cation. The argumentum ad hominem, as addressed to the negociators of Paris, would seem to be irresistible. Leaving, however, this point for the present, as well as the consideration of the probable consequences to our own West-Indian colonies, and especially to our principal colony of Jamaica, of that large accumulation of French force in their vicinity which will be required first to reconquer and then to keep in subjection the island of St. Domingo, we pass on to a much more distressing part of the case; we mean, a view of the effect of the stipulation in question as Africa is concerned. In Africa, all the settlements and establishments of every kind, formerly belonging to France, including Senegal, Goree, and their dependencies, are to be unconditionally restored to France; and the entire range of the coast of Africa, with the whole of its extensive river navi. gation, is left exposed, without the slightest limitation or exception, to the full influence of this new slave trade. 1 One obvious effect of this arrangement will necessarily be, the annihilation of almost all trade between Great Britain and Africa. This trade has increased considerably of late years, particularly to that part of Africa, extending from the latitude of 24° north, to the Rio Volta, the eastern boundary of the Gold Coast, and comprehending a space (exclusive of the large rivers to be found in it) of upwards of 1500 miles; and the liberation, which has been to a great degree effected, of that district from the slave trade, together with the return of peace, certainly afforded a fair prospect of its great and rapid augmentation. The amount to which our annual exports thither have already attained is considerable; and it has been returned to us in gold dust, ivory, wax, dye woods, palm oil, &c. and in rice, either brought to England or carried to Portugal and the West Indies. This promising branch of trade must now of necessity be abandoned: for inde pendently of the effect of the slave trade in blighting every effort of African industry, it would be altogether impossible for the trader in produce to enter into competition, even in that branch of trade, with persons carrying on a legalized slavė trade. Slave ships can receive on board dye woods, palm oil, &c. as ballast, and can at the same time carry the valuable articles of gold and ivory, without adding to the expense of their outfit. In short, by the slave traders such merchandize as Africa may then furnish will be conveyed free from the charge of freight, while it will be purchased by them under various other advantages which innocent traders will not possess. The trade of Great Britain with Africa may therefore be regarded as at an end. This, however, is but a very small part of the mischief flowing to Africa from the treaty before us. The loss of its innocent and beneficial commerce ceases to affect the mind as a calamity, when peace and security, when property and personal liberty are at stake, and "when the greatest practical evil which ever afflicted the human race*" is about to revisit its shores, with new circumstances of aggravation. The whole of the coast of Africa northward of Cape Three Points has, for several years past, been almost entirely delivered from the slave trade. A few cargoes of slaves escaped indeed the vigilance of our cruizers; but then the attempt had become one of great difficulty and hazard. Some British slave-traders had fixed themselves in the rivers Mesurada and Pongas, and, by watching the movements of the British ships of war, contrived occasionally to dispatch a ship-load of slaves from those rivers. In June 1813, the slave-trading establishment in the river Mesurada was destroyed by Captain Scobell of his Majesty's ship Thais: upwards of 230 slaves found Speech on the slave trade in 1792, by the Right Hon. William Pitt. in it were set at liberty, and the two British slave-traders who conducted its affairs were taken and carried to Sierra Leone, where they were tried under the slave-trade-felony act, found guilty, and condemned to transportation for fourteen years. These men who had realised a large fortune by their nefarious practices, and were on the point of quitting Africa in order to enjoy the fruit of their crimes in this country, are now on board the hulks waiting a convey ance to New South Wales.-In February last, the slave-trading establishments in the Rio Pongas, which were conducted by several English and American traders and had now become, with the exception of the island of Bissao, the last refuge of the slave trade in this district, were attacked by a detachment from the garrison of Sierra Leone. The slave factories were all destroyed, the slaves liberated, and the slave traders who were not killed in the conflict (for they had the audacity to resist his Majesty's troops, some of whom also fell,) were carried to Sierra Leone to take their trial there. And at the very moment we are hearing of the extinction of almost the last remnant of the slave trade on this part of Africa, we have the mortification to learn that a provision has been made in Europe for its revival. As a proof that we have not exaggerated the actual state of things on this part of the coast of Africa, we beg leave to state that we have seen a letter from the Governor of Senegal, dated so recently as the month of April last, in which he represents the slave trade of that district as having been altogether abolished for several years, and the inhabitants as engaging with growing spirit in the pursuits of peaceful commerce. "I have no doubt," he adds, "that if this settlement is retained by Great Britain, in a very few years there will be a great improvement in the civilization of the tribes adjoining; and the inhabitants will turn all their industry to obtain wealth by honourable commerce. Should it be given up to any other power, I am most apprehensive that the slave traffic in all its latitude will soon be restored, and that in less than one year upwards of 20,000 slaves will be exported from this river." In that part of Africa also which extends from Cape Three Points eastward to the Rio Volta, comprising the whole of the Gold Coast, the slave trade has for some time past been almost wholly abolished; the Portuguese having, in point of fact, confined their slave trade almost entirely to those parts which lie to the east and south of the Gold Coast. Now, however, under the operation of this fatal treaty, the very districts which have been rescued from the