Lord Broughamrose to put a question to his noble Friend the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, on a subject of very great importance at all times, but for particular reasons of especial interest at the present moment—the subject of the right of search, which existed under the treaties of 1831 and 1833, with France, and on which so many previous misconceptions had arisen on the other side of the Channel. He believed that, towards the middle of December, a commission was issued by his noble Friend to four persons, whom all must allow to be most competent to the task—Dr. Lushington, Captain Denman, Mr. Rothery, a proctor, and Mr. Brandinell, who were called upon to form and recommend to Government a code of instructions for the guidance of naval officers in examining suspected slave-ships, instructions which should have an uniform operation. He could not ask his noble Friend for a copy of the commission which had been issued, or the instructions delivered to the commissioners; but perhaps his noble Friend would have no objection to state whether he had been rightly informed in what he had now said, and whether any report had yet been made by those commissioners, or whether there was any expectation of a report being speedily received. He might venture to hope that the instructions recommended by them would be such as, when finally adopted by the Government, and transmitted to the cruisers to act upon, might be made public. No one circumstance, he was convinced, would tend more to satisfy the French people, their statesmen, and mercantile men, than a distinct knowledge of the instructions under which our cruisers were to act. No subject was more open in every part to misconstruction than this. Not only a 5 portion of the French press was in the pay of the colonists, but members in the French assemblies were in the receipt of large salaries as the agents of the slave islands, who of course took the view suggested to them by their constituents. He was sure, whatever the instructions were, they would be drawn up in a spirit of forbearance to the French navy, and regard for the just rights of French commerce, and with an anxious wish to remove every cause of collision between subjects of the two countries. He had no doubt that the persons entrusted with the duty to which he had referred would do everything in their power to render the chance of collision as little probable as it could be. The publication of the instructions would, he was sure, have the best possible effect elsewhere in allaying the irritation which now existed, and which, from all the accounts he received from Paris, he had reason to believe was very much on the decline already.
§ The Earl of Aberdeencould assure his noble and learned Friend that it was impossible for any man to be more desirous than he was, to take every possible means of removing or diminishing the extraordinary infatuation which had prevailed among a portion of the public in France connected with this subject. He had no doubt they would succeed in removing this prejudice, because he was convinced that the French nation generally were as sincerely desirous of putting an end to the slave-trade as we were ourselves; not, perhaps, at the price of such costly sacrifices, if not universal. Had it been otherwise, had this excitement been a pretext in order to cover any interested motives, we might have despaired of putting an end to it; but he could not doubt, with the intelligent that prevailed in that country, and the sincere desire generally entertained for the suppression of the trade, that it must give way in no long time to that benevolent desire which must be admitted to be our only motive for prosecuting this great object. He must say, however, that the instructions to which his noble and learned Friend had alluded on this occasion were not issued with any direct reference to the state of opinion in France. A commission, in fact, it was not; no formal commission had been issued. He had requested the Gentleman named by his noble and learned Friend—with whom he 6 begged to say it was a labour of love, for their services were rendered gratuitously—gentlemen whom he thought most competent to give him assistance in this matter—to revise all the instructions that had been issued for the last twenty years, under the various treaties which had been entered into on this subject, and to form from these one uniform system and code of instruction for the assistance of our officers commanding cruisers on this most difficult and responsible service. Naturally, in the course of time, many instructions had been issued which were now in some degree contradictory and inconsistent, and when we recollected the difficult service on which those officers were called to act, and the complicated nature of the treaties into which we had entered on this subject, which, in fact, were only communicated to the officers, without any instructions whatever for their guidance, it was impossible not to wonder that the cases of collision had not been more numerous. The officer was put in possession of these treaties, and left to deal with them as he best could. Looking to the events which had lately taken place, and the complaints that had arisen, he had been for some time labouring under a strong impression that we were bound to afford those gallant officers all the assistance in our power in the execution of so very difficult and responsible a duty as they had to perform. Therefore, he had requested those gentlemen, who, he was happy to find, met the approbation of his noble and learned Friend opposite, as he thought they must meet the approbation of the country—men most eminently qualified for the duty—to compose from the existing instructions and treaties such a system as would be best