scourge of other countries, could be no longer matter of dread to Great Britain. Upon equally high authority, it was now held that typhus fever was not contagious. Upon the whole, he considered that it was impossible, with propriety, to trust the revision of these laws to a committee. The first proceeding should be, the appointment of a commission, consisting of medical practitioners partly, and partly of men of general science and experience, charged to collect and examine into, and observe facts connected with the propagation of the plague. In respect to the recent fever at Barcelona, the most eminent physicians in France perfectly scoffed at the idea of its being contagious; and even when their famous Cordon Sanitaire was established, with the ostensible design of preventing its diffusion, they knew better than to believe that such was its real or its necessary object. Under these circumstances, he hoped the subject would be further inquired into. Lord Althorp said, that, as far as the present measure went, it had his cordial concurrence. It was a strong fact, that the expurgators were scarcely ever infected with the plague; but, considering all the differences of opinion on the subject of contagion, he thought it ought to be further inquired into. Mr. Huskisson said, he was one of those who felt that, if the public mind could be completely satisfied, and if it could be established beyond a doubt, that the Quarantine laws were unnecessary, it would be the greatest relief to those who attended to the execution of those laws. Among the many duties which devolved on himself and his hon. friend near him, from the situations they held, there was none which they discharged with more difficulty than that of deciding on the cases of foul bills from the Levant. But, when hon. gentlemen considered the consequences of any accident arising from the removal of the Quarantine laws, it was impossible they could weigh the present inconvenience with the probable evils. Whether the plague was or was not contagious, he would not offer an opinion. There were very strong facts to show, that, in certain climates, and under certain circumstances, it was contagious. It was impossible to look at the Report of the committee on the Quarantine laws, and see the circumstances under which the plague had been introduced into Malta, without being convinced that contagion was the mode in which it had been introduced. One case detailed was that of a ship which arrived before Malta with two infected persons on board. Before the ship came into port something was transmitted on shore which had been in contact with these two persons, and in consequence of that the plague took place. In the State of Naples the plague broke out in consequence of infection communicated by the garments of some persons, which had been conveyed to one of the villages. The place was surrounded by a military cordon, and the plague was thereby confined to that spot. These circumstances tended to throw a doubt on the theory that the plague was not contagious. The universal feeling of all countries into which the plague had introduced itself, was apprehension of danger. Under these circumstances, even if he were convinced as strongly as Dr. M'Lean, that it was impossible to introduce the plague here, yet, in the absence of such facts, and with a dread of the consequences, he thought we ought to observe proper precaution. If we were to convey an impression to other nations that we were indifferent to precautions, we should subject the trade of this country to a most severe visitation. He was not speaking this without some foundation. The consequence of the impression which had gone abroad, that we were going to depart from our Quarantine system had been, that the countries in the Mediterranean, having a Quarantine establishment, had issued an order for putting every British ship, come from where it might, under Quarantine. So far we had brought on our commerce a severe infliction, in consequence of the discussion of this question. The consul at Marseilles had acted upon the report which had gone forth; while the minister of the king of Sardinia, acting under the same alarm, had given the same orders at Genoa. He had satisfied the Sardinian minister, and he trusted the French minister would be satisfied in like manner, that we were relieving our trade from the burthens of the Quarantine establishment, and making the charges fall on the public at large, according to reason and a sound view of the case, without a relaxation of those precautions which the safety of the public might require. One great change was, that all restraints on ships coming from countries not subject to the plague, were removed. He wished it to be understood by the trading part of the com munity, that the government of this country were not disposed to listen to any complaints which they might make of inconvenience, so as to relax beyond what was recommended by the committee on the Quarantine laws, and that those laws, inconvenient as they might be in some instances, would be inforced. Mr. D. Gilbert proposed that goods should be subject to a temperature of from 110 to 120 degrees of Fahrenheit, which would effectually destroy contagion. Under all the circumstances, he was glad that government had adopted the present measure. Mr. Wilmot Horton said, he had documents from the colonies which he could lay before the House, which incontestibly proved the contagion of the plague. It was not to be wondered at that persons employed in packing goods were not subject to the plague, since one peculiar characteristic of the plague was, that it destroyed entirely the strength of the person infected, and rendered him incapable of any exertion. The goods were also packed under the influence of the sun, which might have the effect of the