§ EARL RUSSELLsaid, he could now inform his noble and learned Friend (Lord Brougham), who had addressed to him a Question the other evening in reference to the slave trade, that Her Majesty's Government had received a communication from the Spanish Government, through our Minister at Madrid, stating that the Spanish Government were anxious for the suppression of the slave trade, and promising that they would continue to exercise every vigilance for the accomplishment of that object. But they did not make any allusion to the point to which his noble and learned Friend had referred —namely, that trading in slaves should be treated as piracy on the part of Spanish subjects.
LORD BROUGHAMsaid, he had not the least doubt that the Spanish Government would use "the same vigilance as it had hitherto used;" but their previous vigilance was really no vigilance at all, unless, indeed, it was a vigilance in supporting and encouraging the slave trade rather than putting it down. What was desired was, that the Spanish Government should adopt the suggestion of their own officer, Marshal Serrano, who said that the way to suppress the slave trade was to make it piracy and punishable capitally. He had looked into the question of law, and he had no doubt that any person engaged in fitting out in England any vessel, ship, or boat to be employed in the slave trade, was punishable with fourteen years' transportation.