adapted to the purpose he had indicated. It was not only the contradictory nature of the instructions already issued, and the various obligations of the different treaties which were to be considered, but there were also questions of very general importance, affecting the law of nations, which arose in the execution of the services of our cruisers. Certainly the officers commanding them, however zealous, and however intelligent, could not always be expected to be able to decide correctly. Accordingly, on different occasions, there had been errors committed, and he held that in such cases we should do more to conciliate the good opinion and the assent of foreign powers to the course we were pursuing, by rendering prompt justice 7 whenever an error had been committed, than by taking any other course. It was wonderful how rarely cases of this kind had occurred, considering the nature of the service. Now, very rarely any deviation had taken place which could reasonably be complained of by any particular ties. He had anticipated his noble and learned Friend in desiring that those instructions should be such as might be made public to the whole world. For in this business we could have nothing to conceal; the more our motives were examined and our conduct inquired into, the more would they procure the assent and approbation of all those who were animated with the same disinterested desire of suppressing slavery as ourselves. These instructions, therefore, would be such as might be laid before the world, and he had no doubt they would produce all the great effect which his noble and learned Friend anticipated from them among the candid portion of the French public. Among those to whom his noble and learned Friend more particularly alluded, as persons interested in the slave-trade, this could not be expected. His noble Friend having given him notice of his intention to bring this subject before the House, he thought it might be satisfactory to his noble Friend and to the House to know, that in the course of last year the efforts made by this country had been signally successful in diminishing the extent of this traffic. He had brought with him a document, with the contents of which it would be most particularly gratifying to the House to be made acquainted. In one of the principal marts of this trade, the island of Cuba, he was happy to say it had greatly fallen off, and the conduct of the present Governor-general had been such as to merit the highest approbaton—nay, admiration—of every well-thinking man. The commissioners of Havannah, in their annual report made to him last month, regarding the state of the trade in the previous year, say,
In presenting this report we cannot but, in the outset, express our gratification that, for the first time in the history of the commission, we are enabled positively to say, that good faith has been observed as regards the treaty by the superior government, and that the present captain-general has, so far as was personally in his power, fulfilled the promises he made in that respect on his first assumption of his command, in the beginning of 1841. In making this just acknowledgment of General Valdez's integrity, we must take also into con- 8 sideration the number of blacks declared to be emancipated by the treaty of mixed commission, whom he has put in possession of their liberty, instead of consigning them to a servitude amounting to slavery, according to the example of his predecessors.He trusted that the efforts of the British Government to prevent the fitting out of slave vessels, and the sailing even of such as might be engaged for that trade, might now be considered to be crowned with success, and the trade, as hitherto carried on, to be nearly at an end. He held in his hand a return of the number of vessels equipped for the slave-trade in each of the last five years. In 1838, there were supposed to proceed from Havannah and the neighbourhood, 71 vessels; in 1839, the number was 59; in 1840, 54; in 1841, 31; in 184, only 3 vessels. The total number of slaves supposed to have been imported into the whole island, was, in 1838, 28,000; in 1839, 25,000; in 1840, 14,470; in 1841, 11,857; in 1842, 3,140. In 1837, the year previous to the commencement of this return, the number imported was believed to be 40,000. The negroes emancipated under the decree of the mixed commission had hitherto been kept in a state of servitude amounting almost to slavery, and former Governments had refused to release them, contrary to treaty. They were not slaves, but they had never enjoyed entire freedom. The present Governor-general had, in the course of last year, released upwards of 1,200, and put them in possession of their entire freedom; a number not very considerable still remained in a state of servitude. They might amount to about 300; but they also, there was no doubt, would be put in possession of their entire freedom. The Governor of Cuba also had, in the course of last year, made four or five seizures of crews of newly imported Africans, whom he had placed in freedom at once. It was known that the sacrifices which, in the performance of his duty, General Valdez had made, were to him the difference between great wealth and that poverty to which he had resigned himself, for General Valdez was a man of inflexible integrity, and was proud of his poverty, which he would not exchange for the guilt of riches acquired by such means as had been placed again and again within his reach. His noble Friend knew, he was sure, that this was the case, and that the Governor was, by the line he had followed, a loser to a great amount. If they had 9 the good fortune to see General Valdez continued in the Government of Cuba, no doubt would remain that the slave-trade would in a short time be extinguished.
