negotiation that Her Majesty's Government feel bound to express their opinion that the Danish communication to the Diet affordsas Her Majesty's Government have the surest ground for believing -a reasonable basis for successful negotiation; and if the Diet should at once and altogether reject the Danish propositions as unsatisfactory, the inference must be that peaceful views have been set aside, and that the Diet is prepared to press matters to an extremity.

This contingency induces Her Majesty's Government to entreat the several Governments of Germany to furnish their Representatives at Frankfort with instructions calculated to avert this result; and I have to instruct you, in making the contents of this despatch known to M. to assure his Excellency that it is solely in the cause of general peace, and in the certain belief that any disturbance of such peace in Germany would lead to grave complications, that Her Majesty's Government are desirous that the present opportunity should be embraced of settling this irritating question. I am, &c.

SIR,

MALMESBURY,

No. 4.-The Earl of Malmesbury to Mr. Grey.

Foreign Office, October 26, 1858. I HAVE received your despatch of the 6th instant, reporting a conversation which you have had with Baron Manderström on the present position of affairs between Denmark and the Germanic Confederation; and with reference to the desire of the Swedish Government that the Holstein question should be referred to an European Conference, I have to state to you that Her Majesty's Government consider the question to be purely German as long as Holstein alone is concerned; and I have to instruct you to discourage and deprecate all idea of an European Conference upon this point.

I have made a communication to the above effect to Her Majesty's Minister at Copenhagen, whose language to M. Hall, as reported in the inclosed copy of a despatch, I have approved.

The Hon. W. G. Grey.

I am, &c.

MALMESBURY.

No. 5.-The Earl of Malmesbury to Lord Bloomfield. MY LORD, Foreign Office, January 12, 1859. WITH reference to your Lordship's despatch of the 4th instant, reporting a conversation with Baron Schleinitz respecting the Danish Duchies, I have to observe to you that the language used by his Excellency with reference to Schleswig does not appear to Her Majesty's Government to be calculated to smooth the difficulties which already encumber the Holstein question.

In my despatch of the 18th of October last, you will see that the views entertained by Her Majesty's Government are in accordance with the understanding which I came to with His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, when I was at Berlin, namely, that Holstein was a German question, but that if the relations between Denmark and Schleswig were to be discussed, the question would become European, and one which would concern in an equal degree all the Powers who signed the Treaty of 1852.

It seems to Her Majesty's Government to be extremely desirable to keep these questions distinct, especially at the present moment, and your Lordship will urge Baron Schleinitz to take a similar view of this matter. I am, &c. Lord Bloomfield.

SIR,

MALMESBURY.

No. 6.-The Earl of Malmesbury to Mr. Elliot.

Foreign Office, January 12, 1859. HER Majesty's Government entirely approve the language which you held to M. Hall and the Minister for Schleswig, as reported in your despatch of the 6th instant, relative to the suppression of certain literary and scientific societies in Schleswig.

Her Majesty's Government have viewed this measure with extreme concern. The Danish Government well know the exertions which have been made by Great Britain to smooth the difficulties which were supposed to have been created in Germany as regards the affairs of the Duchies. You will press upon the Danish Government the imprudence at this time of taking measures repugnant to the feelings of the inhabitants of Schleswig, such as those you describe, and which appear to Her Majesty's Government as justly liable to exception.

The policy of Denmark should be one of strict justice and conciliation, and it will be your duty to advise this course. Should a contrary one be followed, you will not conceal from the Danish Government that Her Majesty's Government would not willingly give their good offices to that Government, and even if they did so, their exertions in favour of Denmark would be rendered nugatory. Her Majesty's Government, therefore, hope that if those orders cannot be cancelled, they will at least be modified.

The Hon. H. G. Elliot.

SIR,

I am,
&c.

MALMESBURY.

No. 7.-The Earl of Malmesbury to Colonel Hodges. Foreign Office, February 16, 1859. WITH reference to your despatch of the 12th instant, relative to the circulation in Holstein of drafts of petitions in favour of union with Schleswig by the partizans of the Holstein States, I have to

instruct you to take every opportunity of discouraging such proceedings. You will at the same time state that the Treaty of 1852, by which the succession to the Crown of Denmark was regulated and to which Great Britain was a party, while it stipulated that "the whole of the dominions now united under the sceptre of His Majesty the King of Denmark" shall devolve to the Prince therein named, only made a reservation as regards the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg to the effect that the reciprocal rights and obligations of the King of Denmark and of the Germanic Confederation concerning those Duchies should not be affected by the Treaty.

No stipulation of the Treaty excepts the Duchy of Schleswig from the full and complete exercise of sovereignty by the King of Denmark; and while Her Majesty's Government are prepared to maintain the Treaty, they are of opinion that any attempt to effect a union between Schleswig and Holstein would lead to complications which it would be most desirable to avoid.

Colonel Hodges.

I am, &c.

MALMESBURY.

CORRESPONDENCE between Great Britain, France, and Portugal, respecting the Detention and Condemnation of the French Vessel, the Charles et Georges, by the Portuguese Authorities at Mozambique on the charge of Slave Trading. -1858, 1859.*

SIR,

No. 1.-The Earl of Clarendon to Mr. Howard.

