Lagos.
Little Booton.
Little Popoe.

Locco Marsam. Macbatee. Malaghea. Malimba. Mambolo. Manna. Mooney. Morycaryah. Naloes.

New Cestos.
Nunez, Rio.
Nyanibantang.
Okeodan.
Otondo
Pocrah.
Pongas, Rio.
Porto Novo.
Ro Wollah.
Samo.

Scarcies, Small.
Sherbro.
Solyman.
Soombia.
St. Andrew.
Sugury.
Timmanees..
Tintimar.
Wonkafong.
Woolli.
Zanga Tanga.

E. HERTSLET.

Foreign Office,

April 1st, 1876.

II. MR. LISTER to the ROYAL COMMISSION. MR. LISTER presents his compliments to the Secretary to the Royal Commission on Fugitive Slaves, and, with reference to his application which has been forwarded to this Department by Mr. Secretary Cross, begs to forward herewith copies of despatches, as noted in the margin, which the Earl of Derby has addresssd to Her Majesty's representatives abroad, calling for a report upon the law and practice in regard to the reception of fugitive slaves which obtain in the countries in which they severally reside. The reports, when received, will be forwarded in due course for submission to the Royal Commissioners. Foreign Office,

February 26, 1876.

Foreign Office, February 25, 1876. I TRANSMIT to your Excellency herewith a copy of

you

a Circular which I have addressed to H.M.'s representatives abroad requesting them to furnish a report on the law and practice of the countries in which they reside in regard to fugitive slaves, and I have to instruct your Excellency to also furnish any information which you

you

may consider may be useful to the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into this subject.

III. The ROYAL COMMISSION to the UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE, Foreign Office.

Royal Commission on Fugitive Slaves, 8, Richmond Terrace, February 28th, 1876.

SIR, I AM directed by His Grace the Duke of Somerset, the Chairman of this Commission, to request you to move the Earl of Derby to afford him what information his Lordship may possess as to the present status of slaves in foreign countries, and, if necessary, to obtain such information through Her Majesty's Legations abroad. I have, &c. The Under Secretary of State, Foreign Office.

HENRY HOWARD, Secretary.

IV. The UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE, Foreign Office, to the ROYAL COMMISSION.

SIR, Foreign Office, February 29th, 1876. I HAVE laid before the Earl of Derby your letter of yesterday requesting that his Lordship will afford the Fugitive Slave Commission any information which this Office may possess as to the present status of slaves in foreign countries, and I am, in reply, to request that you will state to the Chairman of the Royal Commission that Lord Derby will cause this information to be supplied, so far as this Department can furnish it, and has also addressed a Circular to Her Majesty's representatives and agents in the countries where slavery exists, instructing them to report on the subject.

A copy of this Circular is enclosed, and Lord Derby will be glad to be informed if the Royal Commission desire it to be sent to any other countries, or any further specific information to be asked for.

The Secretary of the

Fugitive Slave Commission.

I am, &c. TENTERDEN.

MY LORD,

MR. LUMLEY to the EARL OF DERBY.

British Legation, Brussels, March 12th, 1876. ALTHOUGH Belgium possesses no vessels of war nor any public vessels except the mail steamers plying between Ostend and Dover, and a few revenue cutters; and although, so far as I am aware, no laws having reference to fugitive slaves exist in this country, still, as Belgium has acceded to the Slave Trade Treaty, I thought it right, on the receipt of your Lordship's despatch of the 25th ultimo, to address a note to Count Lynden, requesting him to furnish me with any information he might possess on the subject.

I have now the honour to forward to your Lordship a copy of Count Lynden's reply, stating that no regulations exist in the Belgian Legislation with reference to fugitive slaves.

The Right Honourable the Earl of Derby,

&c. &c. &c.

I have, &c.

J. SAVILE LUMLEY.

REPORT by MR. N. R. O'CONOR on the 'Status' of SLAVES in BRAZIL.

