(Inclosure 2.)—M. Perez de Castro to Sir H. Wellesley-(Translation.) SIR, Palace, 27th February, 1821. In a Note of the 15th of last October, your Excellency states the case of the eapture of a Portuguese Slave Ship, made by a British Cruizer, in due form, if the spirit only of the Treaty for the Abolition of the Slave Trade be considered, but in violation of the IXth Article thereof, if its letter be attended to; and, on this account, declared illegal by the Commissioners at Sierra Leone; and for the purpose of preventing the recurrence of such cases, in direct opposition to the upright intentions of the High Contracting Parties, your Excellency requests, on the part of your Court, that the Government of His Catholick Majesty will give the necessary directions, in order to defeat the subterfuge which private interest may suggest for eluding those intentions. The King, having been punctually informed of the contents of that Note, determined, previous to taking any resolution upon the subject, to consult the Council of State, and having heard their opinion, and being ready to concur in those efforts which the philosophy, the desire to advance the civilization of the age, and the virtues of the Cabinets of Europe, have made, in order to triumph over this most infamous of trafficks; His Majesty recognizes the expediency of ac ceding to the Declaration desired by the British Government, and consequently the necessity of giving instructions to the Spanish Cruizers and Commissioners, to seize and pronounce legal the Capture of any Slave Vessel which, by artifices such as those of the case in question, shall in future endeavour to evade the punishment of their misconduct. I have, therefore, the honour to state to your Excellency, in reply to your Note, that His Catholick Majesty will be ready to issue Instructions, conformable to the Declaration which your Excellency requests, as soon as the English Cabinet shall have given similar orders to their Cruizers and Commissioners; for, without a reciprocity of such Declaration, neither can the IXth Article be invalidated, nor the Tribunals, appointed to decide upon the legality of the captures made, depart from the strict and natural sense of the words in which that Article is couched. I therefore hope your Excellency will be pleased to inform me of the precise and literal terms in which your Government may have already worded, or will word, to their Commissioners, the new Declaration with respect to that Article, and of their consequent instructions, in order that the Spanish Ministry, in concurrence with that of His Britannick Majesty, may be enabled to give to their Agents the directions which your Excellency solicits; and, in conclu sion, I am commanded to assure you, that His Catholick Majesty has no doubt that the British Government will see with pleasure, in the readiness which His Majesty has shewn to accede to their proposal, a fresh proof of his upright intentions, and of his anxious desire to draw still closer, upon every occasion, the ties which so happily bind him to His Britannick Majesty. The British Ambassador. EVARISTO PEREZ DE CASTRO. No. 146.-H. M. Commissioners at Surinam to Visct. Castlereagh. (Received 7th March, 1821.) MY LORD, Surinam, 12th December, 1820. WE beg leave to inform your Lordship that the importation of Slaves to this Colony, which has been the subject of our former Letters to your Lordship, is still continued, and that in a recent instance, a Slave Vessel with her cargo, prize to, and brought in by, a South American Privateer, has been admitted by this Government to the market. We have the honour, &c. Viscount Castlereagh, K. G. CHRISTOPHER E. LEFROY. No. 147.-Viscount Castlereagh to the Earl of Clancarty. MY LORD, Foreign Office, 21st March, 1821. YOUR Excellency's Dispatches of the 26th December 1820, and of the 27th ult. upon the subject of the representations you have made to The Netherland Government, respecting the due execution of the Treaty for abolishing the Traffick in Slaves, have been received and laid before the King, and I am happy to have to convey to your Excellency His Majesty's most gracious approbation of the zeal which you have shewn in executing the orders transmitted to your Excellency upon this point, although it is matter of sincere regret to His Majesty that as yet the result has not been satisfactory. The inclosed Letter, under date of the 12th of December last, from His Majesty's Commissioners at Surinam, will shew your Excellency that a Vessel loaded with Slaves, and brought in by a South American Privateer to that Colony, has actually been permitted by the Colonial Government to dispose of her cargo by sale. This circumstance renders it necessary for me to direct your Excellency again thus early to press the Government of The Netherlands for a satisfactory answer, as to the due execution of the Treaty of the 4th of May 1818, whereby the King of The Netherlands engaged to prohibit all his subjects from taking any part whatever in a Commerce in Slaves. Your Excellency will perceive, and you will impress upon the attention of The Netherland Government, that the continuance of this horrible trade, or its Abolition within their Dominions, to which His Netherland Majesty is solemnly pledged by Treaty, depends entirely upon the tenor of the orders which they may send out to their Colonial Possessions. The present system acted upon at Surinam leads manifestly to an evasion of the Treaty, which His Majesty feels quite confident The Netherland Government cannot, after due consideration, intend or wish to countenance. His Majesty trusts that it will be sufficient for your Excellency to lay this statement before The Netherland Government, in order to decide them immediately to give full effect to that stipulation of the Treaty whereby, "in the event of the measures already taken and to be taken by the Contracting Parties, being found ineffectual or insufficient, they mutually engage to adopt such further measures, whether by legal provision or otherwise, as may from time to time appear to be best calculated, in the most effectual manner, to prevent all their respective Subjects from taking any share whatever in this nefarious Traffick." I have, &c. 1. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart....Foreign Office.... 8th Jan. 259 2. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart....Foreign Office.... 9th Jan. 259 3 Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... .Foreign Office.... 9th Jan. 260 4. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris..... 5. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris.. 6. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh....Paris. Inclosure.-Ordonnance du Roi. 8Jan. 1817.... 7. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris........ ..13th Jan. 261 ...20th Jan. 262 30th Jan. 263 263 30th Jan. 264 ..51st Mar. 269 .21st April. 270 8. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office.... 8th Mar. 269 9. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris....... 10. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris..... 11. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart....Foreign Office.... 