CUBA : 



ITS SPANISH POSSESSORS, AND IMPORTANCE TO ENGLAND. 



THE present depressed and dangerous condition of our colonial posses- 

 sions in the West Indies, has become a subject of paramount consideration 

 for the government of this country ; and upon an early parliamentary 

 remedy for the distresses of the planter, depends the future security, 

 prosperity > and value to the crown of England, of our extensive posses- 

 sions in the western hemisphere. 



The distresses of the planters in the islands possessed by Great Britain, 

 have, for many years, been aggravated by the lawless condition of the 

 neighbouring island of Cuba ; and to exhibit the relative consequences, 

 and injurious effects upon our commerce, of the felonious traffic in slaves 

 still carried on from that last remaining dependency of Spain, in the New 

 World, is the object of the following remarks. 



The abolition of the slave-trade by the Parliament of Great Britain, by 

 causing a cessation of the annual supply of negroes from the coast of 

 Africa, occasioned a great increase of the value of labour in the English 

 islands, and caused a proportionate advantage to result to the planters of 

 the neighbouring islands, subject to governments not bound by treaty to 

 the abolition of the African slave-trade. So great were the disadvantages 

 resulting to our islands in the rise of negro labour, from the suppression 

 of the slave-trade, that> for a long series of years, the planters of Cuba 

 have been supplied with the all-important commodity of labour at one 

 half the rate usual in the English islands j and our planters, in conse- 

 quence undoubtedly of our humane legislation, were no longer able to 

 compete with their more favoured neighbours in the great European 

 market. To remedy these various consequences, have been passed the 

 various enactments in favour of the West Indian interests, amongst which 

 is the exclusion from the home-market, of the produce of all islands not 

 in the possession of the crown of England, whereby the monopoly of [the 

 British market is conferred upon our planters; thus maintaining the price 

 of sugar, coffee, and rum, at an exorbitant rate, to the mass of the popu- 

 lation of England ; and, by the exclusion of the produce of other 

 countries, cutting off a great return market for our manufactured commo- 

 dities, to islands not subject to our power. To alter these disadvantages, 

 and to equalize the value of labour throughout the islands of the West 

 Indies, was the object of the treaty entered into by Lord Castlereagh in 

 the year 1819, for the abolition of the slave-trade, by the crown of Spain, 

 to all its dependencies in the West Indies, and other possessions in the 

 New World, north of the tenth degree of south latitude. By this treaty, 

 his Catholic majesty received the large sum of four hundred thousand 

 pounds from the government of England, in consideration of the faithful 

 execution of its enactments ; and yet it is certain that no exertion has 

 been made by the cabinet of Madrid for the prevention of the slave-trade 

 from the island of Cuba ; but, on the contrary, the most nefarious en- 

 couragement is known to be afforded to its prosecution by the authorities 

 of the island. Government officers, merchants, and the clergy themselves, 

 are indiscriminately engaged in this inhuman traffic; and the governor of 

 the city of Havannah, has been proved in our Court of King's Bench, to 

 be the owner of a slave-ship, captured on the coast of Africa. Thus, 



