is to be found in the fact that the Chamber of Deputies received the speech of Senhor Paulino with the gravest, the deepest attention. At its conclusion there was not a dissentient voice to any of the propositions it contained. It was received with unanimous marks of cordial approbation, and the warmest congratulations greeted the Minister whose courage had enabled him to achieve a great victory over that worst enemy of Brazil-the slave-dealer. On Tuesday, 16th instant, the Chamber of Deputies again met in secret session, and the project of law above mentioned was again debated. On the following day the debate was again continued in secret session, and the result of the deliberations of the House was, that the Ist, lInd, and XIIth Articles of the Project of Law were struck out, as militating against the spirit of the Law of 7th November, 1831, which law is therefore preserved and retained in the legislation of Brazil. Some other amendments were also made in the project, and it will, as it now stands, be sent up to the Senate in a few days, and will, I trust, soon form a part of the laws of Brazil against Slave Trade. I have the honour to inclose herewith to your Lordship a copy and translation of this project of law as passed by the Chamber of Deputies. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. I have, &c. JAMES HUDSON. No. 87.-Mr. Hudson to Viscount Palmerston.-(Received Sept. 18.) WITH reference to my despatch of this date, reporting to your Lordship the proceedings in the Chamber of Deputies with regard to Slave Trade, and transmitting to your Lordship a copy of a project of law for the better repression of Slave Trade, as it passed that House after its third reading; I have now the honour to report to your Lordship that, as the instructions which I have had the honour to receive from your Lordship are very precise respecting the preservation in the legislation of Brazil of the spirit of the Brazilian Law of the 7th November, 1831, which law is part and parcel of the Convention of 23rd November, 1826, between Great Britain and Brazil for the suppression of Slave Trade, and as the project of law in question implied rather than expressed that the Law of 7th November, 1831, was retained and preserved in it, I thought it my duty to put the question to Senhor Paulino José Soares de Souza, Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs, who has replied to my inquiry in the most open, direct, and satisfactory manner, that the project of law of which I speak not only preserves the spirit and intent of the Law of the 7th of November, 1831, but absolutely strengthens those of its provisions which were weak and inefficient for repressing Slave Trade. I have the honour to inclose herewith copies of the correspondence which passed between his Excellency and myself on this subject. I shall have the honour duly to report to your Lordship the progress of this project of law through the Senate. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. I have, &c. JAMES HUDSON. No. 93.-Mr. Hudson to Viscount Palmerston.-(Received Oct. 7.) HAVING had occasion to converse with Baron Picolet d'Hermillon, Minister of His Sardinian Majesty at this Court, upon the general aspect of Slave Trade, as carried on between Africa and this country, Baron Picolet said he had made it his particular study to prevent the flag of Sardinia from being used to cover Slave Trade, and that he had issued very stringent instructions to all the Consulates of Sardinia within the limits of his Mission, to demand the deposit in specie of a sum equal to the value of the vessel in voyages to places whence Slave Trade is carried on.. He has added to these instructions others not less stringent with regard to the direct trade between port and port, and to the sale also of Sardinian ships in cases where the buyers are suspected of being engaged in the unlawful traffic in slaves. I have great pleasure in reporting to your Lordship these measures of Baron Picolet d'Hermillon, because I am convinced that his zeal and determination in preventing the flag of Sardinia from being fraudulently employed to cover Slave Trade, will greatly contribute towards the suppression of that traffic. I have, &c. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. SIB, JAMES HUDSON. No. 94.-Viscount Palmerston to Mr. Hudson. Foreign Office, October 15, 1850. I HAVE received and laid before the Queen your despatches of the 27th of July last, reporting the seizure of 5 slave-vessels by Her Majesty's steam-vessel Cormorant, and the attack made by the fort of Paranaguá on that vessel, by which one seaman of Her Majesty's ship was killed and two wounded; and inclosing a copy of a note dated the 12th of July, which you addressed to Senhor Paulíno on the subject of this outrage on the British flag. I have now to instruct you to present a further note to Senhor Paulino, stating the extreme displeasure and astonishment felt by Her Majesty's Government at learning the perpetration of this piratical and murderous attack upon one of Her Majesty's ships by persons in possession of a fort belonging to the Emperor of Brazil. You will state that Her Majesty's Government sincerely hope that the result of that searching inquiry, which the Brazilian Government will no doubt have thought it their imperative duty immediately to institute, will prove that no persons holding a commission under or receiving pay from the Emperor were concerned in committing this scandalous outrage, but that it was the act of a band of pirates, who, having overpowered the military garrison, had taken possession of the fort for their iniquitous purpose. Her Majesty's Government cannot entertain a doubt that the Brazilian Government will deem it essential for the honour of the Brazilian army, to inquire whether the garrison of the fort made a proper resistance to the lawless violence of these pirates; or whether the fort was surrendered to these marauders through the want of courage, or through the criminal connivance of those officers and men to whom the Imperial Government had entrusted the safekeeping of it. But this is an investigation which concerns only the honour and reputation of the Brazilian military service, and with which, therefore, the Brazilian Government alone is entitled to deal. But the fact that, by some means or other, a band of pirates succeeded in obtaining possession of a Brazilian fort, and turned the guns of that fort on a British ship of war, is a matter which Her Majesty's Government cannot allow to pass without demanding the most ample redress. That redress must consist in a formal communication from the Brazilian Government, expressing its deep regret that such an outrage should have been committed, and by the punishment of the pirates who have been guilty of murdering one of Her Majesty's subjects and of wounding 2 others. Her Majesty's Government trust that the Brazilian Government will long since have taken the most active steps for bringing to adequate punishment all the parties who were concerned in this nefarious and disgraceful transaction; but if the necessary proceedings for this purpose shall not have been brought to a successful and complete issue on the receipt of this note, you will demand that no further delay shall take place therein. You will transmit a copy of this despatch to the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs, at the same time that you send in your note to him upon this subject. J. Hudson, Esq. SIR, I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 95.