wife, which no man is "to put asunder," is severed like the Gordian knot, the tenderest feelings of our nature, the love of country, with its thousand associations of home, love, or friendship, are all violated and disregarded, and the unfortunate descendant of the African victim finds that, notwithstanding the Christianity and civilization of his new country, the wrongs of his race have been transportel across the Atlantic to be perpetuated in him. A very extensive and increasing trade in slaves, amounting many thousands annually, is now carried on betwixt Rio de Janeir and the northern provinces of Brazil; the traders make periode visits, and return with their unresisting victims, indifferent alike ty the tears of the women and the curses of the men. Many of the young females are bought by these rascals for the express purp of public prostitution in the capital: a case of this description fe under my own personal knowledge, when 2,100 milreis (nearly 3 were offered for twin sisters of fourteen years of age, which I t happy to be able to add their owner refused. A woman who a borne thirteen children, and thus considerably increased the meas of her master, is now threatened with eternal separation from the by being sold for the south by this same master; and a you! mulatto man was thus recently sold by his own father, a Portugues It is unnecessary to multiply these cases of human suffering, wel worthy of the touching humanity of a Beecher Stowe. I am aware that Her Majesty's Government possesses no rig of interference in this essentially internal traffic, but surely Government could feel offence at the friendly suggestions of anothe with which it is at amity, when those suggestions are based up the purest grounds of humanity and justice. This is not a question of political rights, or even of social rights, but one of human rights. Could not a law be enacted guaranteeing to the slave the right 4 country? for to him there can exist no real difference betwist: voyage of 2,000 miles from Pará to Rio de Janeiro, and one d 2,000 miles from the coast of Africa to Brazil. vincial laws respecting the exportation of slaves, and the duty of l milreis, are insufficient to stop the evil, and are oftentimes evad Could not the law forbid the separation of man and wife, of pare and child, at least beyond the precincts of the province in wh they reside? This would not only be an act of humanity, bu policy; it would dry the tears of thousands, and fill their hearts contentment, and it would stop that drain upon the labour of northern provinces which cannot fail to be shortly felt. The stringent pr It would, indeed, be only a very small instalment of the cro ing natural right of liberty, but it would render so many defence and oppressed creatures comparatively happy, and is so entire devoid of all political bearing, that I cannot believe, were Lordship to suggest such a measure, that the Imperial Government, with its otherwise mild and humane laws, and its enlightened and liberal course of policy, would refuse so just and charitable a proposition. I have, &c. The Earl of Clarendon. SIR, H. AUGUSTUS COWPER. No. 276.-The Earl of Clarendon to Consul Cowper. Foreign Office, November 21, 1856. WITH reference to your despatch of the 21st ultimo, I have to acquaint you that I approve of your discouraging, by all proper means, the traffic in slaves which is carried on coastwise from one part of Brazil to another. H. A. Couper, Esq. I am, &c. CLARENDON. No. 280.-Consul Cowper to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Dec. 9.) (Extract.) Pernambuco, November 18, 1856. I HAVE the honour to inform your Lordship that M. de Macedo has informed me that the statement contained in my despatch of the 29th ultimo was correct, and that the three Africans had escaped from the engenho Sibirô, belonging to Senhor José Francisco Accioli Lins, then a prisoner for the Serinhaem robbery; and I have now to communicate to your Lordship that that tedious and lamentable affair has at length been brought to a conclusion, in as extraordinary and unsatisfactory a manner as it has been conducted from its commencement. Upon the 7th instant, Colonel Drummond was honourably acquitted by the Court of Appeal, of the charges so absurdly and vindictively brought against him by the late President; and upon the 15th his son, Dr. Drummond, and Manoel Fidelis, the fishermen, were also absolved by the same tribunal; but these acts of dilatory justice were also accompanied by the liberation of Senhor Francisco da Paula Cavalcanti Wanderley, surnamed Chico Caçador, and Senhor José Francisco Accioli Lins, surnamed Cazumba, the owner of the engenho Sibirô, and the robbers of the Africans. M. de Macedo has, as your Lordship is aware, effectually prevented my addressing him upon this subject until I had received further instructions; but I would respectfully submit for your Lordship's consideration, whether the faith of Treaties is maintained, or the laws of Brazil honestly executed, by the above result. Let me briefly recapitulate the facts of this case: 1st. The Government was informed of an intended landing of slaves at Serinhaem, but when the vessel arrived at the very spot designated three months afterwards, the cruizing had been suspended, and every police authority withdrawn from the district, 2ndly. Colonel João Manoel de Barros was declared to be the consignee of the slaver. 3rdly. Chico Caçador and Cazumba boarded the vessel, and stole from her 49 slaves. 4thly. Colonel Drummond, his son, and Manoel Fidelis, captured the slaver, and delivered her, with her remaining 162 Africans, to the Government. The consequences of these acts to the parties concerned were: 1st. The Government, for their neglect of duty, escape absolute impunity. 2ndly. Colonel Manoel de Barros is not arrested. 3rdly. Chico Caçador and Cazumba are arrested; the first, six months after the commission of his crime, and the latter, eight months; and they are now both unconditionally liberated. 4thly. Dr. Antonio Drummond and Manoel Fidelis are arrested immediately after their praiseworthy action, are refused bail for a bailable offence, and suffer eleven months' imprisonment; Colonel Drummond is arrested eight months after this, and suffers four months' imprisonment they are now honourably acquitted, but without a word of compensation for their enormous losses. 