land-carriage over mountainous countries, must require tracts of extraordinary wealth and great population to render it highly productive, advantages not possessed by Abyssinia,-yet their commerce, with the exception of slave-dealing, almost entirely in exchange for British goods, is susceptible of much extension, and of embracing many new branches and articles hitherto unthought of. That the occupation of a favourable point on the coast would enable us so far to check the Slave Trade, as to leave but one tedious and difficult route,-between the Galla provinces and Egypt. And it appears to me that the prospective enlightenment and civilisation of a Christian nation, to a certain extent capable of receiving and appreciating our efforts; the enlargement of some branches of British commerce, particularly to our colonies in this quarter; and the restraining, even in a partial degree, of a debasing traffic, for whose suppression we have so long laboured, are views not unworthy of the consideration of an enlightened statesman, whose acts now may not only reflect lustre, or the contrary, on his own name, but while influencing the destinies of the civilised world, deeply affect the future of many nations to whom the name of civilisation is almost unknown. WALTER PLOWDEN. SIR, No. 40.-Viscount Palmerston to Consul Plowden. Foreign Office, June 18, 1851. I HAVE received your despatch of the 20th of December, 1850, and the report which accompanied it upon the Slave Trade of Abyssinia and the neighbouring countries; and with reference to the suggestions which you offer respecting the expediency of concluding Treaties with the Chiefs of these districts for the suppression of the Slave Trade, I have to instruct you to take advantage of any favourable opportunity to propose such Treaties to those Chiefs. It is true that such Treaties might perhaps not be strictly observed; but nevertheless a great step would be gained by the formal establishment of the principle that Slave Trade ought to be given up. Her Majesty's Government, however, would not undertake to make to the Chiefs of these districts any money allowances; nor would they be willing to attempt to occupy either Massowah or any other place in the Arabian Gulf. W. Plowden, Esq. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. SIB, AUSTRIA. No. 43.-Viscount Palmerston to Mr Magenis. Foreign Office, September 4, 1851. I HAVE to instruct you to represent to Prince Schwarzenberg that the packets of the Austrian Lloyd's Company are in the constant habit of carrying African slaves to Constantinople from Mitylene, to which island, as a depôt, those slaves are brought from Africa; and that 2 of these packets, which arrived at Constantinople in July last, brought, one 160 slaves, and the other 95 slaves. You will say that Her Majesty's Government are convinced that the Austrian Government cannot fail severely to condemn a proceeding so degrading and criminal, and will deem it right to take steps in order to prevent the flag and vessels of Austria from being in future employed for such bad purposes. A. C. Magenis, Esq. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No.47.-The Earl of Westmorland to Visc1. Palmerston.-(Rec. Dec. 23.) I HAVE the honour to transmit in translation, copy of a note which Prince Schwarzenberg has addressed to me in reply to the representation which Mr. Magenis made to his Highness on the 11th of September last, in obedience to your Lordship's instructions. Your Lordship will see that Prince Schwarzenberg entirely denies that any slaves have been conveyed to Constantinople by the Austrian Lloyd steamers; and he also adds that the Company have received a fresh caution from the Minister of Commerce against taking cargoes of slaves on board their vessels. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. I have, &c. (inclosure.)-Prince Schwarzenberg to the Earl of Westmorland. (Translation.) Vienna, December 13, 1851. Is a note dated the 11th of September last, Mr. Magenis, who was then the British Minister Plenipotentiary, made the representation that the vessels of the Austrian Lloyd conveyed cargoes of African slaves from Mitylene to Constantinople, and particularly that 2 of these vessels had in the month of July conveyed, one 160, the other 95 slaves to the Turkish capital. Mr. Migenis at the same time expressed the wish, in the name of his Government, that proper measures should be taken by the Imperial Government to prevent the Austrian flag from being employed for such disgraceful purposes. The Uniersigned, &c., has not failed to communicate this complaint to the Minister of Commerce, requesting at the same time that a strict and searching investigation into the alleged circumstances should be made, and he accordingly without any delay caused the most searching inquiries to be made both as to the alleged existence of a depôt of African slaves at Mitylene, as well as to the participation of the Austrian Lloyd in conveying these slaves to Constantinople. It now gives the Undersigned the greatest pleasure to be able to communicate to the Earl of Westmorland, that the reports of the various Austrian authorities who have been consulted on the above points, agree in stating that the Lloyd steamers only touched at Mitylene 4 times on their voyage to Constantinople in the month of July, and that during that month only 68 passengers in all were conveyed from thence to Constantinople, viz., on the 4th of July, 10; on the 11th of July, 14; on the 18th, 12; and on the 25th, 32 passengers. These reports, which entirely agree with one another, would be alone sufficient fully to contradict the assertion that during the month of July cargoes of 160 and 95 slaves were conveyed from Mitylene to Constantinople by