THE SLAVE TRADE. (From the Standard.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 377, 24 November 1849, Page 4

THE SLAVE TRADE. (From the Standard.)

The Queen held a Court and Privy Council at three o'clock yesterday afternoon, at Buckingham Palace. At the Courtadsputation from the Society of Friends had an audience of the Queen, to present an address on the subject of the African slave-trade and slavery. The deputation consisted of Samuel Gurney, William Forster, George Stacey, and Peter Bedfoid. Her Majesty was accompanied by his Royal Highness the Prince Albert. The deputation was introduced by the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, Bart., her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, and presented the following address in the Royal Closet : "to victoria. auCEK of the united kingdom or GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, AND 'I HE DOMINIONS THEHIUNTO HIiLONGINU, " May it please the Queen, "We, the undersigned, thy dutiful and loyal subjects representing the religious Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland, desire respectfully to approach the Throne, and in love to man, and as we reverently believe in our duty to God, to lay before thee a matter deeply affecting 1 the well-being of a large portion of the great human family. " More than a century has elapsed since our religious ■ociety first believid it to be a Christian duty to advocate the rights of the natives of Africa and of those held in slavery in the western world. With reverent thanksgiving to Almighty God, we recur to the successive Acts of our Legislature, abolishing the slave trade, and subsequently releasing the slaves in our colonies from a state of cruel bondage. "The continuance of the uade in slaves as prosecuted contrary to either la\v or tri aty, by the inhabitants of other countries, with all the wickedness inseparable from this unrighteous traffic, brings us into sorrow and distress. It engenders war in its direst forms, bieaks the bonds of social life, reduces those who may survive the horrors of their transit by land and sea to hopeless slavery, and irithal prevents the spread of the religion of our Holy Redeemer. " We feel for the sufferings of the unoffending and helpless victims of these abomination! ; aud we feel for the wiongs and miseries of the multitudes still living in Blavery and subjected to iti cruel hardships and uncompens ited toil : and we deeply dep'ore the degradation and the guilt which attaches to the man-stealer, the slave-holder, and the dealer in his fe'.low-men. "In considera'ion of the magnitude of this complicated iniquity, we are emboldened to ask thee, our Gracious Queen, in thy intercourse with the rulers of those nations which are involved in these things, to use the influence of thy exalted station for terminating by every pacific means, this dsalating evil on the continent of Africa, and for conf rring immediate and unconditional freedom on all those held in slaveiy.— And we ask permission humbly and plainly to declare our conviction that it is only in the extinction of negro slavery that we can have any security for the utter termination of the African slave trade. " May the Lord of Heaven and earth bless thee, our beloved Soveieign, and thy Royal Consort, and may His blessing rest upon all thy house. We pray that for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, He may give thee wisdom and strength to open they mouth for the dumb, to plead the cause of the poor and of him that hath no helper, that He may prosper thee in thy work of righteousness ; and that if it please Him, thou inayest live to bee the day in which negro slaveiy and the slave trade shall be abolished throughout the earth." "London, Third Month, 12th, 1849." Her Majesty, having received the address, was pleased to return the following most gracious answer : " I have received your address with much satisfaction. I fully appreciate the benevolent efforts of the Society of Friends in behalf of the suffering and oppressed. I am deeply sensible of the wrongs and evils inflicted by the slave trade, and my best endeavours will continue to be directed towards its extinction." The deputation then retired from the Royal presence.

Boat for the Piuxce ok Wales. — By command of His Royal Highness Prince Albert, Mi. 11. G. Robinson, Captain Light, Captain Smith, It. N., and Mr. C. Mnnby, Secretary of the Institution of Civil Engineers, attended at Buckingham Palace to present a life boat, constructed on a peculiar principle, for his Royal Highness the Piincc of Wales. The following are the dimensions of the boat .— Feet. Inches. Length all over 20 0 Ditto on the keel 17 4 Breadth at the main thwart ... 3 2 Ditto at the back-boaid thwart . . 2 11 Ditto at the rowlock 3 7 Depth 0 11 She was built by Messrs. Searle & Sons, and is constructed of bird's-eye-maple, the linings, saxboards, and thwarts, being of Spanish mahogany ; hci keel band, stem-band, and rudderhangings, are of bronzo, the l udder of maple, with a carved yoke, gilt, and silk lines, the tassels of crimson and gold colour. She is also fitted with an elegantly carved chair ; the seat of •which is covered wifh crimson satin damask, with an elaborate pattern in raised velvet of the same colour, the back being supported by the Prince of AVales's Feathers, carved in maple and heightened with gold. The rowing mat i& of the same mateiial as the cushion of the chair, and tlieie is a smail foot ottoman of Utrecht velvet. The skulls aie of mahogany, and very light The boat which is a " single skulling skill," is. lined thioughout between the timbers with Captain Light's patent material, which gives to her all the buoyancy and other properties of a life-boat.