requested him to do so, and promised to remunerate him for his trouble. Mr. H. De Berckem accordingly undertook the search, and with great difficulty succeeded; and received from Mr. De Berckem for this service the sum of 501., which was charged in account to Mr. Mariner, and by him charged in turn to Rapallo. A further statement of these circumstances will be found at Q. 2,537, 2,762, 3,150, 5,821, 5,597, 5,831; the explanation given by De Berckem at Q. 5,788, 5,789; and that by Mariner, Q. 6,336. It may, perhaps, be material to remark, that at the time of the recovery of these bills the period for their exchange was close at hand, and that they had been actually advertised.

We may now pass from the manner in which the fraud was carried on to the circumstances which attended its discovery. On the 19th of October, 1841, Mr. De Berckem employed a person to borrow 10,000l. for him on the deposit of Exchequer-bills, for three months, at 6 per cent.; and this appeared so remarkable in all its circumstances to a member of the Stock Exchange, to whom application was made for the loan, and who had just lent money on a similar deposit at 4 per cent., that he conferred upon it with several parties, and after reflecting on the whole that had come to his knowledge, thought it right to enter into communication on the subject with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This led to further inquiry, and to the discovery that certain bills deposited by Mr. De Berckem on loan in 1839 (and of which the numbers had been preserved by the lender) were forgeries. Under these circumstances, VOL. LXXXIII.

Mr. De Berckem was sent for by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and gave up some of the bills then in his hands; and these being ascertained, by comparison with the counterfoils, to be forged, Mr. Smith was, on the 25th of October following, taken into custody; from which period it may consequently be considered that the existence of the fraud became fully known to the public.

On the 29th of October following an official advertisement was published, announcing that bills sent into the Exchequer would there be examined with their counterfoils, in order to ascertain their genuineness. A large portion of the forged bills were, in compliance with this notice, sent in, and examined, and detained, as not agreeing with the counterfoils. Others were kept back by the holders under circumstances which appear in the correspondence set forth in various parts of the evidence; but to this subject we do not feel it necessary to advert more particularly, there being in our opinion (formed upon mature consideration of the evidence) no reason for imputing any improper motive to these parties, however questionable their course may have been in point of discretion.

Other portions of the forged bills had, prior to the notice in the Gazette, but after the fraud had in some measure become public, been carried in to the Bank of England to be funded, there happening to be at that time a funding of Exchequer-bills in operation; and it appears that almost the whole of the forged bills so dealt with were sent in by persons who by that time had had reason to entertain doubts of their genuineness, having regard to the quarter 2 N

whence they came.

This carries with it, on the first impression, an unfavourable aspect; but, after taking much pains to probe the matter, we are fully convinced, upon the evidence, that the parties taking this course were conscious of no impropriety in the proceeding. There was no other mode until the next exchange, in March, of tendering the documents to your Majesty's Government for payment; and they conceived themselves to have a right, under such circumstances, to avail themselves of the opportunity of making the tender in that way. As to the result of the experiment, it varied according to the period of time at which the bill was brought into the Bank. In the afternoon of the 27th of October a letter had been received by the Deputy-Governor from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, suggesting that more than common vigilance should be used with regard to any Exchequer-bills that might be presented; and, in compliance with this intimation, all bills brought in after the 27th were detained and sent up to the Exchequer for inspection, so that the operation of funding, with respect to the forged bills, was in every case ultimately suspended. But, from the 23rd to the 27th inclusive, such forged bills as were presented were actually received by the Bank, and converted into stock in the usual course; and being afterwards sent up to the Paymaster's-office (as the law requires), were there also accepted as genuine, the Bank receiving from the Paymasters the discharge usually given in such cases. In every instance, however, in which stock was thus obtained, a letter has been since sent by the Bank of

England to the party who funded the bill, apprising him that it would not be received in payment of his subscription.

