MR. BUXTON'S AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE.

IN reviewing the life and character of 1,V1t,n1avosten,* we observed, that, " allowing for the growing humanity of the age, it may be questioned whether the Negro race has benefited much by his efforts. Ile has turned an open trade, capable of regulation, into an illicit intercourse, which cannot admit of it, and aggravated the horrors of the voyage ; whilst, whatever discouragement has been given to cultivation in our own Colonies—which an honest Go- vernment could have coutrolled—has been the cause of fresh im-

sortations hs other countries, over which we have no control what-

ever." This, and more than this, has received a frightful confir- mation in the pages of the flietal, coadjutor, and successor of WIL- LIAM WILBERFORCE. Fifty ..ettrs ago, as Mr. IltexTON informs his readers, the annual exportation of Negroes from Africa, was esti- mated at 80,000 : it is now at least 200,000; with a proportionate mortality ill Aflica during the journey to the coast, and the delay at the slave-stations. The horrors of' the voyage are feariblly in- creased. The old regulation was in the ratio of five persons to thrce tons : now, says a wituess, they "are packed more like bales of goods than human beings ; " in 1834 a slaver was captured, of only 7,1 tolls burden, with " 350 Teegroes craunned on board of her ; " and in the same year a brig of 202 tons had 521 slaves on board. In 1791, it was shown, in papers prcoeeted to the Lords, that the average mortality in 15,7,54 Negrees, openly conveyed under the Slave-carrying Regulation Act, was 81 per cent.; in 1792, the average loss was somewhat less than 17 per cent.: the Reverend JOHN NEIVTON, who in his youth had beets the captain of a :,.litver, reckoned that the mostality in his day was about one- fourth. The average loss in the existing trade cannot be told, on account of the secrecy in which it is shrouded ; but here are isolated filets and opinions. Captain Owax says, that the slavers consider " they make an excellent voyage if' they save one-third of the number embarked ;" " some are so fortuoule as to save one- half of their cargo : Captain Coox writes to the same effect ; other authorities make it lower, but the lowest is one-third ; all this being independent of deaths after the arrival in America, the consequence of the inconceivable horrors and hardships of the passage. But in some cases the whole perish, being thrown over- board during a ehase,I. or through sickness, or die of disease and want iaduced by this system of close packing. Nor is it possible, Mr. BuNerox conceives, to prevent these evils, is the anode we have been and are pursuing. The vaunted "Spanish treaty " is discovered to be a fifilure : Spanish vessels sail under their own flag, to save the trifling fre for which the Portuguese colonial governors will sell permission to use the colours and papers of' Bertugal. Brazil has prehibited the slave-trade : " The MI-

portat "—sztys a Brazilian Senator speaking in the Senate—" has been touch more considerable than it was betime, when the com- merce was unfettered and legal," (page 12) ; though the public importations were then at the rate of about 80,000 a year, exclusive of those smuggled to save the duty. 'But it' Spain, Portugal, and Brazil, argues Mr. BUXTON, vould join heart and hand in putting an end to the trade, it would go to Buenos Ayres and La Plata ; and it' driven thence, the New American State of Texas would absorb the whole number of Negroes now annually torn from their homes ; and the United States has expressly declared she never will ceeaetle the right of search.

The reader may perhaps suppose that our method of presenting the i h alone of Mr. Br vrox's filets and views has lent theist undue ..;mee. Let hins satisfy himatdf by a few extracts,

EFFECTS 05 THE .1.110LITIoN SYSTEM.

Pats-irate over hundreds of eases of a description similar to those which I have nottreil, I have now done mall these licart-ickening di:tails; a ad the melan- eltoly t oil, is titreed upon us, that, notwithstanding all Ault has been aCCOM- pilda.d, tilt rruchie:; and horrors of the passage across the Atlantic have in- cniated ; nay more, they have been eyyrarated by the aril ul■wts which we have

male ,fio. the abolition of the tragic. *

It is melancholy to r'efleet, that the efforts which wo have so long and so per- severingly made }int the abolition of the Sla ve-trade, should not onbi hare been attended with complete Allure, but with et» increase qf Negro morta)ity. RESULTS OF AROLITION LABOURS.

