§ Sir R. H. Inglis, in rising to move for the production of Correspondence and Papers relative to liberated Africans, said, that he did not wish to introduce, and he hoped he should be able to avoid, anything which might provoke an angry discussion. He bore no ill-will to those for whose more immediate benefit the removal, or he might say the exportation, of negroes from the coast of Africa to the West Indies had been sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government; and certainly he could not be supposed to bear any ill-will to the other party engaged, namely, the negroes themselves. In the year immediately after the abolition of the Slave Trade, an Order in Council was issued, by the terms of which the case of the negroes had been governed up to the year 1844, namely, "that when landed in any place where there was a Court of Mixed Commission, the slave should be protected 1174 and provided for;" and the Government had acted upon the fair and liberal interpretation of the words which he had quoted to the House. It must be recollected that the slaves were taken upon the high seas with as little regard to their own will as they were taken from the interior of Africa to the coast. It was in the exercise of (if they pleased) a benevolent despotism that the slaver of Spain or of Portugal was captured, and its living cargo transferred from the hold of that vessel to the British Colony of Sierra Leone; the slaves themselves had no voice in selecting the direction in which they should go when taken under the charge of an English officer; they were for the purposes of option and free will as little entitled to the description of free agents as when still in the hold of the slave ship. Now, first of all, the actual sufferings of the slave while at sea were pretty nearly the same in the most favourable case, whether the vessel were commanded by a Spaniard or Portuguese, or had been captured by an English Lieutenant; and in many cases those sufferings were aggravated to a degree which human imagination could scarcely have conceived, if it had not become a matter of history. In the Narrative of Fifty Days on Board a Slaver, published by the Rev. Pascoe Hill, the horrors described, the perfect accuracy of which was guaranteed by the character of that gentleman, exceeded greatly anything, he believed, which appeared at the time when almost every heart in England—he wished for the sake of England he could say every heart—was desirous of abolishing the trade itself; and those horrors took place under an endeavour to mitigate the evils of the Slave Trade, and they took place almost necessarily, in consequence of storms and adverse winds preventing the early arrival of the vessel at the port of adjudication. It might be asked, perhaps, why he adduced that illustration, when he admitted in the same sentence that these calamities originated, not in any fault of the British officer, but in physical necessity; but he did so, for two reasons, first, because it was far from a solitary instance; and they had it in evidence in the course of the inquiries which were prosecuted two or three years ago, that a large proportion of those who were taken in the slave ships, and intended to be carried for adjudication to the Mixed Commission Court of Sierra Leone, perished in the endeavour to carry them thither. In some 1175 instances the number, as was stated in the Report of the West African Committee, ranged from one-sixth to one-half. But it was not even the mortality, frightful as that was, which would justify the introduction of the subject to the notice of the House; his second reason, and his more direct, more justifiable object, would be, to show to the public the physical condition in which the survivors of the slaves must often be brought into port; and thence to prove how little could such persons be able to exercise, at the instant, any discretion for their own benefit. One of the witnesses examined on the state of the West Coast of Africa, himself for many years a Governor on the coast, Colonel Nicolls said, "I have seen them come out of the ships like ghosts." Mr. Hill's account of their state while in the slaver, and, above all, his account of their condition when landed at the Cape, proved that their condition, dreadful as it was when they were in the midst of the voyage, was, though preferable, still most deplorable as they approached the shores on which they were to be landed. These were the persons who, whether they would or would not, being landed and adjudicated to be free, were to exercise their freedom by going at once to the West Indies. He begged the House to consider that he was not impugning the conduct of any Administration, Whig or Tory. Up to last year the present and preceding Governments had acted upon the principle which he desired to see restored; and the object of his Motion was very earnestly and very respectfully to call upon Her Majesty's Government to reconsider the case, and to review the proclamation which, under the authority of a despatch from the Colonial Department here, the Governor of Sierra Leone issued on the 12th of June in the last year. He had intimated that the condition and sufferings of the negroes when landed at Sierra Leone were such as to render it extremely improbable that persons in such circumstances could exercise a fair and real discretion whether they would remain in Sierra Leone or should migrate to the West Indies. He advisedly used the word "migrate," because he was unwilling to beg the question for the moment by using a phrase which implied the absence of volition, and therefore he would give the benefit of the supposition of its existence, though he believed it could not be exercised. But still, supposing that in ordinary circumstances they were able to exercise the discretion attributed to them in 1176 the despatch of February 10, 1844, and the Governor's proclamation issued under it at Sierra Leone on the 12th of June, 1844, even that could not apply to a large proportion of those who were seized in the holds of slavers. In the particular voyage to which he first referred, the case of the slaver the Progreso, in which Mr. Hill was a voluntary witness of the horrors which he had described—and he was glad to have an opportunity of mentioning that that gentleman went as an interpreter, to alleviate the sufferings of those unhappy beings, so far as such assistance could—the proportion of children in the ship was no less than 213 out of 447. In other slavers the proportion, though not so large, was still considerable; in one instance there was a child of six years of age. Now, the proclamation to which he desired to call the special attention of the House was one in which, acting upon the terms of a despatch from the Colonial Office, the Governor required that all persons who had been liberated in Sierra Leone, as soon as such liberation should take place under the adjudication of the competent tribunal, should decide at once whether they would or would not remain in the Colony, and whether they would or would not migrate to the West Indies. He (Sir R. Inglis) contended that it was a perfect mockery to give choice and option to the children, or even to the grown-up men. The Proclamation stated—
That Lord Stanley has been pleased to notify to us" (his Excellency William Ferguson, and so on), "that liberated Africans landed in this Colony should be apprised, that in case they prefer remaining in this Colony to emigrating to the West Indies, they must provide entirely for themselves; now, therefore, we do hereby publish, promulgate, and proclaim, that all allowances, of whatsoever description, heretofore issued to captured negroes by Her Majesty's Government, on their being landed in this Colony, will discontinue and cease, excepting clothing and maintenance while under adjudication, which will be supplied to them as formerly" (public decency would not allow of their being left in the streets exactly in the state in which they were liberated from the hold), "until they have an opportunity of emigrating to the West Indies, and no longer.This was found, even by the Governor who issued it, to be too monstrous a proposition (he would not qualify the word) to be carried into execution; for the House would observe, there was no exception either of age or sex; the Proclamation included the child of six years of age as 1177 literally as it included the full-grown and healthy labourer. The governor, therefore, on a representation being made to him, withheld from the operation of the Proclamation, but upon his own responsibility, all children under nine years of age. The hon. Member the Under Secretary for the Colonies (Mr. G. W. Hope) would, no doubt, say, that the despatch, upon the authority of which this Proclamation was issued, did but follow out a portion of the Report of the Committee, which sat upon the affairs of the West Coast of Africa in 1842, of which he (Sir R. Inglis) was a Member, and that he did not take exception to it at the time. He should not be ashamed, indeed he should be very glad, to be able to own that in the year 1845 he could think himself, or be thought by any one else, to be wiser than in 1842; and therefore he did not admit, that even if he had concurred entirely in that passage in the Report, he was so bound thereby as not to be able to lift his voice against it, if on further consideration he should feel it required. The passage ran thus:—Your Committee had next to consider whether in achieving this object" (the civilization of Africa, by the removal of negroes to the West Indies, and bringing them back again from the West Indies, with improved habits of order and civilization, and knowledge of agricultural improvements, and so forth), "any danger existed of creating a real, or plausible suspicion of a real, Slave Trade, under another name. Under proper