-Viscount Palmerston to Mr. Hudson. Foreign Office, October 15, 1850. I HAVE received your despatch of the 27th of July and its inclosures, on the subject of the insults offered to and assaults committed upon subjects of Her Majesty in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, by the slave-traders of that city; and reporting that the house of Mr. Wood had been broken open by a mob, and that some invalid British sailors who were lodging there had been severely maltreated; and further, that another lodging-house in the Rua Don Manoel had been entered by the mob, and several Englishmen found there grossly ill-used. I approve of the steps which you took with respect to these outrages, as reported by you; and I have now further to instruct you to direct steps to be taken for prosecuting the persons who assaulted the English sailors in the lodging-houses in question. J. Hudson, Esq. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 97.-Viscount Palmerston to Mr. Hudson. SIR, Foreign Office, October 15, 1850. I HAVE received and laid before the Queen your despatch of the 27th of July last, on the subject of the steps adopted by the Brazilian Government in consequence of the recent proceedings taken by Her Majesty's cruizers on the coast of Brazil against Slave Trade, and reporting the circumstances under which you had recommended Admiral Reynolds to suspend a portion of the General Order which he had issued with respect to the seizure of slave-vessels within Brazilian waters and ports. In reply, I have to state to you, that I cannot doubt that you, who are on the spot, and who arrived at your opinion by personal observation, have formed a correct judgment as to the sincerity of the declarations made by the Brazilian Government, that it is their intention really to put down the Slave Trade; and you were, therefore, probably right in asking Admiral Reynolds to modify for a time the course of his proceedings against Slave Trade on the coast of Brazil. But I must confess that nothing which has passed conveys to my mind any other impression than that the Brazilian Government felt that Brazil is powerless to resist the pressure of Great Britain; that they saw clearly that this pressure must, if continued, fully accomplish its purpose of putting down Slave Trade, and that they were endeavouring, by every device they could think of, to obtain the greatest amount of diminution of that pressure, with the smallest amount of real concession on the part of Brazil. Senhor Paulino has been profuse in declarations and promises, but such things have never been wanting on the part of any Brazilian Minister; he has proposed, and the Brazilian Government has probably passed a law, which, in its last modified shape, is certainly a useful addition to the Law of 1831. But the example of the Law of 1831 is sufficient to show that, in Brazil, the existence of a law is one thing, and its practical enforcement another and a very different one. Therefore, until Her Majesty's Government shall see that the 2 laws, the one that of 1831 and the other that which has recently been passed, are actively and effectually, and without favour or partiality, carried into execution, Her Majesty's Government cannot sanction the further continuance of any modification or suspension of any part of the orders under which Admiral Reynolds is acting. Moreover, the reasons given by Senhor Paulino for asking for a modification and suspension of those orders, do not appear to be sufficient or satisfactory. It is certainly true, as he says, that the capturing of slavers within the Brazilian waters by foreign cruizers is derogatory to the dignity of Brazil, but that which has already happened shows that this proceeding, instead of forming, as he represents it, an obstacle to concession on the part of the Brazilian Government and Parliament, has been, in fact, the means by which now at last, for the first time after nearly 20 years of ineffectual endeavours at persuasion, the Government and Parliament of Brazil have been brought to take any steps against Slave Trade; and the early success which so far has attended the employment of these means, can certainly afford no reason for prematurely abandoning them. With regard to the danger of collision which Senhor Paulino apprehends, if slavers should be captured under the guns of a Brazilian fort, there would be an obvious and a most proper and effectual mode of avoiding such collision; and that would be, that the Brazilian Government should give the most imperative orders to all officers in command of forts, not upon any account whatever to fire upon a British ship of war employed in capturing slavers; and such orders you will request the Brazilian Government to give. There can be no justification for such firing upon a British ship of war, inasmuch as a British ship of war in capturing a slaver under the guns of a Brazilian fort, is only doing that which by Treaty and by law the commander of the fort ought himself to have done. The British naval officer should, however, in such a case, always communicate with the commanding officer of the fort in the first instance, in order to obtain, if possible, his co-operation. The plain fact is, that nothing can be effected with the Brazilian Government on this matter, except by compulsion. Arguments and reason have long been used in vain. If a mere sense of duty and a regard for the engagements of Treaties could have swayed the conduct of the Brazilian Government, the Brazilian Slave Trade would many years ago have entirely ceased. But it is manifest that the slave-traders have been able to exert over the Brazilian Government, either by corruption or by intimidation, an influence which has |
