A new complication of the Slave-trade question with the United
States attracts some notice in America. The Negro slaves on board the brig Creole, on its way from one town to another within the Union, revolted against the Whites, murdered some, and compelled the rest to land them in a British colony, New Provi- dence. The slaves of course became freemen on touching British soil ; and the demand made by the American Consul, that the authorities at Nassau should prevent the landing of United States " property," was of course disregarded. Some of them, however, who are directly charged with murder, are detained by the local
-Rides, in orck., it is supposed, to await instructions from home as to their disposal.
The case differs somewhat from that of the Amistad Negroes. The latter were slaves newly captured in Africa by a Spanish trader : they seized the vessel, killing some in the contest, and were landed in the United States. They were tried and acquitted ; the laws of the Union not recognizing any right on the part of the slave-trader, and holding that the captives were justified in using violence to escape from kidnappers. In the case of the Creole, the slaves revolted and were landed in a foreign country ; but then the murder which they committed was not done in resisting an act of slave-trading. Would the law of England hold the slaughter which they committed justifiable homicide ? or, avoiding the ad- judication of that and every other point between the parties, must the authorities of New Providence deliver up the prisoners as sub- jects of the United States, accused of murder ?
Whichever way the lawyers settle it, it is an ugly and untimely question to be added to the many existing sources of mistrust be- tween the two countries; especially at a time when border quarrels are reviving.
