Page:Thorpe (1819) A commentary on the treaties.pdf/52

48 "That the high contracting Parties reserve to themselves, by the same instrument, and engage to determine by a separate treaty, the period at which the trade in slaves shall universally cease and be prohibited throughout the entire dominions of Portugal." And in the treaty of July, 1817, "His Faithful Majesty declares, that he has reserved to himself, in concert with His Britannic Majesty, to ﬁx the time when the trade in slaves shall cease entirely, and be prohibited in his dominions ;” yet we find this very treaty of July, 1817, extending the Portuguese traffic in slaves; protecting her slave traders, and binding Great Britain to remunerate them for any detention or loss that may occur, and that also to be estimated, not according to the actual loss, but according to the speculative proﬁt they could have gained in the market, to which they might have carried the slaves; and lastly in the separate article it is stated, that if a total abolition takes place, an adaptation of the stipulations in the treaty may be made, and if not, they are to remain for fifteen years after that, as now established.

It cannot be denied that Great Britain prevented the Portuguese slave trade from being annihilated, when she prevented France from pea- sensing Portugal; that by conveying the royal family of Portugal to the Brazils, she prevented that