Seven vessels are at this moment fitting, or fitted for slavetrade, in Bahia, and they are only waiting the withdrawal of one of Her Majesty's ships now stationed there, to depart on their illegal voyages.

Twelve barracoons where Africans are publicly kept for sale exist in full activity in and near Bahia. No attempt is made by the public authorities to close them, to restore the Africans in them to that freedom to which they are entitled by law, and to prosecute their owners for this gross and flagrant violation of the Imperial laws and international obligations.

One vessel, it is true, has been condemned at Bahia for attempting to break the Navigation Law, and Municipal Law of the empire, and the port regulations of Bahia. Her attempt was too gross a violation of those laws and rules, her cargo and fittings too palpably intended for slave-trade, for her to escape attention and punishment.

But why are not the other slave-ships and their owners subjected to a similar process?

Your Excellency is aware that on the 6th instant a large vessel, the Indigena, left this port, and was seized outside the harbour. She had her slave-deck laid, and her leaguers, bulkheads, gratings, and hatches, were such as are only used by slavers. No attempt was made to examine her by the authorities in this harbour, or to inquire into the nature of the fittings she had on board.

2dly. It was understood that all Africans landed in Brazil after the pact between your Excellency and myself, should be seized by the public authorities.

Your Excellency, indeed, has sent an Agent to Liberia to inquire whether that State will consent to receive Africans who have been illegally imported into Brazil, on condition, as I understood from your Excellency yesterday, that Liberia shall consent to pay the expenses of the passage of those Africans; a condition which, considering the resources of Liberia, and the date of her birth as an independent State, is, I imagine, an utter impossibility.

But is your Excellency aware that upwards of 5,000 African slaves have been landed in this and the adjoining provinces since your Excellency entered into the arrangement of the 13th of July; and that the Imperial authorities have seized but twenty-three of them, although the military force sent to seize those Africans was occasionally within three-quarters of a league of large bodies of them; as was notoriously the case at the Fazenda of Graça of Manguinhos, which is described by the Chief of Police of this Province in his public report, as being destined for nothing but the reception of illegally imported Africans; and at the Fazenda of Conceição, belonging to Breves, which is situated but three-quarters of a league from the Sacco of Mangaratiba, where the police force disembarked, which was destined to capture the Africans of the Idelmunda and Carne Secca.

Your Excelleney has doubtless heard the report that, although Graça is denounced by the Chief of Police of this Province as a violator of the Imperial laws, no process at law has been, or is to be commenced against him. The same immunity is accorded to Breves.

To these must be added the proprietors, shippers, and dealers connected with the cargoes of the Astro, Sagaz, and Julia, Catão, Idelmunda, Tres Amigos, and Eleanor, who are all perfectly well known. Your Excellency informed me yesterday that the Imperial government had determined to send a Sardinian baker, named Pareto, out of this country, on account of his being a foreigner notoriously engaged in slave-trade. But the owners of the slave-ships I have named to your Excellency are also all foreigners, all equally guilty as this wretched baker, and all equally subject to the action of Brazilian laws. Nevertheless, I do not hear of any attempt being made by the Imperial government to punish them.

Your Excellency cannot surely consent that men like Valencio and Frugoni, notorious slave-dealers, both of whom are suspected of having been engaged in the murder of Her Majesty's subjects,

and one of whom is strongly suspected of having fired on Her Majesty's flag at Paranaguá, shall continue at large in Brazil.

That corrupt magistrate, Maya, of Guarapari, has never, to my knowledge, received the slightest censure or punishment for his proceedings in permitting the notorious slaver Feiticeira to fit out for slave-trade, or for having fired on the boats of Her Majesty's steam-sloop Harpy, after he had passed his word of honour that the Feiticeira should be delivered to the Imperial government, and her owners indicted for a breach of the laws of his country.

5thly. It was understood and agreed by your Excellency and by myself, that barracoons or depôts for the sale of Africans should be closed by the proper authorities. Your Excellency can scarcely be ignorant that depôts for this purpose exist at

Cape Frio.
Armação.

Rio de San João.

Rio das Ostras.

Macahé.

Campos.

Manguinho.

Piume.

Marambaia.
Mangaratiba.

Dois Rios.
Mambucaba.

Fazenda do Alegrete.
Itabatinga.

Sombrio, and

Perrequé.

6thly. It was agreed that proper precautions should be taken to prevent the employment of coasting vessels in slave-trade.

The recent trial of the Amelia at Pernambuco is proof of the extent to which this practice is carried; and recent reports show that no hindrance to the custom is attempted, especially from Bahia along the coasts of Alagoas and Pernambuco.

I am not aware that the agreement into which your Excellency entered with myself, namely, that coasting-vessels should give Dond in money for the lawful employment of those suspicious cargoes which they so frequently carry, has ever been fulfilled.

Finally. It is clear that whilst these things continue, your

Excellency cannot lay claim to any share in the suppression of the slave-trade.

That trade continues; interrupted, it is true, by that pressure upon the slave-dealers which produced a temporary check; but the pressure removed, we see a relapse to the former apathetic indifference to the provisions of laws and the stipulations of treaties produce a corresponding reaction on the part of the slave-dealers.

Your Excellency, on a review of the proceedings of Her Majesty's authorities in this country, will find that in no instance have they departed from the letter and the spirit of the compact into which I entered with your Excellency on the 13th of July.

The Rear-Admiral and myself, in endeavouring to consult the desire of the Imperial Cabinet, agreed to incur a heavy amount of responsibility. But as we see that our conduct on that occasion is either not appreciated or is misconstrued, as we have failed in our endeavours to induce the government of the Emperor of their own accord to act up to their own laws, the will of their Sovereign, and the obligations of their treaties, we have no other course left open to us, consistently with our public duty, than to resume that conduct which we hoped the action of the Imperial Cabinet would have rendered unnecessary; and it remains to me, therefore, but to state to your Excellency, that the provisional suspension of the orders to seize slave-ships in accordance with the spirit and letter of the Treaty of 1826 is at an end.

No. VIII.

Viscount Palmerston to Mr. Hudson.

[REPLY TO REFUSAL BY THE BRAZILIAN GOVERNMENT TO APPOINT A MIXED

COMMISSION TO EXAMINE AND FREE SLAVES HELD IN ILLEGAL SLAVERYRIGHT OF HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT TO DEMAND THE FREEDOM OF SLAVES ILLEGALLY IMPORTED.]

Foreign Office, July 5th, 1851.

Sir, I have received and laid before the Queen your despatch of the 12th of May last, inclosing a copy and translation of a note dated the 26th of April last, which you received from M. Paulino de Souza, in reply to the note which, in compliance with the instructions contained in my despatch of the 8th of November, 1850, you addressed to him on the 18th of February last, proposing to the Brazilian government the establishment of a Mixed Commission at Rio de Janeiro, which should be empowered to investigate the cases of negroes suspected of being illegally held in slavery in Brazil, and to declare whether such negroes are or are not free.

I observe that Senhor Paulino, in his reply to your note, merely states that the Brazilian government, in common with those of all other independent nations, execute their own laws in their own country, and will cause them to be executed by means of their own tribunals and authorities; that they cannot, therefore, allow the creation of a Commission wherein foreign Judges shall have votes and exercise jurisdiction within the empire; and that the creation of such a Commission being the principal object of the proposed Convention, it cannot be admitted; and I perceive that Senhor Paulino has accordingly declined to enter into any examination or discussion of the Convention which you submitted to him upon this matter, and that he has sent back to you the draft which you proposed to him.