The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-03 00:00:00

MORNING SUN

THE SLAVE TRADE.
CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE DETEN_
'HON OF VESSLS ON THE
CAN COASTAMERICAN BY BRITISH ARMED CRUISERS.AFRI-

LORD PALNIERSTON TO MR. STEVENSON.
Foreign-office, 'Aug. 5, 1841.
The undersigned, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of. State
for Foreign Affairs, has received two notes, addressed to him
on the 13th of November,.lB4o, and on the Ist of March last,
by Mr. Stevenson, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni-
potentiary of the United States, complaining of the search and
detention of the United States vessel Douglas, and.of the ill-
treatrnentsof her crew by Lieutenant Seagram, of her Ma.
jesty's brig Termagant, employed on the coast of Africa in
suppressing the slave trade.
in these two communications from Mr. Stevenson it is
states', that on the 21st of October, 1839, Lieutenant Seagram
boarded the Douglas while she was pursuing her voyage on the
coast of Africa, examined the ship's papers and the passengers'
passports, broke open the hatches, hauled down the American
flag, and seized the vessel as a slaver; that he kept possession
of her during eight days, namely, from the 21st of October,
1819, to:the .29th of the same month ; that the officers and
men of the Douglas became ill from their exposure to the sun,
and that ie eons, queues, three of them died, and the- Captain
is s; , hail And Mr. Stevenson expresses the es.n-
films expeelati.rn of -the President of the United States that
her Majesty's t:evesitissent Wake prompt reraration for
the coaduet,o Lientensust Seagram in this case, and will take
elifeient auseuss to prs•vesst the reeurrenee of such abuses. •
The uSideisissoest has, in reply, to state that, in pursuance of
the wish expressed by Mr. Stevenson on the part of Isis Govern-
ment, a Strict investigat;on has, by order of the• Lords of the
Admit alty, been made into the particulars of the case, and the
reult is as follows :
Lieutenaot Seagram, commandiag her 'Majesty's ship Ter-
magant, employes in suppressing the slave trade on the coast of
Africa, had been -apprised by the commanding officer of her
Majesty's ships on that coast of an agreement entered into by
that officer with Commander Paine, of the United States navy,
for searching and dasining ships fund trading in slaves 'under
the United States flag; and Lieutenant Seagram having, on
the 21st of October, 1839, met with the ship Douglas, carrying
the flag of the tiniest, he boarded her, and made inquiries as to
the voyage for Vlitich She was bound. Lieutenant Seagram was
received on board the Douglas with great incivility, and a dis-
inclination was shown to repy to any questions relating to her
voyage ; but he ascertained that she was bound to the River
Brass, and he found on board of her seven Spaniards who
were going t 3 that rive: where no trade" but the slave trade is

carried on.
Lieutenant Seagram requested to ice the papers of the
Douglas ; but the Captain of the Douglas coal .1 produce no
Custom-house clearance, and had made an entrance on his
log that, on leaving the Havannah, he could not procure one,
and that he had returned to the harbour to obtain such a
paper, but had left the harbour again without it. This cir-
cumstance appeared suspicious to Lieutenant Seagram ; and
on examnaing the papers produced
.by the Captain of the
Douglas, he found that the Douglas was consigned to a weal
known slave-trader, Don Pablo Teisas, who was then on
hoard of her, and to wham the slaving vessels Asp and Lark,
which had been recently condemned for slave trade, had
been consigned.
Lieutenant Seagram pressed for permission to examine the
hold .f the vessel, and the consignee gave him permission to
examine her freight, because he conceived it was protected by
the United States tlag ; and, under the same impression, he
acknowledged to Lieutenant Seagram that her cargo was Spa-
nish, and had been ship-eat as American solely for the purpose
of avoiding seizure.
The hatches of the vessel having then been opened, and
Lieutenant Seagram having proceeded to examine her, it was
discovered that she was fitted out for the slave trade, with lea-
guers, hoops, and staves, a slave deck, in planks, and three
complete slave coppers.
Lieutenant Seagram reports that, under these circumstances,
he should have sent the Douglas to the United states to be de-
livered up to the authorities of that country, but that he had
received orders fr,:re the commanding officer of her Majesty's
vessels on the coast of Africa not to send any vessels to the
United States until he should have been informed what course
the l'oited States Government took as to the slave vessels Eagle
and tiara, which had been sent to the United States by the
commanding officer, with a view to assist the American Go-
vernment in preventing the abuse of the national flag of the
Union.
Just Lieutenant Seagram, not having received any informa•
tion on this point at he end of eight days after the detention
of the Douglas, thought it his duty then to release the Doug-
las, instead of detaining her longer or sending her to the United

