Slave Trade - Miscellaneous Notes

Slave Trade - Miscellaneous Notes.

No. 156.- Viscount Palmerston to His Majesty's Commissioners, Foreign Office, December 9, 1836.
Gentlemen, with reference to your Despatch of the 17th October last, on the subject of the delay and expense likely to take place in the breaking up of the Spanish schooner Preciosa, I have to acquaint you that it is comparatively of little importance how much the broken pieces of a condemned slave-vessel may sell for ; the essential point is, that condemned vessels should be effectually broken up, and that it should be impossible to reconstruct them.
You will, therefore, use the utmost vigilance in watching the execution of the provision of the Treaty which stipulates for the destruction of the vessels; and you will take special care that all condemned vessels be effectually and completely taken to pieces.
I am, &c. His Majesty's Commissioners. Palmerston.

The Earl of Aberdeen to Her Majesty's Commissioners.
Foreign Office, December 15, 1841.
Gentlemen,
With reference to the several representations which you have from time to time made upon the subject, of the conduct of Mr. Pluma, the Tuscan Consul at the Havana, in granting papers to slave-vessels, I herewith transmit to you, for your information and guidance, a copy of a Despatch and of its Enclosures from Her Majesty's Envoy at Lisbon, stating that the Portuguese Government has declared formally, that consular documents furnished by Mr. Pluma to Portuguese vessels shall have no effect or validity as evidence of the nationality of the vessels to which they may be granted.
I am, &c., (Signed) Aberdeen.
Her Majesty's Commissioners.

Hampshire Telegraph 15 Aug 1842 : in consequence of the completion of two commercial treaties with Portugal, it appears our cruizers are to be forbidden to interfere with vessels presumed to be slavers, under Portuguese colours ; and two Acts of Parliament have this week been passed, repealing the Act of 2 & 3 Vic. c. 73, and another act of 3 Victoria, both entitled "An Act for the Suppression of the Slave Trade."
We learn that the new position of things for the suppression of slavery will not be so conducive to that desirable end as the late law, in as much as the Act of 1830 is a far better security for putting down the traffic in slaves, under Portuguese colours than any treaty can be ; the old treaty gave us the power of condemnation ; the new law leaves the adjudication entirely in the Portuguese Courts ; and how clear the stream of Justice runs in them can be easily imagined. Will such Courts convict for Piracy ? the result will be the slave trade will be more rife than ever.