Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1821-07-10

our Ministers to foreign powers, on the
necessity of exacting obedience from
their own subjects to their own laws,
have obtained such very limited atten-
ton, or that the efforts of those powers
for the suppression of the slave trade,
made in compliance of our remonstran-
ces, have been SO entirely fruitless, that
not single French cruizer, for instance,
was to be found so late as February,
1920, near any part Of the coast on which
the slave trade, carried on by French sub
iects in open defence of the laws OF
France, was then every hour increasing.
Thus the attempt to put in execution the
laws of France, against French slave
ships, has many times devolvcd on the
British navy, although such interference
of our men of war is neither supported
| as it appears from the papers by the
adjudic atoms of our own prize courts,
nor permitted by the pride of the French
gov eminent. Two evils arise from
this--the audacity of the foreign traders
is encouraged by the inadequacy of the
English law, and our good understand
ing with France herself is endangered by
the exercise of an unauthorized search
on the trading vessels of her subjects
New exertions are clearly necessary on
our part, to procure the consent of the
French Court 10 reciprocal right OF
search by men Of war of both nations
against suspected vessels trading under
the flags of either. This would be at
once an effectual bar to the further pro-
grcss of the French slave trade, and a
proof of sincerity not yet afforded on
the part of the French government in its
protested determination to put down the
nefarious traffic. In fact, unless this
government goes one step further than
it has done, its abolition of the British
slave trade has contributed to an aggra-
vation of the misers of the slave, without
a sensible diminution in the number of
those who are reduced to slavery. We
subloin short extract from the cores
pondence which has furnished matter
for this article, in illustation of the above
deplorable and indisputed truth. The
case is that boat of eleven tons the pro-
perry of Portuguese governor, having
packed on board it, for voyage across
the Atlantic, no less than seUenty-one
human beings! The condition of these
unhappy creatures, is thus described in
the words of British Officer, who
speaks home to every heart -.
Extract from Declaration of L. NJ. Kelly, esq
commanding his Majesty's sloop Pheasant.
81 do declare that the state in which
these unfortunate creatures were found
is shocking to every principle of hui
mainly seventeen men shackled toge
Their in pairs by the legs, and twenty boys,
were on the ashes in the main hold, a
space masuring eighteen feet in length,
seven feet eight inches main breadth,
and one foot eight inches in height, and
under them the yams for their support.
One of these unfortunate creatures was
in the last stage of dysentery. On their
being released from irons, their appear
ance was most distressing, scarcely any
Of them could stand Oh their legs from
cramp and evident starvation. The
space allowed for the females, thirty
four in number was even more contract
ed than that or the men, measuring
only nine feet eight inches in length,
four feet eight inches main breadth, and
two feet seven inches in height"