There may be something so revolting in the whole conduct of such proceedings to the consciences of men, as to stand in the way of a conviction by an English Jury; but it has been seen in what way every other indignity may, at all events, be safely inflicted; and as affecting men and families of certain education and feeling—who, be it never forgotten, are the very parties said to be most obnoxious to the charge—a verdict of guilty need not arrive, to produce evils as great or greater than any penalties which it is possible for any human law to impose. And when it is considered—first, that the legitimate popular sense of words is distorted in order to call slave trading that, which is neither directly nor indirectly dealing in slaves; secondly, that under the guise of a question of fact, a very subtle metaphysical argument about the nature and the degree of knowledge in the mind of an individual, is the thing really submitted to minds the least likely to apprehend the very nice distinction upon which the decision must hang—and, lastly, when every means are industriously resorted to in order to make it appear that the crime largely prevails in the class to which the accused is likely to belong, and to represent that the only difficulty is to get over the technicalities of legal evidence, but that moral evidence abounds—when all these things are taken together, it is easy to discover how much even the failure of such a prosecution as this, facilitates the next attempt: perhaps it may be practically found that it does so, more than its success could have done.
The resolution of the London Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society of the 8th of December, which has been already quoted, broadly states the prevalence of the crime among British merchants; and another, of a still more recent date, besides repeating the same assertion in another form, clearly intimates that the obstacle to its being visited as it deserves, does not consist in the want of proof of the existence of the guilt, but in “the difficulty encountered in the course of the prosecution in an English Court of Law:” that is, in the technicalities of the rules of evidence, even after the stretch of these rules, which this particular Act of Parliament would, by the experience of the late proceedings, seem to demand.
These resolutions, just published, passed by the Committee on the 29th December, are as follows:—
“Zulueta’s Trial.—At a meeting of the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, held at 27, New Broad Street, on Friday, December 29, 1843, George William Alexander, Esq., in the chair, the following resolutions were adopted:—
“I. That this Committee, regarding the recent trial of Pedro de Zulueta, Jun., on a charge of slave trading, in the Central Criminal Court, on the 27th of October last, and following days, as an event of the highest interest and importance, feel it their duty to express their sentiments on the state of things which has been developed by it.
“II. That, abstaining from all comment on the verdict of the Jury, this Committee regard the following points as brought out with great force by this trial, viz.—
“1. That articles of British manufacture are principally used on the coast of Africa in barter for slaves.
“2. That British merchants who are engaged in furnishing such supplies to slave traders are practical supporters of the African slave trade.
“3. That, although a British merchant may furnish supplies to the most notorious slave traders in the world, the evidence by which a charge of aiding and abetting the slave trade can be substantiated against him is of such a nature that it is extremely difficult, if not almost impossible, to prosecute such an offender to conviction.
“4. That the practice of aiding and abetting the slave trade by supplying goods to slave traders prevails to a considerable extent among British merchants, and that, by a portion of the mercantile community, it is not regarded with the sentiments due to its flagitious character.