sal abolition of the African slave trade, beg leave humbly and earnestly to represent to his royal highness, that the happy and glorious events which promise the general pacification of Christendom, the present union and assembly of its greatest sovereigns, and the great and generous principles which they proclaim as the rule of their conduct, afford a most auspicious opportunity for interposing the good offices of Great Britain to accomplish the above noble purpose, with the weight which belongs to her rank among nations, to the services which she has rendered to European independence, and to the unanimous and zealous concurrence of her parliament and people. That we feel ourselves authorized, by our own abolition of this trade, of the guilty profits of which we enjoyed the largest share, by the fellowship of civilization, of religion, and even of common hu manity, to implore the other members of the commonwealth of Europe to signalize the restoration of its order and security by the prohibition of this detestable commerce, the common stain of the christian name, a system of crimes by which the civilized professors of a beneficent religion spread desolation and perpetuate barbarism among helpless savages, whom they are bound, by the most sacred obligations of duty, to protect, to instruct, and to reclaim :

Humbly to represent to his royal highness, that the high rank which this kingdom holds among maritime and colonial states imposes a very serious duty upon the British government at this important juncture; and that unless we interpose with effect, to procure a general abolition, the practical result of the restoration of peace wilk be, to re

vive a traffic which we have prohibited as a crime, to open the sea to swarms of piratical adventurers, who will renew and extend, on the shores of Africa, the scenes of carnage and rapine in a great mea sure suspended by maritime hostilities; and the peace of Christendom will kindle a thousand ferocious wars among wretched tribes, ignorant of our quarrels and of our very name.

That the nations who have owed the security of their navigation to our friendship, and whom we have been happy enough to aid in expelling their oppressors and maintaining their independence, cannot listen without respect to our voice raised in the cause of justice and humanity; and that among the great states, till of late our enemies, maritime hostility has in fact abolished the trade for twenty years, no interest is engaged in it, and the legal permission to carry it on would practically be a new establishment of it, after the full development of its horrors:

That we humbly trust, that in the moral order by which divine providence administers the govern. ment of the world, this great act of atonement to Africa may contribute to consolidate the safety and prolong the tranquillity of Europe, that nations may be taught a higher respect for justice and humanity by the example of their sovereigns; and that a treaty, sanctioned by such a disinterested and sacred stipulation, may be more profoundly reverenced, and more religiously observed, than even the most cquitable compacts for the regulation of power or the distribution of territory.

Ordered-That the said address be presented to his royal highness the prince regent by such members

of

of this house as are of his majesty's most honourable privy council.

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS'S MOST
GRACIOUS ANSWER.

Friday, 3d June 1814. Mr. Bathurst reported to the house, that their address of the 3d day of May last, respecting the abolition of the African slave trade, had been presented to his royal highness the prince regent; and that his royal highness was pleased to receive the same very graciously, and had commanded him to acquaint the house, that it would be the earnest endeavour of his royal highness to accomplish the object of it.

Monday, June 27, 1814. Resolved, nemine contradicente, That a humble address be presented to his royal highness the prince regent, representing to his royal highness, that, while we learn with great satisfaction the successful exertions of his royal highness in obtaining the consent of the government of Sweden, and still more that of Holland, to an immediate and unqualified abolition of the slave trade, we are bound in duty to express the deep regret of this house, that the late unanimous address of this house, praying his royal highness to interpose his good offices to obtain a convention of the powers of Europe for the immediate and universal abolition of the African slave trade, to which address his royal highness was pleased to return so gracious an answer, has failed to produce those consequences which this house and the country had most anxiously and with confidence anticipated.

That the objects to the attainment of which that address was di

rected, do, in the opinion of this house, so deeply affect the best interests of Europe, and the happiness and civilization of Africa, as to render it our imperious duty again to press them on the attention of his royal highness:

That, although the government of France, whether from the effect of partial and colonial interests, or from not being sufficiently aware of the enormities attendant on the slave trade, have not agreed to a stipulation for the immediate abolition of it; yet that the consent of that government to abolish the trade in five years, and to unite its efforts with those of his Britannic majesty, at the approaching congress, to induce all the powers of Christendom to decree its abolition, so that it shall cease universally at that time, together with the disposition the French government is supposed to have manifested, to subject their own slave trade to some restrictions during the intervening period; above all, that government's distinct and unequivocal rècognition of the radical injustice of the traffic in slaves, induce the house to entertain a confident hope, that further stipulations, with a view to the abolition or limitation of the slave trade, may be obtained at the approaching congress:

That, independently of the unspeakable evils to Africa which must arise from the permission of this nefarious traffic on the most extended scale for a further term of five years, and of the increased inducements for carrying it on which will then exist, it is obvious that new and formidable obstacles to the execution of our own laws against the slave trade must be created, that occasions of differences with those powers will be mul

