SPECIAL REPORT OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONFERENCE, Held in Paris, in the Salle Herz, ON THE TWENTY-SIXTH AND TWENTY-SEVENTH AUGUST, 1867, HON. PRESIDENT. M. LE DUC DE BROGLIE. PRESIDENT. MONS. EDOUARD LABOULAYE, MEMBER OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN AT THE SOCIETY'S OFFICES, 27 NEW BROAD STREET, E.C. SPECIAL REPORT OF THE PARIS ANTI-SLAVERY CONFERENCE, HELD ON THE 26TH AND 27TH AUGUST, 1867. THIS Conference was convened by the Comité Français d'Emancipation, the Sociedad Abolicionista Española, and the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. The application to M. le Marquis de Lavalette, the French Minister of the Interior, for the requisite authorization to hold it, was signed by the Right Honourable Lord Brougham, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, Bart., M.P., W. E. Forster, Esq., M.P., T. B. Potter, Esq., M.P., Charles Gilpin, Esq., M.P., and by the SubCommittee of the London Society, namely, William Allen, Esq., Joseph Cooper, Esq., J. W. Massie, D.D., LL.D., Henry Sterry, Esq., and the Secretary of the Society. The Right Honourable Lord Stanley most readily and courteously supported the requisition by a letter to the Honourable Julian Vane, British Chargé d'Affaires in Paris, in the absence of Lord Cowley, who gave it prompt attention, and thus prepared the way for a deputation to present the same. The deputation consisted of Joseph Cooper, Esq., the Rev. Dr. Massie, Henry Pease, Esq., Henry Richard, Esq., and the Secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. It was most courteously received by the Minister, who stated that the French Government fully sympathized with the objects of the Conference. Some time after, M. de Lavalette intimated to the requisitionists, through M. de la Tour D'Auvergne, the French Ambassador in London, that the Prefect of the Seine placed the Palais de la Bourse* at the disposal of the Conference. This offer, however, could not be accepted, the Bourse being available only in the evening, or on Sundays. It was therefore respectfully declined, and arrangements were made for holding the meetings in the Salle Herz, No. 48 Rue de la Victoire. The sittings commenced on Monday, the 26th of August, and were continued until late in the afternoon of the 27th. It was hoped that M. le Duc de Broglie, one of the Honorary Presidents of the French Society, and one of the oldest of the band of French abolitionists, would occupy the chair, but although he had come to Paris from his country seat expressly to preside, he found himself unable to do so, owing to sudden indisposition. He was, nevertheless, voted by acclamation Honorary President of the Conference, and M. Edouard Laboulaye, the eminent writer and professor, and one of the most distinguished members of the French Institute, was called to the chair, in his capacity as President of the French Society. The Bureau, or standing Committee, was then constituted as follows: President, M. Edouard Laboulaye. Vice-Presidents: for France, Prince Albert de Broglie (son of the Duke de Broglie); for Spain, Don Salustiano de Olozaga (President of the Spanish Abolitionist Society); for England, Joseph Cooper, Esq.; for the United States, William Lloyd Garrison, Esq., and the Hon. John G. Palfrey; for Haiti, M. le Général Dubois (late Minister for Haiti in Paris and London); for West Africa and Liberia, Wm. Rainy, Esq., of Sierra Leone, Barrister-at-Law of the Middle Temple, London; for Venezuela, General de Rogas; and for Brazil, M. Vogeli. The Secretaries to the Conference were-for France, M. Augustin * The Paris Exchange. |
