son, HAS SO LONG DESOLATED AFRICA, DEGRADED EUROPE, AND

AFFLICTED HUMANITY*;" but who, with a callous insensibility and atrocious insincerity, incredible, unless confirmed by 66 proofs as strong as holy writ," have continued to wink at, countenance, or secretly participate in the detestable gains of this inhuman commerce, in the face of their spontaneous Declaration at the Congress of Vienna, the repeated and earnest remonstrances of our Government, and subsequent Treaties, entered into, it would seem, for no other purpose than to lull asleep the vigilant humanity of the British Nation, and enable Contraband Slave-traders, those "Hostes humani generis," to carry on a traffic unparalleled in atrocity and crime!

In the memorable year 1807, Great Britain and America respectively enacted laws, entirely prohibiting and abolishing the Slave Trade, in all its branches; and three years after, Portugal consented" to prescribe local limits to her share of the traffic, in that part of the African Continent which lies to the north of the Equator +." Aided by the belligerent right of search, at that time rigorously enforced by Great Britain, a partial cessation of the Slave Trade took place along a very large portion of the African coast, and scarcely any traces of it remained, from the establishment at Senegal, to the Gold Coast, an extent of about 1400 miles. During this interval of repose, every plea which had formerly been urged by the abettors of the Slave Trade, both within and without the walls of Parliament, was refuted by facts. The western shores of Northern Africa assuined a new and animating aspect. Secured against the inroads of slave-factors and their banditti, the people began to turn their attention to industry and com

merce; religious knowledge was slowly, but progressively extending; and the demand for slaves, and the importation of arms and ammunition, having simultaneously ceased, the wars of the petty chiefs in the interior, for the purpose of kidnapping, and carrying to the coast, the subjects of their rivals, had also, in a great measure, terminated. An extensive and promising trade in palmoil, ivory, gold-dust, &c. had commenced, especially with this country; and the wisdom and sound policy of the Abolition had begun to be felt, even by those who had been most hostile to the measure, and upon whom the principles of Justice and Humanity, when urged as arguments in its favour, had failed to make any impression.

In due time, however, the Revolutionary Government of France was overturned, and peace restored to Europe and the world; but, unhappily for suffering Africa, this event, though an unspeakable blessing to the other nations of the earth, proved the commencement of a renewed traffic in human flesh, more ferocious and inhuman in its character, and attended with a more fearful complication of crime and misery, than had ever been known in the worst periods that preceded the era of the Abolition in 1807. The Sovereigns and Ministers, met in Congress at Vienna, published, it is true, a Rescript, denouncing this abominable commerce, in the strongest language, "as odious in itself, and highly repugnant to the principles of religion and nature," and mutually binding themselves, and their respective Governments, to enact such measures as would speedily ensure its complete and final abolition. The result, however, has but too conclusively demonstrated, that this famous Declaration was merely intended to throw dust in the eyes of

the friends of humanity throughout Europe, by whose strenuous and united exertions, the Revolutionary Government of France had been mainly everthrown,-and that any ulterior legislative measures, calculated effectually to check this enormous evil, were never seriously contemplated, either by Russia, France, Spain, or Portugal. No sooner, indeed, had peace been restored, and the belligerent right of search necessarily discontinued by the British cruisers, than the slave-traders renewed their diabolical operations, with an appetite sharpened by long abstinence. In particular, the slave-merchants of France, who, from the peculiar position of that country in relation to Great Britain, had, for twenty years and upwards, been excluded from any share in this murderous commerce, immediately recommenced it with incredible vigour and barbarity; and, notwithstanding the Declaration at Vienna, and the pledge given in the Definitive Treaty of the 30th November, 1815,-notwithstanding the subsequent Ordonnances du Roi, ostensibly prohibiting all commerce in slaves, notwithstanding the repeated and earnest remonstrances of our Government, pointing out the daring infractions of the Treaty of 1815, and of the subsequent Ordonnances, and recommending the infiction, if not of a peine infamante, at least of a peine correctionelle, on all French subjects who should be convicted of slave-dealing,-notwithstanding the repeated assurances of French statesmen, that measures would be taken to bring convicted offenders to justice,-notwithstanding the publication of a most remarkable case of slave-trading in

