LORD BROUGHAMsaid, he wished to refer to the reply of the noble Earl the Foreign Secretary, on the previous evening, that there was a difficulty in applying the law respecting the slave trade to a foreign ship fitting out in an English port, for the purpose of stating that he had referred to the Acts of 1811 and subsequent Acts, and was obliged to confess that he could see no difficulty; but, at all events, he trusted that measures would be taken now to repress that abominable trade. He desired to urge strongly upon the noble Earl the Foreign Secretary that our Ambassador at Madrid should be directed to urge upon the Spanish Government the propriety of adopting the suggestion of Marshal Serrano, Captain General of Cuba; namely, that slave-trading on the part of 2 Spanish subjects should be made piracy and capitally punishable. The noble and learned Lord was understood to say that certain Spanish officers were believed to have received bribes for conniving at the slave trade.
§ EARL RUSSELLsaid, he would look into the papers on this subject, and make a statement on Friday on both the points referred to by the noble and learned Lord. With respect to Marshal Serrano, he believed that he was incapable of receiving bribes to permit the prosecution of the slave trade.
LORD BROUGHAMsaid, he had never heard that Marshal Serrano had been charged with or even in any way suspected of such conduct. On the contrary, he had been most pure and honourable in his government, and, as an instance of that, he had actually suggested that slave trading should be declared piracy and those engaged in it pirates, as the best mode of suppressing that abominable traffic.