MR. HUMEsaid, he wished to ask the noble Lord the Member for the City of London whether there would be any objection to lay before the House copies of any 360 correspondence which might have taken place between our Government and that of Spain, Portugal, the United States, and other countries, respecting the slave trade to and in Cuba, since the Report of the Committee of last Session on Slave-Trade Treaties was laid before the House?
§ LORD JOHN RUSSELLWith regard to what has been done since the Report of the Committee, I have only to state that, in consequence of the conduct of the late Governor General of Cuba, of which Her Majesty's Government had great reason to complain, very strong remonstrances were made to the Spanish Government with reference to the course which he pursued. Since these remonstrances the late Governor General had been displaced, a new one had been appointed, and so far as his first measure had gone, there was some appearance of amendments in the conduct of the Spanish authorities in Cuba. It would not, I think, be useful to give the correspondence which took place at the present time; nor, indeed, is it usual to give it until a more advanced period of the Session. It may, indeed, become advisable to anticipate that period, but at present Her Majesty's Government think that it is better to wait and see what is the conduct of the new Governor General, and whether he carries out the promises which have been given with respect to an improved course of conduct in this respect.