stop to this breach of treaties; and, in consequence, the King of the Netherlands issued a decree on the 21st of April, 1821, which, extraordinary as it may appear, in fact tended to open the ports of that colony still more widely for their admission. A long negociation ensued between our government and that of the Netherlands, but they were attended by the usual fate of our negociations on this subject, and thousands of new negroes still continued to be imported into Surinam, notwithstanding the mixed commission court was established in that colony.

To remedy the deficiencies of the treaty of May, 1818, three additional and explanatory articles were agreed upon at Brussels, in the months of December, 1822, and January, 1823. These articles contain the agreement relative to the seizure of vessels having had slaves on board, and that relative to equipment, together with some additional regulations.

DENMARK.

The King of Denmark, by an edict, dated Copenhagen, so early as the 16th of March, 1792, decreed, that the slave trade carried on by his subjects should "with the beginning of the year 1803, cease on the African coasts and elsewhere out of the West Indies."

By an article in the treaty of Kiel, of the 14th of January, 1814, the King of Denmark engages to prohibit all his subjects in the most effectual manner, and by the most solemn laws, from taking any share in that traffic, although it appears that slavers touch at the Island of St. Thomas, where some of the resident merchants have had an interest in their speculations. The Danish government has promised to repress this practice, but throws the blame of it on those governments, which still tacitly sanction this infamous traffic.

The King of Denmark has acceded to the Conventions recently concluded between England and France for the suppression of the slave trade, and a treaty to this effect between these three powers was accordingly signed on the 27th of July, 1834.

SWEDEN.

The King of Sweden issued a royal proclamation, bearing the same date with the Edict of the King of Denmark (viz. the 16th of May, 1792) by which the subjects of Sweden were also prohibited from trading in slaves after the beginning of the year 1803.

It having been discovered, that a considerable trade in slaves was carried on under the flag of Sweden, the subject was brought under the notice of the Swedish government, and a negociation was set on foot with the view of inducing the King of Sweden to adopt measures for its suppression; and on the 6th November, 1825, a treaty was signed at Stockholm, between the English and Swedish governments, by which the King of Sweden engaged to reiterate to his subjects, in the most explicit manner, the prohibition already existing to their trading in slaves, and to enact penal laws for its suppression. The mutual right of search was also agreed to, as was also the article rendering ships liable to seizure and condemnation if equipped for the slave trade.

An additional article, stipulating the breaking up of all ships condemned for slave trading, was signed at Stockholm on the 15th of June, 1835.

A negociation has been entered into with the King of Sweden, to obtain his Majesty's accession to the conventions lately entered into between Great Britain and France, which there is no doubt will be successful.

AUSTRIA, RUSSIA, AND PRUSSIA.

The Emperors of Austria and of Russia, and the King of Prussia, were parties to the anti-slavery Declaration of the Congress of Vienna, and to the Resolutions of the Congress of Verona. Although there exists no direct proof, that the subjects of these monarchs are, or have been, engaged in the slave trade, still their flags have been used by foreigners for the purpose of covering their nefarious slave-trading transactions. To all representations made to these governments on this subject, the utmost attention has been made, and prompt measures have been adopted to rectify the evils complained of.

In the several conferences which have been held, and on other occasions, these Sovereigns have been ready to co-operate with the British government in pursuing measures for the final suppression of the slave-trade, and a negociation is now pending with them respectively, which there is every reason to expect will terminate in their accession to the two conventions recently concluded between Great Britain and France for that purpose.

Since the above was written, the negociation, so far as regards the Court of Bremen, has been ratified, and published from the foreign office in this country. This document, although emanating from a power which has never been very prominent in this nefarious traffic, will be read with pleasure by every friend of humanity and justice. Every official denunciation of the trade, adopted by the different continental governments, not only prevents the flag of that country from being adopted and stained by the practice, but tends to single out to deeper and more marked infamy, those guilty nations which, in defiance of justice, and the first dictates of common honesty and human rights, obstinately adhere to this blood-stained traffic.

Foreign Office, April 3.

A dispatch, dated the 17th March, 1837, has been received by the Right Honourable Viscount Palmerston, G. C. B., his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, from Henry Canning, Esq., his Majesty's Consul General and Chargé d'Affaires at Hamburg, transmitting a law made at Bremen, for the prohibition of the slave trade, of which the following is a translation.

TRANSLATION.

