The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-16 00:00:00

'EW SLAVE-

BADE CON-

VENTION.

The following are the annexes to the new slave-trade
convention between England and France, which was laid
on the table of the House of Commons on Monday even-
ing. The treaty has already appeared in The Sun—
NNEX REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE VIII. OF THE CONVEN-
TION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE FOR THE
SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE, SIGNED
4T LONDON, MAY 29, 1845.
Instructions for the senior officer of her Majesty's
ships and vessels on the west coast of Africa, with re-
spect to the convention with France, signed at London,
May 29, 1845.
By the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord
High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, &c.
We transmit to you herewith a copy of a convention
between her Majesty and the King of the French, dated
May 29, 1845, by which it is stipulated that the con-
tracting parties shall each maintain on the west coast of
Africa a naval force of not less than twenty-six vessels,
to be omployed for the prevention of the slave-trade, by
closely watching all the parts of the west coast where the
slave-trade is carried on from Cape Verd to 16 deg. 30
min. south latitude, and by exercising all the powers
vested in the Crowns of France and Great Britain for
such purpose ; and we desire that you will take every
opportunity, and use your utmost efforts to effect the
objects of this convention.
You are to take the earliest opportunity of putting
yourself in communication with the senior officer of the
,e'rench squadron, for the purpose of co-operating with
him in the execution of this convention, and of concert-
ing with hie' as to the best means of closely watching
the parts of the African coast before described, by select-
ing and de'ning the stations to be established, and by
taking the charge thereof, either conjointly with the
French cruisers, or separately with the force under your
cceseinand, or by leaving the same to the French naval
force, as may be deemed most expedient.
You will understand, however, that in the case of a sta-
tion being especially committed to the charge of cruisers
of either nation, the cruisers of the other nation may at
any tine enter the same for the purpose of exercising
the rights respectively belonging to them for the sup-
pression.ef the slave trade.
You will, in concert with the commander of the French
squadron, determine with what native princes and chiefs
it may be neeessary to negotiate treaties for the suppres-
sion of the slave trade. And you are authorised to ne-
gotiate such treaties, either personally, or by an officer
epecially instructed for such purpose ; such treaties to
be framed in accordance with the draught of engage-
ment forming appendix to Section VII. of the instruc-
tion:. issued on the 12th of June, 1844, to her Majesty's
naval officers employed in the suppression of the slave
trade.
Whenever it may be necessary to employ force to
ooipel the due execution of any treaty contracted with
any naive chief, in virtue of this convention, and to
which both her Majesty and the King of the French
are parties, you will concert with the commander of the
French squadron as to the employment of force for such
purpose, and arrange, in concert with him, to act con-
jointly with the French force, or separately, as may
be deemed most advisable ; but, with respect to these
conjoint treaties, you will not employ force without the
consent of the commander of the French squadron.
It will be the duty of yourself and of the commanding
officers of her Majesty's ships under your orders, upon
all occasions, to communicate to the officers of the French
squadron any information which may be of service in
detecting the frauds of the slave traders, and especially
to give notice of any vessel supposed to belong to France,
and suspected of being engaged in the slave trade,
which may be met with or heard of in the course of a
cruise; and you will give directions to the officers un-
der your orders to pay strict attention to this duty.
With respect to the visit, search, and detention
of vessels belonging to nations between whom and
Great Britain there are existing treaties relating
thereto, and for the suppression of the slave
trade, and also with respect to vessels not entitled to
claim the flag of any nation, you will be guided by the
instructions founded upon the Statute passed in the se-
cond and third year of her Majesty Queen Victoria,
chapter 73, and upon the treaties in force with foreign
States, and the Acts of Parliament made in furtherance
thereof, which have been delivered to you for your go-
vernment ; the present instructions in no respect inter-
fering therewith.

