SIR,

No. 206.-Viscount Palmerston to Mr. Hudson.

Foreign Office, March 29, 1851. I HAVE received and laid before the Queen your despatch of the 11th ultimo, inclosing a copy and translation of a note dated the 28th of January, which was addressed to you by Senhor Paulino, in reply to the note which you sent in to that Minister on the 11th of January, notifying to him that the search and seizure of slavevessels within Brazilian waters, which had been for a time suspended, was about to be renewed by Her Majesty's cruizers.

I have now to instruct you to state to Senhor Paulino, that Her Majesty's Government have read with due attention his note of the 28th of January; that the general result of the contents of that note appear to Her Majesty's Government to be, that Senhor Paulino admits that the Convention of 1826 binds the Brazilian Government to put an end to Brazilian Slave Trade: and that he confesses that from 1826 to 1850, during a long period of 24 years, no effectual steps whatever were taken by the Brazilian Government to carry that engagement into effect; that during that long period enormous quantities of unfortunate Africans were annually brought into Brazil to be there doomed to the miseries of slavery; and that with the knowledge, and therefore with the connivance of the Brazilian Government, colossal fortunes were made by this open and permitted violation of the Treaties of Brazil, and by the atrocious commission of that crime, which the Crown of Brazil had justly stigmatised as piracy, and had bound itself to punish as such.

M. Paulino in his note acknowledges that up to the year 1850 the British Government had mainly relied upon appeals to the good faith and honour of the Government of Brazil, and had abstained from any active interference with this system of piracy within the Brazilian waters. But in 1850, the British Government, finding that those appeals had produced no practical results, resorted to active operations by the naval forces of Great Britain within the Brazilian waters.

The result of this change of system was a change of conduct on the part of the Brazilian Government, and a law and regulations which ought to have been established and put in force more than 20 years before, were at last promulgated.

Confiding in the altered intentions thus apparently manifested by the Brazilian Government, Her Majesty's Minister at Rio de Janeiro, and Her Majesty's Admiral commanding on the Brazilian coast, consented to suspend for a time some part of those active operations on the coast of Brazil, which, in pursuance of orders from Her Majesty's Government, had previously been carried on. But that suspension of active measures was immediately followed by a suspension of the measures against Slave Trade, which, under the

pressure of the activity of the squadron, the Brazilian Government had begun to enforce.

You then proposed to the Brazilian Government an arrangement for joint operations, to be concerted by British and Brazilian officers, for the accomplishment of a common purpose. This arrangement was at first agreed to by Senhor Paulino, and then declined by him; was a second time agreed to, and a second time declined; and then, as you found that the Brazilian Government would not act efficiently, either alone or in co-operation with Great Britain, you very properly felt it your duty to put an end to that temporary suspension which had consented to make, of the measures which had been ordered by Her Majesty's Government.

you

You will state to Senhor Paulino, that the decision thus taken by you has been approved by Her Majesty's Government. And you will further say, that experience has shown that no effectual measures for the extinction of the Brazilian Slave Trade can be looked for from the separate and spontaneous action of the Government of Brazil.

It is true that there are now in force in Brazil, laws and regulations which, if duly and vigorously carried into execution, would in a very short space of time utterly extinguish the Slave Trade; and it is also true that the Brazilian Government makes the strongest declarations, and gives the most positive assurances of its determination to carry those laws and regulations into effect; but some spell, stronger than their will, seems ever to paralyse their efforts. They cannot see things which all other persons see, they are not able to know things which are known to every one else in the country; and when they receive from a foreign Legation, or from a foreign Consul, or from a foreign Naval Officer, information which they, as the Government of the country, must have infinitely better and surer means of obtaining; and when, in consequence of such information, slave-trading vessels are searched, and slave-barracoons are inspected, it somehow or other always happens that these proceedings are so delayed and so conducted, that the slave-traders have ample time to remove from their vessels all the fittings which constitute indications of Slave Trade, and to drive away from the barracoons the negroes who had therein been collected.

