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the flags which the illicit slave traders could assume. Whereas, if France acts alone, the danger to the French illicit trade is reduced to the chance of what her own cruizers may be enabled to effect, along the immensity of that coast; and even where a French armed ship falls in with a French slave trader, by hoisting English, Spanish, Portuguese, or Dutch colors, the French officer, supposing him anxious to do his duty, will be very cautious in hazarding a visit where there is so reasonable a presumption that the vessel may be what the flag announces.

But take the other supposition, that all the principal maritime powers shall act in concert, and that the vessel suspected of having slaves on board hoists the flag of any other state, suppose the Hanseatic flag, the presumption is so conclusive against a Hamburg vessel trading in slaves on her own account, that no officer would hesitate to search the vessel in order to detect the fraud.

It may be further confidently asserted, that if the powers having a real and local interest, come to an understanding and act together, the other states will cheerfully come into the measure, so far as not to suffer their flags to be so monstrously perverted and abused. The omission of France is above all others important, from its station in Europe, and from its possessions in Africa; its separation from the common effort, more especially if imitated by Russia, Austria, and Prussia, will not only disappoint all the hopes which the world has been taught to form, with respect to the labors of the conference established in London, under the third additional article of the treaty of November, 1815, but will introduce schism and murmur into the ranks of the friends of abolition. The states having abolished, will no longer form one compact and unanimous body, laboring to affiliate the state which has yet to abolish, to a common system, and to render their own acts efficacious; but they will compose two sects, one of states that have made the possible inconvenience of a restricted visit to their merchant ships bend to the greater claims of humanity; the other, of states considering their former objection as so far paramount, as not to admit of any qualification, even for the indisputable advantage of a cause, to the importance of which they have at Vienna given a not less solemn sanction. This must materially retard the ultimate success of the measure, and it may in the interval keep alive an inconvenient degree of controversy and agitation upon a subject which has contributed above all others seriously to excite the moral and religious sentiments of all nations, but especially of the British people, by whom the question has long been regarded as one of the deepest interest.

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No. 10.

Despatch from Viscount Castlereagh to Earl Bathurst, dated

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, November 12, 1818.

MY LORD: I have the honor to enclose to your lordship the protocol of the conferences of the allied ministers of the 4th instant.

This protocol details the further proceedings upon the slave trade, and has annexed to it the memorandum drawn up by me on the same subject, which was communicated to your lordship in my despatch of the 2d instant.

I have, &c.

CASTLEREAGH.

EARL BATHURST, &C.

ENCLOSURE IN No. 10.

Protocol of the Conferences between the Plenipotentiaries of the five powers, held at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 4th of November, 1818.

In reference to the communications made to the conference on the 24th of October, Lord Castlereagh this day developed his propositions relative to the abolition of the slave trade; propositions the object of which is, on the one hand, to complete and extend the measures already adopted for the attainment of the definite extinction of this traffic, and, on the other hand, to insure the execution and the efficacy of those measures. As to the first object, Lord Castlereagh proposed that some measure should be adopted towards his Majesty the King of Portugal and Brazil, and that a letter should be written in the name of the sovereigns, in the most pressing, and at the same time the most affectionate terms, in order to engage his Most Faithful Majesty, reminding him of the part he had taken in the declaration of Vienna, of the 8th of February, 1815, to fix, without further delay, the period for the definitive abolition of the slave trade throughout his possessions, a period which, after the engagements entered into by the plenipotentiaries of his said majesty at Vienna, and inserted in the protocol of the 20th November, 1815, should not extend beyond the year 1823, but which the allied sovereigns desire, from the interest they take in this great cause, to see coincide with that which his Majesty the King of Spain has adopted in fixing the 30th of May, 1820, as the final term of that traffic. This proposition was unanimously received.

Lord Castlereagh, in calling the attention of the conference to the declaration of the plenipotentiaries of his Most Faithful Majesty, made at Vienna, on the 6th of February, 1815, "that they were forced to require, as an indispensable condition for the final abolition, that his Britannic Majesty should, on his side, consent to the changes which they had proposed to the commercial system between Portugal and Great Britain," renewed the assurance that his Majesty the King of Great Britain was ready to accede to all the reasonable modifications which should he proposed in the existing treaties of commerce with Portugal; which assurance he had repeatedly given to the Portuguese minister in London. Lord Castlereagh, above all, desired to call the attention of the conference to the expression reasonable modifications, which he made use of, because he could not suppose that the Portuguese ministers intended to demand, on the part of a single power, sacrifices which one state could not well expect of another as indispensable conditions of a general measure, having for its object the good of humanity alone.

As to the second object, Lord Castlereagh communicated a memorandum (A,) containing explanations of the treaties concluded in 1817, between Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, and the kingdom of the Netherlands, establishing the right of visit against the vessels evidently suspected of being engaged in the trade, in direct contravention of the laws already existing, or hereafter to be made by the different states. Persuaded that, after the explanations given, and the modifications proposed in the said memorandum, such a measure might be adopted without any serious inconvenience, Lord Castlereagh invited the plenipotentiaries to take it into their consideration in the sense the most favorable to the success of the abolition, and to agree to it; or, if not, at least to substitute some counter projet, effectually to prevent the abuse which the illicit trader will not fail to make of the flag of the powers who should refuse to concur in the above mentioned general measure. The memorandum of Lord Castlereagh was annexed to the protocol, sub lit. A.