YO-u
are not to capture, visit, or in any way interfere
with vessels of France ; and you will give strict instruc-
tions to the commanding officers of cruisers under your
er,?ers .to abstain therefrom. At the same time, you
will remember that the King of the French is far from
claiming tilde the flag of France should give immunity
to those who have no right to bear it ; and that Great
Britain will not allow vessels of other nations to escape
visit and examination by merely hoisting a French flag,
or the flag of any other nation with which Great Britain
has not, by existing treaty, the right of search. Accord-
ingly, when from intelligence which the officer com-
manding her Majesty's cruiser may have received, or
from the manoeuvres of the vessel, or other sufficient
cause, he may have reason to believe that the vessel does
not belong to the nation indicated by her colours, he is,
if tip state of the weather will admit of it, to go ahead
of the suspected vessel, after communicating his inten-
tion by halting, and to drop a boat on board of her
to ascertain her nationality, without causing her deten-
tion, in the event of her really proving to be a vessel of
the nation the colours of which she had displayed, and
therefore one which he is not authorised to search; but
Fhould the strength of the wind, or other circumstance,
render such mode of visiting the stranger impracticable,
he is to require the suspected vessel to be brought to, in
order that her nationality may be ascertained; and he
will be justified in enforcing it, if necessary—under-
standing always, that he is not to resort to any coercive
measure
,utltii every other shall have failed; and the
officer who boards the stranger is to be instructed
merely in the first instance to satisfy himself by the
vessel's papers, or other proof, of her nationality; and
if she prove really to be a vessel of the nation desig-
nated by her colours, and one which he is not authorised
to search, he is to lose no time in quitting her, offering
to note on the papers of the vessel the cause of his hav-
ing suspected her nationality, as well as the number of
minutes the vessel was detained (if detained at all) for
the object in question ; such notation to be signed by
the boarding officer, specifying his rank and the name
of her Majesty's cruiser; and whether the coml.-sander
of the visited vessel consents to such notation on the
vessel's papers or not (and it is not to be done without
his consent) ; all the said particulars are to be immedi-
ately inserted in the log-book of her Majesty's cruiser ;
and a full and complete statement of the circumstances
is to be sent, addressed to the Secretary of the Ad-
miralt-y-, by the first opportunity, direct to England; and
also, a similar statement to you, as senior officer on the
station, to be forwarded by you to our Secretary, ac-
companied by any remarks you may have reason to make
thereon.

The commanding officers of her Majesty's vessels must
bear in mind that the duty of executing the instruction
immediately preceding must be discharged with great
care and circumspection. For, if any injury be occa-
Aoned by examination without sufficient cause, or by the
examination being improperly conducted, compensation
must be made to the party aggrieved ; and the officer

who may cause an examination to be made without suf.
ficient cause, or who may conduct it improperly, will
Incur the displeasure of her Majesty's Government.
Of course, in oases when the suspicion of the com-
mander turns out to be well founded, and the vessel

boarded proves, notwithstanding her colours, not tobe:
long to the nation designated by those colours, the com-
mander of her Majesty's cruiser will deal with her as he
would have been authorised and required to do had she

not hoisted a false flag.
Given under our hands, &e.

