LORD BROUGHAM,in asking his noble Friend the Foreign Secretary for the production of the Slave Trade Papers, stated, that since he last addressed the House on this subject he had received information of very important proceedings at Madrid. A Society for Slave Emancipation had been formed, consisting of persons important in the community, and some of them formerly in office. The Court had not opposed, though it had not aided this proceeding. The press also had taken a salutary direction, for though the Cuba planters had set up a paper on the side of slavery, The Isla de Cuba, a journal in opposition had been established with success, and he heard that feelings of reprobation of the course taken by the Government were spreading.
§ EARL RUSSELLsaid, that the Slave Trade Papers were very voluminous, and would take ten days or a fortnight longer to prepare them. They would, however, be laid upon the table of both Houses as soon as possible. He thought it right to state that there was a greater disposition than he ever remembered, not only in Spain, but in other countries, to concur in measures for the effectual suppression of the slave trade. There had been a very great change in this respect in Cuba within the last five years, as well as in the United States. The fitting out of slave vessels at New York had been entirely put a stop to, and those who had been found guilty of participating in slave trade ventures were punished with the utmost severity by the Government of the United States. They were willing to co-operate with us in measures with a view to extinguish the trade, and there was now a reasonable hope that the trade would be effectually abolished.
LORD BROUGHAMsaid, that the conduct of the United States Government had been perfect upon the subject of slavery, and he was astonished at the utterly groundless reports which injudicious friends of the Northern party had propagated of him, as if he had taken the part of the slave traders and slave mongers in the South. Nothing could be more utterly false than such a story, and he took this opportunity of giving it a peremptory contradiction.