SPAIN AND SAN DOMINGO—THE SLAVE TRADE.—OBSERVATIONS. (Hansard, 27 May 1861)

LORD BROUGHAM

said, he highly approved this Bill. He thought it absolutely essential that the extension proposed by this Bill should be given to the jurisdiction of Sierra Leone. He considered that this Bill improved the constitution of that colony, and tended to increase the benefits which we had given by it to the unhappy people of Africa, being, as Mr. Pitt once said, a very, very small compensation for all the evils we had been a party to inflicting upon them. Those evils had been continued to the greatest extent, and in a far greater degree than any act of ours, by the extension of that jurisdiction, how beneficial soever, could tend to remedy—he alluded to the atrocious conduct of Spain in that increase of the African slave trade, which, notwithstanding the treaties entered into, and the sums of money actually paid to that Power as compensation, had increased from 12,000 slaves imported into Cuba in 1857 to 16,000 in 1858, and to no less than 30,000 in the year 1859. Now, we found that Spain was increasing her dominions in the West Indies by the annexation of Eastern San Domingo; and he was by no means satisfied with the assurance given him when he last mentioned this subject in the House, that there was no intention on the part of the Spanish Government to introduce slavery, and thereby also, as a consequence, the slave trade, to that territory. Having had access to the decree of annexation by the Spanish Government since he last addressed their Lordships, he found it stated that "it was impossible to reject the prayers of a whole nation imploring readmission into the bosom of the mother country." So said the Spanish Government. What said the Governor of Hayti, General Geffrard? He distinctly called that statement an absolute falsehood. He denied that there was any imploring of the people of the Eastern territory to be admitted into the bosom of the mother coun- 67 try; and he added that in the circumstances of the country it was utterly impossible that the free-will of the people could be known; for General Santana had established the reign of terror so entirely over them that "they," to use General Geffrard's own expression, "trembling under it, could manifest no free-will." The decree stated that the annexation of San Domingo had taken place, and the same decree went on to say— Already the Spanish flag is flying under that sky where the immortal Columbus had borne it, with the Gospel in his hand, to plant that civilization the most glorious of all then known. Royal memories were proverbially short, and in this case the Royal memory of Spain was no exception to that rule; for had the Spanish Government recollected their treatment of Columbus, they would have been ashamed to name the man whose immortal services they requited by sending him home in chains, which were struck off, no doubt, in deference to the popular indignation, but which he demanded should be buried with him when a few years afterwards he died in absolute want. It was also a sample of short memory on the part of Spain that she referred to "the Gospel which he carried in his hand," and which the Spanish Government had desecrated by a series of constant ruthless persecutions. And as to the civilization which they bragged of having given to the New World, it was testified in their exterminating the natives by packs of bloodhounds. He observed that the decree said—"Slavery, the inevitable evil of the other colonies, is altogether unnecessary for the cultivation of that fertile territory." Was San Domingo more fertile than Cuba? Nothing of the kind. And it went on to add that "there is no intention of re-establishing slavery there." He did not know what the intention of the Spanish Government might be. Perhaps there was no intention of establishing the slave trade when the Spanish Government bargained for a sum of money and engaged to put it down instead of extending it. Nevertheless they had extended it. The means by which they announced their intention to carry on the Government of their new acquisition were not such as gave him any very great confidence in their want of intention to establish slavery there. For to whom did they entrust the execution of this decree? The execution of the decree of annexation was entrusted to the Captain General of Cuba, who was 68 to take the necessary means of carrying it into execution. Now, if there was a Captain General in all the world whom he should trust less than another for not planting slavery again in San Domingo, it would be the Captain General of Cuba—that he should have absolute confidence in him for extending the establishment of slavery in that part of the Spanish dominions. He had no hesitation in saying that he regarded with the utmost possible suspicion this conduct of the Spanish Government; and, recollecting their conduct on the slave trade in the island of Cuba, he was not in the least degree moved by the disavowal of their intention to introduce slavery into San Domingo, being perfectly convinced that they would re-establish it there if they had any temptation to do so. It was well known that Cuba had now been for years and years a refuge for the distressed nobles of the highest rank at the Court of Madrid, when sunk in poverty by their own extravagance and loaded with debt, and who returned from the colony in a year or two afterwards full of plunder, which plunder consisted of the bribes paid to them for the evasion of the abolition law and the introduction of slaves in that island.