The Slave Emancipation Law of the 28th of September 1871 provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in Brazil. The enlightened public opinion of the country has since advanced in front of the progressive legislation then inaugurated. To-day the "status" of slaves in Brazil, although slavery still continues a legal institution of the State, may be considered anomalous. It is regarded as a necessary evil of the previously existing social and economic organization, but as one which is to be thrown off with the least possible delay, consistent with a due regard to the vested interests of large numbers of persons. It is to be regretted that the laws still applicable to slaves are not more in accordance with the legislation

* See p..81 of this Appendix.

which has doomed the institution to annihilation, and that the pain of death for injury to masters by their slaves, and the scourge for trivial offences, are still to be met with in the Brazilian Penal Law; that no beneficial legislation has limited the hours of labour, nor forbidden the putting in irons and flogging of slaves who have incurred their masters' displeasure. But so long as slavery exists as a legal institution of the country, so long will it be accompanied by the degrading features which are inseparable from its existence. The slave is an instrument of profit, his life or his death is estimated by the marked value of his labouring power; his treatment is dependent on the humanity of his master; his life is one of continued toil. The slave is advertised in the newspapers for sale, like any other marketable object, and full particulars of his physical advantages are broadly set forth. A strong healthy slave between 14 and 25 years of age will fetch from one to two hundred pounds. Others are advertised for hire by the day, week, month, or year, while it is to be feared that behind this public traffic there is a still more loathsome one, where vice and avarice combine to prostitute the female slave, and to grow rich on the proceeds. The Chief of Police in Rio de Janeiro has not hesitated to put forth to public condemnation such practices as this last, and to propose that slave owners guilty thereof should forfeit their right to their slaves.

The liberty accorded to masters in the punishment of slaves is often, no doubt, productive of grievous abuse, but on the other hand, any very severe ill-treatment is restrained by the slave owner's interest in his slave, by the naturally kind diaposition of the Brazilian, by the force of public opinion daily growing more favourable

to the slave, and lastly by the position and consideration insensibly accorded to the slave from the feeling that his offspring are born free.

This latter consideration has peculiar force in a country like Brazil, where colour excites but little prejudice, suffers under no civil disabilities, and is to be found at the bar, in the colleges of medicine and theology, and where if the coloured man's wealth, so all his position, may compete with that of the white.

The treatment of the slave, which on the whole cannot be considered as cruel, varies very much with local and personal influences. In the large seaport towns of the empire the slave and the freeman are seen working side by side, mostly on the same terms, the one hardly distinguishable from the other, unless perhaps that the slave has occasionally longer hours of labour, and is punished somewhat more arbitrarily. They both enjoy frequent holidays. As a domestic servant the position of a slave is still more favourable, and he is often after a certain number of years of faithful service given his freedom. Nurses who have brought up the children of their masters are most frequently freed afterwards.

In the interior his position is less fortunate, and many painful characteristics are still attached to his lot. He seldom receives religious instruction (baptism however is now generally administered to the children of slaves), family ties are ignored, marriage discouraged if not forbidden, and the slave treated as an economic instrument, while fourteen hours a day's work may be looked upon as the average. But the enlightened legislation of 1871 which emancipated the womb, and prepared the way for the entry of the slave into the social hierarchy, which respected the vested interests of one party, while gradually yet surely reforming the position of the other, has done much to soften the relations between master and slave, and to encourage the generous impulses of a naturally kind and good hearted people.

The municipal and police laws regulate in some measure the relations between master and slave, and vary in the different provinces of the empire according to local traditions, prejudices, and influences. They are generally framed however, with humanity and justice; theft, insubordination, and such like offences are punished by the slave owner, who is generally unwilling to bring his slave to justice on account of the loss of his labour thereby entailed; serious crimes such as assault with bodily harm, murder, &c., are brought before a jury, and so far as I have been able to learn the laws affecting slaves are fairly carried out by the Government officials, against whom few complaints are heard. The traffic in slaves is still considerable. Great numbers are annually exported from the northern to the southern provinces where agricultural labour is more profitable, and the price of a slave from twenty to twentyfive pounds higher. The number of slaves stated officially to have arrived in Rio during the year 1874 is 7,644, of whom 7,015 arrived from the northern provinces and 629 from the southern; nearly all of them went on to the province of Sao Paulo, having been sold in Rio by slave dealers, of whom a great number exist in the capital, and who are open not unfrequently to serious charges on the score of inhumanity and immorality.

