Colonies

Lord Derby as Lord Stanley and emigration from West Africa to West Indies 1843. Two printed Colonial Office items: Circular dispatch on ‘Emigration from the W. Coast of Africa’ and ‘A circular to all the West India Colonies’ on ‘Emigration’.

24263 — ONE: ‘Emigration from the W. Coast of Africa.’ Downing Street 25 February 1843. TWO: ‘A circular to all the West India Colonies.’ Downing Street 25 February 1843. Printed by W. Clowes and Sons Stamford Street for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Extracted from a volume of Parliamentary Circulars with the ownership signature "Frederick Peel" Member of Parliament from Feb. 1849 dated 1839-1851. Important items reflecting the state of affairs regarding movement of West Africans to the British West India colonies in the period immediately following the abolition of slavery. Both items excessively scarce: no copies traced on either OCLC WorldCat or COPAC. In good condition lightly aged. The two items disbound from a volume and paginated in manuscript. ONE: Printed ‘Circular’ dated ‘Downing Street / 25th. February 1843.’ Lithographic reproduction of manuscript text headed in real manuscript ‘Emigration from the W. Coast of Africa’. At foot in manuscript not Stanley’s handwriting: ‘/sd/ Stanley’. A version of the circular on pp.1-2 of Item Two exhibiting some variation from it for example giving details of two items of ‘correspondence’ in margin of p.1. Stanley explains that in accordance with the views of ‘two Committees of the House of Commons which sat last Session to enquire - the one into the state of the West India Colonies the other into that of the British Possessions on the West Coast of Africa’ the Government ‘have undertaken the superintendence of Emigration from that coast to the British West Indies’ and have chartered vessels which ‘during the next twelve months will effect as many voyages as may be possible within that period from Sierra Leone or other ports on the Coast of Africa to Jamaica Guiana and Trinidad’. TWO: Colonial Office document signed in type p.2 ‘STANLEY’. Title: ‘A Circular to all the West India Colonies.’ Dated ‘Downing-street 25th February 1843.’ In margin beside title: ‘Emigration. / A Circular to all the West India Colonies.’ Slug at foot of final page: ‘London: Printed by W. CLOWES and SONS Stamford Street / For Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.’ 11pp 8vo. Paginated 1-11 in type and 43-53 in manuscript. The dispatch a slightly-different version of Item One is on pp.1-2; and is followed on pp.3-11 by three enclosures - ‘forms which I have to request may be adopted in making the returns of the numbers of the different classes of immigrants who are received in the colony under your government’. The first p.3 is a table giving a uncompleted example of a ‘Return of the Number of Emigrants who have been brought from the Coast of Africa to blank in Ships chartered or licensed by Her Majesty’s Government during the Quarter ended on the blank 184blank.’ The second pp.4-5 is under five heads including ‘Provision for Bounty Emigration to be conducted by private Individuals’. The third pp.5-11 is a ‘Draft of Proposed Ordinance / Act for the Encouragement of Immigration into blank’ under thirty-five heads. ONE: ‘Emigration from the W. Coast of Africa.’ Downing Street, 25 February 1843. TWO: ‘A circular to all the West India Co unknown