ANNEX REFERtED TO IN ARTICLE VIII. OF THE CON-
VEN'IION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE FOR
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE,
STONED AT LoNDoN THE 29T11 DAY OF MAY, 1845.
(Traarlation.)
Monsieur le Commandant,—A convention concluded
on the 29th of May, 1845, between his Majesty the King
of the French and her Majesty the Queen of Great
Britain, a copy of which is hereto annexed, regulates
upon a new basis the vigilance and repression which the
:wo countries have engaged to exercise in concert with
regard to the slave trade. The two Governments being
perfectly unanimous as to the object to be pursued, and
firmly resolved to obtain by the promptest means the ex-
tinction of this criminal traffic, have recognised the ne-
eossity of adopting measures entirely distinct from those
laid down in the treaties of 1831 and 1833.
In the executidnof i s new treaty, the African sta-
tion w iFI have to take the most active and important
port. It will, therefore, be your duty to make yourself
fully maer of the spirit of this document, and of the
mealining of each of its stipulations. You will never forget
that your chief obligation, as commander of this station,
is to secutte to this convention every result, which the two
contracting Powers have a right to expect from it.
The basis of those arrangements—the principle of the
work to be carried out in common on the part of France
and England—consists in a complete and continued ac-
cord between that of the French squadron and that of Great
BOttsin. Immediately on your arrival upon the coast of
Africa yea will place yourself in communication with the
otlicer commanding the English forces, in order to esta-
hnsh from the very beginning that concert which ought
to govern the whole and every part of your operation.
rYoutrewill examine in common, with a view to the ar-
ahment of the service, those points of the coast which
are already known to be the seats of the traffic, and
which are to be closely watched by the two squadrons ;
you wia make arrangements for being subsequently in-
, fotaceed of, and for watching, b necessary, those
places also to which tlTehin.trgaliacsm4yht be removed ; and
you will then make a distribution of the cruisers placed
thilt.r your command those
on all parts of the coast to
which the system of co-operationara, should be applied,
either simultaneously or sep
You will devote particular attention to the means to
fin eunploicd in order to obtain the relinquishmentis of
of the
rfhthe
slave-trade on the parts of the kings
t;ihes which inhabit the coast. Some ofc them f
already been induced to abandon it; others appear daivse
rased to take the same course; the larger number have
-
still to be persuaded to it by means of negotiations and
I.romises of indemnification. To keep the former to
the.observance of their engagements—to reduce as much
as possible, by means of treaties freely negotiated, the
ii,timbetilif those who still serve as auxiliaries or asso-
ciattes of the slave tratle,—such are the results which, in
ibis respect, it is proposed to attain by thet system of
co-opera_fsion. Unity of intention and ac ion for this
purpose is an essential point to be arranged
between
commanders of the two squadrons. I therefore recom-
mend you to consult with the commander of the British
squadron, in order to determine the measures which each
of you should undertake, with a view to secure the
success of this important part of the convention.
The concert which will be established between you
ought also to prevail between the officers of the two .

squadrons, of every rank and order. The commander
of the English station will receive the same injunction
in this respect ; and it will on either side apply not or ly
to those cases of co-operation which are explicitly sti-
pulated by the treaty, but also to every circumstance
which may admit of the interchange of mutual civilities,
and the reciprocation of moral and physical co-operation
between the ships, the officers, and the crews of the two
squadrons. The duty of all persans on board the cruisers
of the two nations, while upholding their mutual inde-
pendence, will therefore be constantly to aid each other
in the execution of their respective orders, and to com-
municate to each other every information which may
tend to further the measures adopted, in all that relates
to the suppression of the slave trade.
With regard to merchant vessels and cruisers bearing
the flag of other nations whose Governments have suc-
cessively concluded with France conventions founded
upon the principle of the right of search, and conform-
able to the treaties of 1831 and 1833, no change has
taken place in the state of things regulated by those
Acts ; and you will have to carry into execution, with
regard to them, the general instructions already issued
by my department. I need only here remind you that
those countries are Sardinia, Tuscany, the Two Sicilies,
Sweden, Denmark, and the Hans Towns. It now be-
comes my duty to call your attention to article 6 of the
new convention.
That article calls attention to a fact well known to all
the officers who have been employed during the last 30
years in the suppression of the slave trade.
All the vessels which engage in that traffic are fur-
nished with arms, such as swords, guns, pistols, and some
even have on board small cannons or swivels. This pre-
caution is indispensable to them, if it were merely for
maintaining in obedience with a small crew several hun-
dreds of negroes violently carried off from their families
and native land.
But it frequently happens that the commanders and
crews of slave vessels make use of their arms for another
and no less criminal purpose, by committing acts of de-
predation and robbery, either upon one another, or upon
the inhabitants of the coast, or the Europeans who resort
to it. This is proved by the instructions given to your
predecessors, and especially by those given by the Go-
vernor of Senegal, on the 15th of July, 1841, to the
officers employed on the African station.
It is also a well-known fact, that almost all slave ves •
sels have on board double sets of papers, papers appa-
rently issued by several Governments,—false muster-
rolls, which enable them to assume the appearance of
belonging to one nation or to another, as they may find
occasion.
It is generally at St. Thomas and in the Island of Cuba
that these false papers are fabricated, and they contain
couuterfeits of the printed forms and autograph signa-
tures of the different authorities of each maritime nation,
more or less skilfully executed.
You are acquainted with the provisions of the law of
the 12th of April, 1825, against piracy. You know that
this law considers as pirates, not only the crew of armed
vessels who commit acts of depredation, but also those
who sail without ships' papers, or either with papers
which are not sufficient to prove the regularity of their
voyage, or with commissions issued by several different
powers or states—the word commission being here un-
derstood not only of letters of marque in time of war,
but of papers delivered to merchant vessels in time
of peace.*
In so doing, the law of 1825 has only restated and
confirmed the principles already received, the doctrine
which forma the foundation of our maritime legis-
lation, of the ordinance of 1554, the ordinance of
1681, recognized as an authority all over Europe,t that
of 1718, and of the decree of the Second Prairie], year
11. ; and these principles have always been applied by
our tribunals as well to French vessels as to foreign
vessels, without having given rise to any complaint.
You know, likewise, that in case of suspicion of piracy
the law of nations, recognised by all civilized nations,
authorizes any ship of war, to whatever Power she may
belong, to detain the suspected vessel, whatever may be
the flag that she bears ; under condition of delivering
her over to the jurisdiction which has the right of de
tiding upon the validity of the capture and the prosocu
tion of the crime.

