HT 
 1162 
 SI 13s 
 
 
 SA Dm BANDEIRA 
 
 A 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 7 ; 
 
 4 ; 
 
 6 ; 
 9 : 
 2 
 
 SLAVE TRADE AND LORD 
 
 Palmer STON's bill
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE 
 
 1^ 
 It 
 
 SLAVE TRADE, 
 
 AND 
 
 LORD PALMERSTON S BILL 
 
 I 
 
 BY THE 
 
 VISCOUNT DE SA DA DANDEIRA, 
 
 Fx-Secretary of State for Forei(/ii .'fjfaiis. 
 
 
 '' PALMAM QUI VERUIT KEKA 
 
 *^* III the Portuguese Copy, from which the present Translation wfs 
 made, a fe\c slight corrections had been introduced by the Author. 
 
 If * 
 
 © 
 
 % 
 
 %i 
 
 1840.
 
 ^iDtnitn (flamaeB 
 
 
 R. da Miseric6rdia, 137-141 
 
 
 Telef. 32 72 72 
 
 
 Lisboa - 2 — Portugal 
 
 
 N.o 
 
 
 
 
 IR*
 
 THE 
 
 SLAVE TRADE, 
 
 AND 
 
 LORD PALMERSTON S BILL 
 
 BY THE 
 
 VISCOUNT DE SA DA BANDEIRA, 
 
 Ex-Secretary of Slate for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 " PALMAM aUI MERUIT FERAT." 
 
 *:^* In the Portuguese Copy, from which the present Translation was 
 made, a few slight corrections had been introduced by the Author. 
 
 iTR- 
 
 1840.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Section I. Motives which hav^e led to writing this Pamphlet — Sketch of the 
 History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade — Difficulties in the way of its Sup- 
 pression — Impossibility of effectually putting a stop to it by the System adopted — 
 Sole Means of Success — Convenience of Treaties. Page 3 to 9. 
 
 Section II. Historical Explanations respecting the Treaty for the Suppression 
 of the Slave Trade — Epitome of the Treaty relative to this Negociation in 1838 — 
 Correspondence of Lord Howard de Walden with Lord Palmerston, respecting 
 
 that Negociation — Dispatch of Lord Palmerston of the 12th May — Reflections. 
 
 Page 9 ^o 15. 
 
 Section III. Communication to the British Chargd d'AfiFaires— Reply, and in- 
 admissible Claims of the British Government — An Examination whether the Por- 
 tuguese^Government was Hostile to the Interests of Great Britain, or Lord Palmer- 
 ston to those of Portugal — Conferences with Lord Howard de Walden — What he 
 wrote to Lord Palmerston — Consequences — Imputations against the Portuguese 
 Government — Measures taken by the latter against the Slave Trade — Unfounded 
 Representations of the British Plenipotentiary. Page 15 to 25. 
 
 Section IV. State of the Question when Lord Palmerston presented his Bill 
 to Parliament — His Speech in Support of the said Bill — Analysis of the Observa- 
 tions of the Noble Lord respecting the obligations contracted by Portugal towards 
 England for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and of her having received the 
 Price of her Co-operation. Page 25 to 36. 
 
 Section V. The assertion of Lord Palmerston shewn to be unfounded, that 
 all the Traffic in Slaves was carried on under the Portuguese Flag — What the no- 
 ble Lord might have said upon this subject — What was said hereon by the Mixed 
 Commissions — Result of the Bill— Opposition thereto in Parliament — Increase of 
 the Trade imputed to Portugal — Enormous amount of British Capital employed 
 in the Trade, and the testimony of British Authorities in this respect — Causes 
 why a new Treaty for the suppression of the Slave Trade, has not been concluded 
 between Portugal and Great Britain — The assertion of the noble Lord considered, 
 that Portugal had made assertions destitute of truth ; and his remarks respecting 
 the Portuguese Government not having consented to declare the Slave Trade 
 Piracy. Page 36 ^ 49. 
 
 Section VI. Examination of Lord Palmerston's remarks on the Portuguese 
 Government, relative to the Right of Search ; the perpetuity of the Treaty, and 
 the Mixed Commissions — Monopoly of the Labour of Freed Slaves in favour of 
 the British Colonies — Examination of what was said by the noble Lord respecting 
 the duty of the British Government to have recourse to its own means ; and of 
 Portugal having lost all title to the respect of mankind ; also of what he stated 
 respecting the Portuguese Government, and his own confessions— Eventual conse- 
 quences of the Bill — Infractions of existing Treaties by Lord Palmerston — Opinion 
 on this head of the British Judges of the Mixed Commission of Sierra Leone — 
 Altered Translation of a Portuguese Decree, ordered to be made by the noble 
 Lord. Page 49 to 58. 
 
 Section VII. Incorrect Assertions of the First Lord of the Admiralty, Earl 
 Minto — Capture of the Flor de Loanda — Communication thereupon addressed to 
 Lord Palmerston by the British Judges of the Mixed Commission of Rio de Ja- 
 neiro — Result of the investigation entered into — Necessity of a Bill of Indemnity 
 for Lord Palmerston and his Colleagues — Proposition for the occupation of the 
 Portuguese Colonies by Great Britain. Page 59 to 66. 
 
 Conclusion Page 66 to 68. 
 
 Errata Page 68.
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 \\b^ 
 
 Thr adoption by the British Parliament of a BUI, authorising; cer- 
 tain British ships to capture in all the seas all vessels sailing under 
 the Portuguese flag, which shall engage, or be suspected of engag- 
 ing, in the Slave Trade; and that the persons and property of the 
 Portuguese found therein shall be subject to the jurisdiction of Bri- 
 tish tribunals, being a new feature in the transactions between na- 
 tions, and an act of usurpation on the part of the British Govern- 
 ment of the sovereign rights of a nation independent of the Crown 
 of Great Britain, — has excited the attention of Europe, and much 
 more particularly that of Portugal. 
 
 As Lord Palmerston, the British Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 alleged in support of that measure (which was his own proposition) 
 the non-fulfilment of Treaties by Portugal, and as I was one of the 
 Ministers for Foreign Affairs with whom the negotiations took place 
 for the renewal and extension of the existing Treaties for the sup- 
 pression of the Slave Trade, I consider it incumbent upon me to 
 make an exposition of what took place, during the period I was in 
 office, relative to those negotiations. 
 
 I shall also ajialyse the assertions contained in the speech deliv- 
 ered by the noble Secretary of State, in Parliament, on the occasion 
 in question ; and I hope to show, on the fullest evidence, that the 
 reasons which are alleged in favour of the Bill are totally without 
 foundation. 
 
 As a correct understanding of this affair depends on the reading 
 and comparing of many documents, and is therefore possessed by 
 iew persons, the explanations upon which I am about to enter, may 
 prove useful to whosoever wishes to form a right judgment on 
 the question. 
 
 The noble Lord made use in his speeches of expressions highly 
 injurious to Portugal and her government, and some of his colleagues 
 followed his example. It would be easy to retort upon them with 
 interest. They are welcome, however, to all the glory which such a 
 course is calculated to reflect upon them. 
 
 A simple exposition of the facts, in their chronological order,— 
 rendered necessary by the noble Secretary of State having founded 
 many of his arguments on wilful anachronisms, — will reduce those 
 insults to their true value — the expression of a consciousness of 
 injustice. 
 
 In order to understand more clearly what is said respecting Por- 
 tugal, it will be convenient to devote a ^^w lines to a review of what 
 has been done for the abolition of the Slave Trade. More than 
 
 B 
 
 3092234
 
 half a'century has elapsed since the abolition of this trade was first 
 proposed in the Parliament of Great Britain. Thirty two years have 
 passed since it was made unlawful for the subjects of Great Britain 
 to engage in it, and in the present day Slavery is abolished in all 
 the dominions of that Crown. Nearly 800,000 slaves were declared 
 fi'ee, ^'20,000,000 sterling being paid to their owners in compen- 
 sation. 
 
 The perseverance with which the people and Parliament of Great 
 Britain have prosecuted this great measure, so essential to the civi- 
 lization of Africa, — the ardent desire manifested by individuals of 
 all classes, in favour of the negroes, — the generosity with which they 
 voted that enormous sum to rescue them from captivity, are extraor- 
 dinary facts, and worthy of the admiration of all who feel an interest 
 in advancing the civilization of the human race. 
 
 It is not just, however, in the British Ministers to estimate the 
 opinion which exists in other countries with respect to the morality 
 of the Slave Trade, by the same standard which they apply to that 
 which has been formed in England on the same subject, after half 
 a century of debates; while in those countries the point has never 
 been discussed. It will be fair to keep in mind the different circum- 
 stances of each state, when expecting arguments to be attended to in 
 favour of the great measure of the abolition of Slavery, or of the 
 Slave Trade; and it would be prudent in those who advance those 
 arguments, to take care that they do not give reason to suspect them 
 of being actuated by interested motives. 
 
 In order effectually to accomplish the total abolition of the Slave 
 Trade, it is necessary that all the Maritime States, and all those in 
 which Slavery exists, should combine for its suppression. This can 
 be accomplished only — 
 
 1. When every Power, without exception, shall prohibit the ves- 
 sels using its flag, to carry slaves, and shall, at the same time, per- 
 mit the ships of war of other nations to search its merchant vessels. 
 
 2. When every nation, in which Slavery exists, shall decree its 
 abolition. 
 
 On an investigation of what has taken place in connection with 
 this subject, it will be found that Portugal was the first Christian 
 Power which abolished Negro Slavery in its Colonies: this was de- 
 creed with respect to the Island of Madeira and the Azores, ( 1 ) by 
 King Don Jose, in 1773; and it is not a little remarkable that this 
 occured at the very time when the British Government was refusing 
 its sanction to the numerous acts of the legislature of its Colony of 
 Virginia, tending to the suppression in the said Colony of the traffic 
 in slaves. 
 
 In 1 780, Pennsylvania made a law for the gradual abolition of 
 
 Oj Vide Alvarat of September 19, 1/61, February 2f>, V 7 \ , and January 
 16, 1773. 
 
 I
 
 5 
 
 Slavery in that State; and the example was successively followed 
 by other northera States of the American Union. The National 
 Convention of France decreed the immediate abolition of Slavery in 
 the Colonies. IMiis was followed by the assassination of the whites 
 by the negroes in the Island of St. Domingo, a civil war in the 
 French Antilles, and tiie non-execution of the decree in Bourbon 
 and the Isle of France ; even at the present day. Slavery exists in 
 the French Colonies. 
 
 In 1804, The Slave Trade was abolished in the Colonies of Den- 
 mark, in pursuance of a law to that effect, made in 1794. 
 
 In 1807, it was abolished by the United States and by Great Bri- 
 tain ; nevertheless, it continued to be carried on ten years after in 
 the British Colony, the Mauritius. (1) 
 
 In 1821, the Republic of Colombia decreed the gradual abolition 
 of Slavery. That law, however, has been annulled by the States 
 into which Colombia has since been divided ; and a similar fate has 
 attended the laws passed in other parts of what formerly constituted 
 Spanish America. 
 
 It was in the year 1838 that the complete emancipation of the 
 negroes took effect in the British Colonies; — that is, sixty-five years 
 after a King of Portugal had decreed it for his Coloniesof Madeira 
 and the Azores, in which, for many years, there have been no 
 slaves. 
 
 No other Power in the possession of Colonies has abolished Negro 
 Slavery in them. By nearly, if not quite all, the independent States 
 of America, from the Potomac to the Rio Plata, it is still continued, 
 and in many of them even, in which the importation of slaves is 
 prohibited, this is still carried on, however illegally, to a greater or 
 lesser extent, according to the demand for labour. 
 
 So long as there are people who are willing to purchase slaves, so 
 long will there be others who will fetch them from Africa for sale; 
 and as America continues to increase in prosperity, so will the ne- 
 cessity become more urgent for a supply of labour, thereby augment- 
 ing the importation of slaves : all the navies of the world united 
 would not suffice to blockade the thousands of miles of the coast of 
 Africa, and the like extent of the coast of America, along which, at 
 the present time, slaves are embarked and landed. 
 
 Doubtless many slavers will be captured by the cruisers, and the 
 hazard of the trade be thus increased ; this will raise the premium 
 of insurance, and, consequently, the price of slaves; but from this 
 very cause, those adventures which succeed will yield enormous 
 profits, and these will stimulate the contraband trader to encounter 
 still greater risks. This is what has actually occurred in some cities 
 of America. In Havanna, for instance, where in 1838, according to 
 the papers laid before Parliament by Lord Palmerston, a French 
 
 nj Fowell Buxton.— The African Slave Trade, S°- Vol. 1839, pp. 119— 18fi.
 
 6 
 
 house realized by one voyage a net gain of 70,000 Dollars; and other 
 adventurers gained, by a single vessel, whose voyage scarcely ex- 
 tended to four months, the sum of 200,000 Dollars, free of all 
 expenses ! 
 
 All smuggling increases in a direct ratio with the profit to be 
 made by it ; and the extent to which it is carried on on the coast of 
 England, shows the inefficiency of prohibitions, even when backed 
 by a large force by land and sea. Now, a cargo of slaves is, of all 
 others, the one which when landed, is most easy to save, from the 
 facility of its removal from the point of danger. A blockade of the 
 coast could not put an end to the trade, even were there very many 
 more ships employed in i:j than it would be possible so to employ, 
 and that the greatest vigilance was practised by them. Could the 
 British Admirals, who had under their orders numerous squadrons, 
 for the purpose of blockading the French coast, prevent the sailing 
 from Toulon, of a grand expedition, vvilh an army on board, intend- 
 ed for disembarkation in Egypt ? Or could they hinder another 
 squadron from sailing out of Brest, passing the Struits of Gibraltar, 
 and going into Toulon ? No ! — How then can it be expected that 
 single vessels engaged in the slave trade, will be much embarrassed 
 in the seas of Africa and America, by the commanders of cruisers, 
 with inadequate forces at their disposal, and engaged in an obscure 
 sei"vice, affording no stimulus to exertion beyond what is contained 
 in the profit derived from captures, — a profit which they may secure 
 to a much greater extent than any they can expect to reap from that 
 source, from the parties themselves engaged in the trade. This may 
 be done very easily : — for instance, by not searching a particular 
 part of their vessel, to which, at a time agreed upon, the negroes 
 sliall be made to pass, and without there remaining a single vestige 
 of the transaction, or any evidence of it, but that of the parties inter- 
 ested in concealing it. 
 
 I consider the system adopted for carrying into effect the suppres- 
 sion of the Slave Trade, to be altogether erroneous ; and [ am per- 
 suaded that the sole means of putting an end to this traffic, is by the 
 abolition of Slavery itself in those countries in which it continues to 
 exist, and into which the slaves are imported. 
 
 It is pretended that by the system now in use, the innumerable 
 African Chiefs, independent one of another, and to whom the sale 
 of slaves is the principal source from which they derive the means 
 of supplying themselves with the goods carried by Europeans to 
 Africa, and which, from habit, they cannot do without, (such as 
 arms, ammunition, spirits, woven cloth, &c. &c.,) will be prevented 
 from exporting those slaves from the numberless ports of a coast 
 between two and three thousand leagues in extent ! 
 
 It is pretended that this system will prevent the importation, 
 along 3,000 leagues of coast in America, whose inhabitants are under 
 the firm conviction that the labour of Negro slaves is indispensable 
 to the preservation and augmentation of the property which each 
 possesses; in other words, we are told to expect that the exporters of
 
 Africa, the importers of America, and those who are engaged in the 
 transport of slaves, will sacrifice to morality, justice, and humanity, 
 that which they all regard as important to their interests. But how 
 often, even in the most civilized countries, have we not beheld these 
 virtues give way before the temptation of gold ? and the British 
 Government is at this moment giving to the world an example of 
 this truth, in the monopoly of the opium which is sent from India, 
 lo be smuggled into China, where this pernicious drug, according 
 the proclamation of the Chinese Government, is the means of annu- 
 ally causing the death of thousands of persons. The annual profit 
 of several thousand rupees which that contraband trade yields to 
 the Anglo-Indian Exchequer, is sufficient in this case to cause the 
 disregard of the principles of morality and the feelings o( humanity. 
 
 In order to combat and overcome the self-interest of the exporter 
 and importer of slaves, and the daring avarice of the Slave Trader, 
 aided by the connivance of the jieople along the shores of Africa 
 and America, it will be necessary to employ means of a magnitude 
 proportionate to the vast extent of the earth's surface throughout 
 which the trade is carried on, and to the obstacles in the way of its 
 prevention. Those, however, hitherto employed by Great Britain, 
 have been altogether inadequate to the end they were intended to 
 accomplish. 
 
 Although 1 have not before me a list of the ships recently em- 
 ployed specially in this service, I believe I may assert, from certain 
 data, that their number in the Atlantic Ocean in 1838, did not 
 amount, corvettes, brigs, and schooners included, to thirty ships; it 
 being remarked that it is in that sea that the service is performed 
 with the greatest activity and regularity. 
 
 The Western shores of Africa, and the Eastern shores of South 
 America, those of the Spanish West India Islands, and of Texas, 
 along all of which the trade is carried on, present an extent thirty 
 times greater than tliat of the entire south coast of England ; thus, 
 supposing the eff"ectiveness of thirty ships employed in the suppres- 
 sion of the trade in the Atlantic, their service might be compared 
 to that which would be rendered by one single vessel stationed in 
 the British Channel to prevent smuggling in the south coast of 
 England. 
 
 Hence it will be seen that in order to watch from two to three 
 thousand miles of coast, it will be requisite to employ in that Ocean 
 many hundred ships, in order that the efficacy of the service em- 
 ployed in the suppression of the Slave Trade may approximate to 
 that of the preventive service enjoyed in putting down smuggling 
 in England : and even then the contraband in slaves will always 
 be proportionably greater, inasmuch as there will be times in which 
 not a single cruiser can keep its station in the coast of Africa; as 
 was the case in 1838, when an epidemic having broken out on 
 board the cruisers of Sierra Leone, all the vessels stationed in that
 
 8 
 
 quarter were obliged to abandon their posts for several months. (1) 
 The increase which has taken place in the Slave Trade in the 
 Gulf of Benin and the Island of Cuba, notwithstanding those are 
 the quarters in which the British Cruisers have been in the greatest 
 force and exerted the greatest vigilance and perseverance — the pos- 
 sibility, in the case of great difficulties presenting themselves in the 
 ports of the Atlantic, of transporting the slaves, though with a great 
 increase of suffering and mortality to those unhappy beings, from 
 Eastern Africa to the desert Coast of Southern America, or to the 
 ports in the Pacific, and to send them thence across the Andes to 
 Brazil and other parts — the absolute impossibility which exists, 
 even with the co-operation of all the maritime powers, to employ a 
 sufficient force to prevent simultaneously the continuation of the 
 trade which is carried on along the tuo coasts of America, and 
 those of Western and Eastern Africa as far as the Red Sea; that 
 which takes place in the Mediterranean between Africa and Tur- 
 key (2) and that which exists in the Sunda Islands — since those 
 Slaves which are not sent to America and other Christian Countries 
 are deserving of equal commiseration and attention with those that 
 are sent thither — the little advantage which has been derived from 
 colonies founded in Africa, for the suppression of the trade, which 
 has continued to be carried on with the greatest activity in the im- 
 mediate vicinity of Sierra Leone, where so many resources are 
 united against it; are circumstances and considerations which have 
 produced in my mind a conviction that the system adopted for the 
 suppression of the Slave Trade is erroneous, and that it is chimeri- 
 cal to hope that by such a system it will ever become extinct. 
 
 It is therefore highly unjust to pretend to make Portugal the ex- 
 piatory victim of the error committed by the British Government 
 in the choice of a method inadequate to attain the end which it has 
 in view. 
 
 The only means of suppressing the Slave Trade is the total abo- 
 lition of slavery in America, and in other countries where it exists 
 and where slaves are imported. Two methods present themselves 
 for attaining this end ; one by giving pecuniary compensation to 
 the owners of slaves, giving these their freedom at once, or within a 
 short space of time, as was done in the British Colonies ; the other 
 by passing a law for the gradual emancipation of the said slaves, in 
 the manner adopted by Portugal in 1773, and subsequently by Penn- 
 sylvania and other States of the American Union, This latter course 
 would have the great inconvenience of not leading to the immediate 
 termination of the Slave Trade, which would be carried on in a con- 
 traband way ; and I therefore consider the former the only one which 
 it would be judicious to adopt. It would however be necessary to 
 
 flj Class A, (Further SerietJ p. 152. — Correspondence with the British Com- 
 missioners, relative to the Slave Trade, presented to Porliament 1838-9. 
 C2) Cla^s D,page 14-J5, Correspondence u-iih Foreign Powers, 1838-9.
 
 employ immense sums, which all the Stales would be unable, and 
 unwilling to expend. In the meanwhile were tliey to receive assist- 
 ance, they would probably decide upon performing so great a work 
 of humanity. Great Britain might co-operate largely in attaining 
 this object. She, who at the cost of many millions, purchased the 
 freedom of 800,000 hlaves, wou-d doubtless, on being'called upon 
 by her government, assist in furnishing part of the necessary means 
 for ransoming the slaves of the Spanish West Indies, in Brazil, the 
 Texas, and other countries. It would also be desirable that slavery 
 should cease in the Southern States of the American Union; even 
 though in this case Great Britain should lose the powerful influence 
 which in time of war the free population of the British West Indies 
 would give her over the slave population of those states. 
 
 If it be true, that thirst of gain to be derived from the traffic will 
 have the effect of causing the cruisers to be eluded to a great extent, 
 it does not follow therefore that these latter are of no use. The 
 pursuit and capture of the vessels employed in the trade is a useful 
 preliminary to the total abolition of slavery in America. 
 
