port: making a fearful total of 2,734, the greater part of which were young girls, sold at an average price of 60 dollars (127. 10s.). Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. I have, &c. G. W. CROWE. (Inclosure 1.)—Return of 1,259 Slaves shipped on board of Ottoman Vessels in the Port of Tripoli in the year 1850. (Inclosure 2.)-Return of the number of Negro Slaves exported from Bengazi during the year 1850. Bengazi, January 1, 1851. G. F. HERMAN. To Candia and the Levant, 1,474. No.528.-Consul-General Crowe to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. Mar.10.) MY LORD, Tripoli, January 27, 1851. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch of the 13th December last, inclosing the copy of an instruction recently issued by order of His Highness the Sultan, prohibiting the embarkation of slaves on board ships of the Turkish Navy; a measure which appears to have been adopted upon the suggestion of Her Majesty's Government, in consequence of a report which I made to Sir Stratford Canning and to your Lordship, in my despatch of the 20th May, 1850, respecting a great number of slaves shipped from this port, on board the Ottoman Government steamer Esseri Djedid. I have, &c. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. G. W. CROWE. TURKEY. SIR, No. 529.-Viscount Palmerston to Sir Stratford Canning. Foreign Office, April 11, 1850. I HEREWITH transmit to you a copy of a despatch and of its inclosures from Her Majesty's Consul-General at Tripoli, containing a report on the Slave Trade carried on, through the Regency of Tripoli to Turkey and the Levant, during the year 1849. I have to instruct your Excellency to communicate to the Turkish Government the facts which are disclosed in these papers respecting the sufferings of, and the mortality among the slaves, during their journey from the interior of Africa to the sea-coast ; and will you urge the Turkish Government to consider whether any advantage which Turkey can derive from the annual introduction of these miserable and degraded slaves can counterbalance the amount of human suffering which their capture and transportation occasion. H.E. Sir Stratford Canning. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 530.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. May 27.) Mr LORD, Constantinople, May 10, 1850. I HAVE executed your Lordship's instructions respecting the dreadful sufferings and loss of life experienced in the prosecution of the Slave Trade between the interior of Africa and the coast of Tripoli. Inclosed herewith is a copy of the letter which I addressed to Aali Pasha in soliciting his attention to the afflicting details transmitted to me with your Lordship's correspondence. I have requested that the whole communication may be placed under the Sultan's immediate notice, and I am assured that my request will be complied with. Aali Pasha remarked, after reading the correspondence in question, that Her Majesty's Consuls had exaggerated the facts; and I have applied to his Excellency for some particulars in corroboration of his assertion, observing to him that the Consuls are moved by no interest to exaggerate the horrors of the Slave Trade; whereas the officers of the Porte are not only prejudiced in favour of the trade, but interested in concealing those horrors, which, sooner or later, can hardly fail of putting an end to it. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. SIR, I have, &c. STRATFORD CANNING. (Inclosure.)-Sir Stratford Canning to Aali Pasha. Pera, May 7, 1850. Ir has been more than once my painful duty to call the Porte's attention to the afflicting and calamitous consequences resulting from the Slave Trade, as practised in the interior of Africa, with the view of supplying Constantinople and other parts of Turkey with slaves from that country by way of Tripoli. It is now by the express commands of Her Britannic Majesty's Government that I bring to your Excellency's notice the melancholy facts detailed in the accompanying abstract of despatches received from the British Consuls at Tripoli and Bengazi. Your Excellency's well-known humanity assures me beforehand that they will not fail to make a deep impression on your Excellency's mind. I am sanguine enough to hope that the Turkish Government will maturely and conscientiously consider whether any advantage which Turkey can derive from the annual introduction of those miserable and degraded slaves can counterbalance the amount of human suffering which their capture and transportation occasion. Your Excellency will, I am persuaded, take an early opportunity of submitting this note and its inclosure to the consideration of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, who is never indifferent to the voice of affliction and the claims of suffering humanity. H.E. Aali Pasha. I avail, &c. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 531.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc'. Palmerston.— (Rec. June 3.) MY LORD, Constantinople, May 17, 1850. HAVING received information that among the British merchants residing at Smyrna, there were some who had purchased and were still in possession of black female slaves, I directed an inquiry to be made, and it has in consequence been ascertained that 2 only of the gentlemen in question, and also 2 Ionian subjects, have acquired property of that kind. It appears that owing to a scarcity of female servants, the practice of purchasing slaves is common in Smyrna, especially among persons of the Roman Catholic persuasion, who, while availing themselves of the services of the slaves, consider it meritorious to convert them to their own faith. I bring this subject under your Lordship's notice, not only as matter of information, but in order to afford your Lordship an opportunity of instructing me as to the proper mode of proceeding with regard to such British subjects as are known to possess slaves. My own impression is, that in whatever manner the owners may have to be dealt with, the slaves themselves are entitled to their liberty, as having no nationality but what belongs to them as British chattels, and the English law, which is here applicable to all cases in which British subjects alone are concerned, does not recognize the condition of slavery. I have communicated this opinion to Mr. Brant. I have, &c. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 533.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc'. Palmerston.—(Rec. July 6.) MY LORD, Constantinople, June 18, 1850. BEING informed by Her Majesty's Consul at Tripoli, that upwards of 400 negro slaves had been embarked for Constantinople, on board the Ottoman steam-ship, a Government vessel, having a British engineer on board, I communicated the circumstance both to Her Majesty's Consul-General and to the Ottoman Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. From Aali Pasha I received no expression of sympathy or concern. That Minister, enlightened as he is in many respects, and open to views of humanity, appears to forget the horrors of the traffic in its earlier stages, and to think that an ample atonement for them is to be found in the kind and generous treatment experienced for the most part by slaves in this country. I have, therefore, made a point of recommending the question to the serious attention of the Grand Vizier. I found his Highness in appearance more accessible than his colleague to my remarks; and when I pointed out the extreme difficulty of reconciling the conveyance of marketable slaves in a Government vessel, with the assurance repeatedly given in the Sultan's name, that no officers of the Porte would be allowed to take any part in that traffic, he made no attempt to contradict me, and seemed on the contrary to admit the justice of my remonstrance. I do not despair of being able to make a more successful impression hereafter, by recurring occasionally to this subject in my communications with the Sultan and his Ministers. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. I have, &c. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 534.-Viscount Palmerston to Sir Stratford Canning. SIB, Foreign Office, July 16, 1850. WITH reference to the several representations which you have made to the Turkish Government, on the subject of the Slave Trade carried on from the Regency of Tripoli to Turkey and the Levant, I herewith transmit to your Excellency for your information, a copy of a letter dated Mourzouk, May 15, 1850, which I have received from Mr. Richardson, a gentleman who is engaged on a journey into the interior of Africa, and who expresses an opinion that there can be little hope of persuading the chiefs of the interior to give up the Slave Trade, so long as it is permitted to be carried on through the Turkish dependencies in Africa, under the sanction and even for the benefit of persons holding office under the Turkish Government. H.E. Sir Stratford Canning. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 535.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc'. Palmerston.-(Rec. Sept. 2.) Unhappily the Turkish flag is not the only one employed to cover such criminal transactions. It is notorious that slaves are frequently conveyed in steamers belonging to the Austrian Company of Lloyd's; and your Lordship needs no observation from me, to feel how much a practice, so entirely at variance with the spirit at least of Austria's own engagements respecting the Slave Trade, is to be deplored. I have, &c. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. STRATFORD CANNING. No. 537.-Viscount Palmerston to Sir Stratford Canning. SIR, Foreign Office, September 19, 1850. I REFERRED to Her Majesty's Advocate-General your Excellency's despatch of the 17th of May last, on the subject of the purchase of slaves at Smyrna by British subjects; and in accordance with the opinion of that officer, I have now to inform your Excellency that persons purchased and held as slaves by British subjects at Smyrna or elsewhere in the Levant, are by law entitled to be considered and treated as free persons; and that British subjects purchasing and holding persons as slaves at Smyrna or elsewhere in the Levant, are liable, under the Statute 6th and 7th Victoria, cap. 98, and the orders founded thereon, to be sent to Malta for trial, and, upon production of the necessary evidence, to be convicted and punished. I have to instruct your Excellency to make a communication to this effect to Her Majesty's Consuls at the Levant, and to instruct them to issue a notice to all British subjects residing within their respective Consulates, warning them of the penalties to which they will render themselves liable by any dealings in slaves, in contravention of the Statute of the 6th and 7th Victoria, cap. 98. H.E. Sir Stratford Canning. I am, &c. PALMERSTON. No. 539.-Sir Stratford Canning to Visc. Palmerston.-(Rec. Nov. 19.) MY LORD, Therapia, November 2, 1850. IN obedience to the directions contained in your Lordship's despatch of the 19th of September last, I have addressed to Her Majesty's Consuls in the Levant the circular of which a copy is herewith enclosed, and I trust that it will have the beneficial effects intended by Her Majesty's Government. Viscount Palmerston, G.C.B. SIR, I have, &c. STRATFORD CANNING. (Inclosure.)-Circular to Her Majesty's Consuls in the Levant. Constantinople, October 30, 1850. Br the special direction of Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, I have to inform you, that persons purchased and held as slaves by British subjects in the Levant, are by law entitled to be considered and treated as free persons; and that British subjects purchasing and holding persons as slaves at Smyrna, or elsewhere in the Levant, are liable under the Statute 6th and 7th |