SLAVE-TRADE.

MR. Fox, on moving the resolutions adopted by Parliament in 1806, by which the slave-trade is described to be "contrary "to the principles of justice, humanity, and sound policy," declared, that so fully was he impressed with the vast importance and necessity of attaining what would be the object of his motion that night, that if, during the almost forty years that he had had the honour of a seat in Parliament, he had been so fortunate as to accomplish that, and that only, he should think he had done enough, and could retire from public life with comfort, and conscious satisfaction that he had done his duty.

It pleased Providence to deprive the country of the services of that eminent statesman, at the close of the year in which he made the above declaration; but it has been permitted to Mr. Wilberforce to witness, in the honourable retirement which he has chosen, the success attendant upon his unceasing efforts in the cause of suffering humanity.

In very briefly adverting to a few of the details connected with the measures which have been adopted for the abolition of the slave-trade, there is not the slightest desire to add to the excitement which the discussion of the subject has invariably occasioned. The determination of the Legislature to pursue" a course of temperate but authoritative admonition," founded upon the resolutions adopted in May 1823, and the disposition manifested by his Majesty's Government to afford every facility to the discovery and suppression of the illicit traffic, is calculated to encourage the most sanguine expectations that the total abolition will be gradually, but securely effected.

The English are stated to have been engaged in the traffic in slaves in 1562, when three ships were fitted out from this country for the coast of Guinea: from whence they sailed with negroes for Hispaniola, where they were sold as slaves, and a return cargo of hides, sugar, and ginger, shipped for England.

From 1752 to 1762, 71,115 negroes were imported into Jamaica, at an average price of £30 each slave. The returns in the latter year rated the number of slaves at 146,464. General O'Hara, the governor of Senegambia, reported in 1766 that the number of negroes annually shipped from Africa amounted to 70,000!

The Legislature of Jamaica, in 1774, levied a duty of £5 on every slave imported, not so much on account of the revenue as a measure of self-preservation, intended to check the excessive importation of negroes: which had become an object of much apprehension, the number on the island being nearly 220,000, of whom 50,000 were fencible men, whilst the white population, of every description, did not exceed 16,000.

In April 1774, the House of Commons resolved to institute an inquiry into the state of the African trade, and the application of the sum annually voted by Parliament, amounting in the aggregate for the preceding sixteen years to nearly £400,000. It clearly appeared that the governors of the forts on the coast had engrossed more than one-half of the whole British trade, and having the pre-emption of the best slaves, they engaged very largely in that traffic.

In 1788, Mr. Wilberforce gave notice of his intention to bring in a bill respecting the slave-trade. Mr. Fox also signified that he proposed to bring the subject before Parliament. On the 11th February in that year, the King in council directed the Committee of Council for Trade to inquire into the state of that part of Africa where the slaves were bought, the manner of obtaining them, the mode of their transportation and sale, and the effects of the slave trade upon the colonies and general commerce of the kingdom. The report was favourable to the state of Africa for commerce; it described the negroes as generally mild and inoffensive, but stated" that the slave-trade had

a natural tendency to make both the natives and the people

"employed

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employed in it ferocious." It was asserted that slaves were bred up for sale as cattle in other countries; many were also made slaves for debt; and when the demand was great, the King's chiefs and black traders made no scruple of seizing and carrying off the inhabitants of whole villages. The mode of their being brought down to the coast, of their shipment, and of the treatment of them during the voyage, are described in terms calculated to excite feelings of horror and astonishment, that human beings were found capable of embarking in such an abominable traffic. The lamentable effects of the slave-trade upon the seamen engaged in it were likewise apparent: the whole of the habitable part of the vessel being filled with the living cargo, the seamen had no place to lodge in during the voyage from Africa to the West-Indies, usually termed the middle-passage; they were consequently obliged to sleep upon the booms, under the booms in the boats, in the tops, or wherever they could find any spare room above deck, where, if they had not an awning, they were exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, and frequently to torrents of rain. There were repeated complaints of bad and scanty provisions and water, and of cruel treatment, for the purpose, as was alleged, of provoking the seamen to desert from their vessels in the West-Indies, that their wages might be forfeited to the owners: this was exemplified by the return rolls of seamen embarked in eighty-eight vessels in 1786 and 1787; the number shipped being 3,170; of that number, 642 died, or were lost; 1,100 were discharged or deserted, leaving only 1,428 who returned to England! It was calculated that three times as many seamen were lost in the slave-trade as in all other branches of trade put together.

