Brazilian merchant-vessels, although they may not have at present the opportunity of making captures, serves as a most wholesome check, not only upon the slave-dealers, but likewise upon the Brazilian authorities, and that were the powers under which they are now acting withdrawn, without the substitution of others equally efficient, the consequence would be the revival of the slave-trade. The Earl of Clarendon to the Chevalier de Macedo. 66 [THE SLAVE-TRADE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN SUPPRESSED IN BRAZIL BUT WITH SENHOR PAULINO, ADDRESSED TO LORD MALMESBURY.] Foreign Office, July 6th, 1854. M. le Chevalier,—I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 27th ultimo, referring to a debate which took place in the House of Commons on the previous day, respecting the Act of Parliament of 1845, relative to the Brazilian slave-trade, and complaining that in the course of that debate Lord John Russell and Viscount Palmerston attributed the late cessation of that traffic in Brazil to the operation of the Act in question. I beg to observe to you in reply, that although the Brazilian government are entitled to full credit for the praiseworthy exertions which they have made since 1851, for the suppression of the African slave-trade, and although it would be much more agreeable to me to dwell exclusively upon what has been accomplished by Brazil in the last two years, and to pass over the painful records showing the course pursued during the previous twenty-six years in regard to the engagements which Brazil contracted towards Great Britain by the Treaty of the 23rd of November, 1826; yet I feel bound to express my sincere conviction that the existence of the Act of 1845, and more particularly its stringent enforcement in the year 1850, contributed materially to bring about the present improved state of affairs. With regard to this point, I am able to appeal to the testimony of a distinguished Brazilian Minister, who took a prominent part in the discussions upon these latter transactions,-I mean Senhor Paulino de Souza, whose statement as to the salutary effect produced by the exertions of the British cruisers even in 1850 will be found in the accompanying report of a conversation which the late Mr. Southern had with his Excellency in 1852. I have likewise to call your attention to the fact, that during the present year the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs has informed Her Majesty's Minister at Rio de Janeiro, of three expected arrivals of African slaves on the coast of Brazil. These communications were of course made to Mr. Howard, in order that he might apply to the British Naval Commanders on the station to afford their co-operation in preventing these apprehended violations of Treaty and Brazilian law; and it appears to me that if Her Majesty's government were to propose to parliament to repeal the Act of 1845, they would incur a serious responsibility, and wantonly deprive themselves of the means of effectually assisting the Brazilian government with their support and countenance in counteracting the plots of the slave-dealers whose activity on the coast of Africa has of late been very much increased. Enclosure. Mr. Southern to the Earl of Malmesbury. Rio de Janeiro, May 10th, 1852. My Lord,—With reference to the statement which has been made by the Brazilian government, that the summary proceedings of the British cruisers had rather retarded than aided in the suppression of the slave-trade on this coast, I think it right to report to your Lordship that in a conversation I had lately with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, his Excellency stated to me that he and his colleagues had found it vain to argue with their countrymen-slave-holders, buyers, and sellers-on grounds of philanthropy or political economy; that the line of argument the Ministry had used and found most efficient was this:-" You see the number of years that the forces of the British government have been directed towards the suppression of the slavetrade; the treasures it has lavished on the means of intercepting that traffic. We ourselves know by experience that no consideration holds it back when there is a question of the slavetrade; and now that it appears resolved to put down the slavetrade, and is proceeding with more vigour than ever, can we suppose that it will draw back? And if this state of things continues, what can come of it but war? And if we go to war with England, what will become of the capitalists, agriculturists, and merchants of Brazil?" His Excellency distinctly stated to me, that by such arguments as these, used in the very moment of the application of the strongest measures of the British cruisers against the Brazilian slave-traders, he and his colleagues had prevailed upon influential persons to support, or at least not to oppose, the Government in co-operating with the agents of Great Britain in their determined persecution of this inhuman commerce. No. XIV. Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon. [DISADVANTAGES FOR ENGLISH RESIDENTS IN BRAZIL-CUSTOMS-TARIFF AND ADMINISTRATION OF INHERITANCES-GENERAL CONVICTION THAT THE SLAVE-TRADE WAS SUPPRESSED BY THE ACTION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.] Rio de Janeiro, August 10th, 1854. My Lord,-Amongst the observations in the Chevalier de Macedo's note of the 27th of June last to your Lordship, on the subject of Viscount Palmerston's speech in the House of Commons on the question of the repeal of the Act of Parliament of 1845, a copy of which note, and of your Lordship's reply of the 6th of July, your Lordship has been so good as to forward to me in your despatch of the 8th of the same month, I remark that he takes credit to the Brazilian government for modifying their customs tariff in a manner favourable to the consumption of English goods, and for granting the demands of Her Majesty's government relative to the property of Englishmen dying intestate in Brazil. Upon the first point, I beg leave to remark, that from the information which has been furnished to me by English merchants here, it appears, that since the expiration of our commercial Treaty with Brazil of 1827, when British goods became liable to a duty double that to which they were subjected under the Treaty, no essential modification of the Brazilian tariff profitable to British merchandise has taken place. With regard to the second point, if the Chevalier de Macedo means to imply, as appears from his note, that the Brazilian government have yielded to the requests of Her Majesty's government on the question of inheritances, he is in strange ignorance of the real state of the case; and either cannot have received, or must have overlooked, the Report presented to the Legislature, on the 15th of May last, by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of his own country, in which Senhor Limpo de Abreo refers to the still unsatisfied demands of Her Majesty's govern ment on the subject, and publishes some of the correspondence of Her Majesty's Legation here with the Brazilian Foreign Department. If the Chevalier de Macedo could be the means of settling this question as satisfactorily as he seems to think it has already been arranged, he would confer a great benefit upon Her Majesty's subjects residing in this country, as well as upon Her Majesty's servants, who, for the last nine years, have been labouring in vain to induce the Brazilian government to accede to the reasonable wishes of Her Majesty's subjects. Your Lordship having completely refuted, in your reply, the arguments by which M. de Macedo has sought to disprove Viscount Palmerston's observations, attributing the cessation of the slave-trade in Brazil to the operation of the Act of 1845, and to its more stringent enforcement in 1850 and 1851, I will only take the liberty of remarking, that his Lordship's opinions, as confirmed by the expression of your Lordship's own views, are those of all the many foreign residents in this country with whom I have conversed on the subject, and that their accuracy is admitted by all the impartial Brazilians I have met. Moreover, I am confident that the greatest part of those Brazilians who think it patriotic publicly to deny their justice, are internally convinced of it. Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon. [PROJECT OF LAW FOR OBLIGING OWNERS OF SLAVES TO MAINTAIN THEM WHEN DISABLED BY AGE OR ILLNESS-COMMON PRACTICE OF FREEING SLAVES WHEN UNFIT FOR WORK.*] Rio de Janeiro, August 12th, 1854. My Lord, I have the satisfaction of enclosing herewith translation of a project of law proposed yesterday in the Chamber * See page 70. Sir William Ouseley makes the following statement bearing on this subject: "Cases not unfrequently occur of neglect and |