§ The Earl of Clarendoncould not refrain from expressing very sincere satisfaction at the statement just made by his noble Friend. The reference of the laws and regulations for the conduct of the right of search to a commission of persons so able and in every way so well deserving of public confidence would meet with general approbation, and lead to the well-founded expectation that a code would be established under which the right of search would be exercised with an entire avoidance of collisions between the ships of the different countries, and without any interruption of international harmony and good feeling. He was glad that his noble Friend agreed with his noble and learned Friend near him as to the propriety of publishing the regulations. He believed nothing would go further to destroy the doubts which had hitherto existed among foreign nations as to the sincerity of England, and the purity of the motives by which she was actuated in abolishing the slave-trade. It was believed by some classes of persons abroad that her guiding principle was to ruin the prosperity of the colonies of our neighbours, and reduce them to what was believed to be the degraded and wretched level of our own possessions. Nothing would create a more general belief that we were acting in sincerity, and not from party motives, or from national jealousy. One ground of the distrust and ill-feeling against us among foreigners which prevailed on this question was, their total ignorance of the principles on which we proceeded, as well as of the regulations in use to give effect to the views of our Government. Therefore, he thought that to publish these regulations would be productive of great advantage, and would tend to remove the irritation that now existed abroad on this question. He had had the honour of knowing General Valdez well for several years, and could bear testimony that there was not a more honourable man living. He left his country for Cuba with an honest determination to put down the slave-trade. It was quite true that his predecessors had been in the habit of receiving large sums of money, not only for countenancing the slave-trade, but for affording it direct assistance. The price paid to the governor for each slave intro- 10 duced into the colony had been as much as an ounce of gold, which was equal to 3l. 16s. 6d., and when it was borne in mind that as many as 40,000 slaves were introduced in one year, their Lordships might easily imagine what large fortunes the governors of Cuba had an opportunity of making by lending their assistance to the traffic. General Valdez had not taken one farthing, but remained as poor as when he went over to the colony, and was justly proud of his honourable poverty.
Lord Broughamrejoiced to hear such gratifying intelligence, which would afford the greatest satisfaction to those benevolent men who had exerted themselves so long and so strenuously for the suppression of the slave-trade. Many persons who were most anxious for its abolition had despaired of putting down the trade, except by the abolition of slavery in America or by the civilization of Africa. He was certainly satisfied that the abolition of slavery in America would be incompatible with a continuance of the slave-trade, and so, no doubt, would be the civilization of Africa; but he was not disposed to be idle himself or consent to the country doing nothing while waiting for a state of things that might not be realised for centuries. The statements of his noble Friend as to the effects of vigorous operations against the slave dealers, clearly proved how absurd these notices were which some entertained of all such labour being vain and fruitless. He congratulated the House on all that they had heard that evening, and he cordially joined in the eulogium which had been pronounced upon General Valdez.
The Earl of Haddington, though unwilling to prolong this discussion, felt that it would be unjust to the officers of the navy to allow the conversation to close without bearing his testimony to their good conduct. If their Lordships could but read the letters which those gentlemen were in the habit of writing home to the Admiralty, their Lordships would be able to form some idea of the zeal, caution, and forbearance which the officers of the navy were constantly exercising. He had no doubt that the most valuable results would be obtained from the new code of instructions drawn up by the commission, upon which it had afforded him the greatest satisfaction to place the name of captain Denman, whose services he highly appreciated, in compliance with the suggestion of his noble Friend.