In order to facilitate a clearer understanding of the position, conduct, employment, &c. of slaves in Brazil, I have drawn up from the official reports of the several Ministries the following facts; but I regret that the statistics of slaves convicted of crimes, as given in the Reports" of the Ministers of Justice are extremely meagre, and seldom state the nature of the crime. It does not appear, however, that any disproportionate number of slaves have come under the criminal jurisdiction of the state, but it is extremely difficult to deduce from this the conclusion that they are more free from crime than the free class, for it is to be remembered that a great deal of the judiciary power vested in the legal tribunals of the country as applicable to the free man is still, when the slave is the offender, assumed and exercised by the slave owners. The Minister of Justice states that on the 1st January 1870, there were in the

In his report of 1875 he states that on the 1st January 1874 there were in the House of Detention 152 persons, of whom 74 were slaves.

Received during year, 3,292, of whom 2,216 were slaves. Remained in House of Detention at the end of the year, 276, of whom 196 were slaves.

The Chief Officer of Police in his report of 1875 states the number of persons in the lock-up during 1874 to be 8878, of whom 2,441 were slaves, and the number of drivers of public vehicles in Rio to be 3,397, of whom 237 were slaves.

The Minister of Marine in his report of 1875 states that during the previous year 142,547 free sailors, and 6,444 slave sailors entered the ports of the Maritime Provinces, that 120,780 free sailors and 6,673 slave sailors left these ports; and estimating the number of free sailors in the 13 maritime provinces of the Empire at 41,241, he puts down the slave sailors as amounting to 3,642.

I enclose as marked in the margin, copies in translation Law of June of such laws affecting slavery as I have been able to collect 1835. Encl. N in a short time, but which, I believe, are the principal ones of the Criminal Code on the subject.

Criminal Cod Encl. No. 2. Decree and R

The provisions of the Emancipation Law of the lation of Dec. 28th September 1871 were reported to Her Majesty's 1871. Boel. N Government in a despatch from this Legation of the 2nd October of the same year.*

It will be my duty to show from the reports of the Minister of Finance and Agriculture of 1875, how far those provisions have been carried out, and at the same time to point out where they have fallen short of the expectations justly raised four years ago.

In cases where the sense of the Law of Emancipation required official explanation, it has been interpreted in a liberal and generous manner, generally very favourable to the slaves.

The Minister of Finance calculates the amount received under the heading Emancipation Fund," and applicable to the liberation of slaves as follows:

But the estimate of receipts for the year 1874-1875 he calculates at only 1,133,070$ 000 = £125,896, the average of the three former years having been 1,267,173$ 550 = £140,796. This reduction is in consequence of the regis tration of slaves as ordered by the Law of September 28th, 1871, being now completed.

A table herewith enclosed, shows the amounts received and allotted to each province of the Empire, in accordance with the Emancipation Law of 1871, amounting in all to 4,386,809,$ 000= £487,423. From this sum 395,315,$ 000 is deducted for the necessary expenses of collection, &c., thus leaving a balance of 3,991,4948 000 Reis = £443,499 in the Treasury, to be devoted towards the purchase of the freedom of slaves.

I regret to state that in the Minister's report, there is no account of the application of even a portion of this large accumulated fund towards the emancipation of slaves.

The Emancipation Fund must now amount to about £600,000, yet up to the present date it is not known what part, if indeed any, has been applied to the object for which by law it is intended.