Whenever, therefore, a vessel shall be pointed out to
you as suspected of acts which our Legislation considers
as piracy, according to the law of nations (in contradis-
tinction to those which our law merely assimilates to
piracy, and which arc such only according to our
national law), you are authorized to detain the vessel, in
order to ascertain whether the suspicion is well-founded.
As the exercise of this right may nevertheless give
occasion to abuses, if not restrained within proper limits,
by the good feeling and discretion of the officers who are
invested with it, you will not forget that in such case the
causes of suspicion ought to be real and grave ; that the
verification of the national character of vessels and of
the regularity of their papers, if necessary to be resorte
to, should be limited to the measures strictly requisite
for accomplishing that object ; and with a display of
force and proceedings not justified by the circumstances,
would be on your part a reprehensible act, and would
give rise to well-founded complaint.
The law of the 12th April, 1825, does not view as an
act of piracy the mere fact of a vessel's hoisting a Bag
which she is not entitled to bear ; it is nevertheless an
act contrary to the law of nations—a fraudulent act,

which, if tolerated, would render it impossible to exer-
cise any police on the sea, or any observation of mer-
chant vessels by ships of war, even such as it is the duty
of a cruiser to exercise over vessels of her own nation.
If, in order to enable a French vessel laden with slaves
to escape your vigilance, it were only necessary that she
should hoist the flag of another nation; if this fact alone
were to render her inviolable, even when you were cer-
tain of her being French—that she was carrying on the
slave-trade, and that the flag which she bore was
usurped—every cruising 'station would become useless ;

you Could neither repre"ss prohibited, nor protect lawfu

commerce.

Whenever, therefore, you may have reason to suspect
any fraud of this nature, you are at liberty to verify
the national character of the suspected vessel. If your
suspicions should turn out to be well founded, it the
suspected vessel prove to be either French, or one sub-

ject to your observation in virtue of treaties actually i❑
force, and if such vessel be actually engaged in the slave
trade, you will not hesitate to detain her. No nation
can be entitled to claim for its flag the right of protect-
ing crime, and of withdrawing criminals of other na-
tions from the punishment which is their due. If, on
the sontrary, your suspicions should be groundless, if
the suspected vessel belongs bond fide to the nation whose
flag she bears, you will not hesitate to release her im-

rnjaiatel.y; giving, however, notice of the fact to those

cruisers who have the right to detain her.
In these operations you will never lose sight of the
fact, that you are acting at your own risk and peril ;
and that if, through any act of yours, the suspected
vessel should sustain any damages, she will be intitled to
indemnification. In dealing with her, therefore, you
cannot act with too much circumspection.
Signed by the Minister of Marine.