regulations they think there is not. A free passage may be offered to the African already settled within the Colony, and to the free settler or other native, who shall have remained long enough in the Colony to give the authorities sufficient time to ascertain the circumstances under which he came, and to assure themselves that they were entirely free from all suspicion of fraud or force. To such as thus leave their homes a free passage back at the end of a certain period, say three or four years, might be promised, with full permission to them to return at any time at their own expense. To the homeless African, newly liberated, the option should be given of settling at once in the West Indies, if he please, with permission to return hereafter at his own cost, or of removing from Sierra Leone, or of remaining in it on the first adjudication, if he undertake for his own maintenance, or can find friends or relations who will undertake it for him.Now he should not have felt unwilling to maintain the accuracy and the justice of the statements, and opinions, and views, recorded in that paragraph, because he might have hoped it was not improbable 1178 that any man reading it would not have adhered so strictly to its literal meaning as not to give to the weaker party the benefit of the fair liberty of interpretation it would bear. Perhaps the Committee did not watch their words as they ought in framing and adopting that Report; it appeared to him now that the passage was susceptible of a meaning which did not occur to him at the time; namely, that instantly upon adjudication the negro should be required to make his election between maintaining himself at Sierra Leone and emigrating to the West Indies. "Homeless," as that paragraph staled him to be, houseless, naked, without knowing one word of the language of his captors, a stranger in the midst of strangers, without any skill to exercise trade or agriculture, and without any implements or tools of any kind, absolutely without assistance from the Government, or, as it seemed, from any fund or source provided in the Colony itself, he was to decide whether he would or would not starve (he might say) in the Colony, or become a forced labourer in the West Indies. He denied the right of the Government so to fetter the discretion (if such it might be called) of the liberated negroes. It must be recollected, that the Government took upon itself the whole system of dealing with these slaves, leaving no discretion to the slaves. He doubted how far the Government could be said to be at liberty after this engagement to free themselves from the obligations which it imposed. Upon the terms of that compact upwards of 52,000 slaves had been liberated and provided for in Sierra Leone up to the 31st of December, 1842. The expense of this, it was alleged, had been considerable, and they had to consider whether they would retain these unhappy beings in Africa at the cost of this country, or whether they would remove them to the West Indies, where their labour would be profitable. But he might ask his hon. Friend the Under Secretary for the Colonies whether, admitting that the expense had been 12,000l. one year, and 9,000l. another, or taking it on an average at 10,000l. a year, had they not on an average of three years an excess of income over expenditure in the Colony of Sierra Leone? He did not hesitate to say that there was. He did not, however, rest on this point; but, if he understood the engagement which was entered into when the Slave Trade was abolished, it was, that Sierra Leone, and the other places where the courts of adjudication were established, should be con- 1179 stituted as a refuge for the benefit of the liberated African, and not with the view to a profit. The engagement we had entered into was a national one, and was proclaimed under the authority of the King of England in Council, and had been reported in treaties made by our present Sovereign in the exercise of her prerogative. It was not enough to say, therefore, even if it were correct, that this cost was a burden on the revenues of Sierra Leone; make it a burden (if they chose to use that phrase) on the imperial revenues, rather than forfeit the pledge they had made. He knew much had been said at different times against the Colony of Sierra Leone; but he believed from the Report of the Committee to which he had referred, that the evidence, which was of a very mixed character, would show that there had been a larger proportion of persons admitted to the benefits of education in that Colony than in any other country connected with England. The Report stated, that nearly one-fifth of the inhabitants of that Colony were under a course of education. If that were so, surely the founders of that Colony had in some degree discharged their obligation. He believed, that in no part of the world would there be found so large a proportion of persons receiving the benefits of education as there. One of his objections to the course taken by the Government was, that they were interfering with the course of a great experiment. He referred more immediately to the conduct of the Government last year in respect to the schools of Sierra Leone. He had the authority of the letter of an individual who was in the Colony at the time, that not only were the liberated Africans of every age, or of either sex, required "immediately on adjudication either to maintain themselves, or to emigrate to the West Indies; but the liberated African children in all the Government schools were, in June last, by a most peremptory order received from Lord Stanley, required either to emigrate to the West Indies, or to be immediately given out to their country people, the liberated Africans in the villages. The Lieutenant Governor (Ferguson) retained a certain number of the school children under the age of nine years on his own responsibility, until a reply should be received from his Lordship to a letter of remonstrance." Not less than 100 boys and girls were induced under these circumstances to leave their place of education, and to embark on board the Glen Huntly, the 4th of July last for Jamaica, He had 1180 not said one word which implied the slightest objection to the free ingress into the West Indies of any man who was really free, whether taken from England, or Germany, or Africa. His objection was to the plan of the Government in making those go there under the semblance of free will who could not exercise any option whatever. They were really acting in the spirit of Dr. Johnson's definition of a congé d'elire, which was, throw a man out of a window, and recommend him to fall softly to the ground. It has been stated, that something under 3,000 persons had freely returned to their native countries in the interior. They returned with many advantages derived from the instruction they had received. One of these parties was accompanied by a native clergyman. He never could speak but with feelings of the greatest respect of the conduct of the Wesleyan Missionaries there; but even more strongly might he allude to the proceedings of the Church Missionaries amongst the negro population there. They had not only elevated the character of a large number of the population, but they had raised up three of these liberated persons of colour to the station of ordained ministers of the Church of England. One of these persons, the Rev. Samuel Crowther, who had been Chaplain to the voyage up the Niger, he had the pleasure of being well acquainted with. Now this person and his colleagues had been long accustomed to carry on their labours at Sierra Leone, and they had been, and they might still continue to be highly serviceable to the liberated negroes brought from the coast of the adjoining parts to that colony; or, as in the case of Mr. Crowther himself, to his own people at a distance. He did not wish to prevent any who were arrived at the age of discretion from going to the West Indies; all that he desired was that Her Majesty's Government would be pleased to consider their determination, and to examine the course of action which they and their predecessors had followed. Already on that principle 52,616 Africans had been liberated and located. Up to the 31st of December, 1843, there were in the schools of the Colony 4,974 scholars, and 1,330 communicants in the Church Missionary Society. There were 46 schools, 35 native lay teachers, and 26 training as such. Now if there were any security that there could be a real bonâ fide freedom of will on the part of those liberated negroes, when they were asked whether they would emigrate, he should not complain; 1181 but this was obviously not the case. In the first instance, an interval of six months was allowed between the adjudication in the case of a liberated negro, and his being called on to say whether or not he was willing to proceed as an emigrant to the West Indies. This period was afterwards reduced to sis months; afterwards to three months; then to six weeks, then to four weeks; and then, by the Proclamation of Governor Ferguson, they were required to come to an immediate decision as to emigration, or return to their native country. Again, Lord Stanley, in the first instance, when he sanctioned this species of emigration to the West Indies, directed that in every case a certain proportion between the sexes should be preserved on board of each vessel conveying emigrants from Sierra Leone to the West Indies; and that proportion was, that out of every number shipped, at least one-third should be females. In the first instance, it was ordered, that the proportion between the sexes should be one-half; but it was found that it was impossible, under the circumstances of the Colony, to adhere to this rule. It was, no doubt, the intention of the noble Lord at the head of the Colonial Department that something like an equal proportion between