the ships of the Austrian Lloyd. The Imperial marine authorities at Trieste, however, as well as the Austrian Consul-General at Smyrna, report further, that depots of African slaves do undoubtedly exist at Mitylene, but that the agent of the Austrian Lloyd there had, in conformity with the strict orders given him upon this subject by the directors of the Company, always most decidedly refused to convey any of these slaves on board their steamers to Constantinople; that on the 27th of April 100 negroes arrived at Mitylene from Tripoli in Barbary, on the 20th of May 35 more, in the middle of July about 250, and at the end of the same month 150 more, all of whom wished to continue their journey by the Lloyd steamers, but were refused permission by the Lloyd agent, and they accordingly proceeded to Constantinople; the first-mentioned going the whole way on board a sailing-vessel, while the astmentioned went by sailing-vessel as far as the Dardanelles, irom whence they were conveyed by Turkish steamers to Constantinople. Whilst the Undersigned hopes that the British Government will be convinced by this detailed explanation, that there is no bundation for the charges made against the Lloyd Company, hehas the honour further to inform the Earl of Westmorland, that the imperial Minister of Commerce has now again given the Directors of the Lloyd Company (notwithstanding the absence of any ground of suspicion against them) a most earnest warning against conveying slaves. The Undersigned, &c. The Earl of Westmorland. F. SCHWARZENBERG. BELGIUM. No. 50.-Viscount Palmerston to Lord Howard de Walden and Seaford. Mr LORD, Foreign Office, May 19, 1851. WITH reference to my despatch of the 10th of March last, I now transmit to your Lordship 2 printed copies of the translation of an Ukase issued by the Emperor of Russia on the 26th of March, 1842, by which the Emperor declares that Slave Trade is to be treated and punished as piracy. I likewise transmit to you 2 printed copies of the translation of a resolution, agreed to on the 19th of June, 1845, by the Diet of the Germanic Confederation, by which the crime of slave-trading is declared to be piracy throughout Germany, and is made liable to severe penal punishment. I at the same time transmit to you 2 printed copies of the translation of a decree issued by Her Most Faithful Majesty on the 25th of July, 1842, by which slave-trading is declared to be piracy, and to be liable to all the penalties of the previously-enacted Law of 1836. I further transmit to you 2 printed copies of the translation of the Law of the Argentine Confederation, by which the crime of slave-trading is declared to be piracy, and slave-traders to be punishable as pirates. And lastly, I send to you 2 copies of the translation of the Law enacted by the Republic of Columbia, and which is still in force in⚫ the Republics of New Granada, Venezuela, and the Equator, by which slave-trading is declared to be piracy, and slave-traders to be punishable with death. From these documents your Lordship will see that these several States of Russia, of the Germanic Confederation, of Portugal, of the Argentine Confederation, and of the Republics of New Granada, Venezuela, and the Equator, have, like Great Britain, the United States of America, and Brazil, declared, by law, the crime of slavetrading to be piracy. I have accordingly to instruct your Lordship to communicate copies of these several laws to the Belgian Government, and to say that the knowledge that such measures have been adopted by so many States of Christendom ought, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, to constitute a strong inducement to the Belgian Government to accede to the request which you have made to them on the part of Her Majesty's Government, that a law to the same effect should also be enacted in Belgium. Lord Howard de Walden and Seaford. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. [Note. This circular was also sent to Her Majesty's Repre sentatives in Denmark, France, Greece, the Hans Towns, the Netherlands, Sardinia, 2 Sicilies, Tuscany, Bolivia, Chili, Mexico, Peru, and the Republic of the Uruguay. (Inclosure 1.)-Ukase of the Emperor of Russia.-March 26, 1842. [See Vol. XXXI. Page 565.] (Inclosure 2.)-Resolution of Germanic Diet.-June 19, 1845. [See Vol. XXXV. Page 624.] (Inclosure 3.)—Decree of the Queen of Portugal.—July 25, 1842. [See Vol. XXXI. Page 450.] (Inclosure 4.)-Law of Buenos Ayres.-November 15, 1824. (Inclosure 5.)-Law of Colombia.-February 18, 1825. No. 52.-Lord Howard de Walden and Seaford to Visc1. Palmerston. (Received July 2.) MY LORD, Brussels, June 30, 1851. WITH reference to my despatches of April 7 and June 5 of this year, I have the honour to inclose a copy of a note which I have received from M. d'Hoffschmidt, in reply to the note which, under *your Lordship's instructions, I addressed to his Excellency with a view to induce the Belgian Government to pass a law declaring Slave Trade to be piracy. M. d'Hoffschmidt, in this note, confirms, by reference to the criminal law of Belgium, the impression which he before expressed to me, that Slave Trade by a Belgian subject had long been condemned as piracy. I have, &c. HOWARD DE WALDEN AND SEAFORD. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. No. 53.-Lord Howard de Walden and Seaford to Visc. Palmerston. (Received July 2.) MY LORD, Brussels, July 1, 1851. I HAVE the honour to inclose copies of the laws referred to by M. d'Hoffschmidt in his note to me of the 28th of June, in which his Excellency acquaints me that the Slave Trade is expressly deemed piracy by Belgian law. I could not obtain these papers yesterday, and was not able to forward them in my despatch of the 30th ultimo as I had wished to do. |