Having thus endeavoured to lay before your Majesty, in a summary but comprehensive form, the general history of the fraud in question, we shall devote the remainder of our report to the specific consideration of the several bills which are the subject of the present inquiry, and of the cases of their respective holders. And, first, we have to remark, that the great majority of these bills are the subjects of claim (so far, at least, as forged instruments are capable of being so considered), that is, there are persons who claim to hold them either as their absolute property, or as securities for money advanced; but that there are other bills which no person now claims to hold, though some mention has been made of expenses incurred by the party in whose possession they were found, and of his intention to memorialize your Majesty's Treasury on that subject. We shall advert in the first place, and principally, to the former class of bills, and shall trace each bill or set of bills (as the case may be) in a retrospective series, commencing with the claimant and ending with Rapallo.

[The Report proceeds, accordingly, to investigate the circumstances under which the successive holders came to the possession, and to distinguish the different degrees of innocence or criminality of each. It is needless to give these details, as the Report itself may be readily referred to by any reader desirous of the particular information.]

The great measure of Slave Emancipation in the British Colonies, the large sum appropriated to the extinction of that gigantic crime, and the other indirect sacrifices to which the British nation cheerfully submitted as a consequence of that measure, have given eminent proof that the people of this country are not only universally animated by a conviction of the iniquity of the system, but were resolved, by every means, active not less than passive, to wipe away the stain from every part of the British polity and dominion. To a people thus possessed of the will to do and to suffer in this great matter, it became but a natural consequence that, having proceeded thus far, they should extend their views, and by striking at the root of the evil, persuade or compel those nations whom interest or convenience yet induced to hold their fellow-beings in bondage, by every means that international law would permit, to forbid the participation of their subjects in the inhuman traffic, and if impracticable to induce them to take steps equally decisive for the abolition of Slavery itself, yet to abolish that more detestable and inhuman part of it, the purchase of Slaves on the coast of Africa, with its accompanying hor

the people, has for a long period exerted itself strenuously to procure the destruction of the system, and where international rights interfered to thwart their endeavours, at least to mitigate its horrors. Thus, a large armament cruizing perpetually on those coasts of Africa on which the Slave-trade chiefly prevails, and traversing the tracks of vessels engaged in the traffic, has been for many years maintained at a vast expense, and encouraged by extensive bounties; while treaties have been set on foot and pressed by granting or withholding advantages, whenever opportunity seemed to offer in our negociations with Slaveholding states. By these means much progress has been made in this Christian warfare, and large rights of interference and prevention acquired. Unhappily, however, these benevolent views are in a great degree thwarted by unforeseen consequences. The Portuguese and Spanish nations in South America, the southern provinces of the United States, Cuba, and other portions of the American world, are too deeply interested in Slavery to take a sincere part in the designs of the British Government; and while the latter have succeeded, in most instances, in pressing upon the governments treaties for the abolition of that part of it which consists in the importation of Africans, they are too weak to compel, and the people too interested to assist in the determination of the detestable trade-thus, the proprietors and cultivators of these countries still continue to tear

the unhappy Africans from their homes, and the exertions of the British cruizers have only had the effect of raising the value of such slaves as are actually landed, so that the profits of the slave-dealers are increased so enormously that the trade is carried on with a perseverance and recklessness that defy all efforts to prevent it-with this additional evil, that the illegality of the trade and the danger of conducting it, have given rise to a cruelty in procuring, and a disregard of life in carrying the unfortunate captives, which were not found while the trade was not subject to such chances-the sole object of the dealers being to run so many vessels crowded with slaves, that some, at least, must escape the vigilance of our cruizers -it being calculated that if one in three escape capture, or survive the horrors of the voyage, the speculation will prove enormously lucrative; and it seems sufficiently probable that not less than one hundred thousand human beings fall victims annually in the mere exportation.