the sexes should be preserved in this description of emigration. This requirement was subsequently not enforced; for he found it stated in Minute of Council in Sierra Leone, that the restriction requiring a certain proportion of females to accompany each shipment of emigrants might with safety, in a moral point of view, be altogether abolished; the consequence was, that whole cargoes of males could be taken from Sierra Leone, just the same as slaves were conveyed from the Gold Coast forty years ago. When he considered what the horrors were of a population consisting only of one sex, carried in such multitudes to a dependency in any part of the world, he owned he should be very sorry to be a party to the bringing about any such wicked deed. He bore no ill will to any of his fellow subjects, the planters of the West Indies; he knew the sufferings they had sustained in consequence of the great and humane Act for the Abolition of Slavery in our Colonies; and he also knew that if they could procure a due supply of labour, that they would be enabled to raise as large a quantity of Colonial produce as any other country. All that he now objected to was, that they should receive the benefit of an additional supply of labour, by means which the public, both in 1182 England and other countries, would regard as the infliction of great and unnecessary torture on so many of their fellow-beings. He knew that strong statements had been made in foreign countries as to the mode in which this emigration was carried on, and that it was alleged to be only slavery in disguise. Now, although he would not refrain from doing what he considered to be right because his neighbour thought it to be wrong; yet they should not forget that the highest authority asserted, "that they should not do good in such a way that it should be spoken evil of." He conceived, therefore, that they should so regulate their acts as not to allow any one to speak ill of them. Up to a very recent period, he could not conceive that there was any objection to the proceedings of the Government, in connection with this matter; but recently there had arisen grounds for serious complaint. Many observations had been recently made in the French Chambers on this subject, which must be familiar to hon. Gentlemen. The House was well aware with how much jealousy the people of France regarded our proceedings with respect to emigration to our Colonies; and they not merely watched our proceedings relative to the Right of Search, but also to the cultivation of sugar in our Colonies, by what we called free labour from Asia and Africa, but which they called slave labour. Again, in Spain, he perceived that a similar feeling of jealousy had manifested itself on this subject, as would be seen from the Slave Trade Papers before the House. The Spanish Minister Gonzales, in writing to Mr. Aston, on the 20th of December, 1841, said, — "Mr. Barclay, of Jamaica, has been authorised by the British Government to transport thousands from Sierra Leone." And though this was a gross exaggeration of the number, we could not conceal from ourselves that we had sanctioned the introduction of persons of the African race as labourers into our Colonies, without giving them that freedom of action which we ought. In the Report of the Commission of the Cortes, in January, 1845—on the 27th of last month—the Minister, acting upon our conduct, had claimed the freedom of doing what we had taken the freedom to do; and the Report said,—"Our right to introduce free negroes into America remains untouched." It was hardly necessary to do more than refer to the use made of our conduct in these matters by Mr. Calhoun, in his celebrated letter to Mr. King. It appeared, therefore, to him, if this plan were to 1183 be adopted, that there was nothing to prevent the Slave Trade being carried on under the allegation that the slave ships were only carrying free labourers on board to their own Colonies. There was too much reason to believe, that under this change of name, the Slave Trade would still exist most extensively. He now came to another part of the subject, with respect to which he conceived there were great grounds of suspicion. He alluded to the proceedings on the Eastern Coast of Africa, to supply the Mauritius and the Cape of Good Hope. In the Mauritius he understood that an Ordinance had been issued—a copy of which he understood was in this country, but which he had not seen—in which a regular bounty was offered on the importation of negroes from the Eastern Coast of Africa to the Mauritius,—namely, of 5l. for each male, and 6l. 10s. for every female. In the Slave Papers marked A, which were laid before the House last year, there was a long account of the manner in which the negroes were induced to emigrate, and the manner in which the voyage was carried on. The agents were told that "you will predispose and captivate their good-will, to induce them to come to this island" (Mauritius); and they were to be promised plenty of farina, and other food. It was probable that their condition as to food might be improved; but the greatest caution and control ought to be exercised in sanctioning these proceedings. In connexion with this subject, he would refer the House to the testimony of Colonel Nicholls before the Committee appointed to inquire into the state of our possessions on the Coast of Africa. He was asked,—With respect to any extensive emigration at present, you think that it could not be carried on?—My impression is, that in the present state of Africa, it is impossible. If Her Majesty will accept the sovereignty of territory such as was ceded to me opposite to Fernando Po, by the native chiefs, who came over and took the oath of allegiance voluntarily, that when you have got the cession of the territory, you will have a population which will become free; you may then have freemen to go to the West Indies; you cannot prevent a freeman going where he likes; and if he chooses to go to the West Indies for the wages he would get there, you might have an emigration to some extent, but under present circumstances it is impossible, for this reason; I went over to Old Calabar, and said to Duke Ephraim, 'What will you let me have a thousand men for, to clear the bush at Fernando Po, and I will send them back when I have done with them?' 'No,' said he, 'I will have nobody here that is educated by you; 1184 they would soon become our masters here; but I can sell you a thousand men, and you can make them free.' Now, it would have a noble appearance, if it were said that a person had bought a thousand men, and made them free, and sent them over to the West Indies to work as free men. But look behind the picture, and see the consequence; with the price of those thousand men Duke Ephraim would go into the interior, and buy 2,000; there you at once double the mischief. But still that is not half the mischief, for in taking those men in the interior, I have very good proof that there are generally two, three, or four people destroyed in taking one. So that 1,000 would be the destruction of 6,000, which would be altogether a complete renewal of the Slave Trade. Then, again, that would not be half the mischief; because if you did this, would not every power in Europe demand the same right, and Africa would be torn to atoms for everlasting, and still be made the scapegoat of cupidity.That which was true with respect to the Western Coast of Africa took place, in his belief, wherever there was a demand for slaves. The native kings had an absolute command over the liberties of their subjects. When they could find their own subjects in sufficient numbers, they were ready to sell them to the first comer who applied for them; and when they could not, they would make an inroad into the territory of some neighbouring State, and sell all the captives they succeeded in catching. It was true these remarks did not apply to the state of affairs in Sierra Leone, to which the first part of his Motion referred, but it was emphatically applicable to the case of the Mauritius, which constituted the second part of his notice. He, therefore, thought it right to call the attention of the Government to the subject; and he would ask them to follow not merely the example of their predecessors, but their own example up to last year. The Marquess of Normanby declared that no precaution which had been or could be devised could prevent discredit being brought on such a system, and on the nation which allowed it; and Lord John Russell said "he was not prepared to countenance a measure which might lead to loss of life on the one hand, or to a new state of slavery on the other." Such were the sentiments of the distinguished individuals to whom he alluded on something like the system of exporting negroes, to which he wished to call the attention of the Government; and he trusted they would not be lost sight of on the present occasion. He was sensible of the claims which their fellow-subjects in the West Indies had to 1185 every indulgence that could be extended to them, consistently with good feeling and humanity towards others of the human race; for he was not unmindful of the fact that in the course of the great experiment made ten years hence, and for which England paid not less than 20,000,000l. sterling, the West India proprietors were repeatedly told that it was true they would be deprived of the compulsory labour of the 800,000 human beings who were to be liberated from slavery, but that their bodies would still be left in the Colonies; that they would be obliged to work for their subsistence; and that the proprietors would pay them little more in wages than they had hitherto paid for their support, their medical treatment, and their clothing. He thought the experiment then made was never to be regretted; but he, at the same time, felt that the promises to which he