DECLINE OF THE AFRICAN SLATE TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 106, 28 May 1853, Page 3

DECLINE OF THE AFRICAN SLATE TRADE.

(Froni the Times.) We have for some time kept silence on a subject which not long ago furnished an incessant topic of public discussion, and which is likely, peihaps, to be rciived in private discourse by the stimulating pictures of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The slave trade on | the coast of Africa seemed to be masteiing the energies of all the powciful nations combined for its suppression. So hopeless did our efFoits appear, and so manifestly were they attended not only with heavy I losses to ourselves, but with increased misery to the victims of the traffic, that the remov al of the pre- j ventive squadron and the substitution of some other agency were earnestly advocated. £\en the AntiSlavery Society itself — the very organ and exponent ' of British philanthropy — adopted this argument* ' our own views, as the reader will recollect, were ex- < pressed in conformity to such reasons ; and so sreneral were the convictions of the legislature upon ! the point, tlMt the continuance of the blockading \ system was only secured by an act of unusual arbi- j traiiness on the part of Government. Loid John , Hiibsell informed his supporteis tb.it if attend-, verse to the maintenance of the squadron was c;ir- j lied, the Ministry would resign. The impending blow therefore was stopped, and the African blockade was continued, with an assurance on the part of its advocate that a few months' perseverance would at last reward us with success. The public must now be anxious to lcain how far these prognostications, ha: c been verified. In the last session, Mr. James Wilson procured a " return, as nearly as the same can be furnished, of the number of slaves cmbaikcd on the co.iot of Africa and landed in Cuba and Brazil in each year fiom 1812 to the latest date to whioh the accounts extend." The reader -vw ill not fail to observe the qualification with which these figures are set forth. In point of fact, it must be next to impossible to ascertain with any correctness the particulars inquired for, but such intelligence is the best we can procure, and perhaps the relative proportions of each year's imports may be substantially given. The return extends from 1842 to 1851, both years inclusive, and thus offers a considerable field for survey. The chief promoter of this infamous commerce is Brazil, which has alwaj s been the largest purchaser of human flesh. Fiom 1842 to 1850 there were imported successively, year by year, into that country from Africa the following batch of slaves :—17,435,: — 17,435, 19,090, 22,849, 19,4.53, 50^324, 5C,272, 60,000, 54,000, and 23,000. It will be observed from these figures that from 1842 to 1845 the slave traffic, though not appaiently declining, was, at any rate, stationary whereas in 1846 it received an extraordinary impulse' ! which for four successive years nearly trebled its results. It is unnecessary to add that this increase 1 coincided with those legislative acts which opened ! the British markets to Brazilian sugars. In 1850, j however, though the sugar trade retained all its freedom, the importation of slaves fell to 23,000— scarcely one-half its recent amount ; and in the next year the returns were more remarkable still. According to the paper before us, the figures, which from 1846 to 1849 had ranged from 50,000 to 60,000, dropped in 1851 to 3,287 ! showing a decline in this nefarious traffic to less than one-fifth of the smallest importation previously known. We have no reason to doubt the general accuracy of this statement, nor do we desire in any degree to diminish its force. It is of course notorious that the result has arisen, not from any sudden efficiency in our system of blockade, but from the resolution tar dily, though it is said sincerely, taken by Brazil herself to make the prohibition a reality. Still it mny be argued that this decision would not have been adopted at Rio if England had gi\ en any pioofs of weariness in the work of suppression ; and though we do not assent to this view of the subject, we are not at present desirous of impugning it. We have warrant for believing that our .unreasoning violence rather retarded than promoted these sage counsels of the Brazilian Government ; but we are willing to take the facts as they stand, and to make the best, without question or cavil, of a result so plainly satisfactory. It is enough for us to hope that Brazil is

I State to prevent the importation of slaves, and certainly this return gives an extraordinary confirmation to the professions which have been redently lade. The share of Cuba in this detestable commerce, though large in proportion to its extent of territory, is absolutely much smaller than that of Brazil. The numbers of the slaves imported into this island i during the ten years specified were respectively — 3,530, 8,000, 10,000, 1,300, 419, 1,450, 1,500, 8,700, 3,500, 5,000. It will be seen that the.?e figures present a singular and not very explicable contrast to those extracted above from the Brazilian returns, and that they indicate some sources of encouragement or discouragement entirely peculiar. In IB4i the traffic was exceedingly large ; the next year it suddenly decreased by more than four-fifths ; and in i 1846, the very year when our sugar bills gave such an impulse to the trade of Brazil, it declined to its lowest point, and almost, indeed, to a nominal extent. Neither did it recover