 And as regards the Portuguese Colonies in Africa, the pursuit of 
 slavers is absolutely necessary, in order that the persons who have 
 been in the habit of trading in slaves may be taught, that the in- 
 ternal and external restrictions placed upon it, render it impossible 
 for them to carry it on without great risk of loss. — This with a view 
 of making those Colonies become agricultural and productive, the 
 sole means by which they can be rendered useful to Portugal — to 
 w hom, hitherto, they have been of scarcely any value. The capital- 
 ists of the Mother-country and of the Colonies may then engage in 
 cultivation, with the almost certainty of a lucrative return ; inas- 
 much as labour can be procured in Portuguese Africa at a much 
 lower price than it can be had for in America. 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 
 Portugal was the first power which united with Great Britain to 
 procure the abolition of the Negro Slave Trade. The first stipula- 
 tions date from the year 1810. In 1815, the Portuguese plenipoten- 
 tiaries at the Congress of Vienna, proposed to the plenipotentiaries 
 of Great Britain the total abolition of the Slave Trade by Portu- 
 guese subjects at the expiration of eight years, that is, in 1823 ; pro- 
 vided Great Britain would consent to annul the treaty of 1810, the 
 conditions of which were considered extremely injurious to Portu- 
 gal, This proposition was not acceded to. The abolition of the 
 Slave Trade at that time gave way before the commercial advantages 
 which were derived by that treaty. Successively were entered into 
 the Treaty of the 22nd January, of that same year, 1815; the ad- 
 ditional Convention of the 28th July 1817; and lastly, the separate
 
 10 
 
 Article of the 11th September of the same year. The treaty and 
 convention have for their object the suppression of the Slave Trade; 
 and grant to certain ships of war of eacli nation the right to search 
 and detain the merchant vessels of the other to the south of the 
 Equator. 
 
 In 1836, the Duke of Palmella and Lord Howard de Walden, 
 who bad been appointed plenipotentiaries, negociated a treaty for 
 the suppression of the trade both to the north and south of the 
 Equator. ( I) 
 
 In December of that year, the Ministry, of which I was then the 
 head, obtained from Her Majesty the sanction of a Decree of the 
 10th of the month, which totally abolished the Slave Trade through- 
 out the Portuguese dominions, and imposed severe penalties on 
 those who were guilty of transgressing it; such as degradation, fines, 
 incapacity to fill public offices and employments. This Decree ren- 
 dered it necessary to alter divers stipulations of the treaty negociated. 
 
 Another Decree of the 16th January 1837, declared that only 
 those should be regarded as Portuguese vessels, which to that time 
 had been navigated under the Portuguese flag, and those which in 
 future should be constructed in Portuguese ports : thus putting a 
 stop to the fraud which had been practised of making simulated 
 purchases of foreign vessels to be employed under the Portuguese 
 flag in carrying on the trade in slaves. 
 
 In the same year, 1837, commenced the negociations between 
 Lord Howard de Walden and myself for the suppression of the 
 trade; but it was not till 1838, that after a protracted discussion, we 
 agreed on a tjeaty comprising fifteen Articles, and their Annexes, 
 respectively marked A, containing four Articles; B, containing ten; 
 and C, containing eight; making together thirty-seven Articles, 
 having for a basis the project of the British Government presented 
 to that of Portugal by Lord Howard, on the 15th April in that 
 year.(2) 1 will give a brief sketch of the principal stipulations of 
 the Treaty in question. 
 
 By Art. 1. it was agreed, that the Slave Trade should be for ever 
 abolished in all the dominions and for all the subjects of the two 
 Crowns. 
 
 By Art. 2. was conceded the mutual right of search, by certain 
 ships of war of each of the contracting parties, of the merchant ves- 
 sels of the other; the manner of exercising that right was denned, 
 and it was declared that it might be exercised in all the seas, ex- 
 cepting those of Europe and the Mediterranean. 
 
 Art. 3. regulated the conditions of Art. 2. 
 
 Art. 4. defined the manner in which parties were to be indemni- 
 
 Cl .J Vide Documentos Officiaes sobre a negociaf&o do Tractado para a s^ippres- 
 a&o do Trafico da Escravatura, per Ordem da Camara dos Senadores, 1839, pag. I. 
 
 C2J Vide Class B.p. 150-1, Correspondence with Foreign Powers, presented 
 to Parliament, 1838-9.
 
 n 
 
 lied for losses sustained hy tlie arbitrary and unjust detention of 
 their vessels. 
 
 By Art. 5, it was agreed that captured vessels should be tried by 
 a Mixed Commission, composed of Portuguese and English judges; 
 one being resident in the Portuguese dominions and another in 
 the British, 
 
 The Gth, was a temporary article respecting the Mixed Commis- 
 sion appointed under the Convention of 1817. 
 
 Art. 7. declared that none of the conditions of the treaty should 
 be interpreted in a manner calculated to embarrass the lawful trade 
 and navigation between the various dominions of the Portuguese 
 Crown in Africa; audit designated these dominions both on the 
 eastern and western coast of Africa, 
 
 By Art. 8. it was determined that merchant vessels, which 
 should be detained, might be carried before the Mixed Commission, 
 in case the equipments of the said vessels presented certain speci- 
 fied indications of their being engaged in the Slave Trade. 
 
 Art. 9. authorised the Commission to pay out of the funds arising 
 from captures, a sum of money proportioned to the loss sustained 
 by vessels detained, but not condemned by the Commission. 
 
 By Art. 10. it was agreed that condemned vessels should be en- 
 tirely broken up and sold in separate parts. 
 
 Art. 11. stipulated that the crews of condemned vessels should be 
 placed at the disposal of the Government whose flag they bore, to 
 be judged according to the laws of the said country ; as also the 
 owner of the vessel, and other parties interested, and their agents. 
 
 Art. 12. stipulated that the negroes found on board should be re- 
 stored to freedom, educated in the principles of Christianity, and 
 taught mechanical arts, whereby to obtain the means of gaining a 
 subsistence. 
 
 In Art. 13. it was declared that the acts or instruments annexed 
 to the treaty should form an integral part thereof. These were the 
 following. 
 
 A. — Instructions to the ships of war destined for the suppression 
 of the Slave Trade. 
 
 B. — Regulations for the Mixed Commissions. 
 
 C'. — Regulations for the treatment of emancipated negroes. 
 
 By Art, 14. it was agreed, that at the expiration of ten years 
 reckoned from the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty, each 
 of the two Crowns should have the right of demanding a revision of 
 any of its stipulations, or of those of its annexes, provided however, 
 that in this revision no attack should be made upon the principles 
 laid down in the 1st Article, by which the Slave Trade was aboliehed 
 for ever ; and any condition was to be considered suspended respect- 
 ing which there existed a doubt, till such time as by mutuid accord, 
 it should be discussed and definitely determined ; the })arty de- 
 
 c
 
 12 
 
 mandinff the revision, being required to give the other six months' 
 notice of its intention. 
 
 By Art. 15. it was agreed that the above Treaty should supersede 
 all previous stipulations for the suppression of the Slave Trade, and 
 that it should not invalidate the obligations contracted by the an- 
 cient treaties, alliance, amity, and guarantee, existing between the 
 two Crowns, and which were renewed by the 3rd article of the 
 treaty of the 22nd January 1815. In the Article 15, was mentioned 
 the period when the Treaty should be in force in Africa; and six 
 months were named, or sooner if possible, for the exchange of the 
 ratifications. 
 
 The foregoing Treaty was followed by the three Annexes, the 
 titles of which I have cited above. 
 
 In the course of the negociation, I had proposed that the British 
 Government should guarantee to Portugal, her Colonies in Africa, 
 and assist her with a naval and military force, in the event of any 
 disturbance breaking out in them in consequence of the execution 
 of the Treaty. And in case no definitive determination had been 
 come to in this single point, which was to form an additional article 
 to the treaty, and if its discussion had ceased, an agreement might, 
 nevertheless, have been come to, for the offer of Lord Howard de 
 Walden and my last proposal approximated so nearly, that they 
 might easily have been combined. (1) 
 
 This was the state of the negociation on the 23rd of May, 1838, 
 when Lord Howard de Walden took his departure from Lisbon to 
 proceed to London. 
 
 I will now mention some other facts, a knowledge of which is 
 necessary, to form a correct judgment of this aflair. 
 
 Under date of the 7th May, Lord Howard de Walden wrote to 
 Lord Palmerston as follows: — 
 
 " I have the honour to inform your Lordship, that such progress 
 " has already been made in the negociations of this Treaty, that no 
 " principle remains to be discussed or contested by the Viscount de 
 " S4 da Bandeira. 
 
 " Various alterations in details have been required by his Excel- 
 " lency ; but they are such as, I trust, will not affect the efficiency 
 " of the Treaty, while it will render it less unpalatable to the Portu- 
 " guese public, and remove grounds upon which opposition might 
 " be got up by the clubs to its ratification, on its being presented to 
 " the Cortes." (2) 
 
 The despatch containing this communication was received by 
 Lord Palmerston on the 16th of the same month : (3) but his Lord- 
 
 (l) Vide Class li.p. 183-1-7, 191, Correspondence with Foreign Powers, pre- 
 sented to Parliameni, l8o8-9. 
 
 (2J Ibid Class B. p. 182. 
 (?>) md Class B. p. 182.
 
 13 
 
 ship had already forwarded to Lord Howard de Walden, on the 
 12th, a copy of an address of the House of Commons to her Britan- 
 nic Majesty, praying lier Majesty to be pleased to enter into an 
 arrangement with Foreign Powers, for declaring the Slave Trade to 
 be piracy, and that those guilty of engaging in it should be punish- 
 ed as pirates ; the House at the same time expressing its regret that 
 Portugal had not fulfilled the obligations she had contracted, by 
 making a Treaty with Great Britain. 
 
 This copy of the address, which was intended to be presented to 
 the Portuguese Government, was accompanied by a despatch from 
 Lord Palmerston, also intended to be presented to that Government, 
 in which despatch, among other matters, it is stated: — 
 
 " Your Lordship, in communicating this document to the Portu- 
 " guese Government, will at the same time say, that it is not possi- 
 " ble for her Majesty's Government to permit the continuance of 
 " that system of piracy, and of that war upon the human race, 
 " which, to the disgrace and scandal of the civilized world, the flag 
 " of Portugal at present invests with impunity. You will observe 
 " that Great Britain has paid to Portugal the enormous sum of 
 " £600,000, on condition that Portugal should co-operate with 
 " Great Britain in finally and utterly abolishing the Slave Trade ; 
 " and although Portugal has received the price of her co-operation, 
 " she has not hitherto performed her part of the reciprocal condi- 
 " tions: — to declare to the Portuguese Government that if Portugal 
 " shall decline, or shall any longer demur to conclude that Treaty, 
 " Great Britain will proceed, without further delay, to accomplish 
 " by her own means the object, for the attainment of which she will 
 " thus have failed in obtaining the co-operation of Portugal." (1) 
 
 To the despatch of Lord Howard de Walden, in which he spoke 
 of the progress of the negociatiou of the Treaty, Lord Palmerston 
 replied on the 19th of May. (2) 
 
 Lord Howard de Walden, however, not confining himself to re- 
 questing that the Slave Trade should be declared piracy, thought 
 proper (without waiting a reply to bis despatch of the 7th of May, 
 in which he informed his Government of the advanced state of the 
 negociation) to present to the Portuguese Government, on the 18th, 
 a copy of the despatch of Lord Palmerston. 
 
 It cannot be doubted that a communication, which in addition to 
 a threat, contained a misrepresentation of historical facts, reflecting 
 discredit upon Portugal, should cause a most painful sensation to 
 the Portuguese Government ; and no person can fail equally to re- 
 cognise that such a communication, made at a time when the Treaty 
 was on the point of being amicably concluded, was the most effec- 
 tual means which could have been employed, had there been a wish 
 
 (\J Vide Doeumentos Offtciaes, por Ordetn da Camara dos Senadoret 1839, 
 paff. 41. And Class B. pag. 180-1 • Correspondence, Sfc, 1838-9. 
 
 (2) Ibid, Class B.pag. 182.
 
 14 
 
 to break oil the nej^ociution. Nevertheless, the negociation pro- 
 ceeded, and four days after was brought to a conclusion, not only 
 as regarded the Treaty, but also with respect to the annexes. 
 
 The new claim that the Slave Trade should be declared piracy, 
 was not admitted ; but in its place an eventual declaration was pro- 
 mised, in the basis of which liOrd Howard de Walden concurred ; 
 which will be seen by the private letter which he wrote to me, and 
 which was printed with the note, under date of the lith September, 
 which the Baron da Ribeira de Sabrosa addressed to the noble 
 Lord. (1) 
 
 The communication made to the Portuguese Government, in 
 Lord Howard's despatch of the 20th May, by order of his Govern- 
 ment of the 12th of the same month, was replied to in a note of 
 22nd, in which, after defending Portugal from the gratuitous ac- 
 cusations which had been made against her, and setting forth the 
 reasons which that country had for not declaring in the Treaty 
 the Slave Trade to be piracy, it is stated that " if the British Go- 
 •' vernment should come to an agreement with the great Powers of 
 «* Europe, possessing Colonies, that the Slave Trade should be de- 
 «' clared piracy, the Portuguese Government, though it could not in 
 «* this respect take the initiative, would no doubt assent to such a 
 '' declaration." 
 
 After what has been said had taken place with Lord Howard, it 
 was with the greatest astonishment that T read the following in his 
 note of the 5th May last, addressed to Baron da Ribeira de Sabrosa, 
 (2) in reply to one which, on the 6th October, 1838, I had written 
 to Mr. Jerningham, at that time British Charg^ d' Affaires at Lisbon. 
 
 " The undersigned undoubtedly took home for the consideration 
 " of his Government, that incomplete Draft of Treaty : hut he did 
 " not agree to it, nor could he have agreed to it ; because he was not 
 " authorised to do so; and because he could not have done so, con- 
 sistently with the tenor of his instructions." 
 
 " Government never could have for a moment entertained, ought to 
 " be looked upon as stipulations agreed to between the two Govern- 
 " ments or their Plenipotentiaries." 
 
 In proof of this assertion, Lord Howard availed himself of two 
 private letters which I had written to him, the one on the 12th and 
 the other on the 30th May, 1838, in the latter of which I mentioned 
 a conversation which their Majesties, the Queen and her August 
 Spouse, had been pleased to have with me respecting a letter which 
 
 (1) Vide Documeiilos por Ordein do Govcrno, \S39, poff. 4f>. 
 
 (2) Ibid, pages 29, 30, 31.
 
 15 
 
 the King Lad received from lier Majesty tlie Queen of Great Bri- 
 tain. It is worthy of particular notice, that this private correspon- 
 dence and a still more private conversation of their Majesties, were 
 by the note of Lord Howard de Walden introduced into a diplo- 
 matic discussion. 
 
 As, in quitting the Government, I had not left in the office of 
 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the private letters which I 
 received from the noble Lord, not considering them official, the Ba- 
 ron da Ribeira de Sabrosa wrote me, requesting information respect- 
 ing the correspondence quoted by the British Minister, which infor- 
 mation I gave, sending to his Excellency the letters I had received 
 from that Minister; in which course I deemed myself justified, by 
 the example of Lord Howard, who had placed at the disposal of his 
 Government the private letters which he had received from me. (1) 
 
 r sent all the correspondence in my possession which related to 
 the subject in question ; and of this correspondence as also of other 
 documents of Lord Howard's oivn hand ivriting which are in the 
 Secretary's Office, the Baron availed himself to show with every 
 evidence that the Treaty and its Annexes were agreed upon when 
 Lord Howard left Lisbon on the 23rd of May for London ; the 
 additional article only being wanting, which had not been finally 
 discussed. 
 
 I now confirm, as a private individual, that which I stated as 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs — "that, on the 22nd May, 1839, the 
 " Treaty for the suppression of the Slave Trade, and its three Annexes, 
 " were adjusted and concluded." And if Lord Howard de Walden 
 could divest himself of the character in which he appears in Lisbon, 
 as Minister Plenipotentiary, in which character he sent to the Por- 
 tuguese Government the note of the 5th of May, 1839, drawn up in 
 London, and sent by the express order of Lord Palmerston, to be 
 signed and presented, tvithout the smallest alteration, (2) I would ad- 
 dress myself to the noble Lord, and invite him in his character as a 
 gentleman to confirm that which I have now asserted. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Returning to the historical narrative, I will remark that on the 
 29th May, I wrote to the British Charg^ d' Affaires, Mr. Jerning 
 ham, inviting him to ask his Government for the necessary power 
 to sign the Treaty concluded by Lord Howard de Walden with myself, 
 and to discuss and sign the additional article. 
 
 (1) Vide Note, of the 5th May, 1836, from Lord Howard, to the Baron da 
 Ribeira de Sabrosa— JDocumentos, \c. 18'S9, pages 29-30 -32. 
 
 (V Vide Class B^pagc iy2-3. And Class B, {Further Series) paffe 'J I, 103.
 
 16 
 
 On the 1st August, Mr. Jerningham addressed to me two notes — 
 In the first he stated that he had " received a full power, which the 
 " Queen had been graciously pleased to grant to him, authorising 
 " and empowering him to conclude and sign. ... a Treaty between 
 •' her Majesty and her most Faithful Majesty for the suppression of 
 " the traffic in Slaves." ( 1 ) 
 
 In the second, which was drawn up in London, and which was 
 accompanied by the draft of a Treaty, also drawn up in the same 
 capital, the Treaty previously negociated with Lord Howard de 
 Walden was considered as a counter-project of mine ! And it further 
 stated that " the undersigned has been instructed to observe to his 
 " Excellency the Viscount de Sd da Bandeira that any further delay 
 " in concluding this Treaty, or any further proposal of alterations 
 " in this draft, must be considered by Great Britain as tantamount 
 " to a refusal on the part of Portugal, to fulfil the engagements 
 " by which she is bound in this matter." Mr. Jerningham even 
 added, " The undersigned has been further directed to state to his 
 " Excellency the Viscount de S4 da Bandeira, that he is instructed 
 " positively to refuse to send back again to his Government, any of 
 " the Portuguese propositions, which her Majesty's Government 
 " have, upon full consideration, rejected." (2) 
 
 Subsequently to this Mr. Jerningham declared to me, in a con- 
 ference which we had together, " that he was authorised to sign the 
 Treaty, but not to negociate." 
 
 In the new draft then presented. Lord Palmerston had inserted 
 conditions to which Portugal could not and ought not to accede : 
 for instance, the perpetuity of all the stipulations of the Treaty and 
 its Annexes ; the poiver which it gave to British cruisers over Por- 
 tuguese vessels, which they might destroy at their pleasure in the 
 seas of Africa, and that of harassing the Portuguese Colonies, has 
 had before been practised. 
 
 Besides this, this draft contained considerable alterations in the 
 clauses agreed to between myself and Lord Howard ; clauses in 
 accordance with the stipulations of the Treaties of 1815 and 1817; 
 and with those which, in 1835, were agreed to between Great Bri- 
 tain and Spain. Certain clauses also had been sup|)ressed, and new 
 ones introduced ; some, contrary to the interest of Portugal ; others, 
 oflfensive to the dignity of an independent nation; the whole ap- 
 pearing calculated with a view to enable the commanders of cruisers 
 employed against the Slave Trade, freely and without responsibility 
 or fear of punishment, to interfere with, and oppress the lawful 
 
 (1) Vide Class B. pag 303. Correspondence, Sfc. 1838-9. And Documenios 
 Officiaes, por Ordem da Camara dos Senadores, 1839, pag. 39. 
 
 (2) Vide Documenios Officiaes, por Ordem da Camara dos Senadores, 1839, 
 pag. 20. And Class B, pag. 303. Correspondence, ffc. 1838-9.
 
 17 
 
 commerce and navigation of Portugal, and the Colonies belonging 
 to her in Africa. (I) 
 
 It was impossible, therefore, that the Portuguese could ever ac- 
 cept the draught of a treaty presented by Mr. Jerningham, unless 
 there had been previously made in it, great alterations, both in 
 principle and detail. But the declaration contained in the note 
 which accompanied the draught, imposed upon Her Majesty's Go- 
 vernment the duty of rejecting the treaty, in consequence of the 
 claim made upon it to accept it without any previous discussion. 
 It appears impossible that this result could have been otherwise than 
 foreseen by the British Government, when forwarding its instruc- 
 tions to its Charg^ d' Affaires. 
 
 The note which I sent to Mr. .Jerningham on the 6th Oct. 1838, 
 and which has been already published, is sufficiently explanatory 
 on this point; as it contains the following declaration — " that (the 
 *• Portuguese Government) was ready to sign the treaty agreed to 
 " with Lord Howard, and to make such modifications in the additi- 
 " onal Article as the interests of the two countries might require."(2) 
 
 It is to be observed, 1st. The communication to the Portuguese 
 Government of the Despatch of Lord Palmerston of the 12th May 
 1838, (containing unfounded and injurious accusations against Por- 
 tugal) was made at a time when the treaty was on the point of being 
 concluded. 2nd. The rejection of the treaty by the British Govern- 
 ment, after it had been negociated by its plenipotentiary. 3rd. The 
 declarations and requirements presented by Mr. Jerningham, which, 
 it was evident, could not be admitted. 
 
 From these facts it will be concluded, that the object of so extra- 
 ordinary a proceeding was to prevent the final conclusion of the 
 treaty, from certain views having no connection with it; it appears 
 also that it was attempted to throw discredit on the administration 
 which then conducted the affairs of Portugal, and which was con- 
 sidered by the English Minister then resident in Lisbon, to be hos- 
 tile to the interests of Great Britain; (3) an assertion without any 
 foundation, as was many times expressed to Lord Howard : since 
 the Portuguese Government has always considered the alliance of 
 Great Britain as most valuable, and as one which ought to be drawn 
 more closely by mutual convenience; which is that in which the 
 interests of both nations are equally and really attended to : as it 
 ought not to be viewed as an act of hostility, — that in 1837, the 
 trade of Great Britain in Portugal was placed on the same footing 
 as that of the most favoured nations: while the trade of Portugal 
 has ceased to enjoy any advantage in Great Britain since 1831,when 
 
 (1) Fide Note of Ctth October, 1838, from the Viscount de Sa da Bandeira to 
 Mr. Jerningham. 
 
 (2) Vide Document OS Officiaes, page 143. And Class B, page 320. Corres- 
 pondence, 1838-9. 
 
 (3) Vide Class B. [Further Series) p. 48, in the Despatch of I7th Feb. 1839, 
 from Lord Howard de Walden to Lord Palmerston.
 
 18 
 
 a Ministry, of which Lord Piilmerston formed part, raised the duties 
 on Portuguese wines, equalising them with those of France, (at the 
 same time that, according to treaties then in force, they ought to 
 have paid one-third less than those of that country;) without the 
 Portuguese Government being heard, or at least advised, on so im- 
 portant a measure. So contrary to justice was the measure consi- 
 dered, that it was observed in Parliament during the debate on this 
 question, as the reason why the British Government adopted this 
 course with respect to Portugal, " that Portugal is very weak, and 
 " we are very strong; and that therefore we may do as we like.". . ( I) 
 
 There does not exist a single fact which affords the slightest foun- 
 dation for the supposition, that the Portuguese Government has been 
 hostile to the interests of Great Britain ; though there are many 
 which, without any violence of construction, would lead us to at- 
 tribute to Lord Palmerston this spirit of hostility against the in- 
 terests of Portugal. 
 
