attributed partly to the restrictions placed upon colonial trade, and partly to the great increase of all kinds of produce poured into this country; not only from our old possessions, but also from new possessions which recent arrangements had placed under our dominion. Surely it was the duty of parliament, under such circumstances, to afford every possible relief to the colonists; and what relief could be so ready or so effectual as the opening fresh markets to which their goods might be carried? Adverting once more to the conduct of the slave trade; he did contend that if the house suffered the colonies of other countries to avail themselves of the continuance of that nefarious traffic, great part of our colonial land must (unless some remedy be devised) be thrown out of cultivation. If the land were thrown out of cultivation, what would become of the negroes now employed? What was to become of the slaves, if the masters were ruined? The interests of the one was bound up in the interests of the other. It might, perhaps, be attempted to show by figures that the markets which he proposed to open were already overstocked. But he did confess, for his own part, that he had never been accustomed to take the operations of commerce exactly in that point of view. It might be easy to show that the opening of particular markets would not afford considerable present relief-certainly not such relief as suffering persons were apt to desire-but those who had studied the history of commerce, who knew its penetrating qualities, and its almost imperceptible steps towards increase-those

persons must be aware that, restraint once removed, there was no calculating to what extent beneficial intercourse might be carried. He could not (the right hon. gentleman continued) put that truth more strongly before the house, than by adopting the words of a celebrated poet, who, describing the effect of climate upon the mind of man, said—

What seasons can control, "What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul, "Who, conscious of the source from which it springs,

"By reason's light, on resolution's wings, "Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes "O'er Lybian deserts and through Zembla's snows?"

That language, beautiful as it was, became mere prose when applied to the spirit of commerce. Looking at the trade between our colonies and Europe, he was decidedly of opinion, that it would be wise to extend the communication already allowed, in some instances, to all parts of Europe. When Spanish and Portuguese ships were sailing every day from the Brazils and Cuba direct to the Baltic, he did not see why the English ship should not be allowed to reach the same destination without the expense and diminution of profit arising out of a voyage in the first instance to Great Britain; he did not see why our colonial produce should be charged with the expense of landing and warehousing in the mother country, afterwards to encounter in the continental market, produce from foreign colonies subjected to no such duties. Let the principle which applied to Malta and Gibraltar, be made to apply to the whole of Europe. Let all articles which might be obtained abroad, after having passed through this country, be carried directly abroad without passing through this country. The right

hon.

hon. member concluded by moving two resolutions-" That the chairman of the committee be desired to ask leave to bring in a bill to regulate the trade between his majesty's possessions in America and the West Indies, and other places in America and the West Indies; and that leave be desired to bring in a second bill to regulate the trade between his majesty's possessions in America and the West Indies, and other parts of the world, exclusive of America and the West Indies." The first bill, he said, was ready, and would be printed. The second bill was not yet quite ready; but he would fix a day, after the holidays, for the reading, when the measures would be open to any amendment which might be suggested.

Mr. Wilberforce complimented the right hon. gentleman upon the steady support which he had given to the abolition of the slave trade; but feared that the bills proposed to be introduced would, by increasing the intercourse of our colonies with other nations, facilitate the illicit importation of slaves. The hon. gentleman also adverted to the system of registry devised as a security against the introduction of new negroes into our islands. In Trinidad, he believed, it was carried fully into effect, but its efficient practice was unfortunately confined solely to that colony in many of our other islands, and in the principal one, Jamaica, for instance, it was in a very limited degree attended to.

Mr. Barham did not believe that the measures proposed would have the effect of introducing fresh slaves into the British colonies; planters, indeed, must be mad who thought of importation at the pre

sent moment; for, so far from having money to buy new negroes, they had not the means of supporting those already in their possession. He declared that he would support the bills, for he thought it absolutely necessary to do something for the relief of the colonial interest. He declared, as a proprietor himself, that he was absolutely compelled, by the pressure of his present situation, to deny his negroes (most unwillingly) many comforts and advantages to which they had been accustomed.