alluded as having been held out to the proprietors had not been realized, and that there was not a sufficiency of labourers in the West Indies to compensate for the abolition of the system of compulsory labour. He believed that the climate of the West Indies was not unsuited to the negro constitution, and that the soil was in general such as to repay any amount of toil that was expended upon it; but he still felt that notwithstanding these circumstances, and the claims of their fellow-subjects in the West Indies to every consideration that could consistently be given to them, he was not at liberty to weigh the purse of the West India proprietor against the sufferings, the blood, and the lives of the Africans—he was not prepared to do evil in order that good might follow; he felt that he was bound as a legislator of the nation, as well as an individual, to take care that whatever he did should be consistent with good faith; and, above all, with those specific contracts under which they had undertaken to watch the interests of those sufferers of the African race to whom they owed so much, and whom for five and thirty years they had not only protected, but provided for to a certain extent. He had to thank the House sincerely for having listened to him with so much attention for perhaps a longer period than he had asked their indulgence; and he then begged leave, in the words of his Motion, to move for the following Papers:—Copies of despatch from Lord Stanley to Governor Macdonald, at Sierra Leone, dated the 10th day of February, 1844.—Of Proclamation of Lieutenant Governor Ferguson, at Sierra Leone, dated the 12th day of June, 1186 1844.—Of Letter from the Lay Secretary of the Church Missionary Society to Lord Stanley, dated the 26th day of November, 1844.—Of reply from Mr. George William Hope on the part of Lord Stanley, dated the 24th day of December, 1844.—And of any ordonnance, proclamation, law, or proceeding on the part of any authority in the Mauritius, relative to the introduction of negroes into that island in the years 1842, 1843, and 1844.
§ Mr. G. W. Hopesaid, that as there was no wish on the part of the Government to withhold this information, he would second the Motion. The only objection he had to the Motion was, that documents which he should have occasion to refer to, were not in the possession of the House. He must, however, protest strongly against the concluding sentence of the hon. Member, when he said, that he would not weigh the purse of the West Indian against the blood and lives of the African, or do evil that good might come, and that he could not consent to this course, however beneficial to the West Indians, if it involved the breach of the solemn contract which England had entered into with the African race. He could assure the House that if he could conceive that the course the Government were taking involved any of these consequences, he should be as sorry as his hon. Friend to adopt that course; but he contended that the very reverse was the case; and he trusted that he should convince the House that there was no breach of faith in the proceedings of the Government, but on the contrary complete and substantial observance of it. Shortly after the stopping of the Slave Trade, measures were adopted for disposing of captured Africans. His hon. Friend wished to adhere strictly to these measures; but the question was, whether the means now adopted in lieu of them for promoting the immigration into the West Indies from Africa, were not better means, which, while they were beneficial to other parties, would be more beneficial to the Africans themselves. His hon. Friend had referred to a proclamation of the Governor of Sierra Leone, and the mode in which he did so left it to be concluded by the House that the negroes taken on board slave ships by British cruisers were landed at Sierra Leone in a state of debility, and, being incapable of exercising a proper discretion as to whether they would emigrate to the West Indies or not, were left to starve at Sierra Leone, if they would not emigrate. That was the inference from the terms in which his hon. Friend had referred to the procla- 1187 mation. The proclamation stated, that all allowances of whatever kind which had, previous to the date of it, been issued to the captured negroes by the Government on their being landed in the Colony, would cease and determine from the date thereof, except clothing and maintenance, while under adjudication, which would be supplied to them until they could find an opportunity of going to the West Indies, and no longer. But that was not an inflexible rule; it was addressed to the negroes only, and was not binding on the Government. The proclamation undoubtedly was intended to be carried out in a spirit of justice and moderation; it was not intended to compel emigration, but to provide against the negroes remaining in a state of idleness in the Colony, alike damaging to themselves and to the Colonists. The negro was not asked to exercise this discretion until he had enjoyed ample opportunity of recovering his health and strength after the voyage, and ample opportunity of considering the question of emigration. In one case only had anything in the nature of an extreme measure been taken under this Proclamation. That was in the case of a body of 180 liberated Africans, who, so far from being forced to emigrate immediately on landing, were not turned out of the Government yard until they had several times refused to take advantage of the offers that were made them. Therefore, he thought his hon. Friend must see he was not right in the view he had taken on this point. But his hon. Friend had spoken of the children, and said, that with reference to them this option, which was a mockery in the case of grown-up persons, was still more a mockery in the case of children; and he said that the system was so strongly established, that by a special regulation, children up to nine years old only were exempt from its operation. Now, his hon. Friend knew how soon the human frame came to maturity in those climates; and he must know, therefore, that it was a material difference when he (Mr. G. W. Hope) stated, that twelve, instead of nine, was the age at which the system was brought into operation; and no person who knew how soon the negro was fit for labour, would deny that twelve instead of nine years was a very material difference. His hon. Friend, in reference to the schools for liberated negro children in Sierra Leone, had said that a Government agent had been sent through these schools to offer the children the option of emigrating or being turned loose in the Colony, and 1188 that the result was that 100 children had emigrated to Jamaica. Now, he thought he could satisfy his hon. Friend's fears on this point. It was perfectly true that these 100 children had emigrated; but what were the comparative advantages of Sierra Leone and the West Indies? Having emigrated, charge was taken of them by the Government, and the greatest pains taken in allotting them to proper masters, special contracts being enforced in order to secure their rights and comforts. The situation of these children, then, was this, — they were well educated at Sierra Leone up to twelve years of age, and then, on being taken to the West Indies, they were engaged under special contracts providing for the carrying on of their education and training them in moral principles. A more complete answer than the case of the children presented to the observations of his hon. Friend, he thought it impossible to imagine. As regarded the children, therefore, he should not further trouble the House; and he came back to the charge of forcing the liberated negroes immediately upon their landing, to choose between Sierra Leone and the West Indies. His hon. Friend seemed to imagine that the effect of the regulations enforced at Sierra Leone, was to leave no option to the negro. He might be allowed to say that the plan of a gentleman who was eminent in the annals of emancipation—aplanwhich doubtless emanated from the best spirit towards the African race—he meant the plan of Mr. Hook, Commissioner of the Mixed Commission Court at Sierra Leone, whose name need only be mentioned to convince every friend of the African that his recommendation emanated from the best and purest of motives, had, indeed, recommended that no option should be given, as the negroes were in the predicament of persons who were entitled to exercise no option; and he wished to substitute a decision by the Government on their behalf; but that proposition was rejected by his noble Friend, and the option remained as before. He would endeavour to trace a picture of the comparative advantages of Sierra Leone and the West Indies; but, though his hon. Friend had referred to the concluding passage of the Report of the last Committee who sat on this subject, and owned that he was wiser than he had been in 1842, he confessed that he remained of the same opinion still, and he thought that the House would be found to agree with the Committee also. The Committee commenced their labours by inquiring into the 1189 condition of the Colony of Sierra Leone, and especially the condition of the negro population. They showed that there was a deficiency of employment for labour in Sierra Leone, and a great deficiency in civilisation. Indeed, they stated that the arts of civilization, and particularly agriculture, were in a state of total stagnation. They, on the other hand, referred to the West Indies, and stated that as regarded the moral condition of the immigrant labourer, nothing could be more complete or perfect than the means which were taken to secure it. They quoted the number of churches and the number of schools that were, establshed for them, giving the opinion of numbers not only of the clergy of the Established Church, but of other