Mr. William Brown, Mr. Alderman Thomp- | passed in which the passengers were not son, Mr. Forster, Mr. M'Gregor, Mr. Ar- in fear of plague, pestilence, and famine; chibald Hastie, Mr. Alderman Humphery, and on looking into the law, on their arrival Mr. Moody, Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Ten- at port, he found they had no remedy whatever. nent. PASSENGERS ACT AMENDMENT BILL. MR. PEEL said, that the provisions of the Bill did not include what were called cabin passengers, but they did include intermediate, as well as steerage passengers. MR. GOOLD, on behalf of his emigrating countrymen, expressed his gratitude to the hon. Member (Mr. Peel) for this measure, which he believed was very much required. MR. PEEL moved for leave to bring in a Bill to amend and consolidate the Laws relating to the Carriage of Passengers by Sea. As the Bill involved no new principle of legislation, he did not feel called upon to make any remarks, except that its object was to render more effective the laws now in existence. A Committee had been appointed on this subject last Session, presided over by the right hon.in Member for South Wiltshire (Mr. S. Herbert), and the report of that Committee contained a variety of suggestions of great value, most of which he had embodied in the Bill he now sought to introduce. He anticipated it would, if agreed to by the House, be a measure which would have the effect of providing more efficiently for the comfort and the security of the hundreds of thousands of our fellow-subjects who now left the shores of the United Kingdom every year for Australia or the United States. MR. HUME submitted that there ought to be laid upon the table of the House a return of all the ships carrying emigrants which had been lost during the past year, inasmuch as there existed out of doors a strong opinion that there was a great want of attention on the part of the authorities with respect to that examination into the seaworthiness of emigrant ships which the House had desired should be made. It was a matter of the greatest importance, as he could assure the House that he knew of cases in which persons desirous of emigrating had been deterred from doing so by the serious and repeated losses of emigrants, from the ignorance of the officers, or the badness of the ships. MR. CHISHOLM ANSTEY wished to know whether this Bill applied only to steerage passengers, or to cabin and intermediate passengers also? Ships, not called emigrant ships, but which, nevertheless, took out emigrants, were often scandalously deficient in their supplies of food and water, as well as defective in construction and arrangement; and their sanitary regulations were, in fact, no regulations at all. He made a voyage to the Cape himself in one of these vessels, and he could assure the House that not a day Leave given:-Bill ordered to be brought The House adjourned at half after Nine o'clock. HOUSE OF LORDS, The EARL of MALMESBURY moved, pursuant to notice, for a Return of the Customs accounts of Gunpowder and Arms imported since 1847 into the colony of the Cape; and for an Address for a Return of all Ordinances published at the Cape as to the sale of the same previous to November 17, 1851. The noble Earl then said: When I addressed your Lordships upon the subject the other night, I confined myself to the only fact which had then come to my knowledge. In reading the blue book, however, laid upon the table by the noble Earl the Secretary for the Colonies, I find that since the war broke out at the Cape, certain British merchants have not been ashamed to export from this country and others to the Cape, and have not been ashamed even of selling to our enemies, the Kafirs, arms and gunpowder, to the prejudice of our best interests both at home and the colony itself. The noble Earl has reprobated this practice; and it having come to the knowledge of the Governor in November, he published an Ordinance to prevent, as far as he could, further dealing and smuggling in arms and ammunition. My Lords, I am not astonished at the indignation the noble Earl expressed in his letter at such a practice; and I give the noble Earl credit for not having had what I should have deemed the false delicacy, of not bringing forward the names of those men who have been concerned in this detestable traffic. They have carried out, indeed, the principle of "free trade," though to an extent which I am sure none of your Lordships can possibly defend. They acted quite up to the favourite axiom of free-traders, that "capital owns no allegiance." But, my Lords, I think I should not be doing my duty if I confined myself only to that part of the subject; for I have since heard that the trade in gunpowder and arms has been carried on with the Kafirs in the Cape colony for years; and I cannot but think that the enormous quantity of arms and gunpowder I can show your Lordships has been introduced into that colony for several years, has been one