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Every letter or memorial which reaches the office upon ordinary affairs is opened by either of the under-secretaries, and submitted to the principal secretary, who writes upon the back in pencil in a few words his answer. It is the business of the under-secretary, or of any clerk to whom he may confide the task, to make out a draught of a more extended reply in an official form, which being approved and signed by the under-secretary, is forwarded to the applicant. But generally speaking, all despatches from the British ministers abroad, especially when questions of importance are in agitation, are opened only by the principal secretary. If the matter to which they refer requires, from its pressing nature, to be immediately communicated to his colleagues, he summons a cabinet for that purpose, and reads to them the whole or such portions of the papers as he may deem most essential, and advises with them upon the answer he is to send.

But more generally when the matter is not urgent, after reading the despatches, he gives them to one of the under-secretaries, who has them copied; the copies are transmitted to the members of the cabinet at their residences, in small boxes covered with red morocco, locked by a key of which each member has a duplicate. To the sovereign also similar copies are sent in the same way. If variation in the leading points of foreign policy be involved in the answer to be given, discussions ensue; if not, the details are generally left to the entire discretion of the minister responsible for them. In some cases the minister has commissioned his under-secretary, especially if the latter be a person of distinguished talent, to frame an answer for him: but usually he himself writes his despatches, whether they be answers or instructions to the ministers abroad. The amount of labour which this work requires, especially during war, or in times like the present, when war is imminent at many points, and if possible to be avoided at them all, may be easily imagined. The ambassador abroad is obliged to conform most strictly to the instructions which he receives from home. So much is this the case that he seldom addresses a note of any consequence to any foreign minister with whom he is in communication, which has not been dictated by the secretary of state. The great merit of an envoy to a foreign court, is to adhere most scrupulously to every phrase that is set down for him, to report with accuracy whatever is said orally to him by the minister at the court where he is stationed, to watch its proceedings with a most vigilant eye, to observe and note the characters of all the persons of whom it is composed, and at the same time to preserve a dignity and mildness in his conduct that shall conciliate the good opinion of all parties. It becomes his duty also occasionally to suggest for the consideration of his government points of policy, and it is in the expediency and foresight of his course that the talent of a sound diplomatist may be rendered most advantageous to the country which he represents.

Our foreign office, like our treasury, is extremely deficient in the strength which it ought to possess for the ready despatch of all the business that devolves upon it. The quantity of copying that often presses upon the clerks employed there is very severe-so much so as to break down the health of some of them. There is another defect in the constitution of this office, which ought to be remedied without delay. Our merchants, in the course of their trade with foreign nations, frequently sustain injuries to a very material extent. Their ships are captured under the pretext of their violating quarantine or revenue regulations, or of attempting to break blockades. Those ships are sometimes only detained, sometimes they are confiscated together with their cargoes. For these or other injuries the merchant has no means of obtaining redress, unless through the secretary of state for foreign affairs. He goes with the statement of his case, and the protests of his captains and supercargoes, and whatever other evidence he can procure, to the foreign office; he presents them to the undersecretary, who lays them before his chief, who desires them to be sent to the queen's advocate, who is much employed in his own professional career, and consequently has but little time to devote to any other affairs. The papers sleep of necessity month after month, upon his table; they are probably drawn up and arranged with little skill; many points necessary to guide his judgment are left out, and he is obliged to send them back for additional information. This process, which may be said to be the first stage of the suit, takes in many cases a full year.

The aggrieved party then sets about obtaining the fresh information called for. He procures it with difficulty, and at great expense, and amends his case, which is returned to the foreign office. There it slumbers again for a while, and unless frequent remonstrances be made, it is ten to one but another and another year slips over before any decision is obtained; so much is the

principal secretary, and indeed every individual in the office, taken up with political affairs. Add to this, that from the chief down to the most subordinate rank in the office, there is not an individual to be found, who has not an absolute distaste for all matters of a merely legal or commercial character; a distaste not at all to be wondered at, for their pursuits are of a different nature.

