PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 



27 



followiDg language in relation to this attempt, and its 

 temporary abandonment. 



"In 1841, the draft of a Convention was transmit- 

 ted to Madrid, by which it was proposed to institute, 

 by the aid of British functionaries, an examination 

 into the titles by which the slave population of Cuba 

 is held in servitude. Encouraged by the novel 

 appearance of good faith on the part of the govern- 

 ment of Cuba, as it was then administered, her 

 Majesty's government admitted the weight of certain 

 objections raised against that proposal by the gov- 

 ernment at Madrid, and forbore for the time to 

 press it." 1 



The objections here alluded to, were the remon- 

 strances from Cuba, which were couched in the 

 strongest language. On the first allusion to the sub- 

 ject by the press in Spain, the Junta de Fomento 

 of Havana sent to the court a protest signed by Count 

 Yillanueva (the intendant of the island), as president 

 of that body, which, after eloquently depicting the 

 results of that measure to Cuba, says : — 



"It is not to be presumed that any white man will 

 be disposed to submit to so hard a fate. They will 

 all prefer to emigrate to foreign countries to earn 



1 Report on the Slave Trade, laid before Parliament, 1853, pp. 

 69-70. 