temperature alluded to by the hon. member who spoke last. These circumstances accounted for no infectious matter being brought over in cotton goods. A Member, whose name we could not learn, said, that he had no doubt, from his own personal observation, that the plague was communicated in the ports of the Mediterranean by contact. Sostrongly were the Greeks resident there convinced of this fact, that they always locked themselves up when the plague prevailed, and there was no instance of their having been attacked by it. In Smyrna the plague came at regular periods; and, so constant was its recurrence at the festival of St. John, that it had given rise to the proverb "La festa di San Giovanni porta la pesta." Although obliged to differ from the opinion of Dr. Maclean on this subject, he expressed the highest respect for his talents, and for the fearlessness with which he had exposed his life, in order to ascertain the truth of this doubtful and difficult point. The House resumed, and the report was ordered to be brought up on Monday. Manning moved the order of the day for the third reading of this bill. Mr. Evans objected to the bill, because it placed the slaves in a worse condition than they were formerly. He thought, at the same time, it would ruin the individuals who were connected with it. He would therefore move, "That it be read a third time that day six months." Mr. T. Wilson contended, that the company would always have the means, and, he trusted, the inclination, to protect the slaves. There never was a better time than the present for the establishment of this company, which would afford relief to the distressed planters of the West Indies, and contribute to the improvement of the condition of the negroes. Dr. Lushington felt himself bound, in duty, to resist the passing of this bill. Should the plantations in the West Indies become vested in a company, instead of remaining the property of individuals, the consequence would be, that the whole management of the slaves would be intrusted to agents. Hence the slaves would be left at the mercy of an inferior class of persons, and be subjected to many new sufferings. Another objection to this bill was, that new difficulties would be thrown in the way of manumission. In the hands of a company, the slaves would become as it were vested in mortmain. The bill was also likely to impede the beneficial change in the West Indies, which parliament had frequently endeavoured to promote. Mr. Hume did not think the measure open to the objections just urged. He was not aware that it would produce the slightest change in agency in the West Indies, or impede manumission. The distresses fell equally on the slaves and the proprietors, and this bill would relieve both classes. Sir I. Coffin said, he was satisfied that this was a very good bill, and he hoped it would pass. Mr. Sykes opposed the third reading of the bill, to which he urged three prominent objections. First, it would prevent manumission, and the exercise of kindly feelings towards the slaves; secondly, it confirmed the existing system in the West Indies, and enlisted forty thousand additional enemies to the liberation of the negroes; thirdly, the price of West-India produce would be augmented by the WEST-INDIA COMPANY BILL.] Mr. capital and influence of the company. Of HOUSE OF COMMONS. Monday, May 16. all measures of the kind brought forward, after the resolutions of the House, the orders in council, and the acts of parliament, none seemed to him so objectionable as this. Mr. R. Gordon contended, that the main object of the bill was to enable West India proprietors to borrow money of a company instead of individuals, and on more advantageous terms. Sir J. Yorke could not understand what was the use of this bill, as mortgagors would not obtain money at a lower rate of interest after the passing of the bill than before it. Mr. F. Buxton admitted, that there was a reduction in the value of slave property, and the operation of the bill would be to prevent persons from investing capital in the purchase and sale of human flesh. It was clear, from every principle of Christianity, that human beings ought not to be trafficked in. This bill certainly did give great power to the West-India interests. Mr. Fox had said, many years ago, that there was no interest so well represented in that House as the West-India interest; and even in a recent Jamaica paper, it was asserted that the West-India interest could put forth a phalanx of two hundred members in the House of Commons. He was persuaded that his majesty's government would not be able to resist this powerful interest; and he would therefore call on them, and on every independent member to consider well before they decided on this momentous question. the bill; and he would intreat the attention of the House to the subject, and beseech it not to suffer itself to be led away by any vain imaginations. This measure affected property all over the West Indies. It affected every slave, man, woman, and child, throughout the West India colonies. It was a measure calcu lated to exasperate every one of those mischiefs which were already sufficiently intolerable, as respected negro slavery. If he did not demonstrate this, he would be content to withdraw his opposition to the bill. What was it that the slaves now had in the West Indies as a security for mildness in there treatment?