could I have, a monopoly, or any thing which approached to a monopoly, of the trade of Sierra Leone. The three witnesses referred to by Dr. 'Thorpe, at p. 68 of his pamphlet, namely, Mr. Vanneck, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Nicol, whom he represents as men of respectability and intelligence, were fully examined in the month of January of the present year, in a Committee of the African Institution, of which Mr. Brougham was Chairman; and they all testified, in the most unqualified terms, that nothing of monopoly either existed now, or had ever existed, at Sierra Leone; and that they could not suggest any means by which the commercial system of the Colony could be improved. "I have annexed a list of seventy-eight vessels which entered the harbour of Sierra Leone between the month of May 1812, and the month of June 1814; all of which landed goods there, and on board of only six of which had any goods of mine been shipped. "I annex alto a statement of forty-one vessels which exported produce from the Colony during that time; with only three of which I had any concern. "Dr. Thorpe resided at Sierra Leone during nearly half of the above period, namely, from May 1812, to March 1813; and he must have known, that many ships, with cargoes on board, had entered the harbour and landed goods at Sierra Leone, and had also taken cargoes on board, and sailed thence during that time, which did not, either in whole or in part, belong to me. And yet he affirms, that the trade was secured to their managing Secretary;' (p. 8.) that he has nearly a monopoly of it; that he is the only person that has regular ships in trade from England.' (p. 29.) Macaulay's Letter. P. 31. To this defence, however, Dr. Thorpe replies in the following statement. "I never, said Mr. M. had a monopoly of the trade, because the law did not allow it; but though I did not state it before, I now do affirm, he had in 1807 what approached to it, and Messrs. Vanneck, Hamilton, and Nicol would say the same, and even declare, that no person, not possessed of large capital, could venture to ship articles from England to traders in the Colony, fearful of encountering, not Mr. Macaulay's competition, but his persecution. Captain Thompson, when Governor, very properly encouraged competition in trade to the Colony, and he considered that encouragement to be one cause of his removal. As early as 1812, Governor Maxwell (as he informed me) wrote to Mr. Wilberforce, complaining of Mr. Macaulay's exorbitant charges being very injurious to the Colony, which could not have been necessary had there been a really free trade in existence. "Mr. Macaulay then chooses a particular period, and publishes a list of seventy-eight vessels, which had landed goods at Sierra Leone in thirteen months. In this list he includes all the cap tured tured ships with, or without slaves) that had landed prize goods, the government and other little colonial vessels that carry articles for barter, or convey provisions from the adjoining rivers, and all the vessels that touch at the Colony, going up and down the coast for water, for wood, and to sell or exchange a little tobacco, rum, flour, hams, cheese, &c. &c. for any trifling articles they may want on board; and thus Mr. Macaulay would induce the public to believe from this list of vessels, and his own comment, that he has only one thirteenth part of the trade; whereas, as ĺ have before stated, he has nearly the whole, and is the only person who has regular ships trading from England to Sierra Leone. "Mr. George Frazer, of Commercial Buildings, has sent out some articles to Governor Maxwell and Mr. Carr, two or three times. Mr. Nichol, of Austin Friars, shipped some goods to Mr. Carr once. Mr. Stokes, of Throgmorton-street, has sent out articles once to Mr. Nichol. Mr. Allen, of Plough-court, sent few things to the poor black settlers. An adventurer may sometimes stop at Sierra Leone with dry goods, &c. Wine, in small quantities, will occasionally come from Teneriffe ; but except some large cargoes condemned in the Colony (which can have nothing to do with the regular trade of the place) Mr. Macaulay has landed ten times as much from one ship as all the others. Nevertheless this gentleman, having obtained a return from his relation, who is Collector of the Customs at Sierra Leone, makes this delusive display, to avoid the appearance of engrossing the trade, in the same way as he had done in the African Institution Report' of February last, to prove the captured Negroes were properly disposed of, by a similar sort of return, from the same relation, in his capacity of Superintendant of captured Negroes. "The next thing to be noticed, is a return from