religious ministers, as to the state of that class of the population; and having done that, they drew the result that it was of the highest advantage and the greatest blessing to the Africans to make the exchange from Sierra Leone to the West Indies. In Sierra Leone the rate of wages was from 4d. to 7d. a day, when they were earned; in fact, the extent of good soil was so limited, that the inhabitants were sometimes obliged to wander out of the Colony in search of subsistence, as stated in Dr. Maddens Report. Compared to his situation in Sierra Leone, where there was a great and striking deficiency of agricultural knowledge, there could not be a greater advantage to the negro than to find himself a free labourer in a British Colony. He could assure the House he fully expected to show that no one act had been done by the Government which did not fall within the spirit of the conclusion of the Committee's Report, to which his hon. Friend had referred. That conclusion recommended that the captured African should have the option of being taken to the West Indies, to return at his own cost, or to stay in the Colony, and that, he said, was the course that had been pursued by the Government. The option had been a bonâ fide one. There had been lately an inquiry undertaken on the part of the West Indian proprietors as to the cause which stood in the way of a more extended emigration, of which the result would be laid before the House before long; at present he might be allowed to quote a few lines from one of the documents to which that inquiry had given rise, in order to show for what purposes certain parties resident in Sierra Leone threw obstacles in the way of this plan of emigration to the West Indies. The author, Mr. Butts, writing from Sierra Leone, said— 1190
The original settlers here and their immediate descendants are not accustomed to labour, having heretofore procured apprentices, who, by that name, worked and were treated as slaves, without the protection or remuneration, small as was that remuneration, by slaves enjoyed, and also by persons from the tribes in the neighbourhood, who were frequently obliged to fly here for refuge from their own country people.And Mr. Guppy, in his Report, said,—The old residents here, when they have scraped together enough of money to set up for themselves, get a grant of a lot of land, plant provisions, traffic, and, as soon as possible, procure a liberated African, who then becomes their drudge,All experience showed that this would be the case. It came to this—that, living in the Colony of Sierra Leone, they became the drudges of persons who treated them not with any regard to the benefit of the negroes, but solely to their own advantage. But the state of the liberated negro in Sierra Leone would perhaps more satisfactorily be learned from a person who could not be supposed to write with a bias against the negro race. Nothing could be stronger than the statements of the Governor of the Colony to Lord Stanley. The present Governor was Mr. Fergusson, a man of colour, who was well known among those who took an interest in the African. He said, in a despatch of the 30th October, last,—Those persons who have thus refused to emigrate, and have been so readily picked up by the already located liberated Africans, are employed by them altogether as unpaid servants; they are fed—scantily, if at all clothed — and have no pecuniary allowance whatever.That was the condition of the liberated African at Sierra Leone; and he did fearlessly ask, therefore, whether the Government did bonâ fide perform their contract with the African, by allowing him to remain at Sierra Leone, or by giving him the means of going to the West Indies? Such being the position of the negro at Sierra Leone, he might next refer in more detail to the situtation in the West Indies. The papers for 1843 and 1844 contained statements showing most conclusively the advantages derived by the liberated Africans in the West Indies. Perhaps the House would excuse him if he referred to one or two of those statements. The first to which he would call their attention was contained in a Report of Governor Light, of October 1842, in which he stated that he had minutely inspected the liberated Africans in the Colony, and found them well dressed, and 1191 cheerful, and that many of them earned high wages. He could quote fifty passages to the same effect, but he would only refer the House to another, at to the state of education. Mr. Stephenson, the rector of a parish, stated that scholars of all ages and of both sexes were under a course of instruction; and that many of them were taught mensuration, algebra, and the use of the globes. The general tendency of the opinions obtained from various quarters showed that nothing could have been more successful than the endeavours which had been made to promote education among these liberated negroes in the West Indies. He considered that it was a matter of great regret that the liberated Africans at Sierra Leone should be left, as was stated in the letter to which he had referred from Mr. Hope, wandering about like savages. Certainly, when he compared the condition of the liberated Africans in the West Indies with those at Sierra Leone, he considered the comparison was vastly in favour of those who had emigrated to the West India Colonies. The hon. Baronet (Sir R. Inglis) had referred to the regulations as to the proportion of the sexes. Now it was a singular fact, of which probably the hon. Baronet was not aware, that it appeared from returns of the numbers of the sexes in the West Indies, that in many of the colonies the number of females exceeded that of males. In Dominica, out of 22,000 of both sexes, the preponderance of females over males was 1,000. In Trinidad and Guiana the numbers were nearly equal; and in Georgetown, Demerara, there was a considerable excess of females. The hon. Baronet had spoken with great horror of the disproportion of the sexes; but, if he instituted inquiries on the subject, he would find that the proportion which at present existed gave no cause for apprehension. Indeed, he believed that the proportion of females in the West Indies was greater than in Sierra Leone. He ought also to state, that before the regulation which had been referred to as to the proportion of the sexes was adopted, the opinions of the Governors of the West India Colonies, as well as of the Governor of Sierra Leone, were obtained, and the measure was adopted with their concurrence. The hon. Baronet then referred to the subject of bounties for immigration into the Mauritius; and he had stated, with perfect accuracy, that an ordinance with reference to this question had lately been received from the Mauritius, That ordinance was received only 1192 this morning. He believed, that at the period when it was despatched from the Mauritius, it had not been brought into operation in the Colony. An ordinance granting a bounty on the emigration of labourers into the Mauritius from the coast of Africa was issued in 1842; but (as we understood the hon. Gentleman) it was disallowed by the home Government. It would probably be satisfactory to the hon. Baronet to learn, that from the time when the ordinance to which the hon. Baronet had alluded was adopted, to the period of its despatch from the Colony, no labourer had emigrated from Africa at a bounty. He did not give any opinion as to the propriety of granting a bounty; but he stated this fact for the satisfaction of the hon. Baronet. The provisions of the ordinance had not yet been examined. It would undergo a careful and close examination; and the hon. Baronet might rest assured that nothing would be approved which could in the slightest degree contenance the Slave Trade. The hon. Baronet had referred to a note presented to the British Government by the Government of Spain, and had stated that our motives were liable to misconstruction. He was well aware of that; but, though our motives might be misconstrued, that was no reason for abandoning the principles we had adopted. He would refer the hon. Baronet to an answer to the note of the Spanish Government, which he would find at page 16 of the Papers for 1843, and which, in his opinion, was most conclusive and complete. His hon. Friend had expressed an opinion, that by promoting the immigration of free Africans to the West Indies, we were throwing a great obstacle in the way of the civilization of Africa. His belief was, that successful endeavours to civilize Africa must be carried out from the west, and not from the east. If they raised up in the West Indies a body of well-educated men—liberated Africans—they would be the most successful agents in civilizing their native country. It was unnecessary for him to say, that in order to civilize a barbarous people, they must be brought into contact and intercourse with those who enjoyed the advantages of civilization; and they were well aware what serious and almost insuperable obstacles prevented Europeans from taking an active part in the civilization of Africa. He need scarcely remind them of an enterprise undertaken some time ago with that object, when the lives of 58 persons out of 168 who were engaged in it were sacrificed; and in the case of another expedition, 1193 which proceeded up one of the northern rivers of Africa, three captains died within six weeks. The dangerous nature of the climate, however, he might observe, was not the only difficulty they had to encounter in similar attempts. He was fully convinced that, before they could adopt any effective measures for the civilization of Africa, they must establish a nursery in which they could civilize Africans, where they could instruct them in useful knowledge, impart to them the arts and sciences, and fit them to become the agents for disseminating the blessings of civilization among their own countrymen.