1st July. 271 12. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart....Foreign Office.... 8th Nov. 272 1818. 13. Viscount Castlereagh to the Marquis d'Osmond. Foreign Office....24th Jan. 273 14. J. Planta, Jun. Esq. to the Marquis d'Osmond..Foreign Office....24th Jan. 281 Inclosure.-Judgment in the Case of Le Louis...... 281 .29th Jan. 294 .29th Jan. 295 6th Feb. 297 15. The Marquis d'Osmond to Viscount Castlereagh. London 16. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris.. 17. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office.... 18. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office.... .21st Feb. 298 Inclosure.-Memorandum of Viscount Castlereagh................ ....... 299 19. Viscount Castlereagh to the Marquis d'Osmond. Foreign Office....21st Feb. 303 20. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office....21st Feb. 304 21. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh....Paris.. 22. The Marquis d'Osmond to Viscount Castlereagh. London.. S 19th Feb. 305 .24th Feb. 306 No. 1818. Page 2d Mar. 306 2d Mar. 307 5th Mar. 308 9th Mar. 308 23. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris..... 24. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh....Paris.... 25. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.. Paris..... 26. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh. ....Paris.. 27. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... .Foreign Office.... 9th May. 309 28. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh. ..Paris..... ..25th May. 309 29. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... .Foreign Office....29th May. 311 30. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office.... 1st June. 311 31. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart....Foreign Office.... 12th June. 313 32. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh....Paris........... Inclosure.-Ordonnance du Roi. 24 Juin, 1818..... ....... .29th June. 315 315 9th July. 316 1819. 33. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh....Paris....... 34. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office....25th Aug. 317 35. Circular to His Majesty's Consuls at Nantes, Bourdeaux, Bilboa, and Corunna..... .Foreign Office....10th Mar. 319 36. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office.... 7th June. 319 37. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh....Paris...... 38. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh. 39. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris... 40. The Marquis de Latour Maubourg to Viscount Castlereagh. ....Paris.... ..17th June. 320 .1st July. 321 ..30th Aug. 323 ..London.........29th Sept. 323 41. Joseph Planta, Jun. Esq. to the Marquis de Latour Maubourg.... Foreign Office.... 6th Oct. 323 42. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart....Foreign Office.... 8th Oct. 324 43. Viscount Castlereagh to the Marquis de Latour Maubourg..... .Foreign Office.... 9th Oct. 324 ..11th Oct. 325 8th Nov. 325 44. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris... 45. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris.. 46. William Hamilton, Esq. to the Marquis de Latour Maubourg... ...Foreign Office....22d Nov. 327 6th Dec. 327 47. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh....Paris... 48. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh....Paris............. 49. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office....20th Jan. 529 50. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office.... 5th Feb. 350 51. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.. 52. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.. Paris..... 53. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office....25th May. 334 54. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office....25th May. 335 55. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart, .Foreign Office....26th May. 335 56. Count Caraman to Viscount Castlereagh.. .London...... .17th June. 336 57. Viscount Castlereagh to Count Caraman.. ..Foreign Office.... 4th July. 361 58. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office.... 8th Dec. 364 59. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office....14th Dec. 374 60. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris... ... .... ..21st Dec. 377 61. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office.... 64. Memorandum of The Duke de Cazes..... ....Paris. 65. Sir Charles Stuart to Viscount Castlereagh.... Paris.... 1821. 1st Jan. 381 1st Jan. 382 .11th Jan. 384 ....12th Feb. 384 ..19th Feb. 386 66. Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart.... Foreign Office....23d Mar. 386 SIR, No. 1.-Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart. Foreign Office, 8th January, 1817. I HAVE the honour to inclose herewith, for your information, the Copy of a Letter received from Rear Admiral Harvey, commanding at the Leeward Islands, relative to an illegal Traffick in Slaves carried on at the French Islands on that Station, by Vessels under the Flag of His Most Christian Majesty; which Letter has been officially communicated to this Office, by direction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty; and I have received the Prince Regent's Commands to desire, that your Excellency will represent the facts therein stated to the Duke de Richelieu, requesting, at the same time, that the necessary orders be issued, with as little delay as possible, to the Governors of the French Colonies in the West Indies, to put an effectual stop to this illicit Traffick. I have the honour to be, &c. H. E. Sir Charles Stuart, G. C. B. CASTLEREAGH. (Inclosure 1.)-John Barrow, Esq. to William Hamilton, Esq.-(Copy.) Admiralty Office, 4th January, 1817. SIR, I AM commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to send you herewith, for the information of Lord Castlereagh, a Copy of a Letter from Rear Admiral Harvey, Commanding at the Leeward Islands, relative to some Traffick in Slaves, carried on by Vessels under the French Flag. I am, &c. William Hamilton, Esq. SIR, JOHN BARROW. (Inclosure 2.)—Rear Admiral Harvey to John Barrow, Esq. Antelope, Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes, 5th Nov. 1816. I BEG you will be pleased to acquaint my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that I have received intelligence of the Slave-trade having still been carried on by the French Islands on this Station. I have been informed, that a large Ship arrived at Martinique about a month since, under the White Flag, with a Cargo of 500 Slaves, who were immediately advertized for sale, not only in the Publick Papers of the Island, but also in hand-bills stuck up at the corners of the streets, and in all conspicuous places. The sale was to have taken place on the 21st ultimo. I understand that several other Vessels are expected, engaged in the same trade. The Vessel before-mentioned intended to have gone to Guadaloupe, but was fearful that the English might still be in possession of the Island. I have, &c. John Barrow, Esq. JOHN HARVEY. No. 2.-Viscount Castlereagh to Sir Charles Stuart. SIR, |