5501. Mr. _Forster_.] Suppose Messrs. Zulueta & Co. to receive an order from their correspondent at Havannah to supply a cargo of British merchandise to Pedro Blanco at the Gallinas, and these goods are shipped and are regularly cleared at the custom-house in England, do you consider that an illegal shipment?--The illegality depends upon the guilty knowledge. I consider it an improper transaction, because he must know the character of the person to whom he sends the goods. 5502. Do you think that Messrs. Zulueta & Co. would have been justified as merchants in refusing to obey the instructions of their foreign correspondent in a case of that kind?--I think that a man who viewed the slave trade in a proper light would have considered it improper to be so engaged. 5503. How could Messrs. Zulueta consider that illegal which was publicly allowed to be done by the custom-house authorities in this country?--The criminality depends upon the guilty knowledge, as to which the custom-house cannot decide. 5504. Then it is upon those grounds that you designate Messrs. Zulueta & Co. as connected with the slave trade?--Upon the grounds that I have stated altogether. 5505. _Chairman._] Do you consider a merchant trading with King Peppel, a notorious slave trader in the Bonny, and receiving the produce of the country in exchange, to be acting against the purport of the Act of Parliament?--No, certainly not; because there there is a legitimate trade carried on alongside of the slave trade. 5506. Then you do not look merely at the person dealt with, but at the object for which the traffic is carried on?--Just so: I would designate as improper any trade carried on by a person who knew that the goods he sold would be employed in the slave trade. 5507. Mr. _Forster_.] If you consider it lawful for a British merchant to sell goods to so notorious a slave dealer as King Peppel, on what ground do you consider it illegal for Messrs. Zulueta & Company to ship a cargo of goods to Pedro Blanco or to Gallinas?--In the one case the trader receives his return in produce, and in the other case he sells goods which he knows will be employed in the slave trade, and for which he receives a return in money. 5508. How do you know that he is paid in money?--I do not know that Zulueta ever shipped goods to Pedro Blanco. 5509. Would you consider it legal if he did?--I think I have answered that question before, that the illegality depends upon the guilty knowledge of the party concerned, and that is a question for a jury to decide, if he is put upon his trial. 5510. Then that depends upon your construction of the Act of the 5th of George the Fourth?--Yes; no one can read the Act without understanding its purport. 5511. And you think the same principle applies in the case of slave vessels?--Yes.