§ Mr. Aglionbysaid, it was almost impossible for Members, generally, to discuss a question of this kind at the present moment, when some of the Papers alluded to by the hon. Under Secretary (Mr. G. W. Hope) were in possession only of the Colonial Office, although others had already been laid before the House. He was glad that the hon. Gentleman had agreed to produce the Papers moved for by the hon. Baronet opposite, because they would afford additional information on this very important subject. He (Mr. Aglionby) sympathised with the West India proprietors, who had, he conceived, laboured under very great disadvantages. He had, in his place in Parliament, opposed and voted against the loan, and subsequently against the grant of 20,000,000l. as compensation to the West India proprietors; and he had never had cause to regret the course he then pursued. Were those measures required by the West India planters, or by the slaves themselves? No. In his opinion they would have derived far greater advantage from a system of good government; for he believed few places had suffered more from misgovernment than the West India islands. He hoped the speech of the hon. Baronet would not have the effect of inducing the Government to relinquish a course which, in his (Mr. Aglionby's) opinion, would tend to promote the interests and prosperity of our West India Colonies. He would not have obtruded himself on the attention of the House on this occasion, but for a remark which fell from the hon. Under Secretary. He understood that hon. Member to express his belief that there were in Sierra Leone interested parties who exercised their influence to prevent the emigration thence of liberated Africans. That, if he mistook not, was the substance of the hon. Gentle- 1194 man's statement. He wished to ask the hon. Gentleman to state, if he could without impropriety, who were the parties to whom he alluded. He would be very reluctant to mention any class of individuals whom he believed to have been indicated by the hon. Gentleman, because he might thereby do them an injustice he should afterwards regret; but he hoped the hon. Member would favour him with an answer to his inquiry. It was, he considered, most desirable that the hon. Gentleman should do so, because there was a feeling abroad—which he would mention, though be did not wish to do injustice to humane and worthy individuals in this country and at Sierra Leone—that the missionaries were the parties who had done this mischief. He mentioned this as a common feeling. He might stale, with reference to New Zealand—a Colony with which he was well acquainted, and with regard to which a Committee, of which the hon. Member for Oxford was Chairman, was appointed last year—that it had been asserted openly and publicly, and be had every reason to believe it, that the missionaries were the parties who had retarded the progress of that, one of the first Colonies under the control of the British Crown. It had been stated, that the missionaries had there produced injuries without end; that they had almost destroyed the British settlers, and that they had retarded the advancement of the aborigines themselves. He hoped this question would be hereafter a subject of inquiry, when the matter might be fully investigated. He mentioned the subject to-night in order that he might bring it to the notice of the House, and of those high-minded and influential individuals who constituted the Church Missionary Society, to the missionaries of which he had particularly alluded, than whom a more humane set of persons, he believed, did not exist. But he feared those worthy individuals had been misled; and he mentioned this subject openly, in order that if any members of that Society were present, they might look rather more strictly after the proceedings of their agents. He was himself most anxious for the extension of Christianity and civilisation; and on this ground he was desirous that the conductors of this Society should take care that no mismanagement occurred on the part of those to whom they gave their confidence. The hon. Baronet had moved for the return of a letter addressed to Lord Stanley by the Lay Secretary of 1195 the Church Missionary Society, on the 26th of November, 1844. He could not, of course, express any opinion with regard to that letter at present; but he was glad that an opportunity would be afforded him of seeing the letter of the Lay Secretary, whose name, he believed, was Mr. Dandeson Coates, as they might be able to judge from it how far he had been successful in dictating to the Colonial Secretary and to Members of Parliament. He must say that he thought the Church Missionary Society should pay more attention to the conduct of their officers. He could state that circular letters had been sent to many influential constituents in various parts of the Kingdom, requesting them to hand a pamphlet by Mr. Dandeson Coates to their respective Representatives, and callling upon them to induce those Representatives to oppose the recommendations made by the Committee on New Zealand. He would read to the House a copy of one of these circulars, which had been ad dressed to an elector in a borough in England. [The hon. Gentleman read the letter, which requested, on the part of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society, that the person addressed would transmit, or present through some influential medium, the inclosed pamphlet to the Member for —; and also use his in fluence to induce such Member to op pose the recommendations of the Select Committee on New Zealand in the ensuing Session of Parliament, and thus enforce the just claims of the New Zealanders to their lands.] He hoped he would not be accused af any discourtesy to the Church Missionary Society; but he did think it right to call attention to this subject, more especially as a letter from the same source had found its way into one of their blue books. He might also be allowed to allude to a denial which had been given to the statement that the missionaries in New Zealand possessed large tracts of land, when he held in his hand a paper stating they had claimed no less than 196,000 acres. He hoped that nothing he had said would be regarded as conveying the slightest imputation upon the motives or conduct of any member of the Church Missionary Society; for his only object in mentioning the matter had been to state to the conductors of that institution that a strong feeling existed on this subject, and to give them an opportunity of investigating the conduct of their agents.
