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    July 7, 1860.J The Saturday Analyst and ...

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    THE MOZAMBIQUE CONSULATE. THE Americans ...

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    Visit Of The Prince Of Wales To Amekiga....

    The Fkince will also be the representative of national unity , fie will appear as a material embodiment of that sentiment which binds together the far-scattered lands which form part of the British Empire , and the widely different races who claim the name of English subjects . He goes at a time m which the jealousies , heartburnings , and dissensions , ' which once subsisted between the Colonists and the Home Government are almost extinguished . Canada and its sister colonies now enjoy nearly perfect self-government . They may and do wrangle amongst themselves upon purely local questions , but they no longer complain

    of metropolitan misgovernnient . Indeed , the relations of the Colonies to the mother country have , of late years , taken so complete a turn , that , so far as * direct and palpable results are concerned , the Colonies may be said to take all the benefit , and England all the burden of the connection . Ultimately , of course , England reaps advantages from these possessions , which well repay her outlay upon them , whilst by abandoning to them the management of their own affairs she has removed any inducement on their part to seek independence . The visit of the Phince manifests the interest the mother country takes in these offshoots ,

    and becomes itself a means of cementing a cordial union . The inhabitants of Newfoundland wall feel that their interests are not forgotten , that England does not intend to abandon them to the per tinacious Napoleonic aggression to which some of our Ministers have been but too ready to succumb . The French population of Lower Canada willhaye an opportunity given them to display their loyalty towards a race of sovereigns , under whom they have enjoyed , without distinction of race , the fullest civil and religious liberty , and in the preparations making for that display the Prince de Joinville , now on a visit to this once French

    possession , may find another proof of the truth . that there is but one way to retain a throne . In all the festivals and illuminations which will mark the progress of the Piiince of Wales , the hearty attachment of the Colonists to the British Empire will be abundantly manifest , and what slight misconceptions and misunderstandings may yet remain will be dissipated in the cordiality of those rejoicings . So near to the United States , the Prince could not well ^ quit the New World without visiting that wonderful nation * . W hilst

    the visit itself can do little permanent goodj the neglect to pay it would have been productive of considerable mischief . The people of the United States wiU crowd to see -fehd PiiiNCEj and do their best to impress him with a sense of their own extraordinary achievements ; but the compliment paid them will not alter the feelings of one individual towards this country . The ridiculous system of provocation put in practice towards England is an exigency of American politics . . There is a large and powerful class of voters in the Atlantic cities who , Irish themselves or of Irish descent , hate us most Cordially . Then there are the manufacturers of New England ; who fear our competition , and

    the fire-eating pro-Slavery men of the South , who hate our mter ^ ference with the slave-trade—all powerful interests , which must be conciliated by a pugnacious , -. irritant- attitude towards England . American vanity would have been deeply wounded had the Piuxce declined the President ' 3 invitation ; it will "be gratified , and the national curiosity have a treat by his journey through the States . For the Prince himself we must profess our cordial sympathy . Royalty has a good deal to suffer at home from the curious ; but if it ventures into a republic , that curiosity rises to a height which becomes almost unbearable . The Prince will find many gentlemen , thoroughly qualified in every respect to associate with him , in the United States . If he ut

    visits Mr . Buchanan , or becomes the guest of any Sohern gentleman , he will meet with all the courtesy and consideration that could anywhere be shown to him ; but when he visits , as he must do , New York , and receives the hospitality of that precious collection of riffraff , the New York Corporation , he will suffer a martyrdom which ought to expiate nil the faults he has committed as a boy , and absolve him for all the peccadilloes he may be guilty of in the next ten years . Much the same would be his fat ' o in any of the other lnrgo Atlantic cities . To a young man who should travel unattended and unknown , a tour through the United States would be very pleasant and instructive . To a Prince , how hnrd soever he may try to play the private gentleman , it must inevitably be a tremendous bore .

    July 7, 1860.J The Saturday Analyst And ...

    July 7 , 1860 . J The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 629

    The Mozambique Consulate. The Americans ...