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It happens in many cases, that from the very outset the view taken of the matter by the merchant is really erroneous. servants may, very probably from ignorance, or over desire of gain, have violated the law of the country of whose acts he complains, and then of course he must submit to the consequences. But suppose the matter to be otherwise, and that his claims are founded upon justice, and after two or more years they are admitted to be so by the law authorities at home, we have next to follow the train of negotiation between our secretary of state and the government of the offending power. It is utterly impossible to say when a proceeding of this kind is to come to an end, when once it assumes a controversial shape between the two governments. I have known of cases of this description which have remained undecided for thirty years; and of several which have been continued during periods varying from three to twenty years. Let it not be understood, however, that for such delays as these the minister at home is wholly answerable. The foreign government naturally enough, though with little justice, takes as much time as it can for consideration. It has a great reluctance to pay money, sometimes it has not the money to pay. It is not worth while to go to war even for millions. In the mean time the merchant has become a bankrupt ; his family is plunged from a state of wealth and happiness into poverty and wretchedness. "Hope deferred hath made the heart sick;" death sweeps onward in its career, and at the end of some thirty years comes some scanty indemnity to a new generation! This is no ideal picture. I have known it in reality in many an instance, where it was perfectly practicable, if proper "machinery" had been in operation, to have had the whole matter satisfactorily arranged within three or four months.

The "machinery" which I would apply ought to be something of this description. A commission consisting of three individuals sufficiently skilled in commercial, navigation, and international law, should be attached permanently to the foreign office, the queen's advocate of course to be the chief commissioner. To this tribunal should be addressed all complaints of our merchants against the injurious acts of the authorities of foreign countries. The parties making the complaint should be forthwith summoned before this commission; all the parts of their case, and of the evidence by which it is supported, should be thoroughly sifted, and when the whole of the evidence is obtained and fully considered, judgment should be passed. If the judgment be in favour of the claim, it should be transmitted to the secretary of state, and by him forwarded without delay to the government responsible for the injury. A certain reasonable period, previously defined by common consent between the two governments, should be allowed for the investigation of the claim abroad: if that period should pass over without a complete defence having been made on the other side, judgment to go by default. If defence be made within the time, then, unless it be admitted to be an adequate one by our commission, an umpire selected from among the foreign ambassadors at either court-an individual not merely eminent for integrity and impartiality, but also for his knowledge of international law-should be called upon to decide in the last resort. In either case,-that of judgment by default, or of judgment by the umpire, the amount of indemnity settled by the commission or the umpire to be advanced out of our treasury, in order that the merchant should be kept no longer out of his capital. For it is not merely the loss of interest upon that capital which he sustains, but the privation of the profits which he might have acquired had he not been interrupted in the progress of his lawful trade. The amount of the claim so advanced, it would be the business of the secretary of state to recover from the government convicted of having done the wrong. If any difficulty should occur on that point, if, for example, as Spain has been for some time situated, there was a disposition in the Spanish Government to pay, but no funds in their treasury, it might be expedient to let the claim stand over for a while. But that expediency being a question of national concern, it ought not to be consulted at the expense of the merchant, who should not be taxed beyond any other private individual for matters of national concern. A commission of the kind I have described has been for some years established in the foreign office at Paris, and has been found to work with great advantage to the department, and to the country.

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Nothing can be more objectionable than the "machinery in use for the settlement of claims such as those which have been above mentioned. After all the delays that arise from the course of preliminary investigation according to the mode at present established, the question still remains to be solved-What is the amount of the injured party's claim, assuming it to be admitted by both governments that he has a right to an indemnity to some amount? This question is sometimes submitted for adjudication to a mixed commission; that is, a commission consisting of two or more commissioners, one half British, the other subjects of the country which has done the wrong. It is very seldom that any good results from a tribunal of this nature. It is a fact which has come within my own knowledge, that a mixed Spanish and British commission sat in London for five years, and that although upwards of three hundred claims were entered upon their register, only one award was made by the commissioners during that period. The reason of this indecision is obvious enough. The Spanish members were for refusing every claim, or at least throwing every obstacle in the way of adjudication, and they were remarkably successful. The commissioners, moreover, considered the claims according to principles derived from different laws-one judging by Spanish, the other by English rules of law or equity, some of the commissioners being very superficially, if at all, versed in jurisprudence either foreign or domestic.

The selection of commissioners for duties of this description is an affair of mere patronage. Persons utterly ignorant even of the most common principles of municipal or international law have been thrust into places in which they are called upon to deal with the rights of parties-those rights being often dependent upon very nice constructions of articles of treaties, or principles of commercial law. I have known commissioners absolutely ignorant of the existence of treaties, by which the rights of claimants were nevertheless to be adjudged. Cases are within my experience to which foreign laws were applied, which laws had nothing whatever to do with the facts that gave rise to the claim. These are matters requiring to be forthwith reformed. Under the department for foreign affairs is placed the whole of our consulate establishment. Consuls-general, consuls, or viceconsuls, are stationed in the capitals and principal ports of almost all foreign countries with which we carry on mercantile intercourse to any considerable extent. The consuls-general have been of late years reduced in number, and are now rather political than commercial officers. In most of the states of South America, in Egypt, Servia, Wallachia, and Moldavia, we have no envoys of a higher rank than that of consul-general. It is generally the business of mere consuls and vice-consuls to protect the interests of our merchants trading to the ports or places where they are stationed. They have all salaries, varying according to the ordinary extent of duties which they have to perform.

