The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-05-15 00:00:00

NAVIGATION OF THE SHANNON.

The Earl of KERRY, • after a few prefatory observations,
which, from the low tone in which the noble lord spoke, and
the noise occasioned by members quitting the house, were
inaudible, moved pursuant to his notice, "that an humble ad-
dress be presented to His Majesty, praying that he would be
graciously pleased to give directions to the Irish Government to
take such steps without delay as would appear to them advisa-
ble for the purpose of carrying into effect the measures recom-
mended in the report of the select committee appointed during
the last session of Parliament to inquire into the state of the
navigation on the river Shannon."
-

Lord SANDON was undersood to express a hope that the Go-
vernment would carefully consider the various reports which
had been made on this subject before they did anything in the
matter.

After a short discussion the motion was withdrawn.

SLAVE TRADE.

Mr. F. BUXTON, in bringing forward his promised motion
on the subject of the slave trade, observed that no person who
had not witnessed the atrocities of that abominable traffic could
have an adequate conception of the crimes, miseries and cruel-
ties to which it gave rise. IJ e recuested the attention of the
house to facts which he should lay before them from Parliamen-
tary documents—facts that indicated the extent to which the
slave trade was now carried on. He held in his hand a list
of importations of slaves into the Brazils. The return from
the British Consuls from the first of January, 1829, to the 311th
of June, 1830, a period of oue year and a half, was as follows—
viz.:—

Slaves

Ships. Died on the passage
" 30

Para .. 779
Maranham 1,Z2
Pernambuco 8,079
Bahia .. 22,202
Rio de Janeiro 81,956

.. 26
• . 70
.. 200

308
768
6,912

114,288 315 8,107
In three years and a half 150,537 slaves were introduced into
Brazil through the single port of Rio de Jeneiro. But this did
not include the whole number deported from Africa ; it only ex •
tended to the number introduced alive : we knew nothing of the
amount of mortality that occurred among the slaves on their
passage. In 1830 the slave trade had been legally abolished,
notwithstanding which, however, be was sorry to say, it
now proceeded with almost as much activity as ever. This he
gathered from the report of the Minister or Marine to the Le-
isla:ive Assembly, which was as follows :—" Rio de Jeneiro,
June 17, 1833. Well known are the tricks resorted to by
speculators, as sordid as they are criminal, to continue the dis-
graceful traffic in slaves, in spite of all the legislative provisions
and orders issued respecting it, which have been most scandal-
ously eluded. It, therefore, appears necessary to the Govern-
ment to have recource to the most efficacious means, which are,
to arm a sufficient number of small vessels to form a sort of
cordon sanitaire, which may prevent the access to our shores of
those swarms of Africans that are continually poured forth from
ships employed in so abominable a traffic.' Among many
causes of the present extent of the slave trade, one was an ap-
prehension (which he hoped was well founded) that the Euro-
pean powers would soon exert themselves to put an end to the
abominable traffic; another cause (which be trusted might
prove ill touhded) was, that it was thought the experiment re-
cently Made in the West Indies would fail, and consequently
that there would be art increased deinand fcr Brazilian sugar.
Another cause of the extent of the slave trade was, that the
Brazilian mines were worked by slaves by means of the
application of British capital. To show the extent to which
the trade was carried, he might state that there sailed from the
port of Havannah alone, as slavers for the coast of Africa, in the
years 18'22, 1823, 1824, 1825, and 1826, 96 vessels, and from
the Ist of January, 1827, to the 30th of October, 1833, 264 ves-
sels, in a period of si years. It was impossible to state to what
extent mortality took place on board of such slave vessels as
were not captured, but in the vessels which were captured the
mortality was known with accuracy, and it was most dreadful in
degree. He would mention the case of the ship Midas, which
sailed from the coast of Africa in the month of May, with 562
slaves on board, and was captured by the British cruisers in
June following. At the time of its capture 162 slaves had
already been lost; 40 more threw themselves overboard at the
moment of their liberation; 79 negroes died before the vessel
reached the Havannah—making the total loss not less than 281
slaves ; and between the time which elapsed after the . vessel
was brought to the coast,
and the period of its adjudication, the
number of the surviving slaves was still further reduced to 253.
The hon. member proceederl'to notice other cases of a still more
aggravated nature, with which he had not been supplied by
means of private information, but which he had collected from
the public and official documents on the table of the house. The
following was an account of the mortality on board 106 ships
condemned between the Ist of January, 1827, and the Ist of
January, 1833, at Sierra Leone :
Vessels. Slaves. Emancipated.
Spanish 3I 8,322 7,426
Portuguese . .
Netherlands 8 1,573 1,381
Brazilian .. 36 7,596 6,143

21,162 18,237
Emancipated

925
Left at Fernando Po, ill 2'
61

*2,764
The next point of importance to which he desired to direct the
attention of the house was the crowded state of the slave vessels.
The hon. member here read the following document, descriptive
of the condition of two slave vessels, the Maria and the Caro-
lina:--" Havannah, Jan. 25, 1831.—The Maria, being only 133
Spanish tons burden, and having on hoard, in addition to her
slaves, 40 seamen, making a total of 545' persons, gave the
almost unprecedented small space of one ton for the accommo-
dation of four souls, and the quantity of provisions, water, &c.