§ Mr. Fowell Buxtontook the opportunity of asking the right hon. Baronet the President of the Board of Control, whether it was the intention of the government of India to put an end to slavery in that country?
§ Sir John Hobhousecould only repeat what he had stated in reply to a similar question in the last Session of Parliament, that the Government of India were taking such steps to ameliorate the condition of slavery as, at no distant period, should lead to its total extinction. The hon. Member must be aware that the domestic slavery of the East was very different from that of the slavery of the negroes in the West Indies; but he might rest assured that neither the Home authorities nor the Local Governments would for a moment lose sight of an object which every Englishman desired to see attained—the total extinction of slavery in every part of the British dominions.
§ Mr. Fowell Buxtonadmitted, that the domestic slaver of the East might at the present momen be of a very mild character; but he felt perfectly satisfied if sugar should be grown to any extent in the East that the system of slavery would soon become as disgraceful as it had ever been in the West.
§ Sir John Hobhouseassured the hon. Gentleman that, supposing sugar to be cultivated on a more extensive scale in 1854 India than it had hitherto been, the Government at home, as well as in the East, would take ample care that no such state of slavery should arise as had existed in the West Indies.
Mr. FowellBuxton was much obliged to the right hon. Baronet for that assurance. He begged, however, to put another question connected with the same subject. He had received communications from the Mauritius, by which he was informed that a vast number of the natives of Bengal had of late been imported into that island as well as into some of the West India islands, to assist in the cultivation of sugar. He wished to know how these importations took place, and whether the natives so imported were in any degree regarded as slaves?
§ Sir John Hobhousethought, that the hon. Member must himself be well aware that the exportation of these persons from Bengal took place entirely with their own consent, and that they were landed in the different settlements to which they sailed in the character of free labourers. They were no more regarded as slaves than the House of Commons itself. The Governor-general of India, in consequence of the increased exportation of these free labourers, had thought right to make certain regulations for their transport, by which their convenience and comfort were insured. Only a certain number were allowed to embark in any ship, and that under regulations which secured their comfort on the passage. Care was also taken, in case they should not like the country to which they were removed, that every facility should be given them to return.
§ Sir George Greyas far as the colonies were concerned, begged to assure the hon. Gentleman that wherever these natives of the East were imported every precaution was taken to preserve them in a state of complete and perfect freedom.