Art. X. No name not known at the Capitation Tax Office to be accepted without 2 known Securities, who shall be personally answerable for the contents of the Declaration, on neglect of which regulation the Registrar to be personally answerable.

Art. XI. No Publick Officer to pass or execute any Deed, without ascertaining that the Slaves thereby affected are registered, under pain of dismissal from his Office, and the Act being void.

Art. XII. and XIII. No Slaves to be sold or hired out at Publick Vendue without an extract from the Registers, under pain of the Vendue-Master being dismissed from his Office.

Art. XIV. No Slave to be freed, unless registered.

Art. XV. No Sentence to be passed, or Decision made, by any Publick Authority, without ascertaining that the Slaves thereby affected are registered, under pain of such Decision being held void.

Art. XVI. The Fiscal to have the superintendence of the Registry Office.

Art. XVII. On discovery of any fraud, the offenders to be dealt with according to Article VI. of the Decree of 18th August, 1823.

Art. XVIII. When any thing appears unsatisfactory, the Owner to be summoned.

Art. XIX. If convicted, the Slaves are forfeited to the Government, and the Owner dealt with according to Article IV.

Art. XX. If not able to pay a fine, he is to be imprisoned from 1 to 6 months.

Art. XXI. These alterations not to affect the Publication of the 18th August, 1823, concerning the Capitation Tax.

Art. XXII. All Articles affecting Owners to be applicable to their Attornies.

Art. XXIII. Extracts from the Registers to be furnished to every Person requesting the same, on payment of the Stamp-duty, and f10. if the number of Slaves therein mentioned be under 20, and f20. if above 20; the said fees to be for the benefit of the Registrar.

Art. XXIV. A Registrar to be appointed.

Art. XXV. He can neither own nor administer Estates.

Art. XXVI. He is bound, under pain of dismissal, to give notice to the Fiscal of all frauds or neglects, or even suspicion thereof.

Art. XXVII. He must attend at his Office from 8 to 11 A. M., and from 2 to 4 P. M., every day, Sundays and Holydays excepted, and he must be under the controul of the Book-keeper-General.

Art. XXVIII. When the Registrar is by any cause detained from his Office, the Book-keeper-General, with the Governor's sanction, to appoint a Person to officiate.

Art. XXIX. The Book-keeper-General to examine, verify, sign, and close the Registers at the end of every Year.

Art. XXX. The Inhabitants of Nickerie to give in their Returns

within 3 days to the Landrost, or Drost of that District, who is to forward them by the first opportunity to the Book-keeper-General.

Art. XXXI. One third of all fines to go to the Colony Chest, one third to the Fiscal's Office, and one third to the Registrar.

Art. XXXII. This Decree to be in force from the 1st of this month, and Returns of every increase and decrease of Slaves, from that time to the day the Lists are given in, to be made within 14 days for Paramaribo, and within 1 month for the other parts of the Colony, to be reckoned from the Publication of the Decree.

Here follows a Description of the Forms.

No. 2, is a Publication of His Excellency the Governor, dated the 5th May, 1826, and made for the purpose of extending the Limitations of Articles III. XXX. and XXXII. of the above Decree, by,

1st. Allowing to the end of July to prepare the Registers.

2d. The 14 days and 1 month mentioned in Article XXXII. to be reckoned from the 1st of August, 1826.

3d. The 14 days mentioned in Article III. are extended to 1 month for giving in Returns for elsewhere than in Paramaribo.

4th. The 3 days mentioned in Article XXX. are extended to 14 days, for the Inhabitants of Nickerie to make their Returns.

5th. Certificates from the Capitation Tax Office to serve in place of extracts from the Registers, till the 31st July, 1826.

No. 3, is a Publication of His Excellency the Governor, dated the 19th April, 1826, whereby a Registrar is appointed with a fixed Salary of 12,000 guilders, Surinam Currency, in place of the fees mentioned in Article XXIII. which are to go into the Colonial Chest.

