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following article we have taken what we have sometimes been ashamed to hear others call high ground: and that whenever the slave trade in general is alluded to, it is presumed that an idea is conveyed to the mind of wickedness in its most malignant forms; that the word, in short, is synonymous with any of those crimes from which the feelings of mankind are averted with the greatest disgust and horror.

Bt although this hypothesis be admitted to its full extent, with respect to our own practice, it does not necessarily follow, that we are bound to impose upon other nations an exact uniformity of sentiment and practice upon this, any more than upon other moral subjects. We are not responsible for their crimes, except in so far as we make ourselves directly or indirectly parties to them. As a moral and Christian people we are bound by profession and character to use our best influence to narrow the dominion of human depravity, and we shall nationally and individually be held responsible for the use which we make of the talents bestowed upon us for this purpose. But here the principle of expediency is decidedly admissible, and we are bound to exercise our discretion as to the best mode of persuading others ultimately to relinquish a practice, which we can neither tolerate in ourselves, nor admit to be justifiable in them. Experience has established it as a principle, that every attempt to force conviction upon minds not duly prepared to receive it universally, strengthens the prejudice it attempts to remove. It partakes of the nature of persecution, which never yet produced an honest proselyte. Bold and magnanimous in our own opinions, we should mix patience and moderation with our zeal and perseverance, in urging upon others the reasonableness and justice of our objects. While we demand sacrifices from them upon moral grounds, we are bound to show our own sincerity by our: promptitude in making them. But it would be treason to the majesty of immutable truth to compromise our principle, by admitting, for one moment, in others the lawfulness or the expe diency of a temporary indulgence in crime, under the fallacious pretext of thereby purchasing its ultimate extinction. The ingenious device of permitting evil that good may arise out of it has never yet been found efficacious; and for a very plain reason; evil is so naturally predominant in the world, that steadyand continual resistance can hardly contain it within bounds: afford it temporary encouragement, and the torrent rushes with an impetuosity that defies every opposing obstacle. Can any rational man, for example, avoid seeing how much the difficulty of abolishing the slave trade in France is augmented by the free course which the regal government appeared resolved to afford to the iniquity for five long years? And when the period is expired,

with what face can that government tell its slave traders, that religion and morality require that they should give up the traffic, exposed as they will be to the damning question: Have you then been granting us a licence to be irreligious and immoral for five years? or, Have you permitted us to build up establishments, and to vest capitals in the prosecution of an enterprize, the moral quality of which was to be completely reversed by the lapse of five years? Truly it is difficult to determine, whether the hypocrisy or the absurdity of this annuity in crime be the most conspicuous. We have heard of geographical morality, and other such distinctions, and on few subjects more frequently than on that which is under discussion; but this is the first time we have observed the principle of chronological morality to be consecrated by the public acts of any nation.

Upon a review of the Papers before us, with reference to the principles we have just endeavoured to establish, we are glad to find little except commendation to bestow. Our ministers have strenuously asserted the principle; have zealously urged it upon grounds of reason and argument; have offered liberal sacrifices for its general establishment; have endeavoured to make every concession the means of further advancement; and, with one doubtful exception, have never compromised the high principle upon which they professed to found their reasonings and their negotiations.

The first-mentioned of the Papers before us contains, 1st, the detail of the Negotiations and Treaties, upon the Slave Trade, between Great Britain and the other powers of Europe; previous to the meeting of the Congress of Vienna; and, 2dly, the protocols, or original memoranda, of the conferences which actually took place vivâ voce, at the Congress, on the same subject, between the Plenipotentiaries of the great powers there assembled, and those possessing colonies, viz: England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain, France, Portugal, and Sweden. The French pamphlet, which bears the name of Doctor de Carro, is one which we contemplate with peculiar delight, being a concise and spirited Summary, made under the eye and direction of Lord Castlereagh, of the voluminous documents, evidence, and arguments, laid before the British Parliament by the friends of the abolition of the slave trade, from the first period of its agitation in the year 1788, to that of the final and successful triumph in the year 1807. We cannot perhaps enter into the consideration of these documents in a more appropriate order, than that in which they appeared before the parties' immediately concerned :-1. The preliminary negotiations-2. The pamphlet of Dr. de Carro-and 3. The conferences at Vienna.

First then we find that at the Treaty of Paris, in 1814, five

of the principal powers of Europe, Austria, Russia, Great Britain, France, and Prussia, entered into a solemn engagement in the face of Europe to unite their efforts at the approaching Congress, to induce all the states of Christendom to declare the abolition of the slave trade. But it is impossible not to perceive that England was the spring, the light, the soul of this confederacy. For we find in these Papers, that Lord Castlereagh first induced the Government of France to enter into the additional article of the treaty of Paris, declaring the slave trade to be repugnant to natural justice, and agreeing to abolish it in five years; and then communicated the Article in a circular to the three other great powers, with the following observations;

"The Prince Regent trusts that an object so interesting to humanity will at once attract the attention, and call forth the early exertions of his Majesty in its behalf. His Royal Highness persuades himself that the powers of Europe, wlien restoring peace to Europe, with one common interest, will crown this great work by interposing their benign offices in favour of those regions of the globe which yet continue to be desolated by this unnatural and inhuman traffic." (Papers, p. 2.)