' Report to the Chamber of Peers upon the Law of the
12th of April, 1825, by the Baron Portal. (" Moniteur" of
1825, vol. 1, p. 199.)
♦ Speech of the Keeper of the Seals. Speech of M. Par-
dessus. (Session of the Chamber of Deputies, April2s, 1825.)

THE GREAT ROBBERY AT PARIS.
(From Galignani's Messenger.)
The man who stole the 80,000 f. from a commercial
house on the Quai de la Tournelle has been arrested.
The account which he sent of his having lost the money
appearing exceedingly improbable, the police set to
work to find out his residence, and discovered that he
had gone on Tuesday with a woman named Reward, his
mistress, to take a lodging at the Barriare Rochechouart.
He was on that occasion dressed in female
attire, and having taken the lodging, had paid
the denier a Dieu, giving his name as the widow
Rondos. Being traced from that place, the police ac-
quired a certitude, that he slept every night in a fur-
nished lodging at 68, Faubourg du Roule. On Thursday
night the police entered his room and found him in bed,
with, however, stays on, collar, bottines, and other arti-
cles belonging to a woman's dress. When taken to the
Prefecture of Police he persisted in his story of having
had his pocket picked of 80,000 f. In the course of Fri-
day the most minute searches were made at the several
lodgings of this man, whose name is Gardeur, and of his
mistress. All the furniture was examined, the walls
sounded, and even the mattresses opened ,and the wool
carefully carded, but all was in vain. At one moment
the officers thought they had got hold of the object
in search. In the apartment of Reward they disco-
vered a chest, which she had carefully endeavoured
to conceal, but on opening it nothing was found
in it but the clothes which Gardeur wore on the
day of the robbery, and which he had changed for the
complete dress of a woman. Reward retained, if not
feelings of repentance and honesty, at least apprehen-
sions of her being involved as an accomplice, and at
once acknowledged that Gardeur gave her in the
street a note of I,ooof. ; that she agreed to go with
him in search of a new lodging, and that furniture
should be bought as soon as it was taken. In the
chest with Gardeur's clothes was found the rough draft
of the letter, announcing the pretended robbery of
the 80,000 f. This seemed to stagger the woman for a
moment ; but she still persisted in declaring, that
if Gardeur had appropriated to himself the 80,000 f.,
she knew not what he had done with the money.
Gardeur and Josephine were confined apart, the
man still wearing his female garments. An officer of in-
telligence, placed over Josephine, remarked. that she took
snuff out of a wooden box, on the outside and inside of
which various figures of uncouth shapes were rudely
scratched with the point of a knife or a large pin. On
being questioned by her keeper as to the meaning of
these rude hieroglyphics, she appeared to be very much
disturbed at the question, but would give no satisfactory
explanation. The officer having communicated this
circumstance to the magistrates, Josephine was again
brought before there, and at length made the following
declaration. She stated that on Tuesday last, and not
before, Gardeur made her acquainted with the robbery
he had committed. She earnestly advised him to go to
his master, throw himself at his feet, restore the money,
wmernLtoiaanrgk
she
Gardeurhd
and implore his forgiveness. This good advice he re-
jected. They afterwards went together to walk in the
wood of Vincennes, and there, near the gate of St. Mande,
in a place hid in the copse-wood, Gardeur made a hole
at the footto
in
nf a t
wt roe e,an
glassd buried
bottles n
oint 78e
o,oonOtOnf.i
ni
and the other 40,0001., hich
g
38,000 f., destined for her. Josephine,
h o andkept
for her
himself.mother,
Having filled up the hole, and covered it with moss and
baor,cas on the tree, and
paper about him, he
leaves, Gardeur made several'
asT he could
then, having neither pencil norm
scratched on the top of the snuff-
ournelle,
indications of the way to the spot from
copying in the inside of the snuff-box themo
made on the tree. Early on Saturday
and Josephine were confronted, and although at first he
repeated his affirmation of his having been robbed, and
declared that it was done before the picture-shop of M.
Auberf, in the Place de la Bourse, he, on being informed
of the deposition of Josephine, and finding that conceal-