lating wars carried on in Africa to obtain slaves had no existence save in the imaginations of the philanthropists. The oldest officer of the British navy who had been on service on the coast of Africa, and who had captured scores of slave ships, testified that the barracoons of the slaver were filled by fathers, who deposited there their own children. The same testimony established that the trade was as active in 1947 as in 1807, and carried on under circumstances of greater atrocity.

The West India proprietors then insist that they should be free to enter into Africa, and to import laborers to the islands at their pleasure, being subject to the laws of Great Britain in force there, which regulate the relations and duties of masters and servants. Immigration alone, and immigration on an extensive scale, they say, is the sole remedy for the evils under which the colonies labor, and the only means of relieving the agricultural distress under which they are suffering. They insist that natives of a tropical climate should be selected for this purpose, because experience shows that none other can encounter and withstand the diseases of that climate. They at first required that the measures should be carried out by the government, but experience having shown the inefficiency of the arrangements of the government, they now ask for the removal of all restrictions upon them, and that they should be allowed to conduct it. Others of the proprietors insist that immigration alone would not afford a cure to their evils. They show, in the most conclusive manner, that the labor of the slaves is more efficient, is subject to better control, and can be afforded at a cheaper rate than free labor. The island of Barbadoes is subject to the same distress as the other islands; and yet, the population of this island is more dense than that of China. There are about 700 persons to the square mile on the island. The complaint there is of the capriciousness, levity, want of steadiness of the negro population. They say that the wages which a planter can pay, and obtain remunerative returns from his capital, will make no impression upon the inertia of the black. They show that in that island, so densely populated, the cost of production has increased four-fold. The cultivators in Antigua, among the most favorably situated in the islands, make the same complaints. Immigration, they all agree, will alleviate their distresses, but that besides this, and as a complement to it,

there must be a substantial protection against sugar, the product of slave labor. None estimate the protection necessary at less than ten shillings the cwt.

Some of the abolitionists, defending themselves from censure for the mischiefs they have occasioned, aver that the evils under which the colonies labor grow from the fact that their estates are exhausted by long and wasting culti vation. The evidence before these committees refute all such statements. The witnesses testify to the superiority for sugar cultivation of Trinidad, Mauritius and Guyana, over any portions of the globe.

They point to the fact, that when their conditions were alike, that they were successful competitors with the sugar growers of every other country in every market. They speak with the utmost confidence of being able to carry on a successful competition, if their like conditions can but be partially restored. Give them, they say, such a command of the labor market as will ensure to them a sufficicient supply of unbroken labor, and they will carry on their cultivation successfully.

It would be a most instructive inquiry, and one too in which our readers are greatly interested, to ascertain the extent and ramifications of the interests that are involved in the culture of sugar and coffee in the British colonies.

It would afford us some data by which to estimate the extent and quality of the interests vested in the cultivation of the great staples of the Southern States.

It would afford us satisfaction to trace the progress and reach of the ruin that has overtaken these interests by the misguided philanthrophy which, in an evil hour, obtained control over them.

It would fortify the determination, which we trust is found in every heart in the Southern States, to confront the malignant and insidious adversaries of their peace and the stability of their institutions. We have limited our inquiries to the effect of these measures upon the parties to the relation, and must leave it for our readers to ascertain their consequences to the British empire.

The British government, after the abolition of the slave trade with Africa, by act of parliament, conducted regulations with the other nations of Europe to procure its suppression. The first class of treaties concluded by that government provided for a mutual right of search by the

cruisers of the treaty-making powers, and with a right of detension of such vessels as were found to have slaves on board, or equipped for the slave trade. Another class of treaties provided for a mutual right of search, within certain specified limits, and for a right of detention of suspicious vessels. The third class of treaties provided that the parties to them should execute their own laws for the suppression of the trade, and provided for the maintenance of a naval force on the coasts of Africa, to fulfil the stipulations of the treaty. The United States, by the treaty of Washington, made a provision of this description. They agreed to maintain a naval force upon the African seas, amounting to eighty guns, for the full period of five years, and until nouce should be given by them that the treaty was no longer to be operative. Lord Palmerston stated to the committee of the House of Commons, that American vessels were very much employed in assisting the slave trade; he also complains that the American laws were inefficient, as they provide a punishment only for the act of slave trading, taking no concern of their vessels which might go to the coasts of Africa, equipped and fitted for the purpose. The consequence of this is, that in American vessels the slave dealers go to the coasts with their equipments, and then to avoid the penalties of the American laws against slavetrading, a sale is made to Portuguese or Spanish subjects. The American laws condemn the vessels of slave traders to forfeiture, and their crews to death-while the laws of Spain and Portugal terminate with the confiscation of the vessel.