In 1778 an act was passed to regulate the shipping and carrying slaves in British vessels from the coast of Africa; commissioners were at the same time appointed to investigate the claims which might be preferred on account of losses suffered by the operation of that act. In 1789, the act was renewed, and some additions were made to prevent the turning off of the seamen in the West-Indies, or treating them barbarously and starving them, in order to force them to desert their vessels and

forfeit their wages: the wages due to deserters were no longer to sink into the pockets of the owners, but to be paid to Greenwich Hospital. In 1791, the Sierra Leone Company was established by Act of Parliament. The gentlemen who originated it believed that the trade in slaves was an insuperable obstacle to the civilization and cultivation of Africa, and that if those objects were duly attended to and encouraged, Africa might soon become a source of raw material, and the mart of an extensive trade for British manufactures.

This opinion appears to receive confirmation from the work just published by Major Denham and Capt. Clapperton on their discoveries in Southern and Central Africa, in 1825. Speaking of the province of Bornou, which, with one exception, is the most important power in Central Africa, the natives are described as being desirous of exchanging whatever their country produces for the manufactures of the more enlightened nations of the north. Unfortunately, the principal return which Moorish merchants obtain for their goods consists in slaves. These unhappy victims are handed over to the Tripoli and Fezzan traders, who are waiting with their northern produce to tempt the cupidity of the slave merchants of Soudan, Bornou being only a place of rendezvous. Neither the Sheikh himself nor the Bornou people carry on this traffic without feelings of disgust, which even habit cannot conquer. Of the existence of a foreign slave trade, or one which consigns the unfortunate creatures to Christian masters, they are not generally aware at Bornou.

"The eagerness," Major Denham observes, "with which all classes listened to our proposals for establishing a frequent communication by means of European merchants, and the protection promised by the Sheikh to such as shall arrive within the sphere of his influence, particularly if they were English, excites an anxious hope that some measures will be adopted for directing the labours of a population of millions to something more congenial to humanity and philanthropy than the practice of a system of predatory warfare, which has chiefly for its object the procuring of slaves as the readiest and most valuable property to trade with on every appearance of the merchants from the north at their markets."

In 1792, five hundred and nineteen petitions were presented to Parliament, praying an abolition of the slave-trade.

In 1794, a bill passed the House of Commons for abolishing that branch of the slave-trade which supplied foreign colonies with slaves, but it was thrown out in the Lords.

In 1797, the 37th Geo. III, cap. 119, was passed, declaring that negroes were no longer liable to be seized and sold for the debts of their proprietors.

In 1799, the 39th Geo. III, cap. 80, was passed, under which no ship could enter or clear out for the purpose of shipping or carrying slaves from Africa, except at the ports of London, Liverpool, and Bristol. That act contained a provision against the recovery, under a policy of insurance, for loss on account of throwing slaves overboard!

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It has already been observed, that in 1806, Mr. Fox brought forward a motion for the abolition of the slave-trade. The resolution adopted was in the following terms: "That this "House, conceiving the African slave-trade to be contrary to "the principles of justice, humanity, and sound policy, will, "with all practicable expedition, proceed to take effectual measures for abolishing the said trade, in such manner and "at such period as may be deemed advisable." A conference was desired with the Lords upon a matter in which the reputation of the country for humanity, justice, and sound policy was deeply interested. An address was voted to his Majesty, beseeching his Majesty to take measures for establishing, by negociation with foreign powers, a concert and agreement for abolishing the African slave-trade. On the 25th March 1807, the 47th Geo. III, cap. 36, was passed for the abolition of the trade from the 1st May 1807.

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. On the 15th June 1810, the House of Commons resolved nemine contradicente, "that an humble address be presented to his "Majesty, expressive of their deep regret that the efforts used "to induce foreign nations to concur in relinquishing the disgraceful commerce of the African slave-trade has been at"tended with so little success;" also, the surprise and indignation which the House felt at learning that persons in this country had not scrupled to continue, in a clandestine and fraudulent manner, the detestable traffic in slaves, and that early in the