Missionary Register.

No. 19.

JULY, 1814.

No 7. Vol. II.

Home Proceedings.

REVIVAL OF THE FRENCH SLAVE TRADE,

WE introduce this subject to our readers with

deep regret. The melioration of the Western Coast of Africa has been advancing with rapidity since the Abolition of the Slave Trade by Britain. A sudden and perhaps fatal check will now be given to the humane and Christian exertions by which this melioration has been effected, unless, at the Congress of Powers to be held at Vienna for settling definitively the terms of the Peace, an entire aud immediate Abolition of that inhuman and murderous traffic can be obtained; or, at the least, an exemption of those portions of the Coast which will be chiefly affected by its revival on the part of France.

We shall lay before our readers a brief detail of the proceedings on this subject, which do so much honour to the Nation; and which will doubtless concilitate the favour of Him, whose retributive justice has most remarkably avenged the blood of Africa on her oppressors.

The revival of the French Slave Trade will most

particularly affect those parts of the Coast from which the arms and the councils of Britain have for many years warded off the traffic; and where British Benevolence is effecting a most rapid melioration, and with which it is establishing a generous and profitable intercourse. The Colony of Sierra Leone, the African Institution, and the Church Missionary Society, are lending most powerful aid toward the remuneration of Western Africa for her manifold wrongs. On that part of the Coast where the in fluence of these bodies is chiefly exerted, no trade in Slaves can at present be legally carried on, not even by Spain or Portugal-the powers which have shewn the most inveterate attachment to that traffic. the treaty with France having, without restriction or limitation, restored Senegal and its dependencies, this very scene of benevolent exertions will be exposed to all the horrors of a renewed trade,

But

The friends of Africa, alive to its interests, were anxious that this country should avail itself of the tried policy of its own humane measures, and of its great influence with the European Powers, to procure in the Negociations for Peace an immediate and eutie Abolition of the Trade for ever. Mr. Wilberforce accordingly moved, on the 3d of May, in the House of Commons, an Address to the Prince Regeut, as Lord Grenville did in the House of Lords on the 5th, beseeching his Royal Highness to interpose his good offices with the Allied Powers to induce them to consent to the Abolition of the Trade. Both Addresses were carried unanimously.

The Address from the House of Commons states the subject in so forcible a manner, that we shall here insert it.:

That an humble Address be presented to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, to assure his Royal High ness, that this House, relying with perfect confidence on the soleinn assurances received by Parliament in 1806 and 1810, that his Majesty's Government would employ every proper means to obtain a Convention of the Powers of Europe for the immediate and universal Abolition of the African Slave Frade, beg leave humbly and earnestly to represent to his Royal Highness, that the happy and glorious events which promise the general pacification of Christendom, the present union and assembly of its greatest Sovereigns, and the great and generous principles which they proclaim as the rule of their conduct, afford a most auspicious opportunity for interposing the good offices of Great Britain to accomplish the above noble purpose, with the weight which belongs to her rank among Nations, to the services which she has rendered to European Independence,, and to the unanimous and zealous concurrence of her Parliament and People:

That we feel ourselves authorized, by our own Abolition of this Trade, of the guilty profits of which we enjoyed the largest share, by the fellowship of civilization, of religion, and even of cominon humanity, to implore the other Members of the Commonwealth of Europe to signalize the restoration of its order and security by the prohibition of this detestable commerce, the common stain of the Christian Name, a system of crimes by which the civilized professors of a beneficent Religion spread desolation and perpetuate barbarism among helpless savages, whom they are bound, by the most sacred obligations of duty, to protect, to instruct, and to reclaim!

Humbly to represent to his Royal Highness, that the high rank which this kingdom holds among maritime and colonial states imposes a very serious duty upon the British Government at this important juncture; and that, unless we interpose, with effect, to procure a general Abolition, the practical result of the Restoration of Peace will be to revive a traffic which we have prohibited as a crime, to open the sea to swarms of piratical adventu rers, who will renew and extend, on the shores of Africa,. the scenes of carnage and rapine in a great measure suspended by maritime hostilities, and the peace of Chris tendom will kindle a thousand ferocious wars among

[July, wretched tribes, ignorant of our quarrels and of our very

name:

That the Nations who have owed the security of their navigation to our friendship, and whom we have been happy enough to aid in expelling their oppressors, and maintaining their independence, cannot listen without respect to our voice raised in the cause of justice and humanity; and that among the great States, till of late our enemies, maritime hostility has, in fact, abolished the trade for twenty years, no interest is engaged in it, and the legal permission to carry it on would practically be a new establishment of it, after the full developement of its horrors:

That we humbly trust, that in the moral order by which Divine Providence administers the government of the world, this great act of atonement to Africa may contribute to consolidate the safety, and prolong the tranquillity, of Europe, that Nations may be taught a higher respect for justice and humanity by the example of their Sovereigns, and that a treaty, sanctioned by such a disinterested and sacred stipulation, may be more profoundly reverenced, and more religiously observed, than even the most equitable compacts for the regulation of power or the distribution of territory.

His Royal Highness returned for answer, that "it would be his earnest endeavour to accomplish the object of the Address."

Deep, therefore, was the disappointment with which the following Article was read in the treaty :—

His most Christian Majesty, concurring without reserve in the sentiments of his Britannic Majesty, with respect to a description of traffic repugnant to the principles of natural justice and of the enlightened age in which we live, engages to unite all his efforts to those of his Britannic Majesty, at the approaching Congress, to induce all the powers of Christendom to decree the Abolition of the Slave Trade, so that the said trade shall cease universally, as it shall cease definitively, under any circumstances, on the part of the French Government, in the course of five years; and that, during the said period, no Slave Merchant shall import or sell Slaves, except in the Colonies of the State of which he is a subject.

Lord Grenville declared in the House of Lords, on the 6th of June, that he had expected that all Europe would concur in the Abolition of the Slave Trade as a great crime; as a system of the worst piracy, which ought no longer to exist. If any thing could still be done, he hoped their Lordships would be ready to follow up the Resolution which they had unanimously adopted.

Mr. Wilberforce, on the same day, in the House of Commons, professed that he must suppose the British Negociator would be found to be justified, in agreeing to such an article, by some very strong and imperious necessity: but he must still deeply lament that such a sacrifice should have been found indispensable, as it appeared to him to be the surrender of a great part of Africa and many thousands of human beings to deliberate robbery and murder. He trusted that, in the treaty negociating with Holland, we should insist on the Abolition of the Trade in whatever settlements might be yielded to her.

The Directors of the African Institution, who have exercised a very vigilant attention in respect to the full and entire Abolition of the Slave Trade, determined on an Appeal to the public conscience and feelings on this subject.

A Requisition for a General Meeting of the Friends of the Abolition of the Slave Trade was, in consequence, circulated, signed by his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester, and many noblemen and gentlemen.

A most numerous and respectable Meeting assembled accordingly, at Freemasons' Hall, on Friday, the 17th of June, his Royal Highness in the Chair: at which Meeting various Resolutions, and Petitions te