States.
From the fects above stated there appears little doubt that,
if the Douglas had been sent to the United States, she would
have ben ceaerened ea- trading in slaves under the flag of
the Union. And had she been tried by the Mixed Commission
at Sierra Leone, the proofs that the slave-trading voyage on
which she was engaged was in fact a Spanish enterprise, were
strong enough to have warranted her condemnation in the
British and Spanish Courts as a Spanish slaver.
With respect to the assertion that three men died from the
effects of exposure to the sun, in- consequence of the deten-
tion of the vekel, the undersigned has to state that it appears
that the vessel remained on her own account, in the African
seas tee months after her detention by Lieutenant Seagram;
and, Le none of those men died until after those two months,
there seems no tea:on to suppose that the death of the three men
in question was occasioned by the detention of the vessel by.
Lieutenant Seagram.
With respect to the statement that Lieutenant Seagram or-
dered the American flag to be hauled down, it is to be observed
that ti.e master of the Douglas, in his protest declare?, that be
himself, -ami pot Lieutenant Seagram, ordered the United
(states) fiteg to be hauled down.
As 'ova); loss, of provisions or stores, it is stated by the
Arttericat ma that rie Engli,h prize crew brought their
provisions wilt them to the Douglas, and he does not even as-
sert that tlitty•timsturred any provisions belonging to the Doug-
lee, or that any of the stores of that vessel were lost.
With teepee:: to the allegation of the American master, that.
the prize crew bad seereted one demijohn of rum, forming part
of the coke of the vessel; it seems probable that there 13 an
erior in that allegation, because the hatches of the vessel were
opened and closed again in the pretence of Lieut. Seagram,
and no couvel tint was made to that officer, either by the
ma ter or the ignee, that any loss or damage had been done
to the cargo.
Inched, the master, on resuming the charge of his vessel, de-
clared to f.ieut. Seajerem that he had no complaint to make.
Front the foregoing statement it will appear that the visit.,
the search, and the detention of the Douglas eu. Seaelam
took place under a full belief on the part of that officer till he
teas parsing a course which would be approved by the Go-
vernment of the United States ; and in his conduct toward the
crew of the yes el, lie appears scrupulously to have avoided any
act which would justly give cause of offence to of eiendly Power.
The undersigned has, therefore, to express the confident
hope, f her Majesty's Government that, upon consideration of
the whole case, the Government of the United States will be
of opinion that, although the act of Lieutenant Seagram in
detaining a United States slave-trading vessel was, in the
abstract, irregular, yet the impressioa under which he did it,
and the motives which prompted him to do it, exempt him
from any just blame.
But the undersigned cannot refrain from requesting Mr.
Stevenson to draw the serious attention of the Government of
the United States to this case, which affords a striking example
of the manner in which the vessels and flag of the United
States are employed by Spanish, Portuguese, and Brazilian
criminals, to protect their piratical undertakings, in utter con-
tempt of the laws of the .Union, and in open defiance of the
Federal Government.
The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to
.Mr. Stevenson the assurenceof his distinguished consideration.
A. Stevenson, Esq., &c. Sze. Ike. • PALMERSTON.