This silence of the government is the more to be regretted, in that it excites mistrust and suspicion in the minds of those who are naturally anxious to see the beneficent results of a measure which is of such vital importance to the interests of the country.

The second part of this table shows the sources from whence the emancipation fund has proceeded.

The Minister of Agriculture in his Report of 1875 on the Servile Element, and the Law of the 28th September 1871, states that the registration of slaves, ordered by Article 20, of that law, is now completed throughout the Empire, with the exception of 49 municipalities, and that according to the most recent information the total number of slaves in Brazil amounts to 1,431,300.

This number may safely be increased to 1,500,000, by calculating the number of slaves still unregistered in the 49 municipalities, and allowing for those who have been 'been registered in consequence of the great difficulty of registration in this country.

In 1873 the number of slaves registered was 198,814.
In 1874 1,002,240,

The product of the Emancipation Fund has, in accordance with Article 3. of the Law of 28th September 1871, been distributed over the provinces of the Empire, a reserve fund of Reis 287,500$ 000 = £31,944 being retained

* See p. 81 of this Appendix.

Project of Lav

on Slaves, Encl. No. 4.

Encl. No. &

Min. of Agriculture's Report. Enel. No. 6.

List of Slaves Classified.

Enel. No. 7.

Number of freeborn children of slave mothers. Encl. No. 8.

for those municipalities where the number of slaves registered was not known at the time of the distribution. A table showing the distribution here alluded to is inclosed.

The Minister of Agriculture then proceeds with the following remarks:

દ

"The application of these amounts ought to be carried "out in the terms of Article 27 of the Code approved by "Decree, &c., 5135, of November 13th, 1872 (sent to Foreign Office), according to the schedule therein stipulated in virtue of the labours of the Classification "Board in divers municipalities. This work, now, I own "with regret, has met with great difficulties in practice, and "has failed in many municipalities, in spite of the reiterated

recommendations of the administration, and the compulsion arising from the fines attached in the Article 96 "of the aforesaid code."

"It falls, in great part, on the judges of the peace, who, "charged with the performance of other obligations and "labours, from which they derive their subsistence, are 66 over and above obliged to render service in this matter gratuitously. It is not therefore surprising to those who are acquainted with the conditions of the country, and "the difficulty which the administration encounters in its "endeavours to carry out this work."

66

"Such are the reasons why, up to the present date, only "the result of the labours of classification is known in respect of the municipalities comprised in the following "table."

(In his previous report of 1874, the Minister of Agriculture stated that they had encountered obstacles on all sides in the classification of slaves to be manumitted, that the government had used every endeavour with the Presidents of the provinces, juntas, &c., to collect the money for the gradual manumission, and that 30,387 slaves had been classified as qualified, viz., 27,600 in the Capital, 1,184 in the Province of Rio Grande do Sul, and 1,603 in the Province of Santa Catharina).

66

"It is desirable, therefore, to define out of the Emancipation fund the portion strictly necessary to remunerate "such functionaries, and to provide the indispensable expenses for the proper carrying out of this work."

-66

"I cannot, as I much wished, present you with statistics "of slaves who have been freed through the generous "sentiments of the population in all the provinces of the Empire since the memorable date of the 28th September 1871, it behoving me only to inform you that it is stated "that in this Capital and nine of the Provinces 5,984 "slaves have since then been voluntarily freed:

In Rio de Janeiro

Amazons

Parà

Maranham

Rio Grande do Norte

Parahyba

Espirito Santo

Rio de Janeiro (Province)

São Paolo

Minas Geraes

Inclosure 1 in Mr. O'Conor's Report.

(Translation.)

LAW of the 10th June 1835.

The Regency, in the name of the Emperor Dom Pedro II. makes known to all the subjects of the Empire, that the General Legislative Assembly has decreed and it has sanctioned the following law:

Art. I. Will be punished with death the male or female slaves who murder, in whatever manner they may, who give poison, or who seriously wound or inflict any other serious physical injury on their master, on his wife, descendants or parents who live with him, on his bailiff, steward, and the women that live with them. If the wound or physical injury is slight, the punishment shall be flogging, in proportion to the circumstances of the case.