Although the slave trade is a traffic which has always been foreign to the trade and navigation of Bremen, yet the wish that our laws should accord in regard to it with those of the great sea powers, in order to our becoming a party to their treaties for the total abolition of the traffic in slaves, has occasioned us to take the subject into careful consideration, and has caused the following penal law to be agreed upon at a meeting of the Bürger Convent, in Bremen, on the 4th of November last year:

PENAL LAW AGAINST THE TRAFFIC IN SLAVES.

Art. 1. The traffic known under the name of slave trade, which has for object to provide North and South America, or the West Indies, with negro slaves from the African coast, together with all trades in connexion with it, is hereby prohibited in the free state of Bremen and its dependencies, and shall be deemed criminal.

Art. 2. Whosoever, either as owner, freighter, captain, mate, or supercargo, fits out or sails a vessel for the purpose of the slave trade mentioned in article 1, or who carries on the slave trade, or allows the fitting out or carrying on through any other person, or takes part therein, or assists in the offence as money-lender or treasurer, shall, according to circumstances, whether the vessel be stopped before her departure from the port of outfit, or after her departure, and even before commencing any slave seizures or slave trade, or, lastly, after any actual perpetration of slave seizing or slave trading, be condemned to imprisonment in the house of correction from one to fifteen years, and to pay a fine of from two hundred to five thousand rix dollars, and to the loss of his citizenship and all other municipal rights appertaining to him, and of his right to carry the Bremen flag. And further, according to circumstances, the confiscation of the vessel, her furniture, and cargo also may be made.

Art. 3. Foreigners who in the territory of Bremen, or on board of Bremen vessels, are guilty of the offences described in the foregoing articles, or who make use of the Bremen flag, or who fit out, or cause to be fitted out, on Bremen territory, vessels under foreign flags to carry on the slave trade, shall be punished according to the present law.

Art. 4. All other acts tending to violate the prohibition contained in article 1, which may not have been named in articles 2 and 3, are equally subject to fine and imprisonment, according to circumstances, and may equally take away the right to carry the Bremen flag.

The Senate, in promulgating the foregoing law for the observance of every body, places confidence in the inhabitants of Bremen, that they will abstain in future, as they have done hitherto, from any the most distant participation in the dishonourable offence described in the aforesaid law.

Done at Bremen, in the Assembly of the Senate, on the 15th, and promulgated on the 20th February, 1837.

SARDINIA, THE TWO SICILIES, AND THE HANSE TOWNS.

His Sardinian Majesty executed a treaty (in 1834) containing his accession to the conventions concluded between Great Britain and France, on the 30th of November, 1831, and 22nd of March, 1833, for the more effectual suppression of the slave-trade; and treaties for the same purpose are in progress, between our government and the governments of Naples, and of the Hanse Towns, of whose accession to these conventions there can be no doubt.

HORRORS AND MORTALITY OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

[Extract from Mr. Rankin's Narrative of a Visit to Sierra Leone, published by Bentley, 1836.]

"Close in shore lay a large schooner, so remarkable from the low, sharp cut of her hull, and the excessive rake of her masts, that she seemed amongst the other craft as a swallow seems amongst birds. Her deck was crowded with naked blacks, whose woolly heads studded the rail. She was a slaver, with a large cargo. In the autumn of 1833, this schooner, apparently a Brazilian, and

named with the liberty-stirring appellation of Donna Maria da Gloria,' had left Loando, on the slave coast, with a few bales of merchandise, to comply with the formalities required by the authorities, from vessels engaged in legal traffic; for the slave-trade under the Brazilian flag is now piracy. No sooner was she out of port, than the real object of her voyage declared itself; she hastily received on board 430 negroes, who had been mustered in readiness, and sailed for Rio Janeiro.

"Off the mouth of that harbour she arrived in November, and was captured. as a slaver by His Majesty's brig 'Snake.' The case was brought, in December, before the court established there; and the court decided, that as her Brazilian character had not been fully made out, it was incompetent to the final decision of the case. It was necessary to apply to the Court of Mixed Commission at Sierra Leone for the purpose of adjudication. A second time, therefore, the unfortunate dungeon-ship put to sea with her luckless cargo, and again crossed the Atlantic amidst the horrors of a two months' voyage. The 'Donna Maria da Gloria' having returned to Africa, cast anchor at Freetown in the middle of February, 1834, and on arrival found the number reduced by death from 430 to 335.