-[Here the hon. and learned gentleman was disturbed by a noise in the House]-If it was not convenient for hon. members to bestow a decent portion of attention to this important subject now, he should be under the painful necessity of moving an adjournment of the question, until some other opportunity, when the House was in a better frame of mind to legislate with respect to the limbs, liberty, and lives of 800,000 human beings held in bondage. He would defy any hon. member to get rid of this objectionthat the only security the slave now had for any thing like mild and just treatment was, not in his own power, but the interest of his master-the feelings and affecttions of his owner. In the feeling and humanity of a judicious owner, the slave had something like a security; but, if three thousand miles were interjected between the slave and his owner, every man would admit that that slave had little chance of mild, kind, or just treatment. On every question with respect to slavery, the condition of the slave in this respect was alluded to. All the incalculable injuries and evils to which he was subject were universally attributed to the existence of non-resident planters. "If lord Such-a-one, who lives in London, or Mr. Such-a-one, who lives in Liverpool, were Mr. Brougham said, he certainly enter- present on his own plantation, unquestiontained a decided objection to this bill-ably he would prevent these mischiefs," an objection which no change in its details could remove. His objection was not founded on that general slowness with which he was inclined to incorporate jointstock trading companies; though he always felt repugnant to joint-stock companies, considering that they were mischievous when not placed under tight and close restrictions; but, his objection was grounded on the nature of Mr. Wilmot Horton was satisfied, that whether we looked to the experience of past times or to analogy, it was clear that the prosperity of the master must have an obvious effect on the slave, and that as the profits of the master increased, so would the condition of the slave under him be ameliorated. He referred to the speech of Mr. Wilberforce on the subject of the Slave Trade in 1789, in support of his opinion. was the universal cry, when cruelties to slaves were complained of; but he, unfortunately, trusted to his book-keeper or his overseer on the estate in the West Indies, and therefore every one concurred, that the master's absence was the great cause of all the evils that arose. That was the palliative and the excuse made on all occasions. And, what was to be the operation of this bill? Why, to create a begged leave to differ from him; as he thought it was rather calculated to prevent the traffic in slavery, than to promote it. The traffic of slaves in the colonies arose from the distress of the masters; and this project was intended to remove that cause. He had no apprehension that a company, acting openly in this metropolis, and whose proceedings must necessarily be known to the public, would sanction the acts of oppression so much feared by his hon. friends. He could not, however, let that opportunity pass, without expressing his regret, that the traffic in slaves was still so unblushingly and barefacedly carried on by those powers who had the meanness to disavow in their diplomatic despatches, what they had not the manliness to openly acknowledge. To France he particularly alluded; in whose ports there was not the slightest attempt to disguise this odious traffic. He believed that our efforts to suppress it, had only produced the exercise of increased cruelty and inhumanity. A greater mass of misery now existed on account of this traffic, than at any period since the question was first agitated. company of 40,000 non-resident and necessarily absent slave-holders. We were here adding to absence and nonresidence, the still more frightful cause of the worse treatment to the slave, namely the property becoming ideal. Suppose a plantation of one hundred negroes [here the learned member was again interrupted by a noise in the House]. It was rather curious that a little attention could not be applied to this subject. Honourable members were so wrapt up in joint-stock company speculations, or rather their friends were for members, of course, never did such things that they could not bestow attention on a subject, wherein the lives, the comforts, and the limbs of 800,000 of their fellow creatures were interested. This was carrying joint-stock companies to an extent that he never expected to see. Rail roads, banks and other schemes, were well enough as subjects for jointstock companies, but, while he held a seat in that House, he never could consent to place the lives and comforts of 800,000 men, women, and children, at the mercy of a joint-stock company. But, suppose the case of an estate holding 100 Mr. W. Smith said, that when the very slaves, which was mortgaged to these important interests which were involved 4,000 joint-stock company individuals in the bill were considered, he could not suppose every one of the slaves was mal-help saying, that, in his opinion, it ought to treated-suppose the estate became the worst managed estate in all the West-Indies-to whom was he to look as a person responsible for the blood that was shed, and the cruelty and misery that were inflicted? Why, a board of Directors! If the hon. gentleman opposite, the member for Seaford, were the owner, he knew he had a humane man, and one of respectability to be responsible to him; but, in this case, he had only the chairman, the deputy chairman, and the shareholders of a joint-stock company. On this view of the question, he could only come to one conclusion; namely, that those who had been ill-used before, would be ten thousand times worse off now, and be sacrificed to a joint-stock company, trafficking in the property of human flesh. Mr. Baring differed from the view taken by the hon. and learned gentleman who had just sat down. The object of this bill was not to purchase West-India estates; but merely to form a company for the purpose of becoming mortgagees of West-India property. The hon. member for Weymouth had stated, that such a project was encouraging slavery. He VOL. XIII. have been brought