 There have been in this country contests between political parties, 
 and the blood of Portuguese has unhappily been poured out in the 
 field of civil warfare; while the agents of the noble lord not only did 
 not interpose their good offices to restore peace and concord, which 
 would assuredly have been accepted with gratitude ; but they are 
 not altogether free from the suspicion of having taken a decided 
 and influential part in the events which led to those unhappy 
 conflicts. 
 
 The Orders in Council of Her Britannic Majesty, of the 10th of 
 May 1837, are also characteristic of the noble Lord, and of the ad- 
 ministration of which he forms a part. By these Orders, the ships, 
 and produce of Portugal, entering the ports of Great Britain, are 
 made to pay disproportionate discriminating duties, while the ships 
 and produce of Great Britain are placed on the same footing in the 
 ports of Portugal as those of the most favoured nations. 
 
 Another fact is, the claim made upon the Portuguese Govern- 
 ment for the immediate payment of the amount owing for the main- 
 tenance of the English Auxiliary Legion, which was lent to Portu- 
 gal in 1827 ; a sum which the noble Lord did not attempt to pro- 
 cure from the Government of Don Miguel. 
 
 Of the same kind are the greater part of the pecuniary claims of 
 British subjects, exacted by the noble Lord, which are devoid of 
 any just foundation, either in the treaties existing between the two 
 countries, or in the universal principles of the laws of nations ; in 
 addition to which, the noble Lord, without any previous consulta- 
 tion with the Portuguese Government, and, consequently, of his own 
 will, had decided upon some of the claims preferred, thus (as it 
 would seem) arrogating to himself the extraordinary power of im- 
 posing forced contributions on an independent and friendly state. 
 
 (1 ) The Mirror of Parliament, — Debates of the House of Commons, 1 1 ih July, 
 1831.
 
 19 
 
 Claims, such as many of these are, of sums not due or liquidated, 
 thus preremptorily exacted, resemble, if obtained, a veritable spoli- 
 ation, aggravated also by the knowledge which the noble Lord must 
 have of the exhausted state of the Portuguese finances. 
 
 If these and other facts furnish presumptive evidence of the noble 
 TiOrd's hostile spirit towards the interests of Portugal, his language 
 both in his official correspondence, and in his place in Parliament, 
 tends no less to give credit to the supposition ; language very dif- 
 ferent from that employed by the noble Lord in the parliamentary 
 debates occasioned by the capture of the English ship Vixefi, by the 
 Russian cruisers in the Black Sea; by the question of the territorial 
 boundaries of the LTnited States, and the British Province of New 
 Brunswick; and that between Great Britain and France respecting 
 the trade in Gum Copal on the coast of Africa, near to Portendic ; 
 in which debates he made use oFnone of that opprobrious language 
 towards the Governments with which England had disputes, as he 
 did in the case of Portugal. 
 
 In fact, it does not appear that the noble Lord has kept in view 
 the preservation of that spirit of mutual sympathy, friendship, and 
 benevolence, which for so many centuries has existed between Great 
 Britain and Portugal, cemented by long alliance and numerous 
 treaties, and manifested during many a stubborn fight, in which the 
 banners of the two countries have floated side by side with each 
 other. It would, nevertheless, be productive of much mutual benefit 
 that this spirit of friendship and benevolence should be preserved 
 and respected between the two nations. 
 
 The Government of Portugal was placed in the following dilemma 
 — either to accept, without discussion, the proposed treaty, dictated 
 by Lord Palmerston, to subscribe to conditions hurtful to Portugal, 
 and thus to incur disgrace with the Portuguese nation, — or, to reject 
 the treaty, and thus expose itself to loss of reputation in the eyes of 
 Great Britain and of the civilized world. 
 
 This is proved by the speech of Lord Palmerston, and by the dis- 
 patch which, under date of the loth February, 1839, (1) was for- 
 warded to him by Lord Howard, in wliich, referring to the hypo- 
 thesis of the treaty not being accepted, he mentions having informed 
 me . . . . " That Portugal would be denounced by all the civilized 
 " world, as the protection of Slave Traders, and the abettor of the 
 " Slave Trade ; that in the British Parliament the strongest measures 
 " adopted against Portugal would be hailed with acclamation, while 
 " speeches there pronounced, most injurious to the character of the 
 " Government and of the nation, would go forth to all parts of the 
 "world unanswered; that he and his friends might cry out and 
 " declaim against us in reply as much as they liked in the Cortes ; 
 " that nothing they said would be heard of or read out of Portugal." 
 
 (1) Vide Class B. {Further Series) pag. 48. 
 
 D
 
 20 
 
 These threats were realized by the speeches of liord Palmerston 
 and others. 
 
 Lord Howard de Walden, after his return to Lisbon, had several 
 conferences with me, in which the negotiations were continued for 
 the suppression of the Slave Trade, and a few extracts of what passed 
 at these conferences, taken from the correspondence of Lord Howard 
 with Lord Palmerston, (1) will also show that the Portuguese Go- 
 vernment was ready to sign the treaty previously negotiated. 
 
 On the 26fh N'ovember the British Plenipotentiary wrote that he 
 had had a conference with me, and that I, evincing a strong repug- 
 nance to the proposed treaty presented by Mr. Jerningham, declared 
 to him my " readiness to conclude a treaty for the object of rendering 
 " the abolition of the Slave Trade effective, but added, that it must 
 " however be such as was suitable to the dignity of the nation. He 
 " then declared his willingness to sign the treaty in the shape it was 
 " left by me in May last, abandoning for the present the proposed ad- 
 " ditional or secret Article, leaving this object to be treated apart." 
 
 On the \st December, the noble Lord wrote that he had a confer- 
 ence with me, and that on proposing to enter into an examination 
 of the treaty presented by Mr. Jerningham, I objected to doing so, 
 stating that I " was ready to renew the negociation on the project 
 " of treaty, as it stood on his departure for Lisbon ; but that, in 
 " consequnce of the declaration, in the name of Her Majesty's Go- 
 " vernment, with which the last project had been accompanied, it 
 " was impossible for me to negotiate upon the latter." (2) 
 
 On the 24th January, 1839, the same Minister wrote to his Govern- 
 ment, that he had Informed me that " he had no authority to make 
 " any concesssion whatever on the last points of difference." (3) 
 
 On the 2]st Febi-uary, referring to a conference with me, he wrote 
 thus : " His Excellency then said that, to prove his anxious desire to 
 " bring to a termination all such differences as had been referred to, 
 " he had considered how the main difficulties in the way of the con- 
 " elusion of a suitable treaty for the suppression of the Slave Trade 
 " could be brought about, and he showed me some notes he had 
 " made on the various principal points. The proposed guarantee of 
 " the safety of the colonial possessions, required by Portugal, to be 
 " reduced to a general engagement of naval assistance, from the 
 
 *' Cape of Good Hope, to be afforded in case of emergency 
 
 " The Viscount de Sas counter project (that which was signed by 
 " Lord Howard) to be admitted as the basis." (4) 
 
 (1 ) Vide Class B. pag. 331,2. 
 
 (2) Ibid, Class B. pag 335. 
 
 (3) Ibid, Class B. {Further Series) p. 40. 
 
 (4) Vide Class B. {Further Series) p. .'>3-4.
 
 21 
 
 And he adds, " On reading; these memoranda, I at once told the 
 " Viscount de Sfi, tliat such propositions were utterly inadmissible; 
 " that I could not now open any fresh negotiation as to terms;. . . . 
 " that I could make no alteration in the i)roject which had been 
 "submitted to the Portuguese (Government; and that, if a treaty 
 " was to be signed by me, it must be in strict conformity to the draft 
 " in his Excellency's possession." ( 1 ) 
 
 These facts render it evident — 
 
 1. That at the time when I held the Office of Secretary of State 
 for Foreign Affairs, the Portuguese Government was prepared to 
 sign the treaty negotiated between me and Lord Howard ; to modify 
 that treaty, and even to set aside the additional article, to be dis- 
 cussed separately, after the treaty should have been concluded. 
 
 The same disposition existed also in the administration of the 
 Baron da Ribeira de Sabrosa, as appears by the papers which have 
 been published. 
 
 2. That Lord Howard not only did not accept that proposition, 
 but declared most positively that he would not sign any treaty which 
 was not in strict conformity with the draft sent from London, and 
 drawn up there. 
 
 It appears a necessary deduction from all this, that the British 
 Government had no desire to conclude the treaty. Without staying 
 to inquire into the motives for such a proceeding, I may here state, 
 that the non-conclusion of the treaty has already furnished a pretext 
 for the British Government to legislate for the subjects of Portugal. 
 Time must show by what other motives the noble Secretary of Slate 
 was actuated, w hen in the same Parliament, he made use of that 
 pretext to endeavour to render the Portuguese nation and Govern- 
 ment odious in the eyes of the civilized world. 
 
 In the despatch already cited, of the 21st February, 1839, ad- 
 dressed to Lord Palmerston by Lord Howard de Walden, he 
 says (2) 
 
 " In concluding my report on the long conversations I have had 
 " lately with the Viscount de S4 da Bandeira, I think it right to 
 " state, that I look upon them as entirely without any practical re- 
 " suit, as I consider his Excellency to be controlled by some over- 
 " whelming influence." 
 
 The noble Lord at various times wrote in the same strain, and on 
 one occasion he said, that the non-conclusion of the treaty was ow- 
 ing to my deference to . ..." the interest taken in the continu- 
 ance of the Slave Trade by some of my political adherents." (3) 
 
 (1) Ibid, Class B. {Further Series) p. 54. 
 
 (2) Ibid, Class tt. [Further Series) p. 54. 
 
 (3) Vide Class B, page 337
 
 22 
 
 In another despatch he expresses himself thus: " I do not attri- 
 " bute to the Viscount de Sd da Bandeira the desire to protect the 
 " Slave Trade : as 1 believe him to be impressed with a high idea 
 "of the value and resources of the African colonies of Portugal; 
 " and that, if well directed, on the abolition of the depopulating 
 " system of exportation of negroes, they might be made to replace 
 " to the mother country the loss of the Brazils. I am however con- 
 " vinced, that delay is now the object of Viscount de Sa, in order 
 " to relieve himself from daily persecution from those who, through 
 " active intrigue, are opposing the abolition of the Slave Trade ; 
 " and that he thinks he can in some measure conciliate certain par- 
 " ties, whom he looks upon as still important politically, by al- 
 " lowing them a somewhat longer period for their transactions, pre- 
 " vious to cutting off the source of extensive advantages to them, the 
 " loss of which might provoke vindictive hostility, inconvenient to 
 " the Government during the ensuing elections." (I) 
 
 This idea was also expressed to me personally, by Lord Howard, 
 on more than one occasion ; to which I replied that no one had 
 ever said a single word to me during our negociation, either for or 
 against the subject; that I was not acquainted with an individu- 
 al in Portugal, who was engaged in the trade ; that even the Bri- 
 tish Government, which had been so strongly solicited to forward 
 accusations to the Portuguese Government against certain persons 
 in its employment out of Portugal, had not till then manifested any 
 suspicion on such grounds, against any individual resident in 
 Portugal. 
 
 That the only suspicion manifested by the British Government 
 had reference to a Society which appeared to exist among some 
 foreign persons, established in Lisbon and elsewhere. 
 
 And that therefore, whatever had been said in that respect, either 
 to Lord Howard, or to Lord Palmerston, was false: as would be 
 evident to both of them, if they reflected on what 1 had done against 
 the Slave Trade, and that there had never been a minister of the 
 Crown in Portugal, who hud more perseveringly opposed it than I 
 had done. And I remarked, as a proof that I had no intentions in 
 favor of the dealers in slaves, that in 1835 I proposed in the Cham- 
 ber of Peers, of which I was a member, the total abolition of the 
 Slave Trade. 
 
 That while minister, in 1836, I proposed the decree of the 10 De- 
 cember, imposing severe penalties on slave dealers, to which her 
 Majesty the Queen was pleased to affix her royal signature, and 
 which was countersigned by all the ministers. 
 
 That I had also myself recommended to the Portuguese Consuls, 
 and to the Governors of Colonies, the literal execution of the decree 
 
 (2) Vide Class li, page 183.
 
 23 
 
 of the 16th January, 1837, which defines what vessels were to be 
 considered Portuguese. 
 
 That it was by the Office of the Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs, over which I presided, that the Portuguese Consul at the 
 Havana had been dismissed, and the exequator of the Danish Con- 
 sul at Cape Verd withdrawn, in consequence of their having con- 
 nived at that infamous traffic. 
 
 That it was myself who had issued the most positive instructions 
 to the Commanders of the Portuguese men-of-war for the strict exe- 
 cution of the decree of the 10th December, 183<), from which result- 
 ed the capture of seven or eight vessels suspected of being engaged 
 in the trade, and the condemnation of several of them, in conformi- 
 ty to the said decree. 
 
 That it was by the Office of the Secretary of State for Marine, also 
 under my charge, the Governor-General of Angola had been dis- 
 missed und put on his trial, with other employes of the government, 
 suspected of conniving at the same trade. 
 
 That the same department prohibited the very ancient practice 
 in Angola, of obliging free negroes to transport into the interior of 
 Africa the goods of the merchants, which were destined by these 
 latter to be exchanged for slaves ; a prohibition which persons 
 practically acquainted with Angola consider much more efficacious 
 for the abolition of the trade than the employment of numerous 
 cruisers on the coast of that country. 
 
 And finally, that in addition to all this, I had concurred in the 
 nomination, as Governors of the African colonies, of functionaries 
 who would execute with zeal the orders of Government for the sup- 
 pression of the trade. 
 
 All these proceedings were the consequence of my own opinions 
 relative to the traffic; opinions which are stated in many official 
 documents, and, among others, in the report prefixed to the decree 
 of the 10th December 1836, from which it will suffice to extract the 
 following quotation. 
 
 " That in her African possessions, Portugal may raise in great 
 " abundance all those productions termed colonial, at a less cost 
 " than they can be produced in America, inasmuch as the African 
 " cultivator will not be under the necessity of purchasing labourers 
 " transported from the other side of the Atlantic. That great results 
 " may be accomplished within a few years; but that in order to ob- 
 " tain these, it is necessary to reform the colonial legislation, and 
 " that as an indispensible preliminary to all other measures, Ministers 
 " propose for the sanction of Her Majesty, the Queen, the decree 
 "for the total and complete abolition of the Slave Trade in the Portu- 
 " gtiese dominions." 
 
 T will also add, that the speech from the throne, on the opening of 
 the Cortes, in December, 1838, (I being then President of the Coun- 
 cil) mentioned the expediency of treaties for the abolition of the Slave
 
 24 
 
 Trade, which sentiment was responded to by each of the Chambers ; 
 and the debate which took place therein on this subject was re- 
 marked upon to his Government by the British Minister at this 
 Court, on the 15th of February, 1839, as having been " creditable 
 and satisfactory." ( I ) 
 
 Now, after having- affirmed most positively to Lord Howard, that 
 no one, either directly or indirectly, had any influence over the 
 pending negotiation of the treaty, had his Lordship considered the 
 perfect agreement which existed between my actions and my words 
 — had he reflected that all the many spontaneous measures, not 
 thought of, or solicited by the British Government, which had been 
 adopted by me against the Slave Trade, were directly hostile to the 
 persons engaged in it, and that the latter would, for that very reason, 
 be opposed to me — finally, had he considered attentively, and with- 
 out prejudice, all the circumstances of this affair, with which he 
 ought to be perfectly acquainted — it was certainly to be expected, 
 and would be proper and just, that his Lordship, setting aside all 
 suggestions of passion, would give due credit to my assertions, and 
 at least not have allowed himself to be so easily betrayed into the 
 fault of transmitting to his Government erroneous information on so 
 important a point, pledging his own conviction to persuade it that 
 the negotiations had been influenced by persons interested in the 
 Slave Trade, 
 
 It is certainly very remarkable that the noble lord, in his corres- 
 pondence, should make so many efforts to persuade his government 
 of the existence of a cause, which never, in the most remote degree, 
 existed ; and which, had it been real, would reflect odium and dis- 
 credit on the Portuguese Government, and particularly on the Mi- 
 nister with whom he was treating. And if the noble Lord had at 
 that time, or has had since I quitted the administration, a single 
 proof of the truth of the information on this head which he trans- 
 mitted to his Government, I call upon him to produce it. I feel 
 assured that he cannot do so, any more than he can deny the fact of 
 having given that information. 
 
 Assuredly those persons will not require to imagine extraneous 
 influences, as the principal motive for not concluding a treaty in the 
 manner last required by the British Government, who reflect on the 
 pertinacity of that Government in insisting on conditions, which, 
 while they were not necessary for the efficiency of the treaty, were 
 nevertheless highly injurious to the interests of Portugal, (1) and 
 who, at the same time, consider the manner in which they were pre- 
 sented to the Portuguese Government. How could I, who for thirty 
 years have been engaged in the service of my country, and who have 
 shed my blood in contending for her independence against a foreign 
 
 (1) Vide Class B, [Further Series) page 47. 
 
 (1) Vide Note, 6 October 1838, directed to Mr, Jerningham : Docnmentos 
 Officiaes, page 123.
 
 25 
 
 yoke, and in the defence of her civil liberty, and the cause of her le- 
 gitimate sovereigns, subscribe with the only hand I have left, a 
 diploma prejudicial to the interests of my country, and derogatory 
 to the dignity of the Crown of Her Majesty the Queen. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Notwithstanding the repeated declarations of the Portuguese Go- 
 vernment, that it was prepared to si^n the treaty agreed upon at 
 Lisbon by the British Plenipotentiary, and to leave to a separate ne- 
 gotiation the additional article. Lord Palmerston thought proper to 
 propose to Parliament a Bill for submitting to the jurisdiction of Bri- 
 tish Courts, all vessels sailing under the Portuguese flag, and ivith Por- 
 tuguese papers, which should be suspected of engaging in the Slave 
 Trade; and also those vessels which should be found sailing without 
 flag or without papers ; or, lastly, which should refuse to exhibit 
 them to the British men of war, when visited by these latter. 
 
 Before, however, I enter upon the examination of the speech deliv- 
 ered by Lord Palmerston, in Parliament, in support of his Bill, [ 
 will observe that the state in which the question then stood, which 
 was pending between the Portuguese Government and that of Great 
 Britain, was as follows: — 
 
 The British Government refused to ratify the treaty which had 
 been negotiated by its Plenipotentiary, in May, 1838. It claimed 
 to substitute for it another treaty, dictated by itself, and containing 
 stipulations exceedingly injurious to Portugal, requiring it to be 
 signed without alteration or delay by the Portuguese Government ; 
 and declaring that in the event of the latter not acquiescing therein, 
 the Government of Great Britain would act upon its own interpreta- 
 tion of the treaties of 1815 and 1817. (2) 
 
 The Portuguese Government replied, that it was prepared to sign 
 the treaty agreed upon in May, 1838, between the Plenipotentiaries 
 of Portugal and Great Britain. That it could not, and ought not to 
 accept the treaty drawn up in London, which was being presented 
 to it ; not only because that treaty contained stipulations contrary 
 to the interests of Portugal, but also because it had not been dis- 
 cussed by the Portuguese Government, and especially on accou»t 
 of the peremptory manner in which its acceptation had been de- 
 manded. That as to the interpretation of the treaty of 1815, and 
 of the additional Convention of 1817, that interpretation was clearly 
 defined by the separate article of the 1 1th September, 1817, which 
 determined that the said Convention, which related exclusively to 
 the trade north of the Equator, should " remain in force until the 
 
 (2) Vide the same Xote of October 6, 1838: Docnmetiios Offieiaes, page MZ.
 
 26 
 
 *' expiration of fifteen years, from the day on which the general 
 " abolition of the Slave Trade shall so take place, on the part of the 
 " Portuguese Government; in case no other arrangement, adapted 
 " to the altered state of circumstances, shall have been agreed to by 
 " common consent." (1) 
 
 That this case has occurred, 1st. because the Portuguese Govern- 
 ment on the loth December 1836, had decreed the total abolition 
 of the Slave Trade. 2nd. because the Government of Great Britain 
 had refused to come to a common accord in not ratifying the Treaty 
 negociated b^ its plenipotentiary. And, consequently, that what- 
 ever violent measures might be adopted by the Bi-itish Government, 
 would not be justified either by right, by reason, nor by necessity. 
 
 Lord Palmerston, in his capacity of Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
 brought his Bill into Parliament on the 10th July last, ( 1839) pre- 
 ceded by a preamble which, as I have already said, contained the 
 most serious, unfounded, and injurious accusations against Portu- 
 gal and her Government. But as this Bill was thrown out by the 
 House of Lords, the said minister thought proper to bi'ing it in 
 afresh, slightly altering the preamble, and introducing it with a 
 long speech, in which he endeavoured to show the urgent necessity 
 which existed for the adoption of the measure. 
 
 In effect, after some amendments, the measure was adopted, and 
 is now the law of Great Britain. 
 
 Comparing the preamble of the first Bill with the speech of the 
 noble Lord, it is easy to see that the arguments contained in the 
 preamble, and by which he attempted to give an evidently false in ■ 
 terpretation to tlie treaties, were not only repeated in the speech, 
 but also augmented by a great number of fresh aspersions and im- 
 putations against the said Government. So that the analysis of the 
 speech of Lord Palmerston, will by implication, include that of the 
 preamble of his first Bill. 
 
 The noble Lord commenced by saying, " that Portugal is bound 
 " by different treaties with this country to abolish her Slave Trade 
 " — not only to co-operate with us in that abolition, but to use all 
 " the means in her own power to accomplish that purpose." (2) 
 
 Respecting the Slave Trade, there are now in force between Por- 
 tugal and Great Britain the Treaty of 1815, the additional Conven- 
 tion of 1817, and the Separate article of the 1 1th September of the 
 last year. 
 
 I shall enter into an examination of the conditions of these trea- 
 ties, because in notes, published through the press, which on the 
 22nd May, and 6th October, 1838; I addressed to Lord Howard de 
 Walden, in reply to other notes of his; and also in that which the 
 
 (1) Hertslet's Complete Collection of the Treaties and Conventions, London, 
 1820, Vol. 2.2}aijv 73 to 123. 
 
 (2) Vide, The Mornintj C/irimicle, August 8, 1839, — And The Mirror of Par- 
 liament, 1839, Vol, (i. House of Commons, ylugust 8, 1839.
 