The "London Gazette" establishment is considered, for what reason I do not know, as under the authority of the foreign department. Probably in its origin it was intended chiefly to publish despatches which arrived from abroad, and with which it was of importance that the country should become officially acquainted. It is now chiefly occupied with advertisements relating to railways and bankruptcies, and other notices particularly required by acts of parliament to be inserted in it. If profits be derived from this journal, I am ignorant of the fund to which they are paid.

To the foreign, and indeed to all the higher departments of state, a certain amount of "secret service" money is voted annually by parliament. The minister who uses any portion of this money is not bound to explain the mode in which it is applied. He generally discloses it to the prime minister: but the account is passed upon his oath that the sum which he has drawn has been by him faithfully dedicated to purposes connected with the public service. The sums drawn from this fund of late years have been very inconsiderable as compared with the years of war. While we were engaged in hostilities with foreign countries, it was necessary that we should employ hosts of secret agents: during peace England has very little state "machinery" of a secret nature. Russia is known to have a regular establishment of agents who are dispersed all over Europe and Asia: some are employed to write in the public journals, with a view to cover, under plausible appearances, the deep policy of that ambitious empire; others watch the progress of public opinion, and collect statistics of the public wealth, and report them to head-quarters.

The machinery of the home office is admitted upon all hands to be excellent. The under secretary is an accomplished lawyer; and as his office has to transact a great deal of business connected with

the magistracy and administration of justice in every part of the country, it is fortunate that he is a person perfectly competent to all the duties of his situation. The police department, and that for the administration of the poor laws, has been vested for some time in separate commissions; with what degree of success it is scarcely necessary to say. Our police is most admirably organised, and whatever complaint may be made of the poor laws, the conduct of the commissioners appears free from just reproach.

THE SLAVE-TRADE.

NOTWITHSTANDING the unceasing efforts of the British Government to put an end to the horrible traffic in human beings, it is a fact, too long uncared for by the nation generally, but to which they have been powerfully called upon to give attention by the efforts of Mr. Buxton, that this odious and unjustifiable trade continues to increase, and that the very means taken to annihilate it have only served to increase the sufferings of the unhappy victims. The more widely a knowledge of the real state of this unnatural commerce is extended, the greater, we hope and believe, is the probability that the voice of England will be raised so loudly against it, as to force those nations who still wink at, if not openly encourage its continuance, to join with us in the adoption of effective means for putting it down.

With this view we proceed to extract several passages from a work * recently published by Mr. Turnbull, being the result of his experience during a visit to Cuba in 1838, and detailing many particulars relative to the Slave Trade, derived from the best authority. We may here notice that the author states, that "the present volume represents the fragment of a tour of considerable extent on the western side of the Atlantic, begun in 1837, and concluded towards the close of 1839;" and that he purposes following it up by other volumes, descriptive of the rest of the West Indian settlements, precedence being given to Cuba, "under a strong conviction that the suggestions it will be found to contain on the subject of the slave-trade, if once sanctioned by public opinion and adopted by the government, would lead to an easy, cheap, and almost immediate solution of the much-vexed question of its suppression."

We will first notice the character which slavery assumes in Cuba, premising that the term Bozal, literally "unbroken," but often applied to beings broken indeed, is the denomination of the native African; and Creole, that of the slave born on the island.

"As the experience of years had taught me to believe that the Spaniards are a kind and warm-hearted race, and as I had frequently been told that the slave-owners of the Havana were the most indulgent masters in the world, I was not a little surprised to find, as the result of personal inquiry and minute observation, that in this last particular I had been most miserably deceived, and that in no quarter, unless perhaps in the Brazils, which I have not visited, is the state of slavery so desperately wretched as it is at this moment on the sugar plantations of the queen of the Indies, the far-famed island of Cuba.

"The error I had fallen into is so universal among people who have never visited the island, and so common even with those who have made some stay at the Havana, but have never proceeded into the interior, that when I discovered it, I felt that it deserved some little investigation. When a stranger visits the town residence of a Cuba proprietor, he finds the family surrounded by a little colony of slaves, of every variety of complexion from ebony to alabaster. Most of them have been born in the house, have grown with the growth of the family, and are, perhaps, the foster brothers or foster sisters of the master or his children. In such circumstances, it would be surprising if an uncivilised barbarian were to treat them harshly; and for a Spanish, and much more for a Creole, master to do so-imbued as he is with all the warmth of the social affections-is totally out of the question. These long retinues of domestics are kept up by some from an idle love of pageantry, but by others from the more honourable desire of not parting with those born under their roof, and for that reason bearing their name; as it is the practice in Cuba, and in other slave countries into which Africans are imported, for the first * Travels in the West.-Cuba; with Notices of Porto Rico, and the Slave Trade. By David Turnbull, Esq. M.A.-London, 1840. Longman and Co.

