§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved that the Report on the Venezuela Slave Trade Bill be received.
§ Captain Pechellthought that this was a good opportunity for complaining that the tonnage by the new measurement was taken as the standard for the measurement of the vessels taken and broken up; for the captors to obtain the bounties the act of 1838 required the production of a certificate of the registry under the new measurement, but as many vessels were captured, and broken up before the new tonnage came into operation, it was impossible for the captors to obtain the certificates of the measurement by the new tonnage, and much money still remained due to the captors. By the new method of tonnage, too, the compensation to all captors was greatly diminished. He trusted that an opportunity would be taken in this bill of providing for the payment of the bounties due to the captors, and unpaid in consequence of the difficulty to which he had alluded.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequerobserved that this bill would give bounties for vessels taken without slaves and broken up; as to the question of the measurement, all the Treasury wanted was some evidence of the amount of the tonnage; they did not require the English but the foreign tonnage; in fact, some proof of what the size of the vessels captured was.
§ Report received.