Foreign Office, February 16, 1858. I INCLOSE, for your information, the accompanying extract of a letter from Captain Lyster, of Her Majesty's ship Castor, to the Commander-in-chief of Her Majesty's naval forces on the African station, which has been communicated to me by the Admiralty, containing information respecting his proceedings in the Mozambique Channel, and reporting what passed at a conversation which he had with the Governor-General of Mozambique on the subject of the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa, and relative to the proceedings of the French in procuring labourers for the Island of Réunion. I am, &c.

H. F. Howard, Esq.

CLARENDON. (Inclosure.)-Captain Lyster to Rear-Admiral the Hon. Sir F. Grey. (Extract.) Castor, Simon's Bay, December 24, 1857. I HAVE the honour to inform you that, in obedience to your orders of October 30th, I left Simon's Bay in Her Majesty's ship *Laid before Parliament, 1859.

under my command, and proceeded to St. Augustine's Bay, where I arrived on November 23rd. In consequence of north-east winds and calms between latitude 36° 55′ south, and longitude 36° 25' east, to latitude 31° 3' south, and longitude 42° 36' east, this part of the passage was longer than anticipated.

I found here two American whalers and three French vessels : one had 110 free labourers on board, another getting ready for the same purpose, the third taking in a cargo of beans. From all the information I could obtain, it appears the French have taken from this place to Bourbon upwards of 1,500 this year—within the last month 500 have left. Those on board the brig I visited, evidently went of their own accord, but the Chief of Tent Rock Village is paid for them at the rate of three muskets, of three kegs of powder, or three pieces of cloth for each.

No regular slaver had been at St. Augustine for several years.

Having completed water and got some bullocks, I put to sea again on November 25th, and arrived at Mozambique on December 3rd. At my interview with his Excellency the GovernorGeneral, I explained to him your great anxiety to co-operate with him in any measure for the suppression of the Slave Trade, which the existing Treaties between Great Britain and foreign Powers would admit, but that you had no power to interfere with French vessels procuring labourers for Bourbon. He was very much he was aware that it

gratified by this communication, and said that was his duty to stop the exportation of labourers or emigrants from the Portuguese settlements, but that he had at present in the harbour a French barque, taken in Conducia Bay with 130 blacks on board, waiting trial.

No. 2.-Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon.

(Extract.) Lisbon, February 17, 1858. THE Viscount de Sá informed me that, according to accounts which he had received from Mozambique, a French vessel had recently arrived on that coast for the purpose of taking in a cargo of negroes for the Island of Réunion; that the Governor-General of Mozambique having sent a detachment of troops to prevent the embarkation being effected, the vessel had moved off, but subsequently reappeared at another point of the coast, and succeeded in shipping some 20 negroes. This time, however, she was secured by the force sent by the Governor-General, and taken to Mozambique, where the case was placed in the hands of the judicial authorities. Some of the slaves shipped by the French vessel belonged, it appears, to persons at Mozambique.

The Earl of Clarendon.

HENRY F. HOWARD.

(Extract.)

No. 3.-Mr. Howard to the Earl of Clarendon.

Lisbon, February 24, 1858. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt, on the 22nd instant, of your Lordship's despatch of the 16th instant, transmitting to me the copy of a letter of the 24th of December last, from Captain Lyster, of Her Majesty's ship Castor, to the Commanderin-chief of Her Majesty's naval forces on the African station, reporting his communications with the Governor-General of Mozambique, respecting the Slave Trade on the East Coast of Africa, and relative to the proceedings of the French in procuring labourers for the Island of Réunion.

I beg to inclose a translation of an account which has appeared in the "Jornal do Commercio" of this morning, of the capture of the vessel called the Charles et Georges, of St. Malo.

The Viscount de Sá, in a further conversation which I had with him on this subject, alluded to the allegation of there being on board the Charles et Georges, a delegate of the administration of the Island of Réunion. His Excellency informed me that he had privately communicated to the French Minister at this Court an extract from the report he had received concerning the transaction, and of which the substance is given in the inclosed article. The Earl of Clarendon.

HENRY F. HOWARD,

(Inclosure.)—Extract from the "Jornal do Commercio" of Lisbon, (Translation.) February 24, 1858.

FROM advices received at the Cape of Good Hope from Mozambique, and from thence forwarded to Lisbon, under date of 26th December, 1857, we learn:

1. That a French barque, belonging to St. Malo, called the Charles et Georges, bound from Bourbon, went to the port of Conducia, about two or three leagues from Mozambique, and was anchored there some days.

2. That suspicion having been excited at Mozambique, a small vessel was sent from thence on the 21st November to search the barque, under the charge of a navy officer, and with a detachment of 20 men and an officer, in order to prevent the embarkation of negroes at that place, if such should be the intention of those on board the barque.

3. That on the arrival of this vessel at Conducia, the barque got under weigh, and cruized off the coast.

4. That this proceeding having caused her to be suspected, the Mozambique vessel sailed along the coast, and on her return to Conducia they found the French barque with 110 negroes on board, the most part boys of 16, and old men.