Lord Castlereagh added to these propositions, that, according to the opinions of several persons whose authority was of great weight on this question, it would be useful, and perhaps necessary, to consider the trade in slaves as a crime against the law of nations, and, to this effect, to assimilate it to piracy, as soon as, by the accession of Portugal, the abolition of the traffic shall have become an universal measure. He requested the plenipotentiaries to take this opinion into consideration, without making, at present, a formal proposition upon it.

METTERNICH,
RICHELIEU,

CASTLEREAGH,

WELLINGTON,

HARDENBERG,

BERNSTORFF,
NESSELRODE,
CAPO D'ISTRIA.

No. 11.

Despatch from Viscount Castlereagh to Earl Bathurst, dated

AIX LA-CHAPELLE, Nov. 23, 1818.

MY LORD: I have the honor to transmit to your lordship the notes of the Russian, French, Austrian, and Prussian plenipotentiaries, upon the two propositions which were brought forward by the British plenipotentiaries, and earnestly pressed upon their attention, as stated in the protocol of the 24th ultimo.

The result of these notes being extremely discouraging to our hopes, it was determined to review the objections brought forward to the measure of mutually conceding the right of visit, especially by the plenipotentiary of France.

After presenting this review to the consideration of the conference, in the memorandum B, (of which a copy is enclosed,) and in an audience with which I was honored by the Emperor of Russia, I took occasion to represent to his imperial majesty, in the strongest terms, the necessity of taking some effective measure of this nature without delay, and without waiting for the decree of final abolition on the part of Portugal.

His imperial majesty listened with his accustomed interest to my representations on this subject, and promised me to give directions to his ministers, to propose that the consideration of the question should be re opened in London under fresh instructions.

The modification which I have finally urged of this measure, and I trust, with considerable hope of success, is, that, in addition to the limitation of the right of visit to the coast of Africa, and to a specific number of ships of each power, the duration of the convention should be for a limited number of years-say seven; at the end of which period the several powers would again have it in their power to review their decision, after some experience of its convenience, or inconvenience, of its efficacy to the object, and of the necessity of its being renewed, regard being had to the then state of the illicit slave trade. This arrangement would sufficiently meet our most pressing wants, whilst it would go less permanently to disturb the acknowledged principles of maritime law, as regulating the right of visit. By the aid of this latter expedient, I flatter myself that I have made a considerable impression in removing the strong repugnance which was at first felt to the measure.

A projet of the letters to be addressed by the sovereigns to the King of Portugal on this subject, is also forwarded in this despatch; and I have to request that your lordship will receive the Prince Regent's pleasure as to making a similar appeal to his most faithful majesty, on his royal highness's part, taking measures for forwarding the whole to the Brazils by the first packet.

I have, &c. &c.

EARL BATHURST, &C. &c.

CASTLEREA GH.

FIRST ENCLOSURE IN No. 11.

Opinion of the Russian Cabinet upon the Slave Trade.

AIX-LA CHAPELLE, November 7, 1818.

The Russian cabinet has laid before the Emperor, and taken, in pursuance of his orders, into mature consideration, the different communications made to the conferences of Aix-la-Chapelle, by the plenipotentiaries of his Britannic majesty on the subject of the slave trade.

There is no object in which his imperial majesty takes a more lively interest, and which he has more at heart, than that the decision upon this question may be conformable to the precepts of the christian religion, to the wishes of humanity, and to the rights and real interests of all the powers invited to assist therein.

Although it cannot be dissembled that the measures in which these indispensable conditions are to be united, are attended with difficulty, his imperial majesty hopes, nevertheless, that the obstacles will not be insurmountable.

His imperial majesty entirely concurs in the proposition of the British cabinet, to make an amicable representation to the court of Brazil for the purpose of engaging it to fix a final and early termination to the power which it has reserved to itself to exercise the trade. The force of the motives upon which the wishes of the allied sovereigns rest, and that of the example which they have already given, will, doubtless, be sufficient to influence the free determination which Portugal is invited to make. The cabinet of Russia has hastened to draw out, upon the invitation of the British plenipotentiaries, the project of a letter which may be addressed, with this view, to the King of Portugal. This projet is hereunto annexed.

The emperor views with satisfaction the probable success of a measure which will complete the accession of all the Christian states to the entire and perpetual abolition of the trade.

It is only when this abolition shall have been thus solemnly declared in all countries, and without reserve, that the powers will be able to pronounce, without being checked by distressing and contradictory exceptions, the general principle which shall characterise the trade, and place it in the rank of the deepest crimes.

Then, and taking this principle for a basis, may be put in practice the measures which shall serve for its application.

The cabinet of his Britannic majesty has communicated those by which it has already begun to give effect to the principle of abolition: that is to say, the conventions with Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands.

It is proposed to adopt generally among the maritime powers the rules laid down in these three conventions, and more particularly to establish, as a general principle, the reciprocal right of visit to be exercised by the respective cruizers.

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