MOTION FOR AN ADDRESS. (Hansard, 30 June 1871)

MR. GILPIN
, in rising to call attention to the Slave Trade Papers recently laid upon the Table of the House; and to move— That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying that She will be graciously pleased to issue instructions for the negotiation of such a Treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar, as will relieve Her Majesty's Government from existing arrangements, by which they are made parties to the Slave Trade; and that She will use all lawful means to procure the entire suppression of the Slave Traffic and all export of Slaves from the East Coast of Africa, said, that that was a subject involving the welfare of millions of human beings, who were more or less under the influence or protection of the British Government. But he should not need to enter into the question so fully as he had intended, 953 because he had received an intimation from the Foreign Office that the Government would be ready to grant a Committee to inquire into the matter. In justification of the adoption of such a course, he might state that this diabolical traffic had involved the destruction of 500,000 human beings within five years. Some evidence of that would be found in a Report presented to the late Lord Clarendon, who, like the late Lord Palmerston, had been ready to give cordial support to measures for abolishing the slave trade. From 1862 to 1867 the export of slaves from the ports of Zanzibar was 97,000, and as for every slave captured and brought to the coast it was estimated that at least five additional lives were sacrificed, making the enormous total of 582,000 human lives sacrificed. He believed that England and the Government of England were to no small extent responsible for this iniquity. He would not trouble the House at length on the subject, as he understood that Her Majesty's Government were going to substantially assent to his Motion. He might explain that the Government had a treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar, whereby he was allowed during a portion of the year to export slaves from the mainland to the Island of Zanzibar. The Sultan was obliged to pay a certain sum to the Imaum of Muscat, and in virtue of that obligation the English permitted him and many of his subjects to carry on this iniquitous slave trade. He hoped that the Government would continue to keep Dr. Kirk in Africa, because his presence there was a standing discouragement to the slave trade. Another subject for serious consideration was that this trade could not be continued without the complicity of the Portuguese Government, of which they had had reliable testimony from the mouth of Dr. Livingstone, and there should be some communication made to that Government upon the subject, with a view to put an end to the traffic. For himself, he thought they had already sufficient information to take action upon, by revising the treaty with Zanzibar, so as to clear our hands of this accursed traffic; but if the Government should think that more information was required, then a Committee would obtain it, and he would gladly accept such Committee.

§ MR. KINNAIRD
, in seconding the Motion, said, that the first point to be observed connected with this reviving slave trade was, that it was carried on under a treaty for which they were responsible as a nation. How, he asked, could they deliver lectures to other nations on the iniquities of slave traffic, when they themselves maintained a treaty sanctioning it? For very shame sake they ought to wash their hands of the matter. The second point he would notice was, that it was impossible, even if it were desirable, to keep the trade within the limits of the treaty. It was extending and must extend, as appeared from the investigations of the Committee which sat upon the question. Were they, therefore, to witness the failure of their past efforts to extinguish slavery, which had been successful on the West Coast, by allowing it to proceed on the East Coast of Africa? Let the House consider the awful amount of human suffering involved in an annual export of 20,000 slaves, representing, perhaps, 200,000 human beings, dragged from their homes, nine out of ton dying or murdered by the way, and leaving that residue of 20,000 which he had mentioned for sale. They, by treaty, had their hands tied within the limits of the Zanzibar waters, while they maintained a police outside. He believed it to be practicable to put an end to the treaty, and with the treaty eventually to terminate the traffic, and that a heavy responsibility rested upon the Government and upon the country to do tins. Meanwhile, they had the duty resting upon them of watching over the interests of the slaves they had freed, many of whom were simple children, incapable of taking care of themselves. The total stoppage of the traffic should be their first object, and in the interim they were morally bound to protect and, if children, to educate those whom they had volunteered to set free. He would earnestly appeal in the name of humanity to that House to sustain the Government in ridding them nationally of complied in these crimes committed, and thus to prepare the way for legitimate commerce. He trusted that they might be permitted one long to welcome home that distinguished African traveller, whose personal influence would then be exerted to carry out that object for which he 955 had already risked his own life, thus forwarding the internal regeneration of Africa after centuries of cruel wrong inflicted by avaricious men, to whom life was as a worthless bauble if it was the life of a black man. He would conclude by stating for the information of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that in 1851 Lagos, the last hold of the slave trade on the West Coast of Africa, was taken and became a British possession, lawful trade being there established; the attention of the Natives having been called to the commercial value of the natural produce of their country by those who had once themselves been slaves, Lagos soon rivalled and then outstripped Sierra Leone. The value of its trade was shown by the following figures:—Imports, £416,860; exports, £669,455; revenue, £33,220; the chief items being cotton, £76,956; palm oil and kernels, £542,927; Benni seed and nuts, £10,583.

§ MR. WHALLEY
said, that the first thing to be done towards preventing the cruelty complained of was to bring the district under their dominion. If that were done they could take action consistently; but he hoped the Government would not be led by the benevolent enthusiasm of the hon. Member for Northampton (Mr. Gilpin) into proceedings against the Sultan of Zanzibar.

§ MR. R. N. FOWLER
said, he was glad attention had been called to that subject, and hoped the result of the deliberations of the Committee would be the suppression of the slave trade in that part of the world.

§ VISCOUNT ENFIELD
said, he must admit the importance of the question, and, speaking personally as well as officially, 956 he sympathized greatly with the object of his hon. Friend the Member for Northampton (Mr. Gilpin), and hoped that inhuman traffic would cease on the East Coast of Africa as it had ceased elsewhere. A somewhat complicated series of treaties existed between this country and Zanzibar, dating as far back as 1822, when permission was given to the British Government to have an agent at Zanzibar to watch the traffic. Since that time various treaties had been signed, tending more or less to the restriction of the trade; but he could not deny that the number of slaves annually shipped had terribly exceeded in amount that which might have been hoped and expected. There was what was called both a legal and an illegal traffic in slaves; and the Committee appointed by Lord Clarendon had made a variety of recommendations with a view to urge upon the Sultan the abolition of both kinds of traffic; to prepare the minds of the Natives for its abolition; pending that time, to place the traffic under the strictest supervision; to encourage the employment and education of freed slaves; and lay down more careful regulations for the proceedings of our cruisers. He should have deprecated the assent of the House to the Motion; but on the part of the Government he was willing to assent to the appointment of a Committee to consider in what way, having due regard to their treaty obligations with the Sultan, means might be found of terminating that inhuman traffic. He was not sure whether at that late period of the Session his hon. Friend would desire the appointment of the Committee, or defer its appointment till next year; but if his hon. Friend would withdraw his Motion, a Committee should be appointed to inquire into the whole question.

§ MR. RUSSELL GURNEY
agreed that a Committee would be the best way of treating this question, but thought it hardly desirable that the subject should stand over till next Session. The information wanted was all within reach of the Foreign Office, and as a short time would suffice to terminate the inquiry, a full investigation might be made even at that late period of the Session.

§ VISCOUNT ENFIELD
explained that he left it entirely to the discretion of his hon. Friend (Mr. Gilpin) whether the Committee should be appointed that 957 year or next. In either case, he was quite ready to co-operate with his hon. Friend.