Art. II. On the occurrence of any of the crimes mentioned in Art. I., or of insurrection, or of any other crimes worthy of death, committed by slaves, there must be an extraordinary meeting of the Jury of the District, (unless it should be already in session) called by the Juiz de Direito, to whom such events must be immediately communicated.

Art. III. The Magistrates will have cumulative jurisdiction in every District for proceeding against such criminals until they have been put on their trial, and they will also take all subsequent legal measures, and imprison the criminals, and on the accomplishment of the process, will send the criminals to the Juiz de Direito, that he may set them before the jury, as soon as it has assembled, and that the other conditions may follow.

Art. IV. In the above-mentioned crimes the penalty of death shall be imposed when there are two thirds of the jury in favour of it, and in the case of other crimes, a simple majority of the jury shall decide; the sentence if unfavourable to the accused, shall be executed without any appeal being permitted.

Art. V. All laws, decrees, or other regulations in a contrary sense are revoked.

It is therefore ordered to all authorities to whom the recognition and execution of the above-mentioned law belong, that they shall observe it and have it observed in its entirety.

(Signed) FRANCISCO DE LIMA E SILVA. JOAO BRAULIO MONIZ. MANOEL ALVES BRANCO.

14th year of Independence and the Empire.

3,805.

Palace of Rio Janeiro,

18.

10th June 1835.

740.

42.

195.

176.

185.

92.

679.

52.

"Though deficient, these data show that the movement "of emancipation has not diminished, and that the action "of private individuals conspire with the salutary disposi"tions of the protective legislation towards the gradual "extinction of slavery in Brazil.”

The Minister concludes his report by presenting "a table "of the registration of freeborn children of slave women "in the capital and 10 provinces, calculated up to the "30th April 1874," the total number amounting to 119,456 (Enclosure No. 8).

In the previous report of 1874 this number was reckoned at 56,165.

Slaves in order to be eligible for state emancipation in Brazil must be first registered, and then classified; but it will be seen that already over 119,000 slaves have gone through this latter requirement, and that nevertheless the Minister of Agriculture, like his colleague of Finance, refrains from any statement as to the number of slaves who have reaped the benefit of a Legislative Act now more than four years in existence.

It is very generally believed that the pressure of public opinion abroad and at home against slavery will force the Government to bring forward a still more liberal Emancipation Bill, which will abolish slavery within a period variously stated as from ten to fifteen years; but in any case it may safely be said that every obstruction in the execution of the Emancipation Law of 1871, will serve but to excite public opinion in its favour.

March 14, 1875.

N. R. O'Conor.

Inclosure 2 in Mr. O'Conor's Report.

(Translation.)

PUNISHMENT of SLAVES in BRAZIL.

Part 1st of the Criminal Code, Chap. IV. of Title II. of the kinds of Punishments, and the manner of imposing them.

Art. 60. If the accused be a slave, and incurs other penalty than that of capital punishment, or the galleys, he shall be condemned to be flogged, and after undergoing this, shall be given over to his master, who shall undertake to put irons on him for the time and in the manner that the Judge may order. The number of strokes shall be fixed by the Judge, and the slave may not receive more than 50 strokes in a day.

Part II., Title IV., Cap. IV. Insurrection.

Art. 113. This crime has been committed, when 20 or more slaves have come together to obtain liberty by means of force.

Punishments. To the chief movers, death as the maximum, perpetual galleys as the medium, 15 years as the minimum; to the others concerned, flogging.

Art. 114. If the chief movers are free persons, they will incur the same penalties as mentioned above for slaves.

Art. 115. For aiding, exciting, or advising slaves to rise, for furnishing them with arms, munitions, or other means for the same end, the punishment is, imprisonment with hard labour for 20 years as the maximum, 12 years as the medium, and eight years as the minimum penalty.

N