10478. You will put them in for the inspection of the Committee?—Certainly.—(The same were delivered in.)
10479. You only hesitated in giving the names yesterday from motives of delicacy, not from any motive of concealment?—Yes, I do not wish to withhold any thing, but I am indisposed to introduce any name. I have no wish to conceal any thing whatever. I have been consulting with my partners upon this subject, and I have a request to make to the Committee. Our position is one which is certainly an unpleasant one. I think that what I have stated will have proved to the satisfaction of the Committee that we have not in any way intended to elude the law. Now our situation is this, with reference to any future transactions we have no valid reason to give our correspondents for not executing an order. The Committee will have to make their report, and several gentlemen have given their opinions as to how the law is to be altered. I, for my part, am not competent to give any advice upon the subject, but I would only wish that whatever law is made, it should be clear and distinct as to what a man might to do, and what he is not to do. The trade that we have carried on with the Gallinas, at least the shipments we have made, are perfectly unimportant to us in itself, as is evident from the amount; but at the same time, with regard to the correspondents that we have accounts with, we are placed in this dilemma, that we must refuse fulfilling their orders without giving them any valid reason, unless we should be able to say, Sir, we cannot fulfil your order because the law of this country prohibits that we should ship any goods that are liable to be applied to that purpose, to persons who may at any time have had any dealings, or are suspected of having had any dealings of that description. To us it is indifferent which way the legislation turns upon this subject, so long as we know what it is. But supposing it legal for a man to ship goods to a port, are you then to be liable to have the vessels captured, and what to us is worst of all, to be brought into a kind of notoriety as being engaged in slave dealing, which is exceedingly unpleasant to our feelings. That is a consideration which I hope the Committee will look to.
10480. You wish that the law should be made clear for your guidance, to enable you to understand what course you are to pursue with your correspondents?—Yes, in what I have to do with them. I do not mean to say that if a man ships goods knowingly to slave dealers, for the purpose of being exchanged for slaves, I do not mean to say that the law does not reach him now. My own impression is, that it might do so; at all events the morality of the thing would be very questionable; but we want something more than that; that is not enough. Here is my case, which, if true, proves that we have not done any such thing, and yet we are liable to all this unpleasantness.
10481. You want something also to plead with your correspondents, as a reason for not complying with any order they may send?—Exactly.
10482. You feel that at the present moment the law is in an unsatisfactory state, that doubts have been raised upon the subject, which as merchants you are desirous of seeing quieted by some declaration, one way or another?—I do; for instance, I may on going home find an order; and I assure the Committee that after all that has occurred, after all this unpleasantness upon the subject, I should be in an awkward position. I might have to throw up my correspondents without any valid reason, because of course goods may be shipped to them by other parties, which I should refuse to do; and they may do it legally, because they may send those goods to the Havannah or to any other such place, and then my correspondents could not say that I had any valid reason to refuse.
10483. If there were any obstruction interposed in the way of export from this country directly to the coast of Africa, you would rather desire that it should be at the English Custom-house, before the goods went out, than that it should be left in uncertainty, to be decided upon the coast of Africa?—Exactly; that is my impression. At the same time I am not stating that that would be wise or expedient, or proper, or any thing of the kind; but I say this simply because I do not wish it to be brought into question that we elude the law; not that we break it, because that would be a question before a court of justice; but before men of honour, I do not wish to be open to the imputation of eluding the law.
REPORT
FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE
ON THE
WEST COAST OF AFRICA.
Martis, 22º die Martii, 1842.