The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-26 00:00:00

THE SLAVE TRADE.

LIVIIRPOOL, DEC. 20.—The following protest of the
Brazilian Government against an Act of the British Par-
liament, which passed into law on the Bth of August,
1845, whereby Brazilian vessels engaged in the slave
trade become amenable to the High Court of Admiralty
of Great Britain, and to any and every Court of Vice-
Admiralty within the British dominions, has been re-
ceived by a late arrival at this port:—
"Foreign-office, Rio de Janeiro, Oct. 22, 1845.
"His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, my august
Sovereign, heard with the most profound regret that her
Majesty the Queen of Great Britain had, on the Bth day
of August last, approved and sanctioned an Act of Par-
liament which conferred upon the High Court of Admi-
ralty, and upon any and every Court of Vice-Admiralty
within the dominions of her Britannic Majesty, the right
to take cognisance of and adjudicate any vessel under
the Brazilian flag, which, in violation of the convention
of the 23d of November, 1826, may he engaged in the
slave trade and be detained and captured by any person
in the service of her said Majesty.
As soon as the Act was presented to Parliament by
the British Government, the Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary of his Majesty the Emperor of
Brasil at the Court of St. James, protested against it,
conformably to his duty, by a note, of which the en-
closed is a copy, and which, under date of the 25th day
of July last, he addressed to Lord Aberdeen, her Bri-
tannic Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Fo-
reign Affairs.
" Ilis Majesty the Emperor, to whom the protest
made by his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-
potentiary at the Court of St. James was submitted, has
commanded the undersigned, Minister and Secretary of
State for Foreige Affairs, to approve and confirm the
said protest, and to enter into a detailed exposition of
the facts, and of the right of the Imperial Government
to declare itself with all the energy arising from a con-
sciousness of justice against an Act which so directly in-
vades the sovereign rights and independence of Brazil,
as well as those of every nation. Such is the command
with which the undersigned immediately proceeds to
comply.
"By the treaty of the 22d of January, 1815, the
Government of the united kingdom of Portugal, Bra-
zil, and Algarve became engaged to abolish the slave
trade to the northward of the Equator, and to adopt,
in concert with Great Britain, such measures as might
effectually tend to the due performance of the preced-
ing engagement, reserving, to be determined by a se-
parate treaty, the period when the slave trade should
wholly cease and be prohibited throughout the Portu-
guese dominions.
" In the faithful and effectual fulfilment of the obli-
gations contracted by the treaty of the 22d of Jannary,
1815, the additional convention of the 28th of July,
1817, was concluded.
" By this convention, amongst other stipulations, the
right of visit, and the establishment of mixed commis-
sions to adjudicate the prizes made by the cruisers of the
high contracting Powers, were mutually agreed to, and
on the same day the Plenipotentiaries of the two Go-
vernments signed the instructions for the vessels of
war destined to prevent the slave trade, and the regula-
tions for the mixed commissions.
" On the 11th of September of the same year of 1817,
a separate article was signed in London, and afterwards
duly ratified by the Portuguese Government, by which it
was mutually agreed, that, as soon as the total abolition
of the slave trade should take place, the two high con-
tracting Powers would adapt to the new state of things
the stipulations of the additional convention of the 28th
of July of the said year ; and it was further mutually
agreed, that, in default of such alterations, the aforesaid
additional convention should be in force for and until the
expiration of fifteen years from the date at which the
total abolition of the slave trade should take place on the
part of Portugal.
"By art. 1 of the convention concluded between Bra-
zil and Great Britain on the 23d of November, 1826,
and ratified on the 13th of March, 1827, it was agreed,
that, from and after the expiration of three years from
the date of the exchange of the ratifications, it should be
no longer lawful, under any pretext or in any manner
whatsoever, for Brazilian subjects to be concerned in the
carrying on of the slave trade, and that the carrying on of
such trade after that period by any subject of his Impe-
rial Majesty should be considered as piracy.
" By art. 2 of said convention the high contracting
Powers agreed to adopt and renew, as effectually as if
the same were inserted word for word in the con-
vention, the several articles and provisions of the trea-
ties concluded between his Britannic Majesty and the
King of Portugal on this subject on the 22d of January,
1815, and on the 28th of July, 1817, and the several
explanatory articles which had been added thereunto.
" One of the conventions thus adopted and renewed
by art. 2 of the convention of 1826 having been that of
the 28th of July, 1817, which established the right of
visit and the mixed commissions, and one of the explana-
tory articles likewise adopted and renewed by the afere -
said convention of 1826 having been the separate article
of the 1 Ith of September, 1817, by which the right of
search and the mixed commissions were to cease after
the expiration of 15 years from the date of the abolition
of the slave trade, it is evident that the right of visit
and search exercised in time of peace by the British
cruisers against Brazilian vessels, and the mixed com-
missions established for the adjudication of prizes made
by British cruizers or by Brazilian cruizers, expired on
the 13th of March, 1845, the period at which were com •
pleted the 15 years subsequent to the total abolition of
the slave trade, conformably to art. 1 of the convention
of the 23d of November, 1826, which was ratified on the
13th of March, 1827.
" The expiration of this period and of the measures
stipulated in the additional convention of the 28th of
July, 1817, were what the Government of his Majesty
the Emperor of Brazil notified to her Britannic Ma
jesty's Government, through the medium of the British
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at
this Court, in a note under date of the 12th of March
last ; in which note was further signified, that, inasmuch
as six months had been agreed to be given to such Bra-
zilian vessels as had left the coast of Africa before the
13th of March to return to the ports of the empire, the
Imperial Government would consent that the mixed com-
missions should continue in force six months longer for
the topecial purpose of adjudicating such cases as were
pending, and such other seizures or detentions as may
hare occurred prior to the 13th of March.
" The Imperial Government was not to blame if, prior
to the expiration of the fifteen years before-named, it
was not possible for the Imperial Government and the
Government of Great Britain to come to a just and rea-
sonable agreement with the view to adapt to the new
state of circumstances arising from the total abolition of
the slave trade the measures contained in the additional
convention of the 28th of July, 1817.
" It is an incontrovertible truth, that in the year 1835,
and from 1840 to 1842, the Imperial Government invari-
ably evinced the most ardent desire to give every due at-
tention to the various negotiations proposed by the Go-
vernment of Great Britain. If none of these negotiations
could be effectually concluded or ratified, the reason was,
that the Imperial Government had only the alternative
of rejecting the propositions made, or of subscribing to
the complete ruin of the legal trade of the subjects of
Brazil, which, on the contrary, it was the express duty
of the Imperial Government to foster and protect. The
choice could not be doubtful to a Government conscious
of its duties.