§ Mr. G. W. Hope, in answer to the 1196 question of the hon. Gentleman, might state that the remark he had made had no reference to the Church Missionaries. He was not now going to enter into the New Zealand question; but what he had stated with reference to Sierra Leone was this:—that Africans who had been liberated, and had amassed a small sum of money, were anxious to take into their employment other liberated Africans, and were consequently averse to emigration. The Gentlemen who had been commissioned to inquire into the causes which prevented emigration to the West Indies had reported that the merchants and inhabitants of Sierra Leone generally were averse to emigration, which they said could not benefit the West Indies, and had a tendency to lower the rate of wages there. In all the passages on this subject the impediments to emigration were attributed to the old residents, who were afraid of losing the labour of the liberated Africans.
§ Viscount Sandonthought the observations of the hon. Member for Cockermouth (Mr. Aglionby) had no bearing upon the question before the House. He would defy any person to trace any connexion, however remote, between the subject of emigration from Sierra Leone to the West Indies, and the conduct or misconduct of the Church Missionary Society. He would not enter into the question raised by the hon. Member as to the conduct of agents of that society on the coast of New Zealand. But the hon. Gentleman complained that circulars had been issued by the Committee of that Society, recommending a pamphlet to the attention of constituents in different boroughs, and requesting them to urge the advocacy of certain view supon their Representatives. Why, if the hon. Gentleman opposite had chosen, he might have issued counter-statements in the same manner. In reference to the Motion of his hon. Friend the Member for the University of Oxford, the question had been so completely exhausted by him that very little was left to be said upon it; but he regretted to find that his hon. Friend was recommencing the old battle. He had hoped his hon. Friend would not have brought the Motion forward. What could his hon. Friend mean by "the blood and the suffering" of the African? If there had been no option allowed to the African, he might then have been able to make out a case of hardship; but the facts were that 1197 there was an option—that they were transported in vessels provided under the care of the Colonial Government—and that they were removed from a Colony where they had no chance of rising in the scale of civilization to where there was every means and appliance for their doing so. He confessed he regretted this Motion of hit hon. Friend. He did not wish to refer to the Report of the Committee; but he must say it proved that every means had been taken to prevent even the suspicion of wrong—that the principle had been scrupulously adhered to of not allowing any African to go to or from any but an English Colony—and that every precaution was taken that the patties who migrated were not exposed to any violence. It was satisfactory to him to hear from the Under Secretary for the Colonies that the apprehensions which had been inspired in certain parties in this country, that the missionaries had interposed obstructions to immigration into the West Indies were entirely unfounded.
§ Mr. Huttsaid, that having been a Member of the Committee of 1842, it appeared to him no fact had been brought forward by the hon. Baronet which had not been under the consideration of that Committee. The Committee patiently and elaborately entered upon a consideration of all those points, and after having done so they made a Report decidedly in favour of that immigration which the hon. Baronet had advised in part. He did not generally follow the views of Her Majesty's Government, but he was bound to give his cordial support to their policy on this question. He only regretted that the same policy had not been adopted earlier, and that it had not been voluntarily carried oat. It was impossible to deny to the hon. Baronet the praise of having stated his view of the case with considerable moderation and fairness. He only wished that some others would follow his example. He was convinced, that if Her Majesty's Government would only pursue boldly the course they had now adopted—if they would turn a deaf ear to mischievous meddlers—if they would throw Often oar West India plantations to the free immigration of the African race, they would promote the cause of improvement to an extent that he believed scarcely so much could be accomplished by any other single line of policy. This policy, he knew very well, would not give satisfaction to all parties; but for a moment let 1198 the good be considered which it set before us. He would remark, then, that by pursuing this policy we should repay that debt we owed to the African to which the hon. Baronet had referred; the African race, so long oppressed, we should raise in the scale of civilization; we should rescue the West Indies, to which we owed a great and heavy debt, from a position of difficulty; and at the same time we should have the satisfaction of throwing open to our own country a great extension of Colonial empire. By such means, he was persuaded we should realize the dreams of Wilberforce, Clarkson, and Buxton, and throw off the manacles of slavery all over the world. If, he repeated, we only allowed the West Indies the opportunity of cultivation by the free immigration of the coloured race, slavery, which had resisted all our attempts to overthrow it in the United States, in Mexico, and in the Brazils, would be entirely prostrated, because we should be able to undersell the employers of slaves. We should also put down the African Slave Trade, without collision or quarrel with our powerful neighbours, because these means were more certain than any which the treaties of politicians could ever effect, inasmuch as they would ruin its supporters. He therefore called upon Her Majesty's Government to carry out this policy honestly and courageously. We had long enough tried the system so much contended for by the trading philanthropists of Exeter Hall, the consequence of which had been that we had reduced our West India Colonies almost to the verge of ruin, prodigiously increased the price of sugar, and given a great impetus to the unspeakable horrors of the Slave Trade, besides sacrificing the lives of numbers of gallant seamen upon the What good had been derived from all this? With the exception of hearing some of the gentlemen of Exeter Hall and Mr. Dandeson Coates, we had derived no advantage whatever. He rejoiced to hear from the Under Secretary of State, that Her Majesty's Government was not disposed to submit to dictation; and he hoped they would continue boldly to pursue the course they had adopted with regard to our Colonial concerns.
Mr. Stuart Wortleyrecollected nothing whatever in the speech of his hon. Friend the Member for the University of Oxford, to justify the observations that had fallen from the hon. Member (Mr. Hutt). The 1199 noble Lord (Lord Sandon) also appeared to have rather misinterpreted the observations of the hon. Baronet (Sir R. Inglis). The hon. Baronet had been assumed to have argued as if he thought it was a very objectionable course of proceeding to remove the liberated Africans from Sierra Leone to the West Indies, in the circumstances under which the regulation to do so was established. He did not understand his hon. Friend (Sir R. Inglis) to mean that. His motive in bringing forward the Motion was, that in his opinion a change had been introduced into the regulations for the removal of the African population which was not consistent with justice towards them, and not likely to conduce to the successful result of the operation. His hon. Friend, if he thought that, was justified in introducing the Motion, and he deserved no little praise for having submitted it to the House, because there was no question, if we were to carry this system out, and give the negro in Sierra Leone an option on the question of his removal to the West Indies, it was desirable on all grounds that the option should be properly guarded. Above all, it was desirable that regulations should be made as effective as possible in order to secure that option. Whether it were desirable to continue the option was another question. There were those who thought the option should be altogether withdrawn—that when the negro was liberated he should be told there was a market for his labour in the West Indies, and the Government would remove him there without any option; but as the option was to be given, he contended that it behoved the House and the Government to see that regulations were adopted to secure to the liberated African the proper degree of option. His hon. Friend had moved for these Papers, asserting a change restricting the regulation; and he could not be sorry at the Motion, because it had elicited a reply from his hon. Friend the Under Secretary for the Colonies which must be satisfactory to all who had paid attention to the question. The regulation now was, that the African should be required to proceed to the West Indies by the first opportunity; and this being so, he could not help thinking, with his hon. Friend, that it contained within it something of hardship; for it was impossible to suppose that parties in the position of the unfortunate Africans, immediately after liberation from a slave ship, could either sup- 1200 port themselves in the Colony or exercise an option. He did not mean to contend that from this time forward it would be undesirable to believe that the African benefited by the change from Sierra Leone to the West Indies; on the contrary, he believed, that under this regulation, if properly carried out, the advantage to the African was inevitable; but, at the same time, it was our duty and our business, when we placed them at Sierra Leone, to provide such assistance as should secure them the power of option. He could not help thinking that his hon. Friend, instead of deserving blame for the Motion he had made, deserved the thanks of the House.
