New York Daily Tribune

This subject. It is of great advantage in a moment of difficulty, when a difference arises between this and any other country, that an eminent member of the Opposition should rise in his place and express sentiments and views like those to which my noble friend has just given utterance. I am not in a position to give the House any ascertained information upon this subject. Up to this time our information has in a great measure been derived from ex parte statements made on the side of the American Government. If these are correctly reported, and proved to have really taken place as described by the American Government, certainly her Majesty's Government are not prepared to justify them. (Hear.) I trust that a great deal of exaggeration has taken place in the descriptions I have heard, though at the same time, I must confess I fear that some acts have been committed that are not justifiable either by international law or by the treaties that exist between this country and the United States. I am informed that on one occasion a body of men were landed from one of her Majesty's ships on the coast of Cuba, though that is, of course, a Spanish question, which can only be incidentally mentioned when speaking with regard to America. Statements have also been made that considerable annoyance has been occasioned to American trading vessels lying at anchor at Havana, from a system of rowing round those vessels, watching their cargoes taken out and taken in, exercising surveillance and espionage over them, and finally chasing them out to sea after they left the port. It has also been stated that many American ships in the Gulf have been brought to by our cruisers and searched. Now, I say I have not the least idea are the statements made, and your Lordships know whether these statements are correct or not, but these that neither international law nor the treaty of 1842 would justify us in taking such measures as these. I entirely agree with what my noble friend has said as to the American flag being constantly prostituted to cover the slave-trade, and other illegal acts, and I think it is highly desirable that some agreement should be made between the two countries, by which it may be distinctly understood what proceedings ought to be taken by their officers respectively for effectually discovering the impositions to which I have alluded, and which will not be offensive to honest traders. (Hear, hear.) It is to that point I have directed the attention of the Government of the United States, and that no later than in a conversation which I had this morning with the American Minister, and I think I may say there has not been any great difference of views between us. (Hear, hear.) After that conversation has been reported to the United States Government, after the delivery of the dispatch which I have written to Lord Napier, and after the orders that have been sent to our officers in these seas, I hope there will be no repetition of such acts as have been described to us, whether truly or not. (Hear, hear.) In these circumstances, I feel that this country need remain under no apprehension that anything will occur to break the alliance that so happily exists between the two countries. (Hear, hear.) The Earl of Hardwick said, if any excess had been committed by any of the officers commanding in those seas, it was not in consequence of the instructions that they had received. (Hear.) The House adjourned at a quarter to 7 o'clock.

THE UNITED STATES AND THE SLAVE TRADE.

From The London Times, June 3.

The aspirations of a section of our community must receive a check from what is now passing on the other side of the Atlantic. The suppression of the slave-trade, and the universal abolition of Slavery, have been, during two generations, the aim of a great party, which counts in its numbers many of the most eminent and powerful, the noblest and the wealthiest, in these kingdoms. Of late years the nation has declared its acquiescence in the doctrines which Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Brougham so long advocated, and it would now be difficult to find in society a man obstinate enough or courageous enough to defend the system by which Brazil, Cuba, or the Southern States of the American Union are supplied with labor. An Englishman who engages in the slave-trade may be convicted of felony; and, even if no legal punishment were inflicted, it cannot be doubted that the social abhorrence which he would encounter would be almost sufficient to deter him. But, if this feeling were confined to social life, to the gatherings of religious societies, or the maxims of moral teachers—if invectives on the trader in human flesh and lamentations over the oppressed black were confined to the sermons in metropolitan churches or the speeches of amiable members of Parliament, there would be no fear of the country being led into any extravagance, while perhaps all that is good in the principle would equally permeate society. But, unfortunately, we are governed by a race of statesmen who were young when the Anti-Slavery impulse was in full activity. All the generous and chivalric associations of those who are now regular and steady going, but somewhat obstinate old gentlemen, are connected with rescuing the persecuted black from the Christians who thirst for gold on the other side of the Atlantic. Treaties with every State, great or small, civilized or barbarous, are the machinery which these official enthusiasts have brought into action to check the deportation of negroes from Western Africa. Diplomacy has been roused from its habitual listlessness to conclude arrangements with France and Spain, Portugal and the Brazils, the United States of America, and every demoralized and bankrupt Republic which stretches from Panama to Patagonia. The petty chiefs who rule, or are supposed to rule, on the Negro Coast have been brought into the arrangement, and receive due consideration for their services in hindering or affecting to condemn the trade within their dominions. But it is not by friendly representations alone that our statesmen have endeavored to root out the traffic they detest. The Quixotism of Exeter Hall has been always roused by the narrative of an adventure at sea—of the long low schooner creeping along the coast, of the British sloop-of-war making chase, coming up with the slaver about sundown, and delivering 400 emaciated creatures, who expressed in looks, and signs more expressive than words, their gratitude to their deliverers. All this we have, of course, heard a hundred times, and Anti-Slavery cruising has come to be looked upon as a kind of naval knight-errantry, at once pious and spirited, and uniting all the respectability of a good action with all the pleasure of an exciting adventure. Now, as long as the slave-trading States were weak, or destitute of a delicate sensibility about national honor, such a police exercised by Great Britain was all very well. We fully believe that English cruisers have never been violent or oppressive toward any other flag, and it cannot be doubted that they have been very effective in checking the slave trade. Where slavers have habitually recourse to false colors and papers, it is evident that a cruiser, to have any success, must be allowed to overhaul suspicious vessels, and decide for itself whether any particular ship is actually engaged in the slave trade or not. The second and third rate States have made little resistance to this principle, which has been carried out by Great Britain with all courtesy and consideration. But such a concession was hardly to be expected from the United States of America. The Yankee is naturally touchy: he is touchy about his flag preeminently, and on the negro question he is particularly sore. Even the strength of having manumitted their own niggers galls a people who are sufficiently jealous of blacks. Any interference of England in this question is resented as an interference in any way. Such a collision as this was, therefore, a matter of course when Great Britain should direct its cruisers to overhaul vessels on the high seas under the American flag, just as we should pile up against having our ships fired into, boarded and searched, just as we should if a similar power were claimed by the navies of America, France or Russia. The only question is, whether the cause of the West African savages one which must urge us to invade the sovereign rights of other civilized States, to stop and board their vessels on the high seas, and even to pursue them into the harbors of neutral powers. If we are willing to make enemies of every nation strong enough to have a navy, and prosperous enough to have maritime interests, we may proceed such course; but if we have regard for the peace of the world, we should do well to reconsider our position. In fact, the slave-trade is a question in which each country must act for itself. Books by the thousands, and newspapers by millions, are sold in the United States in the course of a year; the people are well educated, and certainly not deficient in intellectual power. Why, then, should they not be left to suppress the slave-trade, so far as sailing from their ports! If they neglect the duty, so it is carried on under their own flag, or by adventurers from their ports, much the worse for their own credit and the cause of humanity; but the delinquency is only analogous to a neglect of duty in matters respecting which we should never dream of interfering. The defective police regulations of New-York or New-Orleans, and the cruel sufferings to human beings, and yet no foreigner offers to advise, much less to interfere. Similarly the Americans must be left to do or leave undone the work of slave-trade suppression so far as regards their own flag. The treaties both with France and America have expired, and it is madness for us to go on asserting pretensions to which no strong and independent Power is likely to submit. The good done by these searches of foreign vessels is as nothing compared with the bad blood which they cause, and, though the so-called 'outrages' of the British cruisers have been, no doubt, exaggerated by political and commercial speculators, enough is known to prove that the practice of searching vessels under the American flag ought to be brought at once to an end.