The most favourable answers were received from the Count of Nesselrode on behalf of Russia, and from Baron Hardenberg on the part of Prussia; who both expressed, in the strongest terms, the unqualified determination of their respective governments to second, with all their efforts, the exertions of Great Britain at the Congress, for the general abolition of so hateful a traffic, which is equally at variance with morality, and with the magnanimous principles that characterise the allied sovereigns." (Papers, p. 4.) With Denmark and Sweden we had already entered into separate treaties for the abolition of the slave trade; and immediately after the treaty of Paris, Lord Clancarty, our Minister at the Hague, concluded a successful negotiation with the Sovereign Prince of Holland and the Netherlands; who forthwith issued a decree prohibiting his subjects, under the severest penalties, from engaging in the slave trade. Spain and Portugal, therefore, were the only powers of Europe who at this period had given no definite pledge on this interesting topic. But in truth these were fearful exceptions, as a great portion of the traffic still existing has of late years been carried on under the flags of those nations, and for the supply of their South American colonies.

Such was the state of affairs on this subject upon the triumphant return of Lord Castlereagh from his foreign diplomatic mission, in the spring of 1814, into the bosom of an applauding senate and an approving Country.

The general impression, that his Lordship had consulted the

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dignity of his country, and the true interests of Europe, by the moderation of his demands upon vanquished France, insured to him then a tribute of applause, which at the close of his present mission will be due only to a stern and unbending exaction from that twice conquered nation, of solid and substantial security for their future good conduct under whatever government they may be, in return for the glorious expenditure of our blood and

treasure.

We need not recall to our readers, that upon the publication of the treaty of Paris, soon after his Lordship's return, the additional article on the slave trade was far from giving general satisfaction; the gross inconsistency of the sentiments of the French government with its intentions, which was evident on the face of the article, might reasonably disgust a sincere and honest people. Many persons of sound judgment and integrity thought, that by making ourselves a party to an agreement, that France should persevere in an acknowledged felony for five years, we were in no slight degree implicated in the crime; at least that we had widely departed from the high principle which belonged to a great people upon important points of political morality; and a still greater number were of opinion, that much more decisive success might have been commanded, as the condition of the gratuitous restoration of the conquered colonies to France.

We have not time to enter into the full discussion of these questions, which is the less necessary, as there was scarcely a town, or even a respectable village in the kingdom, where they were not fully and publicly treated; and petitions for more operative and vigorous measures unanimously voted. It is a gratifying symptom of the moral force of our constitution, that the general and deliberate sentiments of the people, expressed unequivocally, and through the proper organs, will always command the compliance of the government. Accordingly we find, in the subsequent parts of the negotiations, a zeal and an earnestness truly admirable to carry the concessions beyond those made in the treaty of Paris. No inducement was withheld that delicate flattery could offer; no sacrifice declined which was thought likely to propitiate the colonial ambition of France; no threat abstained from of a nature to wring a reluctant consent to immediate abolition from the nations possessing colonies; no precautions omitted to consolidate the concessions made, and to accelerate the ultimate attainment of the object; and, (as the French Pamphlet before us testifies,) no pains were spared in opening the eyes of the parties to the atrocious wickedness of the traffic. But the pledge was gone from our hands, and power departed with it: of each however in their order.

The Duke of Wellington was scarcely installed in the palace

These

of the British Embassy at Paris, when he received a dispatch from Lord Castlereagh signifying the Prince Regent's commands, that his grace should take the earliest opportunity to call the attention of the French government to the important question of the slave trade; that he should press the immediate abolition by every argument in his power; and failing in this, that he should prevail upon the French government to confine the import of slaves to making good the deficiencies in the gangs for the existing plantations; to the exclusion of import for breaking up and cultivating fresh grounds. The Duke was further commanded to use his efforts to prevent the renewal of the trade on the coast of Africa north of the Line, which, during the war, had been freed from its debasing effects, and had in consequence, and under the auspices of the African Institution, "made a certain progress towards a social and civilizing system of commerce." measures were to be secured by solemn decrees of the French government, by strict regulations on the coast of Africa, and by the mutual right of visiting and seizing the ships of the two nations which might be found contravening the orders of their governments. It is added in this dispatch, "that your Grace may enter upon the discussion of this subject with the weight and solemnity with which the Prince Regent, the Parliament, and the British nation regard it, you will solicit a particular audience from His Most Christian Majesty, for the purpose of presenting the accompanying letter. You will support the earnest representations therein contained, with such arguments and facts as your Grace's knowledge of the public feeling, and of the state of the trade, may warrant you in laying before His Majesty; and you will feel yourself enabled to press the measure with the more earnestness from the sacrifices made in negotiating the peace, by the British Government, to what the King of France considered to be due to His own situation, under the extent of prejudice amongst His subjects against an immediate abolition."

It is not often that even the formal correspondence of sovereigns is submitted to the public eye: for this reason, and because the letter is not only highly ereditable to the feelings of the Royal Writer, but also a noble triumph of the influence of public opinion in affairs of state, we shall lay it at length before our readers.

"Carlton House, August 5, 1814.

"Sir, My Brother, and Cousin, "Your Majesty's long residence in this country has enabled You to appreciate the sentiments of the British nation on the subject of the Slave Trade. The King's Ambassador at Your Majesty's Court will lay before Your Majesty the successive and solemn appeals made to Me by both Houses of Parliament, and the assurances I have given

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