The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-28 00:00:00

SLAVE-TRADE.

There
.has just been issued, agreeably to the order of
Zhe [louse of Commons, a series of accour:ts (seven in
rolmb,r), illustrai!ve of costs incurred. and results pro-
t ..I,ve-traling. 1. An a,:..c,Junt of ves-
s•,.-, ny • iie ,Admiralty with slave warrants, and
t.x.7”.usiviely employed in suppressing 57ive-trading. In
184-1 there were 21 vessels so enap'ovel, at Cie annual
cu:;tof 317,527/. 2. Au annual estimate of the cost of
gad!! cla s, &c. 3. A return of the numit, rof vessels cap-
ture 1. eeized, and proceeded against. The mere names,
&c., ocortpy eight folio pages of print. A trachea to this
account is the following memorandum respecting sums
Toid to foreign G.lyernments, and debts due by them to
Gt,.-at Britain, which have been cancelled, in conse-
quen,pe of their relinquishment of the slave-trade
PORTUGAL.

No debt due to the Government of Great Britain ap
Tears trp have been so cancelled ; but the debt incurred
i3y Portugal for the loan raised in England, under the
oonvention of 1809, and with the sanction of the
British Government, devolved upon Great Britain in
consequence of the annulment of that convention by
Vb,?. slave-trade treaty of 1815. The particulars are
brie a 3 as. folows :
By the treaty between Great Britain and Portugal,
concitic;:,(l at Vienna the 22d of January, 1815, the
Priilce Itk7ent of Portugal agreed that, from and after
the ratiti?aa.'on and promulgation of that treaty, it
should not be -lawful for Portuguese subjects to engage

in the slave trade on the coast of Africa to the north of
the Equator ; and by the same treaty his Britannic
Majesty, on his part, agreed to remit, from the date at
which the ratification of the treaty should be promul-
gated, such further payments as might then remain due
and payable upon the loan of 600,0001., made in London
for the service of Portugal, in consequence of the con-
vention between Great Britain and Portugal of tho 21st
of April, 1809, which convention was declared to be ♦oid
and of no effect.

The treaty of January 22, 1815, was ratified and pro-
mulgated at Rio de Janeiro, July 1, 1815 ; from which
date, therefore, Portugal was released from the engage-
ments which she contracted under the treaty of 1809, for
the payment of the interest and sinking fund, and liqui-
dation of the principal, of the loan of 600,000/., raised
under that treaty ; and those engagements were trans-
ferred to Great Britain.

If the liberation of Portugal from this burden was not,
in reality, the cancelment of a debt due by her to Great
Britain, neither were the payments consequent thereupon,
strictly speaking, sums paid to a foreign Government ;
but the item will most appropriately be included under
the head of payments.
Assuming this to be the case, there will be to be
added to the sums paid by Great Britain on account of
the Portuguese loan of 1809—the sum of 300,0001., with
interest thereupon, paid to Portugal, under the conven•
tion of the 21st of January, 1815, and additional con-
vention of 28th July, 1817, in discharge of claims for
Portuguese slave vessels captured previous to the Ist of
June, 1814, by British cruisers; and the amount also
paid as indemnification, under the additional convention
of the 28th of July, 1817, for Portuguese slave vessels
captured between the Ist of June, 1814, and the instal-
lation of the mixed commissions under the convention,
viz., 265,1371. ss. 11d.