§ VISCOUNT CANNINGSeeing the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in his place, I beg leave to ask him whether Her Majesty's Government is prepared to lay on the table any papers explanatory of the events which have recently occurred at Lagos. Your Lordships will have seen in the public prints a copy of the official report from the Commodore of the West African Station to the Admiralty, in which he states the nature of the operations, and the great 639 loss of life with which they were attended. It was only natural and proper that such despatches should be published at the earliest possible opportunity; but your Lordships may fairly make a claim for further information, as in the very first paragraph of the despatch printed in the newspapers, allusion is made to "the instructions of the 14th of October," and also "to the wishes of the late Secretary for Foreign Affairs as far as regards Lagos," which appear to have been the ground and guide of the recent operations. I am sure that the noble Earl will not think that I ask this question from any hostility to the progress and consummation of that great task in which we have been engaged now nearly half a century. It is on behalf of the great cause of the suppression of the slave trade that I wish these papers to be laid before Parliament early. It is too much the custom to father on the suppression of the slave trade much inconvenience and expense and loss of life which are not attributable to that cause; and we may gather even from the public prints that the disastrous loss of life which occurred off Lagos is not wholly to be assigned to our exertions for the suppression of the slave trade. Whether it was necessary for the protection of our commerce on that coast, or whether it was owing to some desire on our part to depose one Negro king and to set up another, I will not pretend to discuss, or invite the noble Earl to say; but as the noble Lord, his predecessor in office, was the protector of one black king on the Mosquito shore, I hope that his experience of the responsibility of such an office on one side of the Atlantic, has not led him to take up lightly the protection of another king on the other side. I think that it is most desirable that all papers bearing upon these transactions should be laid before Parliament, and if the noble Earl accedes to my request, I hope that he will select from the preceding papers contained in the voluminous blue books upon the Slave Trade which have been already laid before the House, any despatch which may throw light on the course which our naval officers were instructed to pursue.
§ EARL GRANVILLEhad no objection to furnish all the information on the subject of which Her Majesty's Government were in possession. He would take care that such selections would be made from the blue books, or any other available sources, as would aid in making both the particular transaction in question and the 640 general subject intelligible to their Lordships.
§ The EARL of ELLENBOROUGHsaid, that if any papers connected with the unfortunate affair at Lagos should be laid before the public, he should like to know whether any orders had been sent from the Admiralty to our officers on that coast not to fight on Christmas-day. His reason for asking that question was, that it appeared that the operations were commenced two days before Christmas-day, and were suddenly stopped for that day—a circumstance to which he attributed half the loss of life which subsequently occurred. If our gallant sailors were not to be permitted to fight on Christmas-day, they had better have deferred commencing their operations on the 26th; but that men in action should stop twenty-four hours for Christmas-day appeared to him quite inconceivable; and he (the Earl of Ellenborough) desired to know whether any expression of opinion to that effect, either previously or subsequently, had come from the Admiralty? The noble Earl proceeded to say, that he thought improvements might be made on board ships destined for hot climates which would greatly conduce to the comfort and health of the crews. Some time since he went on board a vessel at Plymouth which was about to sail for the coast of Africa; he desired to see the awnings, and when they were produced he was quite astonished. It was true, there were both rain-awnings and sun-awnings; but the two together would not keep out either sun or rain. He ordered the ship to be supplied with awnings—the value of which he knew from his recent Indian experience—double tent awnings, which would keep out both rain and sun; and he had received a letter from the officer in command of the vessel stating that she was the envy of the whole station; that the crew were perfectly healthy; that they had suffered neither from rain nor sun; and that they had fresh water at all times, the manner in which the awnings were placed enabling the water to be saved whenever there was rain. Other improvements he had also in contemplation, about the efficiency of which he had not the least doubt, founded as they were upon his Indian experience, with the view of obviating that dreadful oppression from which Europeans suffered in hot climates. He believed, indeed, that many of the devices adopted in India might be applied on board ships greatly 641 to the improvement of the health of the crews.