 27 
 
 Baron da Ribeira de Sabrosa sent to the same noble Lord, on the 
 I Jth September last, the interpretation of those conditions is treated 
 of at length, refuting at the same time, the assertions and preten- 
 sions contained in the notes of the same noble lord. I will, however, 
 remark, that the separate article of the 11th September, is the last 
 stipulation agreed upon between Portugal and Great Britain; and 
 that therefore, as has been already said, the said treaty and Con- 
 vention ought, according to the 8aid article, to continue in force for 
 the space of fifteen years (but only to the north of the Equator) 
 reckoned from the time when the Slave Trade was abolished by 
 Portugal. 
 
 Lord Palmerston says " we gave her money, which, by her own 
 " admission, amounted to nearly half a million ; beyond that, we 
 " paid to Portuguese owners for the loss of their slave ships up- 
 
 " wards of £300,000, as compensation money as the pnce for 
 
 " her abolishing the Slave Trade The Treaties of 1715, and 
 
 "1817, contained engagements most stringent and complete upon 
 " this subject." (1) 
 
 The Portuguese Government has already given an official answer 
 to this assertion ; but as the noble Lord still persists in it, I will 
 here give what is set forth in the Treaties. 
 
 [n that of 1815, Art. 4. it is stated, " the high contracting parties 
 " reserve to themselves, and engage to determine by a separate 
 " Treaty, the period at which the Trade in Slaves shall universally 
 " cease, and be prohibited throughout the entire dominions of 
 "Portugal." (2) 
 
 And by the separate Article of 1817, it was stipulated that, "As 
 " soon as the total abolition of the Slave Trade for the subjects of the 
 " crown of Portugal shall have taken place, the two high contracting 
 " parties hereby agree, by common consent, to adapt to that state of 
 " circumstances, the stipulations of the additional Convention, con- 
 ** eluded at London, the 28th of July last." 
 
 And in the same Article an arrangement was made that " in de- 
 " fault of such alterations, the Additional Convention shall remain 
 "in force." (3) 
 
 Thus the affair stood exactly in the posilion contemplated by the 
 separate article, when Lord Palmerston brought forward his Bill; 
 since the British Gocernment had not consented to the arrangement 
 agreed to by its Minister Plenipotentiary with the Minister Plenipo- 
 tentiary of Portugal. 
 
 The £300,000 mentioned by Lord Palmerston, were intended by 
 the Treaty, as an indemnification for the losses sustained by Portu- 
 guese subjects in consequence of the capture of their vessels by 
 British men-of-war. 
 
 (1) The Mirror, ibid, August 8, 1839. 
 
 (2) Vide Herislets' , ibid. 
 
 (3) Ibid.
 
 28 
 
 The Treaty of alliance of 1810 gave no right of search or capture 
 to the ships of war of Great Britain, over the merchant vessels of 
 Portugal; and yet between that year and 1814, the spoliations 
 committed upon the trade of Portugal by the British navy exceeded 
 3,000,000 cruzados. And this was done even at a time when Por- 
 tugal and Spain were the only allies of Great Britain; and when 
 the Portuguese army was fighting in the Peninsula, and subse- 
 quently beyond the Pyrenees, for the independence of England and 
 her political ascendancy. 
 
 It is surprising therefore that the noble Lord should endeavour to 
 make that appear as a favor granted to Portugal, which was scarcely 
 a scanty reparation of the losses and injuries unjustly inflicted up- 
 on Portuguese subjects by those in the employ of Great Britain. 
 
 As to saying that Portugal admitted having received " nearly 
 half a million sterling as the price of the abolition of the trade," the 
 noble Lord, when he made such an assertion, certainly forgot that 
 Portugal never did, nor could make such an admission ; since the 
 5th Article of the Treaty of 1815, in virtue of which the British Go- 
 vernment remitted the payment of the instalment which yet remained 
 to be made by Portugal, in liquidation of the loan contracted in 
 London by the Convention of the 21st April, 1809, (destined prin- 
 cipally for the purchase of warlike stores to be employed in the de- 
 fence of Portugal against the French ; in which defence was at that 
 time included that of Great Britain) makes especial reference to the 
 1st article of the said Treaty, " by which the subjects of Portugal 
 were prohibited from continuing the Slave Trade to the north of 
 the Equalor." 
 
 The British Government, in consenting to annul the said Conven- 
 tion, and in remitting the payment of nearly £450,000 sterling, was 
 actuated principally by two motives. 
 
 The first was the consideration of the prejudice sustained by the 
 Portuguese by the abolition of the trade north of the Equator, 
 and the immediate diminution which would be thereby occasioned 
 in the Portuguese Customs, both in Africa, whence the Slaves were 
 exported, and in Brazil, where they were imported — a consideration 
 analogous to that which existed in the case of Spain in the Treaty 
 of 1817, by which Great Britain consented to pay that power the 
 sum of £400,000 sterling, " as a full compensation for all losses tvhich 
 " are a necessary consequence of the abolition of the said traffic." (1) 
 
 The second and principal motive of the British Government, was 
 the consideration of the reparation and indemnification which, in 
 strict justice, was due to Portugal, for having by its own act, and 
 without tlie consent of the Portuguese Government, ceded to France 
 by the Treaty of Paris in 1814, French Guyana, which had been 
 conquered and was under the dominion of the Portuguese Crown ; 
 
 (1) Hertslets" ibid, Treaty September 23, 1817, Art. 3, and 4.
 
 29 
 
 and this, at the same time that Euyland retained and kept in her 
 own possession part of Dutch Guyana, and many other colonies 
 which she conquered during the war; as, for instance, the Cape of 
 Good Hope, Ceylon, the Ionian Islands, Malta, Heligoland, Saint 
 Lucia, the Mauritius, &c., &c., &c.. 
 
 In neither of the articles of the treaties of 1815, and 1817, is it to 
 be found that Portugal received any sum whatever as the price of 
 thefulure abolition of the Slave Trade. There is, therefore, no foun- 
 dation for the injurious assertion, so frequently reiterated by Lord 
 Palmerston, that Portugal had received the price of her co-operation 
 in that object. 
 
 The noble Secretary of State further asserted " that Portugal had 
 
 " not fulfilled her engagements that there is no instance in 
 
 " history of such a flagrant breach of faith, as that committed by 
 " Portugal towards this country with regard to the Slave Trade. " 
 
 The arguments which he advanced in support of this assertion 
 are the following : 1st. that " instead of suppressing the Slave 
 " Trade, and abolishing it, she (Portugal) encourages it." 
 
 2nd. That " she not only connives at it by her officers, but the 
 " authorities actually lend themselves to it, thrive by it, make for- 
 " tunes by it, enrich themselves by it." 
 
 3rd. That the Slave Traders " form parties of an influence which 
 " controls and overrules the Government at Lisbon ;" and that *' by 
 " this slave trading faction, the Government of Portugal has been 
 " prevented from acceding to the Treaties which we have pro- 
 " posed." ( I ) 
 
 An examination of each of these arguments, or rather iniquitous 
 assumptions, will furnish the strongest evidence that they are alto- 
 gether illusory and destitute of truth. 
 
 The acts of the Portuguese Government in abolishing the Slave 
 Trade ; in prohibiting the fraudulent use of the Portuguese flag by 
 Slave ships; in issuing instructions to the Governors of its Afri- 
 can colonies, and to the Commanders of its ships of war, to carry 
 those decrees into execution (which they have done) ; are evidences 
 that the accusation " that Portugal encourages the Slave Trade, in- 
 " stead of suppressing it," is contradicted by facts, and is without 
 even the semblance of reality. 
 
 The second assumption " that Portugal, by her officers, connives 
 at the traffic," is destroyed, both by what has been said with respect 
 to the former, and also by other facts within the knowledge of the 
 noble Lord, and already cited in another part of this work ; as, for 
 instance, the dismissal of the Portuguese Consul at the Havannah, 
 and the dismissal and prosecution of a Governor of Angola, and 
 other employes, for having connived at the Slave Trade. 
 
 (1) The Mirror, ibid, August 8, 1839.
 
 30 
 
 The second assumption therefore is destitute of truth. 
 
 The Portuguese Government on this point did .ill that was in- 
 cumbent upon it, according to its own laws; and it cannot be held 
 responsible, nor justly accused, because a contraband traffic in 
 slaves is carried on under the Portuguese flag. — And is the British 
 Government responsible because the smugglers of Gibraltar pass 
 the straits and go and land prohibited goods on the coast of Algar- 
 ve, and other parts of Portugal, as they do also in Spain ^ Or be- 
 cause those of the Ionian Islands, Heligoland, Jersey, and Guern- 
 sey, pursue the same course on the coasts of the neighbouring 
 countries ? 
 
 The third assumption advanced by the noble Lord is " that the 
 " slave trading faction overrules and sways the Government of Por- 
 " tugal," and that for this cause " it has been prevented from ac- 
 " ceding to the treaties proposed by the noble Lord." 
 
 In order to prefer with truth an accusation so injurious to the 
 Portuguese Government, the noble Lord ought to have been in pos- 
 session of incontrovertible proofs, or not having them, he should 
 have confined himself entirely to the information derived from his 
 delegate at Lisbon — who in effect, thus affirmed it (1 ). This latter, 
 however, was not in possession of a single fact on which to found 
 the opinion he had conceived that those engaged in the Slave Trade 
 had any influence over the Government, either directly or even in- 
 directly; and if he had proofs of this, it was his duty to produce 
 them ; and that of his minister to require them in support of an 
 accusation so offensive, and which he could not be ignorant was 
 completely at variance with the truth. 
 
 But the fact is, that if there exists in Lisbon a faction, such as 
 that alluded to by the representative of Great Britain, this faction 
 (known only to himselfj possesses no influence over the acts of the 
 Government; as is evident on the slightest reflection, from the re- 
 peated and severe measures, already referred to, which have been 
 adopted by the Portuguese Government for the complete cessation 
 under every form, of the Slave Trade. 
 
 Assuredly it would be the height of absurdity to suppose, that a 
 faction favourable to the trade, or interested therein, controlled the 
 Government; and that the latter, at the same time, abolished the 
 traffic, imposed rigorous penalties on the traders, punished those 
 who were found guilty of engaging in this infamous traffic, and 
 adopted the numerous precautions already mentioned for carrying 
 the decreed abolition into effect; so that Brazilian vessels arriving 
 at Angola for the purpose of taking slaves, have been obliged to 
 return without a cargo ; as is shown by the following extract from a 
 newspaper published at Rio de Janeiro, of the 9th July 1839, (2) 
 
 (1) Vide rarliamenlary Papers atreadij cited. 
 
 (2) JJesjiertador.
 
 31 
 
 " Angola Slave Trade — The Brig Saudade, arrived this day from 
 " Loanda, brings letters from that city of a very recent date, (of last 
 "month) the contents of which have been communicated to us, and 
 " agree that the new governor is decidedly hostile to the Slave Trade, 
 " to such a degree, that any attempt to engage in it, is now very dif- 
 " ficult and hazardous." This is conBrmed by the subsequent cor- 
 respondence from Rio, of the 20th October, published in a London 
 Journal (1) which states that "the Portuguese Government had 
 " issued some ))eremptory instructions to the authorities there, and 
 " on the coast of Africa, which for the present had paralyzed the 
 " trade ; so much so, that for the last two months there had been 
 " only three arrivals of slavers." 
 
 It was certainly to be supposed that the Vice Admiral Noronha, 
 acted in conformity to the spirit of the instructions which he had 
 received from his Government, in accepting the co-operation in 
 putting down the trade, which had been offered him by W. Tucker, 
 the official Commander of the British naval forces in that quarter; 
 and in making with him on the 29th May, 1839, a convention, in 
 which the said British Commander acknowledged that the Go- 
 vernor-General had at his disposal sufficient means, furnished by the 
 Portuguese Government, for the suppression of the Trade. And these 
 facts occurred two months before Lord Palmerston asserted in the 
 British Parliament that Portugal encouraged the trade in every part 
 of the world ! 
 
 And supposing that the British Government did not think proper 
 to sanction this Convention, as was done by that of Portugal, — sup- 
 posing that, in contravention of what had been stipulated therein, 
 the Commander of a vessel belonging to the force under the com- 
 mand of the very officer who had proposed and adjusted it, sunk 
 two Portuguese vessels, which he had seized in the river Zaire, even 
 aggravating the flagrance of this act by the insolent outrage of 
 causing the Portuguese flag to be hoisted on board one of the ves- 
 sels which by firing upon her, he sent to the bottom, — (2) notwith- 
 standing this, that Convention does not the less prove the spirit by 
 which Portugal was actuated in her part of the transaction ; as also 
 the attack made upon her by the British Government would appear 
 to show that this latter is not animated by sentiments of justice 
 and conciliation. 
 
 The noble Secretary of State ought not to attribute the non-ac- 
 ceptance of the treaty dictated by his cabinet, and which he re- 
 quired to be signed without discussion, or modification, to any 
 other party than the Portuguese Government, whose organ he took 
 me to be at that time. 
 
 It has been long known as my opinion, that the suppression of 
 the Slave Trade was imperiously required by the present civilization 
 
 (1) The Times, December 16, 1839. 
 
 (2) Diario do Govenio, December 11, 1839.
 
 32 
 
 of Europe, and an indispensable preliminary to the future civiliza- 
 tion of Africa, and not less so to the Portuguese Colonies in that 
 part of the world becoming useful to the Mother Country; since it 
 will be only after the abolition of that trade, which has hitherto 
 depopulated and rendered them unproductive, that those Colonies 
 can become agricultural, and be the means of creating an important 
 commerce, truly Portuguese, in the place of that which has been 
 carried on by the slave-ships, in which Portugal has had scarcely 
 any concern, beyond the fraudulent assumption of her flag. 
 
 Having had the honor to be called to her councils by her Majesty 
 the Queen, I was in a position to ask and obtain the royal sanction 
 to numerous measures, which have been for the most part published, 
 having for their object the suppression of the traffic, and to promote 
 the developement of the industry^ agriculture, lawful commerce and 
 civilization of those Colonies. 
 
 As treaties between the Maritime Powers, for the suppression of 
 the Slave Trade would tend (though, as 1 have already said, not to 
 the extent anticipated) to accomplish that object, the conclusion of 
 such a treaty is consequently in accordance with my opinions and 
 ■with my acts. And as Great Britain does and can employ a greater 
 force than any other nation in putting down that traffic, it is with 
 that power that it is most expedient to enter into treaties for the 
 suppression of that unlawful commerce. 
 
 A treaty for that purpose was negociated by me in 1838, with the 
 British Plenipotentiary, who, as before stated, wrote on the 7th May 
 in the same year to Lord Palmerston," that no principle remained to 
 be discussed or contested by the Viscount S4 da Bandeira." ( 1 ) And 
 at the end of the same month, the said Plenipotentiary presented in 
 person to his government, a copy of the treaty which he had nego- 
 ciated with me; a treaty, which I again repeat, the Portuguese Go- 
 vernment had many times declared itself ready and willing to sign. 
 
 In the face of such facts, with which the noble lord ought to have 
 been perfectly acquainted, how could he assert in his place in Par- 
 liament, that the Portuguese Government was ruled by a faction of 
 slave-dealers, who prevented it from making the treaty ? 
 
 It is true that this was asserted to the noble lord by the British 
 Plenipotentiary at Lisbon; (2) who, from the especial attention 
 which he paid to the political events which had taken place in Por- 
 tugal since 1836, and from his intimate knowledge of them, was in 
 a position to know that no faction, whatever might be its political 
 composition, had ever interfered, or possessed any influence in the 
 affairs committed to my charge: and the said Plenipotentiary may 
 almost be cited as a witness, that neither hostility in the open field, 
 nor the dagger of the assassin, would cause me to deviate from the 
 path which, after these events, I had deemed it my duty to pursue. 
 
 (1) Class B, 1S3Q- 9, page \82. 
 
 (2) Vide Parliamentary Papers already cited.
 
 :i3 
 
 It is therefore evident, that the real facts were totally contrary to 
 the representations made of them in the British Parliament, But 
 even had that representation been true, it would have conferred no 
 legitimate right on the British Government to proceed according to 
 the proposition of the noble lord. 
 
 The Portuguese Government cannot, and ought not, to be cen- 
 sured, because Lord Palmerston was pleased to set aside the labours 
 which had been performed, and the stipulations already agreed to 
 by the British Plenipotentiary, in order to substitute others in their 
 place, prepared in his cabinet, and presented to the Portuguese 
 Government with the arrogant intimation, that they were to be ac- 
 cepted without discussion, without alteration, and without delay ; to 
 be embodied in a treaty, and to become law for the subjects of 
 Portugal. 
 
 With the noble lord therefore, and with him alone, rests the res- 
 ponsibility of having prevented the conclusion of the treaty, by at- 
 tempting to impose conditions to which, as his Excellency had rea- 
 son to expect, the Portuguese Government could not consent. 
 
 And because the Portuguese Government would not consent to 
 subscribe to its own dishonour, and to betray its duty, by recog- 
 nising, in fact, that the British Government might impose a treaty 
 on Portugal containing stipulations highly injurious to her interests, 
 (thus renouncing her independence) the noble lord employed to- 
 wards a friendly nation the language of insult and invective, and 
 proposes unjust and violent measures against her ! ! ! 
 
 Were I to attempt to follow the example of the noble Secretary 
 of State, when he created in his own imagination the motives to 
 which he attributed the conduct of Portugal, I might also say, and 
 I should not be at a loss for facts in support of the assertion, that 
 his behaviour in this negociation was intended to render it impossi- 
 ble to agree upon a treaty, in order to have a pretext — plausible in 
 appearance — for railing at the Portuguese Government, from mo- 
 tives foreign to the negociation (which I shall be excused from men- 
 tioning here) in order, from the same motives, to inflict a species of 
 vengeance, without the evidence of injustice and oppression raising 
 a clamour in the civilized world, in Great Britain, and in Parlia- 
 ment, against the proceedings of the noble lord ; to establish a pre- 
 cedent, fruitful in its consequences, for the British Government, by 
 means of Parliament, to legislate for the subjects of Powers inde- 
 pendent of the Crown of Great Britain ; and, lastly, to obtain, as 
 it was hoped, on a government measure, a unanimous vote of the 
 two Houses of Parliament ; which would have been the more agree- 
 able, as during the session the ministerial majorities had been very 
 insignificant. 
 
 I have already said, and T now repeat, that on rejecting the treaty 
 drawn up in London, I oftered to sign the treaty which had been 
 adjusted with Lord Howard, leaving the additional article for a se- 
 parate negociation. It is therefore evident, that the Portuguese 
 Government was ready to conclude with Great Britain a new treaty
 
 34 
 
 for the suppression of the Slave Trade, which should be in harmony 
 with existing circumstances. 
 
 But the Treaty presented by Mr. Jerningham, could not as I 
 have already said, be accepted by the Portuguese Government, even 
 supposing it had been presented in the usual diplomatic manner, 
 without many of the conditions which it contained being first ex- 
 punged, and many others inserted, which had already being dis- 
 cussed and agreed upon with Lord Howard. ( 1 ) 
 
 It contained, for example, 1st. a complication of clauses which, 
 if admitted, would quickly ruin the lawful trade and navigation of 
 the Portuguese dominions in Africa, and give to the Commanders 
 of the British cruisers the power of harassing the said commerce 
 and navigation, as also the Portuguese colonies in that part of the 
 world ; which has already been frequently done by the said Com- 
 manders, although such a course is expressly prohibited by existing 
 Treaties. 
 
 2nd. The perpetuity of the Treaty in all its conditions, which 
 was another requirement of the British Government. 
 
 Portugal, by Art. 1, of the Treaty negociated with Lord Howard 
 de Walden, had consented that the Slave Trade should be for ever 
 abolished, for the subjects of Portugal, in all parts of the world ; but 
 she ought not to renounce the right to require its revision at the ex- 
 piration of a certain period, and to suspend any condition, which, 
 without prejudice to the principle of the perpetual suppression of 
 the traffic, experience should have shown to be injurious to her in- 
 terests. Now in the Treaty and its annexes, which form an integral 
 part of it, are a great number of various and minute provisions, re- 
 specting the manner of exercising the right of search, the form of 
 process and judgment of the Mixed Commissions, the treatment of 
 free negroes, and other essential objects. For this reason it was 
 sti}>ulated, in the Treaty negociated with Lord Howard, that the 
 said Treaty might be revised at the end of ten years. By this ar- 
 rangement, which did not affect the efficacy of the Treaty, Portugal 
 preserved a right which she could not surrender^ without putting it 
 in the power of a foreign state to harass and annoy her: not even 
 reserving to herself the hope of a remedy, which, in case the Treaty 
 were perpetual, would depend upon the will of the Government to 
 whom she made the concession. 
 
 The little attention paid to the repeated complaints by the Portu- 
 guese Government of the conduct of some of the British cruisers; 
 and the mode in which I^ord Palmerston pretends to interpret the 
 former Treaties, are further reasons why the Portuguese Govern- 
 ment should never consent to renounce the right of being able to 
 revise the Treaty at the expiration of a certain time. 
 
 Each Government is the best and only judge of what it suits it to 
 
 (1) Vide Note of 6tk October, 1838 ; Document os Officiaei, page 133.
 
 3.T> 
 
 concede to another Government; nor can it form a just ground of 
 accusation against any Government, tliat it does not agree to u luil- 
 ever may be proposed for its acceptance, and still less that it will 
 not accept without the slightest altcralion or delay, a Treaty, to the 
 drawing up of which it was no jjarty, when the drawing vp is an 
 object of the greatest importance in diplomatic documents, especial- 
 ly in one of this nature, which includes a great number of stipula- 
 tions, capable of being easily transgressed ; as those frequently have 
 been by the British cruisers, which are contained in the Treaties 
 between Portugal and Great Britain. 
 
 It is necessary that the stipulations should be drawn up with that 
 care, as to leave no room for a repetition of excesses, irregularities, 
 and acts of rapacity, such as the following, which I (juote as an 
 example : — 
 
 The habit in which the Commanded of the British cruisers have 
 been, of appropriating to themselves various articles found on 
 board the vessels previous to their condemnation. Also " of the 
 " enlistment of the Slaves into the British Military service, prior to 
 " the Adjudication." ( 1) 
 
 That of the cruisers of the Gulf of Benin, of putting tiie crews of 
 captured slavers on shore at the Portuguese Islands of St. Thomas, 
 and Principe, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the inhabitants 
 and authorities of those Islands, and the repeated complaints of the 
 Portuguese Government to that of Great Britain. This they did 
 principally with a view not to diminish by their maintenance the 
 value of the prize. (2) 
 
 That which is reported by a Portuguese Member (3) of a Mixed 
 Commission at Sierra Leone, of the Commander of a British cruiser 
 having captured a Portuguese vessel, which he took to that Colony, 
 where he himself bought her, previous to her being adjudged a law- 
 ful prize, at the price of £()()0 sterling, and immediately after took 
 her to the Cape de Verd Islands and sold her for £1000; and the 
 said vessel being subsequently declared by the Commission not to 
 be a lawful prize, the £600 were given up to the owner, the said 
 Commander illegally gaining the remaining ,^400. 
 