Mr. Wilberforce had never intended to deny the distressed state of West India property, but he still had his apprehensions from the increased facility of intercourse proposed. If the planter was now too poor to import negroes, that poverty, it was to be hoped, would not continue, and then the inducement might operate. He was of opinion that the increased facility of intercourse would call for something in the way of additional security.

Mr. Marryat took it, that one direct object of the measure was to improve the situation of the slaves in the West India islands. At present those slaves, as well as their masters, were in a very fair way to be starved. The bills proposed would have this effectthey would give to the British planter, who had abolished the slave-trade, an advantage which, under the existing system, he did not enjoy. By sending his produce in the first instance to England, the British planter incurred nearly double charges of every description. The direct trade now carried on by the Brazils and Cuba to every part of Europe, and

to

to Russia in particular, was immense. The hon. member then combatted the policy of that law which prevented British goods landed at one of our West India islands from being reshipped to another. As a resident in the country, he had known the most serious inconvenience to arise out of that regulation, and he thought that it ought to be repealed.

Mr. F. Buxton trusted that the house would recollect a discussion which had taken place last session, as to the importation of East India sugar. When it was proposed to permit the importation of East India sugar upon the same terms exacted on the importation of West India, the answer was, that as England monopolized the West India markets, compelling the colonies to buy and sell with her, and with her only, therefore she was bound, as long as she maintained that monopoly, to admit no competitor into the market which she afforded. He hoped that, if the concession now proposed was made to the planters, the restriction upon the importation of East India sugar would be removed; for certainly all the sound principles of general commerce applied just as fully to the admission of East India sugar into this country as to the sale of West India in foreign markets. As regarded the condition of slaves, too, in our West India is lands, he had farther objections beyond the inefficiency of the registry act; and he trusted that the present opportunity would be taken to demand the correction of the objectionable practices, in return for advantages bestowed. One most important point neces

sary to the happiness of slaves in our West India islands was, that they should be come adscripta gleba. The house did not know, perhaps, that under the present system the slave was nothing more than a chattel. A man might be born on a plantation, grow up, build a bouse, marry a wife, and have a family; and after all, without the slightest offence committed, or even imputed, be sold by his master, and transferred from his house, wife, and family, to the most distant island in the British possession. If not to the new colonies, then, he might at all events be transferred to any one of the old islands, and that was sufficient for Mr. Buxton's argument. This practice was an injustice, as gross and as enormous, even as the practice of the slavetrade itself had been; and the present moment of concession ought to be seized for getting rid of it. There were other matters as to which alteration was important-the judicial system, the law as to marriages of slaves, and other regulations. With those points the hon. member would not then detain the house; but he hoped that, if the bills proposed were passed, the adoption of a better course would be insisted on.

Mr. Huskisson denied that any thing like exclusive advantage was intended to the colonies by the arrangement contemplated. The case had been opened by his right hon. friend (Mr. F. Robinson) as a broad question of commercial policy. The advantage projected was to all-to the navigation, to the mother country, and to the West India possessions. The right hon. gentleman then

touched

touched upon the effect of the proposed bills, as applying to the slave-trade, and denied that any facility would be created by the free intercourse, greater than that which already existed. What was it that had of late years afforded so much encouragement to the slave trade, as that intercourse which, through the mistaken policy of the British government, had gone on extending itself between the United States and Cuba, as well as the Brazils? Had the British West India islands been at liberty to export their produce to all the northern parts of America, we should not have found the people of this latter country deriving all their supplies of certain articles from the colonies of other European states, which were thereby induced to enlarge their cultivation, and to import an additional number of slaves. The same cause had operated to increase the distress and difficulties of our planters, and indirectly to spread the horrors of the detestable traffic which he believed all our old and respectable colonists wished to see finally abolished. We might form some notion of the benefit that would have resulted to the West Indies from an open trade with North America, supposing that, in the existing superfluity of our own produce, a new foreign market was discovered for it. The hon. gent. who spoke before him, seemed to intimate his dissent from this part of his argument, and had already remarked that much of the evil was to be traced to our impolitic acquisition of too many colonies during the last

