246 
put an end to the slave trade which 
has always distinguished them. 
Their cruisers on the African coast 
have well seconded their wishes ; and 
five slave-ships detained on suspicion 
of being American property, though 
disguised under foreign flags, had 
already been condemned in their vice- 
admiralty courts, previously to the 
month of January 1821. Several 
others had been detained, but on the 
way to the port of adjudication were 
retaken by their crews. 
The pertinacity with which some of 
the subjects of the United States still 
adhered to this infamous commerce, 
induced the American legislature, as 
was stated in the introduction to the 
Supplementary Report of last year, to 
go a step beyond any other nation, 
even beyond Great Britain herself, in 
its measures of repression. An Act 
has been passed, declaring the crime 
of slave-trading by American ships, or 
American subjects, to be piracy ; and, 
as such, affixing to it the punishment of 
death. © 
By this decisive proceeding, the 
United States have probably done 
much to check the cupidity of such of 
their own subjects as could not be re- 
strained by feebler means from the 
perpetration of this gainful crime. An 
example has thus also been given to 
other Christian governments, which 
Great Britain, we doubt not, will be 
the first to emulate, and which we may 
hope will in no long time be followed 
by others, until the identity of the 
slave trade with piracy shall form a 
part of the international policy of the 
whole civilized world. 
It seems impossible that France 
should still contend that the honour of 
her flag would be tarnished by a pro- 
ceeding to which the great maritime 
states of England and America sub- 
mit, for the sake of an object, the 
“‘justness and nobleness of which,”’ to 
use the language of the American 
Report, “are worthy of the combined 
concern of all Christian nations.” 
Last year the directors gave an ac- 
count of the progress of the American 
Society for colonizing on the coast of 
Africa the free people of colour of the 
United States, which was accompanied 
by various interesting extracts from 
their third Report. A copy of their 
fourth Report has since been presented 
to the directors ; and it will be found 
to display the same persevering spirit 
® ef benevolence which led to the forma- 
Proceedings of Public Societies. 
[Oct.1, 
tion of their Institution. The Coloni- 
zation Society have, it is true, experi- 
enced some severe disappointments in 
prosecuting their undertaking; but 
these have not been greater than were 
to be anticipated, or than have been ac- 
tually encountered and overcome, not 
only in founding the colony of Sierra 
Leone, (to whose improvement and 
growing prosperity it is gratifying to 
observe that the agents of the American 
Society continue to bear a very fayour- 
able testimony,) but also in founding 
some of those very colonies which now 
form the most powerful members of 
their own gigantic union. 
A hope was expressed, in the last 
Report, that Governor Farquhar would 
succeed in making arrangements with 
Radama, King of Madagascar, for 
putting an end to the slave trade, 
which had so long wasted that fine and 
fertile island. This hope has been 
realized. The terms of the treaty 
which has been concluded, one of the 
conditions of which was, that twenty 
Madagascar youths should be taken 
under the care of the British govern- 
ment; and that ten of them should be 
placed at the Isle of France, there to 
acquire the knowledge of certain use- 
ful arts, and that the other ten should 
be sent to England for the same pur- 
pose. This condition has been ful- 
filled: ten youths are now in a course 
of instruction at the Isle of France; 
and nine others, accompanied by 
Prince Rataffe, a near relation of 
King Radama, came to England about 
a year ago. Prince Ratafle, after 
spending a few months in this country, 
returned to Madagascar, leaving his 
companions to pursue their education. 
Soon after his arrival in England, a de- 
putation of the directors waited upon 
him to express the gratification they 
had derived from the measures adopted 
by the King of Madagascar for the 
abolition of the slave trade ; and their 
readiness to aid, by every means in 
their power, his plans for the improve- 
ment of his country. 
Proclamation of Radama King of Madagas- 
car, issued onthe Renewal of the Treaty of 
1817, and published, together with the 
Proclamation of the 23d October, 1817. 
“ PROCLAMATION. 
“ Radama, King of Madagascar, moved 
by the same principles of humanity which 
have animated the sovereign of Great 
Britain and other powers, to abolish and 
prohibit the exportation of slaves,—by 
these presents makes a proclamation, in 
which heforbids in asolemn manner all and 
every 
