This Agreement of [the right of] search, and the appointment of the Persian Government officers (to be on board the British cruizers), will first come in force on the 1st of Rebbee-ool-evvel, 1268 January 1, 1852. From the date of this document to the above date, there is no right of search. The Articles written in this document have from first to last been agreed to by both parties, and confirmed by the Ministers of both Governments, and nothing is to be done in contravention thereof. Written in the month of Shevval, 1267 (August, 1851). Ameer-i-Nizam of the Persian SIR, JUSTIN SHEIL, Her Britannic Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Persia. No. 354.-Viscount Palmerston to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheil. Foreign Office, October 10, 1851. I HAVE received your despatch of the 4th of August last, inclosing a translation of an Agreement which you had concluded with the Ameer-i-Nizam, granting to the ships of Her Majesty and of the East India Company, permission to search under certain conditions Persian merchant-vessels suspected of being engaged in Slave Trade. I have the satisfaction of informing you that Her Majesty's Government entirely approve of your having concluded this Agreement, which, though liable to some objections, is nevertheless a great step gained, and will probably in practice very nearly accomplish the purpose which Her Majesty's Government have in view. I have to instrust you to express to the Ameer-i-Nizam the gratification of Her Majesty's Government at this concession on the part of the Persian Government, and to inform him that instructions have been issued to the commanders of Her Majesty's cruizers and of those of the East India Company in the Persian Gulf, to carry Agreement into execution. Lieutenant-Colonel Sheil. I am, &c. the PALMERSTON. No. 356.-Viscount Palmerston to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheil. SIR, Foreign Office, November 6, 1851. WITH reference to my despatch of the 10th ultimo, in which I signified to you the approval by Her Majesty's Government of the Agreement which you concluded with the Persian Government in August last, relative to the search and seizure of Persian vessels suspected of being engaged in Slave Trade, I have now to instruct you to make arrangements with the Persian Government, relative to the appointment of the Persian officers who are to be placed on board Her Majesty's ships-of-war and those of the East India Company. Her Majesty's Government do not doubt that the Persian Government will agree with them in thinking that Bushire will be the most convenient place at which these Persian officers should be taken on board the ships which will have to exercise the right conceded by the Agreement; and therefore proper persons for the performance of the service in question should be held in readiness at Bushire to embark on board British cruizers, on applicatiou being made to the Governor of the place by the East India Company's Resident there. If the Persian Government agree to this arrangement, you will inform Major Hennell thereof, and you will instruct him to make it known to the Commanders of all Her Majesty's ships and those of the East India Company in the Persian Gulf, and you will request him to invite those officers to proceed to Bushire to take the Persian officers on board. You will further instruct Major Hennell to furnish the Commanders of all such ships with a translated copy of the Agreement, and such ships will then be fully authorized to carry its provisions into effect. Lieutenant-Colonel Sheil. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 358-Lieut.-Col. Sheil to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. Mar. 7, 1852.) MY LORD, Tehran, December 31, 1851. WITH reference to the Agreement concluded with the Persian Government for the detention by British ships of war of Persian vessels suspected of slave trading, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that Meerza Mahmood Khan has been appointed to reside on board of an English cruizer to receive charge of such vessels as may be captured. He is to be accompanied by 4 subordinate agents, destined, if necessary, for a similar purpose. According to the instructions issued to Meerza Mahmood Khan, the first offence in the transport of slaves by sea is to be punished, exclusive of the loss of slaves, by a fine equal to the value of the slaves; a repetition entails the same punishment, with the addition of a bastinado of 200 blows. The third offence, besides the above penalties, is to be accompanied by the confiscation of the vessel. In my judgment, once the fact of the permission conferred on English vessels to cruize against slavers is known, the traffic will cease on the part of Persian vessels. With reference to your Lordship's instructions in despatch of the 10th of October, to endeavour to persuade the Persian Government to issue a law declaring slave-dealing by sea to be equivalent to piracy, there is great reluctance on the part of the Persian Ministers to view the crime in so heinous a light, particularly as the Mahomedan creed, gives, in their estimation at least, more or less validity to the traffic. I beg to be informed with reference to the above feelings, whether in promulgating this law, the intention is, that offenders should suffer the penalty of death, or whether a minor punishment would be deemed sufficient. I have the honour to inclose a copy of a letter I have addressed to the Resident in Bushire, announcing Meerza Mahmood Khan's appointment. I have, &c. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. JUSTIN SHEIL. (Inclosure.)