LORD PALMERSTON TO MR. STEVENSON.
Foreign-office, Aug. 5, 1841.
Tie undersigned, her Britannic Majesty's secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs has teceived the note which Mr.
Stevenson, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
from the United States 'of America, addressed to him on the
27th of February last, complaining that the schooner lago,
bearing the United States ft.g, and commanded by Mr. Adol-
phus Dupony, had been detained by her Majesty's brigantir.e
Termagant, Lieutenant Seagram, and that the schooner Hero,
under the United States flag, and commanded by Mr. 11.
M'Conuell, had been detained by her Majesty's brig Lynx.
Mr. Stevenson complains, in the first place, that injury was
done in these cases to the purposes of the voyage, and. tooth e
cargo and stores on board the vessels detained ; and w oo-
tends, in the second place, that her Majesty's naval officers had
no excuse, and much less any justification, for detaining these
vessels ; and he adds that it is wholly immaterial whether the
vessels detained were equipped for or actually engaged in slave
traffic or not.
With regard to the allegation of damages done to the car-
goes of these vessels,- the undersigned begs to remind Mr. Ste-
venson that the, papers which he transmitted to the under-
signed show, that, in the case of the lago, the money which
Was lost was stolen by the crew of the lago while the master
was absent on shore, and it was not abstracted by the crew of
the detairtinsfveasel. And it is fair to presume, that the atm.
nometeiraimi the watch, which were also lost on bo rd that
vessel, were taken by the same persons who stole the money.
With regacd,tp.ahe damage slid to have been done to the
cargo of the f4ro'ituring the search of that vessel, the under-
signed Vs rletlitiliteil the Board of Admiralty to caus inquiries
to be ml aeetspnii; thattnatter, and he will acquainteMr. Ste-
venson with the result-.
With reeler to the justification which the British °faeces
had for these Americas' vessels, with regard to the
detentio Stevenson say there is " no shadow
of pretence for "exerelsinr,4, much lessjustifying, the right of
search or detent'umnf vessels undi r the United States_ flag by
vessels of her .Majesty's navy," the undersigned has to state
that a formal agreement was entered into on the 11th
of
March,, 1840, by the commanding officer c.l her; Majesty's
ships on the coast of Africa, and tl.e officer commanding the
vessels gent by the United States Government to suppress the
slave trade of the United States on the African coast ; and
by that agreement, those officers, for the purpose of carrying
into execution the " orders and views of their respective
Governments respecting the suppression of the slave trade,
requested each other and agreed" to detain alt vessels, under
the United States flag, found to be fully equipped for and en-
gaged in the slave trade ; and it was agreed that such vessels
should eventually be., handed over to the United States
cruisers, if proved to be United States property, and to Bri-
tish cruisers if proved to be Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian,
or English property.
The undersigned would, therefore, submit that the com-
manding officers of her Majesty's vessels had no reason to
suppose that, when giving effect to this agreement by detain-
-hag vessels bearing the United States flag and engaged in slave
trade, they were doing a thing which would be disagreeable
to the Government of the United State!.
With respect to the lago, the undersigned has to observe
that the vessel was fully equipped for a slave trader ; that the
Papers found on board of her were of a suspicious character;
that all her crew but two were Spanish. And her Majesty's
Advocate-General, to wheel the case was referred, has reported
it to be his opinion that. she Commissioners at Sierra Leone
would have been justified in proceeding to the adjudication of
the vessel ; and thst it the caae had been investigated by them
sufficient proof would have late afforded that the vessel was in
reality Spanish, and not American property, and that con-
intently she was liable to condemnation.
The undersigned trusts that the foregoing statement will
Show that there is good reason for doubting that any wilful
damage was done to the cargo of either of the two vessels in
question by the crews of the detaining ships; and that, although
it is indisputable that ill Irish cruisers have no tight, as such,
to search and detain yes cls which arc the proeeity of citizens
of the United '4tit.'es, cyan though such vessels may evidently
be engage.l in sla; e trade, yet in thee cases the British naval
officers acted in put stianee of a special agreement v. i• ti a naval
officer of the Utiitsal States; !pd they were, therefore, justi-
lied in believing' that, insteast'of doing anytl.ine,. which would
be complained of by the iloverbmOt of the I nited States,
they were furthering the views and forwarding the wishes of
that Government.
Such cases, however, cannot happen again, because positive
orders- were sent by the Admiralty, in February last, to all
her Majesty's cruizers employed for the suppression of the
slave trade, not again to detain or meddle with the United
States vessel; engaged, in the slave trade. These orders have
been sent by her ''.llalesty's Government with great pain and
,p9rot. but XS an act due by them to the rights of the United
States.
tier 'Majesty's Government, however, connot bring them-
selves to believ! that the G Ye nment at Washington can se-