it, except that it helped to furnish an irresistible case for the planter in the older West India colonies. Here was ground enough, in justice to him, for relaxing our laws, particularly as respected East India sugars. The views under which ministers were disposed to proceed, did not imply a sudden or entire departure from our former system, bad as it might be, but such a modification, only as it was hoped would accomplish gradually the desired end, with as little individual hardship or disturbance of existing interests, as was possible. When they came to reflect on the history of our West India islands, they must all, he thought, feel it to be a serious obligation imposed on them, so to shape our general policy, as to confer upon those islands as many advantages as were consistent with our own interests in Europe. His honourable friend the member for Bramber (Mr. Wilberforce) did not, it would appear accord with this proposition. He (Mr. Huskisson) was prepared however to maintain, that the ancient system of this country was, above all things, to encourage and promote the slave trade, and that the increase of our colonies was regarded as a subordinate object. Whether they referred to the treaty of Utrecht, or to the Assiento contract to the general spirit of all our foreign negociations at that period, or even at earlier times, it would be found that the object was what he had stated. It was in this point of view, that our ancestors looked upon the West Indies, and although we of this age had happily regarded the African slave trade as wholly inconsistent with humanity and religion, it was

once

once unquestionably fostered with especial care. This was demonstrated by the whole course of our commercial policy-by bounties, by treaties, by the variety of sacrifices which could have had no other end than to exclude neighbouring countries from any participation in the guilty traffic. He now anxiously hoped to see a different course adopted, and that parliament would proceed to enable the masters of slaves in our colonies to treat their slaves in the way which he was satisfied would be most congenial to their own feelings. Supposing that cheaper sugar might be imported from the East Indies-and he was far from believing that a state of slavery was the fittest for rendering labour cheap-yet undoubtedly there were circumstances which would otherwise, from the extreme cheapness of labour in the East, extinguish all competition on the part of the West Indies. From a principle of justice, therefore, and in order to induce the masters to afford protection to the unfortunate beings committed to their care, we were bound to favour them, and extend towards them a beneficent and liberal policy. They had a certain population to support, at all events, whether their foreign trade was more or less restricted. The honourable member for Bramber had reminded them, that the same difficulties and pressure existed at this moment in the mother country; but he (Mr. Huskisson) must likewise observe, that the case was far from being precisely similar, and that people here would feel themselves much more deeply aggrieved, if there were open markets on the continent which they were not per

mitted to supply. His hon. friend must allow that the existence of such a demand, with the perfect freedom of supplying it, would administer a very great relief; and that of this relief, which was attainable to them, our West India planters were deprived. He could perceive no solid or substantial reason for objecting to the proposed measure; and his hon. friend, upon consideration, would, he thought, come over to the same opinion. Every argument founded on humanity alone, certainly appeared to him to be in favour of, not in opposition to, it. After what had fallen from the hon. member for Weymouth, he should merely add, that he considered the proposed measure, as not less a boon to the mother country than to her colonies. He should be sorry to find the subject mixed up with other questions of great difficulty and delicacy, and which even those who touched on them did not wish to force into immediate discussion.

Mr. Plumer expressed his decided approbation of the plan now contemplated.

Mr. W. Smith pledged himself to no future opinion on the merits and provisions of the bill now in contemplation, when it should be examined in detail. To its principle he certainly saw no ground of objection, and there were only one or two points on which he was disposed to offer any remark. The right hon. gentleman (Mr. Huskisson) appeared to him to have mistaken the effect for the cause, when he described the colonization of the West Indies as of secondary importance in the view of our ancestors to a promotion of the African slave trade.

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