forward as a public and not as a private bill; because, in that case, it would have received the consideration which it deserved. He was glad to hear his hon. friend disclaim any personal interest in the measure; although he was far from agreeing with him in the view which he took of it. He could not help thinking with his learned friend, that the object of the bill was, to vest the proprietorship of West-India property in a company. The hon. member had said, that this company would be responsible to the public, to whom they would be obliged to render an annual account of their proceedings. He had, however, looked in vain for any clause in the bill, which rendered it imperative on them to render any such account. The prospectus stated, that the company would divide a profit of five per cent. This was in contradiction to the opinion of Mr. Bryan Edwards and sir W. Young, who had left it upon record in their writings, that the average of such profits could not amount to more than four per cent. He was therefore inclined to oppose the bill, if upon no other ground than this, that it 2 R would fail in its object, which was, to bolster up a losing concern, and to put off to a longer period, that effectual reform, by which, and by which alone, the prosperity of our West-India colonies could be secured and confirmed. four in the Exchequer, and four in the Common Pleas. Three in each of those courts would be much better, and the remaining three might go on the third assize. He should take that opportunity of observing, also, that the system of the Welch judges ought to be corrected or abolished; for nothing could be more improper, inconvenient, or unconstitutional, than that the same individual, should on one day be acting on the bench as a judge, the next day as a barrister, and the third as a politician. It was also notorious, that their appointments were generally the consequence of political conduct or close-borough interest. He thought the present a favourable opportunity for correcting many evils in the mode of administering justice in this country. The House having resolved itself into a committee, Mr. C. R. Ellis said, he could assure the House, that he was as anxious to contribute to the welfare of the slaves as any man. If he thought the bill could, by any possibility, affect their welfare or comfort, he should be just as adverse to it as the most strenuous of its opponents. But, he could not contemplate any such result. One hon. and learned member had said, that the object of the bill was, to create a number of absentee proprietors. It was no such thing. The object of the bill was, to create a company, who were to carry on the business of West-India merchants; and hon. gentlemen knew very little of the business of West-India merchants, if they believed that it was confined to the purchase of West-India estates. The hon. gentleman proceeded to contend, that the situation of the negro would be benefitted, rather than in-ject to which he wished to call their atjured by the bill. Some hon. gentlemen had asked, what were the real objects of the measure? His answer was, that the West-India proprietors had, from a series of distresses, been necessitated to borrow money of the merchants, on their estates, and these, in turn, feeling extreme inconvenience from the non-payments of those advances, the present bill was now proposed, and was fully calculated to relieve both parties, and at the same time to leave to the subscribers a handsome profit on their advance. The House divided: For the third reading 103 Against it 25. The bill was then read a third time, and passed. JUDGES' SALARIES.] The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the order of the day, that the House should resolve itself into a committee on the act for regulating the Salaries of the Judges. The Speaker having put the question, Mr. Leycester said, he thought this was not the precise time to increase the salaries of public officers, when the President of the Board of Trade was going to make corn cheaper than it had been for a long time. He thought that a third assize might be established without any increase of labour on the part of the judges. He could not see why four judges should sit together in the court of King's-bench, The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, he felt it quite unnecessary to preface the motion which he was about to submit to the committee, with any protracted observations on the importance of the sub tention. It had always been deemed an object dear to parliament, and most interesting to the people of this country, that offices of so much dignity and importance as those of judges of the land, should be filled by persons high in the public estimation, and fully competent to discharge the great trust reposed in them. Parliament had repeatedly manifested the sense it entertained of the great importance of this subject, by affording to the judges the means of maintaining their just dignity, and by removing from that office every thing which tended to diminish the respectability of the judges, and their weight and character in the eyes of those for whose benefit the laws were administered. To these two points he should call the attention of the House, for he did not intend to enter into the general topics which had been adverted to by the hon. gentleman opposite, who, if he had done him the honour to wait, until he had made his statement to the House, would have found that he did not propose to touch at all upon the office of the Welch judges. His first object would be to carry into effect a most important recommendation of the commission which had been appointed for the purpose of inquiring into the fees and salaries of the officers of courts of justice; namely, the prevention of the future sale of various offices, which |