—Lieutenant-Colonel Sheil to Lieutenant-Colonel Hennell. Tehran, December 27, 1851. SIR, IN my despatch of the 19th instant I informed you that an Agreement had been concluded with this Government, authorizing British ships of war to detain Persian vessels suspected of slave trading, and to remove such slaves as might be found on board. In accordance with one of the stipulations of that Agreement, the Persian Government has appointed Meerza Mahmood, specially created a Khan, to go on board of an English cruizer to superintend the detention of slaving-vessels. He is a respectable person, the son-in-law of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and will, I think, be found ready to co-operate in the object in view, without displaying. too much officious zeal. He will be accompanied by 4 subordinates. As instructions have been sent from England for the guidance of those concerned, it does not fall within my duty to offer any remarks on this occasion. As, however, it is the national character of a Persian to step beyond his rank and place, I would urge that any attempt on the part of Meerza Mahmood Khan to assume authority on board should be checked from the beginning. I have no doubt he will be treated with courtesy, but that courtesy should not be carried to the extent of allowing him to suppose that he is by any means on an equality with the Commander. It has been arranged that Meerza Mahmood Khan is not to take on board more than 2 servants. The 4 associates of Meerza Mahmood Khan are persons of humble rank, equivalent, I believe, to Gholaums. Meerza Mahmood Khan is instructed to punish the captain or owner of a slaving-vessel by a fine equivalent to the value of the slaves, besides the confiscation of the latter. The repetition of the offence is farther to be punished by the infliction of 200 blows of the bastinado. For the third offence the slaving-vessel is also to be confiscated. I have, &c. Lieutenant-Colonel Hennell. JUSTIN SHEIL. No. 359.-The Earl of Malmesbury to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheil. SIR, Foreign Office, March 20, 1852. I HAVE received your despatch to Viscount Palmerston of the 31st of December, in which you refer to an instruction addressed to you by Lord Palmerston, directing you to urge the Persian Government to make a law declaring the Slave Trade to be piracy; and in answer to your questions as to the intention of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the nature of the punishment to be inflicted upon persons guilty of that crime, I have to refer you to the instruction upon this subject which was addressed to Her Majesty's Agents at European Courts, and which was communicated to you by Lord Palmerston's despatch of the 20th of March, 1851. You will learn from that instruction, that Her Majesty's Government intended that persons guilty of slave trading should be liable to suffer a severe secondary punishment. Lieutenant-Colonel Sheil. I am, &c. MALMESBURY. SIR, PORTUGAL. No. 371.-Viscount Palmerston to Sir G. H. Seymour. Foreign Office, April 14, 1851. WITH reference to the correspondence which has taken place respecting the proposed abolition of the Mixed Commission Courts in Jamaica and the Cape Verde Islands, I have to inform you that Her Majesty's Government are now desirous to bring this question to a termination. You are aware that the course which this negotiation has taken is shortly as follows: The proposal to abolish the Mixed Courts in Jamaica and the Cape Verdes originated with the Portuguese Government, and was rested on the ground that those courts were found to be unnecessary for the purposes for which they were established, and that therefore the Portuguese Government, from motives of economy, were desirous that they should be discontinued. Her Majesty's Government admitted to a certain extent, the validity of those grounds, and signified their willingness to concur in the abolition of those two Mixed Courts, on condition that, in lieu thereof, a Mixed Court should be established at Sierra Leone. This proposal, however, did not appear to meet the views of the Portuguese Government; and Her Majesty's Government then stated their willingness to agree to the abolition of the Jamaica and Cape Verde Commissions without insisting on the establishment of a Commission at Sierra Leone, provided that [1851-52.] 2 F certain conditions were agreed to in regard to the manner of disposing of slaves found on board of captured slave-vessels. These conditions were, that with respect to slave-vessels which might be captured in those parts of the sea from whence any vessel so captured would now be sent for trial to Jamaica or to the Cape Verdes, but which, under the arrangement proposed, would be sent for trial to Loanda or to Cape Town, any slaves found on board any such vessels should be landed at Sierra Leone or in one of the British West India Islands. These conditions the Portuguese Government expressed their readiness to agree to, provided it should be stipulated in regard to the landing of slaves, that slaves found on board such captured vessels should be landed in territory belonging to the country whose cruizer made the capture; and that thus slaves found on board vessels captured by British cruizers under the circumstances above stated, should be landed in the British West Indies or at Sierra Leone; and that slaves found on board vessels captured by Portuguese cruizers under similar circumstances, should be landed in St. Thomas's or Prince's, or in one of the Cape Verde Islands. Her Majesty's Government, however, objected to this arrangement, on the ground that as the state of slavery still exists in the colonial possessions of Portugal, there can be no security that liberated negroes landed in any Portuguese possession would not be practically reduced to slavery; but the Portuguese Government were informed that Her Majesty's Government would agree to the Portuguese proposition whenever the Portuguese Legislature should have enacted for the Portuguese colonies a law for the registration of slaves, similar to the law on that subject which existed in the British colonies before the emancipation of the slaves in those colonies. This proposal has, however, led to no result, and Her Majesty's Government have not learnt that any such registration law has been enacted or is likely to be enacted by the Portuguese Parliament. Her Majesty's Government seeing then but little probability that such a law will speedily be passed, and being now desirous to have this matter finally settled, have resolved to accept the original proposal for the simple abolition of the Jamaica and Cape Verde Commissions without any accompanying stipulation; and I have accordingly to instruct you to make known this determination to the Portuguese Government, and to propose that those Commissions should cease from the 30th of September, 1851. Her Majesty's Government have been induced to come to this determination from a belief that it is very improbable any captures will be made by Portuguese cruizers to the north of the Line, whilst, with respect to vessels captured by British cruizers to the |