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proprietor, whether his title be acquired by purchase or inheritance, to bestow his own patronymic, together with a Christian name, on his slave, whether an imported Bozal or an infant Creole, at the time when the indispensable ceremony of baptism is performed. "In our own sugar colonies, during the prevalence of slavery, there was the same tendency to an unreasonable increase of the planter's domestic establishment; but as 'the great house was probably situated within sight of the sugar-mill, so that the master became acquainted with the persons and characters of his field negroes and their families, by daily observation and intercourse, it was not unusual to make exchanges from the house to the field, or vice versa. These changes, although still a punishment sufficiently severe for the one party, had nothing so terrible in their aspect, as the banishment from a life of pampered luxury and ease in the Havana, to that worst of penal settlements, a Cuba sugar plantation. Under the tender-mercies of the Mayoral, he knows well, before leaving the Havana, that he has nothing to expect in the plantation but a wretched existence of over-labour and starvation, accompanied by the application, or at least the constant terror, of the lash as an incentive, relieved only by the hope of that dissolution, which sleepless nights and incessant toils are so speedily and so surely to accomplish.

"To those who are not wilfully blindfold, there are not wanting even at the Havana, not to speak of the sugar or even of the coffee plantations, a thousand palpable indications of the misery which attends the curse of slavery, independent altogether of the superior horrors of the slave-trade.

"On the public Alameda, just outside the gates of the fortified portion of the city, and therefore within the limits of a dense population, there may be seen a modest-looking building, protected from public gaze by lofty wooden parapets, in the interior of which are a series of whipping-posts, to which unwilling or disobedient slaves are sent to receive their allotted quota of punishment, as a saving of time or labour, or perhaps to spare the too tender feelings of their masters or mistresses. But although, by means of the parapets, the authorities have succeeded in shutting out the inquisitive glances of the passers-by, excluding from public view the streaming blood and lacerated flesh of the sufferers, they have totally failed in shutting in their piercing screams and piteous shrieks for mercy.

"Those visitors at the Havana who are accustomed to speak in terms of inconsiderate satisfaction of the comforts and indulgences of the slaves, sometimes sneeringly comparing them with the privations to which an English or an Irish labourer is exposed, have probably never heard of those family arrangements by which the spirit of a slave, who has first been spoiled by over-indulgence, is to be systematically and periodically broken. The mistress of many a great family in the Havana will not scruple to tell you that such is the proneness of her people to vice and idleness, she finds it necessary to send one or more of them once a month to the whipping-post-not so much on account of any positive delinquency, as because, without these periodical advertisements, the whole family would become unmanageable, and the master and mistress would lose their authority."

When we recollect that the Spanish government professedly repudiates the slave-trade, and inflicts penalties on such of its subjects as engage in it, we can scarcely connect the idea of good faith with such details as the following:

"As if to throw ridicule on the grave denials of all knowledge of the slave-trade, which are forced from successive captainsgeneral by the unwearied denunciations of the British authorities, two extensive depôts for the reception and sale of newly-imported Africans have lately been erected at the further end of the Paseo, just under the windows of his excellency's residence-the one capable of containing 1000, the other 1500 negroes; and I may add, that these were constantly full during the greater part of the time that I remained at the Havana. As the barracoon, or depôt, serves the purpose of a market-place as well as a prison, these two have, doubtless for the sake of readier access, and to save the expense of advertising in the journals, been placed at the point of greatest attraction, where the Paseo ends, where the grounds of the captain-general begin, and where passes the new railroad into the interior, from the carriages on which the passengers are horrified at the unearthly shouts of the thoughtless inmates; who, in their eagerness and astonishment at the passing train, push their arms and legs through the bars of their windows, with the cries, the grimace, and gesticulation which might be expected from a horde of savages placed in circumstances, to them, so totally new and extraordinary.