riously and deliberately intend that the flag and vessels of the
Union shall continue to be, as they now arc, the shelter under
which the malefacto s of ail countries perpetrate with impunity
crimes whieh the laws of the Union stigmatise as piracy and
punish with death.
But, unless the United States Government shall consent to
make, with the other Powers of Christendom, some agree-
ment of ti.e nature of that which their naval officer on the
coast of Africa spontaneously entered into with the British
naval commander on that station, these abuses will not only
continue to exist, but will increase in magnitude every day ;
and the end will be that the slave trade will be carried on ex-
clusively under the shelter of the flag, and by the special pro-
tection of the Executive Government of that nation, whose
legislature was among the first to pronounce the crime infa-
mous, and to affix to it the severest penalties.
The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to
Mr. Stevenson the assurances of his distinguished consideration.
A. Stevenson, Esq., &c. PALMERSTON.
P. S. I return to you, according to your request, the ori-
ginal papers enclosed in your note of the 27th of February last,
on the subject of the Ingo.

MR. STEVENSON TO LORD PALMERSTON.
32, Upper Grosvenor-street, Aug 9, 1841.

- _
My Lord—On my return to London, after a temporary ab-
sence of a few days, I found the two communications which
your Lordship did me the honour to address to me, under the
date of the 6th inst., in answer to my notes of the 13th of
November, the 27th of February, and the Ist of March last,
complaining of the seizure and detention of three An.erican
vessels, the Douglas, lago, and Hero, and the ill-treatment
of their crews, by her Majesty's cruisers employed on the
African coast in suppressing the slave trade.
Having, in my previous communications, said all that I
deemed important on the subject of these repeated aggressions
upon the vessels and commerce of the United States and the
rights of their flag, I can have no inducement at this time to
trouble your Lordship with any further remarks ; and I shall,
therefore, content myself with transmitting to my Govern-
ment, at the earliest day, copit's of your Lordship's notes, with
whom it will rest to decide upon the sufficiency of the explana-
tion which they contain in justification of the conduct of the
commanders of her Majesty's brigs of war the Termagant and
the Lynx.
It is proper, however, that I should seise the earliest oppor-
tunity to acquaint your Lordship that, in relation to the agree-
ment which it is areged was entered into between the com•
mander of the British squadron on the African coast and the
officer in command of the vessel sent by the Government of
the United States to suppress the slave trade, allowing the
mutual right of searching and detaining all British and
American vessels found trading in slaves, I have no other in-
formation than that communicated in your Lordship's notes,
and have no reason te suppose that such authority had been
confided by the American Government te any of its officers.
1 pray your Lordship to accept assurances of my distinguished
consideration and respect. A. STEVENSON.