" In fact, all the pioposals made within the period re-
ferred to by the British Government contained, inde-
pendently of other glaring defects, that of establishing
various cases, each of which would of itself be deemed
primd facie evidence to condemn any vessel suspected of
being engaged in the slave trade.
" Some of these cases—for instance, the fact of two
boilers, though of the usual size, being on board any
vessel—could not without violating the most ordinary
rules of right be tortured into the remotest evidence that
the vessel was intended for the slave trade ; still, accord-
ing to the terms of these proposals, each of these cases
would be sufficient to authorise the condemnation of such
vessel and her cargo to the prejudice and total destruc-
tion of the legal trade of Brazilian subjects.
" This was declared and made evident to the Govern-
ment of her Britannic Majesty in the notes of the Im-
perial Government of the Bth of February and 20th of
August, 1841, and 7th of October, 1842.
" Amidst these exaggerated pretensions the Imperial
Government did not omit to propose to that of Great
Britain such measures as, in its judgment, were deemed
likely to conciliate the suppression of the slave trade
with the interests of the lawful commerce of Brazilian
.zubjects, having, in the year 1841, offered a counter pro-
ject which contained all the clauses adequate to the two-
fold purpose which the Imperial Government anxiously
and sincerely sought to obtain.
" Unfortunately, the discussion of this counter pro-
ject could not proceed, because her Britannic Majesty's
Minister was not furnished with full powers, as was
stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the notes
of the 26th of August 1841, and 17th of October, 1842.
" Notwithstanding, however, that the Imperial Go-
vernment could not, from the motives of justice already
assigned, acquiesce in the proposals of her Britannic
Majesty's Government, several Brazilian vessels were
captured by British cruizers, and judged and condemned
by British Commissioners, as suspected of being engaged
in the slave trade in violation of the instructions and
regulations annexed to the convention of the 28th of
July, 1817, though in accordance with the basis of the
rejected proposals ; and notwithstanding the repeated
remonstrances made by the Imperial Government
against these violations of the existent treaties and con-
ventions by means of these proceedings, to none of
these remonstrances has full and complete justice yet
been done.

" It is thus quite evident that the Act notified to her
Britannic Majesty's Government under date of the 12th of
March last was, without diminishing the earnest desire
of the Imperial Government for the suppression of the
slave-trade, nothing more than a faithful compliance with
the treaties and conventions existent between the Im-
perial Government and that of her Britannic Majesty.
" The especial stipulations between the Imperial Go-
vernment and that of Great Britain which authorised in
time of peace the right of visit, and the mixed commis-
sions having ceased, the re-establishment of these mea-
sures, or the substitution of others, could only be effected
by a new agreement and understanding between the two
Governments.

" It is a principle of the law of nations that the Go-
vernment of one country cannot exercise any act of
jurisdiction over the property and individuals in the ter-
ritory of another.
" The visit and search on the high seas in times of
peace, as well as the adjudications, are more or less acts
of a jurisdiction. That right is, moreover, belligerent.
" Notwithstanding the evidence of these principles,
the Government of her Britannic Majesty, by virtue of
an Act sanctioned by her Majesty on the Bth of August
last, did not hesitate to put into execution the threat
previously made through the Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary of her Britannic Majesty at
this Court in a note dated the 23d of July last, by which
Act Brazilian vessels engaged in the slave trade are ren-
dered amenable to the British Courts of Admiralty and
Vice-Admiralty.