of the main causes, if not the main cause, of the war being protracted to such length, and of the comparative failure of Her Majesty's troops in that period. It appears that for the first time in November last, it came under the observation of the Governor that this traffic was extensively carried on, and he then, on November 17th, issued an ordinancesevere, but not too severe-for the purpose of putting a stop to it; and he then for the first time informed the noble Earl the Secretary for the Colonies that not only had the trade been carried on in the colony, but through Port Natal, and along the eastern side of the colony, and that he believed it was also carried on via Delagoa, a station belonging to the Portuguese. The letter from the Governor to the noble Earl appears to have crossed one from the noble Earl-a confidential letter, which had been written about the same timefor on the 14th January we find a despatch in which the noble Earl says "In my confidential despatch of the 14th November I informed you that I had learned from the Customs department that large shipments of gunpowder had been made from this country to the Cape of Good Hope, and I instructed you to adopt the most effectual means in your power to prevent this powder from finding its way into the hands of the Kafirs. It is with a degree of surprise, which I am altogether at a loss to describe, that I have now learned from Mr. CommissaryGeneral Miller, who arrived in this country by the last steamer, that for some months previously to his departure from the Cape it had been matter of general notoriety and common conversation in the colony, that there had been shipped coastwise from Cape Town large quantities of gunpowder, which could be intended for no other purpose than that of carrying on a trade-if not directly, with the Kafirs, who are now in arms against Her Ma jesty's forces-at all events with persons who are I thank the noble Earl for giving the "This powder would, as he informs me, be landed either at St. Helen's Bay or at the mouth of the Orange River, from either of which points it could with the utmost facility be conveyed to the hostile Kafirs. Were it not impossible to doubt information resting upon such high authohave frequently borne the strongest testimony, I rity as that of Mr. Miller, to whose merits you should have been unable to believe that an extensive trade in gunpowder, for the supply of those who are engaged in deadly hostility with Her Majesty's forces and with the colony, could have been allowed for a long time after the breaking out of the war to be thus openly carried on from Cape Town, without any complaint being made to me on the subject. I have always supposed that almost the very first object which in every war must engage the attention of the person charged with conducting it, is that of cutting off, if possible, the enemy's supply of ammunition; and in the case of savages like the Kafirs, who are supposed to be unable to manufacture gunpowder, the importance of preventing them from I am the less able to understand why a trade obtaining it by traders were particularly obvious. in gunpowder was allowed to be carried on, because I am informed that from the nature of the coast there would have been no difficulty in prelaw conferred upon you no legal power of interventing it; and even supposing that the existing rupting the trade, and that it had been impossible to have supplied the deficiency, you would have been fully justified, or rather, you would only have done what was your obvious duty, had you of effectually preventing gunpowder from being exercised a power beyond the law for the purpose conveyed by any channel it was in your power to close to those by whom it has been used for the slaughter of Her Majesty's faithful subjects and troops. I trust that long before this despatch can reach you, all that is requisite will have been done on this important subject; but I must request you to explain why it was so long neglected, and why no information as to the trade that was going on was sent to me either by yourself or Mr. Montagu." The noble Earl here expresses his astonishment that he should have been kept in ignorance of all this-that none of the servants of the Crown in the colony should have informed him of it. Well might the noble Earl, indeed, have been displeased with them if he had received no information on the subject. But is it not obtaining powder except what they capture, or the have of English manufacture?-All of them, I rebels take to them.-Are the arms which they think. English ?—Yes, I think so.' M. de Stockenstroom gives similar evidence: astonishing that in the eleven months | Would not that be too great an extent of country during which the war had then continued, to undertake operations over?