LORD PALMERSTON TO MR. STEVENSON.
Foreign-office, Aug., 17, 1841.
Viscount Palmerston presents his compliments to Mr.
Stevenson, and with reference to Mr. Stevenson's note
of the 9th instant, has the honour to transmit here-
with, to Mr. Stevenson, a copy of the agreement entered
into between Captain Tucker, of her Majesty's sloop Wolve•
rine, and Lieut. Paine, of the United States ship of war Gram-
pus, which was referred to in the notes addressed by Viscount
Palmerston to Mr. Stevenson on the sth instant, on the sub-
ject of the detention of the vessels, the Douglas, the Togo, and
Hero, by her Majesty's cruisers.
A. Stevenson, Esq., &c.

LORD PALMERSTON TO MR. STEVENSON.
Foreign-office, Aug. 27, 1841.

The undersigned, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, has had under his consideration the note
which Mr. Stevenson, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Ple-
nipotentiary of the United States, did him the honour to ad-
dress to him, under date of the 15th of May, 18-10, complain-
ing of the detention of a brig under American colours, called
the Mary, by her Majesty's ship Forester:
In this note Mr. Stevenson, assuming the information fur-
nished to the United States d
Government by Mr. Trist, their
Consul at the Havarnah, to be complete and correct, prefers a
claim for indemnity to the owner of the Mary, and asks for the
exemplary punishment of the commander of the Forester, and
those concerned in the proceedings taken by that officer against
the Mary, proceedings which, in Mr. Stevenson's opinion, seem
to want nothing to give them the character of a most flagrant
and daring outrage, and very little, if anything, to sink them
into an act of open and direct piracy.
The undersigned has now the honour to inform Mr. Steven-
son that the more particular information which has been fur-
nished to her Majesty's Government, as to this vessel, places
the question in a very different light from that in which it has
been presented to' the Government of the United States; and
the undersigned trusts that the following statement will satisfy
Mr. Stevenson th it, although the vessel herself, being ill built,
might not have been intended actually to convey negroes from
the coast of Africa, yet she was in reality the property of a
Spaneh slave-dealer, and was employed by him for the pur-
poses of slave trade.
The papers found on board this vessel by the commander of
the Forester showed that, on the 24th of January, 1839, a
bill of sale was prepared at the Havannah by Mr. J. A. Smith,
the Vice-Consul of the United States at that port, setting
forth that a permanent American register (No. 48) had been
granted to the brig Mary, of Philadelphia, ou the 17th of June,
1837, and that the brig was at that time owned by Joseph .1.
Snowden, of Philadelphia, and was commanded by J. 11. Haven.
Joseph J. Snowden, the original owner, then gave a power
of attorney 'and substitution to Charles Snowden, who again
nominated Pedro Manegat, the notorious slave dealer, but who
was described in that document merely as a merchant at Ha-
vannah, to sell and transfer the Mary.
Eight days afterwards Pedro Manegat professedly sold the
Mary to a person named Pedro Sabate, of New Orleans, who,
on the of May, appointed as her master Charles Snowden,
the same person who, three months before, had named Pedro
Manegat as his agent to sell the Mary ; and on the 18th of June
Pedro Sabate replaced Snowden, by appointing David Tomlin-
son to the command. _

This Pedro Manegat, thipretended seller but real purchaser
of the Mary, is the same individual who, in like manner,
owned the following nominally American vessels, namely, -the
Hyperion, which left the Havannah in December, 1838, as an
American vessel, and was afterwards condemned as the Spa-
nish schooner Isabel ; the schooner Hazard, which was de-
tained and erroneously released in February, 1839, under cir-
cumstanc s similar to those which mark the case of the Mary;
and the Octavia, also condemned as Spanish property; which
last named vessel Pedro Manegat had only employed as he did
the Mary, namely, to carry goods for the purchase of slaves to
agents on the coast.
The Spanish master, Thomas Escheverria, and a Spanish
crew, were shipped on board the Mary as passengers; among
them were several individuals who were recognised as having
been formerly captured in slave.vessels, Escheverria himself
having been master of the Spanish schooner Norma, when that
vessel was captured with 231 slaves on board. The ship's
articles set forth that the crew was engaged to navigate the
Mary from the port of Havannah to the Gallinas, or wherever
else the master may direct.
In twoor three papers which the master David Tomlinson
produced to prove his American citizenship, he is styled Pils
B. Tomlirnorty, and in the third P. B. Tomlinson, while in
the log, enclosed in Mr. Stevenson's note, he is called Captain
Thomason.