the same person in the same way, of 41 vessels carrying produce from the Colony, as if the Colony itself produced any thing but a few bags of coffee for Governor Maxwell, and a few bags of cotton for Mr. Kenneth Macaulay, from the appropriation of the unrewarded labour of the captured Slaves. "Camwood, ivory, and rice are brought to the Colony. Vessels leaving Sierra Leone may take a small portion of these articles; but, there are no vessels of any consequence regularly freighted from the Colony except Mr. Macaulay's, or on his account. "Should the African Institution not have determination sufficient to force investigation, nor any active member of either Houses of Parliament, have leisure to bring this question forward, I hope some judicious discriminating reader will inquire of traders who frequent the coast concerning this return of vessels said to import to, and export from, Sierra Leone, and remark Mr. Macaulay's mode of converting it, to screen from the public eye the actual state of his trade to and from that Colony; he will be convinced of its being the most plausible piece of deception ever attempted to be imposed on the credulity of the nation." P. xliv. Now, Now, as we have only the assertion of Dr. Thorpe, we cannot in justice convict Mr. Macaulay of a fallacious statement. It is somewhat extraordinary, however, that with such ample opportunities for information, Mr. Macaulay should have neglected to inform himself and his readers, which of those seventy-eight and forty-one vessels were in regular trade from England. We must confess, that this would have been the more satisfactory method of clearing himself from the charge of Dr. Thorpe. But Mr. Macaulay, according to his own account, does not appear to have made a losing concern of the cause of injured Africa. "I have had the prize-agency of almost every man of war that has gone to the Coast.-I have had the prize-agency undoubtedly of several ships; but neither for that, nor for the agency of the Governor and Garrisons, had I made the slightest application. I am grateful indeed for this proof of confidence, but by me it was neither expected nor solicited. The officers who made the nomination, can best explain why they made it. This point may be ascertained by applying to the Hon. Capt. Irby, Capt. Scobell, and Col. Maxwell. "I have had also the supply of the Navy with provisions.-My agents have certainly supplied to the ships of war stationed on the coast, at different times, considerable quantities of provisions; but only, I apprehend, because they were to be procured from me on better terms than they could be procured from any other merchant. If this supposition is incorrect, the blame will fall, not on me, but on those gallant and honourable men who commanded his Majesty's ships on that station. "I have had the whole controul of every thing attached to the Government. I arranged the offices, and recommended persons to fill them.-At the express solicitation of the Secretary of State, I took much pains and trouble, on the first transfer of the Colony to the Crown, to procure proper persons to fill the different offices in the Colony of Sierra Leone. I did so very much to my own inconvenience and loss of time; but I did so without the slightest advantage to myself. Of about twelve persons whom I engaged, on the behalf of Government, to go to Sierra Leone at that time, viz. in 1808, only one was in the slightest degree connected with myself. Of the other persons, several, particularly Mr. Grant, Mr. Vanneck, and Mr. Becket, were the intimate friends of Dr. Thorpe. They could doubtless have informed him what were the sordid motives which influenced my selection; whether it proceeded from a desire to execute conscientiously the commission entrusted to me by Government, or from a desire to serve some unworthy end of my own. "On this and on every occasion, I have been most prompt to serve Government, in all matters connected with Africa, whatever expense of time or of thought, or whatever sacrifice of convenience, it might occasion. But for such services I never received, nor desired, nor even expected, any remuneration whatever. What I did was freely and gratuitously performed to the best of my ability. Lord Castlereagh did indeed make me a voluntary offer of the agency of Sierra Leone; and this offer I should probably have accepted. His Lordship, however, found that the agency had previously been promised to another person; and, as he will bear me witness, the circumstance never drew from me the slightest expression of disappointment, nor led me to found upon it the slightest claim to further favours." Macaulay's Letter, P. 38. In another part of his letter, Mr. Macaulay