CHILE.

No. 359.-Colonel Walpole to the Earl of Aberdeen.

MY LORD,

(Received April 15, 1844.)

Santiago, December 14, 1843. HEREWITH I have the honour to transmit, in conformity with your Lordship's directions, contained in despatch of this year, the replies to the several questions therein propounded.

I regret that, although applied for shortly subsequently to the receipt of the above despatch, the information was not remitted to me from the Statistical Office until yesterday, and even then it proved, on comparison with the published returns, to be incorrect.

The Earl of Aberdeen, K.T.

I have, &c.

JOHN WALPOLE.

(Inclosure.)-Queries and Answers respecting Population and Slavery

at Chile.

Q. 1.—WHAT is at present the amount of the population of the State in which you reside, and what the number of whites and of coloured people forming that population, distinguishing males from females, and free people from slaves? What was the amount of the population of the same State in the year 1832, and what was the amount in the year 1837, distinguishing the particulars as in the case of the present time?

A. 1. In the year 1835 when the last, and indeed the only, census was taken of which any record is preserved, the population of the Republic of Chile reached 1,002,534, distributed as follows:

In that census there was no distinction made between the white and the coloured people. To the amount, however, above given, should be added 10 per cent., the number of individuals who, it is calculated, from various causes and impediments were not registered.

Q. 2. Is it supposed that any slaves have been imported into the country within the last 10 years, either direct from Africa or from other quarters; if so, how many in each year?

Q. 3.-Is the slave protected by law equally with a free man in criminal cases?

Q. 4.-What protection is there by law to a slave against ill-conduct on the part of his master?

Q. 5.-Is the evidence of a slave received in a court of law?

Q. 6.—Is the slave well or ill fed, well or ill-treated?

Q. 7. Is the slave considered generally to enjoy as good health and to live as long as a free person?

Q. 8.-Is the slave population considered to be on the increase or decrease and from what causes?

Q. 9. Is the manumission of slaves of common occurrence?

Q. 10.-Have the laws and regulations in respect to slaves become more or less favourable to them within the last 10 years?

Q. 11. Is there, in the State in which you reside, a party favourable to the abolition of slavery? And what is the extent and influence of such party? And is such party on the increase or otherwise?

A. 2-11.-To the 2nd and following questions to No. 11 inclusive, I believe that the most concise reply would be conveyed in stating,

that in 1811 the children to be born of slaves were declared thenceforward to be free; and that in 1823, by decree of the Conservative Senate, all the existing slaves partook of the same advantage. Moreover, the actual Constitution declares every slave touching the Chilean territory to be free; that no Chilean shall enter into the Slave Trade; and that no foreigner, taking a part in it, can inhabit the country, or be naturalized therein.

Q. 12. Is there any difference in the eye of the law between a free white and free coloured man?

A. 12.-By the Constitutional Law, which is said to have been constantly respected, all, without reference to colour, are on an equality before the law.

Q. 13. Are free coloured men ever admitted to offices of the State?

A. 13. By the same law, all are admissible to public offices and employments.

Q. 14. You will state whether you have drawn your answers from public documents or from private information; and you will state whether any periodical census is taken of the population within the district of your Consulate; and what was the latest period at which it was taken.

A. 14. The preceding information has been derived, part from the Chief of the Statistical Office, partly from public documents. There is no periodical census of the population taken within this Republic, but there is actually a new census now in progress, the result of which, when known, shall be communicated.

JOHN WALPOLE.

No. 361.-Colonel Walpole to the Earl of Aberdeen.-(Rec. May 27.) (Extract.) Santiago, January 18, 1844.

So soon as I had cleared the way for its discussion, by the disposal of the project for the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, I again addressed his Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs on the subject of an Additional Article to the Treaty of 1839, which should contain a further extension of the limits wherein the right of search might be exercised, the consideration of which had been suspended in the year 1842, at the request of M. Irarrázaval.

Having been previously unsuccessful, as your Lordship has already been informed, in attaining an extension of limits corresponding with those specified in the Treaty with Spain of the year 1835, I invited M. Irarrázaval to the consideration of the second proposition contained in your Lordship's despatch of 1842, viz., the extension of the limits along the eastern coast of Africa, and along its western coast to the northward, so as to include the Canary Islands.

In consequence of his Excellency's reply a conference took place, in which, during a lengthened discussion, in the course of which every motive that occurred to me as calculated to induce consent to the proposal, unclogged with any restrictive stipulations in regard to time, having in vain been pleaded, I submitted to his Excellency your Lordship's last proposition, confining the district wherein the right of search should be exercised to the eastern coast of Africa, from the 40th degree of south latitude along the 60th of east longitude, until it should reach the coast of Asia, and to a circuit of 20 leagues around the Canary Islands, provided the consent of the Chilean Government should be unincumbered with any stipulation which should defeat the object of the British Administration, and to which I had already announced my want of authority to accede.

To this last proposal his Excellency gave his consent, and even agreed to support it in consultation with his Government.