The clearance and bills of lading show that the owners of
the cargo were Blanco and Carvelho Pedro Marlines and
Co., Pedro Manegat, and Thomas ELheverria, the Spanish
captain, all well known slave traders ; and the consignees,
Thomas Rodriguez Baron, Ignacio P. Rolo, and Theodore
Canot, of the Gallinas, long and well known to the naval
officers employed in suppressing the slave trade on the coast as
factors for the purchase and shipment of slaves.
Thus the papers produced to the Captain of the Forester, by
Tomlinson, were of themselves sufficient to show that this was
one of the then frequent cases in which the flag of the United
States had been fraudulently assumed ; and all doubt was
removed as to the real character of the undertaking in which
the vessel was employed, when, on farther search, there were
found on hoard slave coppers, two bags of shackles, large
water leaguers, and a slave deck—the latter being noted as
shipped under the denomination of five hundred feet of lumber.
Under these circumstances, the undersigned is of opinion
that the commander of her Majesty's ship Forester was fully
justified in considering the Mary to be a Spanish vessel, and,
consequently, in taking her before the British and Spanish
Court ; and, accordingly, when the British Commissioners
reported to her Majesty's Government that the Judges had
refused to allow the Mary to be libelled in that Court, under
the impression that the mere fact of her having the Ameri-
can flag hoisted should have protected her from visitation
and search by a British cruiser, the British Commissioners
were told that there was, in the opinion of her Majesty's
Government, reason to suppose that the Mary was a
spanish, and not an American vessel, and the Judges ought
therefore to have allowed her to be libelled in the British and
Spanish' Court ; • for the, although British ships of war
are not authorised to visit and search American vessels on the
high. seas, yet if a vessel which there is good reason to suppose
is in reality Spanish property is captured and brought into a
port in which a mixed British and Spanish Court is sitting,
the CommisSioners may properly investigate the case, and,
upon sufficient proof being adduced of th Spanish character
of the vessel,' are! of her having been guilty of a breach of the
treaty between Great Britain and Spain for the suppression of
the slave-trade, the Court may condemn her, notwithstanding,
that she was sailing under the American flag, and had Ame-
rican papers on board.
With respect to the general question of the search. of vessels
under the American flag by British cruisers, the undersigned
begs td refer Mr. Stevenson to his other Vote of this day's
date relative to the case of the Susan, in which the under-
signed has fully, and lie hopes satisfactorily, replied to the re-
presentation made by Mr. Stevenson on that subject.
The undersigned begs to return to Mr. Stevenson the log
kept by John Hutton, while acting as mate on board the Mary ;
and avails himself of this occasion to renew to Mr. Steven-
son the assurances of his distinguished consideration.
P A L M E BST ON.

