species, marked out by nature to be slaves to other whites, is not to be born. It would fill us all with horrour to authorize slavery any where, on this principle, with respect to white men. Is it not quite as unjust, because some men are black, to say there is a natural distinction as to them; and that black men, because they are black, ought to be slaves? Set aside difference of colour, and is it not the height of arrogance to allege, that because we have strong feelings and cultivated minds, it would be great cruelty to make slaves of us; but that because they are yet ignorant and uncivilized, it is no injury at all to them? Such a principle once admitted, lays the foundation of a tyranny and injustice that have no end.

Mention has been made of some great hardships suffered on board the transports to Botany Bay, by which a large portion of the convicts perished; and I am afraid indeed the business was attended with dreadful circumstances. The story, however, may appear less extraordinary to some of us, when we know that the transportation was undertaken by slave merchants, and conducted by a slave captain. I understand, a part of the misery is attributed to his having used slave fetters, instead of those usually worn by convicts. That any felons should have been conveyed to the place of their banishment under circumstances of equal cruelty with slaves from Africa, is certainly, sir, a disgrace to this country, and it ought to constitute a charge against those persons concerned in so scandalous a business; and I hope and understand it will be so considered by govern

ment.

I remember to have once heard, or read, long before the present question was agitated, a well known story of an African, who was of the first rank in his own country and a man of letters. He was taken in one of those plundering wars, which the slave trade excites, was carried to Maryland, and sold as it happened to a remarkably humane and very excellent His master inquired into the case, found out that he was educated in the Mahometan religion, that he could read and write Arabick, that he was a man of rank as well as literature, and all the circumstances being taken into consideration, he was after a full examination of facts, redeemed and sent home to Africa. Now, sir, if this man with all his advantages had fallen into the hands, I do not say of a hard hearted, but even an ordinary master, would he not inevitably have worn out his life in the same Egyptian bondage, in which thousands of his fellow Africans drag on their miserable days? Put such cases as these home to yourselves, and you will find the slave trade is not to be justified, nor to be tolerated for a moment, for the sake of any convenience.

As to danger from the want of population in the islands, even this pretext has been completely done away by the right honourable the chancellor of the exchequer. And it is remarkable, that though he was at the pains of going fully into those calculations, insomuch, that I really thought him too condescending in the detail, there has not been the least attempt to controvert any of his statements. Not a single calculation of his has been entered into by any one who is against the abolition of the trade.

Upon the whole, I shall give my opinion of this traffick in a very few words. I believe it to be impolitick; I know it to be inhuman; I am certain it is unjust. I think it so inhuman, that, if the plantations could not be cultivated without it, upon the principles of humanity and justice, they ought not to be carried on at all. Even if the objects of it were brute animals, no humane man could expose them to be treated with such wanton cruelty. If the merchandize were totally inanimate, no honest man could support a trade founded upon such principles of injustice and cruelty. Upon these grounds, there is every necessity for putting an immediate end to it.

I think the honourable gentleman has made precisely the most proper motion in this stage of the business. It confines the house to nothing, provided they are friends to the abolition, either immediate or future. He has told you his ideas, and those who differ from him as to time, may propose their's. Let us rescue parliament from the degrading situation in which it stands at present, of having given its sanction to this trade. Many gentlemen feel the burthen, and are desirous of being relieved from it. Let us do our duty, and remove this opprobrium from ourselves; and if other countries follow our example, so much the better. If they do not, let us glory in leaving them behind. Let us show them that Great Britain deserves to stand as high in the opinion of the world for her justice and clemency as I know she does already for her wisdom, and the superiority of her constitution, and the excellency of her laws. But, sir, I can have no doubt, that the example which we shall set in abolishing the slave trade will have a great effect, certainly greater than that of any other country in Europe. What is the present situation of France with respect to her colonies? It is critical and peculiar. One day they talk of liberty and are inclined to favour the negroes; another day they check themselves and suspend their measures. It is the timid wavering conduct which the national assembly was prevailed on to adopt, in preference to bold and resolute measures, that has produced all the dreadful mischiefs at St. Domingo.

These, sir, are the cruel consequences of moderate measures. Decision had been mercy; decision even against the prejudice of their West India planters, would have been a thousand times better for those planters, than irresolution and half measures.

But there are some persons who are fond of throwing out, that our islands will not submit to the abolition of the slave trade; that they will say, "We cannot, we will not suffer it, and we must seek out some other connexion." To this, I very freely answer, "If you chuse to be protected by us, who are best able to do it, we will protect you, and we know we can render you more service than any other country; but if you are to be connected with us, it must be on the principles of justice. If Britain must involve herself in this dishonourable, this bloody business, for the sake of the islands; if these are your terms, let the connexion cease from this moment.

Perhaps, sir, there is less boldness than there appears to be in stating this so strongly, for I am well persuaded, that our West India islands are too well aware of the superiour advantages of their present connexion, to break with us. I am convinced they will say to us, "Though you abolish the slave trade, you shall not drive us away from you: to you we must still adhere, our habits, our feelings, and what is more, our interests, incline us to prefer your connexion to that of any other country. But if they should not say this, and if the question be, whether Britain shall retain the slave trade and the West India Islands, or shall part with them both together, I do not hesitate a moment in deciding which alternative she ought to take. I declare at once, "Better be without the islands than not abolish the slave trade." Let us, therefore, to night, act the part which will do us honour; let us vote for bringing in a bill for the abolition. If we fail, which I confess I have some apprehension of, I have only to express my gratitude to the honourable gentleman for the part he has taken. He does not need my exhortation to persist. But I declare, that whether we vote in a small minority or a large one, "We never will give up the point." Whether in this house, or out of this house; in whatsoever situation I may ever be; as long as I have a voice to speak, this question shall never be at an end. If it were possible that the honourable gentleman could entertain the idea of abandoning it, I would not.

But sir, even if all those who are engaged in this question were to be removed away, there would never be wanting men alive to their duty who would cry out for justice, who would maintain a perpetual struggle till this trade should be suppressed.

We who think that these things are not merely impolitick, but inhuman and unjust; that they are not of the nature of trade, but that they are crimes and pollutions, which stain the honour of a country, will never relax our efforts.

:

We wish to prevent man from preying upon man; and we must do our duty, let the world think of us as it may. I possess the fullest confidence that our perseverance will ensure success.

One word more. Let not this subject be confounded with any ideas of political slavery. Were I a member of an arbitrary government, where the will of the prince alone was law, I should be as zealous to wipe off such a stain from that country, as I now am to do it from our own. What means slavery? A slave is one whom another man commands at his pleasure; who belongs not to himself, but to his master, at whose disposal he is in all respects. This is personal slavery. Political slavery is but a metaphor. It has got the name from its bearing only some faint resemblance to slavery, literally so called. It has been named political slavery, with a view of exciting somewhat of that same horrour against it, which personal slavery is known always to excite. Few men, I believe, carry their notions of political freedom higher than I do; but though I cannot help thinking the people of France under the old despotick government were enslaved in one sense; yet their state when compared with personal slavery, was a condition of perfect freedom. Nor is the difference between any two, the most distant degrees of political slavery and freedom, to be put in competition with the distinction between every individual slave and free man. Never again, therefore, let our understandings be insulted by confounding two things so. totally unlike.

I have not read to the house this night, any of those shocking accounts with which I troubled it last year. But I repeat, They are upon evidence! they stand on unquestionable authority!"

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But neither are these stories necessary to my argument. If the situation of the negroes were as happy as servitude could make them, I must not commit the enormous crime of selling man to man; nor permit a practice to continue which puts an entire bar to the civilization of one whole quarter of the habitable