Great Britain furnishes a still more striking illustration of the inefficacy of such a law. For ten years, The Slave Trade prevailed at the Mauritius, to use the words of Captain Moresby, before the Committee of the House of Commons, "as plain as the sun at noonday." Many were taken in the very act, and yet no conviction, I believe, took place. With these examples before me, I am not so sanguine as some other gentlemen appear to be, as to the efficacy of a law declaring the Slave Trade piracy, even if it were universally adopted. I fear that such a law would be a dead letter, unless, at all events, we had the bona fide and cordial co-operation of the colonists. Were we able to obtain this in our own dominions? Our naval officers acted with their usual energy, on the coast of the Mauritius. When General Hall was governor there, and when Mr. Edward Byam was the head of the police, everything possible was done to suppress the traffic, and to bring the criminals to justice. No persons could act with more meritorious fidelity (and I grieve to say, poorly have they been rewarded, by the Home Government); it became, however, but too evident that the law was unavailing. The populace would not betray the slave-trader, the agent of the police would not seize him; if captured by our officers, the prisons would not hold him, and the courts would not convict him. General Hall was obliged to resort to the strong expedient of sending offenders of this kind to England, for trial at the Old Bailey, on the ground that no conviction could be obtained on the island. It is clear,

been formerly a pilot-boat, called the Washington. The supercargo was an American citizen from Baltimore." See also the report of the Commissioners, Class B, 1837, p. 125.

then, that the making Slave Trade piracy, will be unavailing, without you obtain the concurrence of the colonists in Cuba and Brazil; and who is so extravagant as to indulge the hope that this will ever be attained?

But now I will make a supposition, still more Utopian than any of the preceding. All nations shall have acceded to the Spanish Treaty, and that treaty shall be rendered more effective. They shall have linked to it, the article of piracy; the whole shall have been clenched, by the cordial concurrence of the authorities at home, and the populace in the colonies. With all this, we shall be once more defeated and baffled by contraband trade.

The power which will overcome our efforts, is the extraordinary profit of the slave-trader. It is, I believe, an axiom at the Custom-house, that no illicit trade can be suppressed, where the profits exceed 30 per cent.

I will prove that the profits of the slave-trader are nearly five times that amount. "Of the enormous profits of the Slave Trade," says Commissioner Macleay, "the most correct idea will be formed by taking an example. The last vessel condemned by the Mixed Commission was the Firm." He gives the cost of

There was a clear profit on the human cargo of this vessel, of 18,6407., or just 180 per cent. ; and will any one, who knows the state of Cuba and Brazil, pretend that this is not enough to shut the mouth of the informer, to arrest the arm of the police, to blind the eyes of the magistrates, and to open the doors of the prison?

"to co

Lord Howard de Walden, in a despatch to the Duke of Wellington, dated 26th February, 1835, speaks of a vessel just about to sail from that port (Lisbon), on a slave-trading voyage. It shows the kind of reliance which we are justified in placing on the professions of that country, pledged twenty years ago, operate with His Britannic Majesty in the cause of humanity and justice," and "to extend the blessings of peaceful industry and innocent commerce to Africa;" when, in her own capital, under the guns of her own forts, in the face of day, and before the eyes of our ambassador, a vessel is permitted, without molestation, to embark in the Slave Trade; but it also exhibits the prodigious gains of the man merchant.

Lord Howard de Walden says, "The subject of her departure and destination have become quite notorious, and the sum expected to be cleared by the parties concerned in the enterprise, is put at 40,000Z."*

Mr. Maclean, (Governor of Cape Coast Castle), in a letter addressed to me, in May, 1838, says, "A prime slave on that part of the coast with which 1 have most knowledge, costs about 50 dollars in goods, or about from 25 to 30 dollars in money, including prime cost and charges; the same slave will sell in

* Class B, 1835, p. 27.

Cuba for 350 dollars readily, but from this large profit must be deducted freight, insurance, commission, cost of feeding during the middle passage, and incidental charges, which will reduce the net profit to, I should say, 200 dollars on each prime slave; and this must be still further reduced, to make up for casualties, to, perhaps, 150 dollars per head."

It is remarkable that this calculation by Mr. Maclean almost exactly corresponds with that stated by the Sierra Leone Commissioners, giving for the outlay of 100 dollars, a return of 280 dollars.

Once more, then, I must declare my conviction that the Trade will never be suppressed by the system hitherto pursued.* You will be defeated by its enormous gains. You may throw impediments in the way of these miscreants; you may augment their peril; you may reduce their profits; but enough, and more than enough, will remain to baffle all your humane efforts.

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* Mr. Maclean, in a letter dated 16th October, 1838, says, 'My neighbor (as I may call him), De Souza, at Whydah, still carries on an extensive Slave Trade; judging by the great number of vessels consigned to him, he must ship a vast number of slaves annually. He declares, and with truth, that all the slave treaties signed during the last 25 years, have never caused him to export one slave fewer than he would have done otherwise."

CHAPTER IV.

SUPERSTITIONS AND CRUELTIES OF THE AFRICANS.

THE vast amount of human suffering, and the waste of human life, which I have described, form, after all, but a part of the evil; and there remains a still more dreadful feature in the condition of Africa :-the Slave Trade stands as a barrier, excluding everything which can soften, or enlighten, or civilize, or elevate the people of that vast continent. It suppresses all other trade, creates endless insecurity, kindles perpetual war, banishes commerce, knowledge, social improvement, and, above all, Christianity, from one quarter of the globe, and from a hundred millions of mankind.

The Slave Trade is the great cause of the depopulation and degradation of Africa, not merely from its keeping the people in a state of disorganization, but from its poisoning the whole policy of the country. Direct discouragement is thrown upon agriculture. A slavedealing chief, who neglects his own plantation, will not suffer his subjects to acquire wealth from inde. pendent sources, and the quantity of land which any one is permitted to plant is therefore narrowly limited. It appears to them to be their present interest to encourage the slave trader at the expense of the honest merchant, and the latter is kept waiting for weeks, while a slaver is getting her cargo.