power should be given to that
Commission to declare all slaves free that might be
landed after a certain specified period.
It ii quite out of the question to suppose that this
country will longer tolerate the infraction of such im-
portant treaties by the Governments of Spain and the
Brazils, when it is fraught with such dreadful re-
sults to so vast an amount of the coloured population
of Africa, and attended with such destructive conse-
quences to our colonial possession=, by forcing the
alternative upon our philters, either to abandon the
cultivation of their estates, or to compete with the
forced labour of the slave owner.

We may here mention that we have good authority
for stating, that the United States' Government is
about to adopt very energetic measures for putting
down the slave trade, as it finds the competiti :n in
their own markets, of Cuban and Brazilian sugars,
most injuriou-ly interfering with the profitable cul-
tivation of sugar in Louisiana ; although protected
by a duty of 3 oats per lb., or upwards
of 50 per cent. upon the value of the sugar imported.
When the American planters, therefore, find it a dif-
ficult matter, with an abundance of cheap slave la-
bour, to compete with the sugars of Cuba and the
Brazils, it is no wonder that so many of our West
Indian plantations should have been abandoned, with
the certainty of others sharing the same fate, unless
freed from the unequal contest with slave labour.
Cheap sugar, however, is the watchword of the
Economists, no matter at what cost of human life this
is attained. The destruction of 100,000 human
beings in the interior of Africa, or the passage to and
in Cuba and the Brazils—all this is fully compensated
for, in their estimation, by having their tea sweetened
at a farthing a pound cheaper than could be dune by
free labour.

,We bw•lieve there can be little doubt that the
French Government will also join in putting down
this inhuman traffic ; their Colonies being now free,
they find it impossible to compete with the slave pro-
ductions of Spain and the Brazils.
It has been estimated that the average annual
mortality of the slave population in Cuba is from 5
to 7i per cent., so that the whole number would be•
come extinct in the course of fifteen to twenty years,
except what is supplied from the natural increase
from births ; but, as the inequality of the sexes is
known to be very great, but little increase can pos-
sibly take place from this source.
Finally.—As already noticed, the quantity of sugar
produced in the Spanish colonies and in the Brazils
being about 370,000 tons, and 103,000 tons of coffee,
these quantities will necessarily become diminished,
as the slave trade is gradually suppressed ; prices will
consequently advance, and thus give a sitmulus to in-
creased production in all our colonial possessions.

THE LONDON GAZETTE.

(THIS EVENING.)

WHITEHALL, Aua. 31, 1850.

The green has been pleased to direct letters patent
to be passed under the Great Seal of the United King-
dom of Grp at Britain and Ireland, granting to Field
Marshal Arthur Duke of Wellington, K.G. and G.C.B.
the effices of Chief Ranger and Keeper of Hyde-park
and St. James's. park, in the room of Adolphus Frede-
rick Duke of Cambridge, deceased.
WHITEHALL, Aua. 3L
The Queen has been pleased to appoint
The Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Norwich,
The Very Reverend Archibald Campbell Tait, D.C.L.
Dean of Carlisle,
The Reserend Francis Jeune, D.C.L., Master of Pem-
broke College, in the University of Oxford,
The Reverend Henry George Liddell, M.A., Head Mas-
ter of St. Peter's College, Westminster,
John Lucius Dampier, Esq., M.A., Vice- Warden of the
Stanneries of Cornwall,
The Reverend Baden Powell, M.A. Savilian Professor of
Geometry in the University of Oxford, and
The Reverend George Henry Sacheverell Johnson,
M.A. of Queen's College, in the University ot Oxford,
to be her Majesty's Commissioners for inquiring into
the state, discipline, studies, and revenues of the Univer-
sity and Colleges of Oxford.
The Queen has also been pleased to appoint•—
The Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Chester,
The Very Reverend George Peacoelc, D.D., Dean of Ely,
Sir John Frederick W illium Herschel), Baronet,
Sir John Romilly, Knight, her Majesty's Attorney-
General, and
The Reverend Adam S:dgstick, M.A., 'Woodwardian
otessor of Geology in the University of Cambridge,
to be her Msjpst) 's Commissioners for requiring into
the state, discipline, studies, and revenues ot the Uni-
versity and College; of Canibridge,
FOREIGN-OFFICE, SEPT. 2.
The Queen has teen pleased to approve of Mr. Henry.
M.chlery as Consul at Barbadoes for the Republic of
Venezuela.

WAR OFFICE, SEPT. 3.
3d Regiment of Dregoon Guards—l iruteEar,t Thomas
Inward W hitby to be Captain, by purchase, vice ;quire,
who retires; Cornet Wyndham Knatchhull to Le Lietl-
t: pant, by purchase, vice Whitby, .Sept. 3.
4th R gtment of Foot—Lieutenant Jobn Cowell
Bartley to be Capiair, without purchase, vice Campbell,
deceased; Ensign Augustus Edward Belay Ansell to be
Lieutenant-, vice Bartley, Aug. 22.
10th Foot—Lieutenant-Colonel William henry Charles
woipsley, from the 8 lit Foot, to be Lieutenant.Culonel,
vice Miller. who exctanges, Sept. 3.
74th Foot—L•eutenant Johnstone Napier to be Cap-
ta.l4 by purchase, vice Walluutt, who retires; &sign