The British Government has, moreover, carried its interference still nearer the origin of the evil, by our colonies on the western coast of the continent of Africa; which being placed in the centre of those Negro kingdoms whose rulers were the most active in warring on their neighbours for the purpose of selling their prisoners, have by civil force on the one hand, and moral influence on the other, put an end to the Slave-trade, not only along the shores actually occupied, but along a still greater extent possessed by native rulers; and it has still further extended its beneficent exertions among the petty kings

not under the fear of the colonial governors, partly by presents, partly by encouraging trade and the wealth to be derived from it: nor has the Government been at all chary of its dignity in promoting these Christian aims, the sovereigns of these realnis knowing well that their real dignity could suffer no tarnish by entering into treaties offensive and defensive, even with such naked potentates as King Boy and King Brass, upon such humane designs.

Extensive, however, as are the advantages which have been achieved by these means, the desired results are necessarily far from being obtained-the immense extent of open coast, and particularly the innumerable river channels in the Bight of Benin, which it is equally impracticable to hold or to watch, and not less the possessions of the Portuguese and other nations directly interested in the continuance of the trade, and whose participation is connived at by their governments, have all combined to render the efforts of the British Government ineffectual.

Several societies, containing a large number of persons of the highest talent, rank, and fortune, for the express purpose of watching over the interests of the Africans, whether now in bondage, or as yet possessed of the inalienable birthright of mankind, have been formed in England, to whose unceasing vigilance and disinterested exertions the above-noticed proceedings are mainly owing-their connexions have been spread into the remotest districts, carried into the Continent of Europe, and raised advocates even in the very states where slavery exists, and where persecution follows the

avowal of any sympathy with the coloured races: in short, all nations, all conditions of men, and all forms of religious persuasion, have met in unanimity upon this common ground of humanity.

To one of these associations our subject particularly refers-The African Civilization Society-This society, which had for some time highly distinguished itself in the benevolent exertions above specified, had, in the year 1839, propounded through one of its most distinguished members, Sir Fowell Buxton, a very enlarged scheme for putting an end to the Slavetrade, by promoting the civilization of Africa, by elevating the African mind, and developing the capabilities of the African soil; in which Africa itself should become the principal scene of labour, and the Africans the permanent agents. Having communicated these views to her Majesty's Government, they received its most cordial concurrence and active assistance. In December, 1839, Lord John Russell addressed a letter to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, in which, after recapitulating the fruitless exertions of the Government and the cruelties which still prevailed, his Lordship proceeded to state that her Majesty's confidential advisers were compelled to admit the conviction that it was indispensable to enter upon some new preventive system, calculated to arrest the foreign Slave-trade in its source, by counteracting the principles by which it is now sustained. Although it might be impossible to check the cupidity of those who purchase slaves for exportation from Africa, it might yet be possible to force on those by whom they are sold, the persuasion that they are en

gaged in a traffic opposed to their own interests when correctly understood.

With this view it was proposed to establish new commercial relalations with those African chiefs or powers within whose dominions the internal Slave-trade of Africa is carried on, and the external Slave-trade supplied with its victims. To this end the Queen had directed her Ministers, to negotiate conventions or agreements with those chiefs and powers, the basis of which conventions would be, first, the abandonment and absolute prohibition of the Slave-trade; and, secondly, the admission for consumption in this country, on favourable terms, of goods the produce or manufacture of the territories subject to them. Of those chiefs, the most considerable rule over the countries adjacent to the Niger and its great tributary streams. It was therefore proposed to dispatch an expedition which should ascend that river by steam-boats, as far as the points at which it receives the confluence of some of the principal rivers falling into it from the eastward. At these, or at any other stations which might be found more favourable for the promotion of a legitimate commerce, it was proposed to establish British factories, in the hope that the natives might be taught that there are methods of employing the population more profitable to those to whom they are subject, than that of converting them into slaves, and selling them for exportation to the Slave-traders.

In these views the African Civilization Society (by whom, indeed, they were suggested) fully concurred, and the expedition mentioned in Lord John Russell's letter