“To Prince Napoleon,
“Minister of Algeria and the Colonies.
“St. Cloud, Oct. 30, 1858.
“My dear Cousin,
“I have the liveliest desire that, at the moment when the differences with Portugal relative to the ‘Charles et Georges’ have terminated, the question of the engagement of free labourers on the African coast should be definitely examined, and finally settled on the truest principles of humanity and justice. I energetically claimed from Portugal the restitution of the ‘Charles et Georges’ because I will always maintain intact the independence of the national flag; but, in this case even, it was only with the profound conviction of my right that I risked with the King of Portugal a rupture of those friendly relations which I am glad to maintain with him. But as to the principle of the engagement of the negroes, my ideas are far from being settled. If, in truth, labourers recruited on the African coast are not allowed the exercise of their free will, and if this enrolment is only the slave-trade in disguise, I will allow it on no terms; for it is not I who will anywhere protect enterprises contrary to progress, to humanity, and to civilization. I beg you, then, to seek out the truth with the zeal and intelligence which you bring to bear on all affairs about which you employ yourself. And as the best method of putting a stop to what is a continual cause of dispute would be to substitute the free labour of Indian coolies for that of the negroes, I beg you to come to an understanding with the Minister for Foreign Affairs to resume with the English Government the negotiations which were entered upon a few months ago. On this, my dear cousin, I pray God to have you in his holy keeping.
“Napoleon.”
In the above letter the Emperor Napoleon emphatically states, “If, in truth, labourers recruited on the African coast are not allowed the use of their free will, and if this enrolment is only the slave-trade in disguise, I will have it on no terms; for it is not I who will anywhere protect enterprises contrary to progress, to humanity, and to civilization.” Admitting, on the one hand, that he may have been deceived by those who had induced him to believe that free labour might be obtained on the east coast of Africa without re-establishing the slave-trade, on the other hand, he approved of that policy adopted by Great Britain in Eastern Africa, which had for its result the thus forcibly bringing before the world the horrors which were being renewed by this so-called Free Labour Emigration.
No higher approval of the conduct of the British functionary who had pursued the path of duty, undaunted by continued persecution, could have been afforded to the world; while the subsequent decree, ordering this traffic to cease on the east coast of Africa, proved the loyalty of Napoleon, and prepared Europe to hail in him the liberator of Central Italy.
The two greatest powers of Europe have resolved that Africa shall have the opportunity of developing her own material resources; and it now only remains for Portugal to prove that her professions for the abolition of the slave-trade are as sincere and as loyal as the great head of the French nation has shown his to be.
Our beloved Queen succeeded to the throne on the 20th of June, 1837, and was crowned sovereign of these realms at Westminster, June 28, 1838. Great Britain had previously to that, in 1834, voted twenty millions sterling for the liberation of the slaves throughout our colonies; but still a large number of our fellow-beings groaned in slavery under the apprenticeship system. On the 1st of August, 1838, the first returning anniversary, after the Queen’s coronation, of that auspicious day when the house of Brunswick ascended the throne of these realms, the world beheld the sublime spectacle of the Virgin Queen of Great Britain pronouncing on earth the will of heaven, that—Slavery in every form should cease where Britain ruled; and Queen Victoria, on that day, made eight hundred thousand slaves eight hundred thousand loyal subjects—thus inseparably uniting the House of Brunswick with the imperishable monument of England’s greatest deed.