LORD PALIVIERSTON TO MR. 'STEVENSON.
Foreign-office, Aug. 27, 1841.
The undersigned, her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, has the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of the note from Mr. Stevenson, Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary from the United, States at this Court,
dated the 14th of April, 1840, on the subject of a complaint
made by the American Government against the officer in com-
mand of her Majesty's brig Grecian, for having boarded the
American Merchant ship Susan, when off the light of Cape
Frio, in the month of April, 1839.
The undersigned begs leave to state to Mr. Stevenson, in
reply to the remarks contained in his last note, that her Ma-
jesty's Government do not pretend that her Majesty's naval
officers have any right to search American merchantmen,. met
with in time of peace at sea, and if in some few cases such
merchantmen have been searched when suspected of having
been engaged in the slave trade, this has been done solely be-
cause the British officer who made search imagined that he was
acting in conformity with the wishes of the United States Go-
vernment, in endeavouring to hand over to the United States
tribunals ships and citizens of the Union found engaged in a
flagrant violation'of the laws of the Union.
Such things, however, will not happen again, because order
have been given which will pi event their recurrence.
But there is an essential and fundamental difference between
searching a vessel and examining her papers to see whethershe
is legally provided with documents entitling her to the protec-
tion of any country, and especially of the country whose flag she
may have hoisted at the time. For though, by common par-
lance, the word " flag " is used to express the test of nationality,
and though, according to that acceptation of the word, her
Majesty's Government admit that British cruisers are not en-
titled in time of peace to search merchant vessels sailing under
the American flag, yet her Majesty's Government do not mean
thereby to say that a merchantman can exempt himself from
search by merely hoisting a piece of bunting with the United
States emblems and colours upon it ; that which her Majesty's
Government means is, that the rights of the united States
flag exempt a vessel from search, when that vessel is provided
with papers entitling her to wear that flag, and proving her to
be United States property, and navigated according to law.
But this fact cannot be ascertained unless an officer of the
cruiser, whose d, ly it is to ascertain this fact, shall board the
vessel, or unless the master of the merchantman shall bring
his papers on board the cruiser; and this examination of
papers of merchantmen suspected of being engaged in the
slave trade, even though they may hoist a United States flag,
is a proceeding which it is absolutely necessary that British
crttiaers employed in the suppression of the slave trade should

TILE SUN,

continue to practise, and to which her Majesty's Goiernment
are fully persuaded that the United States Oovcriantent can-
not, upon consideration, object; because, 'what would be the
consequence of a contrary practice?
What would be the consequence if a vessel, engaged in the
slave trade, could protect herself from search by merely hoist-
ing a United States flag? Why, it is plain that in such case
every slave trading pirate, whether Spanish, Portuguese, or
Brazilian, or English or French, or of whatever na-
tion he might be, would immediately sail under the colours
of the United States; every criminal could do that, though
he could not procure genuine American papers ; and thus
all the treaties concluded among she Christian Powers, for
the suppression of the slave trade, would be rendered a dead
letter. Even the laws of England might be set at defiance by
her own subjects, and the slave trade would be invested with
complete impunity. Her Majesty's Government arepersuaded
that the United States' Government cannot maintain a doc-
trine which would necessarily lead to suds monstrous conse-
quences; but the undersigned is bound in duty frankly to de-
clare to Mr. Stevenson that to such a doctrine the British Go-
vernment never could or would subscribe.
The cruisers employed by her Majesty's Government for the
suppression of slave trade must ascertain by inspection of pa-
pers the nationality of vessels met with by them under circum-
stances which justify a suspicion that such ves,els are engaged
in slave trade, in order that, if such vessels are found to belong
to a country which has conceded to Great Britain the mutual
right of search, they may be searched accordingly ; and that if
they be found to belong to a country which, like the United
States, has not conceded that mutual right, they may be allowed
to pass on, free and unexamined, to consummate their intended
iniquity. Her Majesty's Government feels convinced that the
United States Government will see the necessity of this course
of proceeding.
But her Majesty's Government would fain hope that the day.
is not far distant when the Government of the United States
will cease to confound two thing; which are in their nature
entirely different ; will look to things, and not to words, and
perceiving the wide and entire distinction between that right
of search which has heretofore been a subject of discussion be-
tween the two countries, and that right of search which almost
all other Christian nations have mutually given each other for
athe swu
ill nenss
longoefr: hpestave
tthr aedaeh,
rw join h
si
al
nd subjectst e Ch rni
fs t itahnel et
Union
n iuon
to be engaged in undertakings which the law of the Union
punisl.es as piracy.
The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew to
Mr. Stevenson the assurances cf his distinguished consideration.
A. Stevenson, Esq., &c. PALMERSTON.