"On entering one of the barracoons, which are of course as accessible as any other market-place, you do not find so much immediate misery as an unreflecting visitor might expect. It is the policy of the importer to restore as soon as possible, among the survivors, the strength that has been wasted, and the health that has been lost, during the horrors of the middle passage. It is his interest, also, to keep up the spirits of his victims, that they may the sooner become marketable, and prevent their sinking under that fatal home-sickness which carries off so many during the first months of their captivity. With this view, during their stay in the barracoon, they are well fed, sufficiently clothed, very tolerably lodged; they are even allowed the luxury of tobacco, and are encouraged to amuse themselves, for the sake of exercise and health, in the spacious patio, or inner court, of the building. I have been assured, also, that after leaving the barracoon, and arriving at the scene of their future toils, the Mayoral finds it for the interest of his master to treat them, for several months, with a considerable degree of lenity, scarcely allowing them, if possible, to hear the crack of the whip, and breaking them in by slow degrees to the hours and the weight of labour, which are destined to break them down long before the period which nature prescribes.

"The inmates of these sad receptacles, from their age, demeanour, and appearance, convey to the visitor a lively idea of the well-organised system of kidnapping to which the trade has been reduced, in order to make provision, in the interior of Africa, for the supply of the factories and slave-markets on the coast. The well-understood difficulty of breaking-in men and women of mature age to the labours of the field has produced a demand at the barracoons for younger victims; so that it is not, as formerly, by going to war, but by the meaner crimes of kidnapping and theft, and the still baser relaxation of social ties and family relations, that these human bazaars are supplied. The range of years in the age of the captives appears to extend from twelve to eighteen, and as the demand for males is much greater than for females, the proportion between the sexes is nearly three to one, I had almost said, in favour of the masculine gender. In fact, this is pretty nearly the relative proportion between the sexes on most of the estates throughout the island. The facilities still left for the practice of the slave-trade, and the consequent cheapness of young Bozals at the barracoons, make it more for the interest of the planter to keep up the numbers of his gang by purchase than by procreation. There are some so totally regardless of every human sentiment, save the sordid sense of their own pecuniary interests, that they people their estates with one sex only, to the total exclusion of females, taking care to prevent the nocturnal wanderings of the men, by locking them up in their plantation prisons, called also barracoons, as soon as their daily labour is concluded.

"Another motive for the continuance of the slave-trade is to be found in the well-known fact, that a state of hopeless servitude has the effect of enervating the slave, and reducing the physical power of his descendants far below the average of his African ancestors. At Demerara, Honduras, and Trinidad, to which colonies the greater part of the captives emancipated by the courts of mixed commission within the last few years have ultimately found their way, I was assured that the labour of eight emancipated Africans was considered equal to that of twelve of the apprenticed labourers born in the colony; and on the same principle a Bozal African, fresh from one of the market places of the Havana, commands an average price of twenty-four ounces of gold, when sold by retail; whereas a Creole of similar age is not worth more than twenty. On this ground, the keeper of one of these market barracoons, with whom I chanced to enter into conversation on the subject of his trade, concluded an argument in favour of its perpetuity, by laying it down as a proposition, not less capable of mathematical demonstration than any of the problems of Euclid, that the difference of four ounces between the value of the Creole and the Bozal made the suppression of the traffic a matter of hopeless, irremediable, and perpetual impossibility!"

The number of slaves annually imported into Cuba alone is very great, although Mr. Turnbull thinks that the amount of bales, in the language of slave-dealers,-in that of Christians, human beings, possessed of immortal souls,-stated by Mr. Buxton at 60,000, is overrated. Numbers also are conveyed to the Brazils and to Porto Rico; and Mr. Turnbull is of opinion that, despite the laws of America, which subject the slave-dealer to the penalties of piracy, not a few are carried to the Floridas and Alabama. The only check upon the slave-trade is that of the watch kept by

movements.

the British cruisers, who, although zealous in the cause, and further stimulated by the profit derived from the capture of a slaver, are much embarrassed by the legal regulations which hamper their Since the treaty of 1835, it has been lawful to seize Spanish vessels without slaves on board, if certain specified "equipments," such as water-tanks and boilers larger than required for legitimate purposes, were discovered on board; but until a very recent act of Parliament was passed, no Portuguese ship was liable to capture unless slaves were actually on board. America has to this day refused to accede to a mutual right of search; and although an American having negroes on board may be seized, yet it is necessary first to ascertain the fact before taking such a step with safety to the captor. The slave-dealers, who manage their business in a very "business-like" manner, have taken too effectual advantage of these different national arrangements, and it is not unusual for one vessel to carry three sets of papers, to be used as occasion serves. We have not space to point out all the ingenious means used to effect this purpose, but, especially since Portuguese vessels have been brought under the liability of capture for carrying slaving equipments, it is not unusual for an American to be put on board a slaver, to represent the master in case of need.