itself in 1847 or 1848, when the Brazilian dealings were so large; while, on the other hand, now that Brazil seems really desisting from the traffic, Cuba shows a very consider- j able importation — an importation, indeed, surpassing > for the first time that of her rival on the Southern continent. We are not disposed to venture on any decided ! conclusions from the prospects thus disclosed. If J the cordial co-operation of Brazil in the good work can be permanently secured, we shall be making a | near approach to the reward of our labours, for the | Brazilian traffic is far more important than that of Cuba — not to mention that the destinies of the latter island appear just now to involve many possible conditions beyond our means of calculation. There! is certainly a concurrence of indications in favour ef Brazilian sincerity. The Government of the country makes earnest professions, and its professions are \ apparently justified in a singular degree by the re- j suits. Of the accuracy of these returns we cmnot, ( indeed, absolutely speak. AV'e have marked with attention the reports periodically made fiom our Afiican squadron, but though matters did certainly in many respects appear improved, we weie not prepared for such an extraordinary falling off in the I traffic as the figures before us evince. If things I ha-\e gone this year as they went last year, the gross total of exported from the coast cannot ■now exceed G,OOO or 7,000 — a number wholly insufficient, we would imagine, to keep the trade in existence i at all. The slave traffic demands l.irge capital, swift I sailing \essels, highly paid ciews, depots on the ' coasl, and organized connections in the interior of the country, all of which machinery can assuiedly not bo maintained by an exportation of eight or ten shiploads annually. If this most desirable consummation can be brought to pass, we shall not raise any question about the mci its of the tiiumph. It w ill br quite sufficient, as we before remarked, to find the slave tiade, somehow or other, actual]} extinct ; but, if one pointis clearer than another from prospects before us-, it is that the consent and co-operation of the tiading States themselves furnish the only sure means of annihilating the traffic. Contraband comraeice v.ill always cease as soon as people resohe not to bo smugglers, and the slave trade, which, as these tables fehow, rose and fell with vaiintions altogether irrespective of our blockading squadi or., sinks iato what we trust is a permanent decline when once the prohibitive policy of Brazil has been fairly declared Pvtcxt Si:lf- Acting S.\.rnrY-PiXK. — A model of this ingenious invention was lately exhibited at the Earl of Ilosse's converzatione, and excited much interest. The self-acting SAfety-plag for ship's boils, river baiges, lighters, &c., invented by Mr. Lisabe, consists of a hollow brass box, with perforations at the top and bottom, let into O7ie of the lower pl.mks I of a boat or barge. In the interior ib a loose ball, j with sufficient room for play, so that when the boat is immersed the pressure of the external water urges and retains the ball lightly against an india-rubber seating at the top, thereby effectually closing the upper perforations against the admission of water ; while, on the boat being suspended, the ball, by its own gravity, rests npon the bottom of the chamber, ■ and allows any rain or other water which may accumulate in the boat while in suspension to duiia out through the upper perforations. Provision is also made for the retention of water in bouts when in the davits, as often such is rendered necessary, by the addition of a " turn-table " at the top, which, being turned round, closes the iipper perforations, and re- , tains the water in the boat. The object of this simple , but important invention is to guard against tVie frequent casualties which occur when, in cases of shipi wreck, or vessels striking on rocks, the ships' boats are suddenly lowered into the water to afford means of escape to the passengers and ciew; but in too many instances the boats become immediately filled, and swamp, owing to the neglect or forgetfulness of • stopping the plug -holes which all boats have in their bottoms for their drainage, while suspended along the ship's side. The patent accomplishes this important result with unerring certainty, and by its self-acting pi inciple requires no attention ; an d, while it answers the object of drainage of the old method of plug-holes while in suspension, the act of immersion instantaneously closes the orifice by the pressure of the external water against the ball. . . . The patent plug is also of material benefit in its application to river barges and lighters, saving all the nwi nual labour of pumping them out, as it allows all I rain aud leakage water to drain off when the barges I and lighters are loft on the banks by the ebb of the I tide. — Illustrated Londo?i News. \ Advantage or a Little Knowledge — The mysteries of magnetism should be unfolded to the ! sailor, above all men, since he is the one ot .ill othei s 1 whose safely depends on its phenomena. lie should be. told th.it, on electro-magnetic principles, he I would mateiially influence the march of the needle i by wiping the glass which screens it, especially with silk. It is some years since a fj.ct was told us which may be adduced in illustration: — It was that of a i ship which arrived at Liverpool, after having been | for several weeks the sport of winds and waves. The I mariner's compass having been washed overboard in a storm, their voyage was rirearv and T>roprn c :ti-