a respectable Parisian Journal*, the trade continues to be carried on openly, and without the least disguise, even to this hour; vessels are publicly fitted out, and Slave Adventures undertaken, at Havre, Honfleur, and other places; nor have the French Authorities, in any one instance, interfered to put a stop to those nefarious speculations, or to bring the criminals, whose conviction would have been easy, to justice! During the ten years that elapsed between the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and the restoration of the Settlements at Senegal and Goree to France, no part of Africa, Sierra Leone excepted, had been so little affected with this mighty evil as these Settlements, and the Countries in their more immediate vicinity. The transfer to France took place in January 1817, and the Trade almost immediately appeared in a more malignant and ferocious form than ever. A single year was sufficient to destroy all the good that had been done in tent, and to plunge the whole adjacent country, to a great extent, in bloodshed and rapine. Gangs of armed plunderers went forth on all sides. Towns and villages were encompassed in the night, set on fire, and the poor wretches, who fled from the confiagration of their dwellings, dragged off manacled to the Négreries on the coast, to be sold to the first slave vessel from the West Indies. Nor are these savage practices confined to the districts in question; the Trade is extending itself in every direction; and the cupidity of the native despots, roused and inflamed by the example of the more barbarian French slavefactors, and by the high price given

November the same year, to suffer herself to be bribed by the conditional promise of certain commercial advantages, to abolish the Slave Trade to the north of the Line, and to cooperate with Great Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands, in establishing mixed Commission-Courts at Sierra Leone, and to determine and decide on all cases of slaving-ships detained under the qualified right of search, which had also been stipulated for, and acceded to, by the several Powers just mentioned. The instructions issued to these Commissioners do not appear to have been very definite or precise; but if they had served no other purpose, except to bring to light the numerous and flagrant violations of Treaty committed by the subjects of each of the contracting parties, and thereby to destroy every plea of ignorance, and every pretence of subterfuge or evasion, the appointment of these courts would be entitled to hold a distinguished rank among those means provided by Providence for checking the most monstrous and afflicting of all conceivable iniquities,-means which we have no doubt will ultimately be crowned with complete success, notwithstanding the base, malignant, sordid passions, by which this glorious consummation is presently obstructed. These Courts were furnished with a variety of interrogatories to be put to witnesses, and with various forms of declarations, certificates, monitions, oaths, claims, decrees, and other judicial proceedings, with power, when special points arose not provided for in their instractions and official forms, to frame new interrogatories calculated to meet those particular points. When a vessel was condemned, she was to be confiscated, and the slaves emancipated, and delivered over to the authorities of the country; a regular registry of such emancipated slaves to be made and kept by the Commissioners. These Courts were to be established at Sierra Leone, Rio Janeiro, the Havannah, and Surinam; each Court being composed of an equal number of British, Portuguese,

Spanish, or Dutch functionaries. With the exception of that established at Sierra Leone, and more immediately under British influence, all the Commission-Courts have been totally useless; not a single condemnation having taken place, either at Rio Janeiro, the Havannah, or Surinam, up to the date of the latest information laid before the Committee in May 1821. This has been produced chiefly by two causes, viz. the want of British cruizers in those parts, where, nevertheless, the Slave Trade is carried on to an extent almost incredible, as will appear by and by ; and the countenance, and even undisguised protection, afforded to the traffic by the Commissioners, and other functionaries of Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Nay, even in Sierra Leone difficulties of no common magnitude have occurred. The foreign part of the Court is by no means hearty in the cause, as the case of Captain Leeke, afterwards to be detailed, will amply show; and "hard swearing," as it is called, or systematic perjury, being part of the profession of a regular slave-dealer, the means of escape are multiplied by the incredible obstructions thrown in the way of proving facts as clear and notorious as noon-day, and by the narrow construction which the foreign part of the Commission have almost invariably attempted to put upon the provisions of the Treaty.