 From official documents laid before Parliament, I will extract the 
 fourth example. In September, 1837, the Commander of a British 
 cruiser observed lying at anchor, in the Benin river, a vessel bear- 
 ing the Portuguese flag. This vessel, which was called the Camoens, 
 not having slaves on board, could not be captured according to the 
 stipulations of the Treaties ; but the British Commander carried her 
 crew, and that of another vessel lying in the same river, on board 
 
 (1) Class A, \%l%-'i, pages 2, 3, 94, 145, 169, 201. 
 
 (2) Vide Documentos Officiaes, already cited. 
 
 (3) Figaniere — DescripfAo, ifc. e trabalhos da Commissiio Mi-via de Serra Leva 
 pag. 87. 
 
 F
 
 36 
 
 his own ship ; and, dechuing them to be pirates, he kept them 
 there during eight days, fastened together and chained hand and 
 foot. He also put in irons the consignee of the Camoens, whom he 
 obliged to write a letter to the chief of the negro village of Bobim, 
 on the banks of the Benin, to ship some slaves on board the said 
 vessel. The negro chief did so, the embarkation being made in the 
 sight of the British Commander, who, having verified the shipment, 
 caused the vessel to be seized, and afterwards carried her to Sierra 
 Ijeone, in the hope that as she was taken with slaves on board, the 
 Mixed Commission would declare the Camoens a lawful prize — The 
 captured vessel was so ill prepared for the voyage, that half the ne- 
 groes on board died for want of food before reaching that port. 
 
 The Mixed Commission, before which these facts were proved, 
 decided the vessel not to be a lawful prize, and granted the owner 
 an indemnity of ^1734 sterling. (1) 
 
 This is a case of sordid avarice and iniquity, which, with others 
 of a similar nature, it is necessary to guard. against in the drawing 
 up of the Treaty, in order that they may not be repeated ; which 
 ■would certainly not have been accomplished by that which Lord 
 Palmerston called upon the Portuguese Government to accept toith- 
 out the slifjlitest alteration. 
 
 But it is in the Convention of 1815, concluded between Portugal 
 and Great Britain, in virtue of which Convention this latter power 
 bound itself to pay the former the sum of ^300,000 sterling, in 
 compensation for the losses sustained by the trade of Portugal, from 
 1810, to the 1st June 1814, in consequence of illegal captures, by 
 British ships of war ; and in the Treaty made with Spain in 1817 
 (2) by which Great Britain paid £400,000 sterling, for a very simi- 
 lar reason — that is found the strongest proof of the spirit of avarice 
 Avhich actuated the Commanders of the British men-of-war, who in 
 so short a space of time made captures to the amount of so many 
 millions of cruzados, besides the large sum awarded by the Mixed 
 Commission established in London, for illegal captures made sub- 
 sequent to the 1st June 1814. 
 
 What has been said will suffice to prove the necessity of the sti- 
 pulations of Treaties for the suj)pression of the Slave Trade being 
 drawn up with the greatest clearness and precision, that they may 
 not furnish a pretext to the Commanders ol cruisers to insultj harass, 
 and capture, the ships of other nations. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Lord Palmerston, referring to Portugal, likewise said, "so far from 
 
 (\) Wm. Brown Oliver, Lieutenant and Commander of her Majesty' s Schooner 
 " Fair Rosamond." C'la.ss yj, 1838-9, ])ai/n 15 to 2(). 
 ('2J Hertslel's ibid, /Irt. 3, and 4.
 
 37 
 
 " abolishing; the Shwe Trade, she has substituted her slave-trading' 
 " flags in the place of all the slave-trading flags in the world " (1) 
 
 Facts, however, are opposed to this assertion, and many of them 
 are recorded in the papers presented to Parliament already cited ; 
 from which it appears, that the Portuguese flag is not the only one 
 employed in thetrathc; but that there are also many others, such 
 as the Spanish, the American, the Monte V^idean, the Brazilian, 
 and the Russian. This was also asserted in the House of Lords, by 
 another member of the British Cabinet, the first Lord of the Ad- 
 miralty. 
 
 The documents referred to also mention, that Austrian and Tus- 
 can vesels are engaged in transporting negro slaves from Egypt to 
 Turkey. 
 
 It must also be remembered that the time has not long gone by, 
 when the British Government complained, " that the detestable 
 traffic in human flesh was carried on principally under the French 
 flag, whether it floated over vessels belonging to France, or protect- 
 ed those belonging to foreigners." (2) 
 
 Thus therefore, if the noble Secretary of State, in his speech, had 
 been desirous frankly to state to Parliament the causes of the in- 
 crease under the Portuguese flag, of the traffic north of the Equator, 
 where it has been abolished by Portugal ever since 1815, even wish- 
 ing at the same time to exculpate the Governors of the British Co- 
 lonies, in the neighbourhood of which the increase has taken place, 
 and the Commanders of the cruisers in those seas; whose conduct 
 can be attributed only, either to their having insufficient means at 
 their disposal, for putting down the trade, or to their negligence of 
 their duty, or to their connivance with the traders — he might say, 
 that since the Treaties of 1831 and 1833, between France and 
 Great Britain, the traders had abandoned the French flag; and that 
 since the Treaty of 1835 between Great Britain and Spain, in 
 which it was stipulated that vessels should be liable to seizure in 
 which should be found certain articles indicative of their being em- 
 ployed in the trade, although there might be no slaves on board — 
 many of the traders who previously made use of those two flags, 
 took to adopting the Portuguese; because under the Treaty of Por- 
 tugal with Great Britain, a captured vessel cannot be condemned as 
 a lawful prize unless she shall be found to have slaves on board. 
 
 This is the real and only cause of the increase which has taken 
 place of late years, in the number of vessels sailing under the Por- 
 tuguese flag; a cause, which the Treaty negociated with Lord 
 Howard would have removed ; since that Treaty contained a 
 clause similar to that in the Treaty between Great Britain and 
 Spain. 
 
 (1) The Mirror, ibid. 
 
 (2) Chateaubrian — Congrc's de Verone.
 
 38 
 
 The noble liord might also have said, that there was a house at 
 the Havannah, wliich engages to furnish the slave ships with Portu- 
 guese papers; (I) and have added, that in July 1838, the British 
 Judge of the Mixed Commission in that city informed him, that 
 " with regard to the use of the Portuguese flag, it is said that most 
 " of the vessels either have no papers at all, or that the papers are 
 " forged." 
 
 And also,that there are papers which, though not false originally, 
 are nevertheless so as regards the vessel making use of them ; hav- 
 ing belonged to other vessels, which have long since ceased to exist ; 
 such papers being sold by their former possessors, to be used by 
 vessels of similar size. 
 
 In the papers laid before Parliament, there is an example of the 
 Portuguese papers of a vessel named the Duqueza de Brazan^a — be- 
 ing transferred to another vessel, which had formerly been French, 
 and afterwards Spanish ; and which then, under that name, and 
 with the Portuguese flag, engaged in the Slave Trade, till at length 
 she again became Spanish. The same Portuguese papers being 
 transferred at the Havannah to an American ship, this latter took 
 the name of the " Duqueza de Bragan^a," and sailed under the 
 Portuguese flag ; notwithstanding this was prohibited, by virtue of 
 the decree of the 16th January, 1837. (2) 
 
 He might also have further said, that in September, 1838, the 
 British members of the Mixed Commission had informed him, that 
 
 " during the two months of July and August (from Havannah 
 
 " to Africa) there were no fewer than seven sailed under the Ameri- 
 " can flag; thus giving much reason to fear, that all your Lord- 
 " ship's efforts to suppress the traffic under the cover of the Portu- 
 " guese flag will be unavailing, when the traders can so easily pro- 
 " cure the protection of the American." (3) 
 
 According to the information transmitted by the said Commis- 
 sioners, this is practised by vessels sailing from Cuba under Ameri- 
 can colours for the ports of Africa, where, during their stay they re- 
 tain the American flag, which they change for the Spanish or Por- 
 tuguese only when just about to sail, laden with slaves, for the 
 West Indies; when they make a counterfeit sale of the vessel, for 
 which they are already furnished with the necessary papers from 
 the Havannah. This is done for fear of meeting and being searched 
 by an American ship of war, by which they might be captured. 
 
 'J'he noble Lord might also have said, that on the 7th of April, 
 1838, the C'ommissioners of Sierra Leone wrote to him as follows; 
 " we have lately had fre(|uent occasion to remark on the increased 
 " activity of the Slave Trade in the immediate vicinity of Sierra 
 
 (1) Vide Parliamentary papers, Clans A, pay. 115. 
 
 (2) Ibid, Class A. [Further Series) par/. 108. 
 (3J Jlnd Class A. p. 131.
 
 39 
 
 "Leone." (I) That on llie 7tli May of the said year, the same 
 Commissioners referred to the " indubitable evidence of the system, 
 " and extent of the Slave Trade curried on in Brazil by nominal 
 "Portuguese subjects." (2) And that on the 31st December fol- 
 lowing, when transmitting a list of the vessels condemned there in 
 1838, amounting to thirty, eleven of which were under the Spanish, 
 and nineteen under the Portuguese flag ; the said Commissioners 
 say " fifteen out of the 30 vessels, which came before us last year, 
 " either were captured, or took on board their slaves, within the 
 " former narrow boundary " (westward of Cape Palmas). ..." and 
 " the whole, or very near the whole, of the Slave Trade carried on 
 "north, or rather west of Cape Palmas, is for the supply of the is- 
 " land of Cuba, and generally on account of Havannah merchants. . 
 . . . . " Portuguese Trade, properly so called, there is none." (3) 
 
 These passages, extracted from the official documents referred to, 
 make it evident that the assertions " that in the Slave Trade the 
 Portuguese flag had supplanted every other," and that " it was pros- 
 tituted by every vessel which for that purpose traversed the ocean," 
 are totally contrary to the real facts, as the noble Lord, who made 
 them, might have concluded from the said documents. 
 
 Even supposing that they were true, this would furnish no just 
 ground for accusation against the Portuguese Government, which 
 cannot be held responsible for acts done by individuals contrary to 
 the laws of Portugal, beyond the sphere of action of those laws ; and 
 if arguments of this kind were allowed to have any weight, the no- 
 ble Lord could not avoid admitting, that the British Government is 
 responsible for the crimes committed beyond its jurisdiction, by the 
 English frequenting the islands of the South Sea: crimes, for the 
 greater part, unknown in Europe, but of which some idea may be 
 formed, by the deposition of witnesses, who were officially examin- 
 ed in England, (4) by which it appears, that in the island of New 
 Zealand alone, in which there are resident some thousands of Bri- 
 tish subjects, — and the ports of which are frequented every year by 
 from 100 to 200 ships — the captains and crews of English vessels 
 have frequently committed the most atrocious crimes against the 
 Aborigines, (and sometimes against their own fellow countrymen) ; 
 such as treacherous assassinations, and poisonings; going even to 
 the length of trading in the tatooed heads of savages, whom they ex- 
 cited to cut them off, in order to furnish them with a supply which 
 they might afterwards sell at high prices as objects of curiosity. 
 
 Lord Palmerston had in his possession all the documents to which 
 I refer, and therefore could not be ignorant, that along a considera- 
 ble portion of the African coast, no traffic w as carried on for account 
 
 (\) Ibid Class A. p. Mu 
 
 (2) Jbid Class ^.p.Ai. 
 
 {'^) Ibid Class A. (Further Series) page 152 — And Class A. page 36, and 44. 
 
 (4) The British colonization of Neu Zealand, 1 Vol., London, WS7 .
 
 40 
 
 of Portuguese. He also knew that the Portuguese flag, fraudulently 
 as it was used, was not the only one adopted by the slavers ; and 
 that these had every facility for obtaining, in order to carry on the 
 trade, the flags of other nations — that of America among the rest. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, be exerted himself to obtain the sanction of 
 Parliament to the Bill which he brought in, which may be characte- 
 rized as offensive to Portugal, and inojfensive to the traders ; who, 
 warned by the discussion, will have already caused the Portugal flag 
 to disappear from their vessels, and supplied its place by some other, 
 which shall be respected by the British cruizers ; this change of flag 
 being, as regards the traffic, almost the only result to be expected 
 from the measure. In other respects, however, it may be productive 
 of the most important consequences, as was shewn during the debate 
 which took place in the House of Lords — when the dangerous nature 
 of the Bill was placed in its true light. The manner in which the 
 Prime Minister of Great Britain expressed himself, is certainly de- 
 serving of most serious attention, when in that House, alluding to 
 the debate, he said, " the opposition to this measure will do a world 
 "of evil— will produce an infinity of mischief:" (1) doubtless 
 recognizing the truth of the arguments (to which he did not 
 reply) which had been advanced by the most illustrious man in 
 England against the Bill. Those arguments were as follows: — 
 " What will be the consequences of this measure ? That Portugal 
 " must resist it; for, if she submit to the legislature of this country, 
 " she will no longer be an independent nation. By that course she 
 " must stand or fall. The legislature of this country cannot give up 
 " their law, nor can the Portuguese Government submit to it. We 
 " were actually going to legislate for the subjects of Portugal ; and 
 " I cannot help saying, that such an interference on the part of Eng- 
 
 " land would be both unwise and unjust an invasion of her 
 
 " rights by an Act of Parliament directed against the subjects of 
 " that country, which Portugal would resist, even to the death, by 
 
 " every means at her disposal Such an Act of Parliament 
 
 " as that which it was proposed to your Lordships to pass, would 
 " have been a complete novelty, and I could not see how it could be 
 " adopted by your Lordships, without occasioning^ such a sensation 
 " throughout Portugal, and throughout the world, as, without fail, 
 " must endanger some of the most important interests of England, 
 
 " and be productive of the most serious inconvenience issued 
 
 " on the resposibility of the Government The framers of the 
 
 " Bill have not sufficiently attended to the Treaties which have been 
 
 " contracted, and which are now in force this Bill I con- 
 
 " elude, was formed by persons who had no perfect knowledge of 
 
 " the Treaties that have, heretofore, been entered into I think 
 
 " that this measure is one to which your Lordships cannot, with pro- 
 " priety, agree, if you entertain that respect for the rights of other 
 
 (\) The Times, August 2i, 1839; and the Mirror, ihid, House of Lords, 
 23rd. Atirjust, 18^9; the speech of Lord Melbourne.
 
 41 
 
 " nations The Bill still retains its criminal character — 
 
 " still contemplates u breach of the laws of nations — a breach of 
 " Treaties that have been entered into between England and other 
 " countries." (1) 
 
 The conduct of the Ministers who now direct the affairs of Eng- 
 land, is very different as regards the Slave Trade, from that pursued 
 by their predecessors. 
 
 The following is the manner in which one of these expresses him- 
 self in the House of Commons : "it was to the light of expe- 
 
 " rience, to the promulgation of wisdom, and not to the exercise of 
 " violence, or the influence of war, that they could look with any 
 
 " prospect of success, for the abolition of the Slave Trade they 
 
 " did not think it right to force it upon other nations, at the expence 
 " of their honour, and of the tranquility of the world. Morals were 
 
 " never well taught by the sword It took a considerable length 
 
 " of time before the abolition of the Slave Trade was adopted, even 
 " in this country of liberality, and other countries could not be 
 " blamed for not adopting it immediately, particularly when it was 
 " proposed to them in the shape of a dictum." (2) 
 
 In 1838 the British Government was not asked to put forth its 
 energies in a manner incompatible with the independence of other 
 nations; but it was the Government itself which asked Parliament 
 to sanction a legislative invasion of the rights of independent nations; 
 in the first place of the Portuguese, and eventually of all the Mari- 
 time nations of Europe and America; and this for the ostensible pur- 
 pose of compelling the Portuguese Government, not to treat (for it 
 had already, in May 1838, negociated a Treaty) but to accept a 
 Treaty dictated by Lord Palmerston, with the regulations annexed 
 thereto. 
 
 The noble Secretary of State further says, " not only has she (Por- 
 " tugal) not fulfilled her engagements with us, — not only has she 
 " retained her trade at the same point which it had reached when 
 " these engagements were contracted — but she has actually increased 
 "it." (3) 
 
 The Slave Trade ever has, and ever will, continue to increase in 
 direct ratio to the increase of riches and prosperity, and of the con- 
 sequent demand for a greater number of labourers, in the countries 
 into which the slaves are imported. This is what has taken place in 
 Brazil, in Cuba, Porto Rico, and Texas. The Government of Por- 
 tugal has nothing to do with this : and if, of late years, her flag has 
 been used more than formerly, it is for the reason 1 have already 
 stated ; nor can its more frequent appearance in slave ships, to the 
 north of the Equator (having been prohibited for four and twenty 
 years in those seas) prove that Portugal has augmented the traffic in 
 
 (1) Speeches of Duke of Wellington on the Bill of Lord Palmerston . the 
 Mirror of Parliament — \st, 2n(l, Ibth, and \9th .'litgust, 1839. 
 
 (2) Lord Castlereagh, House of Commons, 21th June, 1814. — " The Parlia 
 mentary Debates." hy T. C, Hansard, 181-1, vol. 28. 
 
 (3) The Mirror, ibid, House of Commons, August 8, 1839.
 
 42 
 
 slaves; but the contrary is shewn by the dispatch of the 31st Dec. 
 1838, before quoted, addressed to Lord Palmerston by the Commis- 
 sioners of Sierra Leone. 
 
 I will, however, observe, 1st. That the British cruisers are empow- 
 ered, by the Treaties, to capture Portuguese vessels engaged in the 
 Slave Trade, which may be met with north of the Equator. 
 
 2nd. That in Africa, Great Britain possesses numerous Colonies 
 in the neighbourhood of the places where the slaves are embarked — 
 such as the River Gambia, the Isles de Los, the Bananas, Sierra 
 Leone, Cape Coast Castle, Accra, the Island of Fernando Po, &c., &c ; 
 and in America, many of the West India Islands, lying in the di- 
 rection taken by the ships which carry slaves to Porto Rico, Cuba, 
 and Texas. 
 
 3rd. That she has in those seas a great number of cruisers. 
 
 4th. That at Sierra Leone, and at the Havanna, reside Mixed Com- 
 missions with British Judges, to adjudicate on the captured slavers. 
 
 And, in spite of all the means above mentioned, which Great 
 Britain has at her disposal, the traffic has considerably increased 
 north of the Equator; and, with such regularity is it carried on, that, 
 for the purpose of promoting it, there exist, in varions ports on the 
 coast of Africa, permanent factories, the number of the principal 
 being, even recently, as many as fourteen. ( 1 ) 
 
 It is calculated, that, from the River Pongo, there are annually 
 exported 2,000 slaves ; from the River Gallinas, 8,000 ; and so on, 
 from the others, as far as the Equator — there being employed in this 
 trade upwards of one hundred vessels. 
 
 The River Pongo is about five or six hours sail from the Isles de 
 Los, and that of the Gallinas, a few hours more from the Bananas, 
 dependent upon, and situate near to Sierra Leone. 
 
 It is surprising that, having in that quarter so many means des- 
 tined for the suppression of the trade- — such as Courts, instituted ex- 
 pressly for that object, and a large number of ships of war for the 
 same purpose, the existence of those fiictories should have been per- 
 mitted during so many years, and that some of them should supply 
 themselves with goods from Sierra Leone, with which they purchase 
 slaves ; and above all, that the owners of Spanish factories at the 
 River Gallinas should have purchased, through their agents at Sierra 
 Leone, vessels condemned by the Mixed Commissions, with the in- 
 tention, no doubt, of employing them afresh in the transportation of 
 slaves. (2) 
 
 It is principally in the large and numerous rivers which empty 
 themselves into the Gulf of Benin, that the most extensive traffic in 
 
 (\) The Colonization Herald, Philadelphia. 
 (2) Ibid, Class A, (Further Series), payc \i.
 
 43 
 
 slaves is at present carried on, in spite of the neij^hbourin;^ British 
 Colonies on the (jlold Coast, and of tlie stronjj- fleet of cruisers, con- 
 stantly on the look out, on that sea. 
 
 With all these facts before him, justice required that Lord Palmer- 
 ston should not attribute to Portugal the increase of a traffic which 
 Portugal could not prevent — it being carried on contrary to and be- 
 yond the jurisdiction of her laws, and with capitals nut Portuguese ; 
 while, at the same time, JBritisli capital, British goods, and British 
 speculators, were employed in the same traffic, carrying it on to a 
 great extent in the immediate vicinity of the British Colonies — in 
 places near to the residence of the Mixed Commissions; and, so to 
 speak, in the face of the British cruisers, in quarters when these lat- 
 ter, since 1817, have possessed the right of capturing Portuguese 
 vessels engaged in the trade. 
 
 Justice also required that he should state the true causes of the 
 increase in the traffic, and not attribute to Portugal the crimes com- 
 mitted by some Portuguese, associated with Englishmen, French- 
 men, Americans, Brazilians, Spaniards, and others — each contri- 
 buting, in their own way, to this abominable traffic : some finding 
 capital ; others furnishing vessels ; others equipping them ; others 
 preparing flags and false papers ; others supplying goods ; others, 
 in short, giving their personal services, either as captains or sailors 
 of the vessels employed. 
 
 If, among all these various classes of criminals, there is any which 
 is less guilty than the others, it is certainly the captains and crews, 
 as being almost entirely composed of men without education, and 
 who are satisfied with comparatively small profit. It is to this class 
 that belong nearly all the Portuguese who are engaged in the traffic. 
 The most criminal class — that which derives enormous gains from 
 the trade — is that of the capitalists, and those who furnish the goods 
 to be bartered in Africa for slaves. This class is the active power, 
 and the sailors are but the mere instruments of their cupidity ; to it 
 belong many British subjects, as is proved by the incontrovertible 
 testimony of British authorities, whom I am about to cite. 
 