We hope and trust that these measures will at length put an end to that abominable Traffick against which they are directed, and which, notwithstanding all that has been done before, we have strong grounds for believing has been till very lately carried on, though on a limited scale; but the precautions taken by those interested have been so great, that we have not been able to procure evidence sufficient to justify an application on our parts to the Governor on the subject.

We have, &c.

The Right Hon. George Canning.

CHRIS. EDW. LEFROY.
J. H. LANCE.

(Enclosure 1.)-Publication of the Governor of Surinam, 19th April,

1826.

1826.-(Translation.)

OFFICIAL PAPER.

Publication.

No. 1.

Whereby is put into execution the King's Decree of the 4th January, 1826, No. 92, containing some further Limitations and Provisions to amplify the Registers of the Slave Population in this Colony, to serve as an efficacious curb to the Slave-trade.

We, Abraham de Veer, Knight of the Order of the Belgic Lion, Major-General in the Service of His Majesty the King of The Netherlands, Governor of the Colony of Surinam, and Commander-in-Chief over the Land and Sea Forces within the same, &c. &c. &c.

To all who shall see or hear read these Presents, greeting, be it known : WHEREAS it has pleased His Majesty the King, by His Majesty's Decree of the 4th of January of this Year, 1826, No. 92, to make some further Limitations and Provisions to amplify the Registers of the Slave Population in this Colony, to serve as an efficacious curb to the Slave-trade.

And whereas His Excellency the Minister for the Navy and Colonies, entrusted with the execution of the said Decree, has sent us a Copy of the same in his Letter dated 24th January aforesaid, L. I. No. 98 | 3, with orders to adopt the most proper measures for the speedy and due execution of the Limitations thereby made:

Having heard the deliberations and advice of our confidential Court;

We, therefore, insert the aforesaid Royal Decree in these Presents, as follows:

No. 92. We, William, by the Grace of God, King of The Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, &c. &c. &c.

Considering that the Registers of the Slave Population, that are at present held in the Colony of Surinam, can be properly rendered serviceable to the efficaciously curbing of the Slave-trade, by the ordaining of some further Limitations and Provisions;

On the Report of our Minister for the Navy and Colonies, of the 16th December last, La. J. No. 68.

Having seen the Joint Report of our Minister of Justice, and of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the 28 | 31 of the said month No. 67 | 22.

Having renewed the Report of our Minister for the National Industry and Colonies, of the 4th December, 1824, No. 28 | 491; likewise that of our Minister of Justice and of Foreign Affairs of the 29 | 31 thereunto next ensuing, La. P. No. 5.

Have decreed and do decree:

ART. I. The Registers that are held at the Office of the Capitation Tax, according to the Lists which, as ordained by the Publication of the Governor and Court of the 18th August, 1823, are rendered in to the said Office, of the Families and Individuals who inhabit the said Colony, and also of their proper Slaves, shall be enlarged by a column of Mutations, in order therein successively to mark the increase or decrease that may take place in the number of the Slaves since the last R

Yearly List rendered in, until the date of the rendering in the ensu ing List.

II. Every Owner of Slaves shall be bound and held to render in to the Office of the Capitation Tax a written Declaration, undersigned by him, and made under presentation of oath, of all increases and decreases which, after the giving in of his Yearly List to the said Office, may take place in the number of his Slaves, either by birth, death, purchase, sale, donation, exchange, or in whatsoever other manner; in which Declaration the name of the thereby denominated Slave must be distinctly expressed.

III. The declarations of all increases and decreases in the number of the Slaves, such as the same are designated in the foregoing Article, must be given in within the time of 3 days, for as much as relates to the Town of Paramaribo, and within the time of a fortnight for as far as the said changes might happen elsewhere.