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By slow degrees the Spanish traders have been compelled to resort to the Portuguese for assistance, until at length, in 1839, the Spanish flag is all but abandoned. The measure tardily adopted by the British Parliament at the close of the last session, deprives the Portuguese authorities of the power to which they clung, of reaping a disgraceful profit from the sale of fabricated registries and the protection they afforded. Extend this principle a little farther; obtain the consent of all the world to the conditions of the equipment clause, the recognition of a mutual right of search, and a declaration that the trade is piracy; and no profits, however exorbitant, will suffice to command the services of agents and supercargoes, masters, officers, and seamen, when they see the gibbet staring them in the face as the fit reward of their crimes.

"If the government of the United States, or any other naval power, refuse its consent, then deal with that power as you have just dealt with Portugal. After browbeating, as you have done, this feeble ally, you will be but too justly accused of equal truculence and truckling-the one as arrant as the other is base,—if you stop short there, speaking one language to the weak and another to the strong. The people of the United States will never suffer their government to go to war for the purpose of countenancing a trade confessedly injurious to the peculiar institutions of the south; but if they did, they would deprive themselves of that moral force which, happily for the peace of the world, neither people nor government can conveniently dispense with at this advanced period of the nineteenth century.”

At present, as soon as a negro is landed in Cuba, the interests of the slave-dealer are secured. The "equipments" of his vessel are soon got rid of, and the vessel enters the port without fear. The negro has no quarter from whence he can hope for redress, no advocate to take his part; he can sue out no habeas corpus, nor can any other do it for him. Upon this fact Mr. Turnbull takes his strong ground, and states his firm conviction that if such a resource were given to the Bozal negro, it would be more effectual in putting a finishing blow to the trade. He states that there can be in no instance any difficulty in distinguishing and proving the difference between a Bozal and a Creole negro; and admitting this fact, we give his proposed amendments to the existing treaties in his own words :

"In every negotiation with the Spanish government, it is of course assumed that her Catholic Majesty is as desirous as we are to prevent the pollution of the soil of her transatlantic dominions by the continuance of this wholesale system of murder. The suggestion I have now to offer would first of all apply an effectual test to the sincerity of those unblushing assertions so constantly addressed to our minister at Madrid by her Catholic Majesty's government, and by the captain-general at the Havana to the British commissioners, but hitherto in practice so totally disregarded.

"It is matter of notoriety that in Spanish courts of justice, whether in the colonies or the peninsula, all judicial proceedings, civil or criminal, take place with closed doors; the discussion is

not even conducted viva voce. The pleadings of the lawyers and the deliberations of the court are uniformly reduced to a written form, and are as perfectly private in their nature as it is possible to be room for the groundless pretence, set up as an apology by conceive. In what I have to suggest, therefore, there would not Captain-General Espeleta for his refusal to publish in the Diario de Habana,' the royal order which enjoined him and his subordinate functionaries to use their utmost exertions for the suppression of the slave-trade. That apology was the pretended fear of insurrection among the negroes.

conducted, as its proceedings have always been, in strict conformity "By extending the powers of the court of mixed commission, with the Spanish principle of closed doors, written pleadings, and secret deliberations, there could be no pretence for the fear of commotion, or of danger to the public peace, if it were suffered to consider the civil right, under the existing laws of Spain, of an imported African to his freedom, after the fact of his being landed in the island.

strongly pressed on the Spanish government by such a minister as "If this simple extension of the powers of the court were Lord Clarendon, who has so often received the assurances of successive administrations of their earnest desire to abolish the traffic, the argument would be utterly irresistible, and the court of Madrid would be shamed into instant compliance.

"It remains to inquire what would be the probable effect of this

extension of the power and jurisdiction of the Havana court of

mixed commission.

tical change in the legal condition of the imported African. As "The first consequence would be to produce a radical and pracmatters now stand, the mere fact of his touching the soil of the island is sufficient to doom him to perpetual bondage. Once put on shore, the interests of the slave-dealer are secured. From that instant the slave may safely be transferred into another ship, and Thenceforward the property in the slave, having become an acremoved to any other point of her Catholic Majesty's possessions. quired, and, practically speaking, an acknowledged right, the pretended owner may laugh a whole squadron of British cruisers

to scorn.

if some poor Bozal were put into a position to assert his right to his "If the ordinary courts of justice would but do their duty, and personal liberty by the ordinary forms of judicial process, there cannot be a doubt that he would be entitled by the existing law to a judgment in his favour. The possessor of the slave might be compelled to prove his right of dominion over him; and that right could not be supported without a legal title.

