1830.J The Slave Trade. 289 



their motives for concealment ? The purchase of slaves was at home 

 disguised under the name of " ransoming captives" or paying " an 

 apprentice fee," and the true character and intention of these measures 

 were carefully kept out of view. 



Although Governor Ludlam was desired to correspond with the Colo- 

 nial Department upon the dissolution of the company in 1807, it would 

 seem, that owing to difficulties in obtaining a proper transfer of the com- 

 pany's charter, government did not identify itself properly with the 

 administration of the colony, by sending out a chief justice and 

 judge of admiralty, for several years afterwards. And such was the 

 confidence of ministers in the old agents of the company, that 

 before the arrival of Judge Thorpe, their ignorant and selfish proceed- 

 ings had deeply compromised government, particularly with Spain and 

 Portugal verifying by this imprudence the modest assertion of Mr. 

 Zachary Macauley, in his letter (already quoted) to Governor Ludlam, 

 wherein he says e< I have no doubt that government will be disposed to 

 adopt almost any plan which we may propose to them with respect to 

 Africa, provided we will but save them THE TROUBLE OF THINKING ! !" 

 Is it possible for language to exhibit in a more humiliating, and even 

 ludicrous point of view, the ascendency which the " philanthropists" 

 had at this time acquired over the colonial department ? an ascendancy 

 which has since cost the country, as we propose to shew, many millions, 

 without the attainment of one useful object. Let any unprejudiced 

 person of common understanding read a few of the speeches made in 

 and out of Parliament by the Directors and others connected with this 

 affair, and compare their bold assertions and plausible representations 

 with the real facts, as they have since been discovered and stand con- 

 fessed, and we venture to affirm, without fear of contradiction, that he 

 must rise from the task with the most unfeigned astonishment and 

 immeasurable disgust. A motion made by Mr. Dent, 29th July 1807, 

 for repayment of the 109,000 lent to the company, on the ground 

 " that parliament was not bound to pay for the fanciful notions of any 

 class of men," was negatived, and every subsequent attempt at inquiry 

 into the past conduct of the company and their agents, was quashed.* 



Out of the materials of the Sierra Leone Company, the African Insti- 

 tution with its special committee for Sierra Leone affairs, was principally 

 formed ; and for some years government continued blindly to follow 

 the advice of those members of the company who were supposed to be 

 acquainted with the affairs of the settlement, and with the best method 

 of civilizing Africa and putting an end to the slave trade. 



One of the first errors committed through the influence of these advi- 

 sers was to frame the most absurd instructions for the guidance of our 

 cruizers in regard to vessels supposed to be engaged in illegally pro- 

 secuting the slave trade. The number of these vessels captured 

 between the years 1811 and 1813, amounted to sixty-seven, many of 

 them of great value ; and before Lord Castlereagh, by his despatch of 

 the 6th May 1813, put a stop to these unjust seizures and unwarrantable 

 condemnations, our national honour had been compromised; we had 

 roused the jealousy of the naval powers ; exasperated Spain in such 

 a manner,, that subsequently she refused 800,000, and a loan of ten 



* Vide Parliamentary Debates, 1807, P- 1005 Mr. Thornton's Speech, &c. Also 

 Vol. XIX. pp. 745, &c. 



M. M. Ncn Scries* .Voi*. IX. No. 51. 2 P 