Of all the Powers who have professed a desire to co-operate with this country, in adopting effectual measures for the suppression and abolition of the Slave Trade, America alone appears to be sincere, and to have practically and cordially seconded our strenuous efforts for that purpose. By an Act of Congress of the 20th April 1818, section 8th, it is enacted, "That in all prosecutions under this Act, the defendant or defendants shall be holden to prove, that the negro, mulatto, or person of colour, which he or they shall be charged with having brought into the United States, or, with purchasing, holding, or selling, was brought into the United States at least FIVE

YEARS previous to the commencement of such prosecution, or was not brought in, or otherwise disposed of, contrary to the provisions of this Act." This departure from the ordinary principles of jurisprudence, in transferring the burden of proof from the accused to the accuser, was a material point gained, and, of itself alone, would establish the desire of the American Government to afford every facility to the conviction of persons offending against the provisions of the Act, and the great principle of the abolition. This is further

manifest from the tenor of an additional Act, prohibiting the Slave Trade, passed March 3, 1819, by which the previous Acts are all declared to be in full force; severe penalties superadded to those formerly enforced; a bounty decreed to the officers and crews of the commissioned vessels of the United States, or revenue-cutters, for every negro, mulatto, or person of colour, delivered to the agent duly appointed to receive them; a reward to informers, over and above the portion of the penalties accruing to them by the other provisions of the Act; and a sum not exceeding a hundred thousand dollars, appropriated to carry this law into effect. Nor have the Americans contented themselves with legislating merely. Cruizers have been sent to the coast of Africa-not like those of France, to wink at, countenance, or even protect the nefarious contrabandists, but to detain, and carry to port for adjudication, every vessel, without distinction, bearing the American flag, and found to have slaves on board. In other respects, too, they have zealously seconded the efforts of the British cruizers stationed on that coast, and acting under the Conventions with Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. It is to be deeply regretted, however, that America has not yet acceded to the principle of a qualified right of reciprocal search, a principle, without the adoption of which all others, whether viewed as preventive or penal, must in the issue prove wholly nugatory. Last year, indeed, a Committee appointed by the House of Representatives recommended the adoption of this principle; but it would seem, that a strong repugnance

to sanction it in any shape, however qualified, still exists among the people of the United States, from an absurd impression that it would, in some measure, countenance the belligerent right of searching neutrals, a principle of international law which, as is well known, America has always keenly and sensitively opposed. Now, if Great Britain claimed the sole exercise of this right, there might, in that case, be good foundation for those fears and jealousies. But it was proposed, from the very beginning, that the right should be equal and reciprocal. And when Britain, the greatest Naval Power upon earth, and certainly not the least jealous of any arrangement that would compromise her maritime rights, or establish a principle dangerous to her naval superiority, proceeded so far as to agree to permit vessels trading under her flag, and suspected of slave-dealing, to be searched, and, if need be, detained by the cruizers of Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands; and when it was always proposed to concede to America the fair, equal, and reciprocal exercise of the same right, there could surely exist no conceivable or tenable analogy between a right so qualified, and in the exercise of which the contracting parties were equally and reciprocally to participate, and the sanction of any belligerant principle justifying one power in searching neutrals ;there could be no danger of establishing a principle of international law, hostile to the maritime rights claimed by the people of America ;-there could not, in short, be any thing more absurd and unreasonable, than for America to bogle at a shadow, and refuse her accession to a qualified principle, which, by her admission, would furnish a complete check to an enormous iniquity abhorrent to every doctrine upon which her free Government is founded, and to the sentiments and opinions of the great mass of her enlightened population. What, indeed, can be a stronger inducement to America to renounce these unworthy prejudices, (for they are no better,) than the conclusive fact, admitted with shame by herself, that in face of all the laws she has passed, and the creditable exertions, of her ships of war on the African