"The only real difficulty in the way is the unwillingness of the public functionaries (the judges not excepted) to carry the law into in a Bozal negro under the existing laws of the Spanish monarchy; effect. Strictly speaking, there can be no legal right of ownership and if the captain-general had not been prevented by secret counter orders from carrying these laws into effect, the trade would long ago have been effectually suppressed.

Most certainly the public barracoons, which notoriously exist under the very windows of the suburban palace of the viceroy, could never have been suffered to remain there to give a standing lie to his excellency's professions. But place those barracoons where you please, they could not escape the attention of the British commissioners, nor of the superintendant of liberated Africans. The tried moral courage of the gentleman who now holds that office, and his distinguished zeal in the cause of abolition, would admirably qualify him for the performance of the duties of an official protector and assertor of the liberties of these newly-imported Bozals.

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Suppose the court of mixed commission at the Havana to remain in its present form, and that by an additional article to the treaty of 1835 it should be authorised to deliberate on the right of an African to his freedom, as well after as before his merciless persecutors have thrown his body on the beach, it would not be easy for any minister in Madrid, in dealing with Lord Clarendon, after all that has passed on the subject, and after all the solemn assurances of the sincere desire of the Spanish government to abolish the traffic, to bring forward any plausible pretext for refusing his consent to this extension of the jurisdiction of the court, rendered indispensable by the acknowledged evasion of the equipment clause, and by the notorious transfer of the trade to the flag of Portugal.

"In this view of the matter, the mere existence of the court for twenty years, in the course of which discussions have arisen affecting the freedom of entire cargoes of Africans, without producing a single practical evil, to give the captain-general or the

government any substantive cause of complaint, affords a broad basis on which the demand for an enlargement of the powers of the court may be conveniently founded. Any case that could come before it under the proposed additional article, however important in principle, would not be of a nature to justify the fear of insurrection. Each particular cause brought up for adjudication would only involve the right of a single African to his freedom.

"If pushed to its full extent, it is true that, by the constant repetition of the process, it would go far to depopulate the sugar estates, and deprive them of their prædial labourers. On this ground, unless limited to future importations, it would be loudly objected to by almost all classes of the inhabitants of Cuba; but if in the new article or the new treaty a day were fixed, past, present, or future, which was to become the terminus a quo, from whence its operation was to begin, the number of persons who could suffer in their interests would be exceedingly limited, and would also be clearly defined. But suppose it to have no retroactive effect, and that all past infractions of laws and treaties are to be overlooked; then, as the only parties who would really sustain any grievance would be those who have invested their capital in Baltimore clippers, and who would thereby be deprived of the means of turning their purchases to profitable account, no man would venture to say that the future and contingent advantages to arise from the further prosecution of the slave-trade, whether agricultural, commercial, or political, could be seriously taken into account. As well might the contingent profits of the shipbuilders of Maryland be entitled to a favourable consideration."

In our eyes there appears to be much sound sense in the amendment proposed by Mr. Turnbull; but to be perfectly efficient, an alteration is needed in the constitution of the "mixed courts of commission," which at present decide upon the capture of slavers, where, by the terms of treaty, when a difference takes place between the judges, the case is literally decided by the dice-box, or drawing straws.

LOVER'S LEAP,

MIDDLETON DALE, DERBYSHIRE.

Ir may be remarked, that in almost every country where mountains and rocks abound, some legend exists of a Lover's Leap, some sad tale to perpetuate the deplorable catastrophe of some victim to blighted affections or unrequited love. These, however, generally rest in traditions, and are so far thrown backward into the depth of ages as scarcely to bear on the face of them any resemblance to truth or probability. What I am now going to relate took place about four-score years ago, and the facts were related to me by an old man who saw the young woman the morning of the occurrence, and who knew her the greater part of her after-life.

Stoney Middleton is a Peak town on the road to Manchester from Chesterfield and Sheffield, and at about the distance of twelve miles from each of the latter places. It was originally inhabited by miners and persons dependent on the manufacture of lead, but at present that class of inhabitants forms but a very inconsiderable portion of its population. From the advantage of a good road, it has become a town of carriers and quarry-men, and the limestone rocks are in a daily state of transportation to the foundries at Chesterfield as a flux for iron-stone; the carriers bringing back from the Chesterfield canal, or from other carriers that meet them from Mansfield, loads of malt to be forwarded to Manchester. Such is the extent of this branch of industry, that there may be seen on this line of road daily perhaps a score or two of singlehorse carts, all engaged in the same employment.