-There would the noble Earl should have been uninform- always be smuggling; there are so many little bays and means of landing anything on the coast ed of a matter on which its duration so of Kafirland. You spoke of many of the Kafirs essentially depended? Your Lordships, having fire-arms: have you any idea of the prohowever, will be yet more surprised when portion as far as you can judge from what you I say that the noble Earl was one of the saw of them ?-Probably one-fourth or one-fifth of the whole may possess fire-arms. Do you few public men who did not know that this think if the war continues they will be able to traffic was going on. Your Lordships, I keep up the supply of powder which is necessary? say, will be still more astonished when I-No I do not think they have any means of tell you that as far back as June a Committee of the House of Commons sat on this very question of the Kafir war, and that every witness who was examined before this Committee bore testimony to the long-continued exercise of this disgraceful traffic, so dangerous to the safety of the colony-and that upon that Committee sat the colleague of the noble Earl, Mr. Labouchere, President of the Board of Trade; Mr. Fox Maule, now a Cabinet Minister, and then Secretary at War; and the noble Earl's alter ego, Mr. Hawes, Under Secretary for the Colonies. Is it more marvellous that Sir H. Smith and Mr. Montague should have omitted to inform the noble Earl of all this (one being at the frontier of Kafraria, and the other at Cape Town), than that the noble Earl should not have heard of it from his own col per leagues, from his own Under Secretary, from the evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons? Although, however, the noble Earl may say that he sonally did not know this traffic was going on, still his responsible officers knew, and their neglect must be visited upon him. One of the first witnesses examined before the Committee was asked questions upon this subject, Major Bissett, who had been all his life in the colony, aud for fifteen years an officer in the service: "In what respect are the Kafirs more formidable now than they used to be ?-You may say in numbers, but particularly in bravery and their possession of fire-arms. You say the Kafirs are now better supplied with arms and ammunition, and are much more formidable than they were in preceding wars?—Yes; very much so. Are you aware how those arms and ammunition have been supplied to them ?—No. Are the traders forbidden to carry arms and powder for sale? Yes. Are they supplied by the traders?—No; except in the case of smuggling. But gunpowder must be introduced in considerable quantities?—Yes, it is so; there is no end of it. Is there any possibility of the Kafirs manufacturing powder if we could stop its exportation to them--None. Then we should put a stop to further war if we could put a stop to the introduction of powder ?—Yes. Could we stop the introduction of powder into that country?— Not unless you extended the operation to Natal. The Earl of Malmesbury "Are you aware whether the Kaffrs are better How did armed now than they were ?—Yes. they obtain those arms?-From the Colony. The Custom House returns will show what import of ammunition and fire-arms there is. Is it forbidden ?-The importation into the colony is legal; it is unlawful to send them into Kafirland. think that the trade in arms and ammunition comes from our own colony?-The greatest part of it. Some may come from Natal, and some from the petty ports on the coast. The import of fire-arms and ammunition in the Cape Colony is fearful." You So Lieut. Colonel Smith bore the same testimony: 66 You say the Kafirs are becoming more and more formidable by reason of being better armed and disciplined? Yes. Ilave they facilities for obtaining arms and ammunition?—Yes, very great. They are imported into the colony by merchants, and the traders continue to smuggle them along the frontier. Would there be any great difficulty in preventing that trade?-Possibly not; but more stringent regulations should be adopted. Do you think it would be expedient to Bay to Port Natal there is scarcely any creek check it?-I think very expedient. From Algoa or place where it is easy for a vessel to have communication with the shore ?-There are places where vessels could have communication, but not many, and with considerable difficulty. That being the case, would there be likely to be much smuggling going on: could a vessel go and smuggle powder and arms without having any previous communication with the shore, and knowing to whom they were to sell?