    THE MOZAMBIQUE CONSULATE . THE Americans sometimes denounce us as insincere in our attempts to put down the Slave-trade . The accusation is about afl ridiculous ns the general run of charges against John Bull , got up by unscrupulous writers nnd speakers across the Atlantic , to enliven their sensation-loving fellow citizens . The speech of Lord Wodkhousk ugninat Lord Stuathednn ' s motion for an address to the Crown for the appointment of u Consul nt

    Mozambique , was , however , well calculated to excite such am idea The opposition of the Grovernment to the proposition is in itself suspicious , and the arguments of the Under-Secretary of State are singularly well calculated to augment the distrust . Practically , his contention was that Cuba is the sole cause of the Slave-trade , and he followed up - that contention by declaring that so long as Spain connives at the trade there , all our effor ts to suppress it must fail , the necessary conclusion being that any such efforts are completely thrown away . It is , of course , a question open to discussion , whether this country should make any attempt to suppress the Slave-trade generally . It may be contended that , having abolished Slavery in our own territories we have done all that could fairly be asked

    of us . It is possible to argue that we have no business to interfere with the commercial and social arrangements of other nations , and to maintain that if the king of any African tribe chooses to sell his subjects to Spanish traders , no third party has any right to put obstacles in his way . With much force it maybe said that we have no right to waste our money and risk the lives of our sailors in maintaining cruisers on the African coasts , and that we should leave the whole matter to other nations to settle for themselves , and trust to truth and our own good example to make them do what is right . But it so happens that the question has been resolved by the country in another , sense . We have

    undertaken to suppress the Slave-trade , and if we had not been hindered by the bad faith of Spain and Portugal , and the unreasonable and absurd punctilios of the United States , we should have done the work long ago . Until the national decision upon the general question is reversed , we have only to ask whether any particular plan which may be proposed for furthering that suppression is of a practical character , and does not cost too much . If it fulfils these requisites it ought to be adopted , and the House of Lords did well in refusing to take Lord Wodehouse ' s assurances that the Government would give the

    subject the best consideration . Disgraceful as the conductrof Spain undoubtedly is , Cuba is not , after all , the only land whichL imports slaves . They have oeen carried into the United States in the last two or three years ; a few cargoes are still landed in the Brazils , and under the name of free labourers a large number are even yet shipped off to Reunion . If the supply were stopped altogether , or if by the Stringent supervision of European Governments possessing territory in Africa ; and by their influence upon the natives it were so diminished that the cost of slave labour should exceed that of free , Spain might connive as much as she pleased at _ the landing of cargoes in Cuba ; no slaves would be imported into the island . .

    The east coast of Africa is now the great source of slave supply , and it is so because the Portuguese authorities have deliberately used their influence to encourage the revival of the , " -slnve ^ huuls in thc ~ iyterior ^ T 4 te ^ l ^ i-t-uguesc-teri ! itory-extfinds ^_ from Delagoa Bay in the south ' , to Cape Delgarfo in the north . The settlements upon this immense line of coast are few , but the influence which the authorities exercise upon the native tribes in the interior is very great . The officials at the different settlements are either slave-dealers themselves , or receive a regular allowance from the dealers for every slave they export . Tliey carry on this foul trade with the full knowledge and approbation of the

    home Government ,- ' . which pretends , indeed , to discourage the trade , but lets its representatives foster it . It pays them- miserable salaries , upon which no officer 'could exist ; yet they all return to Europe with immense fortunes , and the appointments arc sought / with avidity . As a matter of course , these ^ nien have used every exertion to discourage legitimate trade . They have done their best to hinder the navigation of the Zambesi , and , it allowed , they will utterly frustrate those labours of Dr . Livingston upon ' which Lord Wodehouse relies so much . At

    present , they are without the slightest check , if our Government complains to the Portuguese Government of their proceedings , it can give no proof of the charges , it makes . A consul at Mozambique , the seat of Government , would be some check ; and if a vice-consul were placed at the other settlements , it would bo impossible for the officials to encourage the trade as they now do . If the Governor-General of the Colony happens himself to be nn honest man he is not likely to interfere with the trade ,

    and raise a nest of hornets around himself , unless forced to do so by theremonstranccaofa . C 0 il 9 M ) ,. _ ^ cjLrojnojijtrnncj ^ h ^^ uW be . unable to resist , because neglect would result in complaints to the Court of Lisbon ; nnd that Court , however well disposed to connive at the nefarious practices of its subordinates , could not withstand the representations made by the English Government , upon the testimony of a consular agent . That such an officer is expected us n geiioriil rule , to do something to suppress the . traffic is evidenced by the fact , that we Have consuls at several points on the West Coast , whose prmcipal if

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 7, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07071860/page/5/