 Mr. Gordon, British Charg<* d'Affiiires at Rio de Janeiro, wrote 
 to Lord Palmerston, on the 21st April, 1838, as follows : " I regret 
 " to have to add, that it appears probable, that much British capital 
 " is engaged therein, even directly. Indirectly, many British houses 
 " in this city have, for some time past, greatly assisted enterprises 
 " for the nefarious end. Formerly, when it was believed that the 
 " risk of being taken by British cruisers was considerable, no mer- 
 " chant would sell the goods suitable for the African market unless 
 " he received ready money for them ; but since it has been perceived 
 " that such risk is very small indeed, British houses have altered tlieir 
 " rule in this respect, and they now allow the slave-dealers to pur- 
 " chase such goods as they have need of on credit — the debt to be 
 " paid at the conclusion of the speculation they were employed 
 "in. (I) 
 
 (1) Ibid, Class B, page 369.
 
 44 
 
 The British Judges of the Mixed Commission, resident at Rio dc 
 Janeiro, writing on the 14th July, 1838, to the noble Secretary of 
 State, said , — 
 
 " In conclusion, we again advert to the indirect, if it should not 
 " rather be called the direct, interest which British merchants and 
 " British capital, in Brazil, derive from the Slave Trade. With 
 " what but British goods is the African market, the freight which is 
 " to be bartered for the slave, supplied ? With what, but slave- 
 " labour, and the works, originating in British capital and enterprise, 
 " carried on in this country ? How are the various mines, which, 
 " but for similar support, would soon become inoperative, worked ? 
 " Not by free, but by slave-labour." ( 1 ) 
 
 The said Commissioners, alluding afterwards to the capture of 
 vessels under the Portuguese flag — the Flor de Loanda, and others — 
 which the cruisers carried into Rio Janeiro, said, " The moment the 
 " seizures were known, claims for payment were abruptly pressed by 
 " persons calling themselves British as well as French merchants, 
 " on those who had taken their goods. The constant answer was, 
 " ' Go to the British Commissioners — let them release our vessels and 
 " property, and then, and not till then, shall you be paid.' With 
 " this answer they were obliged to be content; and, indeed, we have 
 " been assured, that it is no uncommon practice, which however we do 
 " not undertake to vouch for as a fact, with some of the Commission- 
 " houses here, of Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham, to sell 
 " their goods, intended for the African market, on conditional terms : 
 "the debt to be acquitted, in part, or in the whole, according as the 
 " adventure may ultimately prove successful, or otherwise." (2) 
 
 The Mixed Commission of Sierra Leone, writing to Lord Palmer- 
 ston on the 4th of June, 1838, spoke of " British merchants at 
 " Sierra Leone purchasing condemned slave vessels, as agents for 
 " slave dealers." (3) 
 
 The British Government formerly complained that vessels had 
 been fitted out in the Tagus for the Slave Trade, It was with a 
 view to prevent this practice that the decree of the 10th Dec. 1836, 
 ordered that all vessels clearing out from ports in Portugal, the 
 Azores, &c., for ports in Africa, situated to the south of the 20th 
 degree of south latitude, should be inspected the evening before 
 their departure ; and that if any articles were found on board indi- 
 cating an intention of their being destined for that trade, they should 
 be seized, and their owners and aflreighters punished ; and thai if 
 they were only suspected of being intended for the said trade, their 
 owners should be required to enter into a bond. 
 
 It does not appear to me, however, that a bond was required in 
 Great Britain, from the owners and equippers of the numerous vessels 
 which sailed from the Thames, the Severn, the Mersey, the Clyde, 
 the Humber, and other ports in Great Britain, laden with manufac- 
 
 ( 1 ) lb id. Class A , paffc 171. 
 ("2) Ibid, Class A , page 171. 
 (;5j Ibid, Class A, parje 1.
 
 4.5 
 
 ture, destined exclusively for the Slave Trade, and uliich they carried 
 to the ports of Brazil and Cuba, to the Danisli Isle of St. Tliomas, 
 and other West Indian Islands, as well as to the British Colonies in 
 Africa, and even to the ports where ihe trade is carried on, where 
 there are factories on shore, or where the business is transacted on 
 board the vessels themselves : in which ports some of the traders 
 arrange the assortment of goods which they deem necessary for the 
 purchase of slaves. 
 
 It is true that on their departure from British ports, those vessels 
 do not carry hatches with open gratings ; nor boards prepared for 
 making second decks; nor an extraordinary quantity of casks for 
 water ; nor boilers larger than are necessary for the use of the crews ; 
 but they dej)art loaded with various goods with which slaves are 
 purchased ; they carry arms and ammunition, with which the negroes 
 make war upon each other, for the purpose of making' captives; and 
 the chains, with which they are fettered in their passage across the 
 ocean. 
 
 In order to give an idea of the magnitude and extent of the traffic, 
 I will cite the work on the Slave Trade, published a few months ago 
 in London, by Mr. Fowell Buxton, and (I) written with the benevo- 
 lent view of ameliorating the condition of the unhappy Africans, 
 and of putting an end to that traffic. The author calculates that 
 there are goods to the value of £250,000 (or more than two and a 
 half millions of Cruzados) annually manufactured in Manchester 
 and other places in the county of Lancaster alone, of which he 
 affirms " that the description of goods so manufactured were altoge- 
 " ther unsuitable for any other market, save that traffic alone." 
 
 The same writer shews, in his ingenious calculations, that the 
 quantity of goods exported in 1836, was sufficient to buy 187,000 
 slaves : in the purchase of which the above goods generally form one 
 third of the payment. He further says, that in Glasgow, goods are 
 fabricated, exclusively adapted for that trade ; and that large quan- 
 tities are also sent from Leeds, Birmingham, and Liverpool, for the 
 same object. 
 
 He likewise calculates, that the fire-arms and ammunition, of a 
 quality only adapted for the Slave Trade, which were exported from 
 Great Britain to Africa in the same year, 1836, and whose official 
 value was about £138,000 sterling, were sufficient to purchase 34,000 
 slaves ; so that, adding together all these quantities of goods an- 
 nually exported from Great Britain, they would suffice for the pur- 
 chase of 250,000 slaves ! 
 
 Captain Fair, of the British Royal Navy, a man of great expe- 
 rience in the service against the Slave Trade, says in a pamphlet (2) 
 which he published in 1838, that a great many slavers go to the free 
 port of the Island of St. Thomas to load goods to carry to Africa, 
 and that those goods are almost entirely of British manufacture. 
 
 {\) The .African Slave Trade, London, 1839, pages 34 to 37. 
 (2) A Letter to the Honourable IV. T. Fox Strangways, Under Secretary 
 of State for Foreign Affairs.
 
 46 
 
 Compare the value of goods adapted to the purchase of slaves — 
 such as certain cotton manufactures, which were exported from Eng- 
 land in 1836, to those countries in which the Slave Trade does not 
 exist — Mexico, for example — with that of the same goods exported 
 to Brazil, from whence they are re-exported to Africa, and it will be 
 found, taking into account the respective population of each State, 
 that Brazil imported a much larger quantity of the said goods than, 
 without the Slave Trade, she could have taken. (1) 
 
 It has been also stated that the value of the goods annually sent 
 from Rio de Janeiro, for the same purpose, amounts to ^700,000 
 sterling, (more than seven millions of cruzados) and are almost all 
 of British manufacture. (2) 
 
 J"'rom the numerous depots of those goods which exist in the ports 
 of America, and in the British Colonies of Africa, there must be sent, 
 for the purpose of that traffic, quantities proportioned to its immense 
 extent; to which must be added, the exportation to the ports of 
 Eastern Africa, of goods sent to Bombay, Surat, and other ports of 
 British Asia, which are largely used in the Slave Trade ; and al- 
 though a Convention was made in 1822, between the British Go- 
 vernment and the Imam or Sultan of Muscat, for the suppression of 
 the trade in the ports of Africa, situated to the north of the Cape 
 Delgado, belonging to that sovereign ; this Convention refers solely 
 to the trade carried on with Christians, Mussulmen being still al- 
 lowed to ship many thousand slaves every year from those ports, to 
 be sent to Asia; and, from information which I have received. 
 Christians, through the medium of Mahometans, have continued to 
 carry on the tiade on that coast. 
 
 The amount of capital is, therefore, enormous, which is at present 
 employed by British subjects in the horrible traffic of Slavery ; and 
 it may perhaps be said, that the sum annually applied to this trade 
 by Great Britain, far exceeds that by any other nation. The profits 
 derived by British subjects are proportionate to the amount which 
 they employ; and these profits contribute to the prosperity of se- 
 veral towns, and to the opulence of many families : and if the greater 
 part of them are not acquired by direct speculations, they are not 
 the less the result of the loss of liberty, the sufferings, and toil of the 
 captive negroes. 
 
 Such profits are much more secure than those of the adventurers 
 directly engaged in the Slave Trade — which, being subject to many 
 contingences and great risks, is a species of lottery, in which many 
 pay in their persons the penalty of their avarice ; others are entirely 
 ruined,; and a few enrich themselves, in a manner which excites 
 horror. 
 
 The circumstances already alluded to, of a house at the Havanna 
 having, in 1838, made a net gain of 70,000 dollars by a single voy_ 
 
 (\) Tables of Revenue, Commerce, ^-c, presented to Parliament — 1838. 
 (2) The Times, ^epttmber 25///, 183[>.
 
 47 
 
 age of one of their vessels; and anotlier, 200,000 tlollars, also by a 
 single voyage, which took scarcely four months, are examples calcu- 
 lated to excite speculators to venture on renewed undertakings of the 
 same kind. 
 
 Bearing in mind what has been said, it would not be extraordi- 
 nary in any one (who should adopt the mode of reasoning of the 
 noble Secretary of State) to say that the British Government was 
 accessory to the continuation of tlie Slave Trade, for not having 
 taken any necessary measures to prevent the fabrication in, and ex- 
 port from, Great Britain, of goods which are destined exclusively for 
 the purchase of slaves, and absolutely inapplicable to any other pur- 
 pose : (I) that the said Government encourages this detestable 
 traffic throughout the globe, in not having proposed to Parliament 
 a repressive bill on this subject, when it might expect that the peo- 
 ple of Great Britain, and their representatives, would unanimously 
 adopt it by acclamation — since, having paid twenty millions to pur- 
 chase the freedom of 800,000 negroes, they would think lightly of 
 foregoing the profits now derived by British subjects from the sale 
 of manufactures, which nourish the wars carried on in Africa for 
 the purpose of reducing to slavery many thousands of its inhabitants, 
 and with which are annually purchased from 200,000 to 300,000 of 
 those who are taken captives. 
 
 On the contrary, the British Government allowed itself to be fore- 
 stalled in such an important measure, by the King of Naples, who 
 lately published a decree, (2) imposing penalties, even on those who 
 had taken any part in the fabrication of articles destined for the Slave 
 Trade. 
 
 The noble Lord says, " We have, for more than four years, endea- 
 " voured to persuade Government after Government, in Portugal, to 
 " conclude a treaty, which, with her consent, might enable us to 
 " accomplish the purpose that she had bound herself, by her own 
 " means, to effect; but we have endeavoured in vain." (3) 
 
 This assertion, on which the noble Lord founded his arguments 
 to shew the necessity of the Bill proposed by him, is entirely desti- 
 tute of the slightest foundation : because a Treaty, with its proper 
 annexes, was negociated between myself and Lord Howard ; and on 
 the 22nd of May 1838, they were agreed upon, and already drawn 
 out, to be signed by the Plenipotentiaries, when the noble Lord left 
 Lisbon for London ; there remaining only to be concluded the nego 
 ciation of the additional article. 
 
 The official correspondence, before mentioned, clearly proves 
 that even on the 2\st February 1839, the Portuguese Government 
 was prepared to sign that Treaty, and to leave to a separate negoci- 
 ation the additional article referred to. Lord Palmerston however. 
 
 (1) Fowell Buxton. 
 
 (2) Giornale de Due-Si cHie— 3 de Nov. 1839. 
 ^3; T/ie Mirror, ibid, August 8, 1839.
 
 48 
 
 desired to alter the conditions ; he wished to introduce fresh ones, 
 not to be met with in any Treaty ; and to strike out others, which 
 had been already agreed upon, and which had been admitted into 
 every Treaty relating to the Slave Trade ; and by the form in which 
 he drew up his Treaty, he gave it such a complexion, that had it 
 been put into practice, it would have been highly detrimental to 
 the trade, navigation, and colonies of Portugal ; and in requiring 
 the Portuguese Government to accept that Treaty without delay or 
 alteration, he, by his own proceeding, prevented its being concluded. 
 
 He further says " the Government of Portugal — upon pretexts 
 " the most frivolous, upon objections the most unfounded, upon al- 
 " legations totally destitute of truth, — have rejected the proposals 
 " which we have made, and, by every contrivance, have spun out 
 " the negociation, for the mere purpose of avoiding the termination 
 " of the question." ( I ) 
 
 The examination of the speech of the noble Lord, in which I was 
 proceeding, will shew clearly whether it was be, or the Portuguese 
 Government, who made use of allegations totally destitute of truth ; 
 and therefore the phrase which he made use of, does not require 
 any comment. 
 
 The noble Lord went on to mention the proposals he had made 
 to the Portuguese Government, and the answers which he had re- 
 ceived. 
 
 He stated that he had proposed " that the Slave Trade should be 
 " declared piracy — not subjecting it, however, to the penalty of 
 " death, but to a severe secondary punishment, and that the Portu- 
 " guese Government refused its consent thereto." (2) 
 
 It is true that the Portuguese Government refused to accede to 
 this new proposition — presented at the end of the negociations — and 
 for the following reasons : 
 
 1st. Because by not subjecting the Traders in Slaves to the pe- 
 nalty of death, but only to that of transportation, as demanded by 
 the British Government, they would become punishable with less 
 severity than they would have been under the decree of the 10th 
 December, 1836, which, in addition to transportation, renders them 
 liable to hard labour, heavy fines, &c. 
 
 2nd. Because the Slave Trade not being declared piracy, this 
 name ought not to be applied to it in the Treaty, seeing that in di- 
 plomatic documents of that important nature, it is essential to avoid 
 the insertion of words, which at a future period, might give rise to 
 interpretations and pretensions, contrary to the spirit of the said 
 Treaty. 
 
 3rd. Because the said declaration appears useless for the sup- 
 pression of the traffic, when it is observed, that for many years that 
 trade has been classed as piracy by Great Britain, the United States 
 
 (1) The Mirror, ibid, August 8, 1831). 
 
 (2) Ibid, Avfjust 8, 183!).
 
 49 
 
 and Brazil; and tliat, notwithstanding, numbers of Brazilians, 
 Americans, and Englishmen have not been deterred from engaging 
 in it, either directly or indirectly. 
 
 Nevertheless, although in Europe, Great Britain is the only pow- 
 er which has declared the Slave Trade to be piracy ; and though 
 her having given a designation to a crime, is not sufficient reason 
 for her requiring another nation to apply to it the same term, yet 
 out of deference to the Government of Great Britain, that of Portu- 
 gal declared itself ready to accede to any resolution which might be 
 adopted by the great powers of Europe, possessing colonies, relative 
 to declaring that trade to be piracy ; and the British Plenipotenti- 
 ary admitted that this declaration was sufficient, as was plainly de- 
 monstrated by the Baron da Ribeira de Sabrosa, in his note of the 
 11th September last, addressed to Lord Howard de Walden, and as 
 might also be inferred from the Treaty negociated in 1838, in which 
 this denomination was not applied to that trade. 
 
 An attempt was also made to persuade the British Parliament, 
 that having, by the Convention of 1817, promised to assimilate her 
 legislation as imich as possible, (1) to that of Great Britain, the^n in 
 force, against those engaged in the illicil traffic in slaves, Portugal was 
 bound now to declare that traffic piracy, seeing that Great Britain 
 had so declared it. — But it is evident that even had Portugal bound 
 herself, without the clause — "as much as possible" — the obligation 
 to declare the Slave Trade piracy could not now exist, inasmuch as 
 in 1817, that trade was not regarded as piracy by the laws of Great 
 Britain. Besides which, as I have already asserted, since 1836 the 
 laws of Portugal impose severer penalties on slave dealers than 
 those inflicted at present by the laws of England. 
 
 And it was on such grounds as these, (evidently fictitious) that 
 Parliament was asked to give its assent to a Bill, which sanctions 
 acts of piracy; since piracy consists in illegally seizing on the high 
 seas the property of another; and illegal will be all the seizures 
 which may be made in consequence of that Bill, seeing that the Go- 
 vernment of Great Britain possesses no right whatever to legislate 
 for the subjects of an independent nation. And if Lord Palmerston 
 fancies that he is supported by such a right, if he imagines that his 
 Bill is not an infraction of the laws of nations, he is bound to prove 
 it, by putting the Bill in force, not against the Portuguese only, but 
 also against the French, the Russians, and the citizens of the United 
 States of America. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 The noble Lord further said, that " he proposed to extend the 
 " right of search." 
 
 (1) Article 3.
 
 50 
 
 This is true ; but it is no less so, as is shewn by the Treaty ar- 
 ranged with Lord Howard, that the Portuguese Government had ac- 
 ceded to that proposition ; so that there was no ground for com- 
 plaint on this point. 
 
 He complained that the Portuguese Government required "to 
 " make the Treaty limited in point of time, for the obvious purpose, 
 " that, when the Treaty shall have expired, they may re-establish 
 " the Slave Trade in all its vigour." (1) 
 
 This grave accusation is so totally destitute even of apparent foun- 
 dation, that it is sufficient, in order to refute it, to cite the Treaty ne- 
 gociated by me with Lord Howard — the 1st article of which declares 
 the Slave Trade to be abolished for ever, for the subjects of both 
 Crowns. Lord Palmerston ought to have borne this stipulation in 
 mind, when he made an accusation in Parliament against the Por- 
 tuguese Government, to which the term gratuitous is the mildest 
 that can be applied. 
 
 T have already assigned a reason why Portugal, in agreeing to de- 
 clare the abolition perpetual, ought not, therefore, to subject herself 
 to declare perpetual the many minute stipulations, intended for 
 carrying into effect the suppression of the traffic, and which are na- 
 turally so variable, that the British Government itself has proposed 
 an alteration in some one or other of them, in every draught of 
 a Treaty which it has presented to that of Portugal. It is therefore 
 not just that the latter should be deprived of the right, at the expira- 
 tion of a term agreed upon, of suspending those stipulations, which 
 experience might have shewn her to be injurious to her interests, in 
 order that they might be revised by mutual consent. 
 
 The highly irregular proceedings of some of the Commanders of 
 British Cruisers, to which I have already alluded ; the little attention 
 paid by the British Government to complaints made on that ac- 
 count by the Portuguese ; and the interpretation attempted to be 
 given to some of the conditions of the existing Treaties, render it 
 incumbent on the Portuguese Government not to contract obliga- 
 tions which may prove hereafter to be contrary to the interests of 
 Portugal, or be productive of misunderstanding between the con- 
 tracting parties, without at the same time reserving the power of 
 remedying for the future any of those inconveniences which may 
 not have been foreseen, at the time of making the Treaty. 
 
 As Great Britain concluded a Treaty for ten years with France 
 for the suppression of the trade, and as she has concluded a similar 
 Treaty with several other powers for a like period, there was no rea- 
 son why Lord Palmerston sliould refuse to consent to a Treaty for 
 ten years with Portugal, or that he should insist upon her making 
 one for a perpetuity. 
 
 As to the intention, imputed by the noble Lord to the Portuguese 
 Government, of hereafter re-establishing the trade in all its vigour, 
 
 (1) The Mirror, Ibid, August 8, 1839.
 
 51 
 
 it is an assumj)tion which, with e(]ual reason, niifjht be applied to 
 every other Government, which has entered into Treaties of a tem- 
 porary duration for its suppression, and in which number is com- 
 prised also that of which the noble Lord is a member. 
 
 Following the example of the noble Secretary of State, I might 
 also suppose that the British Government, in the Treaties relative to 
 the abolition of the Slave Trade, had not only in view the welfare 
 of the negroes, but also to acquire by that indirect means, the right 
 of inspection and of police in all the seas, to be exercised by its 
 navy, the numerical superiority of which renders it impossible that 
 any stipulations of reciprocity should be realized in practice ; and 
 also, by means of the MixecJ Commissions, and of the regulations 
 concerning negroes, to acquire a certain interference in the internal 
 administration of the States with which it has Treaties ; an inter- 
 ference wiiich might be productive of important consequences in 
 the colonies, particularly those appertaining to the Crowns of Por- 
 tugal and Spain. 
 
 The noble Lord further says, " we propose to continue the Mixed 
 " Commissions — " No," say they ; " 
 
 In reply I have to remark, that in the 5th Article of the Treaty 
 negociated between Lord Howard and myself, it was stipulated that 
 there should be two Mixed Commissions ; and the Annex B con- 
 tained the regulations respecting them : that assertion is therefore 
 contrary to i'act. 
 
 I would observe that, according to the Convention of 1817, the 
 ships condemned by the Mixed Commissions, were to be sold by 
 public auction, as also their cargoes, excepting the slaves, the pro- 
 ceeds being divided between the two Governments ; and that Lord Pal- 
 merston, by his Bill, has adjudged to the British Government all 
 the money arising from such sales ; seeing that the vessels, instead 
 of being tried by the Mixed Commissions, are to be taken before the 
 British Court of Admiralty ; according to the regulations of which 
 a certain per centage on the prizes is to be appropriated as droits of 
 Admiralty. 
 
 The noble Lord goes on to say " we ask them to agree to a regu- 
 " lation by which captured negroes shall be placed under the sujier- 
 
 " intendence of the Mixed Commission Portugal has re- 
 
 " fused." (1) 
 
 In order to show that this assertion is also destitute of foundation, 
 it will be sufficient to observe, that by the 2nd Art. of the Annex C, 
 forming part of the Treaty negociated with me by liord Howard, it 
 was stipulated that as soon as a vessel should be condemned by the 
 Mixed Commissions, in consequence of slaves having been found on 
 board, these latter should be delivered over to the chief civil autho- 
 rity of the place where the Commission might reside, by which the 
 
 (1) The Minor, Jfiitl, August 8, 183'.». 
 
 H
 
 52 
 
 vessel had been condemned, according to the conditions of 1817, in 
 order that, in conformity to the 12th Article of the negociated Treaty, 
 there might be faithfully secured to the liberated negroes; 
 
 1st. The enjoyment of their freedom and good treatment. 
 
 2nd. Their education in the Christian religion, morality, and ci- 
 vilization. 
 
 3rd. Competent instruction in the mechanical arts. 
 
