PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY INTO THE SLAVE-TRADE PREVENTIVE SYSTEM.
TO THE EDITOR OP THE SPECTATOR.
Blackheath, 24th March 1842.
Sxn—Lord STANLEY has moved for two Select Committees, one "to in- quire into the state of the West India Colonies," the other "into the state of the British Possessions on the Coast of Africa, more especially with refer- ence to their present relations with the neighbouring Native tribes." To the latter Committee I be to draw your particular attention. In the speech prefacing the motion for these Committees, his Lordship stated the object of the second one was, to ascertain whether the British settlements on the coast of Africa could be made available as shipping-ports for free-la- bourers to the West Indies, without exciting the suspicion that we were carry- ing on the slave-trade under another name, or in reality stimulating the in- ternal African slave-trade. I need hardly say, that in the object of both Com- mittees I most heartily concur. The sooner the claims of the West India Planters on our sympathy, to which they are indebted for their present privi- leges, are thoroughly sifted, the better; the sooner the African, whom we can- not protect in his own country, is allowed and encouraged to remove himself to the West Indies, where we can protect, employ, and civilize him, the better for himsel& for our Colonies, and for his fatherland. I object, however, to the inquiry being limited to the capacity of our African settlements to act as feeders to the West Indies : and that this is the intention of the noble lord I think evident; as, when Dr. BOWRING "trusted he would allow the Committee to extend its inquiries into the failure of the late Niger Expedition," Lord STANLEY was silent, and Mr. VERNON SMITH "hoped the noble lord would not consent to the suggestion of the learned and honourable gentleman." From this silence of the noble lord, and the expressed hope of a member of the late Government, the subject of the Niger Expedition is evidently to be tabooed; a very hard case upon Sir FOWELL Buxrort and his party, who planned it, (and who are doubtless most anxious to justify it before a Committee of the House of Commons,) upon the officers who conducted it, and upon the country who paid for it. There are twenty-three Members of the House of Commons on the Committee of the Society for the Civilization of Africa and the Extinction of the Slave-trade; surely one of these gentlemen will press upon Lord STANLEY the necessity of some inquiry, into the late expedition, or at least ask Mr. SMITH to give some reason why it should not be gone into. Will not the sub- ject bear probing to the bottom, from the conception of the project to the re- turn of Captain TROTTER? Leaving out, however, all other reasons, the in- terests of the African race demand that some inquiry should be made why an expedition is given up that was brought forward by Lord JOHN RUSSELL with the following frank admission of the inefficiency of all our former efforts— "Her Majesty's confidential advisers are therefore compelled to admit the con- viction that it is indispensable to enter upon some new preventive system, cal- culated to arrest the foreign slave-trade in its source, by counteracting the principles by which it is now sustained."• If the newpreventive system alluded to by his Lordship has answered, it will be most gratifying to the Committee to remove the very general impression at present existing that his Lordship's plans have been abandoned by his successors in office as visionary and im- practicable. Another point closely connected with the welfare of the Negro is apparently also to be prohibited, and that is the efficiency or the non-efficiency of the ex- isting system for the suppression of the foreign slave-trade; for though Lord JOHN'S new preventive system was tried, the old one was carried on at the same time, and still exists. It appears to me that this is a very important branch of an inquiry into the state of our settlements on the coast of Africa: if they are ever to rise into commercial importance, it can only be by the extinction of the slave-trade, allowing the Negroes to cultivate their lands in peace; and, as I shall prove the present system to be an inefficient one from the highest autho- rities, I hope some Member will move an instruction to the Committee speci- ally to inquire into it. The Mixed Commission Court commenced its sittings in 1819: it has there- fore been from twenty-two to twenty-three years at work. In 1819, seven cruisers were thought sufficient for the suppression of the slave-trade : in 1842, there are required on the Brazils, the Cape, and the coast of Africa, twenty-nine vessels of war employed in the same service, or if the flag-ships are thrown out, twenty-seven vessels, mounting 317 guns, besides some in the West Indies.
In 1830, the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Sierra Leone and Fernando Po recommended, that in the ensuing session Parliament should take into consideration the very important question, "whether the system now followed for the prevention of the slave-trade has answered the object intended." Before that Committee, Mr. George Jackson, one of the Judges of the Mixed Commission Court, was of opinion " that the cause of humanity was by no • Parliamentary Papers—Niger Expedition. means served by the attempt to stop the slave-trade." On the Slat December 1838, Mr. MACAULAY, the head of the Mixed Commission Court, reports to Lord PALMERSTON—" If the present system is not altered, this country has no alternative but retiring at once from the contest she has so long waged, baffled, beaten, and insulted by a set of lawless smugglers." In 1839, Lord Jons Rue- sem. states, that " To suppress the foreign slave-trade by a marine guard, would scarcely be possible if the whole British Navy were employed for the purpose." In 1840, the Society for the Civilization of Africa and the Ex- tinction of the Slave-trade state, in their prospectus—" Great Britain has ex- pended in bounties alone upwards of 940,0001.; in the maintenance of the Mixed Commission Courts, above 320,0001. ; besides a very large sum annually in supporting a considerable number of cruisers in various parts of the globe to intercept and destroy the traffic" • adding a note that the total expense incurred for this object exceeds 15,000,0001. sterling. They then say—" The result, the melancholy result, remains to be stated. The traffic has not been extinguished, has not been diminished : the number exported has increased; and the annual loss of life has risen from 17 to 25 per cent." And lastly, Sir FOWELL Box- TON, in his work on the " Slave-trade " and its "Remedy," published in 1840,— solemnly declares—" Millions of money and multitudes of lives have been sa- crificed ; and in return for all, we have only the afflicting conviction that the slave-trade is as far as ever from being suppressed. Nay, I am afraid the fact is not to be disputed, that while we have been thus endeavouring to extinguish the traffic, it has actually doubled in amount "—Page 203. The last