Moreover, trials against slave-traders are so conducted that the great culprits invariably escape; and while men of humble station are sent out of the country in virtue of the power vested in the Executive Government, the great and notorious offenders, those men who are described by Senhor Paulino as being well known to have amassed colossal fortunes by this infamous crime, are permitted to remain unmolested in Brazil, and to go on with impunity demoralizing the Brazilian people, undermining the real and true resources of the

country, and casting upon the character of an empire to which they do not belong, a degrading and disgraceful stain.

Under these circumstances, the Brazilian Government cannot be surprised if Her Majesty's Government resolve that there shall be no further suspension or relaxation of the active operations of Her Majesty's ships of war on the coast of Brazil, until the object to the accomplishment of which those operations are directed shall have been attained; if, therefore, the Brazilian Government wishes to see those operations cease, it will henceforward know how it can accomplish its wish, and it will be aware that its desire will be gratified whenever the Brazilian Slave Trade shall have been brought completely to an end.

You will read this despatch to Senhor Paulino and give him a copy of it.

J. Hudson, Esq.

I am, &c.

PALMERSTON.

SIE,

BRAZIL (BAHIA).

CONSULAR.

No. 209.-Viscount Palmerston to Consul Porter. Foreign Office, May 15, 1850. I HAVE to desire that in future, whenever any well-founded information respecting the movements of slave-vessels may come to your knowledge, you will immediately communicate the same to the senior officer of Her Majesty's ships which may be at or in the neighbourhood of Bahia, as well as to the Commander-in-chief of Her Majesty's naval forces on the Brazil station.

E. Porter, Esq.

I am,
&c.

PALMERSTON

[Note. This circular was sent to Her Majesty's Consuls at Maranham, Pará, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, and at the Havana, St. Jago de Cuba, and Porto Rico.]

No. 211.-Consul Porter to Viscount Palmerston.-(Rec. July 9.) MY LORD, Bahia, May 13, 1850.

I HAVE the honour to lay before your Lordship the inclosed copy of a despatch addressed by me to Commodore Fanshawe, reporting the departure from this port for the coast of Africa of the Brazilian

slaver Segunda Melvira. It is said that this vessel has gone on a piratical expedition.

I regret much to state that Slave Trade is still carried on here with great success, upwards of 1,100 slaves having been landed during the past month, consisting principally of Nagos, Ouças, Taipas, and Gêges; the greater portion being brought hither from the ports of Onim and Ajuda. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B.

I have, &c.

EDWARD PORTER.

SIR,

(Inclosure.)-Consul Porter to Commodore Fanshawe.

Bahia, May 4, 1850. I HAVE the honour to inform you that the brig Segunda Melvira, 255 tons, sailed from this in ballast on the 14th of February last, under Brazilian colours, bound to the coast of Africa, for the purpose of slave traffic. The sailing master is a Frenchman, the actual captain a Spaniard, calling himself a subject of The United States when it suits his convenience; the crew consists of 40 men, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Brazilians, and she had artillery on board.

She arrived at this port on the 30th of September, 1849, as the brig Brazil, under American colours, made a fictitious sale, and left as a Brazilian vessel. There is a report here that she has been taken, which I trust may be the case, as they evidently intended to act as pirates. I have, &c.

Commodore Fanshawe.

EDWARD PORTER.

SIR,

No. 215.-Viscount Palmerston to Consul Porter.

(Circular.)

Foreign Office, October 4, 1850. I HAVE to desire that you will fill up the inclosed form of return, so far as you will be able to do so; and that you will in future transmit to me at the conclusion of each half-year, viz., on the 30th of June and the 31st of December, a return stating the price of each class and sex of slaves, both in Brazilian currency and in sterling money, according to the current rate of exchange at the date of such returns. I am, &c. E. Porter, Esq.

PALMERSTON.

[This circular was also sent to Her Majesty's Consuls at Maranham, Pará, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande do Sul.]