was under discussion, not only pointed out to his colleagues what he apprehended to be their obligations, according to the spirit of the Decree, but also suggested a specific application of their funds with a view to the improvement of the condition of their charge, both socially and morally. His proposal, however, did not meet with that support which it merited, and the casting vote of the President of the Board is stated to have determined the grant of the loan. The other circumstance which I have been directed to represent to your Excellency, is, according to the Report of Her Majesty's Commissioners, an act of misconduct, for which the parties concerned are amenable to the law, supposing it to have been actually transgressed, or to the censure of the Home Government for their remissness. The particulars of this case are as follows: A slave of the name of Fabião, who was valued on the death of his master, Silva, under the authority of the Juiz de Direito, as part of the inheritance of the widow, at 50 milreis, claimed his liberty on the 12th of July last, in virtue of Article XXVII of the Decree of the 14th December, 1854, depositing the amount for which he had been so valued with the Board of Protection, who instructed the Curator to proceed according to law, causing the slave to be placed in deposit in the meantime, agreeably to Article XXI, and to the 2nd section of Article XXVIII. The Curator allowed a lapse of three days to occur without making any report, and then gave it as his opinion that the slave was not entitled to redeem his liberty at the original valuation, the proceeds of the estate of the deceased master of the slave having been divided at the time between the heirs thereof. The Board upon this directed the Curator to proceed in the manner prescribed by the Decree; on which he summoned the widow before the Court of Conciliation. On various excuses, however, acquiesced in by the Curator himself, without any attempt to enforce the summons, she did not obey the mandate, until, on the 28th of July, a certain Senhor José de Senza de Cruz presented a bill of sale of the said slave, purporting to have been that made to him by the widow, for the sum of 300 milreis, dated the 1st of July, tendering payment at the same time of the 5 per cent. ordered by the 3rd section of Article XXXVI. The Treasurer refused to receive this "siza," upon the assurance of Fabião that he had no knowledge of his having been sold to Senhor Cruz or any other person; that up to the day of claiming his liberty he had lived as usual, in the house of the widow, and had been in the habit of delivering his daily earnings to her, and receiving orders from her as her slave. In the propriety of this refusal the Treasurer was soon confirmed by the appearance of a public document, in which the widow requires the Chief of the Police on the 25th of July to cause her slave Fabião to be taken out of the custody of the person with whom he had been placed in deposit. This petition was negatived, and three days afterwards, namely, the 28th of July, Senhor Cruz presented this fictitious bill of sale, ante-dated the 1st of the same month; and at the same time deposited, under judicial authority, the amount of the "siza" on the sum alleged to have been paid by him for the slave. The Court then recognized Senhor Cruz as the owner of Fabião, and ordered him to be cited before the Court of Conciliation; but no agreement being come to there, the course prescribed by Article XXIII was pursued, and a final award of 300 milreis was made by the Arbitrators as a proper compensation to Senhor Cruz for a property which he had thus surreptitiously acquired, but to which he had no just or rightful claim. To enable him to defray this, Fabião petitioned the Board for a loan of 250 milreis, engaging at the same time to repay that sum out of his wages. The Board replied that the money could not be lent from the funds at their disposal, unless upon interest, and under the further condition that the slave should deposit some article of sufficient value as security for its repayment. These conditions might have put it out of the power of the slave to obtain his freedom, and been, moreover, the cause of exposing him to much vindictive feeling on the part of his owner, had not the President of the Municipal Chamber, who, as a member of the Board, had voted against the above conditions, offered, on behalf of the slave, to mortgage some article of his own private property for the amount. This offer was eventually acceded to, [and 250 milreis were delivered to Fabião from the funds of the Board, and by him handed over to the Curator. The conduct of the Curator in this business appears to have been very reprehensible; but one of the most scandalous and crying features in the case is, perhaps, the simulated sale in order to put so much money into the widow's pocket, when she found the slave was about to obtain his freedom, and the countenance and aid which she met with in that endeavour in quarters where she ought least to have found such. Her Majesty's Commissioners have reported their opinion, that much of the mischief occasioned in this instance would have been prevented if the regulations directed by Article XVII of the Decree under which the Board of Protection is constituted, had been drawn up and put in force; but up to the date of their Report, no such regulations had been promulgated. On a review of the circumstances so reported to them, Her Majesty's Government consider the refusal of the Board of Pro tection to receive from the slave Fabião as the price of his manumission the sum at which he had been originally valued, and their subsequent proceedings with regard to this man, to be in direct opposition to the letter and spirit of the Decree of the 14th of December, 1854, which secured to the whole slave population the privilege of purchasing their own freedom at a valuation to be conducted upon fair and liberal principles. They have, therefore, directed me to bring this matter, as well as the conduct of the Board of Protection in granting a loan of their funds to the Colonial Government in prejudice of the objects for which those funds were entrusted to them, under the consideration of His Most Faithful Majesty's Government, in the confident expectation that adequate measures will be taken to prevent a recurrence of similar proceedings. I avail, &c. The Marquis de Loulé. HENRY F. HOWARD. No. 418.-Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Jan. 14.) WITH reference to my despatch of the 27th of July last, inclosing a translation of a Portaria issued on the 25th of that month by the Viscount de Sá da Bandeira, the Minister of Marine and Colonies, directing the Governor of Macao to report upon the feasibility of proclaiming slavery to be extinct de jure in that city, I have the honour of transmitting herewith a translation of a Decree signed by the King of Portugal on the 23rd ultimo, and published in the "Diario do Governo" of the 30th of that month, declaring, with reference to the report received from the Governor of Macao, slavery to be at present and for ever abolished in that city and its dependencies, and eulogizing the conduct of the Governor in carrying out His Majesty's instructions, and that of the owners of slaves in Macao in giving the latter their full liberty. The Earl of Clarendon. I have, &c. HENRY F. HOWARD. (Inclosure.)-Law abolishing Slavery in Macao. (Translation.) Palace, December 23, 1856. Mr Government having, in a Portaria of the 25th of July of this year, and in consideration of the peculiar circumstances attending the city of Macao, instructed the Governor of that city to statė whether it were possible to declare, without delay, that the condition of slavery was de jure abolished there; and the said Governor having forwarded on the 11th of October last, an authentic copy of the deed drawn up in presence of the Judge of that district, in which all the owners of slaves, by an act extremely creditable to them, agreed to consider and to declare all slaves then existing in the city to be free; and considering that the Decree with force of law dated the 10th December, 1836,* prohibits the importation of slaves by sea, and that the introduction of this class of individuals by land was prohibited by the Decree with force of law dated the 14th of December, 1854; I have thought proper to declare that slavery is at present and for ever abolished in the city of Macao and its dependencies; and further, I am pleased to declare that the conduct of the said Governor, in causing my Royal intentions to be carried out, has merited my Royal approval; and that the news of the humane and disinterested proceeding of the inhabitants of Macao who were owners of slaves, in giving these their full liberty, is duly appreciated by me. The Viscount Sá da Bandeira, Peer of the Realm, Minister and Secretary of State for Marine and Colonial Affairs, shall have thus understood, and cause it to be carried out. VISCOUNT SA DA BANDEIRA. KING. No. 419. Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Rec. Jan. 14.) I HAVE the honour of inclosing herewith a translation of a Portaria addressed by the Viscount de Sá da Bandeira, on the 31st ultimo, to the Governors-General of the provinces of Angola, Cape Verde, and the Mozambique, and to the Governor of the province of St. Thomas and Prince, and published in the " Diario do Governo" of yesterday, on the subject of the application of the funds administered by the Boards of Protection of Slaves and Liberated Negroes, created by the Decree of the 14th December, 1854. The object of this Portaria is to resolve the doubts entertained as to the right of applying a portion of the funds assigned to the Boards of Protection to the manumission of children of slaves, according to the provisions of Article XXXI of the Decree in question, and likewise to grants of assistance to such slaves as may have means of their own, but not sufficient for their redemption. Instructions are now given to the Boards to make an estimate and appropriation of the amount applicable to such purposes at the end of every half-year, after providing for the other charges upon their funds; and they are severally required to apply such amount as shall not exceed the estimated residue, to cases of the nature of those above referred to, making their selection either in the order of the dates of application, or by lot, in the event of the number of applications exceeding the means at their disposal; and they are instructed to state, in their half-yearly reports, the several cases of redemption, with the means of their preference of one of these modes of selection over the other. * Vol. XXIV. Page 782. Your Lordship will perceive that the provisions of this Portaria fully bear out the interpretation placed, by Her Majesty's Commissioners at Loanda (in their despatch of the 30th September last, to your Lordship), upon the clauses of the Decree of the 14th December, 1854, relative to the appropriation by the Boards of Protection of the funds committed to their charge. His Majesty the King having learnt, from despatches received by this department, that some of the Boards of Protection of Slaves and Liberated Negroes, which were created by the Decree of the 14th December, 1854, have been in doubt as to whether they are permitted to dispose of a portion of the special fund which they administer respectively, to be applied to the manumission of children under five years of age, by handing in, at the time of their baptism, five milreis, as specified in Article XXXI of that Decree; and also to assist such slaves as may possess a sum of money of their own, but not sufficient to effect their redemption; and it being desirable that the above-mentioned Boards should act in uniformity upon this subject, which so nearly affects humanity and the objects of the said Decree of 14th December, 1854, His Majesty has been pleased to cause it to be made known that, in accordance with the provisions of that Decree, the management and administration of the general property of slaves and liberated negroes belongs undoubtedly to the above-mentioned Boards, and that one of the objects of their institution being to promote by every means in their power the liberty of slaves, and one means being certainly to contribute a portion of the said funds for the purpose of obtaining their liberty, it is, therefore, incumbent upon the said Boards to consider and set apart, at the end of each half year, the sum which they may be able to appropriate during the ensuing half year to the above-mentioned purposes, keeping in view the other charges which these funds may have to defray; and that, under this understanding, and within the limits of the several sums thus set apart, the different Boards may respectively apply such sums, either to such cases as may eventually arise, or, if the number of cases be excessive with reference to the disposable amount, by drawing lots; the several Boards, in their half-yearly reports, as required by Article XLIV of the said Decree, to give a detailed account of the cases of liberation effected through these means, and to specify the motives for preference of one or the other method, as the case may be. The Governor-General of the Province of Angola shall commu[1856-57. XLVII.] 30 |
