In 1842, with Portugal, by Treaty signed at Lisbon 3rd July.
In 1845, with Brazil ; and with France, by a Convention signed at London on the 29th of May (by which each power is to keep up an equal naval force on the western coast of Africa, and the right of visitation is to be exercised only by cruisers of the nation whose flag is car ried by the suspected vessel).
The History of the Abolition is to be found in the work under that title by T. Clarkson (edition 1834), and the stare of the law, as well as the treatment of slaves practically in the colonies, is most fully treated of in a work ou that subject by Mr. Stephen. The writings of the late Sir John Jeremie also contain much useful information on the condition of slavery in the British colonies just be fore the Emancipation Act. T. Clarkson's other works on the nature of the traffic, which first exposed it to the people of this country, were published in 1787.
The slave-trade was suppressed, but slavery continued to exist in the British colonies. In 1834 the British parliament passed an act by which slavery was abo lished in all British colonies, and twenty millions sterling were voted as compen sation money to the owners. This act (3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 73) stands prominent in the history of our age. No other na tion has imitated the example. The emancipated negroes in the British colo tries were put on the footing of appren ticed labourers. By a subsequent act (1 Vic. c. 19) all apprenticeships were to cease after the 1st of August, 1840, but the day was anticipated in all the West Indian colonies by acts of the colonial le gislatures. Slavery exists in the French, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies, and in the southern states of the North American Union. The new republics of Spanish America, generally speaking, emancipated their slaves at the time of the revolution. As the slave population in general does not maintain its numbers by natural increase, and as plantations in America are extended, there is a demand for a fresh annual importation of slaves from Africa, which are taken to Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Monte Video.
In a recent work, ' The African Slave Trade and its Remedy,' by Sir T. Fowell Buxton (who, after Mr. Wilberforce's re tirement, took a most active part in par liament on the subject of slavery), it is calculated, apparently on sufficient data, that not less than 150,000 negro slaves are annually imported from Africa into the above-mentioned countries in contra vention to the laws and the treaties ex isting between Great Britain and Spain and Portugal, the local authorities either winking at the practice or being unable to prevent it. Since the slave-trade has peen declared to be illegal the sufferings of the slaves on their passage across the Atlantic have been greatly increased, owing to its being necessary for masters of slave-traders to conceal their cargoes by cooping up the negroes in a small compass, and avoiding the British cruis ers; they are often thrown overboard in a chace. There is a considerable loss of life incident to the seizing of slaves by force in the hunting excursions after ne groes, and in the wars between the chief tains of the interior for the purpose of making captives. There is a loss on their march to the sea-coast; the loss in the middle passage is reckoned on an average at one-fourth of the cargo ; and, besides this, there is a further loss, after landing, in what is called the " seasoning" of the slaves. The Portuguese and Brazilian flags have been openly used, with the con nivance of the authorities, for carrying on the slave-trade. The Spanish flag has also been used, though less openly, and with greater caution, owing to the treaty be tween England and Spain which formally abolishes the slave-trade on the part of Spain. A mixed commission court of Spaniards and British exists at Havana to try slavers ; but pretexts are never want ing to elude the provisions of the treaty. There seems indeed to be a great dif ficulty in obtaining the sincere co-opera tion of all Christian powers to put down the slave-trade effectually, although it is certain that in all but the Portuguese and Spanish settlements the traffic has now almost entirely ceased.