informs us, that whatever part of the trade of Sierra Leone he enjoys, he will endeavour to retain, and even to enlarge. We think him perfectly justified in this resolution; we think him fully justified in taking every advantage of his numerous connections to enlarge a fair and honourable trade. But then we should not hear too much of gratuitous services, and disinterested sacrifices. It appears from his own account, that Mr. Macaulay has taken all the fair advantages of his connections, and as long as they continue fair, we wish him success. Dr. Thorpe, however, charges him with other views. "When Mr. Macaulay induced the Board of Trade to control the quantity of gunpowder to be shipped for Africa, was it exclusively for the public interest that he prevailed on the Board to allow a large quantity of powder to be sent out at the same instant, by himself, to the exclusion of others who applied? Is it exclusively for the public interest that he is so active about African convoys, inducing them to be ordered or detained for his own convenience? so that when a merchant in London inquires when a convoy will sail for Africa, he is referred to Mr. Macaulay. Is it exclusively for the public service, that many respectable merchants vessels are detained, till Mr. Macaulay's ships are ready to sail and all this when he wishes to prove from his list of vessels, that he has not a twelfth part of the trade even to Sierra Leone, However I suppose this is some of the trouble he undertakes gra tuitously." P. lxii. And again, in another part, Dr. Thorpe asserts, "When I was in Sierra Leone, I reduced the licences for retailing spirituous liquors, from forty, to four, and placed those few in the hands of the most prudent persons I could find; but immediately on my departure, licences were again profusely and indiscriminately distributed, by the protected partizans of the Institution, and to supply those venders of poison, I have been informed, that Mr. Z. Macaulay has lately shipped from Bristol to Sierra Leone about twenty puncheons of rum and gin, and from London about seventeen, which considering (as the Ninth Report informs us) the Colony contains only three or four hun dred dred settlers, must be esteemed a tolerable supply. This displays the real object of those who are said to have toiled to improve the morals of the settlers for above twenty years*; this establishes the motive which actuates that person of whom Mr. Wilberforce is reported to have said in the House of Commons, He never knew a greater public benefactor, a more disinterested and indefatigable individual!!'" Next to diffuse this intoxicating morality, not only by wholesale, but by the glass, I have been assured that Mr. Z. Macaulay's Agents had obtained a licence for retailing spirits at Sierra Leone!! This Associate of the Duke of Gloucester, this affianced friend of Mr. Wilberforce, this great London Merchant, this Director of Directors, this Adviser of Statesmen, this Evangelical Editor has his Agent dispensing this moralizing beverage to the rich and the poor by wholesale and retail!!" Dr. Thorpe. P. 62. These are grave charges, but it is to be remembered that they are charges only. They demand from Mr. Macaulay a clear and decisive denial, not in words only but in facts and evidence. We wish also that Dr. Thorpe would bring his evidence also from Bristol, &c. to substantiate these charges, and an impartial public will judge of their validity. We now come, however, to some curious facts, substantiated upon the clearest testimony. The first document which we shall present to our readers is a private letter from Mr. Macaulay to Governor Ludlam, found among the papers of the latter by Governor Thompson. * "Lest the really benevolent should be alarmed for the health and existence of the Colonists, I shall extract, from uncontradicted authority, an account of the judicious management of the Pious Agents of the Sierra Leone Company twenty-two years since, for the preservation (no doubt) of the body and soul of the inhabitants, which most probably has been beneficially practised to this time!! In the year 1793, the settlers complained of being charged above 100 per cent. when promised by the Sierra Leone Company that every article should be sold at 10 per cent. profit; they declared, if the goods had not been of the worst sort, they would not have grumbled even at that; but they had known the Agent order thirty gallons of water into each puncheon of sell it at a more extravagant price, than before reduced, and then declare it arose from a religious motive, lest the consumer should neglect to dilute the spirit sufficiently."" Falconbridge, rum, P. 213. Вь 666 London, VOL. V. APRIL, 1816. |