authority I have quoted had interest to get his " Remedy " tried; it is, whatever may be said to the contrary, virtually abandoned by the Government : the question re- mains, is the system denounced by two Judges of the Mixed Commission Courts, by Lord JOHN Rosssi.r., by the Society for the Civilization of Africa, by Sir FOWELL BUXTON, and which twelve years ago a Select Committee of the House of Commons recommended immediate inquiry into, to be passed over without any notice ? Are we still to go on increasing the cruelty of the slave- trade without diminishing its amount ? spending half a million annually in a preventive system, which every man who has visited the coast of Africa, every naval officer who has served there, knows to be inefficient, costly, and cruel? Surely not. It is a case which calls loudly for inquiry ; which every true friend of the African race will get to the bottom of. If any one can vindicate its continuance, here is an opportunity for his being heard, before, with all its faults, the fairest English tribunal—a Parliamentary Committee. If it is con- tinued, let the country know who takes the responsibility of it. This question of the Slave-trade Preventive System is becoming of more and more importance. In a letter on this subject, calling for inquiry, which you did use the favour to insert in the Spectator of the 29th January last, I claimed for it a place second only to the " Condition-of-England question ": some of my friends laughed at the idea, and thought it approached to the burlesque. I cannot think so. I consider the greatest evil that could befal our country and man- kind generally would be a war between Great Britain and the United States ; and this very question, in the shape of the " right of search," is at the bottom of the only dispute, among the many we have with our Transatlantic brethren, that does not admit of being and that never will be compromised. Without enter- ing into the merits of the question in dispute, it is evident that the American Government may turn round upon us and say, " Prove that our granting the right of search will do the African any good, and then we will take your demand into consideration": and, judging from past experience, all the diplo- macy in the world would find it difficult to do that. Are we ready to go to war to gain a point we ask for in the name of humanity, which we cannot prove has any thing to do with it ? I am quite aware, that in advocating the abolition of our slave-trade squadron, I am taking a very unpopular view of this subject ; that a great deal will be said about the honour of the country being pledged to the course it has hitherto pursued—about giving up the Africans to the tender mercies of the Spanish and Portuguese slave-traders, the fearful impetus that would be given to the slave-trade, 8:c. &c. To all this, and much more of the same sort, I reply, that there can be no honour in pursuing any course that does harm in- stead of good; that the Africans are, under the present system, in the power of their enemies, with the superadded misery we create by making Jaye- trade a smuggling one; and that as to the extension of the t-eue tinder an open system, it has yet to be proved that it would happen, my own opinion being that it would have a totally different effect4 But I am content to rest the whole case against the present system on the broad principle, " that we have no right to inflict a positive evil in the annual export of slaves, (which we have allowed we cannot prevent,) for the chance of doing a problematical good to those we may liberate. Dr. MADDEN's Report was alluded to by Mr. VERNON SMITH as a very confidential document : if it is to be considered so, all I have to remark is, that some merchants in London and Liverpool, and some officers on the coast of Africa, have been very ill-used, as reports have been very freely circulated ever since Dr. MADDEN'S return, not idol! complimentary to their character. I will only allude to two of them : one affects our settlements on the Gold Coast, where Dr. MADDEN is said to have found it necessary to issue a proclamation against British subjects holding slaves, after an altercation with some of the residents respecting the meaning of the Emancipation Act on the coast of Africa; the other a charge against a Naval Commander on the station, for sending a brig of war to the Gambia for some runaway slaves belonging to Madame FERRARA of Prince's Island, one of whom committed suicide on board H. M. vessel, preferring death to a return to slavery. Do these sort of details comprise the confidential part of Dr. MADDEN'S report ? if so, why are they whispered about, and no opportunity offered to the parties spoken of to reply. I hope Dr. MADDEN will be examined on this point : he went out in a public capacity ; there are no political secrets about our settlements on the coast ; and if the confidential nature of the report is only assumed to prevent unpleasant disclosures, the sooner those who keep it back are exposed, the better. I think, Sir, I have made out a case for inquiry: perhaps not logically, for on this subject I write more from my heart than my head ; but I am impressed with the belief that if the opportunity this Committee offers of sifting this matter to the bottom is lost, it may never occur again.: There are too many influences at work to prevent inquiry, not openly but covertly, many not daring to acknowledge their unwillingness even to themselves. May I beg your assistance in bringing such an inquiry about?
A perfectly free trade in slaves would act in one of two ways,- 1st, There are 400,000 slaves in Cuba, whose average value I now suppove to be 501., or a total capital of 20,000.0001.: a free trade would lower their value to 201. a head, or even less; a perfect prohibition would raise it to 1801.—the actual value on the opposite shore of Florida. Self interest would urge every slaveholder in Cuba to combine and put down the traffic, in the hope of trebling the value of his slaves, and preventing the competition he would otherwise undergo from the fresh capital thrown into plantations if Negroes could be got for 201. You would create, in fact, a slaveholding interest against the traffic : at present it is impossible to bring this policy into play; the trade being a smuggling one, and its existence denied by all the public authorities. The slavetwlding uttered put down the foreign slave trade i
de n the United States; and, through
the House of Assembly of Jamaica, petitioned the British Parliament for its abolition ;ears before it took place. Or, 2d. If the venal Spanish authorities were in shortsighted as to resist the influence of the slaveholding interest. an immense importation of slaves would take place, and Cuba would be a second St. Domingo in a year or two. I have only named Cuba, but it is evident the principle applies to all slave-importing countries.
It is remarkable that no Parliamentary inquiry has ever been made into the Slave. trade Preventive System, though Its inefficiency has been so universally admitted.
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