It is with sincere regret, my Lord, that during a subsequent interview he communicated the disinclination of his colleagues to yield their assent even to this slight modification of the existing Treaties, and their unreasonable adherence to the stipulations contained in the IInd Article of the proposed Convention, which was put into my hands by M. Irarrázaval.

The negotiations thus unsuccessfully terminated, I requested his Excellency to record in writing the determination of his Government, which is hereto annexed.

Your Lordship will observe, in my reply to that note, an allusion to certain measures contemplated by this Government, which in process of execution would afford facilities to the dealers in the Slave Trade for carrying on their practices, which they do not at present possess.

It is at present a rare sight to witness the presence of the Chilean flag on the coasts of slave-exporting countries; but the project of the Chilean Government to promote the emigration of the industrious natives of the Canary Islands to this State will, I conceive, augment the influx of Chilean vessels, and thus cause a decrease in that suspicion which would, while no such emigration is carried on, attach to the appearance of the Chilean flag, and of which slave-dealers would undoubtedly hasten to take advantage.

The Earl of Aberdeen, K.T.

JOHN WALPOLE.

(Inclosure 1.)-Colonel Walpole to Senhor Irarrázaval.

Santiago, December 2, 1843. THE Undersigned, &c., desirous of carrying into their full effect the directions received from his Government, and animated by the favourable reception given during the last interview with which he was honoured by his Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs, &c. to his proposition for a renewal of the negotiations suspended at the desire of his Excellency in the course of the last year, having for their object an extension of the limits wherein may be exercised the right of search of vessels sailing under the Chilean flag, and employed in the conveyance of slaves, begs to refer his Excellency to the note addressed to him on the 12th of September, of the last year, wherein are stated the terms proposed to be annexed, in the form of Additional Articles to the Treaty for the abolition of the traffic in slaves, signed on the 19th January, 1839, and to form a part thereof.

From the contents of the note received by the Undersigned from his Excellency Senhor Irarrázaval, dated November 10th, of the last year, he argues the final and felicitous attainment of an object, the importance of which has been fully recognised by the Government which his Excellency so worthily represents.

In that paper was expressed the desire of his Excellency's Government for the postponement of further discussion, in order that a more attentive consideration might be dedicated to the arguments adduced by the Undersigned, and to that were adjoined its hopes that time and circumstances would throw more light on the question advocated by him.

To these expressions the Undersigned could not but attach a construction favourable to the object in view; and when he reviews the space of time which has since transpired, and the circumstances and changes which have meanwhile occurred, eminently calculated to extinguish the alarms and remove the ungenerous suspicions created by the clamours of the malicious; when he reflects on the well-known disposition of the President of this State, at all times prone to adopt

the suggestions of justice and general humanity, supported by the characteristic benevolence of his Excellency to whom the Undersigned now addresses himself, he cannot refrain from entertaining the most sanguine predictions of the success of the project now again submitted to the Chilean Government, at the earnest desire of that of Her Britannic Majesty, and from the consummation of which is prognosticated the annihilation of the infamous system still pursued.

The Undersigned, conceiving that the repetition of his reasons stated in support of his proposal might be viewed as supererogatory and superfluous, will confine himself for the present to a renewal of the terms proposed, viz. :

1st. That the line extending along the western coast of Africa, from the 40th degree of south latitude to the 25th of north latitude, should be prolonged to such a distance as should include the whole of the Canary Islands.

2nd. That a line should be drawn eastward from the 27th degree of west longitude, calculated from the meridian of Greenwich, along the 40th degree of south latitude until it shall attain the 60th degree of longitude east of the same meridian, and thence proceed northward including the eastern coast of Africa, and abutting on the territory of Muscat. The Undersigned &c.

H.E. Senhor Irarrázaval.

JOHN WALPOLE.

(Inclosure 2.)-Senhor Irarrázaval to Colonel Walpole. (Translation.)

Santiago, December 4, 1843. THE Undersigned &c. has had the honour to receive the note which Mr. Walpole, &c. has addressed to him, dated the 2nd instant calling the attention of the Undersigned to the negotiations which last year remained suspended, respecting the limits within which the search of Chilean vessels may be effected with the object of preventing the traffic in Slaves.

The Undersigned, informed of the intentions of his Government in this respect, will have much satisfaction in treating on it with Mr. Walpole in this Office of Foreign Relations, on Thursday next, the 7th instant, at 1 o'clock in the day, if Mr. Walpole, should not find it inconvenient. The Undersigned, &c.

The Hon. Colonel Walpole.

R. L. IRARRAZAVAL.

(Inclosure 3.)-Project of a Convention.

(Inclosure 4.)-Senhor Irarrázaval to Colonel Walpole. (Translation.) Santiago, January 15, 1844. The Undersigned, &c. has the honour to reply to the note dated the 2nd of December of the last year, which the Honourable John Walpole, &c. was pleased to address to him, pressing for a renewal of