18] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



fact, the cause of delay assigned 

 by the noble earl was of so extra- 

 ordinary a nature, that it called 

 for the most serious consideration 

 their lordships could give it. 

 The proper course would be to 

 examine the Bank directors ; and 

 indeed he thought that nothing 

 short of an inquiry of that kind 

 could satisfy parliament and the 

 country. 



A copy of the treaty between 

 England and Spain being pre- 

 sented by command of the Prince 

 Regent to both Houses of parlia- 

 ment on the 28th of January, 

 the same was laid before the 

 House of Commons on February 

 9th, with the title of a treaty for 

 preventing their respective sub- 

 jects from engaging in any illicit 

 traffic in slaves. Lord Castle- 

 reagh, who laid it before the 

 House, called to their recollec- 

 tion their own recommendation 

 tQ the throne at the end of the 

 last session, in strict conformity 

 to which these treaties were 

 framed. In looking at this sub- 

 ject as it now presented itself, he 

 thought! he could do nothing 

 better than lay before the House 

 the state of the abolition at the 

 close of the last session, and then 

 show what had been done since 

 that period. There were two 

 distinct questions involved in this 

 subject: first, what was the ac- 

 tual state of the abolition as a 

 great international law : secondly, 

 what was its state with a view to 

 giving effect to the whole princi- 

 ple on which it was founded. 



He would first show the state 

 of the law on this subject. Great 

 improvements were made in the 

 law from year to year ; but in 

 none was the improvement greater 



than in the last year. In that, ali 

 the crowned heads of Europe, 

 except Portugal, so far as the 

 south of the line was concerned, 

 had either abolished the slave 

 trade, or had entered into stipu- 

 lations for its abolition at some 

 future period. The House would 

 agree with him, that our own 

 abolition of the trade, and all our 

 enactments against it, were as 

 nothing, unless we exerted all 

 our power and influence to put 

 an end to the trade among other 

 nations. There was, however, 

 no other power whose continu- 

 ance or discontinuance of the 

 trade was of more importance 

 than that with whom the present 

 treaty had been formed. Spain, 

 infinitely the most important of 

 all the European powers in this^ 

 view, both for local authority, 

 and extent of colonies, was stipu- 

 lating for the final abolition of 

 the trade. While she carried on 

 and protected this traffic both on 

 the northern and southern coasts 

 of Africa, all that the other 

 powers of Europe could do for 

 the abolition was nugatory. 

 There was now no slave trade ta 

 the north of the line ; and it 

 could be only carried on by pos- 

 sibility to the south of the line 

 from May 1820. After that 

 period there could be no slave 

 trade to tlie north of the line, or 

 to the West -Indies. Till this 

 treaty was effected, the legal and 

 illicit trade were so mixed up 

 that the one gave ample protec- 

 tion to the other ; but there was 

 now a broad line of demarcation. 

 There was a wide practical 

 distinction between the aboHtioa 

 b)' treaty, or by the act of any 

 paj'ticular state, and the giving 



elFect 