 And by Articles 5 and 6 of the same Annex C, the Commissioners 
 were invested with the necessary superintendence over the treatment 
 of the liberated negoes. According to the new legislation, however, of 
 the noble Lord, they are deprived of all superintendence of the 
 greater part of the liberated slaves, inasmuch as the majority of the 
 vessels, under the Portuguese flag, captured by the cruisers, will 
 have to be judged in the West Indies, in Guyana, and other British 
 Colonies, where a great deficiency is experienced of labourers for 
 agricultural operations. 
 
 The liberated negroes, who may he taken to those places, will 
 supply that deficiency. This method of providing labourers has 
 been already recommended to Lord Palmerston by the British mem- 
 bers of the Mixed Commission of Rio de Janeiro : who, in one 
 of their dispatches, suggest" the transportation of the liberated Afri- 
 " cans to any of her Majesty's Colonies, which may now be feel- 
 " ing the want of hands for agricultural purposes." (1) 
 
 Detained in America, there will remain no hope to these negroes of 
 ever returning to their native country, which they might have had, 
 if they remained in Africa. The philanthropist may lament the si- 
 tuation in which they are thus placed, but the planters of those Colo- 
 nies will have cause to be satisfied, at thus receiving a frequent sup ■ 
 ply of labourers, of which the number will not be inconsiderable; see- 
 ing, that in Sierra Leone alone, the Mixed Commissions, since their 
 institution in 1819, have liberated more than 48,000 negroes. (2) 
 
 In this manner, the planters of the British Colonies, after having 
 received a heavy compensation for the manumission of their slaves, 
 will acquire negroes, who, for a certain term of years, will perform, 
 under the nominal title of free men, the same labour which was 
 formerly done by their slaves, w ith the further great advantage of 
 obtaining them for nothing,'; while the planters of Brazil and Cuba 
 are obliged to purchase them at a high price. In this manner, the 
 British planters, without any cxjience to themselves, will profit by 
 the guilt of the SlaveTraders, at the same time that they escape the 
 odium of having committed the crime; and their consciences, on 
 this score, will be equally easy; a species of monopoly will also be 
 established in their favor, of the labour of the liberated negroes. 
 
 ([) Vide Parliamentary Papers, Class A, page 159. 
 
 (2) Ibid Class A. p. 4, 5, a)id Class A, {Further Series') , par/e .'?, 4 — .\n!/s, the 
 numbers to 18.'i8 were 48,35!), besides 1,417 at the Colonies in the West Indies.
 
 53 
 
 which may he regarded, while it lasts, as the labour of so many 
 slaves. Tliis is a profitable consecjuence ol liis Bill, which the noble 
 liOrti tlid not allude to in the speech with which he introduced it 
 into Parliament. It is titerefore evident that a lar^e portion of the 
 liberated ne^jroes will be [jlacod beyond the superintendence of the 
 INIixed Commissions — which is just what the Portuguese Govern- 
 ment, in the same speech, was accused of desiring. 
 
 The noble Lord further says, " as soon as they (the Portuguese 
 " Government) have agreed to one proposition — and as soon as, by 
 " some modification, we iiave got rid of one objection — they have 
 " started anotiier. In sliort, there is, on the part of Portugal, an ob- 
 " stinate and rigid determination not to make any Treaty with us, 
 " to give any facility whatever to the great purpose we have in 
 " view. Then," continues the noble Lord, as a conclusion from the 
 foregoing, " it is necessary that we should procure them by our own 
 " means." (1) 
 
 When the noble Secretary of State, in August 1830, made this 
 accusation against the Portuguese Government, lie had in his posses- 
 sion the Treaty, the negociation of which had been concluded be- 
 tween Lord Howard and myself in May 1838; by which Portugal 
 made greater concessions than she had done in 1815 and 1817; and 
 also greater than have been made by nearly all the powers with 
 whom Great Britain has entered into Treaties in this respect. He 
 vas equally aware of the proposition which I made in February 
 1839, to the same Plenipotentiary, to confirm that Treaty, indepen- 
 dently of the additional Article, which might remain over for a sepa- 
 rate and future negociation. The assertion is therefore totally in- 
 correct, that the Portuguese Government had obstinately refused to 
 make the Treaty. If there were any obstinacy, it was on the part 
 of the noble Lord, who refused to confirm the negociation which had 
 been concluded with me by the Minister, whom he had furnished 
 with full powers for tiiat purpose. 
 
 The conclusion, therefore, which he drew from that assertion, 
 " that the British Government should have recourse to its own 
 " means," is forced, and devoid of the slightest appearance of jus- 
 tice ; the violent measure proposed to, and adopted by Parliament, 
 being, besides, uncalled for and unnecessary ; for if the noble Lord 
 had confirmed the negociated Treaty, the ostensible grounds on which 
 he pretended to found the necessity, would have ceased to exist. 
 
 But this measure may be productive of another result of trans- 
 cendent importance, and fertile in consequences ; viz. that of serving 
 as a precedent hereafter, whenever it is pretended to apply the laws 
 of England to the subjects of other nations, independent of her 
 crown. A parallel to such a measure can be found only in some of 
 the Senatus Consult! of Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 f I ) The Minor, Ibid, Ibid.
 
 54 
 
 The noble Lord also said, " the conduct of the Portuguese Go- 
 " vernment, has, in this respect, disentitled them to the esteem of all 
 " mankind." 
 
 This assertion will not surprise those who bear in mind the threat, 
 already alluded to, that in the event of Portugal not acceding to the 
 demands of the noble Lord, the most violent language which might 
 be uttered in Parliament against Portugal, would be heard with ap- 
 plause, and would go forth to the world without reply ; as the latter 
 would not be heard beyond the confines of Portugal. (1) 
 
 The fact, however, is, that this noble Lord, as Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs, was the very member of Parliament, who, by his position 
 might be expected to possess the most perfect knowledge of what 
 had taken place in this negociation ; and, for that reason, to obtain 
 implicit credence in whatever he might say in reference to that sub- 
 ject; that he took advantage of his peculiar position, to heap accu- 
 sations and reproaches on the Portuguese Government, and to give 
 such a representation of facts, as was, in a great measure, at variance 
 with what had actually taken place ; that he afterwards appealed to 
 the generous and philanthropic sentiments of the Parliament and 
 People of Great Britain, towards the negroes, with a view to procure 
 a measure opposed to the principles which govern the relations be- 
 tween independent nations; a measure which the British legislature 
 could not have sanctioned, had it been acquainted with the real facts 
 of the case, which were completely disregarded, as will have been 
 shewn by the analysis of the speech of the noble Lord. If any 
 party, then, on a question of such importance, is to forfeit all title 
 to the respect of mankind, it ought to be that, which in default of 
 reason and justice, has recourse to violence and wrong. 
 
 His Excellency further says, " yet I do not think so ill of them, as 
 " to believe that it has arisen from any real disinclination to put an 
 " end to this traffic. I believe that they hixve been controlled by a 
 
 " domestic power stronger than themselves, and I really think 
 
 " that, in taking this course which I propose, we shall be doing that 
 *' which will not be unbeneficial or unacceptable to some of those 
 " persons that may have appeared to be most obstinate in resisting 
 " our proposals." (2) 
 
 The persons referred to were, doubtless, those among the Portu- 
 guese Ministers, with whom the British Plenipotentiary had to treat 
 on this subject ; and they can certainly attribute so singular a sup- 
 position only to a desire on the part of the noble Lord to aggravate 
 his reproaches by irony. 
 
 I have already shewn, elsewhere, the mistake under which he la- 
 boured, when he asserted the existence of a faction which prevented 
 the Government from concluding the Treaty ; it is therefore unne- 
 cessary to repeat here, what I have already stated in this I'espect. 
 
 (1) The Mirror, JliiiL 
 
 (2) Ibid, Iliid.
 
 55 
 
 The noble Secretary of State moreover asserted, " For, in truth, 
 " Portugal has no interest in this trade. She has no colonies that 
 
 " require slaves for the purpose of cultivation In truth, a great 
 
 " portion of the ships that sail under the Portuguese flag, are the 
 " property of Spaniards, Brazilians, and others, the refuse and scum 
 " of the earth — pirates of all nations and no nations — carrying on 
 " the traffic upon the pure spirit of criminal adventure, in whose 
 " success or failure the Portuguese nation has no more interest than 
 " we, ourselves, I say, therefore, we are not doing that which Por- 
 " tugal will have any right to resent." (I) 
 
 This confession of Lord Palmerston, that Portugal has no interest 
 in the Slave trade, and that the greater part of the vessels which use 
 the Portuguese flag, do not belong to Portuguese owners, but to 
 those of every nation, renders evident the injustice with which, in 
 his speech, he accused Portugal of protecting the Slave Trade of all 
 the w orld ! 
 
 If rapacious pirates should abuse the British flag, and forge pa- 
 pers, in order that their vessels might pass for British, it certainly 
 could not be said, with any shew of justice, that the British Govern- 
 ment was responsible for the crimes committed by such pirates, con- 
 trary to the British laws. 
 
 In the same manner, no one is authorised by justice and good faith, 
 to load the Portuguese Government with reproaches and accusations, 
 and to attempt to render it odious, by imputing to it the crimes 
 committed by rapacious pirates of all nations, beyond the reach of 
 the jurisdiction of the said Government. If those pirates made use 
 only of the Portuguese flag, the noble Lord might then have had 
 some plausible grounds for the introduction of his measure ; but the 
 contrary was known to the British Government, at the very time 
 when the debate took place upon the Bill, as is proved by the fol- 
 lowing expressions of Lord Minto, First Lord of the Admiralty : " It 
 " is true that a considerable number of slaves have been taken, some 
 " carrying the flag of the United States, and others under the colours 
 
 " of Russia It is certain, however, that, in spite of all the dis- 
 
 " countenance of the United States, and of all the exertions of this 
 " country, the flag of the United States will continue to afford an in- 
 " convenient degree of facility to the Slave Trade." (2) 
 
 Lord Palmerston also further observed, " I know it may be 
 " said that the Slave Trade may still be carried on ; for that the 
 " slave-trader, when driven from one flag, will seek refuge under 
 " another. I am aware of that; but if we succeed in engaging all 
 " the flags of Christendom in the common cause, then, I would ask, 
 
 " to what course can the slavers resort ? I shall, therefore, pro- 
 
 " pose a clause that a slaver, taken under such circumstances, 
 
 " (without flag) shall be considered as, and dealt with in tlie same 
 " manner as though she were an English slave-trader — provided al- 
 
 (1) The Mirror, ibid— ibid. 
 
 [2) Ibid, Home of Lords, August J, I83l>.
 
 56 
 
 " ways, that if, in the course of trial, her nationality shall be made 
 
 " to appear, &c. It may be objected that this will be making 
 
 " war against all the world ; but I do not see how any nation can 
 " complain of such a course. If a ship abjure her country, and cast 
 " the protection of its flag to the winds, the State of which she hap- 
 " pens to belong cannot, at least, complain that we have not respected 
 " her nationality, the existence of which had been studiously kept 
 " beyond our knowledge." (1) 
 
 This second admission of the noble Lord is very important, by 
 which he shews that he acknowledges — that, if the Portuguese flag 
 has been used by the traders in preference to that of France or Spain, 
 it is because, as he says above, that the captured vessels using it, 
 would run less risk, on being captured, of being condemned. But the 
 reason for this preference would have ceased from 1838, if the Treaty 
 negociated by me with the British Minister, had received that con- 
 firmation, which was refused by his Excellency ; whose proceedings 
 during that negociation, in order to be duly appreciated, requires us 
 to have reference to circumstances, independent of those relating sim- 
 ply to the especial Treaty for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. 
 
 As to the clause contained in the said Bill, giving power to search 
 and capture by the British ships of war, and to try before British 
 Courts, all vessels suspected of being engaged in the Slave Trade, to 
 whatever nation they may belong, of which the masters will not ex- 
 hibit their colours, nor produce the ship's papers, nothing would be 
 more simple than such a proceeding, if all the Governments of Eu- 
 rope and America had conceded to Great Britain the right of dele- 
 gating to her ships of war the police of the seas. But as such a right 
 has not been conceded, if the master of a merchant vessel, belong- 
 ing to a powerful State, (I say powerful, because those who are not 
 so, have much to fear from the justice of the noble Lord) should re- 
 fuse to produce his flag and papers to the British Commander search- 
 ing his vessel; if he should allow her to be captured and condemned, 
 and should afterwards prove his nationality, would not the British 
 Government be obliged to pay a heavy compensation for the losses 
 and injury occasioned to that ship ? And if there should be specu- 
 lators, being the subjects of powerful nations, who should engage 
 in the trade on the strength of such compensations, to what an enor- 
 mous sum might they not amount? to say nothing of the serious 
 disputes to whicli such proceedings might give rise between the En- 
 ' glish Government and tliose of other nations. 
 
 In concluding the analysis of the speech of Lord Palmerston, I 
 would call the attention of the reader to that which I am about to 
 relate, and which will also assist in better appreciating his conduct 
 on this question : 
 
 In the month of April, 1838, the noble Lord stated to the Bri- 
 tish Judges of the Mixed Commission at Rio de Janeiro, "I have 
 
 (1) 77/^ Mirror, House oj Commons, August 8, 1831),
 
 57 
 
 "now to instruct you, that vessels owned l)y Brazilian subjects, or 
 " by Portuguese subjects, resident in Brazil, and which L^liall be 
 " found carrying slaves for sale from Africa to Brazil, may, not- 
 " withstanding that they are sailing under the Portuguese flag, be 
 " properly brought before the Court of which you are members, ami 
 " may be condemned by that Court, under the Treaty of the 23rd 
 " November, 182G, between Great Britain and Brazil, for the sup- 
 " pression of the Slave Trade ; unless such vessels shall have been 
 ••' built in a port belonging to the dominions of Portugal, or shall 
 " have borne the flag of Portugal, and no other, before the issue of 
 " the Decree of the IGth January, 1837." (1) 
 
 In October 1838, the British judges of the Mixed Commission of 
 Sierra Leone, wrote to the noble Lord respecting this decision, and 
 founding their opinion on that of Lord Stowell, one of the highest 
 
 legal authorities of England, they said "it is true that tee 
 
 " cannot be considered either as a Municipal or as an English 
 "Court; but the principle laid down is equally applicable to us. 
 " It is, that onlj' by the express stipulations of a Treaty can any 
 " Court be ' armed with authority to notice offences against the inter- 
 " nal laws of another country.' In this case, there is no Article in the 
 " Treaty, by which we are armed with authority to take cognizance 
 " of the build and transfer of Portuguese ships ; or to deprive a ves- 
 " sel sailing under a Portuguese flag and pass, of her Portuguese 
 " character, solely on account of her foreign construction." 
 
 " On the contrary, the Treaty is directly opposed to the exercise 
 " of such an authority, and declares (see Art. of the instructions,) 
 " that the Portuguese or foreign construction of a vessel shall in no 
 " jvise affect her nationality." 
 
 " It may be urged, that this article of the Treaty is virtually ab- 
 " rogated by the total abolition of the Portuguese Slave Trade. We 
 " might reply, that the abolition on the part of Portugal can affect 
 " only her own suV)jecls ; and that no additional powers have ac- 
 " crued thereby to Great Britain, as it is certain that the Slave Trade 
 " to any extent may still be carried on by Portuguese vessels south of 
 " the Line with perfect impunity, so far as British cruisers are con- 
 " cerned, w ho enjoy at the present day no more right to seize such 
 " vessels in southern latitudes, than they did when that trafbc was 
 " permitted by the Portuguese law. We might also reply, that the 
 " intention of the contracting parties, with regard to the effect which 
 " Portuguese or foreign construction should have on the nationality 
 " of a vessel, was, at any rate, positively shown in this article; and 
 " that nothing but an additional article, or equally formal stipula- 
 " tion, would authorise us to act in direct contradiction to a declared 
 " intention, which will not admit of question or mistake." (2) 
 
 Here we have the British Judges themselves of the oldest of the 
 
 (1) Class A. (Further Series), 2)arje V?. 
 
 (2) Class ^.—ibid p.2\.
 
 58 
 
 Mixed Commissions, confirming that wliich the Portuguese Govern- 
 ment had repeatedly stated to that of Great Britain — that the decree 
 of the 10th December 1836 gave it no right to cause the seizure of 
 Portuguese vessels, engaged in the Slave Trade south of the Equa- 
 tor ; that in order to do this it required the consent of the Portu- 
 guese Government, without which the British Government would 
 commit a violation of the Treaties at present in force, as in effect is 
 now being done. 
 
 I would further observe that the decree of the lOth January 1837, 
 declares " that those vessels only shall be considered Portuguese, 
 " which, up to the time of publishing this decree, shall have sailed 
 " under the Portuguese flag, and those which, in the future, shall be 
 " built in the ports of Portugal, or her dominions." 
 
 Lord Palmerston, however, referring to the provisions of that 
 decree, ordered that " vessels are not to be considered Portuguese, 
 " although bearing the Portuguese flag, unless they have been 
 " built in a port within the Portuguese dominions, or unless 
 " they bore the Portuguese flag, and no other, prior to the issue of 
 "the Portuguese decree of the 16th January 1837." (I) 
 
 Thus, by an altered and an unnecessary translation, inasmuch as 
 the causes which are tried before the Mixed Commission of Rio de 
 Janeiro, are conducted in the Portuguese language, (2) and by the 
 introduction into the said translation of the words, " and no other," 
 which are not in the original, he has contrived to give a retrospec- 
 tive effect to the decree, which in reality it does not posses j as was 
 well observed by the Commissioners of Sierra Leone. 
 
 In addition to what has been said, there remains to be consider- 
 ed the fact of the noble Lord having constituted himself the sole in- 
 terpreter of the provisions of Treaties, prescribing to the Judges of 
 the Mixed Commissions the rules by which their decisions are to be 
 guided. T would cite, for instance, the instructions which he sent 
 them in 1834, to adhere to tire principle that, in the trial of vessels 
 engaged in the Slave Trade, " the national character of a merchant 
 " is to be taken from the place of his residence; and not of Ike place 
 *' of his nativity.'' (3) 
 
 Even if such a principle were incontestible, — and the British Go- 
 vernment had always adhered to it in its transactions with other 
 States, it would have no right on that account, on its own authority 
 and without the consent of the Governments interested, to issue in- 
 structions to follow it to the Mixed Commissions, without thereby 
 committing a flagrant violation of the rights of those Governments. 
 
 (1) Class A, {Further Series) 1837, page 'i2>.—And Class A, {Further Series) 
 1838-;), page 92- 
 
 (2) Convention of 1817 — Regulation for the Mixed Commissions, Art. II. 
 (;<) Class A, {Further Scries) 1838 -l), fiage ID. 21.
 
 59 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 I now proceed to offer a few observations on the speech delivered 
 in the House of Lords by the first Lord of the Admiralty, Karl 
 Minto, on tiie subject of the i3ill in (juestion. 
 
 He said " the Portuguese Government determined to send out a 
 " new Governor to the island of St. Tlionie; and how do your Lord- 
 " ships think he was sent out ? Why, in a sliip e(|uipped as a slaver ! 
 " That ship was seized by one of our cruisers, and carried to Rio 
 " de Janeiro, but the Courts refused to condemn the vessel, on the 
 "ground that the ship and crew were both Portuguese." (1) 
 
 Of the facts here asserted by the noble Earl, not one ever took 
 place. The Governor of St. Thomas, to whom he alludes, left Lis- 
 bon in the French brig, the Rose du Tage, chartered by the Portu- 
 guese administration, and carrying also some troops, passengers, 
 and warlike stores. This vessel sailed for her destination at the 
 end of April 1838, and returned from that island direct to Lisbon, 
 where she arrived in October of the same year, bringing a cargo for 
 account of private individuals, and a {ew passengers on account of 
 the Government. 
 
 The vessel carried to Rio de Janeiro by the British cruisers, was 
 the Flur de Loanda, which the Anglo-Brazilian Mixed Commission, 
 decided that they could not try, because she was Portuguese. It is, 
 therefore, surprising that the first liord of the Admiralty, the Mi- 
 nister of Marine of Great Britain, should assert as a fact, that which 
 he ought to have known was not so, with a view to make accusations 
 against the Portuguese Government ! 
 
 I will here cite what the British Judges of that same Mixed Com- 
 mission, wrote to Lord Palmerston under date of the 26th Septem- 
 ber, 1838, respecting the capture of the said vessel. — After stating 
 that the owner, master, and another individual, belonging to the Flor 
 de Loanda, had been sent in irons on board the transport Buffalo 
 which had sailed for England on the 16th of the same month (2) 
 they add," we cannot but deeply regret the various circumstances 
 " which have occurred with regard to this vessel, since the first sen- 
 " tence of the Court was given on the I9tli June, and which have 
 " been of a nature to do more harm to our cause, and to indispose 
 " even those most favourable to the suppression of the traffic, than 
 " any event within our recollection." (3) 
 
 On the oth February, 1839, the said judges, writing to Lord Pal- 
 merston on the same subject of the FlOr de Loanda, which had been 
 
 (1^ The Mirror, ibid— House of Lords, August 1, 1839. 
 (2) Class A, 1838-9, page 188-9. 
 {^) Ibid— page 189. 
 
 I
 
 60 
 
 three months in the port of Rio de Janeiro, with (he captured ne- 
 groes on board, say " With regard to the first object, the mortality 
 " and misery which has already attended this unhappy cargo, (Flor 
 * de Loanda) — destitute for a long time, during the most inclement 
 " season, not only of the necessaries, but even of the decencies of 
 
 " clothing — were unexampled and moreover, however atrocious 
 
 " might be the crime of the individuals concerned in her, that the 
 '' conduct practised towards them, such as putting them repeatedly 
 " in irons, &c., was not warranted by the Instructions, under which 
 " the seizure was made, nor by the Portuguese decrees, supposing 
 " them even to have been applicable to the Fl6r de Loanda "....( I ) 
 Such a proceeding was deserving of the severest punishment ; 
 but on the contrary, the Commander of the British cruiser, which 
 captured the Flor de Loanda, was promoted, and his promotion was 
 officially communicated to the Portuguese Government. The first 
 Lord of the British Admiralty, and the administration of which he 
 is a member, thus rewarding conduct, to which the British judges 
 themselves of a Mixed Commission, had affixed the stigma of reprO' 
 bation. 
 
 The noble Earl, in his speech, entirely misrepresented also the 
 transaction at the port of Mozambique, in which the Commander of 
 the British brig of war Leveret boarded the Spanish ship Diogenes, 
 anchored under shelter of the Portuguese forts, cutting and maim- 
 ing all whom they met with, including several officers of the Custom 
 House of that colony, w ho were on board the Diogenes performing 
 the duties of their office; a proceeding which the British Govern- 
 ment itself officially acknowledged to be irregular. Notwithstand- 
 ing this, the Commander of the Leveret was promoted, and his pro- 
 motion was communicated to the Portuguese Government. 
 