IV. Every Owner who purchases, sells, gives away, or obtains by donation, a Slave, or from whose female Slave a child is horn; also whose Slave dies, or to whom, in whatever manner, any increase or decrease in the number of his Slaves occurs, after or since the giving in of his last Yearly List, and who should not make Declaration thereof within the period prefixed by the foregoing Article, shall, in similar manner as is limited by Article 6 of the aforesaid Publication of the 18th August, 1823, forfeit a fine of not less than 100 guilders (f100.) and of not more than 500 guilders (f500.) unless he should prove satisfactorily to the Judge that he had no earlier notice of the increases or decreases that have taken place in the number of his Slaves after the giving in of his last Yearly List.

V. When the increase or decrease in the number of the Slaves arises from transfer of Ownership, the Declaration thereof is to contain, as well the name of the Person by whom the Slave is transferred, as that of the Person to whom he is transferred; also the nature or title of the transfer, and by default of any of these requisites, the Declarations are not to be accepted at the Office of the Capitation Tax, and are to be considered as not made.

VI. In testimony of the giving in of the Declarations required by Article 2 and Article 9 of this Decree, a due Receipt shall be given by the Publick Officer, hereafter to be designated, on which Receipt the date of the Month and the number of the Year are to be noted, not in cyphers, but in letters.

VII. As soon as the aforesaid Declarations are given in at the Office of the Capitation Tax, the contents of the same shall be noted in the Registers of the Yearly Lists, in the column of Mutations, designated by Article 1 of this Decree.

VIII. When a child is born of a female Slave during the time that she is either hired by contract, or by any other agreement bound in

the service of any other Person than her Owner, or when a Slave that, in a similar manner, is engaged in another's service, dies during that period, the hirer or holder of the same shall give notice thereof to the Owner within the time of 24 hours, if both are residing at Paramaribo, and within the time of 8 days, if both, or either of them, are residing elsewhere, under penalty of a fine of 25 guilders (f25.) for every day's neglect of so doing.

IX. A written Declaration of all Bonds affecting Slaves, whether the same be bound or mortgaged, separately or jointly, with the immoveable properties whereto they belong, and whether such bond or mortgage be made privately, or before a Notary Publick, shall be given in at the Office of the Capitation Tax, by the Party concerned, in the form prescribed by Article 2, in order that the same may be duly noted in the Registers of the Yearly Lists in the column of Mutations; and in default thereof, the same Mortgage or Bond given in favour of a third Person shall be held null and void.

X. In case in any of the Declarations, designated by the foregoing Articles, the name of any Person should appear, who is unknown in the Registers at the Office of the Capitation Tax, such a Declaration shall not be accepted, unless the same be undersigned by two Sureties, known at the said Office; and to the said signature is hereby attached this effect or consequence, that the same two Sureties are held personally answerable for the contents of the same Declaration, and for the judicial consequences thereof, and this responsibility shall devolve on the Publick Officer appointed to keep the Registers, in case he should, without having taken the above prescribed precaution, have accepted and entered in the Registers, any Declaration in which may appear any name, either of a Purchaser or of a Seller, whichever it may be, who is not known in the Registers held at the Office of the Capitation Tax; and besides the said responsibility, such correction is hereby reserved as his Superiors may judge proper to give to him on this account.

XI. It is hereby most strictly prohibited to every Publick Officer or Authority to pass or execute, or to allow the same to be passed or executed before him, any act regarding the transfer of the Ownership of Slaves under whatsoever title, or of hiring out, mortgaging or binding of Slaves, unless it fully appear that such Slave or Slaves are known in the Registers of the Lists, which must appear by the citing the number and letter of the Books, under the penalty of the same act being void; and that the Publick Officers, who shall have acted contrary to this prohibition, be dismissed from their Offices.

XII. No Slaves shall be sold at publick auction, unless it shall have appeared to the Vendue Master, from a due extract, that the same are known in the Registers of the Lists, under penalty of being deprived of his Office; and the Commissaries for the Vendues, who are