-I do not think that the arms that find their way into the colony are smuggled that way: they are imported by the merchants to a large extent." And, in short, all the witnesses confirmed this evidence. Now, my Lords, one might imagine that if the noble Earl had been aware of this state of things having existed before the war, he would have attempted to put an end to it before the war broke forth-upon the plainest principles of self-preservation. It is proved, then, that his colleagues and the subordinates even of his own department, have been remiss in their duties in not informing him | tion will bear sensibly on the fate of the of facts which they themselves were not war? only cognisant of, but had themselves EARL GREY said, if the noble Earl had elicited upon this Committee. My Lords, had a little more acquaintance with the afI have thus, therefore, laid the grievance fairs of the Cape, he would have quite underbefore you, and I now ask the noble Earl stood the apparent contradiction between what remedy he proposes to apply? On his (Earl Grey's) despatch and the fact a former occasion I understood the noble that the existence of the trade in gunEarl to say that a steamer had been sent powder at the Cape was mentioned by to blockade the coast, and prevent these various witnesses before the Committee of supplies from being landed. [Earl GREY last year. That a trade in arms and gunwas understood to dissent.] If the noble powder had been carried on between the Earl has not done so, I do not think it of colony and the native tribes, in ordinary much importance, for I think the sending times of peace, to a very great extent, and of a single steamer would have been a that in spite of a very stringent law a very insufficient measure. The coast from large amount of the gunpowder introduced Delagoa Bay to Algoa Bay is upwards of into the Cape was contraband, had been 600 miles in extent, and although there is notorious to every one for many years. It a difference of opinion among the witnesses was not the fault of the law; because there as to the number of places on which pow- existed a law of a very stringent character, der could be landed on that sea-board, it requiring all gunpowder going into that counis impossible to believe that on a coast of try to pass through the hands of the Ordsuch extent, there must not be several nance officers and other Government funcplaces fit for the purpose; so that a soli- tionaries, and that the full sanction of the tary steamer could not be sufficient to publie authorities for its importation should guard the entire coast. Indeed, the noble be obtained. No gunpowder could be landEarl himself, in his letter of January, ed at the Cape without notice given to the states that there are two places-St. colonial authorities; none could be removed Helen's Bay, or the mouth of the Orange without certain formalities, which interRiver at either of which points the pow- posed great difficulties in the way of its der could be landed, and with the utmost falling into the hands of other than proper facility be conveyed to the hostile Kafirs; persons. But it had for many years been and to protect these two places alone, of notorious that, in spite of that law, this course two steamers would be required. trade was very actively carried on; and he It appears, however, from the returns, found that, in 1842, the question was subthat there are but three steamers on the mitted to the Executive Council of the Cape station, of which the largest is en- Cape, whether more stringent measures gaged in taking out the new Governor; ought not to be taken for the purpose of and it is proved by the very servants of stopping the trade in powder for the supply the Government that the present system is of the natives to the north of the Orange insufficient to check the evil. I think, River. The report made by the Committee then, my Lords, under such circumstances, of the Executive Council was to the followthat I am not departing from my duty in ing effect: "That no further measures were suggesting to the noble Earl that we necessary with respect to the trade in gunshould, now when the slave trade has been powder, because the restrictions already in a great degree suppressed, send to the imposed appeared perfectly sufficient, if southern coast some of the steamers now put in force, to prevent such illicit traffic; uselessly stationed on the western, and and the entire prohibition of the sale of protect our interests in that quarter from gunpowder within the country would be inthe danger to which they are at present jurious to the interests of the inhabitants, exposed. The question which I now pro- particularly on the frontier, who required it pose to ask the noble Earl is this-what to defend themselves and their property from means, naval or military, has he taken to the attacks of marauding natives. The diffiprevent the increased exportation of gun-culties to be encountered in the attempt to powder and arms from this country to the put a stop to the illicit traffic were to be colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and traced, not to the want of a law for the the increased exportation of them from the frontiers of that colony to the nations beyond them, and what hopes he entertains that the reduction of the exportaVOL. CXIX. [THIRD SERIES.] purpose, but to the physical difficulties of the country, and the scattered nature of the population on the frontier, and to the want of a sufficient body of troops