6618. Mr. _Wortley_.] But the whole number there is rendered large by having this service to perform?--Yes. 6619. Can you say what number it would be possible to dispense with, in case the slave trade service were discontinued on the other side of the Atlantic?--I cannot answer this question, as they have various other duties to perform, and are not exclusively employed against slave trade. 6620. When you said that you would increase the number of cruizers by one-half, did you mean that you would increase it by one-half, including the number of steamers that you propose to have?--No, excluding those; I would make the present 16 vessels 24, and have six steamers in addition. 6621. And you think that if there were a force of that kind employed upon the West Coast of Africa, it would have the effect of entirely suppressing the slave trade?--If a proper system of blockade were adopted, I have no doubt of it. 6622. _Chairman._] Do you consider that it is useless, towards putting down the slave trade, to capture slave vessels off the coast of Brazil or the West Indies?--My opinion is, that any captures there are such utter chance that they do no good whatever, as on that side not one vessel out of ten can ever be captured, and wherever it is reduced to a chance at all, the profits are sufficient to keep up the slave trade. My opinion is, that the only way in which the slave trade can be stopped is in the interior of Africa. Every slave vessel that sails with her cargo of slaves has already done all she can to keep the slave trade going in Africa. The native dealer has his profit upon them; he does not care where she goes to, or what becomes of the slaves afterwards. 6623. Mr. _Forster_.] Is not a slave vessel captured on the western side of the Atlantic, equally a loss to the slave dealer as a slave vessel captured on the eastern side of the Atlantic?--My opinion is, that the amount of loss to the slave dealer is of little consequence, seeing that it is the result of chances which, in that quarter, must be always immensely in favour of the slave dealer, and that, compared with the chance of escape, the chance of capture is nothing; the profits are so large that the risk will be readily incurred. 6624. _Chairman._] You think that the chance of escape is much greater with cruizers on the western side of the Atlantic than on the eastern?--My opinion is, that if the slaves are once on board, the mischief is already done.