slave trade will be the earliest and the severest sufferers from its revival. The places restored to France in Africa are situated in those, very districts, and will naturally become the resort of slave merchants. Senegal which, as we have seen, has for several years had no slave trade, and has began to cultivate the arts of peaceful industry, will now be its chief seat. One of the dependencies of Senegal is a small island in the river Sierra Leone, called Gambia. This island will doubtless be re-occupied by the French without delay, and from the centrical position of the river Sierra Leone, and its superior safety and convenience as a station for shipping, it will be likely to form one of the most considerable entrepots for the slave trade. Gam bia is situated about eight or ten miles above Freetown, the British settlement on the river Sierra Leone; and the French slave ships going thither and sailing thence will all pass within a short distance of that settlement, and will frequently anchor in its road. Under these circumstances, the intercourse between the British settlers and the slave traders will become unavoidable, and the colony will not fail soon to experience all the corrupting effects of such an intercourse, We do not know whether our read ers are aware that a great many slaveships have been condemned in the Vice-admiralty Court of Sierra Leone, and thousands of slaves found on board restored to liberty. Many of these have been settled in villages on the mountains of Sierra Leone, where they are engaged in cultivating lands which have been assigned them by the Governor of the colony. These poor people, just rescued from the hold of a slave-ship, will prove a very convenient prey to the kidnappers, who will again be incited to commence their depredations; and having been seized as they are labouring on their little farms, they may find themselves in two or three hours in the slave depôt of Gambia, or in the hold of a French slave-ship, where no inquest nor any Habeas Corpus can reach them. How strangely inconsistent must the whole conduct of England now appear! She has instituted courts for the purpose of confiscating slave ships, and imposing pecuniary mulcts on those who are engaged in their equipment: she has condemned to the pains and penalties of felony every British subject, nay every person resident within the British dominions, who shall be concerned in buying or selling slaves either in Asia or Africa:-she has been em. ploying her naval and military forces in destroying the very last strong holds of the slave trade on the Windward Coast of the latter continent; and has branded and punished as felons of a high order the miscreants who had stained the British name by continuing to carry it on. And while she has done all this; nay, at the very moment she is doing all this; she coolly stipulates for the admission of the whole body of the French people to the full and free exercise of this criminal traffic; and not only so, but she puts into their hands the very means and instruments of carrying it on, without which they would have had, if the power, yet pot the same inducements to become participators in its guilt. Did we possess eloquence at all equal to the occasion, we should endeavour to produce on the minds of our readers a suitable impression of the various atrocities to which this disgraceful stipulation will prove the signal. We should point to them the recommencement of those scenes of petty warfare, pillage, conflagration, and blood, which had already wasted Africa for centuries; and we should concentrate the misery of those centuries, as it will doubtless be compressed by the increased ingenuity and activity of the days in which we live, into the five ill-fated years which the two most polished nations in the world have decreed shall roll over Africa, charged with every species of crime which man can practise, and every species of wretchedness which human nature can endure. We should call them to witness the disruption of every social and domestic tie, and all the mute agony of despair consequent upon it, in the case of the countless victims of this merciless treaty. We should invite them to attend us through the horrors of the Middle Passage, and to accompany the survivors throughout the hopeless term of their servitude, till the last pang shall have rent their hearts.-But we know our inability to do justice to the subject; and we must therefore leave it to them to fill up the outline. But we cannot quit Africa, without suggesting one consideration which must deeply affect every Christian mind. We had begun to make some reparation to Africa for her wrongs, by the formation of Missionary Establishments and the institution of Christian Schools on different points of the coast. The Church Missionary Society has distinguished itself in this labour of love; and a rich harvest of blessing promised to reward their benevolence. But what will now become of their institutions of mercy? What hope exists that their schools, which had begun to make that moral wilderness to rejoice, can stand before the blasting influence of this accursed commerce? The very youth whom they have trained up to aid them in their Christian enterprizes, and who bade so fair for future usefulness, will become either its agents or its victims. In short, all that this Society, all that the African Institution, all that the British Parliament has done for Africa, has vanished at a single stroke of a pen. The anxieties, the labours, the cares, the hopes, and the triumphs of twenty-five years will all be swept away as if they had never been. And even should we be so fortunate as to witness the promised renunciation of the slave trade, when five years are over, we shall not only find Africa far more barbarized than ever by the intermediate calamities of this new and tremendous visitation, but we shall have lost our hold of that country, as well as the credit and influence which we now possess. In what has hitherto been said, we have argued on the supposition that, agreeably to the professions of the treaty, the slave trade will actually cease on the coast of Africa at the end of five years. But it is time to ask, whether there is any good ground to expect the fulfilment of this promise. For our own part, we must confess, that our hopes of such an issue are exceedingly slender. When a government can, in the face of the world, pronounce a particular practice to be "repugnant to the principles of natural justice," and