"Continuance of misery for several months in a cramped posture, in a pestilential atmosphere, had not only destroyed many, but had spread disease amongst the survivors. Dropsy, eruptions, abscesses, and dysentery were making ravages, and ophthalmia was general. Until formally adjudicated by the court, the wretched slaves could not be landed, nor even relieved from their sickening situation. With the green hills and valleys of the colony close to them, they must not leave their prison. I saw them in April; they had been in the harbour two months, and no release had been offered them. But the most painful circumstance was the final decision of the court. The slaver was proved to have been sailing under Portuguese colors, not Brazilian; and the treaty with the Portuguese prohibits slave traffic to the north of a certain line only, whereas the Donna Maria had been captured a few degrees to the south. Her capture was decided to have been illegal. She was formally delivered up to her slave captain; and he received from the British authorities written orders to the commanders of the British cruizers, guaranteeing her a safe and free passage back to the Brazils; and I saw the evil ship weigh anchor, and leave Sierra Leone, the seat of slave liberation, with her large canvas proudly swelling, and her ensign floating, as if in contempt and triumph. Thus, a third time, were the dying wretches carried across the Atlantic, after seven months' confinement; few, probably, lived through the passage."

We

"The craft showed Spanish colors, and was named 'La Pantica.' easily leaped on board, as she lay low in the water. The first hasty glance around caused a sudden sickness and faintness, followed by an indignation more intense than discreet. Before us, lying in a heap huddled together at the foot of the foremast, on the bare and filthy deck, lay several human beings in the last stage of emaciation-dying. The ship, fore and aft, was thronged with men, women, and children, all entirely naked, and disgusting with disease. The stench was really insupportable, cleanliness being impossible. I stepped to the hatchway, it was secured by iron bars and cross bars; and pressed against them were the heads of slaves below. It appeared that the crowd on deck formed

one-third only of the cargo, two-thirds being stowed in a sitting posture below, between decks; the men forward, the women aft. Two hundred and seventyfour were at this moment in the little schooner. When captured, three hundred and fifteen had been found on board; forty had died during the voyage from the old Calabar, where she had been captured by His Majesty's ship, 'Fair Rosamond,' and one had drowned himself on arrival, probably in fear of being yammed' by the English. It was not, however, until the second visit, on the following day, that the misery which reigns in a slave-ship was fully understood. "The rainy season had commenced, and, during the night, rain had poured heavily down. Nearly a hundred slaves had been exposed to the weather on deck, and amongst them the heap of dying skeletons at the foremast. After making my way through the clustered mass of women on the quarter-deck, I discovered the slave-captain, who had also been part owner, comfortably asleep in his cot, undisturbed by the horrors around him. The captives were now counted; their numbers, sex, and age, written down for the information of the Court of Mixed Commission. The task was repulsive. As the hold had been divided for the separation of the men and the women, those on deck were first counted; they were then driven forward, crowded as much as possible, and the women were drawn up through the small hatchway, from their hot, dark confinement. A black boatswain seized them one by one, dragging them before us for a moment, when the proper officer in a glance decided the age, whether above or under fourteen, and they were instantly swung again by the arm into their loathsome cell, where another negro boatswain sat with a whip or stick, and forced them to resume the bent and painful attitude necessary for the stowage of so large a number. The unfortunate women and girls, in general, submitted with quiet resignation, when absence of disease, and the use of their limbs permitted. A month had made their condition familiar to them; one or two were less philosophical, or suffered more acutely than the rest. Their shrieks rose faintly from their hidden prison, as violent compulsion alone squeezed them into their nook against the curve of the ship's side. I attempted to descend, in order to see the accommodation. The height between the floor and ceiling was about twenty-two inches. The agony of the position of the crouching slaves may be imagined, especially that of the men, whose heads and necks are bent down by the boarding above them. Once so fixed, relief by motion or change of posture is unattainable. The body frequently stiffens into a permanent curve; and, in the streets of Freetown, I have seen liberated slaves in every conceivable state of distortion. One I remember, who trailed along his body, with his back to the ground, by means of his hands and ankles. Many can never resume the upright posture."

That such horrible scenes of misery and cruelty should produce the most dreadful mortality amongst the negroes, is to be expected; but the following details will show a loss of life exceeding all anticipation. The diseases from which the negroes suffer most are small-pox, dysentery, scurvy, and ophthalmia.

The mortality on board slave-ships is not unfrequently almost incredible. Take, for instance, the following cases :

"1835. February.-The Formidable,' Spanish brig, 200 tons. The prizemaster, Mr. Halcrow, second acting-master of the Buzzard,' deposed in the