THE BISHOP OF OXFORDMy Lords, I give notice that on Thursday next I will present a petition from Jamaica touching the Spanish Slave Trade, and that I will call your Lordships' attention to the prayer of that petition.
LORD BROUGHAMrejoiced to hear that such was the intention of the right rev. Prelate. The petition was of the greatest importance, and deserved the fullest attention and consideration at their Lordships' hands. He solemnly adjured his noble Friend (the Earl of Malmesbury) that no time should be lost in urging upon the Spanish Government to effect what they were bound by treaty to do, as well as by every principle of honour and humanity—to take measures for the extirpation of the slave trade from its colonies—by prohibiting effectually the corruption of its governors and others under whose connivance the slave trade had flourished in those colonies. Brazil was under the same stigma at one time; but the firmness of the Portuguese Government finally put a stop to it, and the Portuguese slave trade was absolutely gone. If anything could increase his grief it was by Spain abandon- 1701 ing those efforts which she had made for the suppression of the slave trade, leaving the coast of Cuba open in a great measure to that infamous traffic, for it would be impossible to make a blockade there effectually without very great risk of coming into conflict with another power which, unfortunately for the cause, and most disgracefully for itself, had not the same feeling on the subject of the slave trade as we had.