of which, they might have been inevitably losts I Now, had the simple fact of the extreme ease with" which a mariner's needle might be made have beet! known to any one on board, the peril might have ! been avoided. A sewing -needle, or the blade of d penknife, being held in an upright posture and struck by a hammer, and subsequently floated by cork on water, or suspended by a thread without tension, would become a magnetic needle, and point north and south ; or the end of a poker held vertically, and passed over its surface from one extreme to the other, would impart magnetism, and which; if the needle be of steel, would be of a permanent character. Lloyd's List a Century ago.— The oldest Lloyd's list in existence bears date 17-15, and is in possession of the committee at Lloyd'sj being 1 somewhat more than a century old. We are 1 thus enabled to draw a tolerably accurate comparison between the shipping operations of the 1 middle of the last century and the middle of the present century. The old Lloyd's List appears to have been the last that was published once in the week. It is printed oh a narro\V slip of paper about a foot in length, and besides containing the price of bullion and the 1 stocks, gives the rates of exchange on foreign countries : these are on one side. On the reverse is whut was then termed the " Marine List," which gives a list of 23 arrivals and 12 departures at English ports, with 34 ships at anchor in the Downs. There are also notices' of four arrivals in Irish and foreign ports, with advice of three British ships taken by the enemy's privateers. Turning from this document} which gives a week's news, to one of the year 1 1800, published daily, we find it contains, on an average, notices of lo ships. This was in time of war; and comparing numbers, we find the ships noticed as ten to one against the previous dale. Following up the comparison, we* turn to a "Lloyd's List" for 18.30; one of the fullest of these covered 15 pages in the arrivals and loss books for one clay, giving the names of about 480 vessels — being six times the number of those in 1800, and as numerous as the lists of one entire year in the previous century. — ■ Dickens' Household Words. Submarine Navigation. — Extraordinary Discovery. — A letter from Cherbourg, of the 18th October, after stating that the first vihit paid by the Minister of Marine, on his arriving at that port, was to the diving boat, adds — " Dr. Payenie has not only discovered means to descend to the bottom of the sea, and to work there at his ease with a body of operatives, and to remain there as long as he pleases, replacing by chemical proceedings the oxygen absorbed, but he has discovered a mode of directing the boat under water by steam, as if it were on the suiface. lie has engaged to start from any harbour in Prance, and to reach the coast of England, although navigating under water." "Napoleon," continues the writer, " deceived by thb report of hisengineers, refused the offer made to him by Fulton to introduce steam as a motive power. Louis Napoleon will not refuse the application of Steam to submarine navigation. M. Ducos, the Minister of Mai me, gave a most friendly reception to M. Lamiral, the partner of Dr. Payerne, and promised to introduce the discovery of submarine navigation to the notice of the Prince President." A Story of Fortune. — A young man, who left Paisley about three years ago to pu«»h his fortune in Australia, has within these few dajs returned home. On entering his mother's dwelling he found her engaged winding weft on weavers' reoK After mutual greetings on the happy meet'inn-, the son told his mother to cast by her wheel. '• Na, na, Jamie," said she, "I'll no cast by my wheel till I ken o' something better." " Weel," said Jamie, " look at this ;" at the same time producing a bank cheque for £1,000, the produce of his industiy at the Australian gold diggings. We give the story as we have heard it. but it is not moie astonishing than the news we hvar every day of the gold-bearing fertility of these regions. Biscayant Agriculture. — The road front Fucntarabia runs through a fertile delta, intersected with innumerable dykes, branching oft' from the Bldassoa, which supply the surrounding farms with a capital saline manure, composed of mud and sea-weed. The principal productions of this rich tract of alluvium consists of maize, tobacco, tomates, pumpkins, and potatoes, produced in sticcesive crops from jenr to year. The farmers prevent the generous soil from becoming exhausted, and at the same iime gradually raise it above the encroachments of the sea, by manuring with the sea-weed, whiih every tide deposits plentifully in the suirounding dykes, especially during stormy weather. The principal agricultural implement used here, and throughout the Basque provinces, is trie laya : nothing can be moie primitive in its form and use than this instalment, which is peculiar to these districts, and unknown in other countries. It is a ponderous iron fork, consisting of two pion^s nbout mx inches apart and a yard long, tlieltnndk' being Conned of a perpendicular piece of wood attached to one extremity of the horizontal bar which unites the prongs. When a field is to be turned over, eight or a dozen peasants station themselves in a row, each holding a laya in both hands, which they drive deep into the ground, turning up a' ridge of sod at • each delve. They then take one step' backward* and perform the same operation with singular