is so commonly diversified; its bottom has been widened, a beau-
tiful road completed, and an impetus given to the industry of the
neighbourhood. The little stream skirts the road on one side,
putting in motion the machinery of a colour-mill and other works
built at the foot of the sloping mountain; while the other side is
almost overhung by a long irregular ridge of perpendicular lime-
stone rocks of uncommon altitude, and of various beautiful but
fantastic forms. Sometimes the rock assumes the appearance of
a castle, and in the grey twilight, or when the morning mist softens
the hard outline, turrets and ruined battlements with mouldering
parapets and embrasures, are presented to the eye. Spires and
minarets distinguish another portion of the rocks, and the whole
length, nearly two miles, displays such a succession of singular
and interesting scenery as perhaps no other country can produce.
To describe the various beauties of this dale, and of those branching
from it, would require a volume of no ordinary dimensions.
At the lower end of the dale, just after leaving the town, the
traveller sees on his left hand, built under and perhaps partly
within the rock, a public-house bearing the name upon its sign of
"THE LOVER'S LEAP INN." Close beyond it, projecting towards
the road, is the bold profile of a rock of tremendous height, appa-
rently divided into stages and fringed by stunted trees springing
from the clefts, where no one could imagine they could find sup-
port, breaking its outline and softening the harshness of its aspect.
This rock is the LOVER'S LEAP; a name which it has acquired
from the following singular occurrence :-

About the time, I think, of making the road up the dale, when labourers came from a distance to seek employment, a young man of the name of Johnson, a stranger in those parts, took lodgings at the house of a farmer in Middleton. A Don Juan in humble life, he courted all the ruddy-faced girls in the neighbourhood, but paid particular attention to Hannah Baddeley, a comely handsome maiden who lived as servant in his lodgings. To her, as to others, he promised marriage; but she, more confiding than her companions, believed that he meant not to deceive. The wedding-day was appointed, every preparation made for the nuptials, when Johnson slipped away and was never heard of more. The girl, dispirited and heart-broken at his perfidy, could not endure to live, and leaving her bed early in the morning, she wandered to the pastures which are on a level with the summit of the rocks, and making her way to the precipice, cast herself headlong down in the hope of terminating her sorrows and her life together. But such was not her fate; her garments caught on some of the projecting bushes, and bounding from stage to stage, her fall still broken by the obstacles she encountered, she at length reached the bottom and was received in a saw-pit among the soft saw-dust which lay at a great thickness on the floor. Stunned with the fall, but otherwise unhurt, she lay some time unable to move; she had however the power of thinking, and she felt convinced she had done wrong; she was sorry she had attempted suicide, but she found herself cured of her passion for her lover, and she resolved, if she could get out of the pit, to go home and let no one know of her adventure. While she was thus ruminating, the sawyers came to work, and were much surprised to find a woman in the pit. She said she was following her cow, and had fallen in, but could not get out again; and this would have been believed had they not looked up and seen several parts of a woman's dress torn and dangling from the bushes, which, coupling with the scratches on her arms and face and neck, gave them an idea of what had been done. In the course of the day this idea was confirmed by her bonnet and handkerchief being found on the point of the rock directly over the saw-pit. The men lifted her out, and so little was she hurt that she walked to her master's house without assistance. She had learned wisdom by her fall; she no longer thought of her lover, but lived for many years in the neighbourhood, and died unmarried.

Such is the origin of the name of this projecting rock; it is truly a Lover's Leap, and will be known as such so long as it remains On unblasted or uncarried to the furnace.

Few towns, even in Derbyshire, present more rusticity in their appearance than Stoney Middleton; no one can be more irregularly or inconveniently built. Its natural site is a collection of abrupt prominences, rising from a very circumscribed point, scarcely admitting the denomination of a plain or a vale. these prominences, ranged one above another in a succession of natural terraces, are built the houses-rude, mean erections of unshaped limestone blocks, with walls of enormous thickness, and apartments consequently small and low and gloomy in the extreme,-a rude set of habitations, which just serve the purposes of dwellings, but which are devoid of even the most common of accommodations.

At the northern end of the town, the Manchester road runs up the bottom of a narrow dale, originally nothing more than a long, frightful chasm betwixt the rifted rocks, forming merely a channel for one of those mountain streams with which the Peak landscape

DR. DODDRIDGE'S EPIGRAM ON HIS FAMILY MOTTO,
"DUM VIVIMUS, VIVAMUS."

"Live while you live," the epicure would say,
"And seize the pleasures of the present day,"
"Live while you live," the sacred preacher cries,
"And give to God each moment as it flies,"
Lord, in my view let both united be

1 live in pleasure when I live to thee.

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