The examinations before the committee do not sanction Lord Palmerston's statements.

The evidence of Captain Denman, one of the most experienced officers of the British navy in that service, was examined to that point :

"Are not," he was asked, "a great portion of the ships. engaged in the slave trade, supposed to be American built. vessels ?" "They are American built undoubtedly; but they do not carry on the slave trade as American ships. I myself captured an American vessel to all intents and purposes, as she appeared, but she was really a Spaniard." "Was she so by her papers ?" She was an American by her papers, American by her crew, American by her build; but I pro

duced evidence which showed she was Spanish property, and she was condemned." "As yet, though America is bound by treaty to maintain ships of war carrying eighty guns, for the destruction of the slave trade, is it not the fact that she has made no capture, or at any rate, not more than two or three?" "She has done hardly any thing; the fact is that she has hardly any thing to do: for there is no United States slave trade, and she has no power to interfere with any other."

Before leaving this subject, we will take occasion to express our surprise that the United States should have considered it a proper subject of a treaty that they should maintain a force to compel their citizens to obey their laws. If the United States think fit to abolish the slave trade, it is very proper for them to compel their people to observe their policy on the subject. It appears to us a most undignified and derogatory proceeding on their part to permit a foreign nation to supervise their execution of their own laws, or to give to such a nation an obligation to execute them by a particular species of force. The stipulation in the treaty of Washington was a concession to the presumptuous and overbearing conduct of Great Britain on this subject; and the sooner the United States place themselves on the grounds of their independence of such claims, the better it will be for the country.

The details of the slave trade, as it now prevails, show that none of its horrors have been abated. Barracoons are erected along the coasts, and subjects of the trade are collected, inviting for the cruisers. These barracoons contain from 2 to 3000 slaves. The slave trader, on his arrival, examines them minutely, and selects the best; it sometimes happens, when the numbers increase very much, that the chiefs destroy those that the slaver rejects. Capt. Watson says that 500 were knocked in the head in one day in the river Nun, some years since. When the slaves are received on board, "they are packed as closely as salt fish: they are doubled up and stowed as closely as they can in the night, when they are obliged to go below. When a vessel can carry 300 slaves 500 are embarked. Within the first 48 hours those slaves that are unhealthy, and would not stand a voyage across the Atlantic, will sicken. The trader makes sure that within the first 48 hours a cargo of five hundred slaves will b sufficiently weeded, (that is the term,) weeded to

leave a prime cargo. As soon as they begin to sicken the process of" weeding" commences-they are placed one side, without food or water, to die. The trader concludes that their lives might be prolonged by the use of food and water, and his object is to reduce his numbers by the removal of all the weak or unhealthy subjects.

The testimony of Senor Jose Stephen Cliffe was taken by the committee. This gentleman is a native of that universal Yankee nation that has a representative in every clime, where there is a temple of mammon.

He has been a staff surgeon in the Brazilian navy, and is the proprietor of extensive gold mines in Brazil. With an easy assurance, which we fear he carried with him to his adopted country, he visited London to induce the British government to change its policy on this subject. He stated to the committee that 72,000 were landed in Brazil in 1847, of whom about 60,000 lived to be sold. That a very large number die after landing, "especally now, from the extreme ill treatment, and from the putrid gases they have in the holds of the vessels when they are jammed up as they lie, and by suddenly relaxing the person, and carrying them on shore, many of them die. Some of them drink a great deal of water, if they can get it, and they mostly die within three or four hours. Water is an exceeding scarce article in the present run of slavers." He was asked, "What is the largest mortality you ever knew to occur?" "I knew a case in which only 10 escaped out of 160; that was a vessel that belonged to a friend of mine." "He was your agent?" "Yes." "You know that to be fact?" "I do; and Englishmen know it to be a fact, but they will not give evidence of it. But that is an extraordinary case, which is, perhaps, unparalleled. They were taking in water in the evening; the next morning they were to take on board 50 or 60 men; a British cruiser was seen in the offing, they immediately went to sea with what they had got. It was said, by both the captain and the owner of these slaves, that there was only water for a drink once in three days; consequently, upon their arrival, when he went in the evening to look at them, he saw only those ten, and he said, 'They look so miserable, that I am ashamed to have anything to do with them; if any body will give 300 milros ($175) I will sell them.' A young man who was present, without seeing them, bought them. Whether they lived or not I do not know. One, perhaps,