in the same breath announce its purpose not of concluding and punishing, but of commencing, it on a larger scale, and granting facilities for its indefinite extension, then we say we cannot place that degree of reliance on the honour, humanity, and rectitude of such a government, which would lead us to expect that considerations of commercial gain and political expediency would not operate as powerfully in 1819 as in 1814. And how much more irresistible and overwhelming will then be the arguments drawn from such considerations? The very possibility that the trade may cease in five years will necessarily have the effect of greatly enlarging its dimensions during that period. The commercial energies of France will all be likely to flow in this direction. All her own superfluous capital, and all the capital she can draw from neighbouring nations, will be employed in making the best use of that short period. The consequence will be, that for a time the slave trade will form the main branch of the foreign commerce of France. The owners of. ships, all persons concerned in their outfit, every trading and manufacturing town, and every tradesman and manufacturer in those towns will find that a great part of their business has become identified with the slave trade. These different descriptions of persons have now no interests actually embarked in this trade: then, they will appear to have a deep stake involved in it: and they will be disposed to regard the measure of abolition, if adopted by their own government, in the light of a gratuitous destruction of their actual means of subsistence, and will unite cordially with the WestIndian planters and their adherents in deprecating and resisting the abandonment of the slave trade. And if France, in deference to the clamours of the West Indians alone, and from a dread of the unpopularity of resisting their wishes, has now resolved on commencing this dreadful traffic anew, is there any rational hope that, at the end of five years, she will be disposed to stand on the ground of moral duty, and of fidelity to her engagements, and to resist the united clamours of a large mass of her population, whose interests will be deeply and immediately involved in this traffic? This is hardly to be expected, especially as there does not appear to be any considerable number of persons in France who, feeling the influence of those high religious and moral principles which, in England, produced the abolition of the slave trade, would strengthen the hands of their government, much less urge it forward, in adopting this honourable course. But what means has England of enforcing the abolition of the slave trade on the part of France? Is she prepared to go to war if France, at the end of five years, should refuse to fulfil her engagement? If this question be answered in the affirmative, then it is obvious to remark how much more simple, honourable, and efficacious a proceeding it would have been for this country to have made the renunciation of the slave trade an indispensable condition of the cession of the French colonies. We might have said, "We ourselves have abolished this trade. The colonies now in our hands, whether in the East or West Indies, or on the coast of Africa, have enjoyed for several years the benefit of this great act of humanity and justice. The Parliament and the People of England are unanimous in requiring that the immunity they now enjoy should be inviolably maintained. We will gladly restore to France the colonies we have wrested from her; but it must be on terms consistent with the great moral principles which have guided the conduct of Great Britain in respect to the slave trade. To the re-establishment of that trade we cannot, we dare not, afford any facilities."-Suppose this language had been firmly maintained from the very commencement of the negociations, can it be believed by any man of reflection, that France would have continued the war rather than concede this point? Our firmness would have been the apology of the Government, if an apology were necessary, to the People of France. The Government and the People of France would have preferred peace and their colonies to war without them; a war, too, continued merely because they were denied the privilege of ravaging Africa, in order that St. Domingo, after being depopulated by fire and sword, should be filled with slaves. No man can seriously believe that Louis XVIII. would have hazarded a contest of a single hour with us on such a ground. The golden opportunity of achiev. ing this great work of humanity is, however, now lost, never perhaps to be recovered. And, at the end of five years, we shall not at all be surprised to find the Government of France in circumstances which would seem to make it safer even to renew the war with Great Britain, than to abolish the slave trade, should Grea: Britain (which we think is not very likely) reduce France to that alternative. If it were to become manifest that she would have to choose between these two evils, we should expect that before the termination of the five years, she would contrive to escape from the dilemma, by breaking with us on some other ground; thus vacating, by the renewal of hostilities, her engagement to abolish the slave trade, and thus consigning the continent of Africa to perpetual pillage and devastation. It may here be right to notice two arguments which have been employed to justify the course which has been pursued respecting the slave trade in this negociation. 1st, It is argued, that we ourselves took a long time to decide on the measure of abolition, and that it was not till after many delays that it was at length adopted. But to this it may be replied, that we had large and extensive interests involved in the trade, which France has not; and that, nevertheless, as soon as both Houses of Parliament were brought to concur in the decision that the trade was inhuman and unjust, they forthwith proceeded to its immediate abolition. France has agreed with us in stig matising the trade as inhuman and unjust; and yet she has resolved on commencing it anew, and we have not only consented that she shall so commence it, but have afforded her freely every requisite facility for the purpose. 2d. The Abolitionists are tauntingly asked, how they could have acquiesced in the continuance of the slave trade for so long a period by the dependent nation of Portugal, and yet complain so loudly of the permission granted to the French of carrying it on for a li |