 The noble Earl, having detailed these occurrences in a manner at 
 variance w ith the real facts, concluded by accusing the Portuguese 
 Government of bad faith ! The noble Earl, however, ought to know, 
 that if there was bad faith on the part of either of the two Govern- 
 ments in these transactions, it cannot be attributed to that which he 
 accused ; and that any one would deem himself justified, on the au- 
 thority of facts proved in a manner opposed to that adopted by the 
 noble Earl in his narration, in turning the accusation against the 
 administration of which the noble Earl is himself a member. 
 
 The historical notice above given of the negociation of the Treaty, 
 and the analysis of the speech of liord Palmerston, will have shewn 
 beyond possibility of doubt, that there were no grounds, nor even 
 appearance of justice, for the acrimonious accusations preferred 
 against the Portuguese (iovernment by the noble Lord ; who, in or- 
 der to make them, did not hesitate to have recourse also to proposals 
 which took [)lace duiing the progress of" the negociation, and which 
 had been abandoned ; as is shown by the 'I'reaty negociated by me 
 
 (1) Clans A. (Further Series) page 111.
 
 61 
 
 with Loi\l Huward ile WuKk-n, the only docunu-nt in uliicli is set 
 forth the finaJ demaiuls of the Portuguese Government: it is sutiici- 
 ent to point out this w illul unachronisui, and all the arguments 
 lounded upon it fall to the ground. 
 
 The diplomatic transaction under consideration being one of 
 great extent and very complicated in its details, requires, in order 
 to be properly investigated, a considerable time ; more, probabl}', 
 than the members of the British legislature thought necessary to 
 give to it; bearing in mind that the spirit of philanthropy in Great 
 Britain would cause to be received with approbation any proposi- 
 tion which should appear calculated to promote the amelioration of 
 the condition of the African negro, and the abolition of the Slave 
 Trade. 
 
 The narrative of this transaction delivered in Parliament by the 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, received, as was natural, every cre- 
 dence; it has been shown however, that, in the representation of 
 facts, the real truth was totally disregarded. It may, therefore, be 
 taken for granted, that if the truth had been known to that body, it 
 would not have given its consent to a measure contrary to the laws 
 of nations, and directed, in particular, against a country which has 
 been for centuries the ally of Great Britain. 
 
 One voice, however, was raised in Parliament in defence of the in- 
 dependence of Portugal ; it was that of the Great General, who, 
 during six years, conducted the Portuguese army to victory, when 
 it was engaged in combating for the independence of its country, 
 and the cause of Great Britain. If that voice, which was followed 
 by many noble peers, could not arrest the progress of the measure, 
 it, at least, caused to be rejected the pretension, that Parliament 
 should consider as well founded, the gratuitous assertions which 
 Lord Palmerston had inserted in the preamble of his Bill. 
 
 Whatever may have been the motives of policy, internal or exter- 
 nal, which determined the noble Lord to proceed in the manner he 
 did, it is certain that he preferred taking a hostile step against Por- 
 tugal, to confirming a Treaty, negociated and concluded by the Bri- 
 tish Plenipotentiary at Lisbon ; a Treaty, the stipulations of w hich 
 for the suppression of the Slave Trade, were much more efficacious 
 than those of the Convention of 1817, or than those of all the Trea- 
 ties concluded between Great Britain and other powers. 
 
 lie has proposed and obtained a law, that the Commander of the 
 British Navy, who shall capture vessels under the Portuguese flag, 
 suspected of being engaged in the Slave Trade, shall not be pro- 
 ceeded against in the British Courts, on the ground of having exe- 
 cuted the orders of their Government. By this fact, the noble Lord 
 acknowledged that, in conformity to the Treaties between Portugal 
 and Great Britain, the said Commanders, notwithstanding the or- 
 ders of the Government, might be proceeded against in those Courts 
 for offending against the laws in force — that is, against the existing 
 Treaties.
 
 62 
 
 If those Commanders were liable to be condemned, even in the 
 case of their executing the orders of their Government, it was be- 
 cause that Government had no ri^ht to authorize them to make cap- 
 tures, except to the north of the Equator, and in conformity with 
 the Convention of 1817: and as several vessels, bearing the Portu- 
 guese flag, had been captured south of the Equator by the British 
 cruisers, acting under the authority of their Government, previous to 
 the introduction of the Bill by the latter, it follows that for such a 
 flagrant violation of existing Treaties, it was requisite for the noble 
 Lord to obtain from Parliament an Act of Indemnity. By indirect 
 means he has obtained this Act; which, though it may suffice to 
 shield the responsibility of the noble Lord before the laws of Eng- 
 land, which he had infringed, has no power whatever to absolve him 
 from the infractions of Treaties made with foreign powers. 
 
 If the noble Secretary of State did not require an act of indemnity, 
 •where was the use of a law authorising British cruisers to capture 
 vessels with Portuguese flags south of the Equator, when they had 
 already done so in many instances under the authority of the Go- 
 vernment ? And it was subsequent to such proceedings, that Lord 
 Palmerston accused Portugal of a violation of Treaties; when it is 
 against himself alone that the accusation ought to be preferred. — 
 A singular situation for a Statesman to place himself in, who, from 
 the high office he fills, is so conspicuous among civilized nations I 
 
 He, however, shewed himself conscious of the injustice of his case, 
 by adopting premises, as the basis of his accusations, of the incor- 
 rectness of which he could not be ignorant — by not mentioning in 
 the debate the fact, that a Treaty for the suppression of the Slave 
 Trade had been negociated by the Portuguese Government with the 
 British Plenipotentiary, concealing that he (the noble Lord) did not 
 ratify that Treaty, although the Portuguese Government had always 
 been ready to sign it, notwithstanding various acts done by order of 
 the noble Lord, which appeared as if intended to break off" the ne- 
 gociation — and by employing in Parliament the most bitter language 
 against the Portuguese Government, when he ought to have known 
 that, in spite of serious difficulties, that Government, of late years, 
 by a series of Acts now in execution, had proceeded with unremitted 
 exertions in the suppression of that traffic. 
 
 And can this proceeding on the j)art of the Minister of so power- 
 ful and enlightened a nation, against a country which he knows that 
 he can injure without exposing himself to danger, be ever deemed 
 an act of necessary energy or of magnanimous resolution ? 
 
 There might, perhaps, be some excuse for the unjust partiality of 
 the measure of the noble Lord, if there were any chance of its being 
 effectual for the suppression of the Slave Trade ; but this will not 
 be the case, seeing the facility with which it may be evaded in the 
 manner already pointed out to the noble Lord, in 1838, by the Bri- 
 tish .Judges of the Mixed Commission of Sierra Leone, who said, 
 •' Driven from tlie shelter which has latterly been afforded by the
 
 63 
 
 " colours of Portufjal, the slave-dealers of all nations are now in- 
 " yoking the protection of the flag^ of the United States." (1) 
 
 And will the noble Lord, on this account, cause orders to be is- 
 sued to the British cruisers to seize all vessels suspected of engaging 
 in the Slave Trade, without regard to the flag under which they 
 may sail — whether, for example, it be that of Russia, of the United 
 States, or of Austria ? Will he give orders for the captured vessels, 
 with their crews and cargo found on board, to be tried and con- 
 demned by the Courts of the British Admiralty ? 
 
 If the noble Lord, from this measure of legislation (or rather of 
 subversion of the fundamental principle of the independence of na- 
 tions, and w hich, for this cause, has been reprobated by all who 
 have given it their impartial consideration) could not expect any re- 
 sult favourable to the ostensible object which he had in view, there 
 must have been some other motive which actuated him in this pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 Time will reveal whether this is to be sought in the irritation of 
 an angry temper, or if it is the result of a cool calculation, which 
 sought for pretexts of accusation against the Portuguese government, 
 in order to make them the foundation on which to commence the 
 developement of premeditated designs, intended to be realized at 
 the ejtpence of Portugal, 
 
 It will be well to bear in mind, that the British Judges of the 
 Mixed Commission of Sierra Leone, in a report received by Lord 
 Palmerston in June 1839, — that is, a short time before he brought 
 in his Bill — proposed, as a measure calculated to diminish the Slave 
 Trade, and to promote the commerce of Great Britain, the immediate 
 occupation, by British forces, of the Portuguese Colonies north of 
 the Equator ; viz. Bissdo, Cacheo, the Islands of Cape Verd, St. Tho- 
 mas, and Prince Island ; pointing out also the manner in w hich the 
 Government might, for an indefinite time, retain possession of the 
 said Colonies, and how to carry this act of usurpation into effect, 
 without appearing to be actuated therein by motives of interest or 
 ambition. 
 
 When writing this, these Judges were aware, as was seen above, 
 that the Portuguese Government, by the decree of the 16th January, 
 1837, had prohibited the transfer of the Portuguese flag to vessels 
 of foreign construction, which, till then, had been permitted by the 
 law, on the vessel becoming the property of Portuguese. They 
 could not have been ignorant that one of the Judges of the Mixed 
 Commission at the Havannah had w ritten to Lord Palmerston in 
 July 1838, that " with regard to the use of the Portuguese flag, it is 
 " said that most of the vessels either have no papers at all, or that 
 
 " the papers are forged and the papers which it has been said 
 
 " were to be procured at the Cape de Verd Islands for a few dol- 
 
 (1) Class A, (Further Series) General, page \bZ.
 
 64 
 
 " lars, were no doubt counterfeits ;" ( 1 ) nor, that, in consequence 
 of the Decree of the 10th Dec. 1836, several vessels had been cap- 
 tured at those Islands, under suspicion of being engaged in the 
 Slave Trade ; as, for instance, the Schooners Ether, Roberta, Con- 
 stitu^do, Fanny Butter, Terrivel, and the Brigs, D. Pedro and Ca- 
 moes; some of them being condemned, even on the spot. (2) 
 
 The said Judges ought to have known that the Slave Trade is not 
 carried on at the Islands of St. Thomas and Prince ; nor could it 
 be, without the consent of the British cruisers — because in those Is- 
 lands, there are almost always some of the cruisers belonging to the 
 fleet stationed in the Gulf of Benin. 
 
 Those Judges, who in the same report tell Lord Palmerston, that 
 of the vessels condemned by the Mixed Commission in 1838, more 
 than one half were engaged in the traffic in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood of Sierra Leone, do not propose the occupation by British forces 
 of the River Pongo, nor of the Gallinas, nor of other Ports, which 
 are within a few hours' sail of that Colony, and in which the Slave 
 Trade has, for many years, been carried on with the greatest acti- 
 vity, (3) and where, it is said, some of the slaves liberated by the 
 Mixed Commission, have sometimes been sold again, and embarked 
 for America; but they propose the occupation of the Portuguese 
 Islands, some of which are forty days' sail from Sierra Leone ; and 
 they make this proposition in the same report, in which they state 
 that " it is a remarkable fact, that every one of the thirty vessels 
 
 " which have been adjudicated, professed to be Portuguese 
 
 " To four of them, however, (the Deixa Fallar, Gratiddo, Camoes, and 
 " Veloz,) a Brazilian character was clearly attached, and the remain- 
 " ing twenty-six were undoubtedly Spanish." (4) 
 
 If it were possible that the suggestion of the Judges of Sierra 
 Leone could merit the attention of the British Government — if this 
 latter could believe that, with a view to put an end to the Slave 
 Trade, it ought to occupy the countries where it is carried on, or 
 where the said Government imagines it to be carried on, it would be 
 in the countries which import the slaves that the occupation would 
 be of any use ; because, by closing the markets into wlaich they are 
 imported, the exportation would cease from Africa, where it will be 
 sure to continue so long as there shall be importers : and in that 
 case, the British forces ought to occupy the whole coast of Brazil, of 
 Cuba, Porto Rico, and Texas, and also one of the United States of 
 America, viz. Louisiana — for, according to the papers laid before 
 Parliament, (5) slaves are imported there from Africa, via Texas, 
 and sold in the markets at from 800 to 1000 dollars each. 
 
 (\) Class A, pageW^y. 
 
 (2) Dispatch of the Governor General of Cape Verd. 
 (?,) Class A. {Further Series) page 151. 
 (1) Ibid. 
 
 (^) Report from the Select Committee on the Disposal of Land in the British 
 Colonics — 1 83(', page 171.
 
 Notwithstandinjj the proposition of those Jiul<;cs, and their afTirm- 
 ation " that all the eHbrts made to this time to put a stop to the 
 " trade, have proved fruitless," it cannot be believed that their su;^- 
 gestion could be admitted by the British Government, nor that the 
 latter covets the Colonial possessions which yet belonji; to the crown 
 of her most faithful Majesty; which are monuments of the persever- 
 ance of the Kings of Portuy;al, and of the ex]>loits of those Captains 
 who opened to Europe the navigation of Africa and Asia, by which 
 the British nation has profited more than any other, and for this 
 reason ought, more than any other, to respect that country which 
 opened to her so vast a field a prosperity. 
 
 The occupation of any of the Portuguese territories by order of 
 the British Government, would, of itself, create a new and powerful 
 impediment to the formation of Treaties for the suppression of the 
 Slave Trade with those powers w ith whom none as yet existed ; for 
 they would reflect that that (iovernment, commencing by obtaining 
 from Portugal, in 1810, a promise of co-operation for the abolition 
 of the Slave Trade, and having, in 1817, obtained the right of 
 searching Portuguese vessels by its cruisers, these have committed 
 with impunity many violent acts against the Colonies of Portu- 
 gal, and against Portuguese subjects and their property ; that in 
 1839, it usurped the right of legislating for Portuguese subjects, 
 under a pretext afforded by arbitrary interpretations of Trea- 
 ties, at the same time making the most odious and gratuitous 
 charges against Portugal, pursuing her shipping in a hostile man- 
 ner, and dragging Portuguese subjects and their property to be 
 judged before its own Courts; and that at length it usurped the 
 very territories belonging to Portugal. The proceeding, therefore, 
 of Lord Palmerston, cannot fail to fill with apprehension and dis- 
 trust, those Governments, with whom he may have to negociate on 
 this subject. 
 
 In concluding this woik, I cannot refrain from referring to the 
 circular note, addressed by Lord Palmerston, on the 30th September 
 last, to the ministers at the Court of St. James's, of the Powers who 
 were parties to the Treaty of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, re- 
 specting the negotiations of Great Britain with Portugal, relative to 
 the Treaty for the suppression of the Slave Trade, in which note 
 the noble Lord asserts that the Portuguese Government in those ne- 
 gociations acted icith deliberate had faith, and in continual violation 
 of Treaties ; and that the complaints which it had made against the 
 Government of Great Britain were entirely false and destitute of 
 foundation. 
 
 Without pretending to express any opinion on the novel intro- 
 duction into diplomatic communications of the terms and phrases 
 made use of by the noble Lord — without staying to inquire if the 
 use of such language is an indication or not that his mind was in 
 that state of composure whicli was essential to forming an impartial 
 judgment in an affair of such importance — without even discussing 
 whether the noble Lord, alter having made such unjust accusations
 
 06 
 
 against the Portuguese Government, is the most proper statesman 
 to be judge in a cause where he has to decide on his own conduct ; I 
 invite the reader, in face of the proofs which support the history of 
 the negociation and the analysis of Lord Palmerston's speech, to ap- 
 ply his last assertions, word by word, to that party whom he shall 
 deem deserving of them ; whether to the Portuguese Government, 
 or to the noble Lord by whom they were uttered. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The gratuitous and heavy accusations made in the British Parlia- 
 ment by Lord Palmerston against the Portuguese Government, and 
 which refer especially to the time during which I was a member of 
 that Government, rendered it incumbent upon me to reply to them, 
 stating the facts exactly as they occurred. 
 
 The reader will have found in this work, a sketch of the history 
 of the Abolition of the Slave Trade; and will have remarked that a 
 King of Portugal was the first sovereign to abolish it in certain of 
 his Colonies. He will also have been able to appreciate the reasons 
 which induce me to regard as inefficacious, the system at present 
 adopted for the suppression of the trade, and that which I consider 
 alone calculated to effect its extinction. 
 
 The reader will likewise have seen, that with regard to a proposed 
 Treaty for the abolition of the trade, presented on the part of the 
 British Government to that of Portugal, on the \5th ^pril 1838, the 
 respective Plenipotentiaries had concluded a Treaty on the 22nd of 
 May following ; and that as regards the Article which was intended 
 to be additional to the said Treaty, the arrangement of which had 
 not been determined, the Portuguese Government subsequently of- 
 fered so leave it to future negociation. 
 
 He will also have recognised that Lord Palmerston, setting aside 
 the terminated negociation, ordered to be presented to the Portu- 
 guese Government, on the first August of the same year, the draft 
 of a Treaty, containing conditions exceedingly oppressive to the in- 
 terests of Portugal, declaring at the same time, that the Government 
 of Great Britain admitted of no alteration in the Treaty, or delay in 
 the signature : and that the Portuguese Government (as bound by 
 its duty) not acceding to such a requirement, still oflTered to sign 
 the Treaty which had been agreed upon. From whence it follows, 
 that all that was asserted by the noble Lord on the assumption that 
 Portugal liad refused to conclude the Treaty, is totally destitute of 
 truth, as are, for the same reason, nearly all the arguments on which 
 he founded his Bill. 
 
 In the analysis of these arguments, he will have seen demon- 
 strated, in contradiction of what the noble liord asserted ; 
 
 Ibt. That Portugal has fulfilled the stijjulations entered into with
 
 England relative to the suppression of tlie Slave Trade. 
 
 2nd. That Portugal never received any sum as the price of tiie 
 future total abolition of the trade, as asserted by Lord Palmcrston. 
 
 3rd. That the assertion is as iniquitous as it is gratuitous, that 
 the Portuguese Government had been influenced by the slave traders. 
 
 4th. That the Portuguese flag is not the only one, under which, 
 in latter times, the traffic has been carried on, as is proved by facts. 
 
 5th. That Portugal has not increased the traffic, inasmuch as 
 enormous British capitals are embarked therein. 
 
 6th, That as the Bill can be productive of but little effect in pro- 
 moting the ostensible object for which it was proposed, as is also 
 shewn by the confession of Lord Palmerston himself, its conse- 
 quences, immediate or eventual, may become very serious, both by 
 the provisions which it contains, and by the new principle adopted 
 by the British Government, of legislating for countries independent 
 of that Crown. 
 
 7th. That the injurious accusation preferred by Lord Palmerston, 
 that Portugal had made assertions destitute of truth, is totally devoid 
 of foundation ; and that the noble Lord w as incorrect, in what he 
 said of Portugal, respecting the right of search, the Mixed Commis- 
 sions, and of the Slave Trade being declared piracy. 
 
 8th. That the Bill authorizes acts of piracy ; and goes to found 
 a monopoly of the labour of the liberated negroes in favour of the 
 British Colonies. 
 
 9th. That nothing can exceed the injustice and offensiveness of 
 the supposition of Lord Palmerston, that Portugal had in view the 
 future re-establishment of the traffic, in not consenting to make the 
 Treaty perpetual ; which had not been consented to in the Treaties 
 with France and other powers. 
 
 10th. That since Portugal was prepared to conclude the Treaty, 
 the British Government had no necessity for tiie Bill. 
 
 11th. That if either of the Governments in this negociation had 
 forfeited its title to the esteem of mankind, it was that which pre- 
 ferred measures of violence to those of conciliation. 
 
 12th. The reader will also have seen, by the arguments of the 
 British Judges themselves of a Mixed Commission, that Lord Pal- 
 merston, relying on an altered translation of a Portuguese decree, 
 had committed infractions of existing Treaties between Portugal and 
 Great Britain, for which he required (at least in the eye of the En- 
 glish law) a bill of Indemnity ; which, in effect, he indirectly ob- 
 tained by his own bill. 
 
 The reader will see also that the two accusations made against the 
 Portuguese Government by the First Lord of the Admiralty, were 
 both destitute of justice, being based on facts which never occurred ; 
 he will also see, that for acts committed by the Jiritisii cruisers, in 
 contravention of Treaties, and which had called forth tlie severe cen- 
 sure of the British Judges of a Mixed Commission, he promoted the
 
 68 
 
 very individuals by whom they were perpetrated ; and he will also 
 find recorded in this work some of the numerous examples of acts 
 of violence and cupidity committed by other English cruisers. 
 
 It follows, therefore, from what has been said, that the accusations 
 against Portugal, made by Lord Palmerston in acrimonious and in- 
 sulting language, on the occasion of the debate on his bill, (which 
 was in itself an uncalled-for violation of the rights of nations) were 
 totally devoid of reason and justice ; and that those accusations can 
 only be regarded as pretexts, created by the noble Lord, for ol)jects 
 foreign to the suppression of the Slave Trade — objects which cannot 
 but be considered injurious to Portugal; since, in order to attain 
 what is just and upright, there is no occasion to seek for violent and 
 unjust means. 
 
 It must, therefore, create the greatest surprise that a Government 
 so illustrious as that of Great Britain, by the act of legislating for a 
 foreign and independent nation, should afford to the greater powers, 
 who are supposed to aim at aggrandizing themselves, an example 
 which may stimulate them, and which they may appeal to and fol- 
 low, in also dictating laws to neighbouring and less powerful States; 
 that act thus leading to the breaking up of the system of the equili- 
 brium of Europe, by which each State is restrained within its re- 
 spective limits, and consequently placing in peril some of the most 
 important interests of Great Britain herself; and that the example 
 afforded by her government may be imitated by others, is proved 
 by what has recently occurred in Central Asia — where, since the 
 march of an English army, a Russian army has also been dispatched. 
 
 Lisbon, December, 1839. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 7, line II— For thousands, read millions. 
 
 42 — For enjoyed, read employed. 
 
 Page 10, line 4 — For south, read north. 
 
 12 — For the month, read that month. 
 
 27 — For their annexes, read three annexes. 
 
 N.B. Page 35, line 5 and 11 — dratving vp — the English language 
 has no parallel term which, in one word, will 
 express the meaning of the Portuguese word 
 redacf-ao — the nearest are correction, revision, or 
 settlement of terms, in order to avoid ambiguity, 
 misinterpretation, &c. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 #A 
 
 '^ 

 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 f i'^ "^ 
 
 
 REC 
 /ic 
 mu6 %> 
 
 Ql 
 
 41584 
 
 « 
 
 m 
 
 ^i^.r-v .X--*
 
 m 
 
 rg> 
 
 AA 001 374 692