Millions of money and niultitudes of lives have been sacrificed ; and in re- turn the all, we have only the afflicting conviction that the Slave-trials is as fur as ever from being suppressed. NaY, I am afraid. the fitet is not to be dis- puted, that while we have thus been judeavouving to extinguish the traffic, it

has actually doubled in amount. * *

Twice ai5 many human beings are now its victims as when Wilberforce and Clarkson entered upon their noble task ; and each individual of this increased number, in addition to the horrors which were endured in former times, has to suffer trout being cribbed up in It narrower space, and on board a vessel where accommodation is sacrificed to speed. Painful us this is, it becomes still more distressing if it shall appear that our present system has not failed by lids- • Spertntor, 9th June 1818. t If Negroes mire not found on board, the vessel cannot be touched.

chance, from want of energy, or from want of expenditure, but that the system; itself' is erroneous, and must necessarily be attended with disappointment. githerto we have effected no other change than a change in the flag under

which the trade is carried on. It was stated by our Ambassador at Paris, to the French Minister, in 1824, (1 speak from memory,) that the French flag covered the villains of ull nations. For some years afterwards the Spanish flag was generally used. Now, Portugal sells her flag, and the greater part of the trade is carried on under it. Her governors openly sell, at a fixed price, the use of Portuguese papers and flag.

It has been proposed to declare the trade piracy : but even if all nations were to accede to such a declaration, Mr. BUXTON declares it must fitil.

But now I will make a supposition still more Utopian than any of the pre- ceding. All nations shall have acceded to the Spanish Treaty, and that treaty shall be rendered more effective. They shall have linked to it the article of piracy ; the whole shall have been clenched by the cordial concurrence of the authorities at home and the populace in the colonies. With all this, we shall he once more defeated and haffied by contraband trade. The power which will overcome our efforts is the extraordinary prqfit of the slave-trader. It is, I believe, an axiom at the Customhouse, that no illicit trade can be suppressed, where the profits exceed 30 percent. 1 will prove that the profits of the slave-trader are nearly five times that amount. " Of the enormous profits of the Slave-trade," says Commissioner Macleav, " the most correct idea will be filmed by taking, an example. The last vessel condemned by the Mixed Commission was the Firm." Ile gives the cost of

lier cargo

Provisions, ammunitioa, wear and tear, &c

Wages

Total expense 52,000

145,000 Total product

There was a clear pr ,,fit on the human CaTfrO of this vessel of 18,6401., or just 180 per emit. ; and will any one Met kr.ows the state of Cuba and Brazil pretend that this is not enough to shut the mouth of the inffirmer, to arrest the arm of the police, to blind the eyes of the magistrates, and to open the doors of the pri:ion It is to be regretted, that all this had not been found out before we had spent twenty millions in gifts to planters ; squandered half that sum in naval expenses on the coast of Africa ; sacrificed many valuable lives in that pestiferous region; alienated the minds of the West Indian Colonists ; subjected our Tropical possessions to an experiment of which those who know the most predict the worst ; and, snore lamentable than all, so irritated the slave-owner through- out the whole American cominent, North and South, that he is unlikely ever to bear an interference with his people, or to admit the law to modify—to try himself to improve the mental condition of his slaves, or to hold out the hope of a peaceable transmission of slavery into serfdom, and of serfdom into free- dom. A more complete fitilure of sixty years' systematic agi- tation, it is difficult to conceive; or a more distressing example of the mischief's springing from sentimental legislation, in disregard of the whole facts of the case, in ignorance of the social system to be influenced, and without a large survey and a philosophic per- ception of the moral and physical condition of the people to be acted upon, as well as of the interests to be affected. For the purpose in view,—which is, to unfold in detail the failure of all our Abolition eflbrts, the extent aod horrors of the present Slave-trade, and the natural capabilities of Africa tbr commerce in valuable productions,—Mr. Bux.rox's volume is a very able and business-like production ; the subjects clearly arranged and subdi- vided ; the facts well selected; the matter fbrcible and weighty, and not overlaid in the exposition. At the same time, the book is like a play without at catastrophe. The end of the author's labours is the establishment of a plan by which the Slave-trade shall be put an end to by cutting it up at its roots, and directing the atten- tion of the native Africans to a more profitable trade than erhnping and kidnapping their countrymen. This plats, however, it is not deemed expedient to promulgate yet ; because it has been sub- mitted to Governmekt, and awaits their decision. If this secrecy is in obedience to etiquette merely, it may be well enough : it' se- crecy is an essential of the scheme. We should doubt its efficiency. Any plan, to be effectual, must be founded upon the nature of existing things ; the social and phyaical capabilities of Africa to produce—the power and will of Great Britain to purchase; and these are not like at military coup dc outin, or a juggler's sleight-of- hand, whose effects vanish in the disclosure. On the contrary, they are matters which governments cannot create or destroy ; all they can do is to further their development.''

* The reader who is interm4cd in the sulject, may consult MT. LAIRD'S

Neu-rutin EtpzIlition ;In., that lot ,riot ,:t. .Adieu, by Ricer Niger ; or our rcview of the work, and of the author's Cheap and practical suggestions as to the best 1114111C of czar ug on an inland African trade.— .:;pectator. Nos. 474 and 475, 29th July and.5tli A.u!ttst

Dollars. 28.000 10,600 13.400