§ Mr. Manglescould scarcely believe that the hon. Member for the West Riding had correctly heard the speech of his hon. Friend (Mr. Hutt); for, so far from casting any discredit upon the hon. Member for the University of Oxford, he appealed to the House if his hon. Friend had not spoken in terms of praise and commendation of the temper and moderation in which the Motion had been brought forward. The hon. Member, for instance, had expressed his earnest wish that all parties who took the same views as the hon. Baronet would conduct themselves with equal moderation and with equal regard to strict verity and truth. The hon. Gentleman (Mr. Wortley), under cover of the hon. Member for the University of Oxford, had defended parties whose conduct his hon. Friend (Mr. Hutt) did impugn; but anybody who knew the history of the West Indies since the emancipation, and who knew anything of the efforts made to introduce slavery into those Colonies, must know there had been parties, mistaken, misguided, and short-sighted, who had done their utmost, in a suicidal manner, to verify all the predictions of the enemies of emancipation, and to falsify all the statements of its friends. As to the attack which had been made upon the operations of the Church Missonary Society, he must say that he was a member of that Society, and could bear testimony that on India, where the missionaries were under the eye of a strong; Government, the Society had conferred great blessings; but he must admit that in some other places the efforts of the missionaries had had an injurious effect.
Sir T. Aclandsaid, it was not his intention to prolong the discussion by any observations. As to the labours of the missionaries, he must be permitted to say 1201 that to these labours, by which this country was highly distinguished, and in which our Colonial Empire was deeply interested, he was willing to award due praise. It was very possible that the interference of missionaries might in some cases have been found injurious. But every Englishman who had his country's interest at heart, and who was desirous of availing himself of all opportunities of usefulness—let his object be the promotion of commerce, the spread of religion, or the advancement of science—did naturally come home to the Government of this country, being assured that if his object were one likely to be beneficial, he would have an impartial hearing. Therefore, if it was found that parties had besieged the Colonial Office a little more than was usual or desirable, forgiveness might readily be extended to them for so doing. But his principal reason for claiming a moment's indulgence of the House was, that a reference had been made to him by the hon. Gentleman the Under Secretary for the Colonies upon a subject which was once one of the most hopeful and buoyant among the English public, and which afterwards turned out to be one of the most painful. The hon. Gentleman appealed to him whether he was not conscious of the difficulty of any attempt to attain the beneficent objects of this country, and whether he should not justify him (the Under Secretary for the Colonies) for being cautious in the exercise of his power in sending Europeans into climates that had proved so very disastrous. Now, he (Sir T. Acland) was certain that every one who took part in forwarding that not useless expedition—he meant the expedition to the Niger, which it did not please God to crown with success—had done considerable good. For the result of that expedition was, he felt certain, the forwarding the commerce of Africa nearly a quarter of a century; and its beneficial effects would, he was persuaded, be experienced a century hence. But, with all the hopeful expectations they might justly entertain of the benefits to accrue at a future period, they could not help remembering and lamenting the loss of human life that had taken place in the expedition that had been referred to. The partial failure of this expedition was a great disappointment, in the midst of his anxious and beneficent solicitude, to one of the ablest sons of British humanity. He meant Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, who was at the head of that expedition, and who had lately been removed from among 1202 us. He (Sir T. Acland) was sure that there was no one in that House who would not willingly render to the character of that distinguished philanthropist the merited tribute of praise. There were some circumstances which he thought had not been fairly brought before the notice of the public. It had been very much the custom, and it was to him a great disappointment—it had been very much the custom to imagine that the expedition to the Niger was one of the most disastrous expeditions in which this country had ever been engaged. But such was not the case. The first efforts made, either for the promotion of commerce or religion in an uncivilized country were generally attended with disaster; and in the expedition to the Niger there had been sacrifices which they all deplored; but that expedition had not been so disastrous as was imagined by many parties. Sacrifices had always taken place in such cases. The hon. Member proceeded to mention, that five months had been spent by a party in the country referred to, and that the loss of life was comparatively small. And he took courage from a fact mentioned in the United Service Gazette, in the early part of 1842—it was a most singular coincidence. It was stated, that in one of the West India islands, there was a regiment which lost almost the exact proportion of men during that summer which was lost in the Niger expedition. That fact might, he thought, tend to a certain extent to relieve the feelings of sorrow and disappointment caused by the partial failure of the expedition. With respect to the subject brought immediately under the notice of the House by the hon. Baronet the Member for the University of Oxford, he entirely agreed in the recommendation that the labour of liberated Africans should be made available in the West Indies. He thought that much good would result from an interchange between persons resident on both sides of the Atlantic. He remembered that when the question as to the employment of Coolies was under discussion, he took no part whatever against that Motion, because he could never understand why, if they refused a man slave labour, they could turn about and say that he was not to have free labour. The only question they had at that time to consider was, the regulations; and the only question they had at the present to consider was, the regulations. They must take care in their regulations respecting the liberated slave 1203 of Sierra Leone that they gave him a bonâ fide—a free choice or option as to remove to the West Indies—not confined to a day, or a week, or a month. The hon. Baronet proceeded to observe that native missionaries were being provided for the distant scenes of the operations of the missionary societies. The Bishop of London had lately ordained two or three Africans as missionaries; and one of the most distinguished missionaries of a society unconnected with the Church Missionary Society was the son of an African; and he was glad that the employment of native agency was sanctioned by the example of the Colonial Office itself.
§ Mr. Plumptrebelieved that the Church Missionary Society had performed its labours well. He defended the Lay Secretary from the imputations that had been cast upon him. He had had a long acquaintance with that gentleman, and he must say that he was wholly undeserving of the censures made upon him.
§ Sir R. H. Inglisreplied. He had perhaps used too strong an expression, since it was so regarded by his noble Friend (Lord Sandon); yet he could hardly admit it, after it had been so kindly vindicated by his hon. Friend the Member for the West Riding (Mr. Stuart Wortley). As the papers were to be granted, it was not necessary for him to say much; but he must rejoice in the assurance of his hon. Friend the Under Secretary for the Colonies, that, while the words of the Governor's Proclamation might bear the interpretation put upon it, it was not intended to act upon it literally. His hon. Friend told him, that he was mistaken in assuming that nine years of age had been fixed as the period at which children were removed from the schools; whereas it was twelve, "a great difference in a tropical country." All he could say was, that the earlier age was stated in a letter which he held in his hand, from one who had been in the Colony at the time. He again thanked the House for their patient attention.
§ Motion agreed to.