(N 2) tiplied,

tiplied, that the evils and miseries produced in Africa, from the multitudes of human beings obtained by fraud or by violence being forcibly dragged into perpetual slavery in a foreign land, must be most lamentable and extensive; but they will be particularly afflicting in those parts with which his majesty's dominions have of late had the greatest intercourse, because the restoration of the French settlements and their dependencies, with the right of an unrestrained slave trade, must subject those populous and extensive districts where by the laudable exertions of Great Britain peaceful industry and social happiness have been in some measure produced, to a renewal of the miseries inseparable from this odious traffic: the colony of Sierra Leone, also, whence European knowledge, the blessings of order, and the arts of peace, have begun to diffuse themselves through the neighbouring country, will be deprived of its beneficial influence, and even be exposed to imminent danger of ruin:

That, with a direct view to the considerations and points above stated, this house humbly, but most earnestly, implores his royal highness to endeavour to obtain, if possible, from the government of France some diminution of the term permitted to the slave trade; but, in any case, its restriction, at least within certain limits, and its total exclusion from the parts of Africa where the exertions of Great Britain have already succeeded in suppressing the trade, that the inhabitants of those regions may be left in the enjoyment of that exemption from its ravages, which they have so recently and so happily obtained:

That this house feels most deeply

anxious that no exertion should be omitted in the approaching congress, to procure a final and universal extinction of the slave trade, because it conceives that no opportunity can ever again be expected to occur so favourable, for effacing from the character of Europe its most opprobrious stain, or for delivering the unoffending but muchinjured inhabitants of Africa from the heaviest of all possible calamities, from intestine war, excited too often by the basest avarice, and the fiercest passions raging without intermission, and productive only of unmixed evil, and of invincible and interminable barbarism, and from practices which, having been exposed to the public eye, have induced the legislature to class slave traders among the vilest of criminals:

That, to produce a universal condemnation of this murderous system, displayed as its horrors now are to the view of mankind, it appears to be only necessary to appeal to those feelings which must exist in every mind capable of reflection, and not steeled against the claims of humanity and justice: That, as this system insults and outrages those sacred and fundamental principles which are common to every sect and denomination of christians, it cannot be doubted that every christian state is required to take part in its condemnation; those who have participated in its guilt being bound to abandon and to reprobate it; while none who enjoy the privilege of innocence are thereby either deprived of the right, or exempted from the obligation, of joining in the sentence:

That this house, therefore, again expressing its profound regret that more has not been accomplished in

jesty's lamented illness, I have demanded, in the face of parliament and the country, to be proved guilty or to be treated as innocent; I have been declared, what I am, innocent; I will not submit to be treated as guilty.

Sir, your royal highness may possibly refuse to read this letter: but the world must know that I have written it, and they will see my real motives for forgoing, in this instance, the rights of my rank:' occasions, however, may arise (one

this empire: this season your royal highness has chosen for treating me with fresh and unprovoked indignity; and, of all his majesty's subjects, 1 alone am prevented, by your royal highness, from appearing in my place to partake of the general joy, and am deprived of the indulgence in those feelings of pride and affection permitted to every mother but me. I am, sir, Your royal highness's faithful wife,

C. P.

THE LETTER OF THE QUEEN TO THE PRINCESS OF WALES.

I wave my rights, in a case where I am not absolutely bound to assert them, in order to relieve the queen, as far as I can, from the painful situation in which she is placed by your royal highness, not from any consciousness of blame, not from any doubt of the existence of those rights, or of my own worthiness to enjoy them.

Sir, the time you have selected for this proceeding is calculated to make it peculiarly galling; many illustrious strangers are already arrived in England, amongst others,. as I am informed, the illustrious heir of the house of Orange, who has announced himself to me as my future son-in-law; from their society I am unjustly excluded; others are expected, of rank equal to your own, to rejoice with your royal highness in the peace of Europe; my my daughter will, for the first time, appear in the splendour and publicity becoming the approaching nuptials of the presumptive heiress of

Windsor Castle, May 23, 1814. The queen considers it to be her duty to lose no time in acquaint ing the princess of Wales, that she

has received a communication from her son the prince regent, in which he states that, her majesty's intention of holding two drawing-rooms in the ensuing month having been notified to the public, he must de

clare that he considers that his own

presence at her court cannot be dispensed with, and that he desires it may be distinctly understood, for reasons of which he alone can be the judge, to be his fixed and unalterable determination not to meet the

princess of Wales upon any occasion, either in public or private.

The queen is thus placed under the painful necessity of intimating to the princess of Wales the impossibility of her majesty's receiving her royal highness at her drawing

rooms.

CHARLOTTE R.

LETTER OF THE PRINCESS OF WALES

TO THE QUEEN.

Madam, I have received the letter which your majesty has done me the honour to address to me, prohibiting my appearance at the pub