5thly. Twenty-six Africans still remain in slavery, a reward to their fortunate robbers. Is this an encouragement to Slave Trade, or not? Colonel Drummond intends to lay his wrongs personally before His Imperial Majesty. For myself, I can only say that I have been actuated in all my acts during this painful affair by neither personal enmity upon the one hand, nor friendship upon the other; but by a sense of duty, and a love of liberty and of my fellow-creatures. I have been censured by a Liverpool journal for attacking "one of our best customers," and by the Brazilian, in a manner which I did not expect from its generosity or deserve from my antecedents, for I prize constitutional government too much not to show towards it a partiality which I feel, and do justice to its many merits when in my power; but there still remains to me one thing of which no one can rob me, and that is the heartfelt satisfaction which I shall ever feel at having been instrumental to the liberation of many of my fellow-creatures and their descendants from hereditary slavery, and in having defended, to the best of my ability, an honourable and persecuted family. The Earl of Clarendon. H. AUGUSTUS COWPER. No.281.-Consul Cowper tothe Earl of Clarendon.—(Rec.Jan. 14,1857.) (Extract.) Pernambuco, December 22, 1856. MR. JERNINGHAM, my Lord, was kind enough to observe in one of his despatches to the Brazilian Government, that "he believed me to be a gentleman of honour, incapable of making a statement which I did not believe," and I now declare to your Lordship, upon my honour, that I have never ventured an accusation in this case, without having been fully convinced of its truth: all have been proved to be true by the decisions of the tribunals but the one great vital point in the affair, namely, the complicity of the ex-President; and this I have been prevented from proving by obstacles presented by the Provincial Government utterly impossible for me to have overcome; but to show your Lordship that I scorn to attack any man without giving him the opportunity of defence, I would request your Lordship to propose to the Brazilian Government to sanction the appointment of a Mixed Commission to sit in Pernambuco, to inquire into the conduct of the late President and the truth of my charges in reference to the Serinhaem affair; and I will abide by the result. The Earl of Clarendon. H. AUGUSTUS COWPER. SIR, No. 282.-The Earl of Clarendon to Consul Cowper. Foreign Office, February 3, 1857. I HAVE received your despatch of the 22nd of December of last year, suggesting that Her Majesty's Government should propose to the Brazilian Government to sanction the appointment of a Mixed Commission to sit in Pernambuco, in order to investigate the conduct of the late President of that province, and the truth of your statements with regard to the Serinhaem affair, and in which you state that you will be ready to abide the result of the proposed inquiry. I have to inform you that I have instructed Mr. Scarlett to make such a proposal to the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs, in answer to the charges made by the Imperial Government against you, and as a proof that Her Majesty's Government are desirous that your conduct, which they think honourable and praiseworthy, should be investigated. I am, &c. H. A. Cowper, Esq. CLARENDON. PORTUGAL. No. 319. Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. April 25.) (Extract.) Lisbon, April 18, 1856. I HAVE the honour of inclosing herewith to your Lordship the translation of a Project of Law presented to the Chamber of Deputies by Viscount d'Athoguia on the 7th instant, providing for the abolition of slavery, in the district of Ambriz, six months after the publication of the Law in the official Gazette of Angola; and in the territories of Cabinda and Molembo, six months after what is termed the re-establishment, by the Government, of administrative and military authorities in each of them. Your Lordship will perceive that the limits assigned by this Bill to the district of Ambriz are, the Rivers Lifune to the south, and Zaire, or Congo, to the north. The Earl of Clarendon. (Translation.) GENTLEMEN, HENRY F. HOWARD. (Inclosure.)-Project of Law. Secretary of State's Office for Marine and THE territory of Ambriz, in the Province of Angola, was recently organized as a district of that province, principally with a view to the suppression of the Slave Trade, which has, notwithstanding all the measures taken for preventing it, been constantly carried on there. In order, then, to put a stop to this inhuman traffic in that district, and in the territories of Cabinda and Molembo, I have the honour to submit for your consideration, after having consulted the Ultramarine Council, the following project of law : ART. I. The state of slavery is hereby abolished in the following territories of the Province of Angola: 1. In the district of Ambriz from the River Lifune to the River Zaire. 2. In the territories of Cabinda and of Molembo. II. This law shall come into force in the district of Ambriz six months after its publication in the "Boletim Official" of Angola, and in the other territories mentioned in the preceding Article, six months subsequent to the re-establishment by the Government of administrative and military authorities in each of them. III. All legislative enactments to the contrary are hereby revoked. VISCOUNT D'ATHOGUIA. No. 317.-The Earl of Clarendon to Count Lavradio. M. LE COMTE, Foreign Office, July 7, 1856. WITH reference to the letter which I had the honour to address to you on the 12th of March last, acquainting you that no information had been received at this office with regard to certain orders which the Government of His Most Faithful Majesty was under the impression that Commodore Adams, the Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's naval forces on the west coast of Africa, had given for the detention of all Portuguese vessels employed in carrying slaves the property of any Portuguese colonist who may be proceeding from one port to another of the Portuguese possessions on the coast of Africa, I now beg leave to acquaint you that I have received a com |