or a R law on the Statute-book, when the war broke out, the first thing that should have occurred to the local authorities would have been to adopt every means in their power to put a stop to the trade. It was as natural to suppose that instructions to that effect would have been given to all the subordinate officers of the Government, as it was to suppose that in time of war every captain of a ship had power in his instructions to burn, sink, and destroy the vessels of the enemy. The evidence of Major Bisset quoted by the noble Earl, seemed to confirm this view of the case. He was asked, "Are the Kafirs replenishing their stores?" and stated, in answer, that he thought they had already supplied themselves by stealth, but that during the war care would be taken to cut off the supply. Major Bisset, having been desperately wounded soon after the commencement of hostilities, knew nothing of what had subsequently taken place. The Commissary General, Mr. Miller, after his arrival in this country, had told him (Earl Grey) that he did not believe a single pound of powder had gone to the Kafirs, except what had been landed openly and avowedly in our own ports, where it was the great article of supply. Some powder was derived, undoubtedly, from the Portuguese settlement at Delagoa Bay; but the trade by this roundabout route was not speedily carried on, and was of very trifling extent. The main supply to the Kafirs had, undoubtedly, come through Cape Town and the frontier. With respect to blockading the coast, he was informed that there was no coast in the world where it was so utterly impossible to carry on the smuggling trade. Mr. Miller told him that the best landing-place for troops and stores was East London, where arrangements were made by Sir Harry Smith, during the last Kafir war, for landing stores; but even at that point the difficulty was so great that a considerable number of persons had lost their lives, even with all the appliances which could be afforded by the British Navy for landing goods; it was necessary to stretch a line from the vessel to the shore, and by using peculiarly-shaped boats small quantities might be conveyed to land. Within our own dominions it was impossible that arms and ammunition could be landed without the knowledge of the Government authorities. Except at one or two of the small harbours, where no illegal trade was carried on, he believed it was impossible that gunpowder could be landed. On the west well-organised police force along the northern boundary, comprehending an extent of country some hundred miles in length, and passable at so many different points." This report was sent home with the Minutes of the Executive Council; but nothing was done. The noble Earl opposite (the Earl of Derby) was then Secretary of State for the Colonies, and as he took no measures in consequence, it was fairly to be inferred that he acquiesced in the decision, and considered that it was impossible to take any further measures. He believed the noble Earl (the Earl of Malmesbury), if he would only consider the extent of the African coast to which these regulations applied, the defective means of communication through the Portuguese colonies, and the length of the frontier, would be obliged to acknowledge that it was utterly impossible to stop this smuggling trade. If he considered, further, that it was absolutely necessary that every farmer on the frontier should be supplied, as well as his servants, with powder and ammunition for his own defence and that of his household, and that, in fact, half the food of the frontier population was derived from the game they shot; and, again, that a profit so great was made by exchanging a pound of powder, which might be bought at Cape Town for 8d., against an ox, which was worth 57.; to suppose that any restriction applicable to a state of peace could prevent that trade from going on would appear absolutely futile. The law had now conferred additional powers on the Governor applicable to a state of war, by which he could at any time stop the issue of powder from any and every private gunpowder magazine within the colony, until further proclamation. This power was exercised by Sir George Napier, in 1838; and again, in 1842, he republished his first proclamation, and warned the inhabitants of the penalties to which they were liable for the infraction of it. If the noble Earl would look attentively at the evidence taken before the Committee of last year, he would see that it applied to the supply of the Kafirs in time of peace, although it was now to be feared that they were supplying themselves, then, for the warfare which they subsequently made, and were now making. Looking back to the former situation of things, he did not believe that any measure that could have been taken would have been effectual for the purpose of preventing this traffic from being carried on. But, undoubtedly, it appeared to him that, with so stringent a Earl Grey |