§ MR. HUTT moved, that Mr. Cobden be discharged from attendance on the Slave Trade Committee, and that Mr. Cardwell, Sir Powell Buxton, and Vis 1168 count Brackley be added to the Committee.
§ VISCOUNT PALMERSTON: I think it would be advantageous that a naval officer should be appointed as one of the Committee. I admit that there is a general expectation that Sir Fowell Buxton should be added to the Committee; but there should be also some person acquainted with naval matters. For what is this Committee appointed? To inquire whether any other better methods can be adopted than those which are now adopted for the suppression of the slave trade. I do not wish to give currency to any prejudices which may exist; I do not believe that any British subjects are indirectly concerned in this abominable practice; and I am convinced that, directly, no parties are concerned in this traffic. But, on the other hand, I am afraid that, indirectly, there are no inconsiderable bodies of British subjects who look with less disfavour on this slave trade than I should do. To speak plainly, if there is any part of the United Kingdom where mercantile transactions may be supposed to connect themselves, in some way or other, with the slave trade, it is Liverpool. Goods which are employed for the payment of slaves, either go to Brazil, and are from thence conveyed to the coast of Africa, or, in some cases, are sent direct to the coast of Africa, not to the persons who exchange them for slaves, but are consigned to persons who act for other individuals in other countries who are concerned in the slave trade. The representative for Liverpool is no doubt quite as free to exercise his own judgment in this matter as many other Members would be; but Liverpool is already sufficiently represented in this Committee. There is one hon. Member, the Member for Oxford, who, by his personal acquaintance, is perfectly competent to represent any matter in which the legitimate interest of the town of Liverpool may be concerned. There is also another Member connected with Birkenhead, next door to Liverpool, who is also upon the Committee, and from whom we have had a very good specimen in this House, of the great ability with which the hon. Member is competent to present any matter which he wishes to bring under the consideration of any judges. If the hon. Member opposite will take in good part that which I can assure him I mean in good part, I should say, that my hon. Friend behind me, the Chairman of the Committee (Mr. Hutt), would meet my objection, and 1169 the objection of my hon. Friends—would kill two birds with one stone, by taking a naval officer instead of the hon. and learned Gentleman. Perhaps a naval officer, who was also a Member of the Government to which the hon. and learned Gentleman belonged—my gallant Friend Admiral Bowles—who, from his professional knowledge, will be able to give useful information, will not be objected to by the hon. and learned Gentleman. I move it without disrespect towards him, not doubting that he will give a sincere judgment on the matter. I should therefore propose to substitute the name of Admiral Bowles for Mr. Cardwell.
§ MR. CARDWELL said, that he should be the most unreasonable person in the world if, after the manner in which the noble Lord had been good enough to make this proposal, he did otherwise than take it in good part; but then the noble Lord must allow him to say, that the part he took in this House must be directed, not by personal feelings as regarded himself, but feelings of duty as regarded the community which he represented; and he did not at all take in good part the observations of the noble Lord as to the bill of indictment which he had thought proper to prefer against his constituents. The objection taken against him as serving on this Committee was, with the most abundant courtesy, placed by the noble Lord upon no personal considerations; but, in terms the most distinct, the noble Lord laid down that neither he (Mr. Cardwell) nor his Colleague were, as Members for Liverpool, persons free to be trusted to give a fair and independent opinion on the best mode of repressing the slave trade. And the reason why they were not so to be trusted was this. The noble Lord acquitted the mercantile body of Liverpool of any direct participation in the African slave trade; but he said, that such were the ramifications of interest through which the trade was carried on—so largely was there an indirect interest of British capital engaged in the prosecution of the slave trade—that the merchants of England, and of Liverpool in particular, were not free to give their opinion in a temporary Committee with respect to putting an end to the slave trade. Now, if the noble Lord had come forward, and preferred a bill of indictment against Her Majesty's Ministers, because they had thought proper to bring in, in the year 1846, a Bill for the alteration of the duties on Cuban and Brazilian 1170 sugar; because, in the various ramifications of interest by which the slave trade was conducted, it was perfectly manifest that increased importation of sugar from Cuba and Brazil would necessarily lead to increased importation of slaves from the coast of Africa into Cuba and Brazil; and that, therefore, no Member of Her Majesty's present Government was fit to be a Member of the Committee on the slave trade; and further, that no such Member of the Government was fit to be entrusted with the seals of the Foreign Department, to which department was entrusted the duty of superintending the suppression of the slave trade—
§ Mr. SPEAKER (interrupting Mr. Cardwell): Six o'clock having arrived, the House is adjourned.